the Voice of
The Communist League of Revolutionary Workers–Internationalist
“The emancipation of the working class will only be achieved by the working class itself.”
— Karl Marx
the Voice of
The Communist League of Revolutionary Workers–Internationalist
“The emancipation of the working class will only be achieved by the working class itself.”
— Karl Marx
May 1, 2023
Today, the U.S. estimates that in Mexico, there are more than 600,000 people from Venezuela, Guatemala, Haiti, Nicaragua, and many other countries who want to come to the U.S. We are told to think of these desperate migrants as a threat. And their desperation could be a threat if we let it be used that way.
These hundreds of thousands of people sleep in tents, overcrowded shelters, or on the streets and alleys in cities across Mexico. They face kidnapping, extortion, sexual assault, and murder. All while they wait for the chance to come to the U.S.
People who are this desperate can be forced to take lower wages than immigrants here already do, even the millions of undocumented; lower wages than are already imposed on those with felony conditions. They could be forced to work longer hours, in less safe conditions. And if we let them, the capitalist class will use the threat of these particularly desperate workers to impose lower wages and worse conditions on the rest of the working class. This has been their game plan for two hundred years, since the first Irish workers fleeing famine stepped off the boats.
The Biden administration’s plan will help the capitalist class do all this, when, on May 11, the pandemic restrictions used to block migrants expires. Biden plans to deport and impose felony convictions on those caught crossing the border illegally. This is unlikely to keep people from trying to get here, but it does mean these workers will be forced to stay even more in the shadows. They will be even less able to complain when their wages are stolen, or they are forced to work unpaid overtime, or subject to sexual harassment on the job.
But even if these migrants are blocked from getting to the U.S., by Biden’s threats, or the Mexican army, pushed to do so by the U.S., or by Trump’s wall—U.S. corporations will still use their desperation against the working class in this country.
U.S. companies are already announcing their plans to increase production in Mexico. They openly complain that there might not be enough Mexican workers to accept the low wages they are willing to pay. And so, they are salivating at the chance to hire these people fleeing even more intense poverty than exists for most Mexican workers.
The factories in Mexico already make auto parts that feed into supply chains in the U.S. They make medical equipment for use in U.S. hospitals. They unload ships from China and put containers on rail lines that feed directly into U.S. cities. The goods on the trucks and trains don’t get stopped by the border patrol, even if people do. And if the capitalists are able to impose worse conditions on workers doing all these jobs, they will be able to impose worse conditions on workers in the U.S.
These same U.S. companies and the government that serves them are the ones responsible for this migration crisis in the first place. For instance, Venezuela, one of the main countries people are fleeing, is an oil-rich country. Over the last century, its oil largely profited U.S. companies. When the country’s last two presidents took a somewhat independent stance toward the U.S. and tried to keep more of that oil wealth in their country, the U.S. organized a series of failed coup attempts. The U.S. then cut off Venezuela’s ability to trade, blocking its access to credit and sanctioning transport of Venezuela’s oil. This produced severe shortages of food and medicine; a lack of materials to maintain the water and sewer systems; and spiking unemployment and inflation at the same time.
While the details are different, U.S. imperialism is equally behind the misery people are fleeing in so many other countries.
But instead of a threat, these migrant workers might be the allies of workers in this country. They face the same enemies. And they have already overcome enormous dangers: hiking through a roadless jungle, riding on rickety ships, braving the dangers of gangs and armies and border patrols. In making the trip, they proved their mettle, their willingness to do something to change their situation. That kind of mettle and determination is what the working class will need when we finally stand up to the capitalists who are driving down our standard of living here and around the world.
The U.S. capitalist class is powerful, but the working class of the world is much stronger. We are the majority, and we make everything run. They only keep their power by keeping workers divided. Organized together in our own interests, as one class, worldwide, workers would have the forces to take on this capitalist beast that is destroying all of our livelihoods.
May 1, 2023
Stellantis—which owns the Jeep, Ram, Chrysler, Dodge, and Fiat brands—just announced temporary layoffs and buyouts aimed at its U.S. hourly workforce. By the end of the year, they plan to eliminate 3,500 jobs total, across seven assembly plants in the U.S. and Canada. These voluntary “inverse” layoffs were first offered to high seniority workers.
The company wants to eliminate jobs for production workers and skilled trades. They state that openings created by members accepting buyouts—either 50,000 dollars to retire or a lump sum based on seniority to quit the company—would be filled by workers on indefinite layoff.
The Detroit News reports Stellantis conducted “efficiency assessments"—sometimes called time studies—at sites corporate-wide. These studies, conducted by industrial engineers, were done to find ways to put more work on fewer workers, thus increasing profits.
Stellantis already implemented similar cost cutting at manufacturing facilities in Italy in 2022 and 2023 and in Slovakia in 2023.
In the U.S., Stellantis now employs 43,000 hourly workers. The company has said they are mailing offers to 31,000 workers at the company who have at least 1 year of seniority. Not included are the workers Stellantis calls Supplemental Employees, who have the worst pay, benefits and working conditions.
To increase profits, the company has every intention of having more workers at this lowest tier. These buy-outs and small incentives to quit the company will accomplish this.
Stellantis CEO Carlos Tavares states that costs must be cut to pay for the transition to electric vehicles. He fails to mention Stellantis had global profits of 18 billion dollars in 2022. Tavares acts as if THAT money does not exist. In doing so, this CEO protects the collective interests of the capitalist class who treat the vast majority of the 18 billion dollars as THEIR money. Under the rules of capitalism, this money will NOT be used to raise wages, lower the price of vehicles—or pay for any shift to electric vehicles.
In response to the company’s announcement of planned job cuts, newly elected UAW union president Shawn Fain issued the following statement on behalf of the UAW International: “Stellantis’ push to cut thousands of jobs while raking in billions in profits is disgusting. This is a slap in the face to our members, their families, their communities, and the American people who saved this company 15 years ago. Even now, politicians and taxpayers are bankrolling the electric vehicle transition, and this is the thanks the working class gets. Shame on Stellantis.”
When companies announce they will eliminate jobs, this means they aim to get more work out of fewer workers. The old name for this attack is “speed-up.” Speed-up is the key ingredient of the soup Stellantis is putting together to reach a declared goal of doubling global corporate revenue by the year 2030.
Not only Stellantis, but also Ford and GM make it plain they plan to cut labor costs. In order for auto workers to improve their situation and not go further backwards—there is one solution for the working class. Collective activity.
What does Stellantis do when workers need to collectively prepare for a fight to improve wages and working conditions? They throw buyouts at workers. They mail offers to 31,000 hourly workers and 2,500 salaried workers. Stellantis is forcing each worker to read that letter and think as an individual. But there is no reason to let the company trick workers into ONLY thinking individually in a contract year. The answer to the workers’ big picture problems is collective activity—coming together and making a fight for what workers deserve.
May 1, 2023
By agreement of both capitalist parties, federal pandemic protections expired on April 1. As a result, millions of low-paid workers and poor will lose Medicaid coverage during coming months, and hundreds of hospitals in working-class communities will cut patient services, reorganize, and potentially close their doors due to lack of funding.
Some state governments are already removing from Medicaid coverage those who miss application deadlines or no longer qualify. All states expect to complete this “unwinding” of health coverage within the next year.
The 90 million people currently covered by Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program are expected to drop by 20%, to about 72 million. Nearly half will be Black and Hispanic workers. Some may be able to obtain health coverage through more costly Affordable Care Act plans, but hundreds of thousands will fall into an insurance coverage gap between Medicaid and ACA coverage requirements, eliminating affordable options for health insurance coverage.
This drastic reduction in health care support has a major impact on hundreds of so-called “safety net” hospitals that serve working-class communities. These rely most heavily on Medicaid income reimbursements. Many of these, including Chicago’s Loretto, Cook County, and Sinai hospitals, gain more than half their total revenue from this source.
Both Loretto and Cook County Hospitals on Chicago’s West and South sides receive over 60% of their income from Medicaid reimbursements. They expect a big financial blow. Cook County Hospital projects a 40 million dollar loss. Reorganization away from Medicaid service is likely, as well as cutbacks in medical services and staffing levels. The hospital CEO said: “40 million dollars is an incredible amount of money that can make a difference in what our system does.”
This is just one aspect of a generalized war on working class communities, promoted by both Democratic and Republican party politicians, that directs public funds away from social needs and into the coffers of capitalist health networks, developers, and the banks.
May 1, 2023
Movie: Norma Rae, 1979, director Martin Ritt, streaming on Hulu and HBOMax
This award-winning movie is based on the true story of a young single mom, played by Sally Fields, who survives by working in a non-union textile mill in North Carolina. Workers there face dangerous conditions which constantly threaten their health and safety. Norma Rae decides that she has to help organize her shop despite the problems and the dangers. The company tries to divert her by promoting her to a better and safer job. Her family and co-workers convince her it’s just a trick, and she goes back to the line. The company continues to try other dirty tricks: speeding up the line, putting out racist flyers, personal attacks, arresting the organizers. Norma Rae and the other organizers don’t give up—too much is at stake. Finally, the union election is held. But the real victory is the workers finding a way to come together in the face of all the attacks.
Book: Labor Wars, 1973, by Sidney Lens
The book tells the stories of the major American labor battles from the Molly Maguires to the Sit-Downs. Each chapter can stand alone. Each is a complete telling of an important battle in American labor history. The history still resonates in the factories, mills, construction crews, oil, and gas jobs, with truckers and in the meat packing plants today. Some say American workers are not as militant as in other countries. Yet one of the chapters tells that the origin of the internationally honored May Day was in May of 1886 in Chicago during a large fight for the 8-hour day. Tens of thousands of workers demonstrated or went out on strike for weeks to win the 8-hour day. Police roughed up, fired upon, and even killed some of the workers, but the organizing for the 8-hour day continued. This legacy lives on as each year, all over the world, workers rally on May Day. Each chapter reveals the proud and strong history of American workers.
May 1, 2023
Two teenagers were shot near Millennium Park in downtown Chicago around 9 p.m. on a recent Saturday night. There were hundreds of young people in the area at the time and some of them became unruly. Videos posted on social media showed some of them kicking passing cars and dancing on top of parked cars. Some broke into vehicles and set them on fire. Others were seen climbing and jumping on the roof of a city bus. Police arrested fifteen people that night.
The previous night, a 14-year-old was shot south of downtown at the 31st Street Beach. Fortunately, all three of the teenagers shot survived.
Outgoing Mayor Lori Lightfoot was quick to condemn the behavior of the young people, promising that "the city cannot and will not allow any of our public spaces to become a platform for criminal conduct."
She praised the "historic investments in city youth programming and supporting community-based organizations to create year-round safe spaces" the city has made. She suggested parents and guardians need to know where their children are and instill values of respect for people and property.
In the meantime, business owners, other city politicians, the news media and police spokespeople have spoken out about the negative impact of the teens’ behavior on customers and tourists coming to the area. The Chicago Police Department promises to increase its police presence, enforce a curfew already enacted a year ago, monitor police cameras and check bags at beach entry points.
In short, their answers amount to attempts to discourage young people from poorer parts of the city from coming to the more affluent downtown area.
The new Mayor-elect Brandon Johnson also called the actions of the teens "unacceptable," but was a bit more careful in adding it was wrong to "demonize youth." During his campaign, Johnson pointed to the need to get to the root causes of problems with public safety.
Johnson is certainly right in both cases. Simply increasing the police presence will not get at the root causes of the problem. History, however, does not suggest politicians are very likely to really even identify the root causes of problems like these—let alone solve them. The events of that weekend were not even peculiar to the city of Chicago. That same weekend, six shootings took place near Greektown, a popular area of downtown Detroit.
The root causes of events like these lie with the capitalist system, the inequality inherent in it, the acceleration of ongoing economic crisis, and the problems associated with the Covid pandemic. Politicians like Lightfoot are quick to blame parents, but many of them are working overtime and can’t always be there to watch over the young people.
Often there’s not much for young people to do in the poorer neighborhoods where they live, and some can rightfully resent the tourists they see coming into the downtown areas. For those who want to go downtown, transportation can be a problem, particularly later in the evening for those who want to leave.
Stopping events like these means providing young people with hope for a better future, providing education, decent jobs, and access to culture. Capitalist society provides none of these and has to go.
May 1, 2023
TikTok and its Chinese owner ByteDance, which we are constantly told to fear and hate as enemy foreign secret agents, have hired a number of high ranking personnel from the U.S. security apparatus in the last few years. They also hired lobbyists who were senior staff for leading Republican and Democratic politicians.
CIA analyst Ben Patterson, State Department and Homeland Security internet head Jade Nestor, and NATO psychological operations chief Greg Anderson are some of the dozens of FBI, CIA, State Department, and other high U.S. government intelligence decision makers hired by TikTok. Investigative journalist Alan MacLeod found this out by simply searching on resumé posting site LinkedIn!
In fact, TikTok isn’t the only one. Other big tech companies including Reddit have also hired dozens of U.S. security chiefs. FaceBook and Meta hired a number of head CIA agents.
These officials have power and experience manipulating big tech algorithms to support some news sources and downplay others. So, corporate news and analysis like MSNBC, Fox and CNN are seen by the increasing numbers of people who look for news using social media—while other independent and investigative sources are not seen.
MacLeod reports that Google changed its algorithm in 2016 in a way that caused media site Democracy Now to lose more than one in three hits on Google. The Intercept lost one in five. MacLeod’s site MintPress lost more than 90% of its Google hits and more than 99% of its FaceBook hits overnight. Now this unofficial private censorship is all around us.
Working people are told to hate TikTok’s Chinese owners to the point of war frenzy. But U.S. government trained corporate spies manipulate our access to news on social media for the benefit of U.S. corporations.
May 1, 2023
The Superintendent of the Detroit Public Schools Community District (DPSCD) recently told students who were concerned about upcoming staff and program cuts that they should advocate to Michigan legislators for a more equitable school funding.
In Michigan, an advocacy group for public education, the Michigan Education Justice Committee (MEJC), has called upon teachers, parents, and students to sign a petition calling on state legislators to ensure increased investment in public education—and to meet directly with politicians in Lansing so they know how important resources are for Michigan’s school aged children. These requests came after it was revealed that more than 90% of Michigan students attend schools without sufficient funding and that fully closing the funding gap would take an additional $4.5 billion a year.
But it’s impossible to attain equitable funding in a system that isn’t equitable. In a system where governments (in the case of Michigan, where the legislature is Democratic party controlled) can, year after year, find money to give to corporations in the form of tax breaks and incentives, at the same time they tell school officials they have to “balance their budgets”—that is, work with not enough, or even less.
The same goes on at the federal level. Didn’t the federal government provide billions of dollars in Covid relief funding for the schools, only to snatch it and other social funding away, when clearly it is needed?
Did these elected officials in Congress tell the Pentagon and weapons systems manufacturers to “balance their budgets” and work with less? No! When Congress passed a record-breaking 858 billion dollar military budget in December, most Democrats voted for it. That same Congress allotted only about ONE TENTH of that to spend on the education of nearly 50 million school aged children!
The most important function of government in this system is to protect the interests of billionaires, the capitalist class. And so, it’s a dead end appealing to elected government officials to do the right thing when it comes to equitable, generous funding for public education.
It took militant social movements of workers to even bring about the funding for universal public education in the first place in this country. It will take a massive fight again—but this time, with the goals of taking over society completely, and running it in our interests.
May 1, 2023
Parents protested and spoke out against a plan to reduce school bus service in Howard County, Maryland, a suburb between Baltimore and Washington. Around 3,500 more students will have to walk to school in the district’s new plan, regardless of the fact many sidewalks are narrow or missing and traffic is heavy. Rather than automatically being enrolled for school bus service, families now will have to sign up for it.
Public school bus service in the county has long been contracted out to private companies. But with suburban economic development, school bus contracting has become a competitive and exploitative business—a more than 50-million-dollar market in the county now. Bigger contractors bid to take over smaller contractors’ routes. The number of contractors went from nearly 60 in the 1980s to under two dozen today.
If the county really wanted to save money, it would run the school buses publicly, instead of handing out subsidies to for-profit contractors while shaving down on service.
May 1, 2023
The City of Detroit, like all major cities, is in dire need of affordable housing for its working class and poorer residents.
Gone are many of the stable, working class neighborhoods with homes. Huge swaths of Detroit are like a ghost town when you drive through. Rents are skyrocketing, so much so that ordinary families are finding themselves doubling and tripling up in their one and two bedroom apartments—if they can find something they can afford.
But while the average Detroiter today struggles with finding an affordable rental unit or home, the city of Detroit is flush with new condo and townhome developments all over areas like Midtown and downtown. If you have over half a million dollars to buy a one bedroom unit. Or 1.5 million dollars because you need a couple more bedrooms.
And all of these new buildings and developments are eligible for a substantial tax reduction for 15 years, because this housing is located within what is designated as “eligible distressed communities.”
How is it that people who have a million and a half dollars to spend on a condo are eligible for reduced taxes, while long-time Detroit residents who ARE distressed are ineligible for decent, affordable housing? Something is wrong with this picture!
May 1, 2023
When Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky made a surprise visit to the United States back in September, he symbolically rang the opening bell at the New York Stock Exchange via video stream and declared that Ukraine was “open for business,” with more than $400 billion in “investment options”.
Sure enough, in mid-April, Naftogaz, the Ukrainian state gas company, announced that it had met with some of the biggest U.S. oil companies, including ExxonMobil, Chevron and Halliburton, that are aiming to take over big parts of the country’s oil and gas industry.
Currently, Ukraine is the second largest producer of natural gas in Europe. And it is aiming to increase that production. According to a report in the Financial Times, the Ukrainian government is planning on bringing in these companies to drill for vast offshore natural gas deposits in the Black Sea off the coast of Crimea, which is currently under Russian control. This oil and gas grab will no doubt raise the stakes in the ongoing war with Russia.
So, the same giant U.S. companies that profited so greatly from the U.S. war in Iraq by gaining control over Iraqi oil fields that had previously been under the control of the Iraqi government—at a cost of millions of lives—are now taking advantage of another bloody war in order to increase their holdings and fatten their profits in Ukraine.
Up for grabs is also Ukraine’s rich and plentiful agriculture.
Ukraine is known as the “breadbasket of Europe,” encompassing one-third of all existing agricultural land in the entire European Union! And Ukraine’s fertile black earth is among the largest producers in the world of barley, wheat, and sunflower oil. Thirty percent of the world’s sunflower oil is produced in Ukraine.
Up until the early 1990s, this land was owned by the government. But once the Soviet Union fell apart and a new Ukrainian government emerged, all this changed. Under pressure from the U.S. and other capitalist governments, the government of Ukraine moved to privatize much of Ukraine’s farmland. This resulted in the growing concentration of land in the hands of a few extremely rich oligarchs.
By 2001, there was so much anger and disgust in the population against the corruption and privatizations, the Ukrainian government was forced to impose a moratorium on the sale of land to foreigners. But that didn’t stop big multinational agricultural companies from continuing to gain control over Ukraine’s agriculture. According to one report, by 2016, ten big multinationals gained control over 15 million acres of Ukrainian farmland.
Finally, in 2020, one of the conditions that the International Monetary Fund set for extending a big loan to the Ukrainian government was the gradual ending of the moratorium on the sale of Ukrainian farmland, which the Ukrainian government accepted.
These owners include big financial companies, such as the Vanguard Group, BNP Asset Management Holding, and Goldman Sachs-owned NN Investment Partners Holdings. The fifth largest landholder in the country is a U.S.-based private equity fund called NCH Capital, which controls the holdings of a number of large U.S. pension funds, foundations, and university endowments.
This U.S. imperial resource and profit grab in Ukraine will only increase in coming years. In December 2022, Zelensky held a video conference with billionaire Larry Fink, CEO of BlackRock, in order to announce that he was bringing in BlackRock in order to “coordinate the efforts of all potential investors and participants in the reconstruction of our country, channeling investment into the most relevant and impactful sectors of the Ukrainian economy.”
This means that the Ukrainian government has essentially privatized and outsourced its economic policy to BlackRock, one of the world’s most powerful corporations.
No, the U.S. government’s aim in the Ukrainian War is not “to help the Ukrainian people,” supposedly to support Ukrainian independence and sovereignty, as U.S. officials and the news media always say. No, it is only to impose the domination of the biggest U.S. capitalists, to increase their profits and power—at the cost of millions more lives.
May 1, 2023
This article is translated from the April 28 issue #2856 of Lutte Ouvrière (Workers’ Struggle), the newspaper of the revolutionary workers group of that name active in France.
The Kremlin denies there is a new mobilization to deal with troop losses in Ukraine. But while the government cites “errors” when students say they receive military draft calls, Russian authorities are very busy seeking additional cannon fodder.
They are scraping the bottom of the barrel with their aggressive TV campaign. One clip argues: “You’re a guy. Prove it. Get involved.” On the streets, in shopping malls and around near transport hubs, a multitude of kiosks display “Sign a military service contract and defend the homeland” to collect commitments.
This ubiquitous propaganda in all its formats is addressed at young people without much education. Many young urban petty bourgeois find ways to avoid conscription, such as reprieve, flight abroad, exemptions purchased from military doctors, and so on. The hunt for commitments targets not them but the working classes—in particular, men, and not necessarily so young, who have precarious, poorly paid jobs. They might hope for a better life and especially for the income of a hired soldier, whose pay is four to five times higher than a provincial worker’s wage.
During the 15 months the regime has been recruiting this way, those deciding to sign a contract have becoming increasingly scarce. No one is unaware of how the officer caste treats soldiers, both at the front and at the rear. Hence the multiplication of convictions for desertion or for refusal to go into combat. The risk of being killed in battle is high!
But if this war is becoming more and more of a nightmare for those who are forced to fight and suffer it, for others it also has a good side. And even a very good side, judging by what the annual ranking of Forbes Russia says about wealth in this country.
In one year, thanks to the war and despite Western sanctions, the oligarchs, those magnates of the Russian business world, have significantly increased their number to 110, which is 22 more than before. Their combined fortunes now reach 505 billion dollars, which is 152 billion dollars more than before. The increase is essentially due to the surge in raw materials prices in international markets, on which the oligarchs’ fortunes are based. They got their hands on raw materials exports after the collapse of the Soviet Union.
Admittedly, the Russian economy officially contracted by 2.2% in 2022 because of the war. The standard of living of the working classes has suffered greatly from factory closures, shortages, the increase in the cost of imported products and of course the departure of hundreds of thousands of men for the war. But the parasites of the politico-business high bureaucracy don’t suffer from any of this. Quite the contrary. Embargo or not, for example, Russian oil continues to be sold, and it brings them high profits. All that’s required is for crude oil cargoes to make a small detour via Greek, Turkish or other intermediaries. The oligarchs continue to prosper thanks to such arrangements, but big Western industrial and financial groups benefit from these deals, too.
During the 15 months that the war in Ukraine has lasted, many extremely wealthy Russians have taken certain precautions. A few, but very few in fact, have changed their nationality. But the rest, the hundred and something billionaires and others almost as fortunate, simply migrated their companies, their funds and their yachts to countries interested in welcoming them. Such is the case with the tax havens of the Persian Gulf, where many now reside, at least part-time.
A draft law aims to double the tax rate for Russian citizens residing abroad. The Kremlin targets people who don’t have the means to shelter their income. This does not prevent the most prominent oligarchs from supporting Putin’s policy. In any case, they proclaim their patriotism. It’s the poor who are sent to die “for the fatherland” in the trenches and the mud!
May 1, 2023
This article is translated from the April 28 issue #2856 of Lutte Ouvrière (Workers’ Struggle), the newspaper of the revolutionary workers group of that name active in France.
Forbes magazine made a list of the richest people in Ukraine. It is less spectacular than Russia’s because Ukraine has “only” seven people worth at least one billion U.S. dollars. These billionaires’ fortunes fell by 45% in the last year, given the war. Their fortunes would have sunk even more if they had not invested much of their wealth in tax havens and in Europe, the U.S. and Canada, even before the war.
The biggest loser was Petro Poroshenko, formerly president of Ukraine from 2014 to 2019. He is nicknamed “the chocolate king” because he built an empire with his candy business, Roshen. Of course, at a time of bombings everywhere, the population has other priorities than buying sweets. And his factories have been hit. As a result, Zelensky’s predecessor is now only worth 750 million dollars, says Forbes. Not that anyone is shedding tears for him. He made himself hated as the very image of a businessman turned politician who will do anything to make himself richer at the expense of the masses. So, voters dumped him as president in 2019 and chose Zelensky, who was a practically unknown actor promising to end government corruption. Stealthily, Poroshenko tiptoed abroad….
Although the war has also cut into his fortune somewhat, the richest man in Ukraine is Rinat Akhmetov, with nearly 4.5 billion dollars. Originally from Donetsk, he built his fortune in 1992 after the USSR collapsed. He had a mafia-like business buying and reselling steel and metallurgical coke from the Donbass, always sheltering himself under the wing of allies in high office.
Akhmetov was considered pro-Russian because he had close ties with Russian oligarchs, with Moscow and with several so-called pro-Kremlin Ukrainian presidents. Akhmetov has always veered and tacked with political winds. He had to scramble in 2005 when the pro-Western “orange” regime of president Viktor Yushchenko and prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko dropped their purchase of the largest company in Ukraine, the Kryvorizhstal steel mill, which he had snatched up for almost nothing. And again in 2017, when the pro-Russian authorities in Donbass requisitioned 43 companies he owned there. But these big losses did not prevent him from continuing to prosper, thanks to his holding company SCM, but especially thanks to his friends in high places. Last March, he boasted in an interview about “helping the army” of Ukraine with supply contracts during the war.
Clearly, he reaps the dividends, but not the shrapnel. He leaves that to those he “helps”: they fight for him and for his fellow fat cats and their Western sponsors.
May 1, 2023
The U.S. government continues to build up its military presence in Asia. The U.S. military just recently conducted joint military war games in the Philippines. Over 12,000 U.S. troops, along with 5,400 Filipino troops, conducted the largest joint military exercise since they started 38 years ago.
These joint exercises were another major step toward increasing the U.S. military presence in the Philippines. A few months ago, it was announced that the U.S. military would now have access to four new military staging areas in the northern Philippines—three areas facing Taiwan, and one area facing the South China Sea.
Meanwhile, it was also recently announced that U.S. attack submarines, armed with nuclear weapons, will now be allowed into ports in South Korea—for the first time in 40 years. And the U.S. will also be conducting expanded military war game drills in South Korea.
Why is the U.S. government carrying out this military escalation? While citing the need to protect Taiwan, the U.S. military build-ups in the Philippines are clearly aimed against the Chinese regime, which claims Taiwan as being historically part of China. The U.S. government said its military moves into South Korea are to protect that country against attacks from North Korea. But they are also similarly meant to threaten nearby China, which is allied with the North Korean regime.
These latest moves by the U.S. government just add to the increasing U.S. military presence in the countries that surround China, including U.S. troops and bases in Japan and Guam, and U.S. warships patrolling off the coast of China in the South China Sea.
Meanwhile in the U.S., the U.S. government and the media every day beat the drums of war against China. While there are no Chinese troops or Chinese bases threatening this country, the U.S. government and media feed us propaganda that is aimed at convincing the population and the working class that somehow China is a threat, that the Chinese people are our enemy. This propaganda is aimed at convincing people to support a possible war against China.
A war against China would only be in the interests of U.S. capitalists who want to increase their profits-making ability in that region of the world. The war that they may be preparing would not be in the interests of the working class—workers here, or workers in China, or workers anywhere in the world.
May 1, 2023
This article is translated from the April 28 issue #2856 of Lutte Ouvrière (Workers’ Struggle), the newspaper of the revolutionary workers group of that name active in France.
The people of Sudan have been living the horrors of all-out war since April 15. Two generals fight for power, locked in a life-and-death struggle which hits civilians hard.
The three-day truce signed at the urging of the U.S. was never likely to last, no more than a previous truce at the end of Ramadan which only lasted a few hours. At that time there were 420 deaths and 3,700 people injured.
Everyone who can flees from the areas where fighting rages. Citizens of the so-called great powers like France and the U.S. were airlifted with the protection of special military units. They were followed by citizens of Arab countries like Saudi Arabia and citizens of African countries. But most Sudanese people have no choice but to hide in their homes. They can only venture out in fear. Most hospitals no longer function. Water, electricity, and phone service are cut off almost everywhere. Trying to get food at the few places remaining open means risking automatic weapons fire and bombings. But what’s there is just rice sold at exorbitant prices.
Behind this horror, there is the struggle of two generals, head of state Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and his vice president, nicknamed Hemedti. They had united to crush resistance by the population, which had been mobilized since the overthrow of dictator Omar al-Bashir in 2019. But now they fight each other. Al-Burhan commands the official army, with its tanks, helicopters, and air force. Hemedti leads the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), with its pickup trucks armed with modern machine guns. Together they control all sectors of the economy. Industrial and commercial enterprises are in Al-Burhan’s hands, while Hemedti literally controls gold. Sudan is the second largest producer of gold in Africa.
The fighting is not only in the capital city, Khartoum. All major cities in Sudan are affected, as well as rural areas like Darfur, which has already suffered its share of deadly war. Sudanese refugees flee en masse to neighboring Chad, which is now using its army to close its border.
If today the great powers appeal for an end to the fighting, so far, they have helped arm both protagonists to the teeth via their regional allies. Behind Al-Burhan is Egypt, abundantly equipped militarily by France and the U.S. One of the first acts in this civil war was the capture by the RSF of an air base where Egyptian and Sudanese air forces were carrying out joint maneuvers. The RSF captured Egyptian pilots. Hemedti’s men are no longer just the “demons on horseback” they were called in Arabic when they hunted the people of Darfur in the 2000s, claiming 300,000 lives. They became dictator al-Bashir’s praetorian guard. They also fought in the war in Yemen alongside Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, which stocked their war supplies.
This conflict threatens to set the whole region on fire. Either protagonist might gain the upper hand in some part of the country and install his own power there. Sudan’s unity is fragile. The country brings together a multitude of peoples, many of whom want to secede, as already happened with South Sudan. Both camps appeal to their regional sponsors. Neighboring countries might take advantage of the opportunity. For example, eastern neighbor Ethiopia hopes to recover a border region, the Fashaga Triangle, where armed incidents are multiplying. Meanwhile Egypt opposes Ethiopia for building a dam on the Nile that could deprive Egypt of part of the river’s water.
In this powder keg, the population has nothing to expect from the great powers except more escalation of the war—just as wars have bloodied Ethiopia, Yemen, Syria, and Iraq. The ordinary people of Sudan can only count on themselves to ward off these criminal generals, just as they did in 2019 in overthrowing al-Bashir.
May 1, 2023
This article is translated from the April 28 issue #2856 of Lutte Ouvrière (Workers’ Struggle), the newspaper of the revolutionary workers group of that name active in France.
A wave of strikes started on April 22 in the oil and gas industry in southern Iran near Asaluyeh. The strikes spread to other cities and other companies, especially metalwork.
The strike was prepared by activist networks formed during previous strikes. In particular, a committee of oil and subcontracting workers had formed during a strike for better working conditions in 2020 and a strike for permanent jobs for gig workers in 2021. The call to strike was also relayed by other informal committees, such as one which led a teachers’ strike in 2021, and by regularly-repressed unofficial unions, such as among workers at the Haft Tapeh sugar mill. Links forged between militants during the revolt against the police killing of Jina Mahsa Amini last September 16 help spread information—even if only on social media—which is otherwise withheld by the Islamic Republic’s media.
The initiators call this the “1402 campaign,” as they launched it on the second day of the second month of the year 1402 of the Persian calendar. They waited until after the important Persian New Year holiday of Nowruz and after Ramadan, in order to launch the strike in the best possible circumstances. The strikers listed their demands. The main demand is for an 80% increase in all wages, including for workers in subcontracting. Iranian president Ebrahim Raisi proposed 27%. But annual inflation is well over 50%!
According to information circulating on social networks, the strike seems very popular in the South Pars gas field, which brings together more than 10,000 workers in dozens of refineries and factories. The strike spread to big oil and metalwork factories in Kerman, Yadz, Isfahan and Shiraz. The demands are shared by millions of Iranian workers in all sectors. They have every reason to join the fight, faced with shortages, the high cost of living and the regime’s corruption.
The strikes started at the same time the regime is contested despite the harsh repression it deploys. Images of a student cadet in the pro-regime Basij militia interrupting a speech by Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ali Khamenei went around the world. A video showing a young couple dancing in front of the Azadi Tower monument in Tehran—with the young woman’s hair flying free—has spread on social networks.
That young couple was sentenced to 10 years in prison but despite the risks, other young people are challenging the regime in different cities in Iran. Thousands of parents accuse the government of permitting, organizing, or actually ordering gas or chemical poisonings of schoolgirls in recent weeks. These poisonings aim to frighten young women who publicly refuse to wear the Islamic headscarf and who also shout, “Death to the dictator!” These reprisals prove that the fire is still smoldering. Acts of defiance show that mass revolt can break out again at any time.
The “1402 campaign” shows the organizational capacity and the indispensable social and economic role of workers in Iran, far beyond the oil sector. Their combativeness and their weight in society make workers a force that could take the lead in the revolt against the regime—without letting the revolt be taken over by the various coalitions active in exile, which all respect the social order.
May 1, 2023
What follows is the editorial that appeared on the front of all SPARK’s workplace newsletters during the week of April 24, 2023.
Leaks of classified U.S. military documents on social media confirm that the U.S. and NATO provided almost everything Ukraine needed to keep its side of the war going. And from the beginning.
The U.S. Congress committed 115 billion dollars to Ukraine. The U.S. military funneled tons of high tech weapons into Ukraine. It trained Ukrainian soldiers on how to use them. It kept munitions flooding into the battle. It provided military intelligence used to target Russian forces. It sent advisers to direct the Ukrainian army and fascist nationalists who made up Ukraine’s deadliest units. It did everything but supply the actual cannon fodder, the ones who fight and die.
But even now, some of the U.S. military’s advanced forces sit just miles away from this war. A brigade of the 82nd Airborne Division trains in Poland; another from the 101st Airborne Division is deployed in Romania. All told, counting support units attached to these brigades, 22,000 American troops sit on the edge of the battlefield, available to be in this war as soon as the order comes down.
What is the U.S. interest in Ukraine? In the immediate sense, the U.S. is continuing a policy it has had ever since the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991. It has been dividing up the various republics that once made up the only country strong enough to counter U.S. influence in the world. It swept up countries of Eastern Europe into NATO’s fold, offering them arms and trade at “a very good price.” It brought in some of the old Soviet Republics. It worked systematically to isolate Russia, the strongest part of the old Soviet Union. Through NATO, it approached Ukraine, the one republic to which Russia was the most linked.
Putin responded in a monstrous way to U.S. imperialism’s invitation to Ukraine. He launched missiles and tanks into Ukraine.
But U.S. imperialism had been preparing for this confrontation for a long time. U.S. leaders knew they were playing a deadly game—but they were gambling with the lives of Ukrainians who would soon be plunged into war, and with the lives of Russian soldiers who would be sent into Ukraine.
U.S. imperialism’s immediate aim in this war is to keep it going so as to weaken Russia.
But behind the immediate U.S. objective lies a deeper one—that is, to prepare for the much wider war that the military and government heads of the big powers know is coming.
In Ukraine, the U.S. Pentagon is testing its armored vehicles, its cannons, its command structure, communications network, intelligence systems—in order to upgrade everything. It used the war to get rid of old weapons and ammunition, placing enormous orders with its war industry not only to replace weapons sent to Ukraine, but to build a bigger military, at the population’s expense.
The Ukrainian war has allowed the U.S. and major European governments to transform their economies into “war economies.” And, in carrying out propaganda for Ukraine in this war, they are working to enlist the support of their own populations for the wars that are to come.
The root cause of this war—and of the wars to come after it—does not lie with Russia or Ukraine. It lies with the ongoing economic crisis of the world capitalist system. The economy stumbles along from bank failure to severe recession to sudden outbreak of inflation, to corporate and city bankruptcies. The ruling circles of the capitalist world try to patch it up, but they can’t put it right.
The only thing they found to save their economy from immediate collapse is an enormous—and ever increasing—amount of military spending. In only a few years, military spending doubled. The only force that has the capacity to stop this drive to a wider war, to a new world war, is the working class. Today, most working people are not conscious of what their class can do, and they are not organized as a class even to defend themselves on the issues right in front of them.
But those of us who want to see an end to constant war, and all the ills of capitalist society, have only one road we can take. We must work to develop the organization of the working class.
May 1, 2023
Here are some strikes that are currently going on or have recently taken place in the U.S. While these strikes remain isolated and separated, they show that some workers are ready to fight today. And any strike always brings the possibility of a wider and more generalized fight that starts in one place and spreads. That is what is needed!
Over 350 workers of UNITE HERE Local 11 are on strike since April 10 against Flying Food Group at LAX International Airport. The workers prep in-flight meals. On April 29 they held a 50-car caravan through LAX with signs alerting passengers to FFG’s unfair labor practices. They have worked without a contract since June 2022. A worker with 12 years’ time is still stuck at $18.04. Workers also demand that management cease harassment of women workers.
Teamsters Local 830 is on strike against Liberty Coca-Cola in Philadelphia. The 450 drivers and warehouse workers went out April 16 after the company offered them only yearly 3% raises over 5 years. Coke has raised its store prices and makes record profits. The local sheriff is protecting the temp drivers that the company is using to try to break the strike.
Teamsters Local 667 in Memphis unanimously accepted a new contract on April 23, after striking Republic Services waste management since April 12. The five-year deal is reported to raise the average pay by about 13% and add one more sick day to the 7 they had. The 88 Teamsters had no contract for over a year. They struck after a 30-year seniority worker was killed at a Republic landfill.
Staff at Goddard College in Plainfield, Vermont, ended a 28-day strike for higher pay and more time off. The tentative agreement is yet to be voted on. It’s reported to be a 1-year deal with 5.75% raises for staff making under $20, and 3% raises for those making more than $20. Other details are not yet public. The 28 staff of UAW Local 2322 had worked over 1 year without a contract before the strike.
Staff at New York’s Hispanic Society of America Museum and Library have been on strike since March 27. A year and a half of talks on a first contract with museum management got nowhere. The 19 workers need health care and a living wage. Organized with the UAW in 2021, the workers are the first museum employees to walk off the job since 2000, when employees at the Museum of Modern Art went on strike for 134 days.
May 1, 2023
Harry Belafonte, Jr. is dead at the age of 96. Well-known as a singer and actor, Belafonte was also a lifelong outspoken political activist.
Belafonte was born in Harlem to Jamaican immigrants. For most of his childhood he was raised solely by his mother who struggled with poverty. He also lived for part of his childhood with his grandmother in Jamaica, where he experienced the treatment of black Jamaicans by British authorities.
Belafonte dropped out of high school and joined the Navy in 1944. While there, he met politically conscious black sailors who talked to him about racial segregation and colonialism. Like many World War II veterans, he came to see the contradiction of being told he was fighting for freedom abroad only to return to segregation at home in the U.S.
While working as a janitor in New York, Belafonte attended acting classes with the likes of Marlon Brando, Tony Curtis, and Bea Arthur. He began singing folk, pop, and jazz songs in New York clubs, backed by musicians like Miles Davis and Charlie Parker.
He recorded his first album in 1954, and his next two albums quickly rose to the top of the charts. His third album, “Calypso," included his signature hit, "Day-O (the Banana Boat Song)." The popularity of calypso music allowed Belafonte to become known to a wider audience.
Throughout this time Belafonte continued to act, on Broadway and in several films. In 1959, he turned down a role in the film version of "Porgy and Bess" which he saw as racially demeaning. He credited that decision with fueling his rebel spirit. He also said he found a mentor in fellow singer, actor, and political activist Paul Robeson, a Communist blacklisted in the McCarthy Period. He referred to Robeson as part of his "moral compass." Belafonte also credited Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. as another of his mentors.
For the rest of his life, he used the platform provided to him by his fame as a singer and actor to speak out against injustice, saying that, in fact, that was most important to him. He bailed King out of jail in Birmingham, Alabama in 1963. He raised money for King’s Southern Christian Leadership Conference, the Freedom Riders, and the Student Non-violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC).
During the 1960s, Belafonte continued to experience racism from corporate sponsors like Revlon and Chrysler-Plymouth for simply appearing in films and television shows with white actresses.
Undeterred, Belafonte continued to make his voice heard. He later spoke out against apartheid in South Africa and the AIDS crisis in Africa and met with Fidel Castro and Venezuela’s President Hugo Chavez. He spoke out against George W. Bush’s supposed war on terror by calling him the “greatest terrorist in the world” and criticized Colin Powell and Condoleezza Rice for collaborating with Bush. He criticized Barack Obama over Guantanamo Bay detentions. Even in his later years, he lent his voice in support of protesters against the murder of George Floyd.
Though not a revolutionary, Harry Belafonte refused to simply rest on his fame and popularity as a singer and actor, but instead used them to continue to speak out.
May 1, 2023
In late March, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services rejected a petition for a price cut on Xtandi, a drug that drastically improves survival rates of patients suffering from deadly prostate cancer. Although it is inexpensive to manufacture this drug, Pfizer and Astellas sell it in the U.S. at a staggering price of nearly $190,000 a year.
Typically, pharmaceutical companies can use patent protection to skim very high profits, with gross margins exceeding 90%, according to the University of Auburn, Alabama researchers. So, by holding a license to Xtandi’s patent and keeping this drug’s price so staggeringly high, Pfizer and Astellas astoundingly enriched themselves from the sufferings of prostate cancer patients.
The Biden Administration may claim that it wants to reduce high drug prices. But it rejected this petition related to one of the most expensive drugs in the market today. In fact, the Biden Administration, like every other administration, protects drug companies’ profits by allowing them to charge whatever they want on life-saving drugs.
Most drugs are invented based on scientific research funded by the U.S. government and done in universities and institutions. Xtandi, which is only one other example, was invented and patented by a public university, the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), in 2006. Later, UCLA gave Pfizer and Astellas marketing control of this drug through a patent license. As a result of this license, Pfizer and Astellas hugely benefited from its sales.
Theoretically, the U.S. government could seize licensing rights to drug patents developed with taxpayers’ money, under the so-called “march-in rights” of the Bayh-Dole Act, and license them to other entities for their inexpensive commercialization.
But the U.S. Government never does this. Only eight petitions were filed during 43 years of the Bayh-Dole law’s existence to decrease drug prices to reasonable levels. The U.S. Government rejected all the petitions, making this law a cruel joke.
This drug case is another example of business as usual under capitalism. The government enforces not its meaningless laws, but the rights of companies to gouge prices. We pay for such dumbfounding prices through our lives.