Socialist Alternative #107 - October 2024

ALTERNATIVE

SOCIALIST

ISSUE #107 | OCTOBER 2024

BREAK TWO PARTIES

WITH THE

OF WAR & OPPRESSION INSIDE Don’t Let Trump Steal The Election

pg. 3

Boeing Strike In The Pacific Northwest

pg. 11

Free Daniel: Nigerian Socialist Imprisoned

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SOCIALIST ALTERNATIVE IN ACTION!

MARY HANNAH RADFORD, LOUISVILLE This past August, 280 Socialist Alternative members gathered at a campground just outside of Chicago, IL. We debated and discussed the major issues impacting the global working class today: imperialist war, the rising cost of living, attacks on the oppressed, the climate crisis, the state of the labor movement and more. 80 convention

delegates democratically voted on dozens of motions and amendments which we will use to continue building Socialist Alternative across the country.

We were joined by 19 International Socialist Alternative members. Their insights were vital to deepening our understanding of inter-imperialist war and struggle that characterizes the period that we are in. Internationalism is critical in the fight for socialism, as we have more in common with working people around the world than we do with the billionaires in our own countries.

We are in the midst of a challenging period for the left and society more broadly.

The convention reinvigorated our resolve to take action in our workplaces, schools and communities to build the socialist movement. And this was on full display as we filed into the streets of Chicago, where we took part in protests during the Democratic

WHAT WE STAND FOR Fight The Right With Independent Working-Class Politics • Vote against war, imperialism, and oppression.

Vote for the strongest independent left antiwar candidate, Jill Stein—not Kamala Harris or Trump.

• No to both corporate parties. Republicans use divide-and-rule scapegoating against migrants and other oppressed communities because the GOP has no real answers to the questions facing working people. But the corporate Democratic Party offers no effective resistance to right-wing attacks and has repeatedly failed to use its majorities in Congress to protect our rights.

• Take the hundreds of millions of dollars labor unions waste on supporting Democrats every election year and use it to organize every worker into a union. Labor and social movements should launch an independent political party that refuses corporate donations and fights to unite working-class people in the streets and at the ballot box.

No to Imperialist Wars • Build a massive anti-war, anti-imperialist movement demanding a permanent ceasefire in the Middle East; an end to US military aid to Israel; and an end to the occupation and siege of Palestine.

• No support for reactionary capitalist regimes like the Israeli state, Hamas, the Iranian state, and Hezbollah. For an international, independent, working class movement to end imperialist war in the Middle East.

• Labor unions should mobilize their resources and members to demand a ceasefire, as UAW grad workers did in their strike at the University of California system.

• Socialist Alternative completely opposes Russian imperialism’s brutal invasion of Ukraine and Ukraine’s invasion of Russian territory. We oppose military aid from Western imperialist countries, which only fuel this war and devastate the lives of workers in Ukraine and Russia.

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• Socialist Alternative opposes the military build-up between US and Chinese imperialism, which threatens working people everywhere.

Defend Abortion & Stop Attacks On Women & Trans People • Free, safe, legal abortion now. All contraception should be provided at no cost as part of a broad program for reproductive health. Resist all right-wing attempts to criminalize abortions.

• No trust in the Democrats, who campaign on abortion during elections but don’t make meaningful change when in power.

• Fight back against brutal anti-trans legislation and all right-wing attacks on LGBTQ people.

Full legal rights for all queer people. Build a movement to fight for good jobs, affordable housing, universal childcare, and genderaffirming Medicare for All. • The labor movement needs to take a clear stand against these divide-and-rule tactics.

Unionized workers, like teachers, should unite with students to organize mass non-compliance, strikes, and walkouts.

Stop Xenophobic Attacks & Deportations

National Convention. We talked to young and working people about how to fight the right and build a real anti-war movement for a permanent ceasefire, while Democrats nominated the potential next overseer of the attacks on Gaza. We spoke with striking nurses on the picket line at UI Health about the strategies to win a better contract, and how better working conditions for nurses relates to better patient care.

In Socialist Alternative we know the value of debate, and gaining the correct perspectives. However, our theories should never stay on the page. We use our analysis of major trends in the economy and politics to guide our work. This means building a fighting labor movement, taking on the far-right and oppression everywhere, tackling the threats of climate change, and ultimately, fighting for socialism! J

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attacks on curriculum and ban standardized tests. Cancel all student debt and make public college tuition-free.

Fully fund addiction and mental health services and job programs. Big Pharma profits off of the suffering and misery of working-class people.

Corporations caused the fentanyl crisis, and untreated mental health is a massive problem.

Permanently free and accessible testing and paid sick leave. Take Big Pharma into public ownership – vaccines should be for public health, not profit. Capitalism failed to stop COVID-19, with the “post-pandemic” new normal consisting of total indifference to public health.

Bring back the COVID-era child tax credit and make it permanent. No cuts to food stamps.

End Climate Catastrophe & Create Green, Union Jobs

Fight for green, union jobs. We reject big business pitting the climate movement against the labor movement—we need a unionized jobs program to rapidly expand green infrastructure including a massive expansion of free, highquality, and fast public transit.

• Put policing under the control of democrati- • For fully-funded emergency systems. We need fully-funded emergency systems to protect cally-elected civilian boards with the power to and evacuate people from ever-increasing hire, fire, subpoena, and review budget prioristorms, floods, and fires. Tax the rich to ties. reimburse working people for their destroyed homes and livelihoods.

Rebuild Fighting Unions • Take real steps to address climate change.

Both parties fund the US military, one of the • Inflation, unaffordable healthcare, sky-high biggest polluters in the world. Addressing clirents, and a lack of basic respect on the job mate change means ending war and cutting are pushing hundreds of thousands of workers military budgets. to go on strike. We need effective strikes that hit the bosses where it hurts most—their wal- • Fossil fuels can’t coexist with a sustainable future—ban new oil and gas drilling and take lets—to win lasting victories like Cost of Living the top 100 polluting companies into demoAdjustments (COLA). cratic public ownership, while implementing • Unionize every worker. Earlier this year, autoa democratically planned, just transition to workers launched a massive campaign to orga100% green energy. nize the South, a huge step toward building a united resistance to corporations and their political allies in both parties who profit most The Whole System Is Guilty from keeping us divided.

• Demand union leaders stop rubbing elbows • Capitalism produces pandemics, poverty, racism, transphobia, environmental destrucwith corporate politicians and start laying the tion, and war. We need an international strugground for a new independent worker’s party. gle against this failed system.

Union leaders should accept the average wage • Bring the top 500 companies and banks into of workers in their industry. These leaders democratic public ownership. Working-class should be accountable to their membership people know how to manage their schools, and the broader working class. workplaces, and communities better than out• An injury to one is an injury to all. Unions need of-touch executives and Wall Street investors. to fight all manifestations of racism, sexism, • For a socialist world.

This means a democratic queerphobia, and all forms of oppression as socialist plan for the economy based on the part of the struggle to rebuild a fighting labor common interests of working people and youth movement. everywhere.

Tax the Rich & Invest In Our Basic Needs

• No immigrant detentions and deportations! No border wall expansion! Immediate citizenship • Fight inflation with significant wage increases. rights for all undocumented immigrants.

Billionaires keep getting richer while inflation • Build a movement that unites immigrants and eats more and more out of every paycheck US-born workers against the billionaire class to working people receive. fight for good union jobs, social housing, and • Medicare for All now. Take for-profit hospital free high quality education for all. chains out of the hands of greedy investors and • Break from both corporate parties! The Demoincompetent managers, and run them under crats have betrayed immigrants both at the democratic workers’ control for the safety of border and “blue” cities and states. Trump staff and patients. doesn’t offer any alternative.

• Housing is a human right. Pass strong rent control. End economic evictions. Fund high-quality, permanently affordable, socially-owned housEnd Racist Policing ing where renters are legally protected from • Arrest and convict killer cops. End the militadiscrimination. rization of police; ban the use of crowd control • Fully fund public education. End school privaweapons and disarm police on patrol. tization. Give educators an immediate 25% raise and increase staffing. Stop right-wing

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FIND US ONLINE!

www.SocialistAlternative.org info@socialistalternative.org @Socialist_Alternative @SocialistAlt /SocialistAlternative.USA /c/SocialistAlternative

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US ELECTIONS CHRIS GRAY, MINNEAPOLIS Despite losing the popular vote by millions, Trump tried to steal the election in 2020. He has never stopped repeating that the 2020 elections were stolen from him, and the impact of his lies is shown in the fact that 66% of Republicans agree with him. With a firm grip on the GOP, Trump has been carefully laying the groundwork for 2024.

In 2020 Trump tried to convene fake electoral college electors in 7 states.

His campaign filed legal challenges to overturn the results in 10 states, all of which were thrown out of court. He forced two separate recounts each in Georgia and Wisconsin, which found no wrongdoing.

Over a hundred retired military officials, dozens of Republican legislators, and VP Mike Pence abandoned Trump, but he still fought to overturn the election. On January 6th, Trump rallied his die-hard supporters to “Stop the Steal” taking place in the Capitol, and oversaw what became a deadly riot spearheaded by far-right insurrectionists.

Trump and the GOP have opened the door to vigilante violence designed to intimidate voters. They are encouraging individuals to monitor polling stations, and have gained ground with conspiracy theories about undocumented immigrants secretly voting.

We need to lay the groundwork for mass mobilizations to stop Trump from stealing the election. This includes massive street protests, but also the threat of strikes and occupations to actually shut things down. The labor movement can play a key role reducing the threat of vigilante violence at the polls and counting locations.

But in no way does defending democratic rights mean supporting corporate politicians like Kamala Harris.

Socialist Alternative organizes against both corporate, war-mongering parties and is calling for a protest vote for Green Party candidate Jill Stein in the election, against both Trump and Harris.

A movement to stop Trump from stealing the election would need to go beyond just defending the right to democratic elections and should raise its own independent demands to improve the lives of workers, immigrants and young people.

The Democrats’ lack of action on the key issues facing working-class people opens the doors to the dangers of Trump and his right wing agenda. The real threat to democracy isn’t just from a Trump presidency, but his right-wing base that has strengthened over the last four years.

With this hardened and more organized base, Trump would have room to attack labor unions, increase repression of protests, and

George W. Bush in 2004. Before that, millions watched as the Democrats conceded the election to Republicans, despite winning the popular vote in 2000.

Many people don’t vote at all because they’ve heard politicians make big promises, but things never change. Despite voter record turnout in 2020 of 66%, if people who didn’t vote were measured as a vote of no confidence, neither corporate party would have been able

push through right wing legislation undemocratically. But the Democratic Party is more interested in using “democracy” to win elections than actually fighting to save democratic rights.

to win a majority.

Many more US citizens can’t vote at all, even though they still fully participate in society, pay taxes, etc. Around 4.4 million Americans, disproportionately working-class and Black, are disenfranchised from voting because of past felony convictions. This amounts to 2% of the voting-age population, a decisive margin in any swing state.

Despite these limits, defending the right to vote is a crucial tool to fight for broader demands. The Civil Rights movement developed as a fight against attacks on democratic rights against Black people, but broadened into a wider critique of war, inequality and even capitalism itself.

Crisis Of Legitimacy A Pew poll found that only 19% of Americans agree that “America is a good democracy for other countries to follow.” There are understandable reasons most Americans don’t have confidence in elections. For many of us it feels like we’re asked to choose between bad and worse every few years while the world gets more and more nightmarish.

The Democratic Party is happy to run on a platform of “saving democracy,” playing on very real fears around the far right and Project 2025. They use this to distract from the fact that they’re not fighting for meaningful change like Medicare for All and a higher minimum wage, which would anger their corporate backers.

OCTOBER 2024

Defend The Vote

The Limits Of US Democracy The electoral college is an antiquated system that was designed to protect the interests of the southern slaveholders and northern merchants who authored the constitution. The last Republican to win the popular vote was

The 2024 elections won’t have the same features as 2020. First of all, Biden will be in the White House until the inauguration. With control over the FBI and CIA, the Democrats will have more than enough time to prepare for far-right provocations. However, in many swing states Republicans have majorities and therefore control over the electoral system, which could help Trump. Furthermore, the far-right has been growing and getting bolder under Biden.

Working people should have no confidence in the Democratic Party or the capitalist class to protect democratic rights. These are the same people who defend undemocratic institutions like the electoral college and repress non-violent protests. When threatened, the ruling class is prepared to defend foreign dictators, bankroll coups, and even assassinate activists like 21-year-old Black Panther leader Fred Hampton.

First and foremost, we need to start preparing now for mass protests to show opposition to Trump stealing the election. These protests need to be linked to the threat of shutting down business-as-usual for the political establishment. In 2017, mass protests and airport occupations stopped Trump’s racist Muslim ban. In 2019, the threat of strikes at airports ended Trump’s government shutdown.

The labor movement should play a decisive role in these protests. There should be open and democratic discussions in every union about how the labor movement should approach the elections, and what can be done to defend the vote. This could provide a platform for genuine debate and discussion away from polarizing algorithms on social media and divisive pundits on TV. In addition, unions can mobilize members to be poll watchers, and potentially non-violently intervene if vigilantes try to intimidate voters.

Unions can prepare to mobilize members to protect counting locations and post offices to avoid a repeat of the Republican-backed “Brooks Brothers” riot at a Florida county office where a recount was happening during the contested 2000 election.

Mass mobilizations and coordinated actions can isolate far-right elements and stop vigilante violence in ways the capitalist state isn’t willing to.

The movement should also call for a new working class party that fights unapologetically for working-class demands like a massive increase in wages to address inflation, taxing billionaires to fund gender-affirming Medicare for All, and a high-paying green jobs program to transition off fossil fuels.

Stop Trumpism Trump’s right-populism is here to stay as long as establishment politicians can’t address the crises of capitalism. Trump has also inspired copycats around the world, such as Bolsonaro in Brazil, whose claims about his stolen election inspired a similar mob to storm the capitol there. These right-populists with authoritarian tendencies feed on the lack of credibility of capitalism and its democratic institutions.

Billionaires and corporations will only defend democracy if it makes them richer; these same people are bankrolling politicians like Trump—and Harris. The way to defend (and expand) democracy while also opposing capitalism is to fight for socialism. Not only is this the only way to end the threat of Trumpism once and for all, but it would give working class people direct democratic control over society’s resources to improve life for people and the planet. J

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US ELECTIONS

Who Is Tim Walz?

ADAM BURCH, MINNEAPOLIS Adam is a bus driver and member of Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU) Local 1005, writing in a personal capacity.

Many young and working people were dreading another election rematch between reactionary billionaire landlord Trump and Joe Biden, who struggles to string a coherent thought into words. But now, Kamala Harris has assumed the mantle as the Democratic nominee and has raised hopes that Trump can be defeated in this election.

People’s hopes were buoyed even further when Harris picked Minnesota Governor Tim Walz as her running mate. Walz’s history as a former high school teacher and football coach is an effective contrast to Trump’s tech bro running mate, JD Vance.

One of Walz’s progressive credentials includes Minnesota passing a bill giving free lunch to public school students. Walz also implemented free tampons in schools. But what good is any of this if his administration is currently shuttering public schools across the state?

Despite his camo hat and t-shirt, Walz shouldn’t be trusted to represent the interests of working people any more than any other politician from the two corporate parties.

Tear-Gas Tim To young people fighting police brutality during the George Floyd rebellion, Walz was known as “tear-gas Tim”. After the Minneapolis Police brutally murdered George Floyd, Walz’s Minnesota State Troopers were quickly sent to help city and county police suppress the protests by tear-gassing crowds of peaceful demonstrators.

This escalation eventually led to protesters setting fire to a police precinct (at the time, the burning down of this precinct polled more favorably than either then-President Trump or candidate Joe Biden).

Transit workers like myself defied Walz’s order to use city buses to transport non-violent protestors to jail during the George Floyd rebellion.

Walz then mobilized the Minnesota National Guard, who terrorized nonviolent protesters. Just because Republicans wished Walz had ordered the National Guard to fire live ammunition into crowds of protesters, doesn’t diminish the fact that Walz actually did use the full violent force of the state to suppress a mass movement fighting against horrific injustice.

Walz’s actions during George Floyd are similar to how Democrats continue to give military aid and political defense to the Israeli state’s

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genocidal war in Gaza. There’s no reason to think that as vice president Walz would act any differently.

The Bosses’ Governor Despite Minnesota’s relatively high corporate income tax rate when compared to other states, Minnesota ranks third in the nation for number of Fortune 500 companies per capita with United Health, Wells Fargo, US Bank, General Mills, Target, Best Buy, and 3M among the big corporations that make Minnesota their headquarters. The executives of these corporations make millions while homeless encampments and under-funded public schools sit next door.

Walz hasn’t done anything to fundamentally change that. In fact, as Governor, Walz appointed the state council that forced my coworkers to accept a weak contract that amounts to a pay cut after inflation. Other workers would tell similar stories about Walz’ role.

A big part of the “regular guy” perception that Walz is trying to cultivate is from his time as a public high school teacher. Meanwhile, Minnesota public schools are suffering from a budget deficit that school admin boards and corporate politicians are using as pretense to cut school services, and to even potentially close entire schools. Between Minneapolis and St. Paul, 500 teacher positions are being cut, potentially forcing schools to combine students across grade levels into one classroom.

The only political force in Minnesota that is demanding the kinds of additional funding needed are the teachers’

unions, particularly Minneapolis and St. Paul educators’ unions. This was on full display during the 2022 MFT-ESP educator strike in Minneapolis. This strike would have been a great opportunity for any politician who champions public schools to struggle alongside the educators’ unions to demand further funding for public schools. However, Walz never once used the authority of the governor’s office and state government to support the striking educators’ demands, nor did he fight for the school board to agree to the union’s terms.

Walz further betrayed Minnesota unions last year when he completely gutted a bill supported by the nurses’ union that would have required hospitals to staff at a higher nurse-topatient ratio. The Minnesota Nurses Association has long demanded safer staffing by forcing hospitals to increase the number of nurses per shift. However, the hospital bosses— particularly at the Mayo Clinic—oppose this sensible demand because it comes at the expense of their profits, even if it will provide better health care to their patients and safety for their nurses. Walz bent to the pressure of Mayo Clinic’s threats to relocate its billion dollar hospital expansion to another state if the safe staffing bill became law.

We Need A Real Alternative Tim Walz does not in any way change the character of the thoroughly corrupt and corporate Democratic Party. His everyday working-man persona is only surface deep.

His real record is attacking mass movements, betraying unions, and defending corporations. Working and young people don’t have to accept this and should demand a better political alternative that can fight for their interests, independent from any corporate and billionaire influence.

That’s why Socialist Alternative endorses independent left-wing presidential candidate Jill Stein, but more importantly it is why we campaign for a new mass workers’ party so we don’t have to settle for the lesser evil in each election. J

KAMALA HARRIS DOESN’T GIVE A F*** ABOUT THE CLIMATE Rachel Wilder, Philadelphia Even as the climate crisis continues to pose an existential threat, Kamala Harris and the Democratic Party can’t offer any real solutions. That’s because they represent the class that profits off of polluting industries—the billionaire capitalist class. They’re now demanding increased militarization, which means expanding one of the world’s largest polluters: the military.

• Harris enthusiastically supports expanding and re-arming the US military—already the largest in the world.

US military emissions are the largest of any country worldwide, rivaling the entire annual carbon output of some smaller nations. A 2022 report by the Conflict and Environment Observatory suggested that militaries around the world could account for around 5.5% of global greenhouse gas emissions—more than the emissions of every house on the planet.

• While Harris talks about “peace”, she supports continued funding for wars in the Middle East and Ukraine. Besides 40,000 deaths in Gaza, one study suggests the slaughter has spewed more than 281,000 metric tons of carbon into the atmosphere—the annual emissions of 61,000 cars. Never mind the millions more metric tons needed to rebuild Gaza after the war. Another report suggested that the war in Ukraine exceeded 150 million metric tons of CO2. It would take planting 6.8 billion trees to reverse this!

• Harris supports expanding fracking to provide fuel for the fossil-fuel guzzling military. After promising in the past that she would ban fracking, she insisted on CNN, “As vice president, I did not ban fracking. As president, I will not ban fracking.” Furthermore, she supported a 19% increase in military spending, enough to fund the Department of Education for two years or build 280 state-of-the-art hospitals. J

socialistalternative.org

US ELECTIONS

CHAPPELL ROAN IS RIGHT —

BOTH SIDES SUCK Chappell Roan’s meteoric rise to stardom in the past year has practically made her a household name among young, queer communities. Many see themselves reflected in Roan, a 26-year-old lesbian drag queen who speaks openly about trans rights, the horrific assault on Gaza, exploitation in the music industry, and her own mental health.

This past June, the “Pink Pony Club” singer refused to perform at the White House’s Pride celebration in protest of the Biden/Harris administration. In an interview with Rolling Stone, she raised candid criticism of the role the US has played in supporting Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza and took aim against a Biden official who spoke in favor of limiting access to gender-affirming healthcare for minors.

It might not come as a surprise, then, that she didn’t rush to join in on the avalanche of celebrity endorsements for Kamala Harris in recent weeks. Roan made headlines for refusing to endorse Harris, giving voice to the deep frustration that radicalizing young people feel as they search for solutions to the global crises that have defined their lives.

After facing huge amounts of pressure from mostly angry liberals online, and believing she has no one to vote for, Roan said that she will vote for Harris but not endorse her. We think Roan should stick to her first gut instinct—both options are horrible, and we don’t have to support either of them.

A Real Choice?

The media and many of Harris’s supporters quickly criticized Roan for her stance on

the election, even accusing her of supporting Trump. The reality is, neither the Republicans nor the Democrats have anything worthwhile on offer for working people. The choice between two politicians closely tied to big business and imperialist interests is not a genuine choice.

Chappell Roan is right not to endorse Trump or Harris as a candidate or as a solution. But we need more than what many young people have resigned themselves to—a disgruntled vote for Harris. We need a multi-gender, multi-racial movement of young people and workers willing to take the fight beyond the ballot box and into the streets and our workplaces. We need a new party, built by and for the working class, that will fight for our needs and put people over profit.

We think Chappell Roan should call for a massive protest vote against Harris and Trump, and for antiwar, pro-worker candidate Jill Stein. This would be a hugely inspiring stand against the dead-end cycle of lesser evilism. Building the largest possible protest vote in November would deliver the message that the working class and young people are ready to stand up and fight back.

But a Harris presidency filled with more broken promises and outright attacks on working people would not be capable of actually fighting the right. The influence of the far right has grown under the current administration as the rotten Democrats have failed to offer a real alternative.

Harris gives lip service to calls for a ceasefire in Gaza while she continues to support U.S. aid

Corinne Gilbert, Boston

to Israel. In response to Trump’s racist fear mongering of immigrants, she promised to bring back a border control bill which proposes even stricter immigration policies than those Trump has supported.

She has been outspoken in her support for the continuation of fracking, despite its appalling impact on the climate. The Harris campaign is happy to co-opt Chappell’s hit song “Femininomenon” for twitter memes and sell rip off camo hats, as long as they don’t have to adopt Chappell’s message with it.

More Than Just Voting In a TikTok video defending her position, Roan said that the only thing we can do in politics is vote, so we should just vote in local elections because we don’t have a good choice for president. There’s nothing wrong with voting in your local elections, but real change has always been made by mass movements in the streets and in our workplaces, not at the ballot box.

Voting is just the very beginning of what we can do to fix this broken society.

Without a political force to challenge them, the two pro-corporate, pro-imperialist, antiimmigrant parties can survive just fine with influential people like Chappell Roan saying there are “problems on both sides”. It’s necessary to go beyond that and call for a new political party whose power is rooted in the social movements Roan has supported, and is prepared to challenge capitalist politics-asusual like she has done.

The struggle for a better world and real change needs to be a struggle against the capitalist system that fuels endless war, poverty, and misery. It needs to be a struggle for a socialist future, built by a mass movement of working-class and young people regardless of who is in the White House. J

“Problems On Both Sides” Explaining why she won’t endorse a candidate in this election, Roan said there are “problems on both sides,” a sentiment many of us resonate with. If given the opportunity, Trump would enter a second term in office prepared to efficiently attack ordinary people with antiworker, anti-immigrant, anti-LGBTQ+ policies.

TEAMSTERS DECLINE TO ENDORSE EITHER CANDIDATE

TY NOLAN, BOSTON

The Teamsters will not be endorsing any presidential candidate for the first time in three decades. The union released polling data showing 59.6% of members polled say they support Trump, while 34% support Harris.

In a statement, the Teamsters, who have published a series of roundtable discussions they’ve held with presidential candidates, said, “...the union was left with few commitments on top Teamsters issues from either former President Donald Trump or Vice President Kamala Harris—and found no definitive support among members for either party’s nominee.”

The non-endorsement has sparked a backlash within the Teamsters leadership.

Vice President at-large of the Teamsters and Teamsters for a Democratic Union (TDU) member John Palmer announced he is challenging current President Sean O’Brien in the

OCTOBER 2024

2026 union elections, though TDU itself has not commented on his candidacy.

Former President Jim Hoffa called the non-endorsement a “failure of leadership” by O’Brien. Leaders of the reform caucus TDU have launched a new group, Teamsters Against Trump, that is openly campaigning for Harris.

The poll results, while disputed by some, do show some workers are becoming increasingly disenchanted with the failed promises of the Democrats. The results showed openness to right-wing populism in the absence of any real left, pro-worker alternative.

Union endorsements have received a spotlight this election as the Republicans seek to cynically pose as the “party of the working class,” but neither corporate party is committed to addressing issues impacting union members.

However, declining to take a stance in this election merely places the Teamsters on the sidelines at a time when many workers are

seriously looking for an alternative to the two pro-corporate parties.

Teamster members have felt what it means to have no party for workers in this country when the rail strike, which included many Teamsters, was broken by the Democrats and Republicans working together. The Teamsters’ largest employer, UPS, has donated over $12 million collectively to both parties since 2023.

Contrary to O’Brien saying at the Republican National Convention that the elites have no party, they actually work hand in hand with both against the interests of all workers. The entire labor movement is fighting on weaker footing so long as there is no political party organized around a pro-worker program that doesn’t take a cent from billionaires or corporations.

This is a huge missed opportunity for both Teamsters leadership and TDU to chart a new path forward politically for the labor movement.

Instead of non-endorsement or campaigning for Harris, Teamsters leadership and TDU

should move towards organizing for a new working class party in this country and in the meantime endorse the best pro-worker candidate running, Jill Stein.

The Teamsters and other unions should run independent candidates in elections on an unabashedly pro-worker program, open their doors to the millions disgusted by both parties, join forces with anti-war groups like Abandon Harris and the Uncommitted movement, and crucially, organize in workplaces across the country.

New organizing drives like the Teamsters taking on Amazon, and strike action like we are seeing with machinists at Boeing (see pg.

11) strengthen the labor movement as a whole, is helping raise the confidence of workers to fight for their own independent interests and can become a catalyst of struggle for building towards an independent workers party. J

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FIGHTING THE RIGHT

SOLIDARITY WITH SPRINGFIELD HAITIANS

DEFEAT TRUMP & THE RIGHT! LYN CIURRO, STEVENS POINT

The small Midwestern city of Springfield, OH, has become the newest battleground for far-right anti-immigrant attacks. Instead of focusing on real issues that working class people across the Midwest are facing—scarce access to affordable and adequate healthcare, skyrocketing cost of living, higher than average unemployment—Donald Trump and his campaign are doubling down on their divide-andrule strategy, with terrifying and dangerous consequences for immigrants.

The discourse on Haitian immigrants is not new in Ohio, and has been a topic of much vitriolic conversation. But it reached a fever pitch recently when Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump took to the debate stage on September 10th and declared, “In Springfield they’re eating dogs. They’re eating the cats.” This appalling statement was par for the course for the rest of the evening, which all circled back to anti-immigrant and nationalist rhetoric while Kamala responded only to say how much tougher her Democratic Party will be on immigration.

While both parties use anti-immigrant scapegoating to deflect attention away from their pro-corporate policies, Trump’s Republican Party has kicked this into high gear. Farright parties around the world are also adopting a sharp anti-immigrant program, utilizing chauvinism (as in, prejudice for one’s own group) to consolidate their bases to win elections.

While this political posturing is taking place

on televised debates, working class people in Springfield, regardless of where they were born, are dealing with the consequences. Hospitals and schools have closed due to bomb threats, endangering the city and throwing working families into chaos.

Neo-Nazi and far-right groups like the Proud Boys, Blood Tribe, and the Ku Klux Klan

have openly marched in the streets, chanting about “blood and soil” and mass deportation of the Haitian people and “foreigners”. These “foreigners”, who have lived in Springfield for years, no longer feel safe in their own homes.

Whether or not Trump actually believes this is happening—and all credible evidence points to it NOT happening—Trump and his campaign

have deftly shifted attention to a xenophobic hoax that has whipped up his base. These claims are absolutely vile, and we reject them.

They are part of a racist campaign to further marginalize a group forced to emigrate from Haiti, a country destabilized in part due to US and other imperialist interference.

Harris and Walz were quick to denounce these xenophobic attacks and jump on the opportunity to portray themselves as the defender of immigrants, but their policies on immigration can hardly be differentiated from those of the Republicans.

The Democratic Party’s rightward march is apparent in the Emergency National Security Supplemental Appropriations Act, which implemented new limits on asylum protections and enhanced border security while also sending billions of dollars in aid to key military interests like Israel’s genocidal war against Palestine. Not to mention, the Biden administration continued and expanded Trump’s border policies after the Trump-era Title 42 expired.

On top of their inability to fight for, let alone win, actual change, the failures of the Democratic Party create space for far-right groups

to step into the vacuum and falsely claim that they can do more for the working class. The right wing can correctly point to the inadequacies of the Democrats even though their alternative is reprehensible.

Far-right groups can ignite deeply held racist and bigoted beliefs promoted by capitalists to explain inequality because many working people feel they have been burned by establishment politicians. In response, these people turn to the right in lack of a left political alternative.

Neither corporate party can unite working class people while also defending billionaires who use divide-andrule tactics to keep us divided. Labor unions need to boldly and directly take up this fight, building for solidarity protests and even strikes to push back against the racist and xenophobic ideas that threaten the unity of the working class as a whole. Ultimately, racism and xenophobia are deeply rooted in and perpetuated by capitalism, and will require a united movement of both immigrant and non-immigrant workers to defeat.

We need a program of common demands that materially benefit every worker, like a dramatic increase in minimum wage, high quality Medicare for All, and taxing billionaires and corporations to build affordable housing, improve schools, and provide cheap, renewable energy.

Common struggle and collective action against our real enemy, the billionaires and their political puppets, is the best way to combat divisive ideas and bigotry within our ranks.

Socialists cannot sit idly by and watch this all happen; people are looking for a left political alternative, and we need to link this to the need to topple the billionaires who benefit from bigotry and rebuild society on a socialist basis. J

THE WHOLE SYSTEM IS GUILTY

KELLY BELLIN, MINNEAPOLIS

For the last two years, inflation has brought people to the brink. Tens of millions of Americans have struggled to afford to eat as prices skyrocketed. In just the last year, 4 in 10 adults have needed medical care and failed to seek it because of cost. Following the most deadly period of the COVID crisis, the cost of surviving went up and up. Utilities have gone up at twice the rate of other inflation increases, forcing an alarming 32% of Americans to borrow (in some form) to afford their energy bills.

And yet the CEOs of food, health insurance, and utility companies are thriving.

During the height of inflation, production

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and supply issues were endlessly cited as the reason that, tragically, ordinary people were being forced into food insecurity. Yet when these issues subsided, corporations kept their prices hiked and have since made even more.

The cost-of-living crisis is one expression of the myriad crises of capitalism. Economic turmoil, imperialist war and climate devastation are driven by a system run on the need to constantly increase profit margins.

This chaos is destroying the planet. Climate disaster after climate disaster is creating new depths of instability in the world as people face total displacement and are forced to consider: will my home be standing a decade from now?

This system is worse than a zero-sum

game: when billionaires are profiting, it’s because we’re struggling; when they’re struggling, working people have to suffer to keep their profits afloat.

The only way to eliminate the power of the billionaires is to end capitalism and replace it with a system where working people are empowered to run society.

Under capitalism, the workers of a company keep everything running, knowing that if the “owner” walked in they wouldn’t know how to do any individual task, let alone everything. This is just a glimpse of why working people can and should have control, through democratic public ownership—not just of a co-op here or there, but of all corporations.

A democratically-planned economy would mean that we could run society based on

our needs, instead of fulfilling the needs of the billionaires. This is the only way to truly build a green economy and save the planet from climate destruction; capitalism simply cannot.

As inflation now cools, we’re warned not to expect grocery prices to go back down.

That would supposedly be bad for the economy. This in itself speaks to who the system is organized for, and the last years have shown that the billionaire class would rather that we die than cut into their profits.

But being revolutionary socialists means that we believe a better world is possible. This system doesn’t work for us, so we fight for a new, socialist one. J

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WORLD POWERS PREPARE FOR NEW GLOBAL CONFLICT

WAR

Rush To War

LEON PINSKY, NYC

The latest dramatic developments in the Middle East—with Israel’s relentless attacks in Lebanon, the US moving more forces to the region, and Iran’s plans to send troops to aid Hezbollah—are part of a bigger global picture.

Major global and regional imperialist powers are involved in a series of wars, conflicts, and military tensions. From the devastating war in Ukraine to the genocidal war in Gaza, a dramatic expansion of the war into Lebanon, the endless wars in Yemen and Sudan, a string of military coup in the Sahel Region, to the growing threat around China, Taiwan, and the South China Sea—everything points toward the danger of a new global conflict not seen since World War II. Regional wars are not isolated from each other, but are links in a growing consolidation of geopolitical blocs around the two main imperialist powers—the US and China—aimed at cementing and expanding each power’s region of influence and fending off the other. The main arenas surround the strategic trade and military regions of the South China Sea, the Red Sea between the Arabian peninsula and East Africa, Eastern Europe, and the African continent.

These heightened clashes take place in the context of a global political, financial, and social crisis of capitalism. What we’re seeing are symptoms of global capitalism transforming out of neoliberalism into a new era of inter-imperialist conflict.

The end of the hegemony the US has experienced since WWII, as well as the search for new profitable avenues for capitalist investment, sanctions workarounds, and the rising struggles of working people against poverty, displacement, and hunger are all growing complications for capitalist regimes that are pushing them toward war.

This new era is also marked by a rise of militarism, economic protectionism, as well as heightened nationalism, racism, and xenophobia throughout the world.

War In Ukraine The war in Ukraine, approaching its third year and reportedly costing the lives of over a million people, is one of the epicenters in this global conflict. The US ruling class sees Russian and Chinese imperialism as the main threat to its global interests.

Defeat would be devastating for both the US and China-led blocs. It would signal to their allies their incapability to defend them against increased influence and domination by the opposing bloc and curtail their influence on the world stage.

The Middle East & Africa The wars in Gaza, the West Bank, and Lebanon are a horrendous demonstration of human lives being sacrificed for the broader interests of global superpowers.

The Hamas October 7th attack in Israel, and

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the brutal war that followed, caused a suspension of the major “normalization” process between Israel and a series of Arab countries promoted by the US and aimed at fending off growing Chinese and Iranian influence in the Middle East.

The coming together of a Western alliance was best showcased in April, when Israel and Iran exchanged missile fire. A series of European and Arab countries suspended their fake criticism of Israel’s slaughter in Gaza and stepped in to defend it. On the other side, we see the China and Russia-led bloc with Iran at its head working closely with Hezbollah in Lebanon, the Houthis in Yemen, and Iranian-backed militias in Iraq and Syria.

Another strategic location for trade and military dominance is Eastern Africa, particularly the Horn of Africa, the Red Sea, and the Suez Canal.

Control over this region is of prime importance for any country that wants to secure the free flow of goods from Asia to Europe.

This is a key reason for the heavy involvement of regional imperialist forces in the devastating war in Sudan which has taken the lives of countless innocent people and caused the world’s largest refugee crisis and famine. The conflict involves a complicated and somewhat contradictory web of alliances between the UAE and the Russian Wagner Group on one side and Iran and Ukraine on the other. More incredibly, Russia has recently switched sides and is now fighting alongside Ukrainian forces.

The inter-imperialist conflict has had a dramatic impact on a series of countries in the Sahel region where, after decades of Western neocolonial rule, military forces took power with significant popular support and aligned themselves with the China-Russia bloc as part of the latter’s growing influence in the African continent.

The US government is fully aware of the direction these developments point to. The Commission on the National Defense Strategy for the United States concluded in a report that the threat of global war is at its highest since WWII. It is advising the Department of Defense to prepare for a global war in the short to medium term.

The US and its allies envision a conventional, non-nuclear war in Asia. Even so, the breakout of a global military conflict in a world of armed nuclear powers is an extremely dangerous scenario. Acknowledging that the US is unprepared for this scale of war, the commission’s proposals include mass investments in a pre-war economy, securing the funding of allied forces globally, a widespread military/technological upgrade, involving the Department of Education to promote military education, and raising “patriotism” in society. They even suggest the possibility of military conscription in the future to combat dwindling recruitment numbers.

Moves towards reintroducing military conscription have been enacted in Latvia and discussed by major parties in Britain, Germany, Italy and elsewhere. Meanwhile, Sweden and Estonia have extended the reach of their existing conscription regimes. In Germany, where military funding has reached its highest levels since WWII, there has been a relentless propaganda campaign to prepare the population for war within 5-8 years. China has increased its militarization, especially its technological and naval capabilities, and is now on par with the US on military funding.

The rush for war-preparedness stems from an acknowledgement that no side is fully ready for combat. Why aren’t the main superpowers able to simply order their allies to end the conflicts?

securing areas of oil drilling, fishing, and production of minerals to maintain profits for their domestic capitalist classability, commerce, and combat limitations posed by climate disasters; fending off regional rivals in preparations for wider wars; and, not least, facing growing pressure from the population struggling for higher living standards under increased hardships.

Despite having a certain “independence” in their actions, overall regional imperialist powers are marching in the direction of its bloc, as can be seen in the case of the wars in Ukraine and the Middle East.

Taking No Side In Imperialist Conflict Working people have no side in an inter-imperialist war. But more war is the inexorable logic of this diseased system. No imperialist side winning hegemony on the world stage would have any benefit for workers who would bear the brunt of death, displacement, and hunger.

Transformation into a war economy in the medium term would include an attack on workers’ benefits and social programs to fund war efforts. This raises the historic task of the global working class in building an alternative. Socialists stand firmly against nationalism and other forms of reactionary ideology which seek to divide us.

We need our own mass political organizations and an international socialist party that can organize a fightback against the horrors of imperialism and pose an alternative based on workers’ solidarity, cooperation, and democratic public control over the economy. J

South China Sea In many ways, the epicenter of tensions which is most likely to spark a global war is the South China Sea, the area that includes China’s south coast, Taiwan, the Philippines, Vietnam, and others. The Chinese state has repeatedly threatened to take Taiwan and abolish its independence. For decades, the US and others maintained an ambiguous approach towards the idea of “reunification”. But recently the tone has changed and the US has signaled that it will militarily defend Taiwan if China launched an invasion.

The South China Sea and Taiwan’s geographical locations are playing crucial roles, including securing military control and trade routes around the Taiwan Strait, the Miyako Strait, and the Bashi Strait—the main access between China and the Pacific Ocean. These straits also lie between China and a series of US naval bases in South Korea, Japan, and the Philippines, forming a strip of military bulwarks in case a war breaks out.

Additionally, Taiwan plays a central global role in the production of semiconductors, an increasingly important component in modern technology, including for military purposes.

The internal dynamic and contradictions of capitalism go beyond the direct control of those in power. Regional imperialist countries are not simply puppets bound to follow orders, but have their own dynamics and interests stemming from a variety of complicated conditions such as an urgency to modernize their economy by gaining access to investments, land, and resources;

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& S E R I A N O I L L C BI A B S N O I T A R O P COR S E T A D I D N e v A i t a C n r e t l H A n T A d e e N BorO e l p o e P d e s s e r kers & Opp ELECTION

2024

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ociety is polarized between a handful of billionaire hoarders who profit from war, poverty and environmental destruction while the rest of us struggle with high housing costs, limited health coverage, and deep despair as the world goes further into crisis. Whichever candidate wins the election, billionaires will be determining the policy of the incoming president unless we build a strong movement to defeat them.

The capitalist system that created this mess is upheld by both political parties, and the blind pursuit of astronomical profits by big corporations at the expense of everything

and everyone is driving the world further towards catastrophe. Politicians are in the back pocket of big business lobbyists while the super-rich bust unions, accelerate climate change, and collude to raise our rents. Meanwhile, the genocidal war in Gaza rages on with support from both Democrats and Republicans.

In a warped way, the polarized elections reflect divisions in society, but both candidates are backed by wings of the capitalist class. Still, millions of people are correctly deeply afraid of what a second Trump administration would mean for themselves, loved ones, and the planet.

At the same time, millions of other people will be voting for Trump, wrongly thinking he

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T. PAUL S , IS R U O L U

BY BRYAN KO

represents a challenge to the establishment, and thousands of right-wing thugs are hoping to have someone in the White House (again) who will openly back up their racist and sexist hate mongering.

System In Decay The two main options in front of us represent a capitalist class with no plan to solve the basic issues working people face. Trump has full control over the Republican Party despite the objections of the ruling class’s most trusted rightwing strategists. For instance, former Republican Vice President and sociopathic warmonger Dick Cheney has endorsed Kamala Harris.

Still, Trump’s strongman brand of authoritarian “America first” policies have support from billionaires like Elon Musk and key players on Wall Street. The super rich want us to think they got their wealth from being smarter than the rest of us, but they are people devoid of ideas beyond shortterm greed and lust for power.

Harris is replacing Biden, whose incoherent rambles were the best that U.S. capitalism’s “sane” party had to offer a few months ago. When bumbling Biden finally stepped aside, the ruling class’ strategists in the Democrats scrambled to make sure there was no contested race for the nomination. This shows the lack of confidence that the ruling class has in their own ideas and representatives.

The world is a mess, and they know it, but they don’t agree on what to do. The old order of unquestioned U.S. corporate domination on a world scale is over, replaced by war, big power rivalries, and global instability.

Still, many young people and workers are relieved that we’re no longer facing a certain Trump landslide victory which appeared to be the main possibility when Biden was running. This is understandable because a second Trump term will be a real threat to workers and oppressed people and an attempt to further institute authoritarianism as a response to the

system’s crisis.

A second Trump administration wouldn’t be the circus of competing interests like the first one; it would be a reactionary machine of dangerous legislation and executive orders outlined in authoritarian manifestos like Project 2025.

Defending Migrants, Women & Trans People Trump has promised widespread deportation of migrant workers with his VP pick Vance saying a million deportations would be a “good start.”

Even if mass deportations are too expensive and not viable, Trump’s racist rhetoric, like absurdly claiming Haitian immigrants in Springfield, OH are eating people’s pets, can and will whip up right-wing violence (see pg. 6).

The labor movement needs to clearly oppose Trump’s divide-and-rule with tactics like the 2006 “Day Without an Immigrant” general strike that blocked anti-immigrant legislation, not try to pander to right-populism like Teamster President Sean O’Brien did at the RNC. Harris has repeatedly failed to counter such virulently anti-immigrant claims, instead opting to flex the “tough on the border” policy that the Biden administration has carried out, including even more deportations than under Trump’s presidency. This is in line with the general policy of the Democratic Party. Obama even carried out raids that specifically targeted unionizing workplaces.

Another Democrat-led White House would still deport hundreds of thousands of immigrants and hold the threat of deportation over people’s heads to weaken the unions. Meanwhile, corporations will use migrant workers’ fear of being separated from their families to drive down wages.

Trump now flip-flops on abortion rights, but he picked the judges who led the overturn of Roe v. Wade. The Democrats refused to mobilize protests for women’s rights at this crucial moment, instead cynically raising money for their own campaigns. Despite countless blown opportunities for the Democrats to pass federal legislation to protect the right to abortion, Harris says they’ll finally do it once she’s president— this is a cynical ploy because she knows there’s no chance the Democrats will control Congress!

The Democrats didn’t codify Roe v. Wade in the 49 years leading up to the overturn of Roe (see pg. 12), and now like usual they dangle

people’s rights in exchange for votes. We can’t depend on the halls of power to win back and protect reproductive rights, but rather the strength, mobilization, and organization of working people.

Trump wants to pass legislation to “define transgender out of existence”, and he wants all discrimination against LBGTQ people to be made legal. This is a truly horrific prospect and would embolden right-wing violent thugs. Voting won’t be enough to stop the attacks on trans people— we need an organized movement to fight back.

We need to remember that the far right grew under a Biden presidency, with Trumpism getting a more firm grip on the Republican Party.

We need a strong left and labor movement, not establishment Democrats, to beat back the right-wing threat.

Resisting Trump’s Authoritarian Threat If Trump loses the election, he’ll try to steal it again. Even though revolutionary socialists don’t support Kamala Harris, we would be shoulderto-shoulder with everyone mobilizing to stop Trump from thieving his way into the White House. Rather than sitting back and relying on the cops or the courts to stop Trump from stealing the election, we should mobilize mass protests, strikes, student occupations, and direct action to disrupt “business as usual”.

While socialists fight for democratic rights, we don’t depend on billionaires, their politicians, or their institutions to defend us. We also need to tell the truth about what Harris and the Democrats represent. Internationally, the Democrats are even more pro-war than the erratic MAGA wing of the Republicans. US military might is a huge threat to working people internationally, and it’s one reason why Marxists never offer political support to the Democratic Party.

Terrain For Struggle After The Election A Trump victory would demoralize millions, and while it could result in explosive movements against his worst policies, the Democrats would pose as a “resistance” opposition without mobilizing the mass movement needed to beat the right wing. The illusions this would sow in the Democratic Party would be a brake on the development of independent left politics.

The Democrats in the White House, after a brief honeymoon, will oversee a system in chaos

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and crisis, giving room for the far right to develop even more, but also providing an opening for a new wave of left opposition to both parties. This is a more favorable scenario for revolutionary ideas in the medium term, as it would cause an amount of disorientation among the far right, and expose the bankruptcy of the Democrats as they fail to deliver for working people.

However, this doesn’t mean socialists should support Harris or other Democrats as a lesser evil. Without a new party for workers, young people, and the oppressed, we will be stuck in an ongoing cycle of war, poverty, and environmental destruction. Trump losing at the ballot box won’t make his ideas go away, and we need to lay the basis now for the mass movements and independent party necessary to fight for a better future.

Socialist Alternative calls for a vote for antiwar, pro-worker Jill Stein for President as the strongest independent left candidate. This makes our opposition to lesser evilism concrete and specific. It doesn’t mean though that we think there isn’t a difference between the two parties, and the terrain for struggle can change based on who’s elected.

Whoever takes the White House, the far right can grow and be emboldened; this is an international phenomenon. We need to learn from events around the world—mainstream parties don’t stop the growth of the far right. In France, right populists were kept out of power because the left-wing parties grew in support. In Britain, after racist right-wing riots, it was mass mobilization by the left and labor movement that pushed them back, not corporate politicians.

We need a new left party and powerful working-class movement to defeat Trumpism and challenge the capitalist system that gives birth to these reactionary monsters.

Come Januar y 2025, working people will still face a volatile economy, and we need to deepen the labor upsurge with more strikes, organizing drives, transforming the unions, and political independence. We need a workers’ movement that fights for a new society based on cooperation and solidarity, not exploitation and oppression.

CK

Fight For A Future Worth Living Most people in the US unfortunately think presidential elections are the height of politics, and there will be a push for us to return to “business as usual” after votes are cast. We can’t accept this logic because the billionaires use their parties, courts, cops, media, and control over ideas to assert the logic of this system.

The trend line is clear—capitalism is headed toward more war and destruction. The threat of “Trumpism” will continue no matter who wins the elections, and we need to organize against both the far-right threat and all the injustices of capitalism in the here and now.

To stop right-wing attempts to scapegoat oppressed people, we need to go beyond

OCTOBER 2024

sporadic waves of big protests. We need to build new fighting organizations with democratic structures independent of both capitalist parties. Protests should build up to escalating actions that can disrupt the billionaires’ profits.

We need occupations, strikes, student walkouts, and mass direct action. This should all be coordinated and organized, which will require thousands of people to step up into action.

This could lay the basis for the type of new party we need, which could be in a stronger position to get far more than just one percent of the vote for independent left candidates. This could really change the framework of political discussion and debate in the US. The left can also make breakthroughs electorally in advance of explosive movements, and this has happened before. We need a sense of urgency to build strong independent left politics, connected to demands that benefit working class people.

Socialist Alternative fights for a broad new party of working people. Movements to improve our lives will come up against resistance from the billionaire class and both parties they control— but without an independent political expression, our movements are fighting with one hand behind their back.

A new party will involve people with many different ideas for how to take the movement forward, and Socialist Alternative is prepared to work alongside everyone on the left and in the unions who want a new party of the working class. At the same time, we also see the need for Marxists to get organized around our specific ideas within the wider movement.

Any gain that can be made under capitalism will be under threat of being overturned as we saw with abortion rights.

To make the victories of our movement permanent, we need to

VOTE AGAINST TRUMP & HARRIS PROTEST VOTE FOR JILL STEIN!

Bia Lacombe, Seattle

overthrow this rotten system here and internationally. This will require a determined struggle, clear ideas, mass democratic participation, and revolution that can lay the basis for a new society.

Socialists don’t merely sit back and wait for events while commenting from the sidelines. We get involved in struggles with ideas that can provide leadership. If Trump tries to steal the election, Marxists should be at the forefront of calling for a mass movement that can disrupt business as usual. No matter who gets into the White House, we’ll be organizing for a new party that can confront the horrors of capitalism. Join us! J

The US government is spending billions of American tax dollars to fund the Israeli state’s genocidal war on Gaza—at least $10 billion since the conflict began. Medical journal The Lancet estimates that the actual death toll in Gaza could be as many as 186,000 people, or higher. Both Harris and Trump are equally committed to continuing this mass slaughter, and millions of working and young people feel disgusted at being forced to choose between them.

That disgust is completely justified.

Those billions of dollars going toward decimating entire bloodlines in Gaza should instead be feeding the 24 million households in the US who in 2022 reported that they didn’t have enough to eat. In their recent debate, Harris and Trump fell all over themselves trying to say they loved fracking the most, which is an utter crisis for the climate.

The Democrats are throwing LGBTQ rights in our faces to try and win our votes, while they’ve been in office during an enormous rollback of LGBTQ rights across the country that they’ve been ineffective at stopping.

We don’t have to vote for the lesser evil anymore—we don’t have to vote for imperialist, capitalist evil at all. Voting for the lesser evil hasn’t stopped Trump’s farright politics from gaining support, in fact, the Democrats failing to do anything to meaningfully improve working peoples’

lives has made the right wing stronger and stronger.

Working and young people who want something better than these two options should vote for an independent, left, antiwar candidate: Jill Stein. Stein is calling for universal healthcare, a $25 minimum wage, universal rent control, banning fracking, and ending existing wars. She even got arrested alongside anti-war protestors during the campus encampments last spring.

Recent polls show Stein ahead of Harris among Muslim voters in several battleground states, including Arizona, Michigan, and Wisconsin. More than half of Americans (61 percent) oppose the US sending weapons to Israel. If even a small fraction of those people registered a protest vote for Stein, it would send a crucial message that we won’t settle for the status quo any longer.

Every vote for Trump and Harris is a vote for endless war and corporate politics-asusual. Every protest vote for independent left candidates is a vote pointing towards building a new working class party that doesn’t take a dime from billionaires and corporations, fights unapologetically for working people, and consistently stands with unions and social movements to win real change.

Voting on its own won’t be enough— there’s a lot more we need to do. But voting for an independent, anti-war candidate is a crucial first step. Vote Jill Stein. J

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LABOR MOVEMENT

TEAMSTERS TAKE ON AMAZON

FIGHT FOR $30 AN HOUR & A UNION! JORDAN QUINN, CINCINNATI Jordan is a Teamster and worker at the KCVG Air Hub, writing in a personal capacity.

From drivers being forced to pee in bottles to warehouse workers facing almost twice the injury rate of the rest of the industry, Amazon workers have been calling out the company’s abuses for years.

I work at KCVG, Amazon’s Air Hub in Northern Kentucky and the largest in the world, where a lack of job security, overwork, and inadequate wages are constant topics of conversation among coworkers, and have fueled the fight for a union. Each part of the operation is designed to be as hard as possible for workers to organize. Meanwhile Amazon has posted soaring profits over the last two years, making nearly $14 billion in profits in the second quarter of 2024 alone.

But Amazon workers are fighting back now more than ever and winning real victories. In July, workers held coordinated actions around the country for Prime Days, the most profitable two days for Amazon each year made by pushing workers to their limit.

In September, Amazon workers won a $1.50 raise, language class eligibility on day one, and free Prime memberships. Amazon delivery drivers won a $1.50 raise too. This comes just after the National Labor Relations Board ruled that subcontracted delivery drivers count as Amazon employees, and can unionize as such.

At the KSBD Air Hub in San Bernardino, workers recently marched on the boss and won paid time off when smoke from the California Line Fire made working conditions unsafe.

And CAUSE (Carolina Amazonians United for Solidarity and Empowerment) at RDU1 have begun collecting authorization cards to fight for union recognition.

KCVG Is Amazon’s Achilles Heel My coworkers and I at KCVG have been organizing for almost 2 years. With 4,000 workers processing close to 30% of Amazon’s “next day” deliveries in the US, KCVG workers are an essential piece to a national campaign to unionize Amazon. Since affiliating with the Teamsters in April, we carried out our first unfair labor practice strike during Prime Week.

It is no accident that right after that, Amazon conceded on AC in planeside crew vans and full-time positions for part time associates, two demands we’d made for months.

We recently fought for a $3/hour raise as a down payment to $30/hour starting pay.

While we won $1.50, less than our $3 demand, Amazon originally only intended to give a 60 cent raise. These victories are possible because of the growing strength of workers organizing at Amazon as part of the powerful Teamsters union.

Building A National Union Movement In 2022, JFK8 workers with the Amazon Labor Union (now ALU-IBT Local 1) in Staten

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Island became the first to win a union election at Amazon, but have yet to win a contract.

Struggles like the union drive in Bessemer, AL lost under ruthless union busting campaigns.

Most organizing drives were underground or independent like CAUSE, Amazonians United, and the ALU. The Teamsters had only launched their Amazon Division a year before and were focused on preparing the UPS contract fight.

The terrain for Amazon organizing today looks vastly different than it did two years ago, when Amazon suffered its first blow at JFK8 in Staten Island.

ALU-KCVG’s affiliation to the Teamsters brought the largest logistics union in the country to the center of the ring with labor’s public enemy #1. This was because of the strength of the campaign KCVG workers built.

Our affiliation was a falling domino that led to the ALU at JFK8 joining the Teamsters two months later. It is a historic step forward that workers at these key facilities and more are now organizing with the Teamsters. The organizing at DSPs has kicked into overdrive with Teamster drivers in Palmdale, CA and Skokie, IL extending unfair labor practice (ULP) pickets to dozens of Amazon locations and DBK4 workers in Queens, NY are now demanding union recognition.

What Strategy For The Teamsters?

The center of gravity for Amazon organizing in the US has moved from the independent unions (like ours once was) to the Teamsters.

This gives immense strength to Amazon workers both in terms of staff and legal resources but more importantly in the potential for Teamsters at UPS, DHL, and other carriers to support each other in collective action.

Large unions like the Teamsters come with powerful resources: staffers, lawyers and existing members. However, these strengths can’t replace the need for a strong, democratic organizing committee, as we learned from the two defeats of RWDSU at Amazon in Bessemer, Alabama.

Worker leaders at KCVG drew this lesson and saw the election victory at JFK8 as a positive example of what can be done differently, while also understanding that our independent union didn’t have the strength to take on Amazon alone. Before joining the Teamsters it was important that we built a core of worker leaders dedicated to fighting for bold demands and worker democracy. It has meant that KCVG remains a worker-led campaign today.

Having a strong, democratic organizing structure is key to winning fights with the boss. But it’s only one piece of the puzzle.

Even the best-organized Amazon facility will not be able to win a contract on its own because Amazon’s supply lines are complex, redundant and massive.

Amazon workers will ultimately need to carry out a well-organized national strike including key chokepoints like Air Hubs to win. Teamsters at other companies, like UPS and DHL, will need to refuse to move diverted Amazon packages.

A serious strike to win union recognition and a strong contract then would also require organizing more large facilities and coordinating with non-Teamster campaigns. A bold set of shared demands like a $30/hour starting wage would be a strong basis for uniting a national contract fight across the different facilities and unions organizing at Amazon.

$30 & A Union The common fight for $30/hour and a union already being called for at DAX8, JFK8, KCVG, and RDU1 is the clearest starting point for this unification around demands. The cost of living continues to rise and while wages are generally rising too, they aren’t keeping pace.

While support for unions is at a record high, many workers will not risk their jobs to organize for moderate gains. We want a substantial improvement to our quality of life with real job security. $30/hour starting pay and a union contract is an reflection of that.

Ultimately, it will be Amazon workers across the country who have the most important role to play by organizing our coworkers around bold demands, and getting strike ready to win the contract we deserve. J

socialistalternative.org

LABOR MOVEMENT

BOEING WORKERS STRIKE BACK DANIEL WANG, SEATTLE

33,000 Boeing workers organized under the IAM 751 are on strike in the Pacific Northwest, shutting down almost all commercial passenger plane production for one of the world’s largest aerospace manufacturers. The strike was a long time coming. In 2013, Boeing threatened to move plane production to the un-unionized South, and demanded the machinists’ contract be renegotiated early. Workers voted this down 2-1, but IAM national leadership maneuvered it through. Workers lost defined benefit pensions and were locked into a pitiful 4% general wage increase spread out over the 8 years of the contract. This falls far behind both the Washington State average rise in pay, and inflation.

Boeing is losing an estimated $100 million a day due to the strike, and it has no hope of continuing production on its primary moneymakers like the 737 Max with scab labor outside the union. John Deere infamously caused a safety incident trying to circumvent a strike in 2021, and Boeing is under far more scrutiny due to its repeated safety scandals. Boeing undoubtedly wants to end the PR crisis, dip in stock prices, and loss of revenue inflicted on them by their machinists’ strike. But news cycles expire, stock prices recover, and institutions “too big to fail” can count on being bailed out, just like the banks were after the Great Recession.

Domestically, Boeing has a monopoly on the manufacture of full-size commercial jets, it was historically the largest US exporter, and it is also the third largest US defense contractor.

Deglobalization, increasing competition in the global market, and heightening military tensions driven by inter-imperialist conflict with China, mean that the US state will not allow Boeing to fail, and will place its thumb on the scale to ensure that the company comes out on top. Already, acting Secretary of Labor Julie Su, who in 2023 helped avert the ILWU strike on the West Coast ports, met with IAM leadership

4 days before the union came to a tentative agreement with Boeing. Federal mediators are now convening meetings between Boeing and the IAM to restart negotiations.

Unions must break from both warmongering pro-big-business parties and establish their own political independence through a worker’s party—the labor movement’s partnership with a party of the bosses has always, and will always lead to attacks on and betrayals of the working class.

Striking To Win As soon as the strike began, Socialist Alternative members joined the picket lines to support these workers in their fight, and to have discussion on what is needed to win. Many strikers are furious both with the company and their union leadership for recommending a tentative agreement just days before the strike began, which only boasted a 25% raise over 4 years while quietly eliminating performance bonuses, left its workers pensionless, increased healthcare costs, and provided only one additional floating holiday, among many other shortcomings.

Workers were particularly insulted by their leadership celebrating Boeing’s promise to keep production of their next plane in the Puget Sound during the lifetime of this contract, knowing full well that Boeing won’t launch a new plane until well after this contract expires.

One machinist at the Renton picket line bitterly remarked that IAM 571 president Jon Holden “sold us out for a seat at the table.”

Fundamentally, no contract with an expiration date can prevent Boeing from moving production jobs to its South Carolina facility in the long run. To truly protect jobs in the Puget Sound region, IAM must tackle the same

challenge the UAW is currently grappling with in unionizing the South. This would entail the IAM seriously redoubling its efforts to unionize Boeing South Carolina, alongside demonstrating the ability to unionize any other facility that Boeing tries to open. Winning significant raises in the Puget Sound can kickstart that process, though the UAW’s latest defeat at Mercedes Alabama shows that this alone cannot overcome the obstacles that have frustrated the American labor movement since the CIO launched Operation Dixie post-World War II. In the 30s, the CIO had to overcome racial divides in the workplace to build the industrial unions in the North. To overcome the South’s long legacy of antiunion hostility, the union movement must wage a worker-led fight against the enduring effects of racist divide-and-rule tactics—this is key to winning the wider working class to the task of unionizing the unorganized.

The membership of IAM 751 forced their leadership to call a strike. In the days leading up to the strike, rank-and-file workers called massive and deafening lunchtime rallies, featuring fiery speeches and chants to reject the “garbage contract” and strike. Comparatively, the picket lines have markedly lower attendance, partially because the union is primarily motivating attendance based on scheduled picketing shifts—just 4 hours a week—while strike pay is only $250 a week. Over time, this can open the door to the company driving divisions in the union between those workers with savings and those who cannot afford to live on strike pay.

Still, workers have responded to calls through informal channels like social media to hold the line. But one legacy of previous defeats is that other non-IAM workers at Boeing, such as unionized SPEEA engineers, have no legal protections if they want to respect the picket line. SPEEA engineers were specifically informed that they “will have to comply if directly ordered by a Boeing manager to do work normally done by Machinists”, despite lacking the professional training and certifications to carry out that work safely!

Boeing is now using layoffs and temporary furloughs of non-IAM workers to pit workers against each other. Separate unions must cooperate to cut across the boss’s divide and conquer strategy. SPEEA and other unions at Boeing like the IAFF firefighters should take a clear position of solidarity with the IAM strike and organize sick-outs or other ways to prevent Boeing from using them to undermine the strike. Workers historically had to struggle for the right to unionize and strike, 80 years after the Taft-Hartley act, workers still must struggle for the right to respect the picket line.

Who Runs Boeing?

IAM 751 members recognize that this strike is more than just a fight for the economic interests of aerospace workers. The safety of air

travel is fundamentally jeopardized by Boeing management’s drive for profit, and the current tentative agreement claims to address this by allowing union representatives to meet semiregularly with the Boeing leadership, “gaining a voice” on inspection practices, production rates, training, etc. As one worker put it, “none of us asked for this”.

Workers will never be able to convince management in their meetings to build planes safely, and entering into joint councils and partnership with the company also allows the union to be blamed for future disasters caused by the boss. Workers can ensure that planes are built safely through democratically elected union committees that monitor safety and quality assurance in the plant and have the power to shut down assembly at any point, independent of management and their profit-driven deadlines.

Such committees, as joint efforts between IAM Machinists, SPEEA Engineers, and any other union involved in Boeing’s plane production, can give shape to what is ultimately needed at Boeing: a publicly-owned aerospace industry democratically run by the workers and accountable to the wider working class. Only this can protect the jobs and livelihoods of machinists and engineers from the bosses’ profit driven pillaging.

Only this can ensure their hard work and expertise produces quality planes crucial to safe and affordable air travel. Many Boeing workers have no interest in producing weapons of death and destruction. The anti-war movement should stand in solidarity with IAM workers on the picket lines, as their fight against Boeing’s greed has also materially slowed down its war production.

What truly terrifies Boeing and the ruling class is that the Machinists strike raises the question: Who controls the factory, the workers or the company?

Victory To The Working Class To help the strike achieve its full potential, IAM 751 should mobilize for a day of all-out strike picketing where other unions such as SPEEA, WFSE and other public worker unions currently in their own contract battle with Washington state, can mobilize in solidarity.

These can serve as mass rallies where workers can discuss and decide what is needed to win victory for Boeing machinists and all workers everywhere, and maximize the pressure on Boeing by standing together in unison for the demands that must be met before the strike can end. Like every strike, but especially at Boeing, this is more than just a contract battle—but a fight for the whole working class.

• 40% general wage increase for all wage scales with cost-of-living adjustments tied to inflation!

• Reinstatement of pension benefits!

• Closed union shop, an end to union-busting outsourcing!

• An end to mandatory overtime and 4 weeks paid vacation!

• Fully-funded employer-paid healthcare!

Solidarity with Boeing workers on strike! J

OCTOBER 2024

11

YOUTH

Why Can’t I Buy A House? a third of their income in rent. With healthcare, food, education, and transportation costs on top of that, in what reality are we able to save money for a downpayment?

Economists will chalk unaffordable housing up to interest rates being at their highest in 23

DANIEL SWANSON, SEATTLE In today’s economy, a young person finding secure housing, let alone owning a house, sounds almost like a sci-fi premise. Where Millennials were sold the fantasy of a college degree, a nine-to-five job, and perhaps a house if all went well, Gen-Z seems to be looking clearly down the dark tunnel of minimum-wage service industry work that doesn’t even begin to square up against rising rental prices, grocery bills, college debt, and healthcare costs. While Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk debate colonizing Mars versus living in space stations, we can’t even find a place to live on Earth!

insurance companies citing “extreme weather events” and not wanting to take the risk of insuring houses they know will be damaged by climate disasters.

So Where Are Young People Living?

Without an increase in wages that reflect the rising cost of living, or serious investments in affordable housing, we are forced to live with parents, find an unreasonable amount of roommates, or face homelessness.

Anyone who has lived with roommates or in insecure housing can relate to the mental health effects of having to subvert basic human and relational questions to an untenable and irrational economic logic. Domestic violence, toxic roommates, and unsafe housing situations will continue to be a reality for renters and young people who can’t afford to leave.

We deserve a reality where we can make choices about our housing that aren’t intimately tied to the landlords’ and the real-estate industry’s hunger for profit.

Housing Under Capitalism In a system driven by profit, people having a secure place to live for the sake of it is a complete contradiction. The ‘American Dream’ of owning a house and raising a family doesn’t even work out on paper for people earning relatively higher wages. 82% of registered voters say it’s harder for current generations to buy a house than previous ones—this isn’t just a feeling, but a fact of life.

The median price of houses sold in the US in the second quarter of 2020 was $317,100.

In the fourth quarter of 2020, this rose to $414,000—an over 30% increase in the span of six months! This number has stayed high, going up to $442,600 in the second quarter of 2022, and now at $412,300. Median house prices are 6 times the median income now, which is up from two decades ago when it was between 4 to 5 times the median.

This unaffordability is especially felt by young people, with those under 34 earning, on average, $54,000 a year. Nearly half of renter households, and 56% of black renters, pay over

Millions of working people watched in horror as Roe v. Wade was overturned in 2022 under Democratic rule.

Two years later, at least two deaths have been directly linked to this abortion ban. But in the 49 years leading up to this major Supreme Court decision, the Democrats have had numerous chances to write Roe v. Wade into federal law. To list several key moments:

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years. If interest rates go back down, working class buyers will once again face cash-flush investors prepared to undermine mortgage negotiations, pressure to skip home inspections, and bidding wars far beyond market values.

Interest rates are just one of many obstacles for young people living paycheck to paycheck in order to pay rent. Even if you manage to buy a house, home insurance rates rose 11.3% in 2023. This increase is largely driven by home

Hyde Amendment: Legislation is passed to restrict the use of federal funds for abortion, the first victory for the anti-abortion movement since Roe. When Democrat Jimmy Carter stepped into office in 1977, Roe continued to sit on the backburner.

1976 1973 Roe v. Wade: Supreme Court rules that the constitution protects the right to abortion.

This was won by mass pressure from below including strikes, walkouts, and occupations from the women’s movement under the conservative Nixon presidency.

“Young People Just Don’t Want To Work Hard!”

Young people graduating high school today are generally faced with either entering an exploitative job market or, if possible, pursuing a college education. The average wage for a graduate who can find a job using their degree is $60,000, which is certainly a step up from minimum wage anywhere in the US.

Democrats in power: The Democrats control the White House, Senate, and House of Representatives. Obama ran on codifying Roe v. Wade into a law, a promise that would disappear under his presidency

Democrats in power (again): In January, Democrats have the presidency and a majority in the House and the Senate, having used codifying Roe as a bargaining chip in the elections.

Once in office, they do nothing to act on this promise.

2009-2011 1992 Casey v. Planned Parenthood: The right to an abortion as established in 1973 is reaffirmed. However, the Democrats still refuse to codify it into law.

2021 2018

Trump nominates Brett Kavanaugh: Trump nominates right-wing anti-abortion Kavanaugh for the Supreme Court, who was appointed in the midst multiple allegations of sexual assault. Democrats do little to block the decision aside from some questioning at the Senate hearing.

But any working class person that rents, pays for healthcare, and eats food knows that that number is wholly inadequate to live comfortably on.

To make things worse, the prospects for young people “using their degree” are at an all-time low. A recent report found that 52% of current graduates with a four-year degree are “underemployed”, meaning they hold a job that does not require a bachelor’s degree, with 60% of Black and 57% Latino college graduates not able to find well-paying jobs using their degree.

Struggle For A System That Houses People The Democrats and Republicans won’t offer a real solution. Harris’ proposal to offer $25,000 in tax relief for first time buyers is dead-on-arrival in Congress. What progress has been made has been the result of mass movements, like the socialist-led Amazon Tax in Seattle that won hundreds of millions of dollars from big business to build affordable housing constructed by union labor.

To even begin solving the housing crisis, we need strong rent control. A more lasting solution would come in the form of taking the big banks into democratic-public ownership, including offering (and rewriting) mortgages as zero-interest loans. We should seize the millions of housing units currently sitting vacant in cities across the US from the hands of corporate landlords.

In addition, we need to tax billionaires and corporations to immediately build high-quality, permanently-affordable, socially-owned housing to bring down housing costs. But none of this will ever be acceptable to the capitalists.

Ultimately, only a socialist society can guarantee prioritizing human need, not Wall Street greed. J

Abortion rights overturned: Roe v.

Wade is overturned, with 13 states immediately facing draconian trigger bans making abortion illegal. Rather than calling for mass rallies and protests, the Democrats use this “opportunity” to begin campaigning for the midterms.

2022

2021 Dobbs Case Introduced: Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization is introduced to the Supreme Court, a case which would ban abortion after 15 weeks, and restrict abortion access protected under Roe. Democrats fail to sound the alarm bells and codify Roe.

We cannot entrust our bodies to the hands of either party that has repeatedly failed us for half a century. Only a multi-gender, multiracial movement, like the one that won Roe in the first place, can win back, and codify, abortion rights.

socialistalternative.org

CULTURE

FAKE IT TILL YOU MAKE IT?

THE OZEMPIC SCAM

LEAH STEVENS, CINCINNATI If you’re a young woman who started your day scrolling through Instagram or TikTok, chances are, you’ve come across a predatory targeted advertisement that may say something like this: “If you want to shed pounds effortlessly, try Ozempic. If you want to fit into clothes you couldn’t before, try Ozempic. If you want to love your body again, try Ozempic.”

A click, a quiz, and a credit card for the pricey fee, and you’re on your way to trying big business’s newest quick fix for the latest insecurity those same businesses embedded in you.

And, like most pharmaceutical fads peddled by greedy corporations, the drug doesn’t come without immense risk.

Ozempic and other drugs within its class typically cost more than $1000 for a single pen, which when injected reduces food cravings and can lead to rapid weight loss. While the price tag is a drop in the bucket for the celebrities that have publicly sworn by the drug, it’s a pretty penny for the millions of ordinary women who feel the crippling pressure to reach unattainable beauty standards. As such, fake versions of the drug sold for a fraction of the price have been found in at least 28 countries, often sold illegally through social media platforms.

In some cases, the knock-off versions of Ozempic are a different drug entirely, such as insulin, presenting a deadly risk to those injecting it.

More Money, More Problems However, the problem with Ozempic doesn’t begin nor end with the fakes— the now easily accessible drug was made to treat those with Type 2 diabetes, and is not FDA approved specifically for weight loss. Misuse of Ozempic and other weight loss drugs have led to America’s Poison Centers receiving nearly 3000 calls in 2023, a 1500% increase since 2019. In 94% of those calls, this medication was the only substance reported. Overdoses have become commonplace with the drug, and last year, it led to 89 deaths.

OCTOBER 2024

For the corporations that produce these drugs, these numbers pale in comparison to the huge money-making opportunity—with $21.1 billion dollars in sales globally in 2023, an 89% increase in sales since 2022, there is no end in sight. While these drugs can be very helpful to patients with relevant medical issues, when they’re largely unregulated and taken without professional medical guidance to meet toxic capitalist beauty standards, there can be serious health risks.

and trans people pressured to look a certain way to “pass.”

Capitalism Manufactures Misery Ozempic and other weight loss drugs tap into a public health crisis that is deeply felt by ordinary people. Many of us work long hours for little pay at jobs that deprive us of what we need to truly survive—time to cook healthy and nutritional meals, time to move and go outside, time to relax and reduce stress, and time to deepen connections with friends, family, and community. Capitalism alienates humans from each other, and the most basic needs of our humanity.

In the US, the richest country in the

JOIN ALTERNATIVE

SOCIALIST

Socialist Alternative is a national organization fighting in our workplaces, communities, and campuses against the exploitation and injustices people face every day. We see the global capitalist system as the root cause of the economic crisis, poverty, discrimination, war, and environmental destruction.

Socialist Alternative is the organization that spearheaded the campaign to elect Kshama Sawant to Seattle City Council in 2013, the first independent socialist elected in a major US

city in decades. We then led the successful campaign to win a $15 minimum wage in Seattle, and are now spearheading fights by Amazon workers and letter carriers to win a $30/hr starting wage.

As capitalism moves deeper into crisis, a new generation of workers and youth must join together to end the ruling elites’ global competition for profits and power. We are for a democratic socialist world where ordinary people will have control over our everday lives.

What Happened To The “Body Positivity” Movement?

Mass movements through the 1960s and 70s against racism, sexism, and ableism, have led to a rejection of overt discrimination based on appearance. The Fat Acceptance movement staged “fatins” to call out industries that promote toxic diet culture.

Today, body acceptance, including body shape, skin color, and gender expression, has been captured by mainstream corporations— from body-inclusive clothing and mannequins to makeup shades being available in more skin tones than ever.

And despite this “acceptance and representation” in the media, there has been a dramatic increase in hopelessness, sadness, and loss of self-confidence over the last few years amongst young women. Eating disorder-related health visits have more than doubled in people younger than 17 over the last 5 years, with a dramatic 107.4% increase between 2018 through mid-2022.

So, why do we still feel like the way we look isn’t good enough? Capitalism relies on a sick society to turn a quick dollar on quick fixes. The oppression of women is both profitable and necessary to perpetuate a system that is built on division. For big brands, the body positivity movement’s message of “be yourself” should come with an asterisk— “be yourself, by buying this product.”

This gendered oppression is not only felt amongst women who feel downtrodden when they step on a scale, but by men pressured to hit the gym to build muscle,

world, 23.5 million people live in “food deserts”, towns where there is no nearby grocery store for sometimes tens of miles. If you do live near a grocery store, chances are that the increasing prices of produce are eating more and more into your paycheck. As a result, working people are forced into grabbing the food that is most readily available and accessible—like fast food that is often lacking in nutrients, pumped with sugar, and provides a temporary feel-good sensation to bandage over our feelings of inadequacy and loneliness. We chase whatever can satisfy these cravings, the exact thing Ozempic claims to eliminate.

From weight loss drugs to ketamine for depression, capitalism makes us sicker and then sells us an incomplete fix to make pharmaceutical executives rich. While these drugs can genuinely help people, most Americans don’t have access to a doctor they know and trust, who can help keep them safe and support a holistic treatment plan in line with what research has found to be effective.

Instead, many of us are forced to overpay for some random company to send us drugs with the hope that it will just work out.

While drugs like Ozempic could be one piece of a treatment plan for weight loss, they’re not a replacement for the ability to live a life that is actually healthy.

What we fundamentally need are shorter work schedules, affordable and healthy food, free healthcare, and a society that doesn’t shove toxic beauty standards down our throats. The billionaires don’t care about us—we will have to fight for a world that puts our well being first. J

SUBSCRIBE TO SOCIALIST ALTERNATIVE Get our monthly paper, written by and for workingclass and young people, delivered right to your door or inbox.

13

FREE DANIEL AKANDE INTERVIEW WITH A NIGERIAN SOCIALIST INTERNATIONAL

T

he first ten days of August saw a working-class youth revolt across Nigeria called #EndBadGovernance. Millions expressed anger at the policies of the Tinubu regime around wages and price hikes. In the absence of leadership from the trade unions, ordinary workers and youth stepped up the fight. This is part of a wave of young people in Africa rising up against oppressive pro-business regimes, like the mass protests in Kenya.

The Tinubu regime reacted with mass arrests of workers, youth, socialists, tradeunionists, and journalists. Hundreds of people were arrested for taking part in democratic protests against devastating living conditions and for better wages.

Throughout hist=ory imperialism has ravaged the continent of Africa, and the #EndBadGovernance protests are an inspiring example of workers fighting against imperialist interests. Today as the US and China fight for control of the world, workers in neo-colonial countries are paying the

Q: Why has the government arrested Daniel and other protesters?

A: The government arrested Daniel Akande and ten others for treason, and hundreds of others are still detained by the police since the protest in August. It is a clear turn to repression to silence the working masses from any attempt to speak out against the Tinubu regime. The ruling class in Nigeria is not turning anything around, rather it is worsening the living conditions of the working masses.

Young workers protesting against hunger and bad governance were able to win over millions of workers to the idea of not going to work on the first day of the protests. There was little or no vehicular movement for the whole day in the majority of the country. This support will definitely grow, and can serve as a reference that the working people can learn from. Ultimately, without workers’ organizations providing the leadership and program for the working masses to boldly seek to end capitalism, then we’ll continue to drift into the abyss.

Q: What does this say about the state of freedom of speech and assembly in Nigeria?

A: Clearly it is under threat! There is a need to organize the necessary resistance against this attack on democratic rights by the Tinubu regime. Working class youth peacefully engaged in protests to draw government attention to hunger and poverty in the country. Now they’re being put on trial for treason with the death sentence as punishment! This is completely unbelievable. They weren’t armed—the only thing they had with them was their voices and signs!

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price. The Nigerian government, like many others, is shackled to loans from China as well as the West. Government leaders live lavishly while implementing tax hikes and price increases to pay these debts.

Capitalism is an international system, and that means workers across the world have a common enemy: the bosses, big business, and their political servants.

International Socialist Alternative, which Socialist Alternative is a part of, is organizing an international solidarity campaign to immediately release the hundreds of people arrested, including Daniel Akande, a member of Movement for a Socialist Alternative (ISA in Nigeria). We call for the false treason charge to be dropped! We are organizing picket lines, meetings, and fundraising around the world. If anyone should be on trial, it is the Tinubu Regime and its security agents for the crime of killing 24 protesters.

We discussed these developments with Aj. Dagga Tolar, a member of Movement for a Socialist Alternative.

QUESTION: The current government has implemented several neoliberal policies, including raising fuel prices. How do you think these policies and the subsequent suppression of protests will impact public trust in the government?

protesters who are not directly members of their unions. It is desperately seeking to claim that the labor leaders are responsible for organizing and financing the August protest to create a basis for prosecuting them.

And it is working to scare the labor leaders from actually providing the necessary leadership to the growing agitation and anger of the working masses against the worsening living conditions and another fuel price increase.

Q: The government is using the police and security forces as tools to stifle peaceful protests. What do you believe is the most effective way to challenge these authoritarian tactics?

A: It is to continue to defy the measures.

Another round of protest has already been declared for October 1. Mobilization is underway, and we call on workers and youth all over—on campus, in communities—to organize themselves and step out onto the street to voice their displeasure and at the same time assert the right to protest and organize as a class is a democratic right.

Q: With the escalation in repressive measures, such as charging protestors with treason or terrorism, how can Nigerians ensure that legitimate grievances are heard without fear of arrest or harassment?

A: Nigerians already have their backs pushed all the way against the wall. The laws of the land only seem to function for tiny members of the super rich class, but we have the right to legitimately and peacefully organize without fear of arrest! The ruling class knows that it can no longer hoodwink the working masses with the lies that things will get better through the neoliberal capitalist agenda. The policy of deregulation and the devaluation of the national currency as dictated by the IMF &

ANSWER: The Tinubu regime has clearly lost its support base in the country. Even in the Yoruba heartland where he comes from, there is a growing mood about him being a complete failure, and more and more people will draw the same conclusion. It is clear that the working masses must organize themselves politically to take on the Tinubu regime. And to do this they will require a political party, independent of the ones currently on offer. The Nigerian Labor Party (LP) is not a vehicle for this. Their presidential candidate, Peter Obi, is a billionaire and only crossed over to the LP on the eve of the election having Send PayPal donations to: failed to win the ticket of the major capitalist opposition, ekonomi@socialisterna.org People’s Democratic Party (PDP).

World Bank has failed to turn the economy around. Nigeria is completely import-dependent on nearly all of its essential needs. Despite an abundant surplus, we have no functional refineries. This is because importing fuel guarantees the oil barons more super profits!

Like in the US, with the Republicans and Democrats, the major capitalist parties here are not fundamentally different from each other. They act in concert and benefit collectively from ruining the lives of the working masses as a means to garner more wealth.

There’s an urgent need for an independent political party, armed with a socialist program fighting to break the stranglehold of capitalism and imperialism and free the wealth and resources of the country for usage to develop the means of production with the aim of meeting the needs of all.

Q: How can working and young people in the US and elsewhere support the protesters in Nigeria and their struggle against repression?

A: We appeal to human rights organizations, trade unions, and pro-worker organizations to not ignore the events in Nigeria. Point people towards the events here, and raise it with Nigerians living abroad. Organizations and individuals should join whatever they can to help organize the working masses in the country to continue the fightback against capitalism; and the rejection of the bottom of the rung position as a dependent state for producing raw materials to feed the US, Europe and China.

Internationally, we need to assert the fact that it is a democratic right to peacefully protest and organize by demanding for those arrested to be set free and the false and spurious charges of treason to be dropped. Free

Daniel Akande Now! Drop the false charges of treason! J

DONATE to help free Daniel from unjust imprisonment:

Q: The president of the Nigerian Labour Congress, Joe Ajaero, was recently arrested in a broader trend of silencing labor leaders, activists, and journalists.

What is the significance of this?

A: The government wants to send the false message that trade unions do not have the right to give solidarity support to working class youth and

socialistalternative.org

OBITUARY

“WE CAN’T GET STOP FIGHTING INVOLVED! UNTIL WE WIN” SOCIALIST ALTERNATIVE Aysenur Ezgi Eygi, Ezgi to many who knew her, was brutally murdered by an IDF sniper only days after she arrived in the West Bank to join Palestinian people in their fight for liberation. She was 26 years old. We offer our deepest condolences to all of her family and friends, and are proud to have fought alongside Ezgi as a member of Socialist Alternative in Seattle where she was an active member from 2015-2018 and a supporter since.

Tragically, Ezgi joins over 40,000 people murdered by Netanyahu’s genocidal war in Gaza and the escalating assault on the West Bank. Despite the empty words and crocodile tears by US state department officials in news articles – even top imperialist in chief Anthony Blinken – the massacre in Gaza and war on Palestinians has been supported by US imperialism since the very beginning.

In fact, the US may have funded the very sniper rifle that killed Ezgi. Continuing military aid to the Israeli state is one of the policies Harris and Trump agree on.

Ezgi’s life is an example of how revolutionaries must fight all forms of injustice, exploitation and oppression. She lived by the principle that an injury to one is an injury to all, and for taking this stand in Palestine, she was murdered by the Israeli state. While we mourn and celebrate her life and legacy, we call for restarting mass protests against any politician, Republican and Democrat, who supports the continuation of this genocidal war. Justice for Ezgi means ending the occupation, and all imperialist war everywhere.

Coming To Revolutionary Activism Ezgi joined Socialist Alternative while she was a high school student in Seattle during a turning point in US politics.

Bernie Sanders’ call for a “political revolution against the billionaire class” was getting an echo with tens of millions of working class people who were fed up with corporate politics, and Ezgi, even as a high schooler, knew she had to be a part of it.

Trump was also on the rise, replacing Bernie’s call for working class solidarity with divisive scapegoating of immigrants, LGBTQ people and the “radical left.”

After Trump won in 2016, at a time when

OCTOBER 2024

millions were scared and unsure what to do, Ezgi helped lead student walkouts, spoke at rallies, and courageously built the early anti-Trump movement proudly as a socialist.

As Ezgi frequently commented at the time, Trump only backed down when threatened with walkouts, airport occupations, mass protests and strikes, not the “resistance” from the Democratic Party or the reactionary courts.

Ezgi helped lead a mass student walkout from schools across Seattle on November 14, 2016, shortly after Trump’s election. “This election has sparked a flame,” she wrote in a Socialist Alternative article about the walkout, “and we are the fire, we are burning for a future to believe in.” And Ezgi never stopped fighting for that future.

Ezgi spoke to a crowd of thousands in downtown Seattle on the day of Trump’s inauguration, ending with the powerful chant, “The enemy is profit, together we can stop it.” Speeches that Ezgi gave at anti-Trump rallies are quoted in these two articles, and anybody who had the privilege of watching her speak or organizing alongside her knew she was a force to be reckoned with.

At a victory rally after the city of Seattle announced its divestment from Wells Fargo – forced by pressure from the movement led by Socialist Alternative’s then-city councilmember Kshama Sawant – over their support for the Dakota Access Pipeline in 2017, Ezgi spoke.

After celebrating the victory and giving credit to the movement, not falsely selfidentified “progressive” politicians, she moved on to the myriad other things we as the working class need and deserve and declared, “We can’t stop fighting until we win.”

One Socialist Alternative member, Colin Moen, described his experience with Ezgi during the struggle against the Dakota Access Pipeline: “During the height of the No DAPL movement in winter of 2016-17, Ezgi and I were both part of a small group of socialists that drove from Seattle to Standing Rock to join in the occupation against the Dakota Access Pipeline.

In the days leading up to our arrival, viral footage had emerged of private police unleashing attack dogs on peaceful protesters. We stayed at the Oceti Sakowin camp, which at the time was

under constant surveillance and intimidation by law enforcement.

Each night, the camp would be lit up by a string of police floodlights in the surrounding foothills. It was extremely cold, so we had to sleep fully-clothed in our sleeping bags with our coats and snowpants on in order to stay warm.

None of this daunted Ezgi one bit; what mattered was that ordinary people were moving into struggle to fight against oppression and climate catastrophe, and she didn’t hesitate for a second to play an active role in that struggle.”

Honoring Heroic Ezgi Following her time as an active member of Socialist Alternative, Ezgi continued her activism as part of the recent Gaza solidarity encampments at the University of Washington and then as part of the International Solidarity Movement.

There are many, many people who could share similar accounts of Ezgi’s fight for the liberation of all working class and oppressed people and we hope they do, for it will empower and inspire all of us to fight harder for the future Ezgi and we burn to see.

We cannot imagine the pain, grief, and anger that Ezgi’s family must now be feeling. Her parents are calling for an independent investigation into her murder and courageously pointing out the hypocrisy of the US government. We must have no confidence in the capitalist state, armies, and police to investigate themselves – no matter what country.

While we seek to discover the full truth, we think it is clear what Ezgi would want from us.

To honor Ezgi’s legacy and revolutionary vigor, Socialist Alternative calls for renewed campus occupations that link up with the labor movement, for mass protests globally against the occupation, and solidarity strikes against the genocidal war.

Both the Democratic and Republican parties support funding the Israeli state’s war and occupation, which is why we need a new party for working people that actually fights the interests of working class people, in the US and in countries around the world, equipped with a socialist program to end all exploitation, oppression, inequality, and war.

Aysenur Ezgi Eygi never stopped fighting, and neither will we. J

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SOCIALIST ALTERNATIVE ISSN 2638-3349

Editorial Board: Bia Lacombe, Chris Gray, George Brown, Jesada Jitpraphakhan, Leah Stevens, Leon Pinsky, Rachel Wilder, Tony Wilsdon Editors@SocialistAlternative.org

15

SOCIALIST

ALTERNATIVE

ONE YEAR OF MASSACRE ISSUE #107 | OCTOBER 2024

Anna Barnett, Philadelphia

October 7th marked one year since the Hamas attack which sparked the unprecedented brutal war in Gaza—a year of suffering, death, and destruction on a mass scale—bankrolled by US imperialism under a Democratic presidency. Despite the immense amount of misery as well as mass opposition to the Israeli state’s brutal offensive, there is no immediate prospect of an end to this war.

Instead, the Middle East is descending into regional war. As millions around the world look on in horror at what’s unfolding, we need to reflect on the lessons from a year of struggle against the war in Gaza and escalate the movement for a ceasefire and to end the occupation.

A Year Of Devastation The October 7th Hamas attack killed 1,200 people, saw over 200 taken as hostages in Israel and unleashed the most destructive war in the decades of national oppression inflicted on the Palestinians since 1948 when the Israeli state was established. The official death toll in Gaza has passed 41,000 and nearly 100,000 have been injured.

Schools, hospitals, roads, water, and sanitation systems have been decimated, leaving behind 42 million metric tons of rubble. On top of the ongoing barbaric attacks that rain down bombs weighing thousands of pounds, malnutrition, thirst, and disease will result in a sharp increase in the number of casualties.

The recent outbreak of polio is a harrowing sign

of what’s to come. This is alongside escalating settler violence and a deadly offensive by the Israeli regime in the West Bank.

This genocidal war has been carried out by the Israeli state under the guise of eliminating Hamas and bringing back the Israeli hostages.

After a year of devastation, the Netanyahu regime has completely failed in achieving either of these outcomes. What has actually been accomplished has been a campaign of mass killing and punishment of the population in Gaza and the West Bank, draconian repression of Palestinians within the Green Line, and increased instability in Israeli society.

The actions of Hamas, a right-wing force that does not represent the interests of the Palestinian masses, have not brought the Palestinian people closer to liberation. But Hamas has gained some increased support particularly in the West Bank, in large part due to opposition to the ruling Palestinian Authority, which is correctly viewed by many as collaborators in the occupation.

While Netanyahu pays lip service to the aim of freeing the Israeli hostages, he has actively sabotaged ceasefire negotiations including with the demand to maintain an ongoing military presence in Gaza, an insistence that has already caused hostages deaths. The cynicism of the Netanyahu regime has not been lost on a significant layer of working class people in Israel. In early September, anger around the discovery of the bodies of six Israeli hostages sparked a general strike and a historic protest of 300,000 in Tel Aviv. This strike shows cracks in the armor of the Israeli state’s war machine which must be widened.

READ THE LATEST UPDATE

From our section in Israel-Palestine

Imperialism & The US-China Conflict

IN GAZA

The wider backdrop is the ramping up of militarism and increase in wars internationally. The war in Gaza has accelerated the consolidation of blocs around the US and China, two imperialist rivals competing for economic influence and military domination. Similar processes are taking place worldwide with wars in Ukraine and Yemen, tensions in the South China Sea, and military coups in the Sahel.

Iran and its proxies, aligned with Russian and Chinese imperialism, are being pulled more directly into the conflict in Gaza with direct fire exchanges between Iran, Hezbollah, and Israel. On the other side, Western imperialism defends the criminal Israeli regime in order to maintain their most reliable ally in the region to counter the influence of the Chinaaligned bloc.

The mass popular anger throughout the Middle East and North Africa complicates “their” regimes’ alliance with Western imperialism, as these regimes fear a repetition of the 2011 revolutions.

Though neither US nor Chinese imperialism wants an escalation into a full scale regional war, under capitalism, war is not an anomaly.

The drive to war is guaranteed within a system based on constant growth and expansion of markets. In this era of inter-imperialist conflict nationalism, militarism, and wars will continue to bring death, misery, and climate devastation. That is, unless the working class is prepared to stop them.

Escalate The Anti-War Movement!

Millions around the world participated in protests opposing the war this year. While largely extracting symbolic concessions, the

movement has scared governments who are worried these protests turn against them.

The vibrant student encampments on college campuses in the Spring across the US were widely inspiring and should be relaunched with the new school year. But we can’t stop there. Expanding the movement will be necessary to guard against repression by administration and police. Together with unions who called for a ceasefire, the movement should organize meetings to democratically agree on clear broad demands, organize coordinated mass days of action, and appeal to workers globally to join the struggle against militarism and nationalism.

The anti-war movement also needs to clearly reject the Democratic and the Republican parties, both of which are staunchly committed to defending the interests of US imperialism in the Middle East. All those who oppose the genocidal war should cast a protest vote for Jill Stein and commit to getting organized beyond the election against the war, for a new anti-war party for working people, and against the capitalist system that breeds endless war and oppression.

Socialist Struggle Against War & Imperialism While a ceasefire is an important demand for the movement in the immediate term, it won’t bring lasting peace or stability. Ultimately, the struggle against war and imperialism must be a struggle against capitalism.

Socialist Alternative calls for international struggle against all capitalist regimes of war, poverty, and corruption. J