Workers Resistance

Author: Fight Back

  • March commemorates Trayvon Martin killing

    Newark, NJ – The People’s Organization for Progress held a march here, Feb. 26, to commemorate the second anniversary of the murder of Trayvon Martin. Martin was murdered in Sanford, Florida. The state of Florida refused to convict his killer, George Zimmerman.

    Dozens of people came out in the freezing cold for the protest. The acquittal of Michael Dunn for the murder of Jordan Davis, also in Florida, gave even greater impact to the march.

    POP Chairman Lawrence Hamm told the gathering, “Never forget – because forgetting is the first step toward having it happen again. Violence has been used against us since the first slave ships tore families apart. More states are actually passing ‘stand your ground’ laws, but they all have to be repealed.”

  • New York UPS workers strike to protest unjust firing

    New York, NY – Hundreds of UPS drivers and warehouse workers walked off the job, Feb. 26, at the Queens hub in New York City.

    The UPS workers from Teamsters Local 804, a local led by rank-and-file reformers, called an impromptu wildcat action to fight back against the unjust firing of a driver and vocal Teamster fighter. UPS management in New York resorts to firing workers on trumped up and nebulous charges in an attempt to weaken the union. The company abuses the grievance procedure to delay worker reinstatement and back wages in these cases of unjust firings, attempting to ‘starve’ workers who stand up for their rights on the job into submission.

    The strategy backfired. Workers fought back to defend the union fighter who UPS unjustly fired. Hundreds stormed out of the building shouting “Stop the war on workers!” and “Shut down big brown!” The workers held an impromptu picket, gave speeches and chanted for the vast majority of the day.

    A striker, who asked to remain anonymous to avoid retaliation, said, “We’re sick of the company’s harassment. They fire people with families and kids for no reason. It’s just wrong.” The strike demonstrated the union spirit of “an injury to one, is an injury to all!”

    The strike inspired Teamsters from hubs in the other boroughs. Workers from the 43rd Street hub in Manhattan, as well as the Bronx hub, said many plan to organize support for the brave strikers who stood up to management and want to send a strong message that any further firings or retaliations will be met by overwhelming solidarity and unity.

  • Documents for raids on anti-war activists unsealed

    Fight Back News Service is circulating the following statement from the Committee to Stop FBI Repression.

    On Feb. 26, the application and affidavit used to obtain the search warrants for the 2010 raids on homes and offices of anti-war and international solidarity activists were unsealed, revealing lies and attacks on the constitutionally-protected rights to speak out and organize. The unsealing of these documents came as a result of legal action taken by the anti-war activists.

    The timeline in the documents show what we have always stated. Shortly before the huge protest at the Republican National Convention, an undercover police agent and professional liar, going by the name of Karen Sullivan (identified in the affidavit as UC1) joined the Anti-War Committee and became active in the efforts to build the demonstration. She later joined Freedom Road Socialist Organization.

    The documents demonstrate a callous disregard for free speech and the right to associate. They in effect criminalize those of us who oppose U.S. wars, and stand in solidarity with the oppressed. From Palestine to Colombia, people want to be free from the domination of Washington D.C. We have said this publicly on thousands of occasions and will continue to do so.

    Not unlike countless “anti-terrorism” cases against Arabs and Muslims, the affidavit contains a collection of lies and out-of-context statements to try to isolate people from their communities and movements. In a McCarthyite return to the 1950s, the affidavit shows an obsession with Freedom Road Socialist Organization. After decades working in the anti-war movement, anyone who has worked with us knows we are proud to be fighters in the struggles against war, and for justice and economic equality. The documents imply that is something sinister, when really, it is commendable.

    Having just received these documents, we are in the process of consulting with attorneys and we will have more to say in coming days.

    We are glad we forced the government to unseal these documents and we demand that the U.S. Attorney makes a public statement that the investigation is closed and that there will be no indictments of anti-war and international solidarity activists. Moreover, we demand an end to repression and spying against the people’s movements.

  • Utah Titans demand gay-straight student group

    Holladay, UT – Students at Olympus High School, in suburban Salt Lake City, are demanding the school administration officially establish a Gay-Straight Alliance to provide a safe space for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) students. To advance the struggle for gender and sexual equality, they formed the Students Cooperation Network, or SCN.

    LGBTQ rights are a hot button issue in Utah, with a court recently ruling against the ban on same-sex marriage. Many same-sex couples rushed to get married during the court ordered lifting of the ban. Then the state of Utah filed an injunction to prevent and annul the marriages, attempting to maintain the system of discrimination against LGBTQ couples.

    However, the struggle for equality is spreading to all parts of Utah society, including local high schools.

    Around 30 students met for a SCN meeting on Feb. 20. The meeting included both members of the Students Cooperation Network and those interested in forming a Gay-Straight Alliance. Principal Mark Manning is stalling the charter for the Gay-Straight Alliance on campus. Manning is using rules and technicalities, while refusing to work with students demanding equal rights. The students know their rights however.

    Students are organizing to win equality. This week they handed out 300 small purple pins to symbolize the campaign for equality on campus.

    The SCN set three concrete goals for the school year. First, they want to establish a Gay-Straight Alliance to provide a safe and supportive environment for all LGBTQ students and allies. Second, they plan on expanding the SCN so that as students graduate new students can carry forward the struggle. Finally, they hope to establish the SCN as a strong organization capable of fighting for students at Olympus High School against all forms of oppression, discrimination and bigotry.

     

  • House of Cards exposes dictatorship of the 1%

    SPOILER ALERT: Light spoilers for House of Cards, Season 1 and 2

    For all of the scandal and sensationalism, House of Cards makes one point incredibly clear: Working people have no voice in the United States government.

    The wildly successful Netflix original series, which began in 2013, struck a nerve with a broad audience of people disillusioned with the broken promises of the Obama administration and the suffocating dominance of giant banks and corporations in their lives. Netflix released the second season in its entirety for online streaming on February 14, and a staggering 16% of Netflix’s 29.4 million subscribers streamed at least an hour of the show in the first day.

    House of Cards follows the cutthroat rise-to-the-top of South Carolina congressman Frank Underwood [Kevin Spacey], who is appointed Vice President of the U.S. at the end of season one. After getting within a heartbeat of the presidency without a single vote cast in his name, Underwood and his wife, Claire [Robin Wright] take no prisoners as they try to bring down the newly elected President Garrett Walker from within. In season two, they plot to assume the country’s highest office without the hassle of an election. As Underwood quips to the audience in one of the periodic breaks in the show’s action, “Democracy is so overrated.”

    Political drama exposes government of the rich, by the banks and for the corporations

    There is an easy answer for why House of Cards is so popular with viewers. Each episode is ripped straight from the headlines, offering viewers a fictional but very realistic understanding of the way the U.S. government works. Underwood and President Walker are not Tea Party Republicans. They’re Democrats, based loosely on Barack Obama and Bill Clinton, but it does not stop them from collaborating intimately with billionaires and major corporate lobbyists to pass legislation that harms working people. It does not stop them from using a massive NSA-style surveillance program to jail and literally kill journalists and dissenters. True to life, these fictional Democrat politicians took massive campaign donations from labor unions during the election, but it doesn’t stop them from breaking a national teachers strike over a privatized education bill early in season one.

    In other words, this is a show about the age of Obama, firmly in-touch with the betrayals of the Democratic Party and the patently undemocratic nature of the U.S. government. You get the impression that all of the characters in the show are real and only the names are different. At times it is as absurd and self-indulgent as a tabloid cover, but after eight years of Bush and five years of Obama, does anyone really think the U.S. government is above that?

    House of Cards makes clear that Congress is not there to represent the people and pass legislation. The examples it uses hit close to home. A bill regulating environmental pollution gets canned by the political maneuverings of Remy Danton, a brutally efficient lobbyist for a massive natural gas corporation called SandCorp. No doubt activists in the anti-fracking and climate change movements can relate. A government shutdown allows the President, the Democrats and the Republicans to gut Social Security by elevating the retirement age, not unlike the chained-CPI cuts to Social Security proposed by President Obama last year. Funding for critical infrastructure projects like bridges – in other words, jobs for unemployed workers – gets regularly denied based on the whims and profit margins of billionaires.

    Since Underwood is the Majority Whip in the House of Representatives for season one and the President of the Senate in season two, we get to see politicians from both parties working hand-in-glove with the corporate interests that put them in power. Rather than representing their constituents, politicians represent the capitalists who live in their state or district. When corporate interests do conflict, we get the resulting disagreements between the Democrats and Republicans. They never actually disagree on the fundamentals. Debates are limited to which section of the capitalist class is helped or hurt by legislation, and the wealthiest monopolies usually win out. Workers and union members who show up at the Capitol to lobby their representatives are dodged and lied to, like we see in season one with Pennsylvania congressman Peter Russo. House of Cards forces the audience to question the effectiveness of lobbying as a strategy for social change.

    People thinking that the U.S. government is even slightly democratic would do well to reflect on the show too. Occasionally President Walker and his staff talk about public opinion, but it’s always in the context of how the administration can cover up some scandal or peddle some rotten policy proposal, like privatizing education or cutting Social Security. The actual felt needs of working people never factor into the President’s political calculus for even a minute. All of this from a president that has multibillionaire and monopoly giant Raymond Tusk on speed dial throughout the show.

    Season Two highlights state repression of journalists and dissent

    One of the most sinister subplots in House of Cards involves government repression of journalists and dissenters. From the NSA to the Oval Office, government agents monitor the phone calls and e-mails of anyone who disagrees with their policies. In season two, Underwood’s chief of staff orchestrates the jailing of a journalist on the cusp of exposing Underwood’s role in two murders. When a Secret Service agent involved in the plot protests, saying that the journalist committed no crime, Underwood’s aide Doug Stamper responds, “But he wants to, and you will help him [commit a crime].” Using a hacker-turned-informant, they give the journalist the tools to hack a phone database and bust him immediately, charging him with cyber-terrorism and forcing him to take a plea deal involving prison time.

    It is the stuff conspiracy theories are made of, until you realize that this government repression happens all the time in the U.S. Collaborating with President Obama and the Justice Department, Chicago mayor Rahm Emmanuel set up and charged three organizers of the massive protest against NATO in 2011 with terrorism. A little over two weeks ago, a jury found the NATO 3 not guilty of terrorism because the undercover police agents had instigated the whole plot themselves. The NATO 3 still face serious prison time on lesser charges, because of the political nature of their prosecution.

    Similarly, 23 anti-war activists and organizers of the 2008 protest at the Republican National Convention were raided by the FBI in 2010 after the state placed an informant in their midst. At the time of writing, the Justice Department has still not dropped the investigation of the Anti-War 23.

    US threats towards China: A real-life House of Cards

    Some of the most interesting moments in season two are the interplay between Beijing and Washington, whether its extradition deals involving a corrupt Chinese businessman or negotiated withdrawal of warships from the Sea of Japan. Through a trade war that erupts over Chinese investment in a domestic infrastructure project, House of Cards makes clear that the long-term policy orientation of the U.S. government is towards a war with China. In this way, the show disturbingly parallels President Obama’s military ‘pivot towards Asia’ and renewed anti-China rhetoric from right-wing Japanese President Shinzō Abe.

    However, unlike much of the China-bashing in recent films and TV shows, House of Cards offers genuine points of contrast between the People’s Republic of China and the capitalist regime in the United States. For corruption and money laundering, Underwood and multibillionaire Raymond Tusk face 50-50 odds for conviction, prison sentences in a comfortable federal penitentiary and a possible presidential pardon up their sleeves. For the same scheme, Chinese businessman Xander Feng has the death penalty waiting for him back in Beijing, according to one of the show’s characters. Both countries have billionaires, but while the U.S. government protects them from prosecution, the Chinese government regularly imprisons and seizes the wealth of multimillionaires and billionaires. In the last eight years, the Chinese government executed 14 billionaires for corruption, money-laundering and theft. House of Cards gains a lot of credibility by showing the favored class treatment that billionaires get from the U.S. government and contrasting it with China.

    For all of the realism of House of Cards, there is one disappointing omission: the continued occupation of Afghanistan and the U.S.’s imperialist war projects in other countries. The show makes a few references to drone strikes, but it loses some credibility by not exploring the U.S. government’s pro-war agenda or its attempts to destabilize foreign governments. As the U.S.’s role in financially backing the far right-wing protests in Venezuela and Ukraine, along with the two and a half year rebellion in Syria, comes to light, House of Cards will need to introduce these elements in the announced third season to maintain the show’s believability.

    Nevertheless, progressive organizers and activists would do well to see what has millions of people across the world tuning into House of Cards. The show is fast-paced, well written and features a masterful cast of interesting (and despicable) characters. But the real draw to House of Cards is how thoroughly it examines the U.S. political system and exposes its pro-corporate, anti-worker nature.

    Seasons 1 and 2 of House of Cards are available for instant streaming on Netflix.

     

  • Fight Back! editor speaks on U.S. ‘pivot to Asia’

    Minneapolis, MN – Mick Kelly, anti-war activist and editor of Fight Back! spoke here, Feb. 23, at a forum entitled “Next Target: China?” The event was organized by Mayday Books, a progressive book store.

    Kelly told attendees that the rulers of the U.S. are on collision course with China, stating, “The U.S policy of pivoting towards Asia is all about preparing for a war on China. It might come sooner, due to a miscalculation on Washington’s part or it might come later.”

    “The U.S. cannot remain a world empire without maintaining its relative hegemony over the Asia-Pacific region. People’s China is in a period of ascendency. China’s economy is different than the capitalist economies of the West. It has expanded each year since 1949 and its growth rates in a relative sense are spectacular. China is playing an expanding role in Asia, Africa and Latin America,” stated Kelly.

    Kelly talked about the long history of U.S. aggression and interference in China’s internal affairs. He also condemned U.S. support for Japan’s occupation of the Chinese Diaoyu Islands and provocative U.S. military flights near China’s coast.

     

  • FRSO Student Commission: Build struggle in 2014

    Members of the Student Commission of Freedom Road Socialist Organization (FRSO) met to sum up the past year of struggle and discuss strategies for building the student movement in the U.S.

    More students, from more areas of the country, were present at this year’s FRSO Student Commission meeting than in years past. It indicates that students are on the move and new communists are arising from the movement and joining the FRSO. From the Southwest, Midwest, South and East Coast, student comrades discussed and debated the issues facing the movements.

    The Student Commission leadership opened with a summation of the work over the past year, highlighting the key campaigns that we participated in on a national level. Justice for Trayvon Martin rallies in Florida and across the country, campus protests to stop Obama’s war on Syria and demanding immigrant rights and tuition equity were the major ones. Student leaders also reflected on SDS’ March 2013 National Day of Action for Education Rights.

    Michael Sampson from Florida State University Dream Defenders, organized a campus rally on the anniversary of Trayvon’s murder in February 2013. Sampson then helped to lead a midnight march of 300, mostly African American students in Tallahassee, after the Florida courts failed to convict George Zimmerman for murder. Sampson said, “Dream Defenders as an organization was born out of the murder of Trayvon Martin. We led one of the largest marches for Trayvon Martin and staged a month-long occupation of the Florida State Capitol to demand justice for Trayvon Martin. The movement for justice for those that suffer from national oppression and racism will continue to move forward.”

    At the start of the school year, SDS participated in the international movement against U.S. drone warfare. Then in September, Obama threatened a new Middle East war against Syria. The Student Commission leadership responded by calling to raise the slogan, “U.S. Hands off Syria!” Student comrades participated in and led anti-intervention rallies in more than a dozen cities and on many campuses.

    Campus leaders discussed their local campaigns and found greatly positive outcomes. A SDS leader described the ongoing fight against white supremacists and Nazis meeting in Dickson, Tennessee. He stressed the importance of the fight against national oppression in all its forms, especially in the South.

    Comrades at the meeting talked about the January protest in Miami, Florida to close the Guantanamo U.S. torture prison. People’s Opposition to War, Imperialism, and Racism (POWIR) brought together over 100 activists, including dozens from SDS. National groups like Vets for Peace, Code Pink and the Committee to Stop FBI Repression spoke to stop U.S. torture of prisoners.

    Other campuses summed up their campaigns to end rape culture. This issue brought new faces to SDS meetings, and built women’s leadership to demand college administrators take action instead of hiding the facts.

    Still other campuses discussed their ongoing solidarity work with the labor, immigrant rights and anti-war and oppressed nationality movements. Comrades summed up their relationships with other organizations and sections of the people’s movements as positive and ongoing.

    Comrades discussed how to contribute to both the local and national campaigns of Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), Dream Defenders in Florida and the student and youth immigrant rights movement. This representation from diverse sections of the student movement contributed greatly to the analysis, debates and decisions that arose over the course of the meeting.

    Members of the commission pledged to join and build the Students for a Democratic Society call for tuition equity for undocumented students. “We’re excited to work within and outside of SDS to help build the struggle for tuition equity for undocumented students,” said Chrisley Carpio. “We’re sure that this struggle will grow across the country not only for SDS but other groups struggling for education for all.”

    The Student Commission debated how students could help lead the struggle for tuition equity along with the other groups working on it. The Student Commission agreed that the struggle for tuition equity can and should occur among many different groups, both multi-national and oppressed nationality student groups working together, with principled unity towards justice and equality.

    The Student Commission discussed mass work with a high level political discussion about the nature of organization and fighting back against injustice. They united around the need for Marxism-Leninism as a weapon against oppression. Leaders prepared a discussion on a study that helped to consolidate the cadres to the fundamentals of the Marxist-Leninist ideology.

    On the topic, Gregory Lucero from Utah said, “We’ve all made great efforts to study Marxism-Leninism as students. We can learn historical lessons from the struggle and bring them to our fight for justice today.”

    In the end, Student Commission cadre pledged a lifelong commitment to the people’s movements and the foundations of Marxism-Leninism. Student Commission Chair Stephanie Taylor said, “We had an in-depth discussion on the process of transformation, in which students fuse with the working class. By joining the working class after college, students demonstrate their revolutionary commitment to fighting for the working class for the rest of their lives. This is an important part of Marxism-Leninism and an important principle of forwarding our revolutionary goals.”

    The student leaders summed up the past year of struggle positively, have unity moving forward, and plan to make 2014 one of the strongest years of student struggle in recent history, because we have a world to win.

     

  • Florida State students demand tuition equity for undocumented

    Tallahassee, FL – On Feb. 20, Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) at Florida State University (FSU) held a press conference demanding “Tuition equity for undocumented students” on the school’s campus. Joining SDS was the leadership the Hispanic and Latino Student Union, Advocates for Immigrant and Refugee Rights, the Center for Participant Education, and the Dream Defenders. Florida State Senator Dwight Bullard spoke about SB 300, a bill he drafted to grant in-state tuition to undocumented students in the state of Florida.

    The large group decided to hold their press conference in front of what is known on campus as the Integration Statue. It is a monument dedicated to a culture of inclusion and the promise of diversity at Florida State University, a promise administrators and lawmakers need to be reminded about.

    Brianna Calderon-Roman of SDS explained, “We want a Florida which embraces different heritages and cultures and ideas, not one which creates roadblocks and rejects these things; things that we consider cornerstones of our state.”

    Currently in the state of Florida, if a student or a student’s parents are undocumented, regardless of how many years they attended school in Florida, they are forced to pay the higher rates of out-of-state tuition. They currently pay between three and four times as much per semester as other state residents. This forces many bright students to go out of state or drop out until they can afford it.

    Since SDS adopted their national Education-for-All campaign, the state of Florida is alive with organizing focused on securing equitable tuition for undocumented students. SDS chapters at both the University of Florida in Gainesville and the University of South Florida in Tampa are pressing forward with campaigns begun last August. Students at those colleges held meetings with their Board of Trustees demanding that their schools grant undocumented students in-state tuition.

    Now, FSU has picked up the gauntlet in the fight for tuition equity. Student leaders stated their demands while standing shoulder to shoulder and announced their Education-for-All Week and other plans of action.

    “We have come here to announce that the united front you see before you will be hosting a week dedicated to Education-for-All. During the upcoming week of Feb. 24 through the 28, we will teach, and learn, and vote, and rally, and take direct action to achieve our collective goals and insure that the voice of the students in the state of Florida is a resounding one,” Brianna Calderon-Roman finished to a round of applause.

  • Medea Benjamin speaks with anti-war leaders in Miami

    Miami, FL- Medea Benjamin, an anti-war activist and lead organizer with CODEPINK: Women For Peace, joined South Florida activists at a meeting, Feb. 18, to discuss the condition of the anti-war movement in the U.S. and internationally. The discussion at Florida International University was hosted by People’s Opposition to War, Imperialism, and Racism (POWIR) and included members from War vs. Human Needs, Students for Justice in Palestine and the Florida Immigrant Coalition.

    Medea Benjamin spoke about her travels to American-created war zones and areas being targeted by U.S. drones. She described tragic encounters with families of those murdered by American drones in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Somalia – including the mother of three sons who were all targeted and killed by drone strikes.

    “It is horrible that there are so many innocent casualties,” she said. “But even those actually targeted by drones and labeled as ‘militants’ are usually young people who join organizations like Al Qaeda because they don’t have much and have run out of options. Hearing their families speak about them was like hearing about young people who decide to join gangs in the U.S.”

    Such personal stories about this new form of war are described in her book, Drone Warfare: Killing By Remote Control, which she distributed to people at the meeting.

    “The only ones benefiting from drones are the companies make them,” Benjamin said.

    Aside from drone warfare, those in attendance also discussed the current state of the anti-war movement – its ups and downs since Obama took the U.S. presidency. They also discussed the importance of continuing to organize against U.S. wars and imperialism, mentioning the big 2012 anti-NATO protest in Chicago. Activists shared stories and asked questions regarding successes and failures of their various actions over the last year.

    When Medea Benjamin asked about local actions, members of POWIR shared their experiences organizing against U.S. drone attacks, the U.S. torture prison at Guantanamo Bay, Obama’s failed attempt to start a new U.S. war in Syria, and spying by the NSA. They expressed the importance of rallying in solidarity with whistleblowers as well.

    “It is inspiring to know that a new, young group like POWIR exists,” Benjamin said. “We are so impressed by your group and all the work you all have done.”

     

  • Grand Rapids protests war criminal Erik Prince, founder of Blackwater

    Grand Rapids, MI – More than a dozen protesters circled outside of the well-funded Acton Institute in downtown Grand Rapids on Feb. 18 chanting, “No to Prince, yes to peace, U.S. out of the Middle East!” As the founder of Blackwater, Erik Prince is on tour to justify U.S. wars and occupations and promote private mercenary armies. Republican Congressman Pete Hoekstra, responsible for lies about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, supported Erik Prince at the program.

    Outside, protesters held signs and shouted, “Prince is a war criminal! He belongs in prison!” at the wealthy few as they dropped their keys with the valet parking. Acton Institute management ran in and out of the front doors, miffed about the protest. They called the police to try and shut it down, but anti-war activists continued their picket.

    Erik Prince is a U.S. war criminal, arms smuggler and war profiteer, who made millions off the U.S. wars and occupations in Iraq and Afghanistan. Prince came to Grand Rapids to speak and sign his book: Civilian Warriors: The Inside Story of Blackwater and the Unsung Heroes of the War on Terror.

    Mercenary army for profit

    The founder of the private army Blackwater, Prince is responsible for war crimes in Iraq and Afghanistan. Blackwater was hired by the State Department under Bush during the U.S. invasion and occupation of Iraq. With cover from the Bush Whitehouse, Blackwater operated outside the law and killed countless Iraqis and Afghans. Amongst the many notorious Blackwater war crimes was the killing of 17 Iraqi civilians and wounding 20 more at Nisour Square in Baghdad in 2007. Prosecutions are still pending, seven years later.

    Four Blackwater soldiers of fortune were killed and hung from a bridge in Fallujah in 2004 – which many consider the turning point, the beginning of the end, leading to the withdrawal of the U.S. from Iraq.

    Blackwater and its remnants were fined $50 million by the U.S. government for smuggling arms in 2012. This is a slap on the wrist for a company that held nearly $1 billion in U.S. government contracts.

    Heavily-armed Blackwater mercenaries invaded New Orleans during hurricane Katrina, not to help poor people who lost everything and needed food and water, but to ‘stop looting.’

    Unholy alliance

    From Holland, Michigan, Erik Prince is the brother of Grand Rapids billionaire Betsy DeVos. The Acton Institute, run by a local Catholic priest Robert Sirico, sponsored Prince’s war talk. Acton claims to be “Integrating Judeo-Christian truths with free market principles.”

    Mike Franz, the local coordinator for MoveOn.org, asked, “What is this unholy alliance? What do the Acton Institute and Erik ‘Prince of Blackwater’ have in common?”

    After the police arrived and shut down the use of the protesters’ bullhorn, Alex Gebhardt with the Left Forum of Grand Rapids explained, “We are outside Acton Institute to let the Prince and DeVos families know we are sick of war and their families profiting from misery and death. We don’t want any more ‘unsung heroes,’ as Prince calls foreign mercenaries who kill civilians in Iraq and Afghanistan. While billions continue to be spent on U.S. wars in Afghanistan and the Middle East, here at home there are deep cuts to unemployment, pensions, food stamps and education. Unions are being outlawed and wages driven down here in Michigan. We say ‘No to misery and death! No to war and poverty!’”