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
Sep 19, 2011
Three years ago, the banks, buried under record amounts of debt and speculation, practically stopped functioning. Lending and borrowing ground to a halt, bringing the whole world economy to its knees.
Governments all over the world threw huge amounts of money at the banks, putting them back in business. But now the governments are buried under so much debt, governments are threatened by bankruptcy, unleashing even worse crises. So only three years after the last financial crisis, we are mired at the beginning of a new one–worse than the last one.
Even the biggest defenders of the capitalist system know that the ongoing financial crisis will not and cannot be contained to the financial sphere. Finance is not only a gigantic game of Monopoly, played with paper money, with everyone going home when the game is over. The billions lost in the ups and downs of speculation, are drawn from human labor, from the wear and tear on the workers, from their exploitation. And the financial sphere makes up an integral part of the economy, just as a cancerous tumor is part of the body that it destroys.
A banking crisis, that is, the severe restriction of credit for the economy, even the present threat of credit drying up, impacts production itself, employment and wages. This already constitutes a huge waste for society, and it is only the beginning.
The defenders of the capitalist system engage in a false debate: Should Greece be saved or not? Should the Euro be saved or not? Can the U.S. government debt be eliminated? It all boils down to one thing: to make the workers, retirees and unemployed accept new sacrifices.
For the working class, the main problems are not this government debt. The workers’ problem is how to protect themselves from unemployment and rising prices. All the rest is just a smokescreen.
No matter what solutions the heads of all the Central Banks–the U.S. Federal Reserve, the European Central Bank, etc.–impose, those proposals won’t save the workers who lost their jobs and are unemployed, who are living in poverty today and threatened with misery tomorrow.
For the workers to protect their interests, they must defend themselves from the capitalists’ and the bankers’ so-called solutions as much as from the disasters produced by their economy.
To fight unemployment, workers must depend on their own collective action, refusing to allow any layoffs. Instead, the workers must confront the bosses, demand that the work be spread out among everyone, without a loss in pay for anyone.
After a number of years of mild inflation, the capitalist class is once again resorting to raising prices, as it has so often done in the past, in order to empty the pockets of the working class. Until the workers are strong enough and conscious enough to fight the capitalists over who controls the economy, there is no way to prevent the rise in prices within the framework of capitalism. But we can prevent these price increases from lowering our purchasing power, by forcing the bosses to accept an automatic indexing of wages and of pensions tied to the rise in prices.
As long as this economic system endures, the working class cannot prevent capitalism from tearing society apart. For capitalism ties the economy and society to the private ownership of the means of production and the anarchic race for individual profit.
But workers can protect their fundamental interests, their jobs and their wages, by collective action. This is the vital objective today and for the period to come.
Sep 19, 2011
The power outage of September 8 caused huge disruptions throughout San Diego County of California and adjacent areas.
The power company blamed the blackout on one worker, but even if that’s true, how is it possible that one mistake by one person can bring down the system for millions of people in the U.S. and Mexico? There are no back-ups?
It’s a failure of the whole system, which leaves vital services needed by the population in the hands of private companies, whose bosses cut left and right in order to maximize profit.
Sep 19, 2011
The federal government spends much MORE when hiring private contractors than it would if it hired workers directly and did the work in-house. Billions more.
This makes perfect sense–private companies are out to make a profit. A huge portion of the money spent on contractors goes to the folks at the top–for their big pay and bonuses, profits distributed to stockholders or owners, as well as administrative costs, costs for bidding on contracts, kickbacks to politicians, etc.–not to the workers who do the work. It’s much LESS efficient than if government workers do the job themselves.
Finally, a new study by the Project on Government Oversight (POGO) has shown that the government pays twice as much for work done outside.
The study was very limited because the POGO looked only at the one set of contracts it could get its hands on. There are very many more contracts in many more departments that the government keeps under close wraps. So the findings of the study should be multiplied many times.
The federal government pays out roughly 320 billion dollars a year to private contractors. If it’s paying those contractors twice as much as they would spend by paying workers directly, that’s 160 billion dollars a year that it’s wasting.
Not to mention–if it’s true for the federal government, it’s also true for every state, local government and school district that has outsourced so many departments to private contractors in recent years. They tell us that “private” means “cheaper.”–Not true!
THIS is a BIG part of where those government deficits are going: into the pockets of the owners of private companies, paid many times what it would cost governments to do the work themselves. It’s a huge boondoggle to corporate profit, using taxpayer money.
They want to balance their budgets? Get rid of the contractors and bring the work back in-house! Hire MORE workers directly. Don’t cut OUR jobs, or OUR wages, or OUR benefits and services!
Sep 19, 2011
Biofuels, an energy source presented as “green,” are produced from corn, wheat, sugar beets, rapeseed, sugar cane, sunflowers, peanuts, or even palm oil. These crops are made into ethanol, which is added to gasoline or diesel fuel. These fuels supposedly then have the virtue of a positive carbon balance, that is, they are supposed to pollute less than regular fossil fuels.
Studies have already shown that biofuels have as bad an impact on the environment as petroleum-based products do. The production of biofuels requires energy for fertilizer, transportation, tools and crop irrigation. Those factors wind up releasing between 27 million and 56 million tons of additional CO
Big corporations have obtained subsidies and tax credits since 2000 to expand the production of biofuels. These gifts add up to eleven billion dollars a year in the U.S. alone.
In this modern-day gold rush, big agribusiness cleared away hundreds of millions of acres of forests in Indonesia, Malaysia and Brazil, worsening climate problems. And it took over fertile lands that used to be devoted to food crops, converting to crops for use as biofuels.
With the production of foodstuffs turned to making biofuel, the world has gone through a food crisis since 2002, with prices soaring and ever more people facing starvation.
The global balance sheet is disastrous, no matter what claims are made. And the human balance sheet has claimed far too many victims.
Sep 19, 2011
Chicago mayor Rahm Emanuel has declared war on Chicago teachers and their union. At issue is the length of the school day. Mayor Emanuel wants elementary students in school for an hour and a half longer every school day. In exchange, he’s “offered” teachers a two% raise. This comes after Emanuel’s school board refused to pay teachers a four% raise called for in their contract.
The teachers union, noting that the extra money comes out to $3.50 for every extra hour of work, turned down Emanuel’s proposal.
Since Emanuel could not bully the teachers and their union, he’s turned to picking off individual schools. Principals have used pressure tactics and bribes at some smaller elementary schools to break them away from the union.
But out of 477 Chicago elementary schools, Emanuel has thus far rammed his idea through at only seven.
Of course, it could benefit children to be in school longer. But there are many ways this could be carried out, without forcing teachers to work too many hours for too little pay. For starters, Chicago could hire more teachers!
But better schooling is not what Emmanuel has in mind. He just wants students off the streets and out of sight. He himself has said it.
Whatever they learn depends not on Emanuel’s bullying tactics but on whether teachers have the time needed to prepare and teach, whether books and supplies are there, whether schools are maintained adequately, whether individual help is available for students who come to school unprepared.
And Emanuel isn’t talking about this.
Sep 19, 2011
In an interview with the Detroit News, John Covington, the newly appointed chancellor of Michigan’s “Education Achievement Authority,” said that teachers’ “mindset needs to change. All 25 kids in classroom will need to have differentiated instruction to overcome deficiencies they have. That is something that does not occur in public education.”
You’re absolutely right, Mr. Covington; that kind of education needs to happen. And how will a teacher give that individual, differentiated education–after playing the role of record-keeper, counselor, disciplinarian, custodian and nurse for 35 students–not 25–because all the social workers, nurses, custodians and many other teachers have been laid off?
What kind of mindset will allow them to accomplish the impossible under these conditions?!
Sep 19, 2011
Corn Products, the big company in Argo, Illinois is buying back its own stock. This is the mark of a company with plenty of profits, which it doesn’t want to put into more investment, but instead returns to the stockholders.
The money is there to create jobs. But the owners stop new investment and don’t create jobs.
This capitalist system itself is bankrupt.
Sep 19, 2011
Oil refinery profits are sharply up almost everywhere around the country, but particularly in the Midwest. This may seem odd since the economic crisis that has hit parts of the Midwest particularly hard has caused demand for gasoline, diesel fuel and many other refinery products to drop off.
What’s happening is that Midwestern refineries are paying about 25% less for the crude oil they process compared to just four months ago. But they have reduced the price they charge for the gasoline they make by only by about 10%. And they are pocketing the difference to boost their profits way up.
Keeping energy prices up this way increases the price of almost everything else, too. So retail sales fall more, big corporations cut back more and small businesses fail more. It drives the economy even further down.
One oil industry analyst admitted this might not be good, but said, “It’s how the economic system works sometimes.”
Yes, but the bosses’ lust for ever more profits is also why the whole economic system is not working for the rest of us right now, too!
Sep 19, 2011
The imperialist powers of the anti-Qaddafi coalition couldn’t wait for the end of combat to start the race for oil, gas and infrastructure contracts. They are showing what they really came looking for in Libya.
Build, destroy, rebuild, there is always business. And the industrial companies are more interested in these markets than freedom for the Libyan population.
Military coalition members are jostling and scrambling to grab a war dividend from Libya’s resources of gas, and even more important, its oil reserves estimated at 45 billion barrels.
The war for markets has only just begun. If the experts can be believed, Libya will be “a true Eldorado for French and British businesses who supported the National Transition Council.” Sarkozy, president of France, got a jump start on other coalition members by recognizing the National Transition Council (NTC). The NTC returned the favor, claiming it would reserve 35% of the oil contracts for France. On the other hand, Italy, the old colonial power in Libya, which didn’t intervene militarily, will lose ground.
But nothing is settled. The United Arab Emirates and Qatar also brought military and financial support to the Libyan insurgents. The UAE wants to gain control of Libyan ports, while Qatar is looking to obtain gas. The U.S. and Great Britain have already “settled oil contracts on good terms with the post-Qaddafi regime,” according to the news media.
Then in June, Libya’s NTC threw out a bombshell: it cancelled contracts obtained by bribes. But it quickly backpedaled, not wanting to annoy its imperialist supporters. In July, it promised to honor all financial and oil contracts made under the Qaddafi regime, bribes included.
Business goes on as usual in the “new” Libya, just like the old. The living conditions of the Libyan population, as well as any democratic freedoms, are the least concern of the great powers and these industrial companies.
Sep 19, 2011
The following article is from the August 2011 issue of Class Struggle [Sinif Mucadelesi], the newspaper published by the revolutionary workers’ group of that name active in Turkey.
In the Hatay region of Turkey, a young woman of 21 left her husband, expecting to find refuge for herself and her daughter at her father’s. Instead, she was murdered by her father, brothers, and uncles. She had supposedly sullied the family’s honor by preferring to marry the man of her choice rather than a cousin. She paid for it with her life!
In another region, a woman who wanted a divorce was beaten and strangled by her husband, who also poured acid on her face. In the capital Ankara, two women were killed by their husbands while their children watched. Four other women were also massacred this way.
Women are thus murdered by their own relatives. If we believe the polls, the “average” Turk is “satisfied,” feeling the “family” upheld. But such a family order needs to disappear—immediately!
Deadly violence against women in the family is linked to the persistence of old, reactionary ideas. This society of poverty and inequality supports such rubbish—with consequences for all human relations.
When the man is considered the sole master in the family, wrong is always attributed to women.
Added to this are the reactionary religious ideas encouraged by politicians. Allied to religious institutions, the politicians defend the view that men challenged by women must defend their honor; that men should decide when and whom a woman can marry and prohibit a woman from having any other sexual relations. In the family, the last word must remain with men—this is what is taught in conferences organized by associations, private schools and city governments. Both the Turkish prime minister and the president recently exhibited their spouses wearing veils, docile and smiling at the side of their husbands. The clear message is that they are the man’s property and his slave.
In theory, the Turkish Constitution and civil code were updated in 2008 to improve the rights of women. But women face exactly the same attitudes from the officials supposed to enforce these codes that they face from their husbands. Police often send a woman back to her violent husband with remarks like, “He’s your husband, make peace with him.” The majority of police think like the violent husbands, considering them always right.
In these circumstances the prime minister declared, “Women aren’t the equal of men, they are only equal in rights.” This could encourage all those who despise women.
Enough of these ideas and reactionary practices. The assassinations of women must be stopped!
Sep 19, 2011
In July, news spread in Japan that contaminated beef had made it to supermarkets and school cafeterias. The level of radioactive cesium found in the beef was three to six times the already elevated levels called “acceptable” by the Japanese government.
Since the earthquake and nuclear disaster at TEPCO’s Fukushima Daiichi power plant on March 11, the Japanese government has done practically nothing to protect the population. The contamination in beef, which appears to have come from areas neighboring the Fukushima region, was first discovered because some farmers sent their straw or cattle to independent laboratories.
And this comes on top of reports about contaminated spinach, milk, fish and tea leaves.
In trying to hide the true extent of contamination from the population, the government has revealed its priority: shielding the big power company, TEPCO, from liability.
Everyone else be damned.
Sep 19, 2011
In Libya, black African immigrants have been the victims of a series of attacks, carried out by the militias of the new regime. Black men and women are being attacked in the streets, in their homes and even in the hospitals.
According to witnesses, their attackers claim the Africans are all mercenaries in the pay of Qadaffi. In reality, Libya employs around two million workers from sub-Saharan countries, as well as from Tunisia and Egypt. Primarily they work in construction, but also in repair work and other jobs. These immigrant workers make up 30% of the country’s population.
Under Qadaffi they lived in extremely insecure conditions, at the mercy of the police and armed gangs. In September 2000, racist riots killed about 100 immigrants. The victims served as scapegoats for discontent about increased unemployment. Three years later, when Qadaffi began to renew relations with the big powers, immigrants became an object of negotiations. Qadaffi proposed, in return for money, to use his police to hold back immigrants who tried to seek refuge in Europe. For its part, the European Union, according to the human rights organization Amnesty International, “shut its eyes to the terrible balance sheet with respect to human rights.”
In August 2008, a “friendship treaty” was signed between Qadaffi and the Italian government of Berlusconi, representing the old colonial power which had dominated Libya. Italian capitalists got access to a new market, while the dictator agreed to participate in the “struggle against terrorism and ... illegal immigration.” Joint naval patrols were organized in the Mediterranean. This obviously didn’t make immigration to Europe stop, but moved it further east, in even more dangerous conditions.
Today the new regime–put in place with the help of the imperialist powers–carries out the same attacks. The representatives of the imperialist world who pillaged Africa while sowing misery are at the origin of an incalculable number of tragedies–as much for those who remain in Libya as for those who risk their lives to cross the Saharan desert and then the Mediterranean.
Sep 19, 2011
Manufacturers have just announced a 30 to 40% increase in the price of raw sugar for next October. So the prices of products using sugar are going to soar.
These big sugar companies blame climate conditions in the tropical zones, where most sugar cane is produced. Or perhaps it’s the result of a bad harvest in Brazil, which might cause a shortage of sugar.
But we are supposed to forget that most of Brazil’s sugar cane is diverted for use in biofuels. That’s what Oxfam, an organization fighting world hunger, has pointed out. Thanks to a rise in the price of oil, manufacturers of sugar cane can get more money from the energy sector than from use of their product in foods. The sordid law of the market therefore led to less sugar for use in food, more than a bad harvest did.
But that isn’t the only problem. Since the economic crash in 2008, speculation has made the price of basic foodstuffs soar. According to Oxfam, “the world price of foodstuffs is almost 40% higher than a year ago. The most striking example is the 14% increase in one month of the world price of sugar.”
So, it is the financial institutions of the main capitalist countries which, pouncing on food products like sugar, provoke the increase in the price and reap tremendous profits–to the detriment of the population of the world.
Sep 19, 2011
Troy Davis is scheduled to be put to death September 21. In 1991, Davis was falsely convicted of killing an off-duty cop in 1989.
Davis, a black man, was convicted despite no physical evidence tying him to the shooting. Since then, seven of nine original eyewitnesses have given sworn statements that police forced them to lie about what happened and they have now withdrawn their earlier statements. And nine other people have also testified that one of the two remaining witnesses was the real killer.
In 2009, the Supreme Court sent the case back to a district court in Georgia for a hearing to present new evidence. There a judge ruled that although Davis presented evidence that cast doubt on his guilt, “reasonable doubt” was no longer enough to win his freedom. He said Davis had not proved his innocence, despite the testimony of all the new witnesses who testified someone else committed the crime. And the Supreme Court refused to rehear it.
It seems that Davis now may have exhausted all of his appeals. As of now, there are only two ways his life can be spared. The Georgia State Board of Pardons and Paroles could grant him clemency. Or President Barack Obama could.
Davis has received international support. Amnesty International and the NAACP presented petitions with more than 630,000 signatures. Kimberly Davis, Troy’s sister, collected another 233,000 on the internet. Numerous celebrities and political figures like former president Jimmy Carter, Desmond Tutu, the pope, and even former FBI director William Sessions have spoken out on Davis’s behalf.
It’s an outrage that the case has dragged on this long, to the point Davis could be put to death on Wednesday in another state-sanctioned murder. If he is put to death, every official who could have prevented it will be complicit in his murder.
Sep 19, 2011
Five women were recently assaulted on the street in Washington, D.C. Two men aggressively came on to two of the women as they walked to the Columbia Heights Metro Station at night. When a third women let the men know none of the women were interested and to leave them alone, saying “She is my girlfriend,” the man went ballistic. Yelling “you fucking dyke bitches, I will kick that bitch’s ass,” he attacked the woman. When the other women came to her defense, at least one other man jumped in to attack them. Police were called by a bystander. They grabbed one of the men. But they refused to take a report from the women or even listen to their story.
No wonder the man taunted and laughed at the women he had just assaulted–he had just been given a get-out-of-jail free card. When the women loudly protested, the police threatened to arrest them for disorderly conduct.
So why the disinterest on the part of the cops? Was it their prejudice against lesbians, or just against women who don’t obey the social role women are expected to play? Whatever the reason, the police, by their inaction condoned the violence used against these five women.
Sep 19, 2011
Only after the mother of one the women, angry and horrified at what happened to her daughter, reached out to the Gay and Lesbian Liaison Unit three days later did the police file a report. It was then that the Gay and Lesbian community became aware of what happened and began to protest the actions of the cops. One of the men has since been arrested and charged with assault.
Not because the cops had a change of heart–but because this violent attack became public.
Sep 19, 2011
A 101-year-old grandmother had no idea she was in danger of being evicted when officers of the 36th District Court showed up at her house with three red dumpsters and started removing everything she owned from her home.
The wheelchair-bound grandmother was put out on the sidewalk, as all of her belongings–accumulated over 58 years in the home–were thrown out, along with all her medications. Neighbors were outraged. “We don’t treat animals like that in the city of Detroit,” said one.
Ms. Texana Hollis ended up being rushed by ambulance to the hospital.
This was an eviction like countless others–only this time an eviction that got glaring national news coverage with the headline, “101 year old granny gets evicted.”
Observers were left scratching their heads, when the news came out that the 101-year-old-granny was put out for a “reverse mortgage.” A “reverse mortgage” means the bank pays you the value of your home, becoming the owner, but letting you stay in until you die.
In this case, the bank paid out $32,000 in 2002–only to watch the value of its house decrease to $5,000 as a result of what the mortgage crisis did to home prices. The bank got its money back from the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) in 2007. And HUD decided to “foreclose” to squeeze some money from granny.
Outrageous foreclosures happen every day. But this one became a big issue since the intended victim had reached the impressive age of 101 years.
Facing damning publicity, HUD quickly reversed itself. A spokesperson said: “Truth be told, this foreclosure action shouldn’t have been brought forward in the first place.”
Staying at a friend’s house while her own home is put back in order by volunteers, Ms. Hollis said: “It seems like the whole world has come together to help me, a poor woman.”
Sep 19, 2011
Announcing they had a new contract at GM, which is supposed to set a pattern for Chrysler and Ford, UAW leaders immediately began to “leak” some selling points. Of course, they kept the concessions buried.
But even the “selling points” show that the 2011 contract is filled with concessions.
The new GM contract supposedly raises the “second-tier” wage range from $14 to $16 an hour today up to $16 to $19—but only over four years time.
Even if two tier workers at GM and Chrysler got the whole $2 an hour the first year, that would not make up for the concessions stolen from them in the 2009 re-opener, which amounted to more than $4,000 a worker.
By the way, if Ford second-tier workers are making more than their counterparts at GM and Chrysler today, it’s because all Ford workers voted down the October 2009 concessions!!!
Workers at the Labor Day march were asked about the contract. Many shared the view expressed by one Ford worker: “Even auto workers who don’t make the lower wage would like to see it brought up to full pay.”
Top national UAW leaders may not understand the need for solidarity, but workers do.
Trying to sell auto workers more of what they already hate, the pitchmen sugar-coat it with a signing bonus, apparently $5,000 at GM.
That is $13,000 LESS than what first-tier workers would get with a simple 3% raise every year.
And it’s $20,000 LESS than what second-tier workers would get if their wages were brought up to the current standard wage.
They admit they haven’t paid us our “share”—but under the new formula they won’t either. For years, they’ve put most of the profits made from the autos we produce into the accounts of their finance companies and the banks!
Nothing in the new deal stops them from shifting profits to finance.
Speaking to corporate bosses at the Detroit Economics Club just before Labor Day, UAW President Bob King said, “We are going to make sure the companies are competitive coming out of these agreements.... Heck, we all want a wage increase, but is that the best way?”
Apparently it was the best way for you Bob, and the rest of the top leadership of the UAW when you voted yourselves a salary increase at the last UAW convention. It sure was the best way for the top guys at all the companies, already making millions of dollars a year.
When King and UAW Vice President Joe Ashton announced the contract, they said they had “protected” workers’ health care.
Yes, and we know exactly what they did. King already publicly admitted that he would help company negotiators find “creative ways” to cut health care costs—in other words, the kind workers can’t see when they look at the contract “highlights.”
What’s creative about putting more on us, Bob?
Nothing has changed in those other concessions lost in the last contracts:
BREAK TIME—ten minutes less a day kills you.
SKILLED TRADES COMBO—classifications merge with more work put on everyone.
HEALTH—we have hernias, repetitive motion injuries, torn rotator cuffs.
TIME WITH OUR FAMILIES AND SLEEP—these so-called Alternative Work Schedules destroy all that.
OUR HOMES—some of us have worked at as many as five different plants; some had to walk away from their homes; some were separated from their families or even lost their marriages.
This is all part of keeping the auto companies “competitive”—meaning more profit for them, a worse life for us.
King and Ashton also said they had “defended” retiree pensions and health care.
Sure—except they left retirees with the same low pensions they went out with 6, 7, 8 or 9, even 10 and 11 years ago—while inflation ate away their monthly check.
UAW officials won’t be able to convince most auto workers that this is a decent contract.
So, at GM and Chrysler, they will try to scare workers into voting “yes” on it with threats—don’t let it go to the arbitrator. It would be worse, they say.
Maybe, maybe not. But why vote for something you know is awful? Why stab yourself in the back? It’s an open invitation to the companies to come back and ask for more concessions a year or two down the road, just like 2009.
Union leaders have also said this contract will keep certain plants open and outsourced work brought back “in-house.”
These are the same promises made for job security in the 2007 contract. And where did that get us? In 2007, GM had 86,000 hourly workers, Chrysler had 47,000, and Ford had 58,300, for a total of 191,300. Today, only four years later, there are only 112,000 workers at the three companies all together.
That’s what their job promises are worth: 79,300 jobs lost!
If the companies are worried about higher “fixed costs,” let them cut their executive and upper managements’ salaries, big, big bonuses and perks. Let them get rid of all the wasteful ways they manage white collar workers—engineers, pattern makers, designers, office workers—as well as the wasteful way they organize production on the factory floor. Above all, stop paying out profits to shareholders who do nothing but collect dividends every three months.
Let the benefit of the work go to those who do the work.