Class Struggle

As Class Divides Expand, More Calls For Internet Censorship

March 13, 2018 By Jerry White, Wsws.org Educate! Censorship, Class Struggle, Internet, Strikes, Teachers, West Virginia

The growing wave of working-class unrest in the United States and internationally is exposing and clarifying basic political questions. Among them is the central purpose of the campaign by the tech giants, the US government and the mass media to censor the Internet, under the fraudulent pretense of combating “fake news” and “Russian meddling.” The real aim is the suppression of social opposition. This week is opening with an expanding number of working-class struggles. Although the unions managed to sell out and end the nine-day strike of 30,000 West Virginia teachers and school employees last week, the rebellion of educators across the US is spreading. Teachers in Oklahoma, Kentucky and Arizona—organizing chiefly through Facebook groups that have added tens of thousands of users in the last few weeks—are pressing for West Virginia-like strikes to demand higher pay and secure pensions.

Nearly 50,000 Farmers March 112 Miles, Indian Government Agrees To Demands

March 13, 2018 Rajendra Jadhav, Reuters.com Resist! Class Struggle, Farmers, Government, March

MUMBAI (Reuters) - Tens of thousands of protesting farmers from India’s Maharashtra state marched into the state capital of Mumbai on Monday to demand government support to address hardship in a sector that employs the majority of the country’s workforce. The protesters walked 180 km (112 miles) from the town of Nashik to Mumbai over several days demanding waivers of agricultural loans and the transfer of forest lands to villagers who have been tilling them for decades. “For three generations my family has cultivated crops on a two acre-plot, but we still don’t own it,” said 74 year-old Murabhai Bhavar as she poured water to soothe her aching feet. “The land we till should be registered in our name,”

“If Poor People Knew How Rich Rich People Are, There Would Be Riots In The Streets”

March 7, 2018 David F. Ruccio, Anticap.wordpress.com Educate! Class Struggle, Inequality, wealth inequality

All the experts agree—from Thomas Piketty and the other members of the World Inequality Lab team to John C. Weicher of the conservative Hudson Institute—that inequality in the United States, especially the unequal distribution of wealth, has been worsening for decades now. Both before and after the crash of 2007-08. And there’s no sign that things are going to get better anytime soon, unless radical changes are made. But, as it turns out, even the experts underestimate the degree of inequality in the United States. The usual numbers that are produced and disseminated indicate that, in 2014 (the last year for which data are available), the top 1 percent of Americans owned one third (35 percent) of total household wealth while the bottom 90 percent had less than half (45.3 percent) of the wealth.

Florida Farmworkers Push For Fairness In The Fields

March 7, 2018 By Negin Owliaei, Inequality.org Organize! Class Struggle, Exploitation, Farm Workers, Florida, Labor

South Florida was known as a hotbed for modern-day slavery. Now, the Coalition of Immokalee Workers are using their innovative model to bring dignity to the tomato fields. Immokalee, Florida, is known for producing nearly all of the winter tomatoes in the United States. Up until recently, the town also had a reputation for being home to some of the worst labor exploitation in the country, with sexual violence, wage theft, and assault occurring regularly in the tomato fields. The working conditions were so bad that the town was considered “ground zero for modern slavery” in the United States. But one group has spent the last two decades transforming the conditions for Florida farmworkers. Through the use of boycotts, supply chain agreements, and an innovative monitoring program, the Coalition of Immokalee Workers has made massive inroads in creating a safe workplace for one of labor’s most exploited communities.

What The Teachers Won

March 7, 2018 Emily Comer and Jay O'Neal, Jacobinmag.com Create! Class Struggle, Strikes, Teachers, West Virginia

West Virginia shows that we can fight back and win. We talk to two teachers to assess the tentative settlement and what comes next. On Tuesday afternoon, a deal to give all public employees in the state of West Virginia a 5 percent pay raise was passed by the legislature and signed by the governor. A struggle that mobilized tens of thousands of workers, won widespread popular support, and was led by rank-and-file leaders, ended in a tangible victory. Confusion arose, however, as reports indicated that Republican state politicians wanted to offset the increase with cuts to social services. But though the Republicans are threatening to pay for this in part through cutting essential services, the bill itself is not tied to any such cuts. To assess the tentative strike settlement, Jacobin’s Eric Blanc sat down with Emily Comer and Jay O’Neal — teachers and union activists in Charleston, West Virginia.

The Assault On Environmental Protest

March 5, 2018 Maggie Ellinger-Locke and Vera Eidelman, Thehill.com Resist! Class Struggle, Police State, Repression

More than 50 state bills that would criminalize protest, deter political participation, and curtail freedom of association have been introduced across the country in the past two years. These bills are a direct reaction from politicians and corporations to the tactics of some of the most effective protesters in recent history, including Black Lives Matter and the water protectors challenging construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline at Standing Rock. If they succeed, these legislative moves will suppress dissent and undercut marginalized groups voicing concerns that disrupt current power dynamics. Efforts vary from state to state, but they have one thing in common: they would punish public participation and mischaracterize advocacy protected by the First Amendment. For example, bills introduced in Washington and North Carolina would have defined peaceful demonstrations as “economic terrorism.”

The Radical Roots Of Janus

March 3, 2018 Joseph A. McCartin, Prospect.org Educate! Class Struggle, Labor, Supreme Court, Unions

The attorney whose arguments were heard in the Supreme Court yesterday—a decade after his death—actually wanted all unions outlawed. As the Supreme Court heard the pivotal union case, Janus v. AFSCME, on Monday, an unacknowledged presence haunted its chambers: that of Sylvester Petro, who conceived the argument on which the case turns. Although he died in 2007, this ideologically driven, anti-union law professor originated the legal strategy behind this case. His radical vision illuminates Janus’s profound implications. Petro was the first to contend that public-sector collective bargaining was simply a form of politics, and that therefore, any effort to require government workers to pay “agency fees” to a union in return for its representational work amounted to compelled political speech that infringed on their First Amendment rights—the argument that Illinois public employee Mark Janus embraced in this case.

West Virginia Strike Continues As Teachers Reject Unions’ Back-To-Work Order

March 2, 2018 Joseph Kishore, Wsws.org Resist! Class Struggle, Labor, Strikes, Teachers, Unions, West Virginia

The statewide strike by more than 30,000 West Virginia teachers and school employees is continuing today, with workers rejecting an agreement announced Tuesday by the trade unions and the state’s billionaire governor, Jim Justice. Thousands of teachers descended on the state capitol Wednesday—a day designated by the unions as a “cooling off” period—chanting “We got sold out,” “It’s not over,” “Where’s the union?” and “We’re not leaving.” Signs carried by teachers included, “I just won a chicken on Let’s Make a Deal” and “Cool down day is heating us up.” The continuation of the strike is a devastating repudiation of the American Federation of Teachers-West Virginia (AFT-WV) and the West Virginia Education Association (WVEA), which hailed the agreement with Justice as a major victory for teachers.

Billionaires Behind Supreme Court Case Poised To Dismantle Public Sector Unions

March 1, 2018 By Mary Bottari, Exposedbycmd.org Educate! Class Struggle, Labor, Ruling Class, Unions

The Roman god Janus was known for having two faces. It is a fitting name for the U.S. Supreme Court case scheduled for oral arguments February 26, Janus v. American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, Council 31, that could deal a devastating blow to public-sector unions and workers nationwide. In the past decade, a small group of people working for deep-pocketed corporate interests, conservative think tanks and right-wing foundations have bankrolled a series of lawsuits to end what they call “forced unionization.” They say they fight in the name of “free speech,” “worker rights” and “workplace freedom.” In briefs before the court, they present their public face: carefully selected and appealing plaintiffs like Illinois child-support worker Mark Janus and California schoolteacher Rebecca Friedrichs. The language they use is relentlessly pro-worker.

Why Equality Matters More Than Income

February 28, 2018 Livia Gershon, Daily.jstor.org Educate! Class Struggle, Equality, Income

If a low-income mom gets a $10/hour raise, that’s good news for her family, even if her boss gets an extra $100, right? Maybe not. Looking at children’s wellbeing in rich countries like the U.S. in 2007, Kate E. Pickett and Richard G. Wilkinson found that inequality may matter a lot more for kids’ lives than absolute income level. Pickett and Wilkinson started their study by looking at UNICEF data for 23 relatively wealthy countries, including Australia, Japan, the U.S., and much of Europe. For each country, they looked at a variety of child wellbeing measures, including infant mortality rates, immunizations, academic achievement, bullying, and loneliness. Only a few of these measures turned out to be related to a nation’s average income. Kids in the richest countries were more likely to pursue advanced education, less likely to live in single-parent or step-parent families, and more likely to eat fruit every day, but that was about it.

The Wealthy, The Poor, The Vulnerable

February 28, 2018 By Sam Pizzigati, Inequality.org Educate! Class Struggle, Inequality, New Economy

In our deeply unequal age, we’ve become accustomed to talking about concepts like income and wealth, affluence and poverty. Researchers at the OECD, the developed world’s official economic research agency, would like to toss another concept into the inequality mix: economic vulnerability. Why do we need to talk about vulnerability? Wealth and income stats alone, a new OECD study points out, often don’t tell us the whole story about who’s prospering and who’s not. One example: Households with decent incomes often don’t have much in the way of assets. In these asset-poor households, any serious disruption — a sudden job loss, a family breakdown, a disability — could bring economic disaster. How many households are living at the precipice of this disaster? The OECD’s new economic vulnerability study has an alarming answer. The study covers the United States and 27 other major developed nations.

Global Capitalism Is New Colonialism For Workers, And They Are Resisting

February 27, 2018 Mark Karlin, Truth-out.org Educate! Capitalism, Class Struggle, Labor, Workers Rights and Jobs

The ravages of neoliberalism have not been subtle. And they have been truly global. Essential services have been privatized. Since the dawn of the 21st century, free public schools and health care, safe, drinkable water [and] publicly controlled power grids have disappeared around the world -- especially in poorer nations. And those who have fought for restoration have often been met with violence. We in the US have also seen public schools starved of funds and replaced by corporate-run charters, community clinics replaced by corporate for-profit medical facilities and natural water sources privatized for the commercial use of corporations. It is no longer so simple as to say that the worst labor abuses -- the worst predations of neoliberalism -- take place abroad while American workers have it better. We may have it better, but US workplaces are more dangerous than they have been in more than 70 years.

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