Democracy and Class Struggle from Wales salutes the struggle of the Filipino people for National and Social Liberation.
The establishment of the National Democratic Front on the 24th April 1973 is a milestone in that struggle of the Philippine People for Independence in its struggle against Imperialism.
The fact that the NDFP is found in 70 out of the total 81 provinces in the
Jacksonville, FL – On April 21, union members from the Jacksonville area gathered in the IBEW 177 union hall to hear labor activist and author Joe Burns speak about his book, Reviving the Strike. Burns, an attorney and negotiator for the Association of Flight Attendants-Communication Workers of America (AFA-CWA), spoke about the struggles of working people in the U.S. and argued that reviving the strike weapon is the key to rebuilding the labor movement.
The event was organized by the North Florida Central Labor Council and the newly founded Young Workers Group in Jacksonville. The small but lively crowd included members of many different unions, including the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, the Communication Workers of America, the United Faculty of Florida, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters and the International Brotherhood of Boilermakers.
Burns began with a 25-minute presentation. Beginning with the importance of the strike in building the labor movement, Burns said, “In the 1930s, 400,000 workers engaged in sit-down strikes, everyone from autoworkers to women at Woolworth’s counters. They took over the workplaces and demanded collective bargaining and that their rights be upheld, including their right to strike.”
Burns continued, “The strike really did create the modern labor movement, but even if you look at the 1950s and 1960s, trade unionists were able to use the strike to transform an entire way of life for a whole generation of working Americans.”
The next part of Burns’ presentation focused on the negative effects of trade unions losing and abandoning the strike weapon. Among others, he pointed out, “If you look at income distribution patterns in the U.S., right now without the strike we’re back to where we were in the 1920s, in terms of the skewed distribution of income and wealth in this country.”
After his presentation, Burns led a robust group discussion and fielded questions from the audience.
Many of the union workers who attended were public-sector employees, whose right to strike is severely limited or banned by pro-business state and federal laws. Several questions focused on the illegality of strikes for public sector workers, to which Burns noted that most of the early strikes that won in the early 20th century were also illegal.
Burns noted a study done on strikes in the 1960s, the 1970s and the 1980s. “Surprisingly, they found that workers struck at higher levels in states that outlawed strikes or collective bargaining then they did in states that allowed striking.” He explained this trend, saying that “Workers had no choice. The only way workers could force them to the table was to engage in an illegal strike and during the high-point of public unionism, you could win those strikes, get rid of those sanctions and win a better contract.”
The discussion eventually came to ways of getting rank-and-file workers more invested in their union. The audience voiced enthusiasm for a point that Burns raised about building a culture of solidarity in the union through day-to-day struggles. “Solidarity is not something that was just existing in the workplace. It was something built in the course of struggle. People drew courage from each other and they grew together by successfully confronting their employers.”
One audience member brought up the camouflage uniforms worn by striking Mine Workers in the successful Pittston Coal Strike of 1989 as an example of this culture of solidarity in action. In Reviving the Strike, Burns wrote that these uniforms “helped create group cohesion and fostered an identity of a militant unit of guerrilla fighters up against a corporate behemoth.”
The historic Chicago Teachers Union strike of 2012, which used Burns’ book as an inspiration, and the small series of strikes at Wal-Mart Supermarkets across the country in the same year came up in the discussion several times. In both of these instances, the willingness of a militant minority to stand up to management and lead inspired other workers to join the striking efforts.
“We think of the 1930s as a period when there were all these militant workers and they were just down for it [striking],” said Burns. “But that’s not what it was like. The reason that the UAW did sit-down strikes was because they couldn’t have won an election in the entire plant. They had a minority of the workplace who was willing to step forward, which is usually how it is.” Burns called this “‘Courage built upon courage,” meaning that the more people that stepped forward, the more people had confidence.
After the lively discussion, the audience gave Burns a round of applause. Members expressed interest in forming a discussion group on Reviving the Strike and looked forward to Burns’ next book, which focuses on public-sector unions.
by Partho Sarathi Ray The collapse of the chit fund company, Saradha group, is having major repercussions all over Bengal. Over the last two days, thousands of their depositors and agents have been staging protests in front of their offices all over the state, and many of the offices and real estate properties have been […]
NAPM Extends Solidarity to the Indefinite Dharna in Raigad District against forced land acquisition for DMIC Project New Delhi / Mumbai, April 17 : Supporting the indefinite dharna of the farmers and workers of Raigad district National Alliance of People’s Movements (NAPM) has written to the Chief Minister, Maharashtra asking him to stop the forceful […]
The following is a report (in Hindi) of the struggle carried on by workers in the hot-rolling plants in the Wazirpur Industrial Estate of Delhi. On 15th April, around 1000 workers marched on the office of the Deputy Labor Commissioner and demanded that: 1. Delhi Government mandated minimum wage be implemented 2. The 8-hour working […]
The following is a report (in Hindi) of the struggle carried on by workers in the hot-rolling plants in the Wazirpur Industrial Estate of Delhi. On 15th April, around 1000 workers marched on the office of the Deputy Labor Commissioner and demanded that: 1. Delhi Government mandated minimum wage be implemented 2. The 8-hour working […]
http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/Delhi/workers-steel-for-a-better-deal/article4622743.ece Published: April 16, 2013 09:54 IST | Updated: April 16, 2013 09:54 IST Workers steel for a better deal Jiby Kattakayam For several years, nearly 1,000 workers at 24 hot-rolling steel plants in the Wazirpur Industrial Estate worked 12-hour shifts under inhuman conditions. They toiled day-in and day-out, without a single day off. But […]
Fight Back News Service is circulating the following statement from the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.
The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine sent greetings of pride and appreciation to all Palestinian prisoners in the jails of the occupation, men and women, children and elders, to the veteran long-time prisoners and our imprisoned leaders, at the forefront, the Front’s General Secretary, Comrade Ahmad Sa’adat, and brother leaders Marwan Barghouthi, Sheikh Hassan Yousef, and members of the Legislative Council.jihad-gefang
The Front saluted the historic role of the prisoners’ movement in building and sustaining the Palestinian national liberation movement and its ongoing victories in upholding the prisoners’ will and steadfastness against the executioner. The prisoners’ struggle is one that transcends Palestinian political and geographical division and builds national unity based on the resistance of our people and their multilayered struggle to defeat the occupation, free the prisoners and achieve return, liberation, self-determination and our capital in Jerusalem.
The Front said that the first duty in supporting the prisoners’ movement, their struggles, their families and honoring their sacrifices and those of the martyrs is to uphold the resistance and restore national unity, ending this national crisis and the twenty-year nightmare of negotiations, to struggle together to defeat the occupation, the settlements, the siege, killings, arrests and terror exerted by the occupation state against our people, our land and our rights.
The Front called on Palestinian Prisoners Day, April 17, to be a landmark for the Palestinian movement to adopt a strategy and a unified national and political resistance to support the struggle of the prisoners’ movement against the occupier and its crimes. It also emphasized the need to provide a framework for the solidarity movement internationally to work to hold Israel accountable on the international level and to confront the occupation on the Arab level, including recognizing Palestinian prisoners as prisoners of war, prosecuting the occupation for violating their rights guaranteed in customary international law and the Geneva Conventions. The Front urged international organizations to act to defend the rights of our people and our prisoners as prisoners of war and fighters for freedom, independence and self-determination, and to hold the occupation and its leaders accountable.
The Front said that the prisoners’ struggle is part of an alternative national strategy based on a program of resistance, national liberation, democracy, and restoring the status of the PLO as the sole legitimate representative through a new elected National Council representing our people inside and outside the homeland, and developing a unified national leadership. The Front emphasized the need to protect the prisoners’ rights during their imprisonment and after their liberation, as they are the vanguard of the Palestinian struggle for liberation and role models for generations to come.
The Front called for the widest participation in actions and events on Palestinian Prisoners’ Day inside and outside Palestine. The battle of freedom of the prisoners is an integral part of the battle for freedom of our people, and action cannot be delayed.
Lenin was born 22nd April 1870 – in his memory we remind people of his theoretical contribution analysing Imperialism.
Democracy and Class Struggle says Parasitic Imperialism is more transparent than ever has a new era of Land grabs shake the globe aided by NGO’s.
Marx’ analysis of the laws of motion of capitalism belongs to the stage of free competitive capitalism where a large number of
Documents on the recent psychiatric evaluation of Soni Sori ordered by the Chhattisgarh Govt. Women Groups Decry Chhattisgarh Government’s Attempt and malafide Intentions to Make Soni Sori Undergo “Psychiatric Evaluation” [PDF] Letter to the Chief Minister Raman Singh [PDF] List of demands [PDF] FACT SHEET ON SONI SORI April 2013 Who is Soni Sori? Soni […]