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Workers’ Voice newspaper: March-April edition
The U.S.-Israel war on Iran is a major escalation in the Middle East that has dangerous implications for working people everywhere. The brutality of the imperialist assault internationally is paired with the attack on civil liberties by the Trump regime inside the U.S. This includes the continued operations of ICE and Border Patrol, the threats to the 2026 mid-term elections, environmental rollbacks that deeply impact the Black community, and unchecked police brutality.
Our editorial in this issue warns us: “There is a great danger of underestimating the determination of the U.S. corporate elite to drive through this effort. We cannot rely on court rulings or upcoming elections to save us. We must organize now, not only for mass demonstrations and community networks against ICE violence, but to find our way to building a new working-class party through which we can organize our political defense on every plane and on every day.”
In this issue we also have articles on the Epstein files and the ruling class, the San Francisco teachers’ strike, and a review of the new album by U2.
The March–April 2026 edition of our newspaper is available in print and online as a pdf. Read the latest issue of our newspaper today with a free pdf download! As always, we appreciate any donations to help with the cost of printing.
Click on the image to read the paper or message us to get a hard copy:
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Rebel offensive surprises the Syrian dictatorship and takes Aleppo
{:en}
By FABIO BOSCO
On Nov. 27, a coalition of Syrian rebel groups led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) and with the participation of sectors of Jeish al-Wattani (National Army, supported by the Turkish regime) began a major offensive on the province of Aleppo, taking large rural areas, as well as a large part of the city of Aleppo, the second most important city in Syria. They also moved toward Hama, after taking the highway that connects Aleppo to Hama and Damascus and cutting off vital supply lines for the forces of the Syrian regime and its allies.
The forces of the Syrian regime and the foreign militias supported by the Iranian regime were surprised and underwent several setbacks. The Syrian regime employed Syrian and Russian aviation to cowardly bomb the rebel province of Idlib and the city of Aleppo, but was unable to contain the rebel offensive.
The Syrian population in Idlib and Deraa (in the south of the country, and the birthplace of the 2011 revolution) celebrated the advances of the offensive. In addition, there were clashes between the Druze community and the Syrian regime forces in Suweida, in the south of the country. In a separate dispute from the fight against the Syrian regime, the U.S.-backed SDF Kurdish forces and the Iranian and Russian militias supporting the Syrian regime clashed in Deir Zour, in the east of the country, for the control of the left bank of the Euphrates River. (1)
The rebel offensive is fueled primarily by the hatred that the Syrian population feels toward the Assad dictatorship and its Iranian and Russian backers. This hatred is not only based on the massacres committed against the population to drown in blood the 2011 Syrian revolution. It is also based on the situation of poverty and bombardments to which around 4 million Syrian refugees living in the rebel province of Idlib are subjected. This explains the support of hundreds of young people who are eager to defeat the forces of the Syrian regime and expel the Iranian-backed foreign militias.
Other factors also explain the success of the offensive
The Syrian regime subjects the Syrian population to poverty, lack of public services, and the humiliating daily harassment and exploitation imposed by the intelligence services (“mukhabarat” in Arabic) and by militias associated with the regime, popularly known as “shabiha” (“ghost” in reference to the vehicles used by these militiamen in the 1970s and 80s).
In addition, Syria is a country occupied by six foreign military forces:
1) Iran-backed militias (Iranian Revolutionary Guard, Lebanese Hezbollah, Quwat al-Hashd al-Shaabi/Popular Mobilization Forces of Iraq, etc.) and Russia—which has two important military bases on the coast and others scattered around—control 60% of the territory together with the forces of the hated Syrian regime.
2) The United States maintains 900 military advisors coordinating thousands of contractors, in alliance with the SDF (Syrian Democratic Forces—led by the Kurdish PYD), which controls about 27% of the territory in the northwest where there are the major oil and gas reserves as well as productive lands.
3) Turkey controls the province of Afrin and a border strip, and maintains a range of allied militias coordinated by the National Army militia (Jeish al-Wattani in Arabic).
4) Israel has controlled a significant part of the Golan Heights since 1967 and recently took over rural areas of the city of Quneitra (without any reaction from the cowardly Syrian regime).
5) The Iraqi group Daesh has some presence on the border with Iraq.
For these reasons (repression, poverty, and loss of national sovereignty), the Syrian regime is hated by the population, and the Syrian military forces are totally dependent on militias linked to Iran and the Russian air force to keep Assad in power. However, Russia has deployed aircraft and military forces to carry out the genocide in Ukraine, in addition to importing a large part of the Iranian production of Fathi missiles and Shaheed drones for that purpose, which weakens the military support for the regime. Iranian militias are also weakened. Several Hezbollah militias have been relocated back to Lebanon, being replaced by less experienced pro-Iranian militias.
Another issue is the airstrikes by the State of Israel against Iranian and Syrian targets in Syrian territory. These attacks by Zionist forces have the complicity of the Russian regime, which does nothing to protect Syria’s airspace.
The role of the Turkish regime
The Turkish regime has a number of interests in Syria. The main one is to create a sanitary cordon separating the Kurdish areas in Turkey and Syria (called Bakur and Rojava, respectively). In the past, the Kurdish PKK relied on bases in Syria for its operations in Kurdistan under Turkish occupation.
Erdogan is also interested in a solution for the approximately 4 million Syrian refugees who are in the country, and who are the target of xenophobic campaigns by far-right groups, polarizing the national politics.
Finally, the Turkish regime has always been interested in expanding its sphere of political and economic influence, and for this reason it sought to control the Syrian opposition forces at the time of the 2011 revolution, and now sponsors the coalition around the National Army militia (Jeish al-Wattani). Recently, Erdogan changed his geopolitical orientation and sought an understanding with the Syrian regime, without success.
The Turkish regime certainly facilitated the rebel offensive through sectors of Jeish al-Wattani. But its objectives are different from those of the Syrian population, who are fighting for the end of the dictatorship and the occupation of the country by foreign forces.
For this reason, the Turkish regime may reach an agreement with Putin and the Iranian regime to contain the offensive against the Syrian regime. Talks are underway. (2)
Trump’s inauguration
Donald Trump’s inauguration on Jan. 20 is a factor that accelerated the rebel forces’ decision to begin their offensive.
On the one hand, Trump promises to impose a ceasefire in Ukraine, handing over Ukrainian territory to Putin and bringing relief to the Russian military and economy, which are strained by the war effort. This would allow Putin to redeploy forces to Syria to support the murderous Assad regime.
On the other hand, Trump could decide to shift U.S. support away from the Kurdish SDF/PYD, which controls 27% of Syrian territory, in order to hand over border strips to the Turkish government to create a cordon sanitaire and, eventually, deport part of the Syrian refugees. Such a decision could accommodate Erdogan’s interests in order to remove Jeish al-Wattani from any military offensive against the Syrian regime and to freeze the coalition led by HTS.
No trust in HTS!
Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) is one of the groups that played a negative role during the Syrian revolution, by seeking to change the nature of the democratic revolution into a sectarian civil war. This organization is accused of repressing the population and assassinating opposition figures such as the famous radio host Raed Fares. One of its main sources of support came from Qatar.
In recent times, al-Joulani, the main leader of HTS, has sought to change the organization’s image. Not only did he break with Al-Qaeda in 2016, but he has also sought to present himself as the normal bourgeois force that governs Idlib, levying taxes on all trade and keeping his distance from the unpopular Syrian regime. The change in image does not imply a break with Salafist sectors, which advocate a sectarian theocratic dictatorship, but rather a softening of this image.
Of course, the offensive in Aleppo can also be explained by HTS’s need to find an outlet for popular discontent within Idlib.
A revolutionary alternative to the fight against the dictatorship
In any case, this offensive in Aleppo is in line with the desires of the vast majority of the Syrian population for an end to the dictatorship, foreign occupation, and the poverty to which they are subjected. But what is missing is a leading organization that is completely different from HTS: a workers’, democratic, and revolutionary organization.
Activists committed to the ideals of the Arab revolutions (freedom, bread, and social justice) must build a new political organization that will promote democratic popular councils in the liberated zones, where the working people can decide the future of the fight against the dictatorship. Throughout the Syrian revolution, there have been several democratic experiences of self-organization—which need to be revived. We cannot accept that the Assad dictatorship be replaced by another dictatorship of autocratic groups, be it HTS or any other. The fight for democratic freedoms for the Syrian working people goes hand in hand with the fight against the Assad dictatorship.
In addition, there is an ongoing genocide in Palestine. Today, the Palestinians can only count on the support of the working classes and youth of the Arab countries and the entire world. A new revolutionary organization must stand for unconditional support for the Palestinian people, for the reconstruction of al-Yarmouk [the Palestinian refugee camp in Damascus], which was largely destroyed by the Syrian regime, and for the recapture of all Syrian territory occupied by the Zionist entity in the Golan Heights, contrary to the conciliatory stand towards Zionism promoted by the Assad dynasty.
The Kurdish question is another strategic issue for the new Syrian revolution. The Kurdish population represents about 10% of the population in Syria. The Kurds have always been under the oppression of the Assad dictatorship. At the beginning of the Syrian revolution, important Kurdish leaders such as Meshaal Temmo (who was assassinated in PYD’s controlled territory) advocated unity in the struggle against Assad. However, the leading forces of the Syrian revolution have never made a democratic commitment to defend the right of self-determination for the Kurdish population. This facilitated the actions of the Kurdish PYD party, whose strategy was a tacit alliance with Assad, withdrawing the Kurdish masses from the Syrian revolution in exchange for some concessions from the dictatorship.
This mistake must be avoided by calling the Kurdish population to fight against the dictatorship and defend their right to self-determination, a right that has always been denied by the Syrian regime. At the same time, it is necessary to call on the PYD to break with the Syrian regime and American imperialism, and join the fight against the Syrian dictatorship, and establish a non-aggression agreement between the rebel forces and the SDF, guaranteeing the autonomy of Rojava, rejecting any pressure from the Turkish regime. It is also necessary to demand from the SDF full democratic freedoms within Rojava so that the Kurdish people can exercise their right to self-determination in freedom.
NOTES:
(1)
https://www.syriahr.com/en/350260/Photo: Rebels hold Syrian flag as they stand before the Citadel in Aleppo. (France 24)
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The revolution that changed the world: 107 years later
By WILSON HONORIO DA SILVA
Brazilian Unified Socialist Workers Party (PSTU)
In Petrograd, early in the morning of Oct. 26, 1917. “Lenin, standing (…), let his small shining eyes roam over all those present, while he waited, looking inattentive, for the long and noisy ovation that greeted him (…). When it was over, he simply said: ‘That’s all, comrades! Let’s get on with building the socialist order!’”
This is how the American journalist John Reed, in “The Ten Days that Shook the World,” describes the moment when the leader of the Bolshevik Party, at the Second Congress of Soviets (“councils”) of workers’, soldiers’ and peasants’ deputies, confirmed the seizure of power by the All-Russian Soviets, which had taken place on the eve of Oct. 25 (according to the old Russian calendar; Nov. 7 today), with the seizure of the Winter Palace.
For the first time in history, the power of an entire country was in the hands of the working class, allied with the peasants and soldiers. That is to say that it had be seized from the hands of those who, without shedding a drop of sweat, had appropriated the country’s wealth and exploited and oppressed its people.
“Rough faces, bruised by winter, heavy and cracked hands, fingers yellowed by tobacco, drooping buttons, loose belts and rough and musty long boots. The plebeian nation, for the first time, sent an honest representation, made in its own image and without retouching,” as one of the main leaders of the October Revolution, Leon Trotsky, described the delegates gathered there.
On that Oct. 25, Dien, one of the Bolshevik newspapers, published the headline, “All Power to the Soviets of Workers, Soldiers and Peasants! Bread, Peace and Land!”—echoing the cries that for months had filled the streets of the major cities and rural areas of a Russia devastated by hunger, poverty, and the losses and suffering caused by the First World War (1914-1918), which had been fueled by imperialist greed and its need to divide the world according to bourgeois interests.
Women in struggle set the revolution in motion
At that time, Russia, a country of about 150 million inhabitants, was a backward empire compared to other European powers. It was ruled by a monarch (Tsar Nicholas II) and had an agrarian majority, where serfdom, illiteracy, poverty, and medieval customs and traditions reigned.
But it was also a country already integrated into world capitalism, and so had a parasitic bourgeoisie living in the shadows of the nobility and subservient to international imperialism. On the other side of the “front,” there was a growing working class that had long demonstrated its militancy, with an important vanguard that had embraced socialist ideals.
On March 8, 1917 (Feb. 23 in the old Russian calendar), a women’s strike in Petrograd mobilized more than 400,000 women for better working conditions, against hunger and against participation in the First World War, which was costing millions of lives.
Inspired by this heroic struggle, revolutionary agitation broke out in places of study and work, and people took to the streets and even won the sympathy of the soldiers, who joined them. The strength of the insurrectionary uprisings caused the tsarist ministry to crumble, completely isolating Tsar Nicholas II, who was finally forced to resign on Feb. 27.
Even in a disorganized way, power migrated from the Imperial Palace to the streets, and the only way out for the bourgeoisie, in an attempt to maintain a minimum of control, was to set up a Provisional Government based on the Duma (the Russian parliament). It was headed by the Constitutional Democrats (called “kadetes,” for the acronym in Russian), a liberal bourgeois party that defended a constitutional monarchical regime.
The rise of the soviets and the April Theses
The bourgeoisie and the reformists who supported it wanted to stabilize the situation. But in the midst of the uprisings, the Russian peasants, workers, and soldiers had rescued the main legacy of an earlier revolution, that of 1905—the soviets (or councils) of workers and soldiers’ deputies.
Beginning in Petrograd and spreading to every corner of the country, this process ultimately culminated in the formation of the Executive Committee of the All-Russian Soviets. This development effectively established a state of “dual power,” as the Provisional Government required the committee’s approval to implement most of its decisions.
Lenin & the revolution: “Thesis for the Reconstruction of the World”
In exile in Switzerland, Lenin realized that the time had come to return home. He crossed Europe clandestinely by train and landed in Petrograd on April 3, carrying under his arm a speech that literally changed the course of history and came to be known as the April Theses.
In his 10 points, Lenin attacked the Mensheviks and Social Revolutionaries, who led the majority of the soviets and supported the Provisional Government; he denounced its capitalist character, demanded that it not be supported, called it as imperialist as the tsarist regime, and demanded an immediate end to the war. He also called for the nationalization of industries and banks and the expropriation of land by the state, and launched the slogan that would define the course of the revolution: “All power to the Soviets.”
Attacked by the Mensheviks and SRs, the Theses were initially opposed by Bolshevik leaders such as Kamenev and Stalin, who opened an intense polemic as they moved toward a policy of shameful support for the Provisional Government.
From July to October: Bolshevik Party & the victory of the revolution
In July, the Provisional Government unleashed a wave of repression against the movement, which had organized a strong day of struggle. It was strong, but still not enough for the soviets to take power. The Bolsheviks were severely repressed. Their printing presses and headquarters were closed, their newspapers banned, and their leaders imprisoned (like Trotsky) or forced to flee (like Lenin).
With the resulting weakening of the Bolsheviks, Kerensky, who had assumed the post of prime minister in August, tried to halt the revolutionary process and at the same time win the support of imperialism and the bourgeoisie by appointing the “kadete” and General Kornilov to command the army.
Kornilov, however, led successive failures at the “front” and finally tried to promote a coup, whose resistance and defeat were led by the Bolsheviks. It was during this period that the party gained immense prestige for taking the initiative in defending the revolution while the Kerensky government was paralyzed. In addition to defeating the counterrevolution, the workers freed all political prisoners from jail.
Thus, on Sept. 4, Trotsky assumed the presidency of the Petrograd Soviet and, together with Lenin, the Bolsheviks began organizing the seizure of power. The date chosen was the 25th, when the Second Congress of Soviets was to begin, the perfect time to concretize the cry of “All power to the Soviets.”Decisive moment: Cry of “All power to the Soviets” rang out in the Winter Palace
Shortly thereafter, the Military Revolutionary Committee was formed, which, under Trotsky’s leadership, took all decisions regarding the insurrection, which began with the occupation of public buildings, transportation and communication infrastructure, forts and barracks.
When the Congress of Soviets met, the delegates engaged in heated debate. The Mensheviks and Revolutionary Socialists demanded an end to the ongoing insurrection, saying that if the government were overthrown, the Bolsheviks would not remain in power for more than a few days.
On the other hand, the Bolsheviks and their left revolutionary socialist allies insisted that the time had come. This was a position backed up by the election of a new leadership to the Committee, where the once-minority supporters of Lenin now formed a majority.
“Suddenly a new and deeper voice could be heard over the tumult of the meeting. It was the muffled voice of a gun! All eyes turned anxiously to the windows. A kind of burning fever overcame the meeting,” describes John Reed, referring to the shots fired from the battleship Aurora that signaled the seizure of the Winter Palace.
Kerensky had already fled, and the few remaining ministers were arrested by Antonov-Ovseenko, the Bolshevik who commanded the seizure of the palace. The uprising had triumphed.
Achievements of the Soviet government
For the first time in history, the vast majority of the exploited and oppressed had economic and political power in their hands, consolidated in what we call the dictatorship of the proletariat. The means of production had passed into the hands of the workers, who began to exercise power democratically and collectively through popular councils. This was opposed to the class-based dictatorship of the bourgeoisie, which had been exercised by a tiny portion of the population.
It was a new type of state, controlled by the working class and oppressed people, based on soviets whose mandates could be revoked at any time and whose salaries did not exceed the salary of a skilled worker. Thus, it was those “from below” who debated and decided everything that had to do with the direction of life, from the economic plan of the country to its most mundane aspects.
Civil rights were expanded to a degree that did not exist in the rest of the world. For example, it was no longer up to the state to interfere in sexual matters, except in cases of harm or violence. And before any other capitalist power, it decriminalized LGBTQ people and allowed transgender people to undergo gender affirmation procedures and use their social names.
The Soviet state also granted extensive rights to women, starting with abortion but extending to collectivized public services such as laundries, restaurants, and day-care centers that took domestic work off their hands. There was also an enormous creative explosion in culture, art, and science, and a complete revolution in education. No nation in the world had achieved so much in such a short time.
The Stalinist counterrevolution
After seizing power, the Bolsheviks attempted to export the socialist revolution to Europe, but were defeated by capitalist reaction. This left the young Soviet republic isolated and facing a bitter civil war against the bourgeoisie and an attempted military invasion by the capitalist powers.
The defeat of the world revolution and the ensuing years of war, which consumed a large part of the vanguard that had made the revolution, contributed to the bureaucratization of the USSR and the Bolshevik Party through the emergence of an ever-growing litter of opportunist functionaries.
At the center of this history is the infamous figure of Joseph Stalin, who, especially after Lenin’s death in 1924, relied on these social strata to deepen bureaucratization and entrench himself in power, completely destroying what had led the Russian people to the revolution: the idea that all power should be exercised by the soviets.
In the process, Stalin created the ideology of “socialism in one country,” which was used to guarantee the privileges of the bureaucrats, or the popular fronts, which justified alliances with bourgeois sectors. And so it dismantled conquest after conquest that had been made by the revolutionary process, taking a huge step backward in all aspects of life.
Yet none of this was done without resistance. The main opposition was led by Trotsky. But Stalin carried out a bloody counterrevolution, murdering or arresting thousands of Bolshevik leaders, cadres, and militants. Trotsky, assassinated in 1940 while in exile in Mexico, was the last of his victims.
Wilson Honório da Silva is a member of the National Education Secretariat of the PSTU Brazil.
Article originally published in 2023. Republished in: http://www.opiniaosocialista.com.br, 10/25/2024. -
Turkey: Together to combat violence against women
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By ÖZÜM Ö. (Kırmızı Gazete / Istambul)
Around the world, women and LGBTI+ people are victims of psychological, physical, economic, and sexual violence at home, on the street, in schools, and in the workplace. Often, the necessary protective measures for victims are not implemented, and access to shelters and health services is extremely limited.
To make this violence visible and strengthen the fight against sexism, every Nov. 25, the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, we defend our right to life and that of all other women, inspired by the Mirabal sisters, murdered 63 years ago in the Dominican Republic during their struggle against the dictatorship.
We are stepping up our struggle and filling the streets and squares, because our lives matter!
With the worsening of the global economic crisis, more than half of the female population has become unemployed. Migrant women are also often excluded from the health system. Capitalism, with its eagerness to perpetuate exploitation, reproduces forms of barbarism that also manifest themselves as violence against women.
It is no coincidence that right-wing and repressive regimes are on the rise around the world. Some young people, desperate for their future, are looking for immediate gratification. Cultures that encourage violence are gaining ground, shaped by hatred, racism, and misogyny. Atrocious acts such as the one committed by Semih Çelik, who threw himself from the Byzantine walls of Istanbul after brutally murdering Ayşenur Halil and İkbal Uzuner in October, are a product of this violent culture.
Violence is not isolated; it is political
Gender inequality is not an isolated or exceptional phenomenon. Statistics show that one in three women in the world has experienced violence at some point in their lives, and one in five has been a victim of rape. These figures are increasing day after day.
We know very well that most of the murdered women had already denounced their aggressors multiple times, but they were ignored. Not only are we not protected, but the policies of impunity pave the way for violence.
In Turkey, gender-based violence feeds on the discourse of “protecting the family.” The conquests achieved after arduous struggles are taken away from us through legal regulations driven by conservative and reactionary pressures. The annulment of the Istanbul Convention and the attempts to amend Law 6284 [the 2012 law to protect women and children from stalking and violence] are examples of these political attacks.
The policies of denial and extermination against the Kurdish people and the growing racism towards immigrants also manifest themselves mainly as violence against women. In Turkey, the increasingly authoritarian Palace Regime is trying to suppress the mobilizations of women demanding their rights, intimidating them with arrests and detentions.
In addition to femicides, imperialist wars disproportionately affect women. In many parts of the world, masses are protesting against Israel’s genocide in Gaza and the massacres of women and children in its attacks in Lebanon.
Hundreds of protesters are demanding an immediate halt to the trade and sale of arms to Israel, noting that since Oct. 7, 2023, Israel has killed 42,519 Palestinians, including 17,000 children and 11,378 women, and injured another 99,637 in its attacks on the Gaza Strip.
How to fight?
Today’s bourgeois politics seem to open spaces for women to fight in various fields: positions such as mayors, parliamentary seats or even the head of state. Kamala Harris, a [former] presidential candidate in the United States, is a good example. Despite being the first female vice president of the United States, Harris has not made great efforts for women’s rights since taking office. In the United States, at least three women are murdered every day and one woman is raped every 90 seconds. It does not seem likely that, if she became president, her efforts for women’s rights would have been significant.
As a child, I was thrilled by the election of Tansu Çiller as Turkey’s prime minister in the 1990s, despite my family’s political views. However, during her tenure, no significant progress was made on women’s rights. On the contrary, her government went down in history as a period marked by deep state corruption, economic crisis, and unsolved murders.
From historical experience with similar figures, bourgeois politics cannot go beyond a symbolic discourse on gender equality. Capitalism and patriarchy are the roots of the problem.
Bourgeois politics does not offer real solutions because it is part of the problem. The brutal system we live in is patriarchal capitalism. Male domination is one of the pillars on which capitalism is based and, although historically it precedes it, it has been adapted to serve class society.
The oppression of women has its material basis in their reduction to property within class societies. This phenomenon is not only economic, but also cultural and ideological.
Therefore, we cannot eliminate gender inequality without linking it to the class problem or without recognizing that the bourgeois class holds the monopoly of capitalist power.
In other words, there will be no real transformation until patriarchal capitalism is dismantled and a system based on gender equality, without classes and without exploitation, is built.
As long as we do not change the system, there is no guarantee that the gains made will last. That is why it is essential to build the broadest possible front to defend our right to life against violence, exploitation and oppression. A front that advances relentlessly!
Let us raise our struggle for an equal and free future against murder, harassment, rape, and hatred.
Let us weave together a united and organized struggle for the defense of our lives, the restoration of the Istanbul Convention and the effective application of Law 6284. Let’s not let the patriarchal capitalist system isolate us and make us desperate. Let’s build together the dream of a future without classes, without exploitation and full of equality.
Guaranteed income and decent and safe housing for all!
Protection against violence and aggravated punishment for aggressors!
Long live our organized struggle! Long live solidarity among women!
Photo: Protest following the murder of Özgecan Asian in 2015. (picture-alliance / ZUMAPRESS.com)
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Speakout in Ohio: ‘Trans people must build their own power!’
By Rio Nero
This article is based on a speech given by the author at an Oct. 19 rally and open-mike speakout outside the Statehouse in Columbus, Ohio. The event was organized by the Central Ohio Local Committee of the Coalition to Protect Trans Lives. The group was also responsible for organizing last year’s March to Protect Trans Youth, which took place in Florida.
We picked Ohio as the location of the next National March for Trans Lives, in the spring of 2025, due to the vicious attacks on trans existence that are occurring in our state.
There are nine legislative attacks on trans people that are currently gestating in the belly of Ohio’s state government. House Bill 68, vetoed but not dead, seeks to enact the so-called “SAFE act,” which, through the language of Parent’s Rights, would make it impossible for transgender youth to access any form of gender-affirming care and would also forcibly instate sex-segregated sports from elementary school through college, with the intent to ban transgender women and girls from participating in women’s sports.
House Bill 245, with language that implies that simply being trans in public is a form of drag performance, seeks to criminalize drag performances that occur in any location where they could be witnessed by children. House Bill 151, House Bill 214, House Bill 8, and Senate Bill 83 each leverage anti-trans attacks at various levels of the educational process, seeking to ban educational and literary materials about Queer people, criminalize teachers for allowing transgender youth to present as such in school as well as for refusing to out Queer children to their parents, and give parents the right to abuse the faintest hint of gender nonconformity out of their children.
House Bill 183 bans trans students from using the bathroom that aligns with their gender; House Bill 6 independently seeks to ban trans women from participating in women’s sports; and finally, House Concurrent Resolution No. 9 seeks to ban “wokeness” in general from the military, including Queer people. Together these bills are launching a cohesive attack on the existence of gender-nonconforming and transgender people.
It is true that all of these are partisan bills, put forth by the Republican Party, and for some it would follow that the means through which to oppose these bills is to entrust our rights to the care of their political competitors, the Democratic Party. But the task of ensuring our continued existence, or of improving it, is not one that can be achieved through faith in the political competitors of the Republicans. The Democrats have met these legislative attacks on transgender people with complicit silence.
While Republicans campaigned for office through scapegoating immigrants and transgender women for the failures of capitalism, Kamala Harris didn’t offer so much as a throwaway sentence to the plight of trans and Queer people. Instead, she competed for the most anti-immigrant stance! The Biden administration, which oversaw the rampant targeting of drag and Pride events by right-wing groups in 2022 -2023, has addressed the struggle of trans and Queer people with the statement: “We draw the line at surgery for minors.” These are not the sentiments of a political party that we can rely on to protect our rights. These are the sentiments of a political party that is trying to scrape votes off of the transphobes who want us eradicated!
We are faced with the reality that capitalist political parties, though perhaps different in the voter blocs they make appeals to, are not interested in ensuring the rights of transgender and Queer people. This task falls to us. To protect the lives of Queer people, we must build our own power. This is done by organizing ourselves into democratic, decisive political formations—based in the working-class elements of the Queer community and with bottom-up leadership models—which can mobilize on behalf of the interests of transgender and Queer people.
It’s important that working-class Queer people lead the struggle because the working class runs society and has nothing to gain from making compromises with the capitalist parties—which seek only to exploit us.
Imagine if, as a result of the hypothetical instatement of House Bill 8, a school threatened to fire a teacher for using the appropriate pronouns for their trans students. If we had built well-organized coalitions for Queer rights with involvement from unionized teachers, these teachers could, with coalition support, choose to strike until the legislation is repealed. Teachers could, with enough political support, refuse to enforce the legislation en mass, rendering it useless. The same principle applies to healthcare workers and HRT bans.
Imagine if we organized to the extent that the passing of any one of these transphobic bills was met with the mobilization of multiple sectors of society’s workforce! Imagine if, in 2022, when fascist groups were terrorizing Pride events, we had organizations dedicated to Queer liberation that could have coordinated across state lines to bring out event defenses of hundreds of people, driving these fascist groups back underground.
This is what trans power would look like. There are no shortcuts through the political parties of capitalists and landlords that can win us our liberation, or even protect us in the short term. Our rights will be won as all oppressed people have won their rights historically—by forcing concessions from the ruling class. Our liberation will be won through the overthrow of the capitalist world economy and its replacement with a society that seeks to provide for people, not exploit them for profit. The political parties of capitalists and landlords will not protect us. We protect us!
We invite everyone to participate in the building of the upcoming march—to be held in Columbus, Ohio, in the spring of 2025—and the Coalition to Protect Trans Lives.
Photo credit: Workers’ Voice
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Workers’ Action newspaper: November – December 2024 edition!
Trump sweeps into office, and the Democratic Party proves again that it’s not a vehicle for the working class. With the ongoing genocide and government repression, what next? Read the socialist viewpoint in the current edition of Workers’ Action/Acción Obrera.
The November – December 2024 edition of our newspaper is now available in print and online as a pdf. Read the latest issue of our newspaper today with a free pdf download! As always, we appreciate any donations to help with the cost of printing.
Click on the image to read the paper or message us to get a hard copy.
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‘Holding the G20 in Brazil is a disgrace’
By PSTU (the Unified Socialist Workers Party, Brazil)
On Nov. 18 and 19, Brazil will host the G20 summit of the heads of state and government in the city of Rio de Janeiro. This is a meeting in which the main imperialist countries of the world and their partners participate. Opinião spoke with Herbert Claros, of the International Secretariat of the CSP-Conlutas [union federation], who discussed the holding of the G20 in the country, the trap prepared by the Lula government for the social movements, and what activities will be carried out in protest against the G20, by the People’s Summit.
What is the G20 and what is the international context in which this meeting is taking place, here in Brazil?
The G20, formed by the finance ministers and central bank governors of the 19 largest economies in the world, plus the African Union and the European Union, is not a real entity. It is an international body that was created during the economic crisis of the late 1990s, during which there were economic crises in Mexico and Russia, and U.S. imperialism saw the need to involve other countries to try to solve the problem. The creation of the G20 [then] was to save capitalism from the economic crisis that it had created.
The G20 is not an official body, but in recent years it has been dictating, together with the G7 [a group formed by the so-called great powers: Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, the United States, and a representative of the European Union], the IMF and the World Bank, the austerity plans, neoliberal projects, and privatizations that will be applied by those countries. The G20 rotates among the member countries. Last year it was in India. Next year it will be in South Africa. This year the presidency fell to Brazil.
The meeting is taking place in a context of a deep crisis in which capitalism finds itself, which is marked by the increasing harm done to the working class by neoliberal austerity plans. It is also a context characterized by the advance of the far right in several countries and by several wars, such as the one in Ukraine and the genocide of the State of Israel against Palestine, which has now extended to Lebanon.
And what do you think about Brazil hosting the meeting of the group? Is there a “social G20” as the government claims?
President Lula should have refused to hold the G20 in Brazil. It is absurd to hold such a summit that only serves the interests of the big imperialist powers, such as the United States and Europe. It is absurd to hold this G20 in Brazil, because we are a country that directly suffers the consequences of imperialist domination. But let us not forget that Lula has had a pro-imperialist agenda for a long time. In that sense, we are not surprised that he has accepted the proposal to hold the G20 here, which is an embarrassment for Brazil. Lula himself, in his first government, was responsible for leading the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti (Minustah), which sent troops from Brazil to occupy Haiti.
There is no “social G20” and there has never been one in any of the editions of the G20. It is the first time that there will be a so-called, among many quotation marks, “Social G20.” Lula created this hoax with the sole objective of trying to stop and prevent any attempt to mobilize independently against the G20 that will take place here.
At the “Social G20” there will be workshops, and social movements will send a letter with recommendations to the G20 governments. You don’t have to be an enlightened militant to know that Biden (U.S. President) or Macron (France) or Olaf Scholz (Germany) will not even look at this letter. Imperialism doesn’t care about social movements.
Wherever there are G20 meetings, there are demonstrations organized by social movements. Be it in Europe or North America. And we will have them here as well.
What should social, popular, and trade-union movements do before the G20 meeting? How will CSP-Conlutas participate in the summit?
When we heard about the G20, we passed a resolution to build an international mobilization against the meeting. At the beginning of the year, we had meetings with some social movement organizations, convened mainly by the People’s Summit, including the Landless Movement (MST), CUT (Trade Union Center), the World March of Women, black movements in Rio de Janeiro, as well as organizations from the favelas of Rio de Janeiro. We built what we called the “People’s Summit against the G20,” in unity of action with different social movement organizations.
But in the last few weeks, the CUT and the MST decided to break with the People’s Summit, because in a meeting they had with a representative of the federal government, the government explicitly said that Lula does not want any demonstration or any kind of action that rejects imperialism and the G20 in our country.
The CUT and the MST, organizations on the “white list” linked to the government, have decided to withdraw from the summit and will only participate in the “Social G20” as collaborators, making proposals for the G20. This is regrettable from the point of view of building popular unity against imperialism, and it also makes it very clear that these organizations are increasingly tied to the government. It reveals that they are in fact abandoning the class struggle, and the real struggles of the workers, both in the cities and in the countryside.
Nevertheless, the People’s Summit remains. In fact, most of the organizations reaffirmed the importance of an independent summit. On Thursday afternoon, Nov. 14, there will be a plenary session and CSP-Conlutas will participate with its delegation.
The idea is that at this People’s Summit there will be some debates on issues such as the environment, Indigenous peoples, LGBTIphobia, Black and women’s movements, and attacks on the working class. On the morning of Saturday, Nov. 16, we will hold a big demonstration in Copacabana to reject the presence of imperialism in our country.
Here is the agenda of the People’s Summit:
Plenary – Nov. 14. Location: Brazilian Press Association. Schedule: from 2 p.m. to 7 p.m.
Popular March – Nov, 16. Location: Copacabana Beach. Period: morning.Photo: Herbert Claros, of the International Secretariat of the CSP Conlutas.
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The Labour Party’s policies dupe British workers
By INTERNATIONAL SOCIALIST LEAGUE (Britain)
Who is hardest hit by Chancellor Rachel Reeves’ budget? Certainly not the wealthy or big corporations. What is overlooked? Vital areas like adult and social care, mental health, benefit caps, child poverty, and social housing, and the over 4 million children in poverty.
The Joseph Rowntree Foundation warns that living standards will plummet again by the end of this parliament, disproportionately affecting those on the lowest incomes. The poorest, low waged, and the most vulnerable have benefited nothing.
Labour claims economic growth will improve lives, but projections suggest growth will barely reach 2%, leaving families to face continuing hardship and misery due to their aversion to properly taxing the wealthy elite, or to pursue public ownership of key industries and introduce socialist policies.
Unless the NHS [National Health Service] is fully funded and the profit motive removed from health care—nationalising big pharmaceutical companies, private health providers and medical supply companies—patients will not feel any benefit from the £22.6 billion injection over the next two years.
The Tories catered to the wealthy, and while Labour feigns surprise at the £20 billion deficit the last government created, their new policies will not fix the economy. Labour are manipulating definitions of national debt to fit their fiscal rules, falsely projecting a surplus in three years.
The announced investments merely prevent a service collapse—in some cases. Labour’s collaboration with private markets will divert public funds into private profits, and the burden of increased employers National Insurance Contributions (NIC) will inevitably fall on workers. By 2026-27, the Office for Budget Responsibility estimates that 76% of these NIC increases will reduce real wages and lead to higher prices, thus lowering living standards.
The government aims to cut benefits by £3bn. As social benefits, including Universal Credit and Child Benefit, will rise by a meagre 1.7% from April 2025, this means a cut in real terms. Changes to out-of-work benefits means forcing over 450,000 disabled and chronically ill individuals back into work as they face deeper poverty. People receiving sickness benefits therefore face a fearful future at a time when almost two-thirds of those experiencing destitution have a long-term health condition. At the same time, the continued restriction on carer’s allowance punishes many for supporting their family members.
The budget pledged £5 billion for house building, but only £500 million is earmarked for ‘affordable’ options, with social landlords gaining the right to raise rents above inflation. The changes to social security will not substantially lower hardship. The Local Housing Allowance remains frozen, exacerbating housing insecurity as private rents soar and become further out of step with local rent levels.
The freeze on the income tax threshold will drag 400,000 workers into paying income tax for the first time, as 600,000 face an even higher tax burden.
Labour’s budget, marked by its pro-business stance, fails to address the deep-rooted issues of poverty and inequality. The political reality is clear: Labour serves the elite while the working class continue to suffer with rising costs and stagnating wages, the budget offers no significant solutions to the social crises we face.
The state of Britain
[Prime Minister Keir] Starmer has adopted austerity measures reminiscent of the past, focusing on attracting private investment at the expense of safety and public welfare with promises on workers’ rights neglected.
Public bus services remain largely in private hands although public opinion remains in favour of a nationalised public transport system. Meanwhile, Labour’s plans to increase bus fares by 50% will further affect low-wage workers. Most of the rail passenger services are to be taken back into state ownership, with those remaining in private hands facing greater regulation! However, this excludes the lucrative freight and rolling stock (ROSCO) companies, which means the private sector will continue to profit from publicly funded infrastructure.
Today, three ROSCOs control 87% of the market and own 15,200 vehicles, with all the companies foreign-owned and registered in Luxembourg. ROSCOs paid dividends of £409.7m in 2022-23 with a profit margin of 41.6%. Over the last 10 years the cumulative dividend was £2bn (£2.7bn between 2012 and 2020)—with a dividend typically being 100% of the pre-tax profits, thus escaping UK tax.
Labour’s ties to big business hinders any change on critical issues like the precarious working, zero-hour contracts and anti-trade-union laws.
In 2023 Angela Rayner, as deputy leader, gave a ‘cast iron’ promise to ban zero-hours contracts and told the TUC they would seek to repeal anti-strike laws within 100 days of entering government; both remain unchanged.
The workers’ rights at work bill, concerning the ban on the million zero-hour contracts in the UK, includes eight clauses removing that right—for example, if the extra wage cost might damage the business and affect quality or customer service staff performance. Zero hours will not be banned—only ‘exploitative’ zero hours contracts. But who determines ‘exploitative’—the bosses or the workers?
Starmer has adopted [former Conservative Prime Minister] Cameron’s ‘bonfire of regulations’ strategy to attract private investment. So, health and safety issues and concerns that led to tragedies such as Grenfell [the fire in an apartment tower] or resulted in death, injury and illness in workplaces, will continue to blight the lives the working class.
There is big private sector investment alongside public funding, such as the plan recently announced for £21 billions of public investment in carbon capture and storage alongside billions of pounds of private investment. Greenpeace says, “Carbon capture technology is yet unproven in reducing emissions from fossil fuel use and industry at an affordable cost. And the promise of carbon capture and storage may even be encouraging continued fossil fuel use.” It is not yet proven to be deliverable or cost-effective at the level needed.
Labour continues to support the genocide by the Israeli state and its Zionist leadership (covered in the last issue of Socialist Voice). He refuses to condemn the targeted killing of medics and journalists, the deliberate destruction of hospitals and the bombing of civilian infrastructure. To this political monster, the mass slaughter of civilians in Gaza and Lebanon, is simply a result of the right of Israel to ‘defend’ itself.
Starmer also echoes the slogans of [far-right leader] Nigel Farage and [former Prime Minister] Boris Johnson, to take back control over immigration, targeting and exaggerating the ‘problem’ of benefit fraud, at the same time ignoring the massive tax evasion by the rich, as we face a further period of austerity on behalf of the established social and political elite.
Wealth continues to be untouched by Reeves. Between 2011-2022, the King increased his annual profits by 42.6 per cent to £25.4 million. Over the same period, the estate’s wealth climbed by almost 50 per cent. The Sunday Times Rich List for 2024 listed the King has having personal wealth of £600 million. Figures produced of the 350 richest individuals and families in Britain have a combined wealth of over three-quarters of a trillion pounds.
In 2023, Shell and BP made £22 billion in profit between them, aided by the huge increase in energy bills for most households. The water companies have racked up £60 billion of debt since privatisation in 1989, while hiking bills—not to pay for investment in infrastructure, as is obvious from the repeated pollution scandals, but to churn out £72 billions of profit in the same period! Starmer’s rhetoric about serving the British working people is disingenuous, because he serves the ‘working’ people in the oil companies and big business but not the working class or oppressed people.
Labour ignores housing and many Crisis areas
With great bombast, Reeves said the budget “will match the greatest economic moments in Labour history”, by maintaining the two-child benefit cap, cuts to pensioners’ winter fuel allowance, whilst aiming to increase ‘defence’ 2.5% of GDP by the next election!
The sell-off of council houses has decimated council housing stock, with over 2 million council homes sold whilst there are more than a million households on the council waiting lists. According to New Economics Foundation (NEF), 41% of all council homes sold under the right to buy scheme are now being let on the private rental market.
Removing council houses in the 1980s has led to higher rents and high private housing costs, a result being an increasing number of homeless people—including refugees—are forced to live on the streets. Now at record levels, thousands of homeless families are trapped in debt and denied social housing with nearly 4,000 homeless households in England barred from applying for social housing because of debt.
Whilst Tory policies led to the housing crisis, Labour implementation made the crisis worse. Universal Credit is below the poverty level, so any deductions are cruel, all benefits should provide sufficient support to allow those in need a dignified life. The political questions are: Who rules? Bombastic Reeves and Labour, or the obscenely rich? Who suffers? Are capitalists taxed to the hilt or left in luxury?
There is nothing in the budget to alleviate the social problems facing the working class. This is not a one-off bad budget, as it determines life for the majority for at least the next five years. As Labour pursues capitalist answers to capitalist problems, just like Conservative government, hardship and misery will increase for the working class and the wealthy will thrive.
How can workers and oppressed fight? The need for a new workers’ party
The International Socialist League fights for a new workers’ party that unites trade unions and community forces against capitalism, and therefore, the Labour Party. We propose a ten-point programme for a genuine workers’ movement, focusing on workers’ rights, oppressions, climate action, and public ownership of essential services. Together, we can build a movement that prioritises the needs of working-class people and fights against oppression in all forms.
The fight against oppressions covers many issues inside our struggle for women’s rights and many others but also the right of self-determination that includes Palestine and Ukraine, both nations suffering from genocide and invasion. We oppose imperialist aims for Ukraine, we support the struggle of workers and youth to defend their country from the Russian invasion and fight the neo-liberalism of the USA, Britain, and European Union.
ISL/Socialist Voice 10-point program for a workers’ party
1) Defend unions’ and workers’ rights to organise! For an independent workers’ party based on a democratic, fighting workers’ movement! No support for Tories, Lib Dems or Labour!
2) End all immigration controls! Safe and legal routes for all immigrants! No deportations!
3) End racism! End violent policing! Reparations to all former enslaved and colonised peoples! Self-determination for all peoples!
4) Reproductive justice: Free, accessible contraception and abortion on demand! Defend bodily autonomy, whether for childbearing, abortion, or gender-confirming therapy! End sexism and domestic violence!
5) Free quality universal public health care now! Quality free public child care and elder care for all, 24-7! End reliance on unpaid labour! Free education for a lifetime!
6) Full civil and human rights for the LGBTQIA+ community!
7) For climate justice! Public ownership of the energy industry under workers’ and community control to achieve emergency conversion to 100% renewable energy!
8) No British military interventions! Dismantle the war machine! End diplomatic, commercial, and military relations with Israel! For a democratic secular Palestine! The right to self-determination of all peoples.
9) For the full integration of disabled people into social, political, and economic life!
10) Public ownership, under workers’ control, of big industry, transport, water, and the banks! For a workers’ government and a planned economy—for socialism!
Photo: Keep Our NHS Public
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Regional Palestine Solidarity Conference in Conn. Nov. 16!
Organized by
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Movement against Palestinian genocide gains labor solidarity
By ERNIE GOTTA
The genocide in Gaza, conducted by Israel and funded and politically supported by the U.S. government, has produced a growing opposition among union members in the United States. Major unions like United Auto Workers, American Postal Workers Union (APWU), and United Teachers Los Angeles (UTLA) have to varying degrees demanded an end to the genocide. The Los Angeles Times writes, “The governing body of the L.A. teachers union has weighed in on the ongoing Israel-Hamas war, voting Wednesday to support a congressional effort to block the sale of more than $20 billion in U.S. weaponry to Israel on the grounds that American-supplied arms were being used against civilians.”
It is the rank-and-file-led Labor for Palestine initiative that has pushed the labor movement to take a position on the genocide in Gaza. Union members who are organizing in their unions and communities across the U.S. are cohering around the Labor for Palestine National Network (L4PNN).
Labor for Palestine’s website says that they were “launched in April 2004 by New York City Labor Against the War and Al-Awda NY: The Palestine Right to Return Coalition to reclaim the legacy of working class solidarity with Palestine in the United States, as reflected in groundbreaking statements by the League of Revolutionary Black Workers in 1969, and wildcat strikes against the United Auto Workers (UAW) leadership’s support for Israel in 1973.”
Although Labor for Palestine has a 20-year history, momentum is again building with the current generation of union members. There are city and statewide groups like NYC Labor for Palestine, Bay Area Labor for Palestine, Connecticut Committee for Labor for Palestine, or Maine Labor for Palestine. There are also groups in specific unions on the national and local level. UAW for Labor in Palestine, New York State Nurses Association (NYSNA) for Palestine, IATSE Members for Palestine, United SteelWorkers for Palestine, and Portworkers for Palestine are just a few examples of how the Palestine solidarity movement is growing among organized labor since the start of the genocide.
These groups are finding ways to express their solidarity by organizing to demand that their unions take stronger and more concrete steps to oppose the genocide. While these groups don’t yet necessarily represent the views and ideas of every worker in their union, they are also building the broader solidarity movement that has mobilized hundreds of thousands for mass actions in the streets.
Whether it’s during the final months of the Democratic Biden/Harris administration or the Republican Trump/Vance administration, the Palestine solidarity movement will have to play a vigilant role in defending civil liberties and demanding an end to U.S. weapons and aid. This article will highlight several examples of how union members are playing an unprecedented and dynamic role in the Palestine solidarity movement.
NYC Labor for Palestine has organized to get the Teachers Retirement System in New York City to divest From Israeli securities. They marched on election night with the “No votes for genocide” campaign, and supported union activist efforts to bring Palestine solidarity into the labor movement. For example, NYSNA for Palestine successfully passed a pro-Palestine resolution at their convention.
NYCL4P posted on their Instagram, “UPDATE: the resolution points 1,2,3 & 5 passed October 30, 2024 at the NYSNA convention. Resolution 4 regarding political endorsements was struck out by the chair. We look forward to the implementation of the other four resolves and continuing to fight with our union siblings. An overview of our resolution. 1.Raise awareness: Making a statement endorsing a ceasefire and arms embargo.2. Divestment: Guide our pensions towards ethical and socially responsible investments. 3. Protection: protect all workers engaging in political speech. 4. Endorsements: Only candidates that adhere to our principles should receive our support. 5. Education: Encourage informed dialogue that respects diverse perspectives while advocating for peace and justice.
Sultana Hossain, co-chair of NYC Labor for Palestine and the recording secretary of the Amazon Labor Union-IBT Local 1, said in a speech at a Palestine solidarity rally on election night, “Labor has always played a critical role in struggles for justice, and today, we are called to stand with the Palestinian people. We are called to end the siege in Gaza, to end the occupation, and to free Palestine. As union workers, we have a distinct ability to act—not just in words but in material action. We have the power to refuse to allow our labor to be exploited in ways that fuel and finance the violence and genocide in Gaza. We have the ability to shut down production, to halt distribution, and to stop the flow of capital to the Zionist war machine.”
The Connecticut Committee for Labor for Palestine (CTL4P) is organizing an official chapter of the L4PNN. Part of that process has included mass leafleting and holding a forum on Oct. 24 titled, “Gaza, Genocide, the War Industries, Unions, and a Just Transition.” This forum was a joint effort between CTL4P and activist group CT Dissenters as an attempt to reach union members, specifically in the war industries who ultimately have the power to shut down war production.
Evan F., a Teamster and member of CTL4P, was one of the featured speakers on the panel, which also included Jocelyn P. from CT Dissenters, and Ahmad H. from the Palestinian organization We Will Return. Evan stated, “We wanted to let union workers know that this movement doesn’t want to just shutter factories that produce weapons and destroy the way they earn a living. No, this movement has a vision for a future with sustainable, green, and peaceful production that benefits humanity.”
He continued, “Workers in the war industries have a huge role to play in building an anti-genocide, anti-imperialist, and ecologically conscious mass movement.”
UAW Labor for Palestine (UAWL4P) is a nationwide group of rank-and-file UAW members working to end Israel’s genocide in Gaza. Their diverse and multiracial coalition includes workers from industries ranging from automobile manufacturing to higher education and legal aid. Currently, they are working on a campaign in their union demanding that the UAW International Executive Board divest the union from Israel bonds.
The UAWL4P fact sheet says, “Today, the UAW IEB maintains somewhere between $400,000 and $1,000,000 in investments in Israel Bonds, which directly fund the ongoing and spreading genocide in occupied Palestine, Lebanon, Yemen, and beyond. The company’s own website highlights ‘the crucial role of Israel Bonds during this time of conflict and war.’ Echoing demands by Arab, Black, and other UAW members in 1973, UAW members today are demanding to know why the IEB is investing their dues money to support an expanding U.S.-backed genocide. Below are some Frequently Asked Questions to help fellow rank-and-file workers understand the significance of this campaign and demand to divest from Israel Bonds.”
Shahinaz Geneid. a member of the HAW-UAW and UAW Labor for Palestine, says, “UAW Labor for Palestine is a nationwide group of rank-and-file UAW members and part of the Labor for Palestine national network embodying the labor movement’s values that an injury to one is an injury to all, standing in solidarity with the Palestinian General Federation of Trade Unions (PGFTU) and all Palestinian workers, and working actively to end Israel’s ongoing genocide in Palestine. Our work to date has helped to politically educate and organize our fellow workers across the UAW, in industries from auto manufacturing to higher education to legal services, and organize them to push our union to issue ceasefire and arms embargo resolutions.
“However, we know our work is not done—our current campaign, UAW Divest Now!, aims to pass a BDS resolution and divest the UAW from Israel bonds, and even once we have divested we know there will be more work for us to do as part of the people’s arms embargo working to stop UAW worksites from sending arms to Israel and to strategize for a just transition that redirects our comrades’ jobs away from the war machine, as we have seen UAW organize for in redirecting our jobs away from the fossil fuel industry with great success to date.”
Following the election results, the UAW has also launched a solidarity initiative for, “Building a United Working Class against Billionaire Rule.” While it’s unclear what exactly this campaign will entail, hopefully the union will work to mobilize the working class against any and all threats by the current and incoming administration. Regional meetings that brought together union workers, non-union workers, students, and community activists could be a powerful force against mass deportations, attacks on LGBTQIA+ people, abortion rights, labor rights, Black lives, and all oppressed communities.
Bay Area Labor for Palestine participated in many campaigns over the past year and has been recognized nationally in March in an article by Bahaar Tadjbakhsh of Labor Notes. Since then, one of the most important fights waged by BAL4P is its organizing against state repression through forums, teach-ins and protests. Jose Montenegro, a member of United Teachers of San Francisco, says, “Bay Area Labor for Palestine is supporting antiwar activists arrested for protesting the war in Gaza in addition to campaigning for educators, students, and Palestinian/Arab organizers repressed by workplace and university authorities.”
Union nurses, tech workers, and student workers are all facing repression on the job for expressing solidarity with Palestinians. The Biden administration has arrested thousands of peaceful protesters over the past year. This staggering figure doesn’t account for the thousands of disciplinary actions taken in workplaces across the U.S. for speaking out. In November, BAL4P participated in the Bay Area Popular Convention for Palestine—a mass meeting that looked to analyze the roots and effects of state repression against the pro-Palestine movement, in addition to a collective strategy to defend and build our struggle.
Workers’ Voice encourages all union members to get active in the Palestine solidarity movement. We need many Labor for Palestines to put pressure on the union leadership, the government, and to defend our movement from repression. Reach out to us if you want to get involved in the Labor for Palestine movement today.
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The Trump White House and how to fight it
BY MICHAEL SCHREIBER
This article contains revised and updated segments of the article we printed on Election Day, Nov. 5
It should be clear that President-elect Trump is a scoundrel—a racist, an abuser of women, a pal of white supremacists, and a wannabe authoritarian strongman. How did it happen that he came out on top in the 2024 election?
Some people, of course, were duped by Trump’s lies or accepted his racist and hyper-nationalistic arguments. Yet, according to polls, millions did not vote at all, which should put to rest the notion that there was a massive turn to the right by the U.S. working class.
Nevertheless, Trump, like a carnival barker, was able to lure many voters into his tent with the vision of a glittering future once he is re-installed in the White House. He won over a sizable contingent of workers primarily by his promises of more jobs and lower prices.
Trump’s main recipe to gain more jobs is to boost U.S. industry by imposing huge tariffs on foreign-made products. “We will not let countries come in, take our jobs, and plunder our nation,” Trump declared. “The way they will sell their product in America is to build it in America, very simple.” Trump said that he would impose a 60% tariff on products from China—the leading foreign supplier of the United States—and tariffs as high as 20% on goods from other countries. Left unsaid has been the degree to which Trump’s added tariffs would contribute to inflation and probably trigger retaliation by other countries.
At the same time, he affirms, the Trump White House would nurture U.S. industrial production by slashing taxes and regulations, and expanding fossil fuel production with an environment-be-damned “drill, baby, drill” policy. The promised windfall in profits for the industrial corporations would then supposedly trickle down to working people—although in the past, such policies only meant that the rich got richer.
To sweeten the mix, Trump has scattered a few extra crumbs for the masses by vowing to eliminate taxes on tips, overtime, and social security.
Trump has also singled out immigrants as a scapegoat for the country’s economic and social problems. Crime, unemployment, excessive drug use, and the alleged consumption of pet cats were all chalked up to an “invasion” of the United States by immigrants. As a remedy, he pledged to “seal the border” by restarting work on his “Wall,” while undertaking what his campaign said would be “the largest deportation operation in American history.”
Also on the cutting board will be legions of so-called “rogue bureaucrats” and “enemies” within federal departments, funding to schools that teach about trans rights and “critical race theory,” and numerous environmental protections. Meanwhile, the danger to reproductive rights will be greatly magnified.
Of course, Trump is liable to be confronted by many obstacles in achieving his stated goals. For one thing, he is sure to encounter strong headwinds in the tightening arena of inter-imperialist protectionist policies and trade wars, as well as military unrest on several continents.
Rana Faroohar, writing in The Financial Times on Nov. 3, pointed out, “Partisan politics will not end with this election; indeed, they may get worse. Productivity is slowing, the population is ageing, … and the country faces competitive threats from China and other emerging markets, which are increasingly banding together in their own post-Washington consensus alliances.”
Although it is too early to predict exactly what measures Trump and his allies will be able to push through, and what the consequences will be, there can be no doubt that the working class and oppressed people will be the losers—unless they fight back.
In the wake of the election, commentators in the liberal media have been screeching about how the Democrats need to “regroup” in order to win back the working class to their voting rolls. But history shows that when the chips are down, the Democrats as well as the Republicans always sacrifice the interests of working people in order to enable Big Business to keep humming smoothly and profitably. Despite their partisan spats, especially at election time, both parties ultimately serve the interests of the wealthy, not those of people who must work for a living.
In order to repel the attacks of the Trump administration—as well as to achieve demands for meaningful change—our best course is to stay in the streets. We need to build giant protest movements that can make it clear to the profit-hungry rulers of this country that if they don’t fulfill our demands, they will be swallowed up by rebellion.
Ultimately, the systematic oppression of U.S. working people will only change when the victims, in their millions, break with the two big capitalist parties and build their own independent party. We need a working-class party—led by a militant, democratic, and rejuvenated union movement—that fights every day for the oppressed and exploited and looks to the inauguration of a workers’ government.
