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El periódico «La Voz de los Trabajadores»: Edición de marzo-abril
La guerra de Estados Unidos e Israel contra Irán es una escalada importante en el Medio Oriente que tiene implicaciones peligrosas para los trabajadores de todo el mundo. La brutalidad del asalto imperialista a nivel internacional va junto con el ataque a las libertades civiles por parte del régimen de Trump dentro de Estados Unidos. Esto incluye las operaciones continuas del ICE y la Patrulla Fronteriza, las amenazas a las elecciones de mitad de período de 2026, los retrocesos ambientales que afectan profundamente a la comunidad negra y la brutalidad policial sin control.
Nuestro editorial en este número nos advierte: «Existe un gran peligro de subestimar la determinación de la élite empresarial estadounidense de llevar adelante esta iniciativa. No podemos confiar en que las sentencias judiciales o las próximas elecciones nos salven. Debemos organizarnos ahora, no solo para realizar manifestaciones masivas y crear redes comunitarias contra la violencia del ICE, sino para encontrar el camino hacia la construcción de un nuevo partido de la clase trabajadora a través del cual podamos organizar nuestra defensa política en todos los planos y todos los días».
En este número también tenemos artículos sobre los archivos de Epstein y la clase dominante, la huelga de maestros de San Francisco y una reseña del nuevo álbum de U2.
La edición de marzo-abril de 2026 de nuestro periódico está disponible en formato impreso y en línea como PDF y contiene articulos en ingles y español. ¡Lee hoy mismo el último número de nuestro periódico con una descarga gratuita en PDF! Como siempre, agradecemos cualquier donación que ayude a sufragar los gastos de impresión.
Haz clic en la imagen para leer el periódico o envíanos un mensaje para recibir una copia impresa:
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COVID-19 crisis: We must not let state and local governments off the hook
Washington state capitol. By STEVE LEIGH
Steve Leigh is a member of the Seattle Revolutionary Socialists and the Revolutionary Socialist Network.
The current response of the cities and states to the corona crisis is not surprising. They are taking small initiatives to ameliorate the effects of the crisis to ward off unrest. None of them cost much and will likely have little effect though they are better than nothing. They are also preparing for or implementing cuts in non-COVID-related social programs.
The responses of the mayors and governors are rational within the logic of the system. The hiring freezes, cutbacks, and potential layoffs will result in more unemployment and suffering. These austerity measures will likely hurt workers and the poor more than the small positive measures they are taking now.
Some, including many liberals, will support local and state responses as the best we can expect. They will aim their fire at the federal government for not supporting the cities and states. This will echo the Blue/Red divide. They feel that if only Trump and the Senate did their jobs, the states and cities would have enough resources to deal with the crisis. This is shown by opinion poll after opinion poll. Governors and mayors are given high marks for handling the crisis, certainly compared to Trump.
Obviously, we should denounce the Republicans and Trump’s cruel and incompetent managing of COVID-19. The federal government has the most resources to deal with this crisis. It could cut the military, tax the rich, and tap into the surpluses the capitalists have accumulated from exploiting the majority over centuries. The U.S. economy could be organized to meet the basic needs of everyone even during the economic and social disruption. This, however, would require a massive attack on the interests of the capitalists. Neither party at the federal level will undertake the campaign needed against its backers and controllers.
However, this does not mean that we should let local and state governments off the hook. These governments are also beholden to the interests of the rich. They are run by the same parties that run the federal government. Most large cities are run by the Democratic Party. At the local and state level, governments can tax the rich and provide for the poor, even with fewer resources than the federal government has. They can resist the urge to impose austerity.
We should not accept their partial measures and budget balancing as the best that is possible—even if it is the best we can expect for now under the domination of capitalist rationality.
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo is an excellent example of this issue.
N.Y. Governor Andrew Cuomo. He has become the darling of liberals and in fact most people who oppose Trump. In the comparison with Trump, he comes off well. This is easy. He is relatively competent and less obviously narcissistic. Yet, he is using the COVID-19 crisis as an excuse for cutting health care and education in New York. He is saying that without federal aid, he will have no choice.
Yet Cuomo has for years resisted taxing the rich and has imposed austerity. Left liberals from New York have hated Cuomo for his conservative Democratic politics. However, in the face of the crisis, many have given him a pass in part because he has been confronting Trump to a degree.
Cuomo is only the most obvious example. His approach to the crisis is replicated across the country by local and state officials, many of whom carried out austerity even before the pandemic. We should not let opposition to Republican cruelty, stupidity, and incompetence become an excuse for accepting Democratic neoliberalism, austerity, and profit obsession. When workers organize against state and local layoffs, when people fight against budget cuts at the local and state level, we should strongly support them and accept no politician’s excuses.
There is another reason to ramp up our opposition to the policies of state and local governments: It is the level of struggle that determines our success in winning reforms. Pressure is often more immediately effective at the local level. If we give the cities and states a pass, we lower the level of struggle. If we want cities and states to move at all toward taxing the rich to provide for the poor, we have to demand that. In the 1930s, socialists and communists targeted all levels of government. They demanded relief and jobs from the federal, state, and local governments.
We need to follow that example and target politicians at all levels, including the state and local.
The good news is that people are already doing this. In Seattle, socialist city council member Kshama Sawant is leading a campaign to Tax Amazon. It would tax the largest 2% of Seattle businesses 1.3% of their total payroll. It would provide $200 million in immediate relief to the 100,000 poorest households in Seattle. It would also provide $300 million per year to produce union-built, green, and affordable housing. It is strongly opposed by Jenny Durkan, the Democratic mayor of Seattle, and many of the Democratic members of the city council. See: https://crosscut.com/2020/02/sawant-revives-tax-amazon-campaign-address-homelessness
It was New York City teachers in the Movement of Rank and File Educators that forced the city to close the schools to stop the spread of the virus by organizing a sickout. Campaigns at the local and state level for a moratorium on evictions and foreclosures have been successful across the U.S. Unfortunately, these are not yet full waivers of rent and mortgage payments.
Connecticut Workers’ Crisis Response has put a whole series of demands on local and state governments for paid leave, economic support, and safety measures. See: https://www.facebook.com/CTworkerscrisisresponse/videos/953237101746403/
Activists are demanding closure of immigrant detention centers and letting prisoners out to stop the spread of the virus. These have been partially successful. Governor Inslee of Washington State has released hundreds of inmates. But this has not solved prison crowding. Activists are demanding more. Led by La Resistencia, a campaign to close the Northwest Detention Center has resulted in the decline in census of immigrants in the Tacoma, Wash., facility. See: http://laresistencianw.org/
These and many other efforts are the wave of the future. Those who want changes at the local and state level cannot rely on officials. We need to form coalitions around specific demands, including all the groups affected by the crisis. To sharpen our efforts, we need to break from the parties of capital, the Republicans and Democrats, and form a labor party committed to the needs of ordinary people and run by working people.
Those who have accepted the role of managing the capitalist system and its governments are responsible for its failures. As agents of the economic system, they carry out its mandates whether they wish to or not. Therefore, it is fair to call them to account. To let local and state officials off the hook is to accept the limits of the system.
We only expand what is possible under this sick system by pushing those limits as far as we can. We can only finally win the society that we deserve by overthrowing the profit-oriented economic system. On our road to that goal, we need to challenge capitalism and its agents to the maximum degree we can.
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A People’s Bailout: May Day in Burlington, Vermont
BURLINGTON, Vt. — Amidst a wash of car horns, Abel Luna with Migrant Justice shouted into the bullhorn, “Who has the power?” He was answered by another blast of metallic cacophony and affirmative shouts, “The people!” The participants were crammed in a Staples parking lot near Interstate 89, spread across a motley group of at least 250 cars, which were decorated with handmade signs of protest and flying a diverse array of radical flags and banners. Many different tendencies were represented, ranging from left liberal to anarchist.
They were all tuned in to the same Zoom call, which served to both broadcast the rousing speeches of activists and coordinate the motorcade soon to be underway while providing directions on safety and social distancing, such as remaining in vehicles and wearing masks when outside the vehicle. Luna—a young and passionate member of the group Migrant Justice (Justicia Migrante)—continued on, stating that the purpose of the day was to remind teachers, health-care workers, essential workers, persons imprisoned and detained, migrants and immigrants, farm workers, and all working-class people that “we are standing together and together we will win.”
Migrant Justice/Justicia Migrante, the principal organizers of the rally, represent the entirely self-organizational efforts of the migrant farmworkers who, despite comprising the backbone of Vermont’s dairy-driven economy, are nonetheless subject to coercion, low wages, abuse, unsafe conditions, substandard housing, and threats of deportation from farm owners. Though not incorporated into any formal union structure, the group very much represents the beating heart of labor activism in the Green Mountain State. Supporters of the rally included Vermont Workers Center, Vermont Federation of Nurses, Vermont National Education Association, City Market UE Local 203, Burlington Tenants Union, Vermont AFL-CIO, and Black Lives Matter of Greater Burlington.
After engaging participants in chants, Abel handed off the horn to Jess Morrison, a nurse practitioner and member of the Vermont Workers’ Center, who began with a simple (and chilling) statement: “Before the pandemic our people were already in crisis. Now we are in uncharted waters.” Alluding to a looming depression, Morrison went on to blast the government for bailing out billionaires while basic services are cut and people lose their health care from mass unemployment, stressing the urgency of achieving free universal health care for all Vermonters, regardless of income or immigration status.
These sentiments were echoed by Sarah Ferguson, vice president of the Union of Vermont Federation of Nurses and Health Professionals and registered nurse at UVM Medical Center, who outlined how hospital administrators and high paid health-care executives “are more interested in the bottom line than in providing quality health care for Vermont patients.”
The health-care crisis facing Vermont is made more precarious by Governor Scott’s attempts to rob Vermont Medicaid funds to bailout OneCare, a private company trying to monopolize the Vermont Health Care System. Teyve Kelman, a high school teacher from Randolph, Vt., and member of the VT-NEA union, stressed the urgency of the health-care crisis amidst a context wherein neoliberal policies and austerity reign.
He stated: “We know we’re going to see more austerity. We know we’re going to see more cuts to public services. We know they’re going to try to put us against one another. We know that Governor Scott is not going to give us what we need because he has proven to us he’s not a friend of working people. We remember how he wined and dined Scott Walker to compare notes on union busting and budget slashing. … We can’t afford to go back to the way things were. Poverty wages, private prisons, mounting insurance premiums, predatory landlords, we’re not going back there.”
May 1 belongs to the workers of the world. This year we find ourselves fighting for our lives against not only the COVID-19 pandemic but a steepening economic crisis. If any silver lining—however thin—can be extracted from this collective despair, let it be that the least paid among our ranks are learning their extreme value to society and are being galvanized into spontaneous action.
Kelman went on to say: “… and we also have a stake in this fight because we work with students whose parents are essential workers: health-care workers, grocery workers, farm workers … and we have students whose lives are shaped by racist criminal justice policies, by unjust immigration laws, by structural generational poverty, all of which are products of the American capitalist system .. .and all of which have been made worse by the corona crisis…
“We have a stake in this fight because we know the wealthy and the powerful interests in our state are going to use this crisis to attack public education, to push for layoffs, cutbacks, consolidations, and closures. In fact, they already have. Two weeks ago they tried to (permanently) close down the Vermont state colleges, three campuses serving rural working class kids who do Vermont’s essential labor … and you know what? I’m proud to say that a united front of students, employees, and community members shut that shit down, because when we fight, we win!”
Invigorated by the impassioned speeches, the caravan began to travel by car on a route that was deliberately planned to include sites of struggle such as UVM medical center, Edmunds Public School, City Market, the Department of Labor, Chittenden County Correctional Facility, and Hannaford’s Grocery Store. The peaceful rally was conducted through the heart of the city, completely shutting down main roads with a mile-long caravan. Passersby on the side of the road clapped, cheered, raised their fists in the air in solidarity, and chanted slogans of support. Some had made signs of their own.
The sun shone down as a shared playlist of revolutionary songs blasted in all of the car radios through Zoom while organizers led chants of: “El pueblo unido jamás será vencido” (The people united can never be defeated). Workers at the school and City Market came out to greet the caravan with fists held high.
Throughout the day, there were multiple calls from rank-and-file union workers as well as union leadership to end austerity, bureaucracy and neoliberal policies that harm workers. Andy McDowel, City Market grocery worker and member of UE Local 203, stated, “When the pandemic started, City Market management made no effort to involve the union in pandemic planning. We had to fight for hazard pay and PPE and social distancing measures. With the overwhelming support of the Burlington community, we were able to force management’s hand on hazard pay, and with a successful social media campaign, we achieved a $3 hazard pay bonus for membership.”
He went on to say, “Grocery store workers are essential workers but it took this pandemic to be recognized as such and for us to receive a living wage for our labor.”
Stopping in front of the Department of Labor, union representatives discussed the challenges facing the 30 million unemployed workers in the United States, tens of thousands of whom reside in Vermont. David Van Deusen, President of the Vermont AFL-CIO, called for both immediate and long-term measures to protect Vermont workers, demanding crisis pay for all essential workers, regardless of immigration status. He went on to put the crisis of the pandemic in the context of what is needed for a sustainable future, advocating for a way forward that rebuilds the economy through a “Green New Deal.”
“We will not go back to status quo or business as usual,” said Van Deusen, “Now is the time to fight against neoliberalism and austerity.”
The caravan also passed by Handy’s, where a protester donned in a facemask and gloves stood holding a sign that said, “Boo!” Cars chanted boos out the window as they passed the real estate conglomerate’s Auto Service Shop. Handy’s owns $54 million worth of properties in Burlington. They are well known for their mistreatment of tenants, and have come before the housing board of review 10 times since 2014 for their negligence of tenants’ rights.
Christie Delphia of the Burlington Tenants Union advocated for this community to “shift the balance of power away from real estate development and towards the people who actively live in and make up our community.” Delphia also connected housing justice to migrant justice, stating, “When we say housing is a human right, we mean safe housing for everyone regardless of their documentation status.” This is imperative in Vermont, where many migrant farmworkers live on farms and are exposed to terrible housing conditions, without reliable access to clean water, basic sanitation, and proper heat. Delphia also connected the issue of housing to those living in ICE detention facilities.
Delphia and the Burlington Tenants Union announced organizational efforts toward a Burlington Rent Strike, citing how ⅓ of U.S. residents were unable to pay rent in April. Tenants aim to conduct the strike once they get 1000 people to sign on, which would be about 10% of Burlington renters. Chanting the slogan, “Food not rent!” she encouraged protesters to save what money they have for food and basic necessities instead of rent, “which just puts more money in the pockets of landlords.” Delphia went on to read the demands of the BTU.
One of the final stops of the caravan was the Chittenden Regional Correctional Facility. Car protesters passed by with loud honks and shouts to “Free them all”. The prison, which was surrounded by pro-police propaganda, imprisons 150 women in Burlington. A representative of Black Lives Matter Greater Burlington spoke out against the racist criminal justice system, admonishing about how the American prison system is “the new Jim Crow.”
He addressed the crowd: “We are here to acknowledge those victimized by our criminal punishment system! We see their humanity and the crimes committed against them by our racist system that prioritizes capitalism over people. We see their rights systematically ignored every day.” In 2019, Burlington spent 20% of its general funds on policing, which was $12 million more than was spent on housing, community development, and community justice combined.
“Do not forget,” he continued, “Black people make up little more than 1% of Vermont’s population, but make up 8.5% of Vermont prison population. Black folks are homeless six times more than white folks in Chittenden County. Police exist to protect the property and profit of business … not to protect people or our public safety. … The criminal punishment system has always been dangerous to our humanity, our bodies, to our movement.” His speech came amidst the daily news of the prisons and jails having the highest rates of COVID-19, with nearly 10,000 incarcerated people testing positive across the United States; the number of cases is doubling each week.
The rally culminated at Hannaford’s Supermarket in S. Burlington. Hannaford’s is a major regional grocery chain and has yet to sign on to Migrant Justice’s Milk With Dignity program, which ensures that the dairy it buys comes only from farms that abide by labor practices set by the workers themselves.
Rosi Alfaro, a mother and dairy farmworker in Vermont and organizer with Justicia Migrante/Migrant Justice, addressed the crowd in Spanish with translations by Will Lambek: “I’m a dairy worker here in Vermont, representing the immigrant community that sustains the dairy economy during this pandemic, and in these difficult times the community cannot rest, cannot go on lockdown because we continue working every day on dairy farms. Because the cows don’t milk themselves!”
Alfaro described how the community of dairy workers has been urging Hannaford’s to join their Milk With Dignity Campaign for over seven months with absolutely no response from the company. Hannaford’s is owned by Ahold Delhaize, a large multinational corporation with several grocery chains that has seen its profits soar during this pandemic. Alfaro concluded, “Hannaford’s, we’re here to tell you the community has the solution and that solution is Milk With Dignity. Because if you’re going to call us essential, then you have to recognize our rights are essential too.”
Supporting Migrant Justice’s calls for dignity for workers, Maria Schumann, a farmer from Greensboro, Vt., spoke out on the issues impacting Vermont farms: “Farmers have always been essential but you wouldn’t know it if you looked at the low wages and dangerous working conditions of migrant farmworkers all across this country. And you wouldn’t know it if you looked at the suicide rates of U.S. farmers, five times higher than any other occupation.”
She went on to give the context of the financial burdens facing farmworkers and farm owners alike, such as low wages and crushing debt. In a passionate, bold voice she declared, “The wealthy and the powerful are trying to use this moment to grab more wealth. Just look at the bailouts, look at the millions of dollars that went to giant corporations and banks while the farmworkers who risk their lives to put food on the table for all of us got nothing. They are not wealthy and powerful because they are better or smarter or more deserving than us but rather because they have a ruthless will to exploit people, animals, and land. But they can’t eat money. They need us!”
She paused for a moment and someone shouted from their car, “And we don’t need them!”
Following some more rousing speeches and lots of honking and chanting, Abel Luna closed by saying, “I’m really glad that all of you took the time to join forces and stand together in solidarity and march across all of these places that represent all the different struggles that we’re facing here in Vermont. Sometimes we feel that we are so separated from each other, that these struggles are so far away from each other, but they’re all connected and today we show them that we are connected, that we are going to stand together and fight together until we win.” As the rally came to an end, meals were given out by People’s Kitchen, an arm of the Vermont Workers Center, led by Faried Munarsyah, which provides mutual aid and food to the many statewide social movements.
Photos by Mike Chamness.
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Watch the video: Spain 1936 — Popular front or workers’ power?
Hosted by Socialist Resurgence
Video link (in three parts):On YouTube — Spain 1936: Popular Front or Workers’ Power?As the world working class re-emerges from its long slumber, it is essential that activists learn from the lessons of past revolutionary struggles. Recently, for example, the question of working-class independence in political coalitions was posed dramatically in the Fuera Piñera mass struggle in Chile. Can the so-called “democratic” or reformist wing of the capitalist class (and their social democratic apologists) be depended on to win the fights against fascism or capitalist austerity?
In this educational presentation, Michael Schreiber, a member of the Socialist Resurgence National Committee, will review the experiences of the revolutionary proletariat in the Spanish State during the stirring events of the 1930s. He will look closely at the missed opportunities of the “Popular Front” government, the revolutionary actions taken by workers and landless peasants, the role of the Stalinists and social democracy in those events, and the perspectives put forward by revolutionary socialists of the period. An understanding of these forces and events can help us evaluate what direction working people and the oppressed can take today, especially in the semi-colonial world.
This is the fifth webinar in the weekly Thursday night educational series sponsored by Socialist Resurgence.
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Workers, renters strike and protest on May Day
A demonstrator in Istanbul on May 1, 2020. (AP) By MICHAEL SCHREIBER and ERNIE GOTTA
The May 1 international day of working-class protest is rooted in U.S. workers’ actions in the 1880s to demand better working conditions, including the eight-hour day. In recent years, the date was reclaimed in the United States especially by organizations standing up for the rights of immigrants and low-wage workers—who brought tens of thousands of protesters to the streets. Marchers with demands on issues such as affordable health care, racist police violence, the rights of women and LGBTQ people, and environmental justice also swelled the protests.
This year, May Day was certainly timely as a day of workers’ protest: Unemployment has risen to a level not seen since the Great Depression. Some 30 million U.S. workers have filed for unemployment benefits, and the official rate of joblessness has risen to at least 18 percent. And those figures are mirrored, or surpassed, in many other countries.
This year, in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic, countries that used to see tens or hundreds of thousands of workers marching in the streets had far smaller events than previously. But a great variety of methods were used to carry out the protests. Many workers commemorated the day with online events. In cities where outside events took place, activists generally wore masks and observed social distancing, or participated in car caravans, horn honking, and banner drops. Rhythmic banging on pots (called a “cacerolazo” in Latin America, where the type of protest originated) took place in cities throughout the world, including the United States.
Several thousand masked trade unionists in Athens, Greece, lined up in Syntagma Square in positions that had been marked out with large colored squares to set them six feet apart. In Istanbul, police attacked a march that had formed in violation of government lockdown orders. Hundreds joined a May Day rally in Berlin despite efforts by authorities to ban it; thousands of police were deployed to keep others from joining the protest.
Sickouts, walkouts, and rent strike
In the U.S., a coalition of workers from Amazon, Instacart, Whole Foods, WalMart, Target, and FedEx called in sick or briefly walked out on May 1 to demand better health and safety conditions, sick leave, and extra hazard pay. Picket lines were set up outside some warehouses, and workers called for a consumer boycott for the day.
Workers at dozens of Amazon warehouses have tested positive for COVID-19; at least one has died. A statement by Whole Foods workers professed that the company’s misguided policies were largely responsible for workers’ contracting the virus, and “for these reasons, we are engaging in a mass sickout and exercising our right to refuse unsafe work conditions.”
These actions were built on the momentum generated by numerous wildcat strikes in March and April. Christian Smalls, who had been fired by Amazon for organizing a walkout at the company’s Staten Island warehouse, helped lead the May 1 protest there. Some nurses attended to offer their support.
Make the Road New York, which helped to organize immigrants and low-wage workers, put together a May Day car caravan and protest in Times Square, where they demonstrated with body bags. Signs demanded the cancellation of rent payments, emptying the prisons, and “#Recovery4All.” The caravan ended at the headquarters of Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos.
Nurses and other health-care workers in at least 13 states joined brief walkouts to demand adequate protective equipment. Some protested the fact that workers who speak out about these problems have been disciplined. Some 60 nurses in the U.S. have died in the epidemic, according to May Day organizers. “Nurses signed up to care for their patients. They did not sign up to sacrifice their lives on the front lines of the COVID-19 pandemic,” Bonnie Castillo of National Nurses United told AP reporters.
Many thousands joined the rent strike. (Photo: Ted S. Warren / AP) The rent strike organized on May 1 gave signs of becoming the largest nationwide coordinated action of that type since the Great Depression, and perhaps in all U.S. history. Plans have been made to wage strikes in coming months as well. Over 200,000 households joined the May 1 strike, according to one estimate, including over 12,000 in New York City and 8000 in Los Angeles. The movement caught fire in several big cities, including New York, Philadelphia, and Washington, D.C., and in California. Demands included the suspension of rent, mortgage, and utility payments during the present crisis and a moratorium on evictions and foreclosures. The National Multifamily Housing Council reported that 31 percent of renters did not pay in April, a figure that is due to swell in May.
Events in Connecticut
Socialist Resurgence members in Connecticut sent the following reports: “May 1 rallies in Hartford and Stamford reflected a growing working-class anger with government and big business during the COVID-19 crisis. Some 200 cars rallied and surrounded the state capitol building in Hartford, while simultaneously an online rally was broadcast live.
A family protesting in Hartford. (Photo: Unidad Latin@ en Acción) The list of speakers for the rally included Carmen Lanche, from Unidad Latin@ en Acción, who demanded that “Governor Ned Lamont create a $150 million fund for disaster relief for undocumented workers in Connecticut.” Another speaker, Keeronie Williams, a member of 32BJ SEIU, said, “We need to support our workers on the frontlines. Not having proper PPE protection and health-care coverage if we get sick; who is going to care for our families?”
Sal Luciano, Connecticut president of the AFL-CIO, highlighted the fight for undocumented immigrant workers by saying, “Excluding immigrant families from COVID relief is dangerous and wrong, and today we say no more! We’re all in this together, and we will not stop fighting until we win justice for all working families, regardless of where we were born.”
Mike Pinho, an IBEW union electrical worker and member of the CT Workers Crisis Response (CWCR), put forward a list of demands from CWCR that he said could be paid for by “taxing corporations and top-income earners to fund emergency measures, reallocating funds from the defense budget, with no to taxes on working people and cuts to service.”
The blaring of horns sounding the growing of a new “COVID” solidarity movement in Connecticut was followed by another rally at the state capitol organized by the group Stop Solitary CT and was directly focused on releasing prisoners during the pandemic. Organizers urged “Governor Lamont to prevent COVID-19 from being a death sentence to people incarcerated by freeing all who can be released safely.”
In Stamford, an evening moving picket line of 25 cars weaved through the city blaring their horns . Demands were raised for workers’ rights, including the rights of undocumented workers. The action was organized by union hotel workers and members of Local 217 Unite Here and included a moving tribute to Hilton rank-and-file leader and shop steward Robert Tweedie. While taking up a broad list of demands aimed at the governor of CT included in the earlier Hartford rallies, workers also targeted hotel owners who have shown no little to no support during the pandemic.
Thousands of workers have still not received unemployment benefits in Connecticut. Edgar Jean, a Hilton worker with seven children, asked, “What are you going to do when they throw you out of the hotel and you have to eat?” Workers pointed to the Sheraton Hotel, which cut off health insurance for laid-off workers on March 31 and has refused to give hazard pay for those that remain on the job.
The need for “independent fighting organizations”
Socialist Resurgence member Mischa C., in Minnesota, sent in the following thoughts about May Day, from an essay he wrote in 2016: “Just a few short years before, millions of people were visibly protesting the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, but by this time, the numbers were in the hundreds. So when organizers called for a ‘day without an immigrant’ [on May Day 2016], many were skeptical that anything interesting would happen. Then suddenly, almost out of thin air, a million people hit the streets in Chicago, and hundreds of thousands more protested around the country. While that particular protest was huge, the movement itself was never able to sustain those numbers.
“This is a symptom of a larger problem that activists face all over the globe, the problem of organization. Without a mass independent party of working people that learns the lessons of past struggles, activists are stuck reinventing the wheel every time a new movement arrives. I don’t blame any of us for this shortcoming; we have been on the defensive for decades. Our movements are small and fractured because the ruling class has been pushing back against the gains made from protests in the 1960s and ’70s, and dismantling the groups that won them.
“It’s a myth that working people are too apathetic or ‘bought off’ to fight back; we just need to remember how to do it. Millions of Latinx people helped to get Barack Obama elected, and he deported more people than any other president before him. When we say that the Democratic Party is the graveyard of social movements, this is what we mean. We need to rebuild our own independent fighting organizations, or we will be stuck spinning our wheels.”
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The IWL-FI/LIT-CI Will Hold a Rally on May 1 Online
#1deMayo. The IWL-FI/LIT-CI will hold an internationalist act online on the occasion of May Day, the international day of struggle of the working class, which will count with the participation of comrades from various countries. In these times of pandemic and brutal economic crisis, it is urgent to debate for and defend an in-depth working-class, socialist and revolutionary solution that can guide the ongoing and future struggles. The event will be broadcasted online on the IWL/LIT Facebook page! We are waiting for you! ✊?
The speakers will be:
Fabiana Stefanoni (Italy)
Blanca and Carlos (USA)
Maria Rivera (Chile)
Vera Lúcia (Brazil)
?? The event will be broadcast online at: https://fb.com/litci.cuartainternacional/ -
May Day: Capitalism Kills! Death to Capitalism!
Hundreds of thousands of dead, tens of millions infected with the coronavirus. Hundreds of millions unemployed by the global recession. The workers are currently suffering one of the greatest attacks in history.
by IWL-FI IEC
This is not by chance nor does it come from nature. It is capitalism that kills through COVID-19. Capitalism destroys nature, brings famine, misery, and unemployment with its economic crises.
The situation in the slums resembles the consequences of war. Death silently haunts workers’ houses. Famine is quickly spreading in popular neighborhoods. A brutal genocide is being imposed.
May Day has never been a day for fraternization between workers and the bourgeoisie. It has always been a day of struggle, part of the world’s working-class memory of the death of workers in a strike in the United States in 1886. On this May Day, it will not be possible to carry out demonstrations in the streets, due to the risk of contagion. This is not why our battle cry against capital will be unheard: we want to call on workers around the world to a rebellion against capitalism.
Pandemic kills workers much more
The world is semi-paralyzed by a virus. For large companies, it was not in the interest of investing in the necessary vaccines and medicines, because it would not bring them profits. In capitalism health is a commodity, and only what makes a profit is manufactured.
The bourgeois governments implemented neoliberal plans that destroyed public health worldwide. Privatizing hospitals, reducing budgets. The pandemic reached a world without a minimal public health structure to deal with it.
Capitalism reduced workers’ wages, made labor relations precarious. Most have to work today only to eat tomorrow.
This pandemic is the most serious in history, since the Spanish flu in 1918. But it has an uneven effect.
The wealthy can quarantine in luxurious homes, having their food and comfort in confinement guaranteed. They are cared for in private hospitals. The poor do not have wages nor decent houses, or the necessary medical assistance. Many will not get beds in intensive care and will be sentenced to death.
Famine affects the people
The global recession began. The figures point to the possibility of an economic depression similar to that of 1929, the most serious in the history of capitalism.
Unemployment is counted in the tens of millions in the countries. A good portion of small businesses is going bankrupt.
The consequences are dramatic. Hunger is the worst of them. Families can’t feed their children. Many are going to starve in the 21st century, on the outskirts of big cities around the world.
Capitalist barbarism spreads.
The virus does not distinguish social classes … but governments do
The governments’ reactions were different in different countries. That ranges from rogue negotiators like president Bolsonaro and Trump to those who appear to be taking steps to combat the pandemic.
But, the fundamental concern of all governments is to save the big business. The multi-million dollar plans presented have five, ten, twenty times more money for companies than for workers. Their goal is to save the profits of a few thousand bourgeois, not the lives of millions of workers.
No government is guaranteeing the quarantine that would be necessary for workers. They all keep factories running to ensure their profits. They deny even the most basic security conditions to front-line workers in this fight, such as health workers and in other essential services.
They speak of quarantine, but they do not assure any condition for a real quarantine. Workers cannot stop working without wages. They do not have decent houses to shelter.
Their masks will crack. As the pandemic and economic crisis advance, the class character of these governments will emerge more precisely. Capitalism rarely appears with its cruel and merciless face as it does now.
For the bourgeois, everything! For the workers, repression!
With the farce of fighting the pandemic, governments increase control and repression. The bourgeoisie fears the possibility of rebellions in various parts of the world.
Revolutionary processes already existed in Chile, in Iraq, in Hong Kong, and in other countries. Now, the bourgeoisie is afraid of other revolutionary processes taking place.
For this reason, the repressive and vigilance measures against the workers were hugely increased. Orbán in Hungary imposed an authoritarian, dictatorial regime. Trump cracks down on immigrants. Fernández in Argentina and Duque in Colombia strongly repress poor neighborhoods protests.
We want to denounce especially Piñera’s government in Chile, which decreed a “state of calamity” to justify even greater repression. Piñera refuses to release 2,500 political prisoners so that they die in prisons due to the pandemic.
Do not die of the pandemic or starving
For an anti-capitalist emergency plan
Let’s build a working-class and socialist solution to the crisis
There is no way out inside capitalism. The current crisis more urgently poses the central dilemma of all humanity: socialism or barbarism.
Reformists around the world insist on Keynesian plans of state intervention to save capitalism. Neither the PT (Brazil), nor Unidas Podemos (Spain), nor the Frente Ampla (Broad Front – Chile), nor Syriza, nor the PCs and PSs of the world are actual alternatives because all reformism propose and implement in the countries they rule fall short of overthrowing capitalism and bourgeois regimes. They also defend the bailout of large companies!
Capitalists only present us with the choice of either starvation or dying of the COVID-19. This is the true meaning of “life or economics”.
We, on the contrary, want to bring down capitalist domination.
Would it be possible to face the deaths of the pandemic? Would it be possible to end famine and unemployment?
It would! But for that, an Anti-capitalist Emergency Plan is needed.
It is possible to face the pandemic, guaranteeing a real quarantine, keeping at work only those who produce food, medicines, and whatever is necessary to save the poor population.
That includes ensuring an average wage for all workers in formal and gig economy, employed and unemployed. It is necessary to expropriate hotels and empty houses to shelter the homeless and poor population.
It would be necessary to expropriate private hospitals and build those needed to care for workers. It would be necessary to expropriate the pharmaceutical companies to ensure free medicines and tests for all. And to compel the manufacturers to produce ventilators, medicines, PPEs, and pharmaceutical supplies.
In order to face famine, it is necessary to expropriate food production and distribution companies. Ensure that food reaches the table of the poor immediately in all neighborhoods, with emergency distribution operations.
To face unemployment, it is necessary to create an inclusive public works plan based on social and environmental criteria after the end of the pandemic. It is necessary to expropriate all the companies that fire their staff and to ensure wages for all workers. Strategic companies must be nationalized without compensation instead of giving money to private companies to save their profits.
The coronavirus crisis exacerbated the oppression of millions of women. They are the vanguard fighting the pandemic. They constitute the majority of people employed in health and social services: they are 70% in 104 countries surveyed by the WHO (World Health Organization). However, in addition to the precariousness and misery, they still have the risk of dying in confinement at the hands of their sexist aggressors. No one less for staying home! It is necessary to demand that all governments fund the necessary resources for the prevention, care, and protection against all sexist violence.
In addition, black and immigrant workers, refugees, indigenous peoples, LGBT sectors who, being among the poorest, are the most affected by the pandemic. Either because they do not have access to health care, either because they do not have minimum housing conditions to guarantee quarantine, or because they are left without medicines, they are forced to expose themselves to the risk of contagion struggling for survival.
Young students from the poorest families suffer more frequently in this situation of discrimination. The lack of real conditions and measures for their education push millions of young people to school failure denying them a fundamental right such as education. The pandemic can’t leave any student behind! Working-class children must be granted access to higher education! Free, secular, and egalitarian quality public education!
Many will say that there is no money to guarantee that but they lie! The money is there but it is being wasted in saving big business.
We defend a tax on big fortunes. Banks must be nationalized to fund these plans. Do not pay domestic and foreign public debts!
The imperialist states loot health equipment and protection supplies to face the pandemic, leaving the semi-colonial countries without the means to have them. For the global distribution of these products, reconverting for that the world productive manufacturing.
It is possible to turn the economy around to save workers from pandemic, hunger, and unemployment. Either a planned economy serving social needs and fighting the pandemic or a market economy to guarantee the profits of a minority of capitalists. This is the dilemma today.
We call on workers around the world to revolt against bourgeois governments. Only the proletariat at the forefront of the struggles will be able to carry out this program.
We proudly raise our red flags on this May Day. May our battle cry be heard throughout the world.
COME WITH THE IWL-FI TO BUILD A WORKING-CLASS AND SOCIALIST ALTERNATIVE FOR HUMANITY
ATTEND OUR INTERNATIONALIST CELEBRATION
CAPITALISM KILLS! DEATH TO CAPITALISM!
SOCIALISM OR BARBARISM! -
Cómo ganar huelgas: Lecciones de la huelga de los Teamsters de 1934
Por HARRY DEBOER
Cómo ganar huelgas fue escrito por Harry DeBoer, activista socialista desde hace mucho tiempo, en 1987. Fue publicado independientemente como panfleto y posteriormente reimpreso en varias revistas socialistas y traducido a diferentes idiomas.
DeBoer nació en 1903 en Crookston, Minnesota. A principios de los años 30 empezó a trabajar en los astilleros de carbón de Minneapolis y formó parte del comité organizador inicial de la famosa huelga de camioneros Teamsters de 1934.
DeBoer se convirtió en uno de los líderes de la huelga y trabajó junto a otros dirigentes como Carl Skoglund, Vincent R. Dunne y Farrell Dobbs. Se le atribuye el desarrollo de la táctica de los piquetes de crucero. También fue el capitán del piquete el 20 de julio de 1934, cuando la policía abrió fuego contra los huelguistas desarmados, matando a dos e hiriendo a 60, muchos de los cuales recibieron disparos en la espalda. Harry estaba entre los heridos. Ese día se conoce como el Viernes Sangriento.
DeBoer era trotskista y fundador del Partido Obrero Socialista en 1938. En 1940, Harry fue encarcelado por sedición en virtud de la Ley Smith por oponerse a la participación de Estados Unidos en la Segunda Guerra Mundial junto con otros miembros del partido. Se mantuvo fiel a sus principios durante toda su vida, y en años posteriores asesoró a muchos jóvenes trabajadores. Colaboró con otros de su generación, como Jack Maloney y Jake Cooper, para llevar las ideas de la lucha de clases a los sindicalistas que buscaban respuestas sobre cómo luchar. Harry murió en 1992.
Cómo ganar huelgas contiene muchas lecciones valiosas para los activistas de la clase trabajadora de hoy. Las empresas se aprovechan cada vez más de los trabajadores. A pesar de sus enormes beneficios, las empresas exigen -y obtienen- grandes concesiones.
Cuando los sindicatos consiguen aumentos salariales, muchas veces son pequeños y no siguen el ritmo de la inflación. El nivel de vida está bajando. Muchos trabajadores apenas pueden subsistir y sus deudas siguen aumentando.
Los trabajadores no sindicados se ven especialmente afectados. Proliferan los empleos mal pagados. Sin la protección laboral de los sindicatos, los trabajadores no sindicados se enfrentan a todo tipo de ataques contra sus condiciones laborales. Se les reducen las horas de trabajo. Se les despide a capricho del empresario, sin normas de antigüedad en vigor.
Un nuevo estado de ánimo
No tiene por qué ser así. La era de las concesiones puede, debe y llegará a su fin. Hay indicios de un nuevo estado de ánimo entre los trabajadores. Los sindicatos informan de que algunos trabajadores no sindicados están solicitando campañas de sindicalización. Quieren salarios más altos, mejores condiciones de trabajo y la protección en el puesto de trabajo que conlleva la afiliación sindical. Se percibe un mayor deseo de lucha entre los afiliados. Se avecinan grandes batallas y auguro un gran auge sindical en un futuro próximo. Este folleto está dirigido a los líderes y participantes de las batallas que se avecinan.
Las huelgas se pueden ganar.
La huelga es siempre el último recurso. Así debe ser. Pero hoy en día, a menos que los trabajadores estén preparados para ir a la huelga, los empresarios no ofrecerán a los trabajadores un trato justo en la mesa de negociación. Los trabajadores tienen que estar dispuestos a retener su trabajo para obtener un acuerdo justo. En los últimos años se han perdido huelgas importantes. Los trabajadores que abandonan el trabajo son sustituidos por esquiroles. Se han roto huelgas importantes. Los trabajadores han perdido permanentemente su empleo.
Esto ha llevado a algunos en el movimiento obrero a concluir erróneamente que las huelgas ya no pueden tener éxito. Señalan las recientes derrotas y dicen: “¿Para qué luchar?”. Como resultado, los sindicatos han firmado contratos con concesiones al por mayor, a pesar de que el empresario podría permitirse buenos aumentos salariales y mejores condiciones de trabajo.
Algunos sindicatos, que tienen miedo de las huelgas, han recurrido a tácticas alternativas como las campañas de presión pública. Algunos líderes sindicales han propuesto estas tácticas como sustituto de las huelgas. Pero aunque las campañas de presión pública pueden ayudar, si el empresario sabe que el sindicato no está dispuesto a hacer huelga, esas campañas tienen muchas menos posibilidades de éxito. El empresario exprimirá al sindicato hasta dejarlo seco si sabe que el sindicato no va a hacer huelga.
La huelga de 1934 fue un modelo
Tengo confianza en la nueva generación de trabajadores. Creo que empezarán a volcarse hacia la militancia obrera para conseguir un nivel de vida decente para ellos y sus familias. La huelga de camioneros de 1934 en Minneapolis fue un modelo de cómo luchar y ganar. Paralizamos el tráfico de camiones en la ciudad, echamos a los esquiroles de la calle y obtuvimos una victoria decisiva. Conseguimos el reconocimiento del sindicato, logramos nuestro primer contrato y conseguimos aumentos salariales y mejores condiciones.
Las huelgas de Minneapolis, Toledo y San Francisco en 1934 desencadenaron una oleada de acciones laborales militantes que abrieron el camino a la formación de los grandes sindicatos de este país. Esas huelgas militantes de los años 30 forjaron los sindicatos industriales que existen hoy en día.
Pero durante los años 50, 60 y 70, los sindicatos se volvieron más complacientes. Las batallas de los piquetes de antes se calmaron. Los sindicatos establecieron líneas de piquetes, generalmente esperando que fueran respetadas y así fue. Pero a finales de los 70 y en los 80, la situación cambió.
Los empresarios se volvieron más agresivos. Tantearon el terreno y descubrieron que podían romper huelgas sin demasiados problemas. El esquirolaje se hizo más común. Hace años, nadie se atrevía a cruzar un piquete. Hoy, en ciudades de todo el país, los trabajadores pueden contar historias de empresarios que rompieron huelgas enviando esquiroles.
Una breve historia de la huelga
Sólo hay una manera de ganar una huelga: Cerrar la empresa. Si se trata de una fábrica u otro negocio, no se puede dejar funcionar. Si se trata de una industria de transporte, no puede dejar moverse. Una huelga significa que todo el trabajo debe detenerse. Significa que no se puede permitir que los supervisores sigan trabajando. Significa que hay que impedir que los esquiroles ocupen los puestos de los trabajadores. Hoy en día, una huelga no puede ganarse con un puñado de piquetes. Requiere una acción masiva en la calle, dirigida por el sindicato en huelga.
La huelga de camioneros de Minneapolis de 1934 fue, en realidad, tres huelgas: la de los conductores de carbón en febrero, una huelga más amplia en mayo y la reanudación de la huelga en julio, en la que finalmente conseguimos la victoria. En la huelga de los conductores de carbón, no teníamos suficientes piquetes al principio del paro para cerrar con éxito todos los astilleros en huelga. Organicé lo que se conoció como piquetes de crucero. Podíamos hacer un piquete en una puerta y dejar que los camiones que seguían operando salieran de los astilleros de carbón para que la policía pensara que los camiones estaban libres. Dejábamos que los camiones se alejaran dos o tres manzanas del patio, nos acercábamos en coches, obligábamos a los camiones a parar y vertíamos el carbón en la calle. En varios días, prácticamente todas las operaciones de conducción de camiones de carbón se habían paralizado. Era un invierno muy frío; las familias y las empresas necesitaban carbón. Las empresas cedieron y ganamos.
A Farrell Dobbs, otro joven líder de los Teamsters, y a mí nos asignaron quedarnos en la sede del sindicato por las tardes para afiliar a nuevos miembros. Vinieron por miles a afiliarse a nuestro sindicato, Teamster local 574 (ahora se llama local 544). Cuando los trabajadores ven una dirección que sabe luchar y ganar, no dudan en afiliarse. La victoria de febrero había fortalecido considerablemente a nuestro sindicato.
En la huelga de mayo, la policía reclutó a varios diputados y les dieron palos para que ataquen y echaran a los huelguistas de la calle. En un incidente, algunos de nuestros piquetes fueron emboscados por la policía, y varios piquetes, hombres y mujeres, fueron golpeados duramente. Conseguimos algunos palos en defensa propia y, en una gran batalla callejera, echamos a los diputados especiales de la calle. Se conoció como la Batalla de la Carrera de los Diputados.
En la huelga de julio, que comenzó después de que las empresas incumplieran su acuerdo con el sindicato, la policía abrió fuego contra los huelguistas desarmados. Dos trabajadores murieron y casi 60 huelguistas resultaron heridos, muchos de ellos por la espalda.
Este brutal ataque fue contraproducente. En lugar de debilitar al sindicato, reforzó la determinación de los trabajadores y atrajo aún más apoyo público hacia nuestro bando. Finalmente, en agosto de 1934, la empresa aceptó un acuerdo, una gran victoria para los Teamsters y para todo el movimiento obrero. La huelga puso a Minneapolis en el camino de convertirse en una ciudad sindical, impulsando campañas de organización en toda la ciudad, el estado y el Medio Oeste.
Los libros de texto
Hoy en día, los libros de texto no cuentan mucho sobre la historia del movimiento obrero. Tienen poco que decir sobre el surgimiento de los sindicatos y los enormes sacrificios de los trabajadores para hacer de éste un mundo mejor. A los empresarios les gustaría que los trabajadores olvidaran su pasado. De hecho, a los empresarios les gusta decir que ahora las cosas son diferentes. Sostienen que los viejos tiempos de lucha han quedado atrás, que la militancia es historia antigua. Algunas empresas muestran a los trabajadores películas caras, promocionando la cooperación obrero-patronal y las reuniones del “círculo de calidad” que animan a los trabajadores a reunirse con los directivos para resolver los problemas de la empresa. Trabajen más rápido, produzcan más y, sobre todo, no luchen contra nosotros: ésa es la línea de la empresa.
Estos empresarios, con sus hábiles llamamientos a la colaboración, son invariablemente los mismos que acuden a la mesa de negociación para exigir al sindicato concesiones y congelaciones salariales.
La verdad es que nada ha cambiado fundamentalmente en la relación entre empresarios y trabajadores. El jefe sigue siendo el jefe. Sólo que hoy contrata a consultores antisindicales muy caros que cubren de almíbar los mensajes antisindicales. “Colaborar con la dirección” son a menudo palabras clave para socavar y romper el sindicato.
Los líderes sindicales deben entender el sistema capitalista. Nuestros dirigentes en 1934 sabían que el sistema de beneficios llevaba a los dirigentes empresariales a intentar romper nuestro sindicato. Aunque la dirección del sindicato no intentó imponer su perspectiva revolucionaria a los afiliados, esa perspectiva -y la organización- fueron importantes para ganar la huelga.
Lo que aprendieron los trabajadores
Lo que aprendieron los trabajadores en la década de 1930 fue que, unidos en gran número, podían derrotar a los rompesindicatos y conseguir los aumentos salariales necesarios y mejores condiciones. Cincuenta años después, esto sigue siendo válido. Los trabajadores de hoy deben adoptar una postura militante para lograr el éxito. Los piquetes simbólicos son insuficientes. Los sindicatos deben organizar piquetes masivos con cientos o miles de trabajadores para frenar cualquier posibilidad de esquirolaje. Algunos dirigentes sindicales dicen que eso es imposible hoy en día. En uno o dos días, argumentan, el empresario acudirá a los tribunales y obtendrá una orden judicial para limitar el número de piquetes a tres o cuatro por portal.
Mi respuesta: En 1934 empapelamos el muro con mandamientos judiciales. El empresario siempre puede encontrar algún juez antisindical que le firme un papel. Pero las huelgas se reducen a una relación de fuerzas. Si nuestras fuerzas son mayores y más poderosas que las suyas, ganaremos.
Pero si ignoramos la orden judicial y seguimos haciendo piquetes masivos, la policía nos detendrá, argumentan algunos dirigentes sindicales.
Mi respuesta: Que así sea. Que llenen las cárceles a rebosar. El sindicato debe pagarles la fianza y conseguir que la masa de trabajadores vuelva a los piquetes, a los que se unirán nuevas fuerzas enfurecidas por la arbitrariedad de las autoridades. Debemos mantener cerrados los centros de trabajo en huelga.
Los dirigentes pueden marcar la diferencia
Algunos líderes sindicales sostienen que hoy en día no podemos movilizar a las masas. Dicen que los trabajadores son demasiado pasivos. Pero no es así. En los últimos años se han producido en Estados Unidos varias huelgas importantes en las que miles de trabajadores y sus simpatizantes han marchado y se han concentrado a las puertas de las fábricas. Es un reflejo de la nueva militancia que vemos desarrollarse. Desgraciadamente, aunque en algunos casos está claro que los trabajadores están dispuestos a pasar a la acción, los dirigentes de algunas huelgas no llegan a cerrar la planta. Los esquiroles siguen yendo a trabajar y la huelga se pierde. La dirección debe dar un paso fundamental: Organizar piquetes masivos e impedir que los esquiroles entren en el lugar de trabajo.
“¿Cómo se consigue que miles de trabajadores salgan a la calle para llevar a cabo una acción así?”, te preguntarás. Es una buena pregunta.
En primer lugar, se necesita un liderazgo dispuesto a tomar esas medidas. Si en su sindicato no hay luchadores en el liderazgo, entonces va a tener que elegir nuevos líderes. Hay que presentar candidaturas que crean en la democracia sindical y estén dispuestas a enfrentarse a la patronal. En segundo lugar, hay que desarrollar una estrategia global. Ningún panfleto puede explicar todos los problemas y todas las soluciones para ganar una lucha obrera. Yo sólo puedo exponer un método. Sin embargo, hay algunos factores clave en cualquier plan global.
El éxito de las huelgas requiere la participación y el apoyo de todo el movimiento obrero. Conseguir ese tipo de apoyo de base amplia puede, de hecho, evitar las huelgas. Si el empresario piensa que va a tener que enfrentarse a todo el movimiento obrero de una ciudad o estado, puede pensárselo mucho antes de obligar a los trabajadores a ir a la huelga. Los dirigentes sindicales locales deben dirigirse a los funcionarios laborales de la ciudad y del estado, explicarles lo que la patronal intenta hacer con su sindicato y buscar el apoyo de estos funcionarios. Pídeles que te ayuden y dales todo el crédito cuando lo hagan.
Piense a lo grande. Celebre uno o varios mítines masivos antes de la fecha límite de la huelga con destacados oradores sindicales, utilizando folletos y carteles bien hechos. Invita a todos los sindicatos, no sólo al tuyo. Ten en cuenta todos los aspectos. Asegúrate de que las mujeres y las minorías desempeñan un papel importante.
En algunas de nuestras organizaciones sindicales de los años 30, enviamos organizadores entre los parados y los organizamos como contingentes de parados de nuestro sindicato para que se unieran a nosotros en los piquetes. Eso debería hacerse hoy. Si los parados están organizados de nuestro lado, es mucho más difícil para el patrón utilizarlos como esquiroles. Y son el grupo al que primero se dirigen los empresarios para romper las huelgas.
Poner grandes anuncios donde sea posible en la prensa comercial y laboral para explicar el caso del sindicato y hacer una lista de los sindicatos que te apoyan. Enviar representantes de su sindicato a las reuniones de otros sindicatos para explicar por qué está luchando. Conseguir que los principales líderes sindicales escriban cartas a todos los sindicatos del estado, explicando los problemas, y pidiéndoles que apoyen la manifestación, que envíen a miembros a la manifestación y que se unan a los piquetes sindicales si se produce una huelga. Piensa a lo grande. Piensa a lo grande.
Pida a los trabajadores de su fábrica y de la ciudad que lleven chapas con lemas de apoyo. Consiga que se publiquen artículos sobre el tema en la prensa laboral y otros medios de comunicación. Celebre conferencias de prensa con destacados sindicalistas que le apoyen. Presente al público a miembros del sindicato que sean ejemplos de trabajadores que apenas pueden llegar a fin de mes con los salarios que cobran.
Una huelga debe estar bien organizada y la huelga de Minneapolis de 1934 es un caso clásico. Un libro, “Teamster Rebellion” de Farrell Dobbs, da la historia completa y se lo recomiendo encarecidamente. Teníamos un economato para alimentar a los huelguistas y sus familias. Servíamos comidas calientes a diario con alimentos donados por agricultores y tenderos simpatizantes. Esto se convirtió en una forma de mantener a los huelguistas, así como un medio de profundizar la solidaridad entre los trabajadores.
El comité de huelga tenía un médico y enfermeras a mano en el cuartel general de la huelga para los trabajadores que pudieran resultar heridos en los piquetes. Esto resultó muy valioso.
Por primera vez en todo el país, publicamos un periódico diario sobre la huelga. Se llamaba “El Organizador”. Durante la huelga se puede contar a menudo con que los editores de los medios de comunicación proempresariales intenten distorsionar los temas. Necesitas tu propia publicación para explicar los problemas y dar a conocer la verdad sobre la huelga. Un periódico diario de la huelga puede ser un medio para reunir a los huelguistas y a sus partidarios y educar al público, ganando nuevos aliados para el bando de los huelguistas.
Será necesario todo tipo de esfuerzos de solidaridad. Deberá dirigirse a otros sindicatos locales, grupos de mujeres y organizaciones comunitarias. El objetivo es aislar al empresario hasta que la presión pública masiva le obligue a dar marcha atrás.
De hecho, cuanto mayor sea la planificación previa a la huelga y más solidaridad tenga del resto del movimiento obrero, menos probabilidades habrá de que se produzca una huelga. La empresa puede ver que estás preparado y que tienes a todas las fuerzas de tu lado y se sentirá menos inclinada a enfrentarse al sindicato.
También debe haber una preocupación especial por el bienestar de los trabajadores que se enfrentan a la situación financiera más grave. Un comité de bienestar debe estar preparado para reunirse con los cobradores o las compañías hipotecarias para prevenir cualquier problema. Hay que tranquilizar a los trabajadores sobre estas cuestiones. Cuidar de los trabajadores más necesitados se convierte en la máxima prioridad en una huelga. He visto paros en los que los militantes desatendían a esos trabajadores, que luego intentaban atravesar los piquetes. ¡Qué tragedia! Esas personas se convertirían en los más firmes defensores del sindicato si éste se tomara el tiempo de preocuparse por ellos. Y ese es el trabajo del sindicato.
Cómo podemos activar nuestro sindicato
“¿Cómo podemos activar nuestro sindicato?”, tu preguntas. “Muchos de nuestros afiliados no asisten a las reuniones sindicales. Todas estas ideas son estupendas, pero nuestros afiliados no participarán”.
Creo que la columna vertebral de cualquier sindicato debe ser la democracia sindical. Cuanto más democrático sea el sindicato, más fuerte será. A menudo, los afiliados no asisten a las reuniones porque, cuando lo hacen, parece que todas las decisiones ya están tomadas. Hay que abrir las reuniones y hacerlas más democráticas. Todas las decisiones importantes del sindicato deben tomarse tras un debate y una votación de los afiliados. Si hay dirigentes no democráticos, hay que expulsarlos y elegir a otros democráticos. Los dirigentes luchadores comprometidos con la democracia sindical atraerán un mayor activismo de las bases.
Los líderes sindicales deben discutir abiertamente su estrategia con los afiliados. Hay que animar a los afiliados a que asuman responsabilidades importantes en una estrategia global. Discuta, planifique y vote. A medida que su sindicato se democratice, descubrirá que muchos de sus afiliados desean participar en las decisiones que afectan a sus vidas.
En Teamsters local 574 teníamos delegados elegidos que representaban a los miembros en los distintos talleres. Teníamos una junta de quejas elegida que se reunía dos veces al mes y escuchaba a cualquier trabajador que tuviera una queja potencial. Teníamos un comité de negociación elegido. Y en la huelga de camioneros de 1934 en Minneapolis, teníamos un Comité de los 100 elegido. Este comité era una caja de resonancia que se reunía entre las reuniones regulares del sindicato.
Las propuestas de los dirigentes durante la huelga se presentaban primero al Comité de los 100. El comité examinaba las propuestas. El comité examinaba las propuestas, tomaba decisiones y las transmitía a la masa de trabajadores. Este proceso democrático fortaleció la huelga y mantuvo a la dirección en contacto con lo que querían los afiliados.
Algunos dirigentes sindicales no están de acuerdo con este estilo abierto de democracia. Durante una huelga o unas negociaciones, defienden el máximo secretismo. A menudo, he descubierto que ese secretismo es en realidad una estratagema para llegar a un compromiso insatisfactorio a espaldas de los trabajadores.
Todo acuerdo implica un compromiso. Pero las decisiones del sindicato deben ser tomadas por los afiliados. Las reivindicaciones deben ser votadas por los afiliados. Los afiliados deben determinar cuándo una reivindicación es retirada por el sindicato de la mesa de negociación.
Cuanto más democrático sea el sindicato, más implicados estarán los trabajadores en él. Cuanto menos democrático sea el sindicato, menos entusiasmo tendrán los afiliados en la dirección cuando el empresario obligue al sindicato a enfrentarse.
Cerrandolo todo
Hay varias formas de cerrar una empresa y este folleto no puede abordarlas todas. Pero he aquí algunos métodos clave.
- Piquetes masivos. Debería formar parte de todas las huelgas. Su número puede impedir el funcionamiento de la fábrica.
- Sentadas fuera de la fábrica. A veces, para superar la presencia de un gran número de policías o de la Guardia Nacional, la mejor táctica puede ser sentar a varios miles de personas frente a las puertas o portones principales. Pueden llevárselos en arrestos masivos. El sindicato paga la fianza y os sentáis de nuevo.
- Sentadas dentro de la fábrica. Las huelgas de brazos caídos, una táctica utilizada en los años 30, deberían considerarse un método de huelga viable hoy en día. Es mucho más difícil para los jefes sacar a los trabajadores del edificio, una vez que están sentados dentro.
- Operaciones contraesquiroles Los “finks” son esquiroles y las “fink drives” eran algo que utilizábamos cuando los empresarios utilizaban a los esquiroles para reabrir las plantas que estaban en huelga. Cogíamos a algunos de nuestros mejores militantes, entrábamos en la planta y echábamos a los esquiroles.
- Marchas y concentraciones masivas, como forma de preparar los piquetes masivos y otras acciones para cerrar la operación.
Hablar con los trabajadores
Carl Skoglund, que más tarde sería presidente de nuestro sindicato local, fue el artífice de la huelga de Minneapolis de 1934. Había vivido muchas batallas sindicales. Tenía una pierna mala y recuerdo que la noche anterior a la huelga del carbón de febrero de 1934, me puso el brazo en el hombro para apoyarse mientras caminábamos de vuelta a nuestros apartamentos.
“Harry”, me dijo, “puede ser que al principio muchos trabajadores no entiendan por qué estamos luchando. Tenemos que hablar con ellos. Explicarles de qué va esta huelga. Dales la oportunidad de entenderlo. No los descartes antes de haberles dado una oportunidad”.
Uno de los primeros conductores no sindicados que paramos al día siguiente demostró lo que decía Carl. Habíamos seguido a un camión que salía del depósito de carbón y a las pocas manzanas convergimos en él. Le explicamos al conductor por qué luchábamos y por qué estábamos en huelga. El hombre se enfadó. Nos dijo que su jefe le había mentido sobre el motivo de nuestra huelga. Saltó del camión y nos ayudó a tirar su propia carga de carbón a la calle. Esa noche fue a la sede del sindicato y se afilió. Después de la huelga, se convirtió en un leal delegado sindical.
Hay una lección en esto. Es necesario explicar a los trabajadores por qué se está en huelga. Y eso vale también para los trabajadores que han sido contratados como esquiroles. Muchas veces, si hablas con esos trabajadores, acabarán poniéndose de tu parte. Si no lo hacen, por supuesto, es otra historia. Pero muchas veces en esta sociedad, con tanta propaganda antisindical, la gente desarrolla actitudes hostiles hacia los sindicatos. A menudo, explicar los problemas puede hacerles cambiar de opinión. Esa misma mentalidad abierta es importante para tratar con los compañeros de trabajo, que al principio pueden no reconocer la necesidad de la acción militante, pero que cambiarán de opinión cuando vean que funciona.
Organizar a los desorganizados
Muchas de las batallas más importantes del futuro se librarán en nombre de los trabajadores no organizados. Deben realizarse nuevos esfuerzos masivos para organizar a estos trabajadores en sindicatos. Los sindicatos actuales tienden a estar formados por trabajadores mejor pagados y los dirigentes sindicales a veces olvidan de dónde proceden sus sindicatos.
El mismo enfoque de masas para la victoria en los piquetes debe extenderse a la organización sindical. Se necesita una movilización masiva de trabajadores para las campañas de organización. Debe haber mítines y participación de todos los afiliados en estas campañas, así como esfuerzos para conseguir el apoyo del resto del movimiento obrero.
Durante las negociaciones contractuales, los empresarios intentan a veces aterrorizar a los trabajadores para que se sometan. Los empresarios amenazan a los sindicatos que exigen salarios más altos con la posibilidad de que la empresa se marche y busque mercados laborales más baratos y no sindicados en otros lugares. Si la empresa dispone de mano de obra local cualificada, puede que no sea más que una táctica para asustar.
Pero la respuesta del sindicato debe ser rápida. Si el jefe traslada su planta a otro lugar, los dirigentes sindicales deben decir: “Enviaremos organizadores sindicales a su nueva ubicación y los organizaremos, allí. Si se va al extranjero, nuestro sindicato internacional trabajará para que estén organizados allí donde se instalen. Te seguiremos allá donde vayas. No permitiremos que exploten a sus trabajadores. Así que más vale que pongan un paquete razonable sobre la mesa de negociación, porque no les va a ir mejor en otro sitio”.
Un compromiso claro con un sindicato es la mejor manera de garantizar buenos contratos en los centros de trabajo que están organizados. En el Local 574 teníamos un lema: “Cada miembro un organizador”. Los conductores por carretera animaban a los trabajadores a sindicarse allá donde iban por el Medio Oeste. Es un lema que deberíamos adoptar hoy.
Cuantos más trabajadores tengamos en los sindicatos, más difícil será para el empresario encontrar trabajadores que puedan romper huelgas. Y contribuirá a hacer del sindicato una fuerza mayor para el progreso y la justicia social.
El sindicato debe ser el defensor de los desvalidos, los pobres y los que sufren. Debemos preocuparnos por las familias monoparentales, el niño que no tiene suficiente para comer, los discapacitados, las víctimas de la discriminación. Debemos hablar en favor de los ancianos, muchos de los cuales no pueden ganarse la vida con sus pequeñas pensiones y la seguridad social.
Luchando por ellos, podemos devolver la grandeza al sindicato. Su causa se convierte en la nuestra cuando defendemos salarios y condiciones decentes para todos.
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May 4 videos: The Kent State massacre & the global fight for socialist revolution
Videos of the May 4 event:
Click Link for FB event: The Kent State Massacre and the Global Fight for Socialism
Video collection: Revolutionary Socialist Network on Youtube
On May 4, 1970, National Guardsmen opened fire on peaceful antiwar protesters at Kent State University in Ohio, killing four students and wounding nine others. Ten days later, police fired at a demonstration at Jackson State University in Mississippi, leaving two dead and an unknown number of wounded.
The students were protesting against the U.S. invasion of Cambodia—a major escalation of the war in Vietnam. The invasion and shootings sparked an unprecedented national student strike involving millions of students. Over 400 campuses in the United States were occupied.
This May 4 commemoration will be a tribute to the 1970 martyrs from several generations of activists. Among the online participants will be antiwar GIs and student and labor antiwar activists, including those fighting in frontline struggles today. Program speakers will be announced when finalized.
The event will be anchored by Mike Alewitz, chairman of the Kent Student Mobilization Committee to End the War (SMC) and an eyewitness to the May 4 massacre. He addressed the May 9, 1970, emergency national demonstration in Washington, D.C., of over 100,000 people, along with Jane Fonda, Dr. Benjamin Spock, and Coretta Scott King. During the student strike, Alewitz spoke at numerous rallies throughout the U.S. and Canada. He was later subpoenaed and testified before the Presidential Commission on Campus Unrest (The Scranton Commission).
Commenting on the commemoration, Alewitz stated recently:
“Today we face an unprecedented medical, ecological, social and economic crisis. We cannot continue to pour trillions of dollars into an insatiable war machine while health-care workers go begging for masks and lines at food pantries stretch for miles. The finances and resources of society must be changed to go toward healing our planet and ourselves. The memory of the martyrs of Kent and Jackson cries out for us to continue the struggle for which they gave their lives—to demand money for jobs, health care and education—not for war”
Watch presentations from:
Mike Alewitz, Kent State, May 4 massacre eyewitness, Student Mobilization Committee
Kipp Dawson, Student Mobilization Committee National Leader
Manuel Berrara, Chicano movement and Anti-war Activist
Cleve Andrew Pulley, Vietnam Anti-war GI
Valia Dimitrakopoulou, OKDE-Spartakos, Student Leader, Athens, Greece
Marine Dageville , Anticapitalisme et Revolution (NPA), Student Leader, Paris, France
Thano Paris, Solidarity, Atlanta, GA
Ed Jurenas, Vietnam Anti-War GI
Mitch Linck, Iraq vet and 350 CT Climate Justice Activist
César Bowley Castillo – La Voz/Workers Voice
This event is sponsored by the Revolutionary Socialist Network, a collective of independent organizations and activists working together to build the socialist movement.
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Smithfield pork plant: The nation’s biggest COVID-19 hotspot
The Smithfield pork processing plant in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, is a massive facility. It boasts that all by itself it processes up to 5% of the pork products consumed in the entire country. Well, now it can boast another distinction—it has become the nation’s largest single hotspot for COVID-19.
To date, over a thousand people connected to the plant are confirmed to have contracted the virus. Nearly 900 of them are plant workers and the rest are family members and other folks in the community they came into contact with. So far, four of the workers have died.
The first reported case was on March 24. In a facility where most workers work elbow to elbow, the virus spread like wildfire. The workers and their union, the United Food and Commercial Workers, began demanding back in March for increased protective gear and for the company to take the pandemic seriously. The company’s response was to offer workers a $500 bonus if they kept coming in to work.
Increasing production, and keeping costs down, was so important to the company that it didn’t even make a serious effort to communicate with its workforce about the pandemic.
The 3700 workers at the Smithfield plant come from all over the world. Forty different languages can be heard on the shop floor. Of the leading languages spoken by the workers (Spanish, Oromo, Amharic, Tigrinya, Vietnamese, Kunama, Swahili, English, Nepali, and French) only one—English—was used in publishing instructions about COVID-19. Even after workers became so sick that they could no longer work and had to be sent home, the packet they got instructing them how to keep it from spreading to their loved ones was only in English.
Finally, after pressure was brought to be bear by the community and the state, Smithfield announced it was closing its plant. But that didn’t happen until April 12, by which time a quarter of the workers were sick and it was spreading throughout the community.
In addition to COVID, meat and poultry workers experience higher illness rates in general than other manufacturing workers. A U.S. Government Accountability Office study reported nearly 160 cases per 10,000 full-time meat and poultry workers in 2013, compared to about 40 cases for manufacturing overall. And those rates are likely higher, the report said, since workers (fearing job loss) as well as their employers may underreport injuries and illnesses.
While Smithfield workers are still being buried, South Dakota’s Republican governor, Kristi Noem, and President Trump are already calling for the plant to be re-opened.
Governor Kristi Noem calls for Smithfield to reopen the plant. The federal government is offering to officially force the plant to re-open under the Defense Production Act, which would then make Smithfield immune from lawsuits from its workers and the community. At least 22 other meat and poultry plants in the United States that have closed down due to the virus would also be affected by the order to re-open that Trump issued on April 28.
More than 6500 meat and food-processing workers have been infected by COVID-19 at 48 plants across the country, according to a recent report by the United Food and Commercial Workers union. At least 20 workers are known to have died. And given the reckless greed of capitalism, those numbers are likely to grow. That is unless we’re able to stand up and say, “enough is enough!” We’ve seen how capitalists intend to handle this crisis. As socialists, we say that now more than ever, the time has come for the workers themselves to run things.
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April 30 webinar: The three great strikes of 1934
Thursday, April 30, at 7 p.m. ET
Zoom registration:1934: Three Great StrikesThe last three years have seen more strikes than in the three decades that preceded them. As workers rediscover their most important weapon, it is essential that we learn the history of what a fighting union movement can mean. In 1934, Toledo Autolite workers, Minneapolis coal workers and truckers, and San Francisco dock workers put everything on the line to lead city-wide strikes whose effects reverberated around the country. The heroic examples of these strikes gave not only a strategic way forward, but the self-confidence necessary for the whole U.S. working class to engage in life or death struggles for union recognition and decent living standards.
Dean Cohen, retired machinist and past vice president of United Auto Workers Local 217, will explore not just the facts and figures of these great upheavals, but the political conditions that allowed them to be the historic beginning of one of the greatest moments of U.S. labor.
This webinar is sponsored by Socialist Resurgence as part of our weekly Thursday night series of educational web presentations.Photo of Minneapolis strikers in 1934: Minnesota Historical Society
