UC Graduate Students Win Union Recognition By DEREK SEIDMAN (UCLA YSA) The bureaucratic University of California (UC) administration clung to their rejection of recognizing SAGE/UAW's right to collective bargaining, but students and mass sentiment finally won out. On March 22, grad students at UCLA voted to unionize by a resounding 718 votes to 269. This … Continue reading Youth in Action
Month: May 1999
Youth in Action
S.F. State Teach-In Promotes Student/Faculty Unity By ADAMRITSCHER For several months now, the faculty at San Francisco State University has engaged in a contract struggle with the administration over such important issues as "merit" pay, the increasing use of part -time professors, working conditions, and the move to do away with tenure. While obviously all … Continue reading Youth in Action
A Federal Judge Raises the Stakes For Labor
By CHARLES WALKER You [Allied Pilots Association] pay for what you break, even if you can't afford it. -U.S. District Judge Joe Kendall A federal judge reached into his judicial arsenal, pulled out a financial equivalent of a howitzer and took cold-blooded aim at the Allied Pilots Association: A bulls-eye! The judge ruled that the … Continue reading A Federal Judge Raises the Stakes For Labor
Editorial: Cuba & Baseball: Venceremos!
Congratulations to the Baltimore Orioles and to the Cuban all-star team! In their recent two-game match, these athletes-and their fans-showed that, despite the U.S. blockade, the people of both nations have much to share. Of course, we are convinced that Cuba has the better team! They proved without a doubt that they are able to … Continue reading Editorial: Cuba & Baseball: Venceremos!
Editorial: Why Do Young People Kill?
One of the major columnists for The New York Times, Thomas Friedman, has argued that the massacre at Littleton High School in Colombine, Col., shocked the American public so deeply that it undermined support for the U.S. government's war against Yugoslavia. In the May 4 issue of the United States' most prestigious daily, Friedman wrote: "Whatever … Continue reading Editorial: Why Do Young People Kill?
Labor Notes Conference Hears From the Ranks
By SHIRLEY PASHOLK DETROIT-From April 23-25, in workshops, union sector meetings, and informal discussions, workers attending the 20th Anniversary Labor Notes Conference asked similar questions: How can we organize unorganized workers? How do we get our unions to address our problems? How do we fight the corporate attack on our living standards? Both the positive … Continue reading Labor Notes Conference Hears From the Ranks
Political Tensions Rise in Indonesia
By GERRY FOLEY As Indonesia approaches the June general elections that are designed to restabilize the country politically, it is evident that the situation remains explosive. In two areas where the post-New Order government has offered concessions, East Timor and Aceh on the island of Sumatra, there have been new massacres. Paramilitary forces began a … Continue reading Political Tensions Rise in Indonesia
The Seattle General Strike
By JOHN RUHLAND SEATTLE-Eighty years ago, working people closed this city down. The great Seattle General Strike of 1919 was not the first or the last general strike in the United States. But the Seattle strike demonstrated-to friend and enemy alike-the tremendous power that workers can generate when they act in solidarity with the struggles … Continue reading The Seattle General Strike
Socialist Action’s World Resolution: A Contribution to a Discussion – Ex-USSR & China
Ex-USSR & China The road to capitalist restoration in the degenerating workers' states of Europe and Asia is more difficult than anyone expected. The world's capitalists acknowledge that these states have a long way to go before their economies are truly market-driven; that is, capitalist. While they have all made varying degrees of "progress" toward … Continue reading Socialist Action’s World Resolution: A Contribution to a Discussion – Ex-USSR & China
Socialist Action’s World Resolution: A Contribution to a Discussion – Cuba
Cuba Discussion is beginning in the Fourth International (FI), the worldwide revolutionary socialist organization, in preparation for the next World Congress. Socialist Action, although prohibited by reactionary U.S. legislation from membership in the Fourth International, remains in fraternal solidarity with the organization. As an initial contribution to the FI discussion, we are printing major excerpts … Continue reading Socialist Action’s World Resolution: A Contribution to a Discussion – Cuba
Zapatista Leader Writes to Mumia
At the San Francisco April 24 rally, ski-masked clad representatives from the National Commission for Democracy in Mexico read solidarity greetings from Subcommander Marcos of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation. Excerpts appear below: I am writing to you in the name of the men, women, children and elderly of the Zapatista Army of National … Continue reading Zapatista Leader Writes to Mumia
Mumia Speaks to April 24 Marchers
By MUMIA ABU-JAMAL The following message from Mumia Abu-Jamal was read to the Philadelphia demonstration: I greet you all, and thank you all for coming here today. For perhaps the first time in her history, your presence here today proves that Philadelphia can become a City of Brotherly Love. We stand today in support of … Continue reading Mumia Speaks to April 24 Marchers
Commentary by Mumia Abu Jamal: NATO/U.S. Out of Yugoslavia!
By MUMIA ABU-JAMAL As a deadly rain of high-tech bombs falls on Yugoslavia, a deadening rain of propaganda falls on Americans, media-manipulated lies designed to prime the populace into supporting harsher military measures against a sovereign nation, in the name of protecting human rights. NATO is but a fig leaf for American "interests," and the … Continue reading Commentary by Mumia Abu Jamal: NATO/U.S. Out of Yugoslavia!
Thousands March to Protest N.Y. Police Killing
By CLIFF CONNER NEW YORK-On April 15, some 20,000 to 25,000 New Yorkers marched across the Brooklyn Bridge to rally at Federal Plaza in Manhattan to express their outrage over the police shooting of Amadou Diallo, a 22-year-old African immigrant. Diallo, who was unarmed and innocent of any crime, was killed on Feb. 4 by … Continue reading Thousands March to Protest N.Y. Police Killing
ILWU Leads April 24 March for Mumia Abu-Jamal in San Francisco
By JEFF MACKLER SAN FRANCISCO-A magnificent, youthful, multi-racial, shouting and chanting, two-hour column of 25,000 protesters marched here on April 24 in defense of the Pennsylvania death row political prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal. Close to 50,000 people attended the coordinated actions in San Francisco and Philadelphia, making April 24 the largest demonstration for a U.S. political … Continue reading ILWU Leads April 24 March for Mumia Abu-Jamal in San Francisco
April 24: Thousands March in Philadelphia for Mumia
By MARILYN VOGT-DOWNEY PHILADELPHIA-The largest event ever held for Mumia Abu-Jamal in his home city took place on April 24, his 45th birthday. Organizers estimated that from 20,000 to 25,000 participated in the event. The energetic crowd was approximately 40 percent people of color and in large proportion youth. Buses and vans brought people from … Continue reading April 24: Thousands March in Philadelphia for Mumia
PROFITS VS. THE PLANET: Does Humanity Have a Future? The Environmental Crisis of Capitalism
By ROLAND SHEPPARD Since the development of capitalism, the natural resources of the planet have been consumed on a larger and larger scale by the profit system. A result of this process has been a rapid change in the earth's ecological balance that could eventually lead to the extinction of humanity. Whole forests have been … Continue reading PROFITS VS. THE PLANET: Does Humanity Have a Future? The Environmental Crisis of Capitalism
How the U.S. Media and Popular Culture Promote Violence Among Children
By TOM SANDERS The recent killings of 14 students and one teacher at Columbine High School in Littleton, Col., is a deed that should not surprise anyone who has made a thorough study of capitalism from a Marxist viewpoint. The mass media and other elements of popular culture under capitalism have systematically conditioned young people … Continue reading How the U.S. Media and Popular Culture Promote Violence Among Children
Straight From the Horse’s Mouth: UN Reports on Growth of Global Poverty
By PAUL SIEGEL "Human Development Report 1998." Published for the United Nations Development Program by Oxford University Press, 1998. 228 pp. $34.95 (hard cover); $29.95 (paperback). The annual report of the United Nations Development Program, a UN agency, is a valuable chart of developments in human welfare throughout the world. It is interesting to compare … Continue reading Straight From the Horse’s Mouth: UN Reports on Growth of Global Poverty
Zapatista Referendum Boosted Popular Struggle in Mexico
By JAIME GONZALEZ MEXICO CITY-On April 7, hundreds of state police, headed by Chiapas state officials, stormed the offices of the San Andres Sacamch'en autonomous county government. This county seat became famous as the site of the negotiations between the federal government and the Zapatista National Liberation Army (EZLN). This operation provoked a determined mobilization … Continue reading Zapatista Referendum Boosted Popular Struggle in Mexico
S.F. Labor Council Calls for End to NATO Bombing
Below is the text of a resolution passed last month by the San Francisco Labor Council, representing 80,000 unionized workers. WHEREAS, NATO forces under the leadership of the United States have unleashed massive air strikes against Yugoslavia designed, in the words of the NATO officer in charge, U.S. General Wesley Clark, to "demolish, destroy, devastate, … Continue reading S.F. Labor Council Calls for End to NATO Bombing
Mobilize to Stop U.S. War on Yugoslavia
By NAT WEINSTEIN When news of the bombing by a U.S. warplane of a caravan of tractors, carts, and trucks loaded with Albanian refugees hit the mass media on April 15, American imperialism's "humanitarian" facade began to crumble. The first response of the NATO commander, U.S. General Wesley K. Clark, was to claim he had … Continue reading Mobilize to Stop U.S. War on Yugoslavia
Lawrence Case Spurs Anti-Racist Organizing
By SIMON DEVILLE LONDON-Anti-racism has reached a high point in Britain following the campaign for justice for Stephen Lawrence, a Black teenager murdered in Eltham in South East London in 1993. The police investigation of the Lawrence case was dogged by racism, incompetence, and corruption. Despite 26 separate witnesses approaching the police within the first … Continue reading Lawrence Case Spurs Anti-Racist Organizing
You Can’t Kill Us All!
By JANE KELLY LONDON-In April, three nail bombs exploded here. Two went off in areas of Black communities-Brixton in South London, where about 40 percent of the population is Afro-Caribbean and Brick Lane in East London, home to the Bangladeshi community. Then April 30, another bomb was detonated in a gay bar in Old Compton … Continue reading You Can’t Kill Us All!
FIGHTBACK: Mothers Day 1999
By SYLVIA WEINSTEIN The first Mothers Day proclamation was proclaimed by Julia Ward Howe in a poem titled "Mothers Day Proclamation, 1870." Julia Ward Howe wrote the lyrics for the Battle Hymn of the Republic. Her poem starts out with: "Arise, then, women of this day! Arise, all women who have hearts, whether your baptism … Continue reading FIGHTBACK: Mothers Day 1999