Workers Resistance

Author: Fight Back

  • People from across Midwest march on Boeing, say ‘No to drones’

    Chicago, IL – 200 people marched against Boeing Company on Sept 28. Many participants and organizers from that march met for a conference the following day to share skills, experiences and knowledge that will help strengthen the movement against drone warfare.

    50 of the protesters came from other states around the Midwest, from groups like the Wisconsin Coalition to Ground the Drones & End the Wars, the Minnesota-based groups Anti-War Committee, Women Against Military Madness and the Brainerd Area Coalition for Peace as well as others from Michigan, Indiana and Missouri. The Anti-War Committee-Chicago (AWC) had called for the march and the groups were joined by the ANSWER Coalition, the Syrian American Forum, U.S. Palestinian Community Network and other Chicago organizations.

    The Boeing headquarters was the destination for the marchers. Boeing has been targeted by the AWC because they are vying for a Pentagon contract to build a new combat drone. Boeing is the second largest arms manufacturer in the U.S.

    Combat drones have become controversial in the past two years in part because the Obama administration has sent drones to assassinate American citizens in Yemen. According to Medea Benjamin, founder of the anti-war group Code Pink, the majority of drone victims in Pakistan are not ‘high level Al Qaeda’ leaders but civilians, including many children. Benjamin, who has organized delegations to Pakistan and Yemen, was the keynote speaker at the conference and protest.

    Thousands of people watched and dozens took videos as the march, complete with a band, puppets and several banners, went through a park and a shopping district on its way to Boeing headquarters. Upon reaching its destination, the group placed child-sized coffins on Boeing’s property. Kait McIntyre, an organizer with Anti-War Committee-Chicago, explained, “The child-sized coffins we placed at Boeing’s doorstep represent over 178 children that have been killed as a result of U.S. drone strikes in Pakistan and Yemen and the countless more whose blood will be on Boeing’s hands if it wins this military drone contract.”

  • House Republicans dig in, aiming for a federal government shutdown

    San José, CA — On Sept. 29, the House Republicans passed a temporary spending bill for ten weeks, starting Oct. 1 if the Affordable Care Act (often called Obamacare) is delayed for a year. With the Democrat-controlled Senate already having turned down similar measures and a veto promise from President Obama, the federal government is headed for its first shut down since 1996.

    This so-called shutdown would not actually shut down the federal government. Social Security checks would continue to go out, mail will be delivered, and other “essential” services would continue. Ironically, this includes most of the funding for the Affordable Care Act, which like Medicare and Medicaid, is considered an essential service.

    But without any spending authorization for Fiscal Year 2014, which starts Oct. 1, “non-essential” federal services will shut down. This would include the closing of about 400 National Parks, monuments and museums. Social Security applications, the passport office, Small Business Administration loans, mortgage guarantees from the Federal Housing Authority (FHA), could all be stopped in their tracks. Up to 800,000 federal workers, or 40% of the federal government workforce, could be furloughed without pay.

    There could be a larger economic impact of a loss of up to 1.4% of Gross Domestic Product, which measures the output of goods and services in the U.S. With the U.S. economy only growing at a 1.8% rate in the first half of this past year, this could put the economy close to tipping into another recession.

    Even worse, the House Republicans are vowing to repeat this later in October when the federal government hits its borrowing limit. If the House Republicans refuse to raise the debt limit, the federal government will not have enough cash to make good on its promises to pay. If the federal government does not pay interest on the federal debt or pay for its bonds that come due, this would be a debt default that would echo through the entire world economy, as the rest of the world holds more than $5 trillion of U.S. government bonds, which could drop in price, sending interest rates up.

     

  • Minnesota anti-war activists join Midwest Action Against Drones in Chicago

    Minneapolis, MN – Activists from the Twin Cities will be joining people from six Midwest states in Chicago this weekend to protest drone warfare at the headquarters of Boeing Company. Boeing is the second largest weapons manufacturer in the country.

    Minnesota’s Anti-War Committee and Women Against Military Madness worked together to organize transportation to the protest from the Twin Cities to Chicago. In Chicago, the Minnesota contingent will march under the banner, “We’re not just Minnesota nice, we’re MAD (Minnesotans Against Drones).”

    Organizer Meredith Aby-Keirstead, explained, “Drone strikes, especially in Pakistan and Yemen, have killed hundreds of civilians, many of them children. This protest will bring our voices directly to the company that has helped kill so many people. Boeing makes surveillance drones and is competing for a Pentagon contract to make the Phantom Ray, a new combat drone. The Phantom Ray would travel much further and carry more missiles than the Navy’s current combat drone, the Reaper.”

    According to Kait McIntyre of the Anti-War Committee – Chicago, “It’s time to end the drone wars, not prepare to build another generation of deadly weapons.”

    The protest on Sept. 28 will be followed by an organizing conference on Sept. 29.

  • U of MN workers rally for affordable healthcare

    Minneapolis, MN – About 300 University of Minnesota (U of M) workers and their supporters gathered on Northrup Plaza, in front of the administration building Sept. 26, to rally for accessible and affordable healthcare. U of M workers are angry about proposed cuts to their health care benefits.

    The well-known musician Billy Bragg preformed at the rally.

    The U of M administration wants to take $1.8 million a year out of the pockets of U of M workers and put it in the general fund. These take-backs would increase every employee’s out of pocket health care costs and punish the lowest paid workers and those with chronic conditions.

    Cherrene Horazuk, president of AFSCME Local 3800, the university clerical workers, said, “We are leading the charge in our collective bargaining sessions to stop these changes to our healthcare. We reject the U’s proposal for higher co-pays and deductibles and other cost-shifting schemes. We are also proposing a sliding scale plan that is equitable and doesn’t punish the lowest paid workers.”

    Barb Bezat, President of AFSCME 3937, the university technical workers, added, “The university admitted last week that its salaries for most staff are not comparable to other institutions. They claim that benefits like healthcare make up for the difference on one hand, while planning to shift more benefit costs to employees.”

  • U of MN workers rally for affordable healthcare

    Minneapolis, MN – About 300 University of Minnesota (U of M) workers and their supporters gathered on Northrup Plaza, in front of the administration building Sept. 26, to rally for accessible and affordable healthcare. U of M workers are angry about proposed cuts to their health care benefits.

    The well-known musician Billy Bragg preformed at the rally.

    The U of M administration wants to take $1.8 million a year out of the pockets of U of M workers and put it in the general fund. These take-backs would increase every employee’s out of pocket health care costs and punish the lowest paid workers and those with chronic conditions.

    Cherrene Horazuk, president of AFSCME Local 3800, the university clerical workers, said, “We are leading the charge in our collective bargaining sessions to stop these changes to our healthcare. We reject the U’s proposal for higher co-pays and deductibles and other cost-shifting schemes. We are also proposing a sliding scale plan that is equitable and doesn’t punish the lowest paid workers.”

    Barb Bezat, President of AFSCME 3937, the university technical workers, added, “The university admitted last week that its salaries for most staff are not comparable to other institutions. They claim that benefits like healthcare make up for the difference on one hand, while planning to shift more benefit costs to employees.”

  • U of MN workers rally for affordable healthcare

    Minneapolis, MN – About 300 University of Minnesota (U of M) workers and their supporters gathered on Northrup Plaza, in front of the administration building Sept. 26, to rally for accessible and affordable healthcare. U of M workers are angry about proposed cuts to their health care benefits.

    The well-known musician Billy Bragg preformed at the rally.

    The U of M administration wants to take $1.8 million a year out of the pockets of U of M workers and put it in the general fund. These take-backs would increase every employee’s out of pocket health care costs and punish the lowest paid workers and those with chronic conditions.

    Cherrene Horazuk, president of AFSCME Local 3800, the university clerical workers, said, “We are leading the charge in our collective bargaining sessions to stop these changes to our healthcare. We reject the U’s proposal for higher co-pays and deductibles and other cost-shifting schemes. We are also proposing a sliding scale plan that is equitable and doesn’t punish the lowest paid workers.”

    Barb Bezat, President of AFSCME 3937, the university technical workers, added, “The university admitted last week that its salaries for most staff are not comparable to other institutions. They claim that benefits like healthcare make up for the difference on one hand, while planning to shift more benefit costs to employees.”

  • Medea Benjamin will join Midwest protest to say, ‘No killer drone for Boeing!”

    Chicago, IL – Anti-war activists from six Midwest states are gathering in Chicago, Sept. 28 to oppose drone warfare. Their target: Boeing Company.

    “Boeing is vying for a contract with the Navy for a new combat drone – a contract that they say they must win to stay competitive among arms manufacturers,” said Kait McIntyre of the Anti-War Committee – Chicago (AWC). “It’s time to end the drone wars, not prepare to build another generation of deadly weapons.”

    AWC has been campaigning against Boeing’s new drone since 2012. The Navy is accepting bids for a carrier launched combat drone which will be the size of a fighter plane, able to travel much farther than the Reaper, the combat drone currently in use, and carry a larger number of missiles.

    AWC has been joined by a number of anti-war groups in Chicago, including U.S. Palestinian Community Network, the Syrian American Forum, ANSWER Coalition and many others. They’ll also be joined by groups that have been protesting outside drone command centers, such as Camp Ripley in Minnesota and Camp Williams in Wisconsin.

    Helping to lead the march and headlining a conference being held the following day will be Medea Benjamin, a national spokesperson for the anti-war and anti-drone movements. The world watched as Benjamin and her organization, Code Pink, disrupted both President Obama’s speech justifying drone warfare in May and Secretary of State John Kerry’s saber rattling remarks against Syria in early September.

    AWC is against the drone wars being waged in Pakistan and Yemen. “Unbiased sources estimate 800 civilians, including almost 200 children, have been killed by U.S. drone strikes,” explained McIntyre.

    According to member Joe Iosbaker, the AWC also opposes Boeing’s new drone for economic justice reasons. “The city of Chicago gave Boeing $63 million in taxpayers’ money to move to Chicago. That was supposed to create jobs, not to be used for building a deadlier killer drone.”

    More local groups are starting to take a stand against drone warfare and other new wars, such as in Syria. American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) Local 2858, adopted a resolution this month against war on Syria. That statement read in part, “… the enormous financial costs of bombing and war could be better spent on public services such as healthcare, education, jobs, safety for our children or to feed the hungry…”

    The Chicago protest will start at 3:00 p.m., on the northwest corner of Monroe Street and Columbus Drive.

  • Medea Benjamin will join Midwest protest to say, ‘No killer drone for Boeing!”

    Chicago, IL – Anti-war activists from six Midwest states are gathering in Chicago, Sept. 28 to oppose drone warfare. Their target: Boeing Company.

    “Boeing is vying for a contract with the Navy for a new combat drone – a contract that they say they must win to stay competitive among arms manufacturers,” said Kait McIntyre of the Anti-War Committee – Chicago (AWC). “It’s time to end the drone wars, not prepare to build another generation of deadly weapons.”

    AWC has been campaigning against Boeing’s new drone since 2012. The Navy is accepting bids for a carrier launched combat drone which will be the size of a fighter plane, able to travel much farther than the Reaper, the combat drone currently in use, and carry a larger number of missiles.

    AWC has been joined by a number of anti-war groups in Chicago, including U.S. Palestinian Community Network, the Syrian American Forum, ANSWER Coalition and many others. They’ll also be joined by groups that have been protesting outside drone command centers, such as Camp Ripley in Minnesota and Camp Williams in Wisconsin.

    Helping to lead the march and headlining a conference being held the following day will be Medea Benjamin, a national spokesperson for the anti-war and anti-drone movements. The world watched as Benjamin and her organization, Code Pink, disrupted both President Obama’s speech justifying drone warfare in May and Secretary of State John Kerry’s saber rattling remarks against Syria in early September.

    AWC is against the drone wars being waged in Pakistan and Yemen. “Unbiased sources estimate 800 civilians, including almost 200 children, have been killed by U.S. drone strikes,” explained McIntyre.

    According to member Joe Iosbaker, the AWC also opposes Boeing’s new drone for economic justice reasons. “The city of Chicago gave Boeing $63 million in taxpayers’ money to move to Chicago. That was supposed to create jobs, not to be used for building a deadlier killer drone.”

    More local groups are starting to take a stand against drone warfare and other new wars, such as in Syria. American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) Local 2858, adopted a resolution this month against war on Syria. That statement read in part, “… the enormous financial costs of bombing and war could be better spent on public services such as healthcare, education, jobs, safety for our children or to feed the hungry…”

    The Chicago protest will start at 3:00 p.m., on the northwest corner of Monroe Street and Columbus Drive.

  • FARC welcomes the National Forum on the problem of illicit drugs

    Fight Back News Service is circulating the following statement from the Peace Delegation of Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). The statement is addressed to a conference on the problem of illicit drugs which is taking place Bogotá, Colombia.

    The peace negotiations between the FARC and the Colombian government are taking place in Havana, Cuba.

    FARC-EP welcomes the National Forum on the problem of illicit drugs

    Havana, Cuba, site of the peace talks, September 25, 2013

    The peace delegation of the FARC-EP welcomes the participants of the National Forum “Solution to the problem of illicit drugs”, wishing you success, in the idea that its conclusions should provide important tools for discussion on this subject within the framework of the General Agreement of Havana, signed between the national government and our insurgent organization to advance in the dialogues towards a stable and lasting peace for Colombia

    Our intention, in incorporating this point in the Agenda, parts of an overall vision on the crisis of the Colombian capitalist model and its political regime, which have created the conditions for the so-called drug-trafficking to be a socioeconomic reality, in which vast sectors of the population participate by necessity. Different segments of transnational and oligarchic power adopt attitudes and make policies that have stimulated deformations in our economy with its subsequent negative impact on the poorest part of society.

    Our point of departure is to condemn drug trafficking and we participate in the active political battle aimed at unmasking the fallacies and contents of the so-called War on Drugs, as it’s called by the current U.S. policy, country that invented this media matrix aimed at giving its interventionist and imperialist strategies a new look.

    According to our point of view, it is the development of the same old script according to which, in the past, the problem was the so-called war against communism, or the defense of the interests of United States’ citizens, as paltry excuses to unleash wars of subjugation against weaker nations. Today, the fight against drug trafficking and terrorism from that part of the country that most consumes narcotic and uses terror as a weapon of domination, are excuses for the development of an imperialist, expansionist strategy, to achieve economic and military domination over the world.

    With these old concerns, the policy of the U.S. military and its local subsidiaries is unfolded, and its development is complemented by the guidelines outlined in the strategy map of the Southern Command. And it is within this strategy that the Yankee Military Bases on our national territory have been created and now strengthened; it’s within this determination that the Southern Command laid its eyes on the military base of Palanquero, reinforcing it, arguing that they are developing an “old security and cooperation agreement with Colombia”. It is within this strategy that the bases of Larandia and Tres Esquinas have been deployed, which are now conceived as Yankee bases, together with military points like Barrancón (Guaviare), Bahía Málaga, the Cartagena naval station, the Malambo air base or bases like Tolemaida and Apiay, among others.

    We recall these data, considering that under the signature of a peace agreement, we must incorporate the issue of resolving the problem of illicit drugs inevitably linking it to integral agrarian reform, but mostly and mainly, to the issue of respect for national sovereignty.

    The whole history of our concern to solve a social problem that has its roots in the endemic misery imposed by the regime, forces us to emphatically reject the perverse intention of some media to reduce the issue that is being discussed today, to the idea that this is a matter in which the responsibility of its creation and continuation corresponds to the guerrillas, creating the misconception that it is in our hands to solve such a complex phenomenon whose causes, as we have stated before, are to be found in poverty, inequality and exclusion imposed by the ruling classes to the majorities.

    To discharge the main force of the combat on the weakest link, located in the poorest regions of underdeveloped countries, and against peasants who have had to resort to such crops by physical absence of economic alternatives, is not only a mistake and injustice of the size of the Mariannes Abyss in the Pacific, but a true act of cynicism and hypocrisy of countries, states, institutions and individuals who profit directly or indirectly from trafficking, but who, in an embarrassing way, try to show results attacking those who have the least responsibility in this business, generating true false positives.

    The equitable distribution of land, equipped with road infrastructure, storage facilities, hospitals, schools, colleges and universities as well as an economic policy aimed at ensuring supportive prices, subsidies and grants, comprehensive and universal social security, technical and mechanical assistance are all measures, feasible and probable, that with the participation of the affected communities allow creating the necessary conditions for a solution that addresses the real causes.

    Determining the origin and essence of the phenomenon that brings us together here is very important, if there really exists willpower to resolve it thoroughly. Let’s look at two central aspects of the problem:

    First, drug-trafficking is a capitalist business as a whole, which produces more than 600 billion dollars a year in profit. Virtually all of this money is laundered through the global financial system and organically linked to economic circuits, knowing its origin. More than 95% of these earnings are for the imperialist financial centers, mainly in the United States, and the remaining 5% is basically appropriated by business, banking and investment companies, created by drug-traffickers in partnership with entrepreneurs and traditional politicians that serve as proxies.

    Second, the drug-trafficking, based on transformation of natural plants into psychoactive drugs is a business that works in stages or levels, ranging from the cultivation of raw materials, through processing and transport to marketing and distribution in the consumption centers of the developed countries, which is also where, in economic terms, the goods are made, and it is with this capital that the process starts again.This is the drug-trafficking that is being fought against, and not the mega-industry of synthetic drugs.

    Why don’t we observe the peculiar and relevant fact that the elite, coming from the highest levels of financial capital, when they are making their policies of national security organizations, they also connect them with international drug cartels, which extract annually 8,000 tons of opium in U.S. war zones, and wash 500 billion dollars using transnational banks, half of which are located in the U.S.? Only with common sense we could find the best solution to this problem. Let’s hope that such quality can still be found even in those stratospheric circles of society, to which the Colombian elites serve.

    On behalf of the FARC-EP, we ratify our clear willingness to move forward in the peace talks, on the route of changes, reforms to the economic and political structures that are the roots of the Colombian conflict. This is a principle that is signed by the parties in the preamble of the General Agreement, which guides the discussions and clearly calls for the participation of all Colombians without distinction in building what may become a true Peace Treaty for our country.

    PEACE DELEGATION FARC-EP

  • FARC welcomes the National Forum on the problem of illicit drugs

    Fight Back News Service is circulating the following statement from the Peace Delegation of Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). The statement is addressed to a conference on the problem of illicit drugs which is taking place Bogotá, Colombia.

    The peace negotiations between the FARC and the Colombian government are taking place in Havana, Cuba.

    FARC-EP welcomes the National Forum on the problem of illicit drugs

    Havana, Cuba, site of the peace talks, September 25, 2013

    The peace delegation of the FARC-EP welcomes the participants of the National Forum “Solution to the problem of illicit drugs”, wishing you success, in the idea that its conclusions should provide important tools for discussion on this subject within the framework of the General Agreement of Havana, signed between the national government and our insurgent organization to advance in the dialogues towards a stable and lasting peace for Colombia

    Our intention, in incorporating this point in the Agenda, parts of an overall vision on the crisis of the Colombian capitalist model and its political regime, which have created the conditions for the so-called drug-trafficking to be a socioeconomic reality, in which vast sectors of the population participate by necessity. Different segments of transnational and oligarchic power adopt attitudes and make policies that have stimulated deformations in our economy with its subsequent negative impact on the poorest part of society.

    Our point of departure is to condemn drug trafficking and we participate in the active political battle aimed at unmasking the fallacies and contents of the so-called War on Drugs, as it’s called by the current U.S. policy, country that invented this media matrix aimed at giving its interventionist and imperialist strategies a new look.

    According to our point of view, it is the development of the same old script according to which, in the past, the problem was the so-called war against communism, or the defense of the interests of United States’ citizens, as paltry excuses to unleash wars of subjugation against weaker nations. Today, the fight against drug trafficking and terrorism from that part of the country that most consumes narcotic and uses terror as a weapon of domination, are excuses for the development of an imperialist, expansionist strategy, to achieve economic and military domination over the world.

    With these old concerns, the policy of the U.S. military and its local subsidiaries is unfolded, and its development is complemented by the guidelines outlined in the strategy map of the Southern Command. And it is within this strategy that the Yankee Military Bases on our national territory have been created and now strengthened; it’s within this determination that the Southern Command laid its eyes on the military base of Palanquero, reinforcing it, arguing that they are developing an “old security and cooperation agreement with Colombia”. It is within this strategy that the bases of Larandia and Tres Esquinas have been deployed, which are now conceived as Yankee bases, together with military points like Barrancón (Guaviare), Bahía Málaga, the Cartagena naval station, the Malambo air base or bases like Tolemaida and Apiay, among others.

    We recall these data, considering that under the signature of a peace agreement, we must incorporate the issue of resolving the problem of illicit drugs inevitably linking it to integral agrarian reform, but mostly and mainly, to the issue of respect for national sovereignty.

    The whole history of our concern to solve a social problem that has its roots in the endemic misery imposed by the regime, forces us to emphatically reject the perverse intention of some media to reduce the issue that is being discussed today, to the idea that this is a matter in which the responsibility of its creation and continuation corresponds to the guerrillas, creating the misconception that it is in our hands to solve such a complex phenomenon whose causes, as we have stated before, are to be found in poverty, inequality and exclusion imposed by the ruling classes to the majorities.

    To discharge the main force of the combat on the weakest link, located in the poorest regions of underdeveloped countries, and against peasants who have had to resort to such crops by physical absence of economic alternatives, is not only a mistake and injustice of the size of the Mariannes Abyss in the Pacific, but a true act of cynicism and hypocrisy of countries, states, institutions and individuals who profit directly or indirectly from trafficking, but who, in an embarrassing way, try to show results attacking those who have the least responsibility in this business, generating true false positives.

    The equitable distribution of land, equipped with road infrastructure, storage facilities, hospitals, schools, colleges and universities as well as an economic policy aimed at ensuring supportive prices, subsidies and grants, comprehensive and universal social security, technical and mechanical assistance are all measures, feasible and probable, that with the participation of the affected communities allow creating the necessary conditions for a solution that addresses the real causes.

    Determining the origin and essence of the phenomenon that brings us together here is very important, if there really exists willpower to resolve it thoroughly. Let’s look at two central aspects of the problem:

    First, drug-trafficking is a capitalist business as a whole, which produces more than 600 billion dollars a year in profit. Virtually all of this money is laundered through the global financial system and organically linked to economic circuits, knowing its origin. More than 95% of these earnings are for the imperialist financial centers, mainly in the United States, and the remaining 5% is basically appropriated by business, banking and investment companies, created by drug-traffickers in partnership with entrepreneurs and traditional politicians that serve as proxies.

    Second, the drug-trafficking, based on transformation of natural plants into psychoactive drugs is a business that works in stages or levels, ranging from the cultivation of raw materials, through processing and transport to marketing and distribution in the consumption centers of the developed countries, which is also where, in economic terms, the goods are made, and it is with this capital that the process starts again.This is the drug-trafficking that is being fought against, and not the mega-industry of synthetic drugs.

    Why don’t we observe the peculiar and relevant fact that the elite, coming from the highest levels of financial capital, when they are making their policies of national security organizations, they also connect them with international drug cartels, which extract annually 8,000 tons of opium in U.S. war zones, and wash 500 billion dollars using transnational banks, half of which are located in the U.S.? Only with common sense we could find the best solution to this problem. Let’s hope that such quality can still be found even in those stratospheric circles of society, to which the Colombian elites serve.

    On behalf of the FARC-EP, we ratify our clear willingness to move forward in the peace talks, on the route of changes, reforms to the economic and political structures that are the roots of the Colombian conflict. This is a principle that is signed by the parties in the preamble of the General Agreement, which guides the discussions and clearly calls for the participation of all Colombians without distinction in building what may become a true Peace Treaty for our country.

    PEACE DELEGATION FARC-EP