SOCIALIST ISSUE #103 l MAY 2024
ALTERNATIVE
PROTEST! OCCUPY! WALKOUT! STRIKE!
BUILD A
subscription address box
MASS MOVEMENT TO STOP THE SLAUGHTER IN GAZA
ORGANIZING THE SOUTH Page 6
ABORTION RIGHTS – PUSH BACK THE FAR RIGHT Page 4
WILL VOTING FOR THE “LESSER EVIL” STOP TRUMP?
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WHY I JOINED SOCIALIST ALTERNATIVE
SHUBAN KUKARUBAN, SEATTLE Any sort of engagement in politics and certainly anything to do with socialism was discouraged in the conservative environment I grew up in. While Houston is one of the more racially diverse cities in the United States, you can see segregation everywhere you look. The workplace is one example I noticed working as a bagger at a grocery store. Black and Latino people make up the majority of Houston’s population but occupy mostly low-level, low-wage jobs. Of course, conservative media chalk these up to racial stereotypes like laziness and stupidity,
ignoring the reality of racist economic disparity forcing people into precarious positions. All of this segregation exists in a city run by Democrats who have done nothing to address these racial disparities. While ideologically a socialist for a while, Socialist Alternative provided me an outlet to take actionable steps for actual material change. The organization’s emphasis on fighting discrimination through working-class solidarity was especially compelling to me. I saw corporations and the democrats co-opting the George Floyd movement to get more sales and votes, positing solutions which don’t help working-class people in any meaningful way. Socialist Alternative on the other hand won the Amazon Tax to fund affordable housing during the protests through mass mobilization of working people. Another victory was Seattle becoming the first city outside South Asia to ban caste discrimination. Myself and others from upper-castes along with those from lower-castes joined together in our shared interest as workers to prohibit this form of discrimination from bosses and landlords. Socialist Alternative continues to use this working-class solidarity approach today with the massacre unfolding in Gaza, calling on the solidarity of the American and Israeli working-class with Palestinians as a crucial way to end the occupation. J
WHAT WE STAND FOR No To Imperialist Wars • We call for an immediate, permanent ceasefire in Gaza; an end to US military aid to Israel; and an end to the occupation and siege of Palestine. • Build a massive anti-war, anti-imperialist movement linking up student protests with workers across borders, for the end to Israel’s massacre in Gaza and to challenge the capitalist powers whose geopolitical chess game continually throws working people into the meatgrinder of war. • Build support for student protests; drop all charges against students; labor unions should mobilize their resources and members to support student protests, and oppose US support for Israel’s brutal invasion of Gaza. • Socialist Alternative completely opposes Russian imperialism’s brutal invasion of Ukraine. We oppose military aid from Western imperialist countries, which only fuel this war and devastate the lives of working people. • We oppose the aggressive imperialist agenda of NATO and the US, for whom Ukrainians are a pawn in the wider Cold War conflict with Chinese imperialism. • De-escalating the rapidly deteriorating situation in Ukraine requires the return of Russian troops to the barracks in Russia and the withdrawal of all NATO troops from Eastern Europe. • Build a mass anti-war protest at the Democratic Party Convention in Chicago in August. No support for Biden and the
pro-imperialist Democratic Party. • No trust in the nationalist, fake “anti-war” position taken by Trump and other rightwing populists: Only socialist internationalism can end war and destruction and win lasting peace and stability for the working masses around the world!
Rebuild A Fighting Labor Movement • Inflation, unaffordable healthcare, sky high rents, and a lack of basic respect on the job are pushing hundreds of thousands of workers to go on strike. We need effective strikes that hit the bosses where it hurts most – their wallet – to win lasting victories like Cost of Living Adjustments (COLA). • Build on the success of the UAW organizing victory at Volkswagen. Unions should stop spending hundreds of millions of dollars on electing Democratic Party politicians, and spend it instead on efforts to organize the unorganized and build a workers party. • Union leaders across all unions should accept the average wage of a worker in their industry and should be accountable to their membership and the broader working class. • An injury to one is an injury to all! Unions need to fight all manifestations of racism, sexism, queerphobia, and all forms of oppression as part of the struggle to rebuild a fighting labor movement. • Unions should form consumer protection committees to monitor price increases, which should have the power to review
corporate finances, especially when money is squandered on CEO pay and stock buybacks.
A New Political Party For Working People • Republicans are resorting to divide-andrule scapegoating because the GOP have no real answers to the questions facing working people, but the corporate Democratic Party offers no solution to right-wing attacks against workers and marginalized people and has repeatedly failed to use their majorities to protect our rights. We desperately need a strong, pro-worker candidate to take on Trump and Biden. We support the strongest possible independent, working-class candidate as a step towards building a new working class party.
Mobilize Against Gender Oppression & Attacks On Bodily Autonomy • The overturn of Roe v Wade opened the door for vicious attacks on bodily autonomy across the country. We need a mass movement against the reactionary right on the scale of the 60s and 70s when Roe was first won. • Free, safe, legal abortion. All contraception should be provided at no cost as part of a broad program for reproductive health! • Fight back against brutal anti-trans legislation and all right-wing attacks on LGBTQ people. Noncompliance with these bigoted laws should be organized by the labor movement among workers tasked with enforcing them. • Full legal rights and equality for trans and queer people! We completely oppose the attempts of the right wing to spread antitrans bigotry and isolate LGBTQ people from society. • Fighting gender oppression means fighting for our rights to bodily autonomy, reproductive justice including universal childcare, and Medicare for All including free reproductive and gender-affirming care.
Invest In Our Basic Needs • Pass strong rent control. End economic evictions. Tax the rich and big business to fund permanently affordable, high-quality social housing. • We need a significant raise in the minimum wage and to tie raises to inflation. • An immediate transition to Medicare for All. Take for-profit hospital chains into public ownership and retool them to provide free, state-of-the-art healthcare to all. • Bring back the COVID-era child tax credit and make it permanent. Fully fund highquality, universal childcare. No cuts to food stamps! • Fully fund public education! End school privatization. Give educators an immediate 25% raise and increase staffing. Cancel all student debt and make public college tuition-free.
A Socialist Program For Environmental Disaster • We need fully-funded emergency systems to protect and evacuate people from everincreasing storms, floods, and fires, and we need to tax the rich to reimburse
working people for their destroyed homes and livelihoods. • In the wake of ecological disasters like chemical spills, corporations should immediately be responsible for relocation costs, health costs, and home remediation. • We need a union jobs program to rapidly expand green infrastructure including a massive expansion of free, high quality, fast public transit. • Fossil fuels can’t coexist with a sustainable future – ban new oil and gas drilling and take the top 100 polluting companies into democratic public ownership, while implementing a democratically planned, just transition to 100% green energy!
No Deportations and End Racist Policing • The crisis at the border need not be a crisis for working people: we need to rebuild a movement that unites immigrants and native-born workers against the billionaire class to fight for good union jobs, social housing, and education for all. • No migrant detention or deportation! No border wall expansion! We need full legalization and citizenship rights for all migrants! • There is still a massive fight to be waged against police violence. We need a new movement in the streets and mass organizations of struggle to fight for Black liberation! • End the militarization of police: ban the use of “crowd control” weapons and disarm police on patrol. • Put policing under the control of democratically-elected civilian boards with power over hiring and firing, reviewing budget priorities, and the power to subpoena. • Beyond fighting to end racist policing, we need a struggle against all forms of racism in our society, including segregationist housing and education policies.
The Whole System Is Guilty • Capitalism produces pandemics, poverty, racism, transphobia, environmental destruction, and war. We need an international struggle against this failed system. • Bring the top 500 companies and banks into democratic public ownership. • We need a socialist world! This means a democratic socialist plan for the economy based on the interests of the overwhelming majority of people and the planet.
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EDITORIAL
HANDS OFF RAFAH – BUILD A MOVEMENT AGAINST CAPITALIST WAR!
On the evening of Monday, May 6, Palestinians taking shelter in the small city of Rafah in southern Gaza reported the encroachment of Israeli tanks. The Gaza Strip has been turned into rubble and a mass grave by the bloodthirsty Israeli regime with Benjamin Netanyahu, a corrupt militaristic multimillionaire, at its head. Rafah has been the last refuge for over a million Palestinians who were forced out of their homes, brutalized by ongoing air-bombings, and have suffered a severe shortage of food, water, and medicine. Many who have lost family members and friends took shelter around hospitals and schools before the Israeli military bombed those as well, forcing half the Gazan population to live in makeshift tents or under the night sky on the outskirts of the southern city. In its desperate attempt to inflict as much pain as possible, the Israeli elite, with the backing of both Democrats and Republicans, has completely failed in achieving its basic proclaimed target of eradicating Hamas and bringing back to the Israeli people their loved ones in captivity. In fact, there are reasons to believe that the majority of hostages have been killed while in Gaza, either at the hands of Hamas or IDF bombings. Socialist Alternative is active in the protests on the streets and on campuses across the country. We join millions to demand that the Israeli regime take its hands off Rafah!
LEON PINSKY, NYC
ENDLESS HORROR FOR PALESTINIANS
WAR ON GAZA PASSES SIX-MONTH MARK TOM CREAN, NYC
out – will be living in tents for years to come.
We are six months into an unrelenting Israeli military campaign of state terrorism in Gaza with no end in sight and catastrophic consequences for the population. In recent weeks, the Israeli military has pulled out most of its ground troops. But this should not lead to the false conclusion that this genocidal war is truly winding down. The reality on the ground in Gaza is horrific: over 34,000 officially reported dead, But an even greater disaster could be underway. The Israeli state has been using starvation as a weapon of war, keeping food aid to a trickle, even though somewhat more aid was allowed in in recent weeks. Already in January, 15% of children 6 to 23 months old in Northern Gaza were reported to be “acutely malnourished.” Now Cindy McCain, the director of the World Food Program, has stated that Northern Gaza is now experiencing a “full blown famine.” After six months, Hamas has been significantly degraded but allegedly still has 8,000 soldiers left. There is little prospect of it being completely destroyed. At the same time, there is absolutely no coherent plan for the “day after” in Gaza. Even in the best case scenario, under Israeli occupation, ordinary Palestinians – those who can’t buy their way
Dangerous Escalation
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A key recent development was the dangerous tit for tat between Iran and Israel which began with Israel’s assassination of five Iranian military commanders in an Iranian embassy compound in Damascus, Syria, a highly provocative attack. This then led to an Iranian counterstrike with an estimated 300 missiles and drones which were almost all intercepted by Israeli air defense, with the assistance of US, British, and even Jordanian forces. The further Israeli “response” which hit the Iranian city of Isfahan was derided by the Iranian authorities and the whole episode declared closed. But it is clear that many red lines have been crossed and the pause in the escalation may only be temporary. While both the US and Iran have gone to great lengths to say they want to avoid a regional war, the far right in Israel absolutely does want to expand the conflict and Netanyahu is highly dependent on their support. The escalation with Iran allowed the Israeli regime to temporarily deflect from the catastrophe they have created in Gaza and from the growing pressure to allow more aid into Gaza and for a cease fire. Some in the international solidarity movement will see Iran’s attacks as deserving of
The college encampments have been a source of tremendous inspiration for the anti-war movement. Similar protests should spread into communities and workplaces across the country as Israel moves closer to a full-out ground invasion of Rafah. Where school is still in session, faculty and staff unions should organize walkouts and strikes. Students and staff should coordinate days of protest during schools’ commencement addresses. Joe Biden, who currently sits at the head of US imperialism, has been a key enabler of Israel’s genocidal war. We cannot afford to support him or Trump this November. Unions should rescind their endorsements of Biden immediately! We need to organize mass protests at the Democratic National Convention this summer and fight for the largest possible vote for independent anti-war candidates such as Cornel West or Jill Stein. This should be a decisive first step in the creation of a genuine anti-war party of workers and young people! J • End the war and occupation! • All-for-all deal exchanging Israeli hostages and Palestinian political prisoners now! • End all US military support to Israel, we need a permanent ceasefire and an end to occupation and siege! • For a socialist Palestine and a socialist Israel in a socialist federation of the Middle East!
support because of Israel’s state terrorist campaign in Gaza and occupation of Palestine. But Iran is in no way acting on behalf of the Palestinian people but rather in its own regional imperialist interests. Iran has also clearly become a part of the bloc led by Chinese imperialism which is facing off in the struggle for global domination with the bloc led by US imperialism. Neither the Chinese nor Russian governments condemned Iran’s counterstrike but Russia called for “restraint” on all sides. Like the US, China may not want a wider war in the region but they are in no way neutral. They see Israel’s difficulties as weakening the US and therefore to their advantage. The military exchanges between Iran and Israel were preceded by an apparent deterioration of the Biden administration’s relations with the Netanyahu regime. Biden threatened Netanyahu with unspecified consequences if Israel did not allow more humanitarian aid into Gaza. However, as soon as the Iranians threatened a counter strike for the Damascus attack, the US again pledged “ironclad” support for the Israeli state.
the last quarter of 2023 with tourism, construction and agriculture badly hit. The situation on the West Bank is far more dire with a massive drop in employment for Palestinians within Israel. As it has become increasingly clear that the core goals announced by Netanyahu for the war in Gaza – the release of hostages held by Hamas and the destruction of Hamas itself – are not being achieved after six months of war, opposition is growing. Polling shows most Israelis do not believe absolute victory is possible. Before the exchange with Iran, protests against the government were growing. In early April 100,000 demonstrated in Tel Aviv. These protests are particularly directed at the failure to secure the release of remaining hostages. None of this of course means that there is mass opposition to the occupation and oppression of the Palestinian population. This would be far from the truth. But nevertheless the growing support for a ceasefire in Israel is real, as is the growing willingness of a smaller minority to declare their solidarity with Palestinians. J
The Situation Inside Israel The Israeli regime, before the recent exchange with Iran, found itself increasingly isolated with the process of “normalization” of relations with Arab regimes suspended. The Israeli economy is also in bad shape. GDP shrank 5.7% in
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REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS
How The Abortion Rights Movement Can Push Back The Far Right
KAILYN NICHOLSON, SEATTLE
be “corrected”. Why? Because they are so dramatically out-of-step with public opinion, even among Republican voters, that it’s a liability for any candidate up for election this year.
The Right To Abortion Is Undeniably Popular
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illions of abortion rights supporters breathed a sigh of relief in late March when the US Supreme Court signaled its unwillingness to ban mifepristone, one of the two main drugs in medication abortions. Anti-abortion activists have been aggressively challenging the legality of distributing the drug by mail and argued it should be pulled from distribution entirely, which would be a massive blow to safe, early abortion access across the US. However while this one attack appears to have been rebuffed at least for the moment, the broader fight for abortion rights rages on. Over the course of the last two years since the Supreme Court’s Dobbs v Jackson decision eliminated federal protection for abortion, the far right has been passing increasingly restrictive bans in Republican-controlled states across the country. 14 states now have total abortion bans, meaning bans that cover every gestational stage of pregnancy, and seven additional states have bans that start within the first 15 weeks of pregnancy. The state Supreme Court in Florida just approved a law that shortens the window for a woman to get an abortion in the state to just six weeks – before many people know they’re pregnant – from where it previously stood at 15 weeks. In reality, the impacts of a six-week ban in Florida reach far beyond the state’s borders. By allowing abortion up to 15 weeks, Florida had been one of the most accessible places in the South for women to get abortions, since many Southern states passed near-total bans as soon as Roe was overturned. Shortly after Florida’s ban was announced, the Arizona Supreme Court then went even further, resurrecting a law from 1864 – even Republican officials have called it “archaic” – banning abortion at every gestational stage. But while ultra-conservative pro-life groups are celebrating these victories, many Republicans, including Donald Trump, quickly moved to distance themselves by asserting the laws go “too far” and assuring people there will
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62% of Republicans say decisions about abortion should be made by women and their doctors. 43% say abortion should be legal in all or most cases. Very few support extreme bans like those passed by the Florida and Arizona Supreme Courts. In fact, every single time the question of whether to strengthen abortion rights has been put to voters since Roe was overturned, the answer has been ‘yes’ regardless of which party tends to win elections in the state. Voters in seven states – California, Kansas, Kentucky, Michigan, Montana, Ohio and Vermont – have all passed measures strengthening abortion rights. At the same time, measures seeking to restrict abortion rights have been voted down in a number of states. A grassroots abortion rights coalition has already succeeded in getting a measure, known as Amendment 4, on the November ballot in Florida which would amend the state constitution to protect abortion rights until viability, effectively undoing the Court’s six-week ban. Amendment 4 supporters collected nearly a million signatures, well over the number necessary to get on the ballot. A similar measure is being promoted by abortion rights activists in Arizona, who claim they have already collected the necessary signatures to get their initiative on the ballot. Enshrining abortion protections into the state constitution in Florida and Arizona, two big, conservative-leaning states, would be a huge boost for abortion rights nationally and could signal a decisive shift in the momentum the far-right has had on this issue since 2022. Whereas the past two years have constituted a slow-motion tidal-wave of abortion
attacks by state legislators and judges, we’re now seeing a significant counter-wave of abortion rights initiatives organized by grassroots coalitions in state after state. In addition to Florida and Arizona, initiatives to strengthen or expand abortion rights are in the works in Arkansas, Colorado, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, and South Dakota. The mere fact of an abortion measure being on the ballot is likely to increase turnout among abortion rights supporters. Prior to the overturn of Roe, around two-thirds of voters who cited abortion as their #1 issue were motivated by a desire to restrict abortion access. Since then, the figures have inverted. Today, those motivated primarily by abortion are twice as likely to be supporting abortion rights as opposing them.
Should Abortion Rights Supporters Vote For Biden? The fact that so many abortion measures are likely to be on the ballot in so many key swing states while abortion is driving turnout of progressive voters at around twice the rate of conservatives is a nightmare for Republicans and a hail-Mary for the floundering Biden campaign, which has already pivoted to make abortion a central part of its messaging. It’s completely understandable that supporters of abortion rights want to deal as many defeats as possible to the Republicans who have been spearheading these attacks. But the question has to be asked, how exactly can we expect Biden and the Democrats to protect abortion rights in the future if they didn’t stop any of the attacks of the past two years? When the Dobbs decision was leaked, Democrats not only controlled the White House, but both houses of Congress as well. They could have mounted an allout defense of Roe by codifying it into federal law and immediately launching a dramatic scaling-up of resources for abortion and comprehensive reproductive care across the country. Going on the offensive in this manner and backing it up by organizing mass protests of millions of abortion rights supporters nationwide could have completely taken the wind out of the sails of the far right and made enforcing abortion bans all but impossible. But instead, what did the Democrats do? They said that we should take all our anger and energy and channel it into campaigning for Democratic candidates. The “elect
In reality, either a Trump or Biden presidency will result in the far right growing stronger and continuing to attack abortion rights. The only way to fight back is to build the strongest possible left alternative to Biden and Trump.
Democrats” strategy still hasn’t paid off. If our original goal was to protect abortion rights, then the strategy of channeling the movement’s energy into Democratic election campaigns failed miserably, because what we got was two years of expanding and intensifying restrictions on abortion access leading right up to today. Making matters worse, Biden and Democratic state legislators did nothing to protect working families as inflation drove living costs through the roof. Instead they used it as an excuse to cut funding for everything from social programs to public education, right when more funding was urgently needed. This failure to address the needs of working people is directly responsible for the rise of Trump and growth in support for the far right. In reality, either a Trump or Biden presidency will result in the far right growing stronger and continuing to attack abortion rights. The only way to fight back is to build the strongest possible left alternative to Biden and Trump. In this election that means voting for one of the two independent left candidates, Cornel West or Jill Stein, and getting organized to build a new party that can challenge the rule of the Democrats and Republicans.
What Strategy To Win? We can’t afford to let the Democrats run the momentum of the abortion rights movement into the ground again this election year. Supporters of Amendment 4 in Florida and the initiatives in Arizona and the seven other states need to go all out to build the strongest possible campaigns. Rather than linking themselves to Democratic candidates who have alienated themselves from ordinary people by cutting funding to social services while spending billions on weapons for imperialist wars, these coalitions should mobilize the broadest possible layers of working people with demands for fully funded, comprehensive reproductive care, Medicare For All and free high-quality childcare paid for by taxing big corporations and the super-rich. Building the strongest movement possible behind these initiatives requires building independent of the Democrats, who will never support the type of demands that are most appealing to working class people and who will always put the interests of their bigbusiness donors first. Our campaigns need to be completely different – funded by and accountable to ordinary working people and grassroots movements, not big business or billionaire donors. Initiatives in different states should link up and organize a national grassroots campaign for abortion and reproductive rights, medicare for all including gender-affirming care, and free childcare for working families all paid for by taxing the rich. Such a campaign would be explosively popular and could be the basis to organize a real, effective resistance to the agenda of Trump and the far right. J S O C I A L I S TA LT E R N AT I V E . O R G
WILL VOTING FOR THE “LESSER EVIL” STOP TRUMP? GREYSON VAN ARSDALE, CHICAGO It’s hard to believe that it’s almost been four years since the 2020 election – but it’s even harder to believe how little has changed. Trump and Biden are still the oldest people to ever run for President, besting their own record. Trump is still a heinous fraudster with the worst of intentions for working people and the oppressed. Biden is still a veteran centrist member of the establishment with very little to offer workers and youth who elected him out of sheer desperation to avoid right-wing despotism. You’d be hard pressed to find someone who is excited to vote for Biden. Only 28% of Americans say he is a good or great President, 50% say he is bad or terrible. Young people are sickened by their choices, with 63% of younger voters saying they’re dissatisfied with their options. For those young people who are planning to vote for Biden this fall, the more commonplace attitude is that people must “hold their nose” and vote for him, to prevent a takeover by the “greater” evil – Donald Trump. But is this approach actually effective at preventing the right wing from taking power?
Who’s Responsible For Trumpism? It is not a natural progression of society that we move further and further to the right. The ascendance of these ideas is directly connected to broader crises in the system. When the political establishment fails to meaningfully resolve major issues facing the majority of society, support for more radical ideas – including quite reactionary ideas – can grow. In the US in 2016, it was precisely the Democratic Party’s failure to meet the needs of working and middle-class people under the Obama years that allowed Trump to demagogically appeal to millions of voters whose living standards had been falling for years. Socialist Alternative has maintained since Biden’s election in 2020 that unless a serious left-wing alternative to the Democrats was built, the space for Trump and his brand of right-populism would continue to grow. There’s no argument that Trump is a disaster for working-class people, and in M AY 2 0 2 4
many respects more immediately destructive than Biden. His unpredictability could have disastrous results on a world stage in the context of the new era of war that has emerged since he left office. But why, if Trump is so bad, have even some of the most marginalized demographics in the US moved to support him over Biden? Support for Trump among Black Americans has spiked enormously since 2020. That election, only 4% of Black voters supported him – but in the last four years, that number has risen by nineteen percentage points, according to a New York Times poll. That number is even greater among the Latino population with 39% support for Trump, beating out Biden’s 34%. That may not make sense at first, given Trump’s clear record of nods to white supremacy and his consistent whipping up of anti-immi-
US POLITICS “America-first” nationalism of the right wing. Youth and workers poured their hearts and souls into getting out the vote for Biden in 2020 to oust Trump from office. But their effort has been betrayed by Biden and his unflinchingly establishment politics, which have handed Trump an enormous amount of momentum. Voting for Biden in 2024 won’t solve the problem either. The most important fight lies beyond November, in building a working-class party in which workers and young people can democratically participate; a party with the active participation of of unions and social movements. This is the path that must be taken in order to prevent kicking the proverbial can down the road – further into the camp of Trump’s right wing.
How To Catch A Liar What does it actually look like to de-fang Trump’s politics? Trump is the model of a successful rightwing populist. His core skill is to judge a crowd and say exactly what they want to hear – usually pandering to both left- and rightwing impulses, not worrying about whether or not he’s called on a lie later. Because who cares, if his campaign opponents also never fulfill their promises? But that strategy can’t work against someone who genuinely fights in the interest of working people. Trump wouldn’t be able to pose as an anti-war candidate next to someone who actually campaigned to end wars and US military aid. He’d be forced to either support demands in a material way, against his actual politics, or admit he’s not serious. Voting for the lesser-evil but still evil option election after election has not gotten us any closer to defeating the right. In fact, it has allowed the right to get much scarier. That means that voting for Biden isn’t “a step in the right direction”, if still inadequate – he’s another step into a downward spiral that reinforces the far right. The best choice for working-class people and youth in the 2024 election isn’t Biden. It’s an independent candidate with a real working-class program. Independent candidates Cornel West and Jill Stein have both vocally campaigned against US military aid to Israel and for an end to the massacre in Gaza – Stein was actually arrested by police at a student encampment in April. Both of these candidates need to fight to engage the broadest amount of working people, assembling the campaign infrastructure for thousands, not hundreds, of volunteers. Voting for either of them, weaknesses included, is a vast improvement on the failed strategy of voting for Biden. If Trump wins in November, it will not be the fault of working people who could not stomach voting for Biden. It will be the fault of the Democrats for failing at every single opportunity to do anything to improve the lives of working people here in the US, and for signing off on the death and destruction of innocent people abroad. J
That means that voting for Biden isn’t “a step in the right direction”, if still inadequate – he’s another step into a downward spiral that reinforces the far right.
grant sentiment. But Biden’s gutting of financial assistance programs, refusal to support a $15 federal minimum wage, and failure to address the rapid increase in the cost of living has a visceral impact on poor communities of color. There are many people who, for reasons flowing from their concrete experiences, simply do not feel like they have been better off under his presidency. Moreover, Biden’s immense failures have given Trump room to campaign. Trump is no friend to the people of Gaza and recently made a statement encouraging Israel to “finish the job” – but when a chant of “Genocide Joe” broke out at his rally, what was his response? A shrug and a “they ain’t wrong” – sending cheers through the crowd. Because of Biden, Trump gets to pose as the anti-war candidate – particularly in relation to the increasingly unpopular war in Ukraine. This is an enormous obstacle for the actual anti-war movement, which must fight to differentiate itself from the
CAN BIDENOMICS REBUILD THE US ECONOMY? TONY WILSDON, SEATTLE The term Bidenomics has entered political discourse in the last year. First used as a derogatory term, it has now been embraced by the Biden administration as a principal reason for its re-election to office. However, approval of Biden’s economic policies is at an all-time low. Working people feel worse off today than when Biden was elected. The administration abandoned its electoral promises to make permanent the expansion of social policies enacted due to COVID-19; it failed to lower the eligibility age for Medicare to 60; failed to cancel the student debt and failed to create a public option for health care. Then it used age-old capitalist policies of raising interest rates, willing to trigger a recession in order to lower inflation. In the meantime, prices for basic commodities, including housing, skyrocketed, hitting working people hard in their pocketbooks.
“Bidenomics is essentially an attempt to put a new band aid on a deep structural crisis of US capitalism... It is an abandonment of any serious attempt to reverse the overall decline in living standards for workers, or to retool the economy and address global warming.”
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THE FULL ARTICLE: 5
SEIZE THE MOMENT
ORGANIZE THE SOUTH LEAH STEVENS, CINCINNATI On April 19, hundreds of autoworkers gathered in Chattanooga, Tennessee for a watch party of Volkswagen’s union election. This was the first vote to be held since the United Auto Workers (UAW) launched a national organizing drive in November. Workers, alongside UAW President Shawn Fain, cheered as the results of the landslide victory came in – 73% of workers voted “yes” to a union at the 4,300 worker Chattanooga Volkswagen plant, making it the first auto plant in the South to unionize through a vote since the 1940s. The labor movement has been on the upswing in the US, with 2023 being met with the most strikes since the 1980’s. But new organizing remains low compared to what is needed, and the South is no easy nut to crack. Decades of the abandonment of labor leaders and Democrats in the South has further opened the doors for profitable industries, deepening economic inequality, racism, and sexism. Now, carrying the momentum of the last several years, UAW, and the labor movement as a whole, is squaring up for a new organizing offensive in the South.
Autoworkers Lead The Charge One of the most significant strikes of 2023 was the 40-day strike of the “Big Three” automakers– General Motors, Stellantis, and Ford. By hitting these companies in their profits and taking them on all at once, workers won important gains in their contract, including 25% raises and an end to the hated “two tier” system. Unfortunately, the weakness of Fain’s “stand-up strike” strategy, which evaded an all-out strike by sending only a
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few plants out on strike at a time, left more on the table to be gained, including pensions and COLA pay. In a way, perhaps the most important victory of the strike was what came after – the announcement of a national organizing drive, turning the momentum of the auto strike into a launching pad for new organizing. The $40 million organizing campaign has set a goal of 150,000 new unionized autoworkers. Already, 10,000 autoworkers have signed union
“The 40 million dollar organizing campaign has set a goal of 150,000 new unionized autoworkers. Already, 10,000 new autoworkers have signed union cards, and the Volkswagon workers of Chattanooga are a beacon for what is possible. This is a departure from the decades-long business unionist approach. Instead, workers are being called to organize themselves.” cards, and the Volkswagen workers of Chattanooga are a beacon for what is possible. This is a departure from the decades-long business unionist approach of partnership with the bosses and top-down organizing that diminishes the
Workers in Chattanooga, TN celebrate a landslide victory unionizing Volkswagen and becoming members of the UAW in April.
rank and file. Instead, workers are being called to organize themselves. Workers create the wealth of the bosses, and thus need to lead the charge in wielding the heaviest hammer to take a blow to the bosses’ profits.
Union Approval Record High, Union Density Record Low The workplace has changed drastically since the start of the pandemic, and the labor movement has started to heat up. Two years ago, Starbucks union drives spread like wildfire. Workers won their first union election against Amazon at JFK8, catalyzing more drives at Amazon nationwide. Over 140,000 SAG-AFTRA writers and actors went on strike for over 100 days throughout 2023’s “hot labor summer.” Academic workers, healthcare workers, autoworkers, and more made up the 464,410 workers who hit the picket lines in 2023. 67% of Americans approve of unions, Black workers are the fastest unionizing group, Gen Z is the most pro-union generation, and yet – union density (the percentage of workers in unionized workplaces) in the US is at a historic low of 10%. The picture becomes bleaker when looking towards the South. Texas, Arizona, Louisiana, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Florida, and Georgia all have union densities below 5%. South Carolina, whose lucrative auto industry churns out $10 billion in profits a year, sits at an abysmal 2.3% union density. It is no small feat that three active UAW union drives in South Carolina are seeking to challenge the rule of the auto bosses. In Alabama, which has a marginally higher union density, five auto plants are hot, including a 5,000 worker Mercedes plant whose union election will take place this month from May 13-17. A victory at Mercedes would be an enormous boost, but is not a guarantee – a loss would be a setback and point to the need for stronger organizing at other facilities. Ripe For Industry While the UAW organizing drive is taking on the nation from coast to coast, its main concentration of organizing is in the anti-union South. Between a low union density, fierce state
government-backed union busting, limited worker’s rights, and “right-to-work” laws, the South is hostile terrain for workers trying to fight for better working conditions. The Business Council of Alabama (BCA) is on a warpath of union busting to protect and expand corporate interests in the state, coordinating its slandering of the UAW organizing campaign with other anti-worker attacks, such as blocking initiatives to raise the minimum wage. The stripped-down labor protections of the South make it attractive to new industries looking to extract maximum profit from the workforce, further perpetuating capitalism’s parasitic relationship between the boss and worker. Joe Biden, the supposed most “pro-labor” US president since FDR, is taking advantage of this opening for big business. The Biden administration’s Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) and CHIPS Act promise the future of “21st-century industries” and job creation. Under the guise of fighting emissions and inflation, this legislation aims to take on electric vehicles and semiconductor production, a chest-thumping signal to China in its tech war with the US. Of these “21st century industries,” the South has received twice as many investments as the Midwest. The Southeast has the cheapest energy in the country, critical for battery plants. Ironically, the energy powering these “green” industries remain cost-effective because of the region’s reliance on coal.
Sowing The Seeds Of Labor Struggle The roots of the South’s anti-labor rule lie in the violent legacy of slavery, and intrinsically bound up in it, the belated development of industrial capitalism in the South. Even after slavery’s abolishment in 1865, the following century of Jim Crow and segregation was weaponized to maintain division between Black and white workers. The threat of multi-racial solidarity has been tempered again and again by the racist tools of the state and their political servants, including in the workplace. Taking up struggle in the workplace cannot be won without actively taking up the fight against racism. In 1931, the Communist Party USA took on these divisions, supporting the founding of the Alabama Sharecroppers Union to fight for better pay and working conditions for Black farmers. Their demands went further than wages, including the right to cultivate their own gardens and the right for their children to attend 9-month public school. That same year, the CP launched a national campaign to defend the “Scottsboro Boys,” nine Black teenagers falsely accused of raping two white women. This landmark case in the face of racist terror exposed the deep inequalities in the judicial system, in which Black people were not granted fair trials, and could not serve on a jury. The CP provided legal help for the case, and won over large sections of the Black working class by exposing the class nature of racism. These acts of committed solidarity between Black and white workers in the Jim Crow South set a powerful example for militant unions and multiracial struggles to come. This includes setting the ground for the Civil Rights movement in the 50s and 60s, where 40,000 union workers were bussed in for the March on Washington. Unfortunately, the CP’s later alliance with FDR’s Democratic Party against fascism - part of its disastrous “popular front” policy - meant also supporting the segregationist southern Dixiecrats. This led to a certain erosion of the support it so arduously built among many Black workers, undoing important contributions to the crossracial labor movement.
Organizing The Unorganized & Operation Dixie Off the momentum of the transformative 1934 general strikes in Minneapolis, San Francisco, and Toledo, eight unions representing one S O C I A L I S TA LT E R N AT I V E . O R G
million workers broke away from the conservative, craft unionist American Federation of Labor (AFL) to form the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO). Their goal during the postwar boom period: to organize all industrial workers, both high-paid skilled workers and low-paid unskilled workers, a historic task for the US labor movement. Focusing on low-paid workers meant organizing Black workers who were segregated into these jobs. However, this project faced a serious barrier – the industrialized North was more union-heavy, while the South was largely unorganized. Thus in the spring of 1946, the CIO launched Operation Dixie. 250 organizers, both Black and white, skilled and unskilled, were recruited to go into the South with the task of uniting the workforce and building a labor movement that opposes racism. Their organizing model was to start with the largest industries first, including the textile industry throughout the South, which included some of the lowest paid workers. This strategy was opposed by the outdated and red-baiting AFL, whose approach to organizing higher paid, technical workers meant orienting primarily to white men. In Winston-Salem North Carolina, there was already a union, Local 22 of the Food, Tobacco and Agricultural Workers, whose workers were 80% Black women. But it was in poor shape and deeply divided. Addressing the racial hostility between workers took a patient approach of building a strong integrated union, with both Black and white elected representatives, over the course of a year. Despite violent attacks from the police, their three-month strike won pay raises and paid holidays, and demonstrated racial solidarity on the picket lines. Tragically, Operation Dixie did not create the tidal wave of organizing that the CIO had set out for. The hostility of police violence, the Jim Crow South, the Ku Klux Klan, and the red-baiting pressures of McCarthyism led to a purging of the most talented organizers. The CIO caved to these very real pressures, throwing back the project of organizing the South in a way that is still felt today.
Organizing In The South Today For as long as capitalism remains, racism, and other forms of oppression, cannot be fought as a separate battle. This means taking on racism and sexism in the workplace, as well as linking up the labor movement with social struggles. The clearest example in recent history is the 2021 Amazon union drive in Bessemer, Alabama (BAmazon), which gained steam in the aftermath of the 2020 Black Lives Matter movement. The brutal murder of George Floyd at the hands of police exposed not only the racist nature of the state, but also the fundamentally broken system we live under that relies on the exploitation of the many for the benefit of the few. 20 million took to the streets in the largest protest movement in US history, in the middle of a global pandemic, no less. The slogan “Black Lives Matter at work” was taken up by the Retail, Wholesale, and Department Store Union (RDWSU), correctly connecting the Black Lives Matter movement in Birmingham to the 75% Black workforce at BAmazon. Black workers in Alabama waged an important battle against billionaire Jeff Bezos, one of the richest men in the world. RWDSU needed to connect BLM to a clear set of demands, and overestimated the favorability of the union amongst the workers. Because of this, they failed to build the strong support needed to take on Amazon’s dirty and illegal union busting, and lost the union vote. Had the BLM movement as a whole pointed more clearly towards unifying demands and unionization as a way to advance the needs of the Black working class, this could have been an enormous opening to organizing in the South. Instead, the union’s vague calls for “equality” and “a voice in the workplace” allowed Amazon to pay lip service to BLM while co-opting the movement away from the union drive. Now, workers in M AY 2 0 2 4
Northern Kentucky at Amazon’s largest air hub in the world are picking up the mantle to take on Amazon. Translation rights have been central to winning over primarily African immigrant workers over to the union, and to link up with other workers in the fight for $30/hour, 180 hours PTO, and more. Strong, worker-led shop-floor organizing around unifying, concrete demands is what is needed to bring Amazon to its knees. A victory here would have huge implications not only for the South, but for the labor movement nationally. Autoworkers, service workers, and airline workers are at the forefront of organizing the South today. Together with Amazon workers, they have the potential to create an urgently needed watershed moment in 2024 as ordinary people continue to be worn down by the costof-living crisis. This means navigating not only anti-worker labor laws in the South, but also the broader right-wing political climate. The Democratic establishment has no faith in workers in the South, instead concentrating their focus on their bastions of liberalism. This failing, defensive strategy is actively fueling the growth of the far right, which uses racism, sexism, homophobia, and transphobia to divide the working class. However, deep contradictions play out every election cycle where ordinary people in red states vote for progressive measures. For example, Floridians in 2020 voted for Trump, but also overwhelmingly voted for a $15/hr minimum wage ballot measure. In 2022 after the overturn of Roe v. Wade, red state Kansas voters rejected to remove abortion measures from its constitution in a landslide. Unions have an important role to play in taking on fighting demands to unify ordinary people against the reactionary right.
Labor And Abortion Rights Going into the November elections, abortion rights are again at stake, although layers of the right-wing establishment are wary of making too many oversteps. Since the overturn of federally protected abortion rights, 13 states, largely concentrated in the South, have seen trigger bans go into effect. These include full bans on abortion, and even criminalization in states like Tennessee, Louisiana, and Texas. The labor movement in the 60s and 70s played a large role in strikes, occupations, and walkouts alongside the women’s movement to win abortion rights. With the women’s movement significantly thrown back today and weakness of the left broadly, the union movement must step up not only to fight for abortion rights in the South, but against sexism in the workplace. Since the 70s, women flight attendants have been at the forefront of airline worker struggles, including leading campaigns for pregnancy leave and against sexualized dress codes. Today, Delta Airlines, which earned $4.6 billion last year (more than United, American, and Southwest combined) is facing the pressure of three unions taking on the task of organizing all 50,000 Delta workers, more than half of whom live in the South. At the largest Labor Notes Conference in history this last April, which brought together over 4,500 workers and activists from across the country, airline workers addressed the question of labor and abortion rights. Sara Nelson, president of the Association of Flight Attendants - CWA, took the floor at a workshop at Labor Notes to declare that the labor movement needs to fight for everyone and take up the fight for abortion rights. It was met with a roomful of applause and cheers.
out rail workers to the billionaires, and have failed to lead a serious fight back against the right. In fact, with many right populists posing as prolabor, there’s a high risk of ceding ground to the right. Big business has its own political parties. Working and young people need a new party that gives real teeth to the labor movement, and serves as a home for social movements. Shawn Fain’s support of a UAW Gaza ceasefire resolution and call for a 32-hour work week alongside Bernie Sanders are both progressive measures, but cannot be concretely fought for by turning around and endorsing Joe Biden. In fact, UAW’s endorsement has actually hurt some of its Southern organizing, among workers who rightfully see Biden as a president who has done nothing for them. Unions of course shouldn’t be neutral on Trump either. Working people are ready to take on organizing the South and beyond, but both the Democrats and Republicans are not on the side of workers, and will not help in building fighting unions. Approaching November elections, labor, alongside the uncommitted and #AbandonBiden campaigns, urgently needs to take up the task of building a new party fully accountable to working people.
Solidarity With Southern Workers Rebuilding A Fighting Labor Movement! • •
• •
•
Stop the attacks on labor in the South! No to union busting, anti-labor laws, and threats to workers’ rights! Support the national UAW organizing drive and autoworkers fighting to unionize in the South! We need mass unionization campaigns everywhere! No to Biden, no to Trump! For a new worker’s party that fights directly for workers’ interests! UAW President Shawn Fain’s call for a general strike against all the bosses on May 1st, 2028 won’t happen without a mass mobilization. Union workers should fight to line up contracts, and UAW should host organizing meetings to mobilize the wider working class. For a fighting labor movement to take on capitalism! Workers and young people must build a multi-racial, multi-gender, multi-national movement. J
UAW’S FIGHT TO ORGANIZE THE UNORGANIZED COULD TRANSFORM THE SOUTH
- Auto plant UAW is fighting to unionize - Chattanooga, TN, where workers won a union election **Data from More Perfect Union
Labor Needs A New Party The growing tide of labor cannot be a “blue wave.” Biden’s 87-second lap around a UAW picket line outside a General Motors plant in Michigan was a symbolic rubber stamp at best, and a distraction from the Democrats failing workers time and time again at worst. The Biden administration was eager to throw away its campaign promise of a $15/hr minimum wage, shamefully blocked the 2022 rail strike and sold
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S O C I A L I S T A LT E R N AT I V E I N A C T I O N
NYPD BRUTALLY CRACKS DOWN ON STUDENT ENCAMPMENTS by JESSE SHUSSETT, NYC On Tuesday April 30, members of the New York City branch of Socialist Alternative hit the streets as campus police and the NYPD appeared by the hundreds at the encampments on both the Columbia and City College of New York campuses to intimidate and terrorize student protestors who have been calling for a ceasefire in Gaza. By the end of Tuesday night, three hundred student protesters, faculty, and supporters were arrested in NYC alone. Many of them were in custody at the time of writing, and police sweeps began at Fordham University, the location of one of the many other encampments across the city. Though the encampments at both CCNY and Columbia had been set up consistently for almost two weeks, the crackdown from the schools’ administrations began at the end of April. Columbia’s administration called for the expulsion of any student taking part in the occupation of Hamilton Hall, which students renamed “Hind’s Hall” in memory of a young Palestinian girl murdered in the midst of the genocidal onslaught in Gaza. This occupation represented a brave escalatory tactic as the administration began threatening encampment sweeps. In the afternoon on April 30, campus police at NYCC built a barricade around school buildings and began pepper spraying protesters, including one of our own members. Only a few hours later, hundreds of police showed up at both campuses to intimidate and threaten all of the protesters. A protest kicked off at around 7 that night, with anti-war activists attempting to divert the police forces away from the encampment. This stand-off lasted late into the night, with students and protesters holding the ground and even sitting in the way of NYPD buses that were brought in to transport those arrested. A similar scene broke out at CCNY not long after, when students moved to occupy a building on campus and were promptly attacked by police with batons and pepper spray. Protesters worked at both campuses to hold police off until almost 11, when the mass arrests began. In light of all of these sweeps and in solidarity with their students, CUNY professors that are rank and file members of the Professional Staff Congress (PSC) union moved to organize a wildcat sick-out for the following day in solidarity with the students at CCNY. This move is historic, as such actions are illegal in NYC
per the Taylor Law. Even as PSC union leadership condemned these actions, over 200 professors participated. According to a recent report from Al Jazeera, upwards of 70 encampments are currently happening across the United States alone. Even more are happening internationally, including in France, Italy, across the UK, Australia, and Tunisia. Students and faculty globally are calling for demands around a permanent ceasefire, divestment of college funds from institutions linked to the occupation, and an end to military aid to Israel. It’s clear that these protests have reached the Palestine masses. At the beginning of May, Gazans held their own demonstration in the city of Deir el-Balah in Central Gaza to show their support for pro-Palestine protests at universities worldwide. Demonstrators of all ages held Palestinian flags and signs with the names of universities such as Columbia, UCLA, the University of Minnesota, and Yale. Photos have also surfaced from Rafah depicting signs on tents that read: “Thank you, students in solidarity with Gaza. Your message has reached [us].” The US ruling class, including university administration, would have students and workers think that there is nothing they can do in the face of this siege on Gaza. These past few weeks have proven quite the opposite, with a show of force from students and faculty unlike we have seen in decades. J
It’s clear that these protests have reached the Palestine masses. Yesterday Gazans held their own demonstration in the city of Deir el-Balah in Central Gaza to show their support for pro-Palestine protests at universities worldwide.
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JOIN SOCIALIST ALTERNATIVE!
Socialist Alternative is a revolutionary organization fighting for a democratic, socialist society. We are campaigning for a new party of working people and for an end to all capitalist oppression and exploitation!
• We call for full amnesty for student protestors, no to repression • Divest college funds from state and private institutions linked to the brutal occupation of Palestinian land • Spread the struggle to every campus and build a mass anti-war movement of students and working people • Major academic unions should organize strike action in coordination with student encampments • Build towards a nationwide walkout and strike to shut down campuses across the country • End all US military support to Israel, we need a permanent ceasefire and an end to occupation and siege • No to Biden and Trump, for a new anti-war party for working people • For a socialist Palestine and a socialist Israel in a socialist federation of the Middle East S O C I A L I S TA LT E R N AT I V E . O R G
S O C I A L I S T A LT E R N AT I V E I N A C T I O N
ON THE GROUND IN BOSTON by MARCO DE LAFORCADE, BOSTON
Kansas University
University of Houston
YALE STUDENT REPORTS ON ENCAMPMENT by SAMMY ALBRIGHT, NEW HAVEN
M AY 2 0 2 4
In the past few weeks, college students across the country have set up encampments at more than 50 universities in solidarity with the Palestinian people under siege by Israel’s far-right government. The central demands at many of these encampments have been divestment of university endowments from companies linked to the occupation, alongside a full ceasefire in Gaza. Following in the footsteps of students who protested the Vietnam War in 1968, they have set up tents and peaceful occupations of public campus locations with no signs of slowing down. However, the response by university administrators and Democratic officials in these cities has been swift and brutal. Here in Boston, students at Northeastern and Emerson received the same treatment as those in NYC with over 200 arrested. Despite widespread solidarity and the peaceful nature of the protests, Democratic Mayor Wu weaponized an ordinance passed last year designed to clear the streets of homeless people to carry out these attacks, and university administrators have thrown accusations of antisemitism and violence at these protesters. Nevertheless, the movement has continued
University of Pennsylvania
to spread across the country as millions of young people and workers realize how committed these institutions are to putting profits over the safety of their students and the genocidal war they’re unquestionably linked to. As international pressure on the bloodthirsty Israeli government grows, the ruling class fears a nationwide movement that could oppose its policies of unlimited aid to Israel and bring Biden and the Democrats to heel. In order to achieve that goal, it’s urgent that the movement expand to bring other sectors of universities and working people into the fold. Graduate unions should pass resolutions mirroring the student demands and take strike action to shut down colleges and further pressure administrators. Major unions like the UAW which have already passed ceasefire resolutions could build for coordinated nationwide walkouts, and should rescind their endorsements of Biden while building for an independent workers’ party which can challenge the duopoly come November. Only a revolutionary, organized, international student and worker movement has the power to end U.S. funding for Israel and a permanent ceasefire. J
Northwestern University
Following the exciting occupation of Columbia University which kicked off a campaign calling for universities to divest from weapons manufacturers, Yale students set up a tent encampment on campus. We call for disclosure and divestment from weapons manufacturers profiting from the genocidal war in Gaza. Yale is a massive business with an endowment of $40.6 billion. A week after the encampment was set up, over 700 students (more than 10% of the student body!) showed up to a powerful rally in support of the demand and to protect students from being arrested. The next morning at 7:00, 48 people were arrested for trespassing. On May 1, four students were violently arrested for “breaking curfew.” Socialist Alternative stands in solidarity with all arrested protesters and calls for all charges to be dropped. However, despite the mass mobilization of students, Yale has neither disclosed how much money they invest in weapons manufacturers nor budged on divestment. They’ve only given organizers bad faith deals, offering organizers a “closed door, off-the-record meeting with two trustees who are ‘willing to hear views on disclosure and divestment.’” These offers were promptly, and correctly, rejected. In order to force divestment, the protests need to escalate. Student organizers should publicly call on Yale’s
UCLA
unions (UNITE HERE Local 33, 34, and 35) to support demands for divestment. Local 34, representing campus clerical and technical workers, released a statement on April 30 condemning arrests of protesters. However, they haven’t yet come out in support of divestment demands, which union locals across the country like Grad Workers in UAW local 4811 at UCLA have. Students have done a brilliant job at sparking the protests, but now these encampments badly need to be joined by workers to shut down campuses. Campus unions everywhere should support student protests, linking up divestment demands with the fight for stronger contracts. The end of the school year poses a challenge, but Nakba Day, on Wednesday, May 15, could be a good day to do this for schools still in session, and graduate workers can play a role all summer. As classes end for the summer, the anti-war movement must continue. Students should continue to organize anti-war rallies, building up to a mass mobilization of students and workers. To even further-reaching protests of Israel’s genocidal war, we need to disrupt the Democratic National Convention and call for the largest possible vote for independent left candidates and the formation of an anti-war working class party. J
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SPORTS
Everyone Watches Women’s Sports
SARAH DULLAERT & MATT MALEY, SEATTLE It’s been a historic winter for women’s basketball. The NCAA Women’s National Championship basketball game between South Carolina and Iowa was viewed by over 20 million people. This not only eclipsed the 2024 Men’s National Championship game, which had nearly 15 million viewers, but had the highest view-count of any professional or college basketball game since 2019. These massive numbers have to do with the media’s role in making basketball a game of personalities, with Caitlin Clark taking center stage. Clark became a household name in women’s basketball a few years ago, but especially since last year’s Championship game between LSU and Iowa. Clark’s game is electrifying to watch. In a matchup against Penn State in March, she sunk a 3-pointer from the logo – officially breaking Steph Curry’s Division I record for most 3-pointers in a single season.
Racist Tropes Loom Over LSU Game
Since the passage of Title IX in 1972, women have had the right to equal opportunity in college sports participation, but the media attention has always been focused on mens’ sports. These (albeit limited) protections don’t exist in professional sports, which has meant a slow grind by women’s professional sports to gain equitable access to the market and they still have a long way to go. Title IX protections show that if women are given opportunities to play sports, they will. It’s not about a lack of interest or talent. But will people watch women’s sports if they’re covered by major networks? The answer is clearly yes. The prominence of star players like Clark, Reese, and Bueckers was one factor in the
that athletes can potentially make more in college than as a professional athlete. This is not the case for NBA players. Under the new Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL) laws being passed around the country, college athletes can now cash in on their fame before signing any professional contracts. Historically, the NCAA has prevented college athletes from signing endorsement deals despite the fact that college athletes are also barred from receiving salaries. In 2023, the NCAA brought in a revenue of $1.3B, putting their valuation at around $565M – none of which went to players. Since 2021, when the supreme court ruled on the NCAA v. Alston case that college athletes should be allowed to sign NIL deals and the NCAA revoked their ban on such deals, star players across all college sports have signed multi-million dollar contracts. The
EVERYBODY WATCHES WOMEN’S BASKETBALL
Star players Angel Reese and Caitlin Clark, who led their respective teams, were at the center of a huge media backlash after some ingame interactions. Despite the fact that both of them have repeatedly told the media they like and respect each other, and that their competitive, trash-talking behavior stays on the court, the media’s double standard for Black and white athletes showed its ugly face in the coverge of the rivalry. For several seasons Angel Reese has been subjected to a barrage of raciallycoded and outright racist attacks on social media. The racist tropes about LSU, and Black women athletes more generally, carried over into this year. This was viciously demonstrated in the LA Times opinion piece by Ben Bolch, “America’s sweethearts vs its basketball villains.” In a line that’s since been Star players (left to right) Paige Bueckers, Caitlin Clark, and Angel Reese deleted from that article, Bolch wrote: “Do you prefer America’s sweethearts or its dirty debutantes? Milk and cookies or Louisiana hot sauce?” While this line left highest paid NIL athlete in college basketball many of us with our jaws on the floor, for play- record-breaking numbers this year, but the is player Bronny James (son of Lakers legend trend is clear: given equal resources and airers like Angel Reese or Black female coaches Lebron James) who is estimated to earn about like Dawn Staley of South Carolina, it’s no sur- time, women’s sports are equally as popular as men’s sports, and they can bring in just as $5M in endorsement deals. Caitlin Clark, the prise at all. biggest name in women’s college basketball It’s been important that Caitlin Clark and many viewers. This year has proven without today, is estimated to earn about $3.1M in a shadow of a doubt that the limitations on other athletes from all racial backgrounds have endorsement deals. Although Bronny stands come to Reese’s defense, but the enduring women’s sports were based on narrow covto earn many times that in the NBA, Caitlin disdain being thrown in the direction of these erage and lack of investment, not a lack of Clark stands to make more than twelve times young Black women is a shameful indication public interest or player talent. the max WNBA salary cap this year through of how deep the problem is. endorsement deals alone. With the lack of While these racist assaults were front of coverage of WNBA sports, the NIL opportunimind for basketball fans, this year was also a After the draft, and projections of salaries ties also yield less than NCAA. Of course that year of tremendous accomplishments for Black for newly drafted players like Caitlin Clark, a could change if the media decides to increase women in the NCAA. Dawn Staley became the spotlight has been shone on the poverty of the coverage of games and promotion of star playfirst Black coach to lead a Division I basketWNBA. Many professional women’s basketball ers like Breanna Stewart, A’ja Wilson, and ball team to an undefeated season. She also players need to play overseas during the off- Jewel Lloyd. It’s possible the 2024 women’s became the first Black coach to win three season because they can’t afford to live just NCAA Championship and Caitlin Clark’s profile Division I titles. Staley is unique in more ways on their salary for a job that requires a lifetime will lead to a boost in WNBA coverage. than one. She has openly supported trans athIn 2019, under the previous Collective Barof training and monumental level of dedicaletes in a time when such solidarity is crucially tion. In fact there are official salary caps in the gaining Agreement (CBA), the starting salary needed and extremely rare. WNBA! Salary caps for WNBA players mean in the WNBA was $41,965 (for players with
Poverty Of The WNBA
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under three years of experience) and maximum contract of $117,500 per year. Current WNBA minimum is $62,285 and maxes out at the “SuperMax” contract of $234,936, which is only earned by three players in the entire league. On the other hand NBA star Steph Curry will make more than $50M this year, so he hardly needs NIL contracts. On top of the limitations on individual contracts in the WNBA, there is a team salary cap that limits the amount of money a team can spend on player salaries in a given year. In 2023, this number was $1,420,500, meaning that a single NBA player could make more than thirty times the amount that an ENTIRE TEAM was paid in the WNBA in a given year. The increased attention on women’s basketball needs to lead to a concerted campaign by the Women’s National Basketball Players Association – the players’ union – for pay parity across the sport. With beloved players like Caitlin Clark, Kate Martin, Kamilla Cardoso, Angel Reese, and Cameron Brink now drafted to the WNBA, a campaign like this could have mass appeal.
This Is An Organized Labor Issue
In an inspiring example, the Dartmouth Men’s basketball team recently voted 13-2 to unionize. The entire sports industry, from college to the professional level, needs a strong union movement to fight for equitable compensation, safe working conditions, and healthcare. The recent changes to the Transfer Portal, which allows college athletes to declare intention to transfer schools and play for a different team, means that athletes have more bargaining power with colleges. But even with this increased leverage, athletes still need a union to protect themselves from bad management and coaching. Pro athletes also need strong protections. The Women’s National Basketball Players Association (WNBPA), the union that represents WNBA players, needs to step up their negotiating efforts to increase salaries and keep women’s basketball competitive at the highest levels. College athletes are some of the most highly exploited workers in the sports world. The whole power dynamic of college sports makes most student athletes very vulnerable workers without a union. NIL deals offer some compensation, but only for the biggest names on the largest stages. College athletes should fight for union representation in order to bargain collectively for rights and adequate compensation. The last two years of March Madness shows that women’s sports are competitive with mens sports, as far as viewing and rating numbers. Now the WNBPA needs to fight for a contract that makes their pay competitive with men’s sports and for fair media coverage at the professional level! The NBA has a role of solidarity to play here as well. If NBA players refused to play unless the WNBA receives coverage as well as pay parity, that could strong-arm the networks into ending their refusal to meaningfully promote women’s basketball. J S O C I A L I S TA LT E R N AT I V E . O R G
L ABOR
GET Southwest Flight Attendants Win IN V O L VED! 33% Raises – More Is Needed! BARBARA O., AIRLINE WORKER, DALLAS There are a quarter of a million active-duty flight attendants in America. Together they handle 5% of US GDP – of every $20 exchanged in all commerce, a flight attendant handled $1 of it. Airlines, like Wall Street banks, are so powerful that politicians on both sides of the aisle consider them “too big to fail.” Airlines receive billions in bailouts when they’re in crisis, their CEOs make tens of millions every year, and they’re making record profits, helped by price gouging passengers and exploiting airline workers. Airline workers are fighting back, and winning major victories. On April 24th, the Transit Workers Union (TWU) announced that 81% of Southwest flight attendants voted “yes” on the new contract with an overall turnout of 93%. The deal will make the top-tier of Southwest flight attendants the highest paid in the industry, and includes 33% raises over the duration of the four year contract. This comes on the heels of union pilots at Delta, American, and United who took strike votes last year, and all won contracts that include roughly 40% raises over the next four years.
Will There Be A Strike At American Airlines? What happens at Southwest will define negotiations at American Airlines, the largest US-based airline employing 27,000 flight attendants who are organized in the Association of Professional Flight Attendants (APFA). Their strike vote last year was unprecedented. Over 99% voted to strike out of 97% turnout of members, but politicians have refused to “release” them from federal mediation. Airline workers fall under the Railway Labor Act, an anti-worker law that prevents some vital industries from striking without permission from the government.
While flight attendants are correctly demanding more than what is included in the Southwest offer, many individual flight attendants think if American Airlines offers the same deal as Southwest, it could cut across the mood to strike. While the Southwest deal is historic, it is not enough to reverse decades of defeats and retreats for airline workers, as airline CEOs make record salaries and airlines themselves make record profits.
What’s At Stake In Flight Attendant Contracts These struggles are decisive for the efforts to unionize 50,000 Delta workers, the most profitable airline in the country. Union organizers, a mix of new and veteran workers, point out that the best way to avoid retaliation is to ramp up the organizing and visible support for the union, like wearing pro-union buttons on their uniforms during flights. They are encouraging passengers to help as well. To avoid unionization, Delta offers concessions. Immediately after the Southwest deal, the company announced 5% raises, and in recent years started offering “boarding pay”, which even union airlines do not offer. While there is undoubtedly a wide range of opinions among Delta flight attendants, many of them do think that, instead, if flight attendants got the same offer the pilots did – 40% raises over four years – they could unionize Delta much faster. Decisive victories are the best way to rebuild the labor movement: autoworkers organized with the United Auto Workers (UAW) just won a huge victory organizing Volkswagen in Chattanooga, Tennessee, following a successful strike that won a good contract. Rather than a race to settle the contracts, the victory at Southwest should embolden the 50,000 flight attendants at American Airlines and United Airlines to continue with strike preparations to win a contract that reverses decades of retreats. The last airline strike was Spirit pilots in 2016, and they won everything
they were demanding after just a couple days of strike action. This is not to say a strike would be easy. Airlines are vicious, exploitative, union busting giants, and they donate equally huge sums to Republicans and Democrats to make sure the laws benefit them. As railroad workers learned, the Democratic Party, even its left wing around Bernie Sanders and The Squad, are prepared to strike-break if Biden’s reputation and the economy are on the line, as they did with the rail strike last year. Airline workers can conduct solidarity strikes, a unique perk of the brutally antiworker Railway Labor Act, but politicians in both parties will do everything in their power to prevent that from happening. Despite pro-union words during elections, this will put both parties firmly on the side of the bosses. This is why airline workers should link up with other unions and the wider working class to build an independent, working class party that fights for the interests of the working class as a whole, and could cut across the divisive “culture wars” the two corporate parties rely on to win elections. A real workers’ party would also talk about taking the airlines out of the hands of greedy CEOs, and putting civilian aviation under the democratic control of airline workers and aircraft engineers. If you take out the overhead of greedy CEOs and investors, travel would be cheaper, more efficient, and safer. The labor movement needs to go all out to support airline workers’ organizing. These unions must coordinate to win contracts that can turbocharge the Delta organizing effort of 50,000 workers, more than half of whom are in the south. Unionizing all flight attendants under strong contracts would build up even more momentum to organize the unorganized. Along with the breakneck pace of autoworkers in the UAW and efforts to unionize Amazon, including at the KCVG air hub in Northern Kentucky, it could make 2024 a turning point for rebuilding the labor movement. J
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Editor: Keely Mullen Editorial Board: George Brown, Tom Crean, Chris Gray, Josh Koritz, Calvin Priest, Greyson Van Arsdale, Tony Wilsdon Editors@SocialistAlternative.org
11
SOCIALIST ERIN BRIGHTWELL, OAKLAND The radical campus protest movement against the Israeli state’s genocidal war on the people of Gaza has spread like wildfire from the original encampment at Columbia to schools all across the country, and around the world. Socialist Alternative stands in solidarity with the courageous students who have faced suspension, expulsion, arrest, and physical assault to challenge the support of the US capitalist class, including university administrators, for the murderous Israeli regime.
Students Face Repression And Brutality The US ruling class has responded to the protests, in many cases, with absolutely vicious police repression, showing the panicked state it is in. The situation in the Middle East threatens to spiral completely out of control for the interests of US imperialism. All-out war between Iran and Israel, and the prospect that a ground invasion in Rafah sparks mass protests in the fragile US-backed regimes in Jordan and Egypt are enough to keep the strategists of US capitalism awake at night. The last thing they need is a determined student protest movement that risks spreading into broader society. The protests spreading out of the campuses is exactly what is needed to bring pressure on the Biden administration to a boiling point. An organized mass movement uniting students, working-class people, and unions would have the potential to wield the most powerful weapon that working people have over the ruling class: going on strike. In some areas, student protesters are beginning to coordinate across campuses, which is extremely important. National assemblies with representatives from all campus protests should be organized to coordinate next steps, which could include a national day of action inviting students and working people to join the movement with mass marches and rallies. Campus unions can play a big role. At least one campus union, UAW 4811 at the University of California, has called for a strike vote in support of the student protesters. Campus union representatives need to be part of a broader organization of campus protesters, and rally their membership to join the movement.
ALTERNATIVE ISSUE #103 l MAY 2024
WHAT NEXT GAZA SOLID FOR A R I T Y MOVEMEN T?
The Two Party System Won’t Stop War
To continue to build the movement over the summer, protests should seize the biggest stage: the Democratic National Convention in Chicago in August. With the historic protests of the 1968 DNC in Chicago already being referenced in media articles, mass protests at this year’s event would make a major breakthrough in terms of national and international attention. Working people are frustrated and angry with Biden
"The protests spreading out of the campuses is exactly what is needed to bring pressure on the Biden administration to a boiling point." for a whole host of reasons: rising prices, unaffordable housing, inaction on abortion, as well as his support for the continuing slaughter in Gaza. A massive turnout in Chicago in August could help bring the focus on the need to reject Biden and Trump in November. Socialist Alternative argues that working people should vote for the strongest left independent candidate this November, and that we need a new political party that is independent of the Democrats and Republicans, and that stands unabashedly for a left, pro-working class, anti-imperialist program. Police move to corral antiThe inspiring movement that war protesters in Chicago’s students have led, in the face Lincoln Park during the of vicious repression and an 1968 Democratic National over-the-top ideological camConvention. paign smearing them all as antisemitic, has grabbed attention worldwide on the genocidal war on Gaza and how ordinary people can fight to stop it. Now the task is to broaden the movement into the wider working class and especially the unions. If a mass movement of students and workers develops on a higher
ALL OUT TO THE DNC!
p la n e to stop the flow of profits with mass strikes in the US, a bigger, more coordinated worldwide revolt against the Israeli state and its backers in US and European imperialism can bring the war on Gaza to an end. J
INSIDE: READ REPORTS FROM STUDENT PROTESTS ACROSS PAGES 8-9 THE US! Socialist Alternative members are active across the country in student protests and encampments, as well as in the streets and workplaces fighting for an end to capitalist occupation and war, and for a socialist world.