[We print below material on the recent Canadian elections from our sister party, Socialist Action/Canada. Editor] by Barry Weisleder To quote Yogi Berra, “It’s deja-vu all over again.” The 2021 federal election, which Justin Trudeau called just to gain a majority of seats, looks much like the 2019 election result. The same parties are in place, … Continue reading Canada: Election 2021: Results and Prospects
[The following is the July 27, 2021 presentation by Michael Steven Smith at a book party in New York City’s Lower East Side sponsored by the New York City chapter of the National Lawyers Guild to celebrate the publication of Michael Ratner‘s memoir, “Moving the Bar: My Life as a Radical Lawyer. Smith is a lifelong socialist … Continue reading My Friend Michael Ratner
By Ann Montague The “Protecting The Right To Organize Act” (PRO ACT 2021) was recently called a “Game-Changer for Labor” by Sonali Kolhatkar in an article in Counterpunch. The most important fact apparently forgotten was that a muscular and empowered working class does not come from legislation. A basic look at union history in the … Continue reading The PRO Act Is Not a Panacea for the Union Movement
By James Fortin With the defeat of the unionizing effort at Amazon in Bessemer, Alabama, it is encouraging to witness the ongoing and undaunted efforts of nurses in Maine to join a union. Voting is now underway for the 1900 nurses who work at Maine Medical Center (Maine Med), in Portland, Maine, to decide whether … Continue reading In Bessemer Shadow, Maine Nurses Organize
By Ann Montague Grace Carlson was the only female member of the Socialist Workers Party (SWP) (predecessor organization of Socialist Action) to be convicted and sentenced under the notorious anti-communist Smith Act of 1940. She was sentenced to sixteen months in the Federal Correctional Facility For Women in Alderson, West Virginia. The trial and convictions … Continue reading Grace Carlson: Unsung Hero of the Early Trotskyist Movement
By Jeff Mackler The corporate media hoopla attendant to President Joseph Biden’s announced $2.5 trillion infrastructure proposal aims at putting Biden in the Franklin Delano Roosevelt New Deal-era crowd of “progressive” capitalist social reformers. The “centrist” Biden has been instantly converted to a “man of the people” whose legislative proposals are claimed to far exceed … Continue reading Fearing Radicalization, Biden Feigns Left
By Jeff Mackler and Mark Ostapiak When the union's inspiration through the workers' blood shall runThere can be no power greater anywhere beneath the sunYet what force on earth is weaker than the feeble strength of oneBut the union makes us strong (From the trade union anthem “Solidarity Forever”) Would it be that the inspiration … Continue reading Behind Union Defeat at Amazon Bessemer
BY BARRY WEISLEDER Call it the growing gap. Actually, chasm might be a more apt term to describe the breach between workers’ aspirations and what most union leaders are willing to do to fight the concession demands of the boss class. Helping to close that chasm is the Canadian Union of Brewery and General Workers’ Local 325. The workers at … Continue reading Brewery Workers Resist Concessions
By Karen Schieve Amazon’s CEO Jeff Bezos is a very rich man, among the richest in the world. He owns numerous palaces and the Blue Origins rocket launching pad in Texas for private space travel and exploration. Mr. Bezos has become even richer from the profits of Whole Foods, an up-scale grocery chain, and from The Washington Post newspaper. … Continue reading Amazon Workers in Historic Battle for Union in Deep South
By MARTY GOODMAN De Blasio wants to balance the budget on the backs of workers. The money should be raised instead by taxing the rich!
By MARC ROME A new mass movement is questioning the very foundations of the US police system, including its role in perpetuating the inequality and divisions among workers based on race.
By ANN MONTAGUE In an opinion issued in the context of a mass movement demanding justice, equality and an end to discrimination, the Supreme Court immediately expanded job protections to LGBTQ workers in 23 states where none had existed.
By DON HARMON Workers at meatpacking plants are suffering extremely high levels of coronavirus infection, due to lack of protection, while the plants become hotspots for widespread outbreaks in their towns and cities.
By MARTY GOODMAN Over 130 New York City transit workers have died of COVID-19 with MTA doing little to protect the largely Black, Latino, and immigrant workforce. As one train conductor says, "We are not essential. We are sacrificial."
By BARRY SHEPPARD May Day saw significant actions by workers in essential companies serving the general public during the shutdown.
By MARTY GOODMAN On December 5th, French workers walked off the job in massive numbers to protest a proposed attack on pension rights by French President Emmanuel Macron. The proposal would change the age required for public workers to receive full retirement benefits from 62 to 64. French Prime Minister Edouard Philippe bluntly told the … Continue reading Workers Shut Down France to Defend Pensions!
By DAVID JONES Some 47,897 United Automobile Workers (UAW) ended their six-week strike against U.S. auto manufacturing giant General Motors on October 31. Fifty UAW-organized plants were closed across the country with the union demanding increased job security, a gateway for temporary workers to become permanent, better pay and to retain healthcare benefits. The contract … Continue reading Courageous UAW strike ends with few gains
By JEFF MACKLER Twenty-five thousand Chicago teachers, affiliated with the American Federation of Teachers Local 1, AFL-CIO, returned to work on October 31 following a divided vote of the Chicago Teachers Union’s (CTU) 700-member Delegate Assembly (DA) to end the union’s 11-day strike. The vote to accept the five-year tentative contract was 60 percent in … Continue reading Chicago teachers divided over strike settlement
By JIM FARRELL At midnight on Sept. 15, the United Autoworkers Union (UAW) contract with General Motors (GM) expired and almost 50,000 workers downed tools and walked off the job. During the recession, the UAW and its members had agreed to deep concessions to keep GM afloat. Now, GM is prospering and CEO Mary Barra … Continue reading Solidarity with the GM strike!
By ERNIE GOTTA Dozens of SEIU members and supporters rallied in support of fast-food workers at a service plaza in Darien, Conn., on Aug. 28. These workers are fighting to reclaim potentially millions of dollars in stolen wages through unpaid benefits or the additional payment required by the Connecticut Standard Wage Law. 32BJ SEIU, the … Continue reading Connecticut service plaza workers fight wage theft
By DAVID KIELY The postal workers of SUD-Poste 92, in Haut-de-Seine, in the western suburbs of Paris, have won their 14-month strike, marking an end to one of the longest strikes in French history. During these long months the workers faced intense repression by the police, who worked hand in hand with the managers of … Continue reading French postal workers win 14-month strike
By ERNIE GOTTA and ERWIN FREED — STAMFORD, Conn. — Like any capitalist enterprise, hotel companies hate losing profit margins to benefit the workers who make them rich. Industry professionals debate about the type of model they need to make the most profit. Currently, hotels in the Stamford area are running on very lean models. … Continue reading Shifting the balance of power in hotels
By ERWIN FREED and ERNIE GOTTA The UFCW’s historic 11-day strike that involved over 31,000 Stop and Shop workers and covered all stores in Connecticut, Rhode Island, and Massachusetts came to an end on April 21. As covered at socialistaction.org (April 11), the demand of the union was to maintain all wage, benefit, and work … Continue reading After 11-day strike in New England — Stop & Shop workers win gains
By IVAN DOLPHY All across New England, workers in over 240 Stop & Shop stores have declared that they will not tolerate the attacks to their wages, benefits, and jobs being made during contract negotiations by their employer. Some 31,000 employees have moved to strike and join the picket lines at their shops. On April 11, … Continue reading Stop & Shop strike: One huge fist
By A WORKING CARPENTER I’ve been a carpenter my whole adult life. I worked nonunion before I joined the Carpenters’ Union—easily the smartest thing I’ve ever done. For a working-class person, a union is still the best anti-poverty program. Recently, the heads of the Building Trades unions, alongside the leaders of the United Steelworkers and … Continue reading Brothers & sisters in the building trades: Time is running out for the planet
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