Socialist Alternative #92 - April 2023

ALTERNATIVE

SOCIALIST ISSUE #92 l APRIL 2023

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INSIDE STUDENTS FIGHT ANTI-TRANS BILLS p.4 LEFT ANTI-WAR MOVEMENT NEEDED p.11

FRENCH WORKERS REVOLT

p.14

WHAT WE STAND FOR Fight Inflation & Rebuild A Fighting Labor Movement • As thousands of workers are winning union recognition for the first time, it is critical that unions fight to win strong contracts.

We need unions that are armed with clear demands like contractual cost of living adjustments (COLA), and they have to be prepared to go on strike to win them.

• Union leaders across all unions should accept the average wage of a worker in their industry and should be accountable to their membership and the broader working class.

• An injury to one is an injury to all! Unions need to fight all manifestations of racism, sexism, queerphobia, and all forms of oppression.

• Building off the historic union victory at Amazon in New York and the ongoing Starbucks organizing drive, unions should stop spending hundreds of millions of dollars on electing Democratic Party politicians, and spend it instead on efforts to organize the unorganized.

• Unions should form consumer protection committees to monitor price increases.

They should have the power to review corporate finances, especially when money is squandered on CEO pay and stock buybacks. Profits off basic goods should be heavily taxed and price-gouging companies should be brought under democratic public ownership.

immediately be responsible for relocation costs, health costs, and home remediation.

When many residents need to relocate, the businesses responsible for the disasters should offer to buy people’s land at a rate well above pre-disaster market value.

• Take trucking and rail into democratic public ownership, end the regime of corporate greed, deregulation, cut corners, and understaffing that cause these preventable catastrophes!

Invest In Our Basic Needs

• Pass strong rent control. End economic evictions. Tax the rich and big business to fund permanently affordable, high-quality social housing.

• No pay cuts! We need a significant raise in the minimum wage and to tie raises to inflation.

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

• Make the child tax credit permanent and fully fund high-quality, universal childcare.

No cuts to food stamps!

• An immediate transition to Medicare for All. Take for-profit hospital chains and Big Pharma into public ownership and retool them to provide free, state-of-the-art healthcare to all.

Their Profits, Our Lives: A Socialist • Fully fund public education! End school privatization. Give educators an immediate 25% Program for Disaster Relief raise and increase staffing. Cancel all student • The U.S. averages one chemical accident debt and make public college tuition-free. every two days. Extreme weather displaced 3.4 million Americans in 2022, people across the country are seeing their com- End Racist Policing And Criminal munities turned into disaster zones from (in)Justice corporations’ ecological warfare.

• There is still a massive fight to be waged • Make the polluters pay for the million-dollar against police violence, especially with cleanups – not working people! There needs Democratic city governments increasing to be strict accountability and oversight to police funding and promoting “law and protect the interests of communities and order” policing. We need a new movement the environment. in the streets and mass organizations of • In the wake of disasters, corporations should struggle to fight for Black liberation!

• Arrest and convict killer cops! Purge police forces of anyone with known ties to white supremacist groups or any cop who has committed violent or racist attacks.

• End the militarization of police. Ban the use of “crowd control” weapons. Disarm police on patrol.

• Put policing under the control of democratiwww.SocialistAlternative.org cally-elected civilian boards with power over info@SocialistAlternative.org hiring and firing, reviewing budget priorities, @Socialist Alternative and the power to subpoena. @SocialistAlt /SocialistAlternative.USA No To Imperialist Wars

/c/SocialistAlternative • Socialist Alternative completely opposes @socialistus Russian imperialism’s brutal invasion of Ukraine. Ordinary Ukrainians who already

WHY I JOINED SOCIALIST ALTERNATIVE LYN CIURRO, STEVENS POINT WISCONSIN My first experience with Socialist Alternative and our politics was the perfect example of “you don’t know what you don’t know.” Before then, I was stuck in the trap of university politics. We focused on single issues, separated from other struggles, and defined by what the administration allowed us to do. We could make some noise and attend meetings, but any change we did manage to win was always watered down to be more appealing.

Even though I always had a feeling in the back of my head that this wasn’t enough, it was the only form of politics I had any experience with. When I graduated, I brought the same patterns with me to community organizing. This time we weren’t being misguided by administration, but instead by organizers and politicians in the Democratic Party. What I wanted to fight for was now confined by their rules: we needed to get people signed up to vote, and to remember to vote, and to get to the polls so we could vote. Any other form of struggle wasn’t important, or was even seen as hurting the movement.

When I learned of the revolutionary, suffer exploitation, oppression, corruption, and growing poverty conditions now face the horror of war and bloodshed.

• We oppose the aggressive imperialist agenda of NATO and the U.S. for whom Ukrainians are a pawn in the wider Cold War conflict with Chinese imperialism.

• De-escalating the rapidly deteriorating situation in Ukraine requires the return of Russian troops to the barracks in Russia and the withdrawal of all NATO troops from Eastern Europe.

• Build a massive anti-war and anti-imperialist movement linking up workers and youth across borders! Sending increasingly destructive weapons to the conflict only serves to escalate & poses a greater risk of all-out war – only socialist internationalism can end war and destruction and win lasting peace and stability for the working masses around the world.

Mobilize Against Gender Oppression & Attacks On Bodily Autonomy

international politics of Socialist Alternative, and started taking part in interventions like abortion defense protests and solidarity actions for the unionizing workers at Colectivo Coffee, I began to see the flaws of how I previously organized. We can’t focus on the issues the working class face as separate issues, only to be solved by the people who face one or another kind of oppression.

The only way to take on the crises created by capitalism is through solidarity across the entirety of the working class, with a revolutionary party that can be the living history of class struggle. J reproductive and gender-affirming care.

For A Socialist Green New Deal • We need a union jobs program to rapidly expand green infrastructure.

• Expand public transit and make it free.

• While taking climate change head-on, we also need to expand infrastructure to keep people safe from natural disasters and extreme weather as these become more frequent.

• Fossil fuels can’t coexist with a sustainable future – take the top 100 polluting companies into democratic public ownership while implementing a democratically planned, just transition to 100% green energy!

A New Political Party For Working People • The capitalist Democratic Party offers no solution to right-wing attacks against workers and marginalized people and has repeatedly failed to use their majorities to protect our rights.

• We need a new, working-class, multiracial left party that organizes and fights for workers’ interests and is committed to socialist policies to lead the fight against the right and point a way out of the horrors of capitalism.

• The overturn of Roe v. Wade opened the door for vicious attacks on bodily autonomy across the country. We need a mass movement against the reactionary right on the scale of the 60s and 70s when Roe was first won.

• Free, safe, legal abortion. All contraception should be provided at no cost as part of a The Whole System Is Guilty broad program for reproductive health!

• Fight back against the brutal anti-trans leg- • Capitalism produces pandemics, povislation in many states and all right-wing erty, racism, transphobia, environmental attacks on LGBTQ people. Noncompliance destruction, and war. We need an internawith these bigoted laws should be organized tional struggle against this failed system. by the labor movement among workers • Bring the top 500 companies and banks tasked with enforcing them. into democratic public ownership.

• Fighting gender oppression means fighting • We need a socialist world. This means a for our rights to bodily autonomy, reprodemocratic socialist plan for the economy ductive justice including universal childbased on the interests of the overwhelming care, and Medicare for All including free majority of people and the planet.

EDITORIAL

SVB COLLAPSE DETONATES FINANCIAL CRISIS TOM CREAN, NYC The collapse of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) has opened up a significant financial crisis for U.S. capitalism which has spread internationally. It is still not clear how far the “contagion” will spread in the banking system and whether this series of events will trigger a deep recession. But at the very least it is exposing the rot that lies just under the surface of the allegedly “sound” economy.

This was the biggest bank collapse in the U.S. since the 2007-09 crisis. SVB was the 16th largest bank in the U.S. – so definitely not in the same league as the “Big Four,” JP Morgan Chase, Bank of America, Citigroup and Wells Fargo – but still very big and nominally worth over $200 billion.

In the words of the Washington Post, SVB was “the favored bank of tech entrepreneurs and venture capitalists.” Unlike “normal” local, regional, or even national commercial banks, SVB did not have a mix of small depositors and bigger clients. Its depositors were overwhelmingly very rich. Nearly 90% of the approximately $175 billion (as of December 2022) deposited in the bank was not insured, meaning that the bulk of the accounts were vastly greater than the $250,000 FDIC insurance limit.

How Did The Collapse Happen?

In the immediate sense, the collapse was the result of its management needing to raise $2.5 billion to cover day to day operations.

The bank was caught short because of the decline in value of the long term treasury bonds which formed a key part of their assets.

U.S. treasury bonds are considered an extremely safe asset. However, long-term treasury bonds bought even a couple years ago have declined in real value due to the rapid rise in interest rates. One widely quoted estimate is that, at the end of last year, U.S. banks had $620 billion in “unrealized losses” on such securities. This means that what happened to SVB could happen to others.

When SVB couldn’t raise the $2.5 billion, the value of their shares on the stock market plummeted and depositors began to pull out their money, a classic “run” on the bank which led to its collapse.

SVB wasn’t the first bank to fail. That honor goes to Silvergate, also California based, and strongly linked to the crypto industry. Another bank in New York, Signature, was also shut by the federal authorities.

The Feds Intervene The Federal Reserve, FDIC, and Treasury Department then took the extraordinary step of deciding to make the SVB depositors “whole.” This means that the FDIC guaranteed that all the depositors will get all their money back. Again, this includes the 90% of uninsured deposits (which could amount to over $150 billion!).

This decision was made because of “systemic risk,” i.e. the danger that a whole number of other banks would fail if they didn’t act decisively. The Biden administration is APRIL 2023

going to great lengths to stress that this is not a bailout. That word, of course, conjures up how literally trillions of dollars were used to prop up the financial system in 07-09 while millions of ordinary people lost their homes and jobs.

In one sense this is not a bailout of the type that happened 15 years ago. SVB’s shareholders will not be compensated for

of money into the financial sector, mainly through a mechanism called Quantitative Easing (QE), combined with super low, even negative, interest rates. This has become known as the “era of easy money,” i.e. making money very easily available to the banks and financial institutions.

Normally, printing a whole lot of money should lead to inflation in the wider economy

raising interest rates to make borrowing costs higher for companies. The goal – which is not really a secret – is to get companies to start laying people off, thus cutting into aggregate demand and thereby lowering prices. It’s crude and brutal but that’s how capitalism does business.

In the past year, the Fed has raised interest rates from near zero to 4.5%, a tenfold increase and the sharpest and fastest rise since the early 1980s. This is definitely the end of the era of easy money and the banking crisis is one of the results.

The measures being taken to address this crisis are inevitably creating new problems as did the measures used to deal with the financial collapse in 07-09 and the 2020 collapse. But that is inherent in the new era of capitalist disorder where capitalism lurches from crisis to crisis.

What Now?

“At the time of writing, the crisis of confidence in the banking sector is far from over.” the stock whose value has collapsed. Nor, at the moment anyway, are taxpayers footing the bill. But, having commited to covering the full value of deposits at SVB, the FDIC has now effectively guaranteed the full value of deposits in all U.S. banks. If the “contagion” spreads, you can be sure finance capital will be looking for a full-blown bailout.

In the meantime, they will do everything to pass on the cost to working-class customers with higher bank fees of all sorts, as well as tightening credit and making it harder to get a loan.

At the time of writing, the crisis of confidence in the banking sector is far from over as the value of the shares of many banks has collapsed. The crisis has also spread to Europe with the threatened collapse of Credit Suisse, a far bigger bank than SVB which had already faced a series of scandals and declining profits. The Swiss National Bank then intervened and forced another bank to buy Credit Suisse for a fraction of its nominal worth. The complete implosion of Credit Suisse could have been as serious as the collapse of Lehman Brothers in 2008.

The End Of Easy Money The specific problem of “unrealized losses” on bank balance sheets caused by interest rate rises is connected to a wider set of issues.

The solution designed by the U.S. and other capitalist governments to the 07-09 financial crisis was to pour huge amounts

but this did not happen because the capitalists did not broadly invest the money in expanding production. Rather they put it straight back into the financial casino thus “reflating” financial bubbles, as we now see Data shows a 40-80% drop in the value of many regional banks like First Republic, Western Alliance, and PacWest since the beginning of the year.

in crypto, tech, and housing.

When the economy collapsed in 2020 due to COVID lockdowns, the Federal Reserve resumed aggressive QE. However, unlike in 07-09, there were also massive stimulus programs that primarily bailed out big business but also put a non-trivial amount of money into the pockets of ordinary people. The stimulus pumped up demand and combined with supply chain problems to trigger inflation.

In order to address the highest level of inflation in 40 years, the Federal Reserve has since moved in the opposite direction, to a tight money policy, winding down QE and

It is too early to say how deep this current crisis will be. Will the FDIC and Federal Reserve be able to prevent further contagion?

They constantly say that this is not 07-09 and that the banks are basically in better shape.

Nevertheless, the world economy today is in a very fragile position. Among other issues there is a massive debt crisis including both sovereign (national) and corporate debt. Total global debt now stands at an astonishing 350% of GDP. There are also other speculative bubbles such as in crypto, tech start ups and to a degree housing whose implosion can aggravate the situation.

Broadly, despite continued job growth in the U.S., both the U.S. and the world economy is at the edge of another major downturn. The current banking crisis, even if it is contained in the short term, will tend to bring recession closer in the U.S..

But a major global financial crisis which could be detonated for a range of reasons will be far harder for capitalism to manage than in 07-09 when Barack Obama was able to organize a coordinated response of key capitalist economies, including China. Now with deglobalization and a New Cold War, coordination is far more difficult if not impossible.

And in the end, the capitalists and their political servants in both parties will make the working class pay for the crisis of their system. Look how fast they moved to bail out the rich tech entrepreneurs in stark contrast to the criminal neglect of the people of East Palestine. Their overriding priority will always be the maintenance of profits. We need a system that is based on the needs of working people.

This crisis shows why we need to bring the banks, as well as other key sectors, like energy, transportation and healthcare into public ownership under democratic workingclass control. Only by creating a socialist economy in the U.S. and worldwide can we prevent senseless crises and begin addressing massive inequality, the crying need for decent education and health care, and the impending climate catastrophe. J

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LGBTQ RIGHTS

PACK THE HALLS

STUDENTS ORGANIZE TO FIGHT ANTI-TRANS BILLS

THE U.S. AVERAGES ONE CHEMICAL ACCIDENT EVERY TWO DAYS...

GREYSON VAN ARSDALE, CHICAGO

In late February, students at Danville High School in Kentucky staged an in-school protest during their free period against right-wing attacks on trans youth. Two student organizers, Sam Wilson and June Wagner, put together the action after first driving to the state capitol in Frankfurt for a “Lobby Day,” organized by the Kentucky Fairness Campaign. Their intention was to convince their local representative to vote against SB150, a bill that would drastically undercut trans students’ ability to express themselves at school.

Despite privately reassuring Wilson and Wagner that the bill wouldn’t pass, their representative – Senator Amanda Bledsoe – voted for the bill, and it passed.

Students at Danville High School in Kentucky march through the halls of their highschool to protest SB150, a bill that would drastically undercut trans students’ ability to express themselves at school.

“That’s what we learned – when it’s just you, they can just lie,” Wilson said.

The experience convinced Wilson and Wagner that they couldn’t rely on elected representatives to simply listen to them, and they began organizing a protest. In a high school of just 500 students, over 50 participated in the action – Wilson also noted that some teachers joined their after-school protest that same day.

But despite the activism of students across Kentucky, SB150 passed both the House and Senate in mid-March. In the process, it was expanded to include a ban on genderaffirming care for minors, a ban on schools discussing sexuality or gender identity, and a ban on trans students using the bathroom

Building A Fighting Force corresponding to their gender identity.

The experience of queer Kentucky students isn’t a unique one. Across the country, student organizers are fighting a tidal wave of anti-trans legislation from well-funded, wellorganized sources. Anti-LGBTQ hate groups like the Alliance Defending Freedom have put inordinate resources behind these bills for years, privately admitting in leaked emails that their real goal is to eradicate medical transition – and trans people – entirely.

In the face of this tsunami of organized bigotry, transgender youth organizers are having to learn what works, and what doesn’t, fast.

Lobbying Hits A Wall – Act Up! For trans students attempting to fight

back, a common entry point is calling representatives, writing letters, or, as Wilson and Wagner did, attending “lobby days” organized by NGOs like the Human Rights Campaign to speak to representatives in person.

In an ideal world, ‘representative democracy’ would mean that elected officials aimed to protect the safety and autonomy of everyone they represented – but in the zero-sum game of a capitalist political system, this is rarely if ever the case.

However, that doesn’t mean that confronting representatives is wholly useless. Activists in some states have been able to delay or entirely defeat bills by packing public comment sessions, boldly exposing the cynical way Republicans are using trans youth as part of a political game. This is most effective when

WAVE OF ANTI-TRANS BILLS SWEEPS THE COUNTRY KELLY BELLIN, MINNEAPOLIS More than 480 anti-transgender bills have been introduced in this year’s legislative session, across 46 states. At least half of them directly relate to schools, and even more target trans youth in some form.

At the time of writing, only 10% of these bills have failed. Eighteen U.S. states now ban trans students from school sports; ten states ban gender-affirming healthcare for trans youth.

Twelve more states are likely to adopt at least one of these major restrictions by the end of the 2023 legislative session.

It’s no doubt that the

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it’s paired with a militant strategy of protests and walkouts outside the legislative halls.

Activists in the ACT UP movement of the 1980s coined the phrase “inside/outside” to describe this approach. They would intervene into meetings of medical boards and other government bodies to fight for access to cutting-edge HIV/ AIDS medication, and when they were shut down, they’d immediately move to rallying outside the building, shutting down roads with dieins and similar actions.

Ultimately, if right-wing politicians are to be dissuaded from enacting sweeping legislation aiming to eradicate transgender people from public life, it won’t be on the basis of moral appeals – it will be on the basis of enforcing political consequences for doing so.

right-wing is on the offensive and their main target is trans people. The hundreds of bills nationwide, while particularly taking aim at trans youth, are sweeping attacks on virtually all aspects of life: Trans sports bans, “forced outing” bills, and the threat of having custody rights revoked from supportive parents of trans kids, all contribute to eliminating support structures for trans people.

Bans on gender-affirming care remove access to the health care that is supported by all major medical organizations and is associated with reduced rates of suicide. Gender-affirming care

literally saves lives.

Bathroom bills, banning drag performances, and banning school curriculum which covers LGBTQ history are dangerous efforts to erase trans people from public life.

A 2022 poll from the Trevor Project found that 85% of trans and nonbinary youth have had their mental health negatively affected by the implementation of new anti-trans laws. A subsequent poll found that more than half of trans youth seriously considered suicide in the past year. More broadly, the tidal wave of attacks on trans rights promotes violence against trans people, as laws play a role in dictating public perception.

Why is this happening? For one, the Republican Party has turned to scapegoating trans kids in particular to hide the fact that they have nothing to offer working people as economic crisis wreaks havoc on our lives. Under capitalism, igniting divisions among working class people is a crucial strategy during crisis; it’s a lifeboat for the ruling establishment.

The pandemic has shown millions that, in a crisis, we will be sacrificed for the profits of big business and the ruling class. There is no doubt that successful attacks on trans people will open the door further for attacks on all oppressed and working class people. Most importantly, the right wing relies on no movement coming forward to stop them. J

Queer youth in Republican-controlled states have heroically taken up the fight against attacks on transgender people.

Unfortunately though, the fact that this movement is relatively siloed among LGBTQ students and their parents is ultimately a weakness that must be overcome.

Attacks on transgender people are one part of a despicable social agenda that attacks all working-class people. The ADF, which has written and lobbied for these antitrans bills, is a primary force behind the court case in Texas aiming to ban medication abortion.

The focus on students and controlling the curriculum that teachers can bring to their classrooms benefits the long-standing goal of Republicans to whittle public education down to the bones and run education for profit through the expansion of charter schools. Teachers and health care workers, both of whom are under attack alongside transgender youth, should fight for solidarity resolutions in their unions and mobilize their members to student protests and walkouts.

An essential part of building a movement that can win is broadening the struggle, and sharing lessons across state lines. While statewide networks of organizers are emerging to coordinate actions against specific bills, these networks would benefit enormously from reaching out to each other to discuss specific tactics and even organizing regional and national days of action.

From the riots at Stonewall, to the militant die-ins of ACT Up, to the fight for marriage equality, queer people are given nothing for free. As new generations of LGBTQ people are thrust into a fight for our legal right to exist, success will depend on us out-organizing our opponents, on the basis that freedom for queer people benefits the whole working class. J

S O C I A L I S TA LT E R N AT I V E . O R G

WOMEN’S RIGHTS

ABORTION PILLS UNDER ATTACK MEAGHAN MURRAY, MINNEAPOLIS A Trump-appointed federal judge is on the verge of ruling in favor of a bogus lawsuit by anti-abortion groups to ban mifepristone, a critical first-step medication in abortion pill regimens.

Mifepristone, along with misoprostol, is used in medication abortion, the most common abortion method in the U.S. It does not require in-person procedures or anesthesia, can be taken as soon as a patient knows they’re pregnant, offers more privacy for those that can take the medication at home, and is a safe and more affordable alternative to in-clinic surgery. The group behind the lawsuit argued the Food and Drug Administration did not properly study the drug’s safety and “exceeded its authority in approving it” in the first place over 20 years ago. This is a baseless claim, as mifepristone is one of the most extensively studied drugs in the country.

But in the right federal judge’s hands, that doesn’t matter.

A Fraud From Top To Bottom Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk, whose notable cases include stripping LGBTQ workers of workplace protections and safeguarding Trump’s “remain in Mexico” policy for asylum-seekers, has flagrantly issued rulings based on his own reactionary politics. The mifepristone case is being heard in Amarillo, Texas, part of the Northern Texas District Court. The anti-abortion group “Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine’’ decided to file the suit in Amarillo because Kacsmaryk’s decision would very likely tilt in their favor.

This umbrella group is comprised of five out-of-state, right-wing organizations who have used the overturning of Roe as an opportunity to further attack abortion rights on a national scale. Mifepristone was originally approved for use by the FDA over 20 years ago, and has been a safe and effective medication with low risk of complications.

The Alliance’s “concern” for the health and

APRIL 2023

safety of patients is rooted in anti-choice, religious-right politics and does not reflect the views of the broader medical community; in fact, national physicians’ and nurses’ organizations believe the Dobbs decision this past summer was a serious setback for reproductive rights.

What Happens Now? After Kacsmaryk issues his likely decision to ban mifepristone, popular reporting tells us that the drug will be taken off the shelves and no one will have access to it. But this absolutely does not have to be the case.

The FDA is an agency with a tremendous amount of discretion. As was decided in a 1985 Supreme Court decision Heckler v.

Chaney, the agency gets to decide whether or not it will enforce a statute – not the courts.

Therefore the FDA, under Biden’s authority, can decide not to enforce the ban, allowing the manufacturers and distributors of mifepristone to continue to sell it.

If, however, Joe Biden and his FDA instead choose to unnecessarily uphold the bogus ban, then legal access to the medication abortions will be significantly reduced – even in states where abortion is still legal. There are “abortion deserts” in almost every corner of the country, where a person would have to travel at least 100 miles one way to reach the nearest abortion facility.

Even where abortion remains legal, there are pharmacies and clinics that are preemptively taking mifepristone off the shelves. This is a very dangerous move that will have disastrous consequences. Without mifepristone, many clinics in states where abortion is legal will likely switch to misoprostol-only abortions, while others will suspend the practice of medication abortions altogether. “Misoonly” abortions are a safe alternative, but they are less effective and much more painful.

In the case that the Democratic Party leadership bends the knee to this brutal right-wing attack, pregnant people may need to rely on underground abortion networks or international organizations like Women on Web in order to get the care they need.

Organizations like these can be a lifeline for anyone looking to terminate a pregnancy, and they’ve already seen skyrocketing demand since Roe’s overturn.

Unfortunately, though, these organizations are far too small to meet the needs of the tens of millions of women of reproductive age in the U.S. and are no substitute for having legal access to abortion care, whether through the pill or surgery. The threat of arrest already hangs over the heads of pregnant people found to be illegally getting an abortion, a threat that became real when a South Carolina woman was arrested and charged in February for using the pill in 2021. The right wing is determined to use any means necessary to brutalize people seeking abortions, and we will need to mount a real struggle to win back the legal right to abortion in the U.S.

The Courts Aren’t On Our Side Like the Dobbs case, legal experts had shrugged off this “frivolous” lawsuit. But with the case conveniently falling into the lap of a “Trump-appointed darling of the far right,” this is yet another instance where the courts will not save us. They are not impartial; they are, in fact, political. The Biden administration’s FDA has a fully legal and above-board opportunity to demonstrate that it’s willing to ignore fanaticism from the religious right.

But based on their total lack of a fight to defend Roe, it’s reasonable to assume they won’t fight now either.

In order to fight these attacks from the right, we need movements that go beyond a court-based strategy.

This has to include first and foremost the creation of new mass feminist organizations.

We can’t wait for Democrat-aligned groups like Planned Parenthood or NARAL to mount the type of fightback that’s necessary, as it’s been the Democrats themselves time and again who’ve refused to mount a real struggle for abortion rights.

Part of a mass movement strategy to win back the legal right to abortion will also need to include organized direct action. Individual acts of civil disobedience at this moment will be easy to marginalize, as there’s virtually no organized feminist movement in the streets, though at a later stage these actions could become essential.

In building this struggle we should look to the heroic abortion rights struggles across the world for inspiration, particularly the struggle in Ireland in which our sister organization, the Socialist Party, played a pivotal role.

A Program For Access To Care The terrifying ramp-up of misogynist, right-wing ideas has continued past Roe, and if this ruling is unnecessarily enforced by the FDA, it will mean a key lifeline for pregnant people in the wake of Roe’s overturn will be ripped away. This lawsuit does not stand alone: hundreds of bills aiming to repress the expression of young people and ban discussions of LGBTQ people and Black history from schools have been introduced just in the last few months. Republicans are looking to turn back the clock on the rights of women, LGBTQ people, and people of color.

Right now we need to mount a tremendous amount of pressure on Biden’s FDA to disregard any bogus mifepristone ban that comes down. Mainstream women’s rights organizations are presenting this ban as an accomplished fact – just as they did with the overturn of Roe. We need to highlight the agency that the Democrats have to protect access to the abortion pill with protests, marches, and walkouts.

Ultimately, our struggle needs to remain laser-focused on winning back full legal protections for abortion. To achieve this, we need new mass feminist organizations launching a real movement – not in the courts, but in the streets. We need young women and young people to join this struggle alongside workers. Our goal has to be to cohere the type of movement that can make enforcing these bans politically unviable. Right-wing politicians and figureheads need to fear that if they dare take any punitive action against someone seeking an abortion, they’ll be met with the wrath of thousands in the streets.

Because this will have a direct and disastrous impact on a rotten, for-profit U.S. health care system, this should be taken up by nurses’ unions, many of whom have been calling for improved workplace conditions and patient safety since the beginning of the pandemic.

Their struggle for health care system change and the struggle for reproductive rights are inextricably linked. Other unions outside the nurses’ should support and fight in solidarity with the movement.

In the absence of a movement like this, the question of abortion access is a crucial one. A pro-choice movement will need to demonstrate that it’s committed to ensuring people have access to medication abortions even when it’s illegal. While getting people pills will likely be done in the shadows for the time being, it’s important that the distribution of pills is connected to a political strategy, rather than just being a long-term mutual aid project.

The goal should be to bring tens of thousands of people into a vibrant and visible movement, and with strength in numbers, we can build the power to force the system to give us what we demand. J

Our goal has to be to cohere the type of movement that can make enforcing these bans politically unviable.

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RAIL CRISIS

THE RAILROADS SHOULD BE IN PUBLIC HANDS KEELY MULLEN, CHICAGO

The railroads were in crisis. Supply chains were a mess and prices were climbing fast.

Thousands of railcars filled to the brim with American war munitions were stuck at the ports, waiting to be unloaded onto ships and sent to Europe. There was a shortage of rail cars resulting in major delays in getting normal freight from one city to the next. Rail workers threatened to strike against brutally long hours. And then Congress intervened.

This is where the story will start to sound increasingly less familiar. Congress intervened to guarantee rail workers an eight-hour workday despite vicious opposition from the industry barons. And most astonishingly, on December 28, 1917, President Woodrow Wilson issued an order to nationalize the railroads.

They would remain under federal control for three years before being handed back to the billionaires in March of 1920.

When The U.S. Railroads Were Nationalized Federal control extended over steam and electric powered railroads, terminals, sleeping and parlor cars, private cars, elevators, warehouses, and telephone and telegraph lines.

Changes cascaded across the rail industry in the three years it was under government control. Competitive waste like duplicate lines were eliminated, uniform passenger ticketing was instituted, and more than 100,000 new, standardized freight cars were built. Wages rose and the eight-hour work day was formalized for two million railroad employees.

But, it was always the intention of procapitalist politicians like Woodrow Wilson to return the railroads to private hands. When creating the U.S. Railroad Administration, the body that would oversee this new “nationalized” freight system, a promise was issued to the rail barons that within 21 months of the war ending, they’d get the keys to the system back. In the meantime they’d get paid the average net income they’d made between 1914-1917. The government, in essence, rented the railroads for three years.

In 1918, nearly 99% of the more than 300,000 railroad workers voted to keep the tracks nationalized. The railroad union’s advocacy for keeping the railroads public inspired coal miners whose own union voted to nationalize the coal industry in 1919.

It is not an accident of history that Woodrow Wilson took this extraordinary step in December of 1917, just two months after the Russian working class seized control of the levers of power. The socialist revolution in Russia sent a tidal wave of inspiration across the globe, inspiring workers in nearly every country to take up the fight against their own ruling class.

Woodrow Wilson didn’t radically transform the railroads to benefit a single working-class person, he did it to ensure weapons got to the front lines of the war as quickly as possible.

And not just the front lines of World War I, but the front lines of the Russian Civil War where Wilson had deployed 13,000 soldiers to help crush the revolution.

This is not the type of nationalization we want today, but even this limited and poorlymotivated experiment demonstrates how much more efficiently our railroads can run when they’re taken out of private hands.

Take The Tracks Into Public Ownership

exactly that. Similar resolutions should be put forward in rail union locals across the country, and rank-and-file rail workers wanting to fight should consider joining and building RWU into a fighting, cross-craft reform caucus with strong democratic structures.

Wrenching the railroads from the hands of billionaires will take a lot more than union resolutions, though. We will need a genuinely titanic struggle that includes the wider labor movement as well as communities affected by dangerous derailments. We cannot win a transformation this big without mass mobilizations and, crucially, strike action.

We also need to be crystal clear every step of the way about the type of public ownership we’re demanding. We want public ownership on the basis of workers control, not control by bureaucratic, capitalist government agencies or “worker-management partnerships.”

Rail workers are far more familiar with the ins and outs of the industry than billionaire executives, and they should be making key decisions about how the industry is run.

Fighting to win genuine public ownership of the tracks, on the basis of workers’ control, could be an inspiration to workers in all other major industries, as it was in 1918. J

The disastrous train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio highlighted for millions of Americans just how dangerous the railroads have become. Decades of cost-cutting and deregulation has created an explosive situation for rail workers and the communities that live along the tracks.

A two-person crew driving a nearly two mile long train carrying 115,000 gallons of highly toxic chemicals sounds like a recipe for disaster, but it’s a shockingly ordinary scenario. The U.S. averaged roughly three train derailments per day in 2023.

And all this heightened risk isn’t producing higher productivity. The only thing it produces is higher profits. In fact, the railroads are moving 5 to 10% less freight than they did 16 years ago – but rail executives’ profits have nearly tripled in the last several decades.

It’s time that rail unions actively take the lead in fighting to bring the railroads into public ownership as they did in 1918.

Railroad Workers United (RWU), a caucus of rankBring Railroa and-file rail workd O w n ership: The s into Democratic Public ers across the East Pa A JOINT wreck is just country, have the most re lestine train c w e hy we must nt example adopted a resoof PETITION e from the ra liminate the profit-m lution calling for otive FROM ilroads alto gether. We to ensure sa nee fe ventable tr ty measures and stop d WORKERS agedies, n preot further the billiona enrich STRIKE ires throug h stock buyb acks. BAC K

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S O C I A L I S TA LT E R N AT I V E . O R G

ENVIRONMENT over California that day, has at least been somewhat tempered by the drought relief.

In late September 2022, 41% of California was in extreme drought. Following the twoweek period from December 26 to January 10 (during which an astounding 13 inches of rain fell in the Bay Area), conditions improved significantly. Snowpack in the Sierra Nevada mountains, which feeds our rivers and streams and provides the drinking water for over 75% of Californians, has totalled a massive 56 feet as of March 15. But the problem posed by the erratic nature of climate change

Even when the rains stop, the flooding will continue. This year’s massive snowpack will melt as the weather warms, overwhelming dams and flooding communities downstream. This could include disruptions to the massive agricultural industry of the Central Valley, large parts of which were once marsh and wetland. The resulting interruption of food supply to the rest of the country would be the latest addition to the cascading list of climate disturbances.

As the impacts of the climate crisis worsen before our eyes, the capitalist class continues its endless war on workers and the planet. This fact is laid bare by the Biden Administration’s infuriating decision to approve a huge oil-drilling project in Alaska, which is expected to produce more than 239 million metric tons of greenhouse gasses over the next three years. California Governor Newsom has already matched the president’s subservience to oil and gas interests by green-lighting fracking operations throughout California.

Realistically, it is already too late to prevent some of the oncoming disasters wrought by capitalism’s destruction of the planet. But the history of the working-class response to the coming era of climate crisis has yet to be written. Workers are learning that we can’t expect more than a few sandbags under the flood of empty promises from capitalist politicians.

The struggle in the U.S. is now moving out of the electoral arena and into the workplace, with fights for new unions, contract battles, and strike actions coming to the fore. The growing consciousness of the working class, on whom all production depends, points to a future where we can exercise our power to take on climate change. Stopping this disaster will require mass action by all workers, but especially by workers in the fossil fuel industry. Our class alone has the power to take on the capitalists hell-bent on destroying our planet for profit. J

CALIFORNIA’S BRUTAL WINTER ELLIOT BARTZ

Reserve Trainee with Alameda County Fire (personal capacity) In an era of accelerating climate change, extreme and unpredictable weather is the new norm. But even still, few would have expected the incredible winter that California is experiencing – whiplashing from a decades-long, severe drought to historic rains and disastrous flooding in a matter of days. This climate crisis, and the total chaos of emergency response, is exposing the total inadequacy of the ruling class’ reaction to this disaster of their own making.

I volunteered for an impromptu community storm response on New Years’ Eve – a day that ended up being the second-wettest in San Francisco history. Arriving at the fire station to fill sandbags (no small feat as the

freeway and many other roads were completely shut down due to flooding), the scale of the logistical failure became painfully apparent. We had bags, but no sand, with a line of worried people outside needing urgent help.

A single load of sand was on the only truck the county had available, and it was stuck 30 miles away, behind a landslide brought down by the deluge. After two hours of waiting, the sand finally arrived, and we hastily shoveled it into about two hundred bags in the pouring rain. The next load didn’t come for another four hours, leaving us to ration a meager four sandbags per family, in one of the wealthiest regions of the wealthiest country in human history.

This bleak picture, which played out all

in California is apparent – we need rain, but so much all at once is a crisis.

Since the start of the year, the rain has not let up. Storm after storm has arrived with little reprieve. The already-saturated ground has been unable to absorb water, leading to progressively more intense flooding. Thousands of homes have been damaged, power has been cut off to millions at various times, and our already criminally neglected infrastructure has deteriorated further.

To make matters worse, flood insurance – which is already expensive – is becoming unreliable. The National Flood Insurance Program exhausted its borrowing capacity in October, and the program has been in the red since 2005. Its ability to pay claims even for those who can afford insurance is in doubt.

In California, run by a Democratic supermajority, profit-hungry banks and their wealthy depositors receive huge bailouts while working people facing severe flood damage to their homes are left to fend for themselves.

DE ADLIER THAN WAR: FIGHTING FOR A FUTURE FREE OF AIR POLLUTION SAHANA SIMONETTI, BOSTON Globally, air pollution cuts life expectancy by nearly 2.2 years – more than alcohol, cigarettes, and even war. Four in 10 Americans live in areas where the air is so polluted it poses serious health risks.

The worst air pollution in the country is consistently found in Black communities, which are 75% more likely to be located near a facility that produces hazardous waste.

The most dangerous air pollutants are the fine particles emitted by cars, factories, and wildfires.

Breathing them year after year can lead to increased risk of asthma, heart attack, strokes, and lung cancer.

60% of fine particle pollution is created by burning fossil fuels. But even if we stopped burning fossil APRIL 2023

fuels tomorrow, air pollution would continue to linger.

This means air pollution will continue to wreak havoc on countless communities even if the U.S. transitions to fully renewable energy (to be clear, we’re nowhere close to achieving this).

Communities impacted by air pollution should immediately be granted Medicare coverage for life, and their medical debts should be erased. This will require a massive investment in Medicare, which has been chipped away by Democrats and Republicans alike. Joe Biden could even grant everyone living in high-risk zones immediate Medicare coverage by declaring a state of environmental emergency.

Homes, small businesses, schools, and other public buildings should be outfitted with high-quality ventilation systems which should

be regularly replaced for free. The bills for installing, replacing, and running these systems should be footed by polluting industries.

To improve air quality outside, many cities have installed enormous outdoor air purifiers. But the volume of air these purifiers would need to filter in order to make a dent is immense, especially in densely-populated urban areas. On top of that, these systems require electricity.

In 2022, 60% of electricity in the U.S. was generated by burning fossil fuels. Installing outdoor purifiers to solve air pollution is like using air conditioners to solve the climate crisis. Instead, we need to do things like massively expand public transit, and electrify it with renewable energy.

While we should fight for all of these immediate measures, the

only way to guarantee clean, safe air in the long-term is to transition fully to renewable energy. But we can’t rely on the Democratic Party to get us there.

It is working people who have both the interest and the power to put an end to rampant air pollution.

Communities impacted by air pollution need to link up with workers in polluting industries, and organize around a set of concrete demands and a strategy to escalate and spread the movement nationally, including protesting, taking direct action, and especially going on strike.

Ultimately, we will need to bring polluting industries into the democratic control of workers and

communities. This would allow for the transition of these industries on a sustainable basis, creating millions of union jobs in the process.

The assets of these companies could be used to pay for the clean up of industrial wastes, and free, high-quality healthcare and mass public transit. The billionaire class will fiercely oppose removing these industries from private ownership, meaning it will only happen on the basis of a titanic, multi-racial, working-class movement. J

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T

o Amazon’s corporate suits at their headquarters in Seattle, the KCVG Air Hub in Northern Kentucky is often referred to as the “Death Star.” The massive $1.5 billion facility already handles over 500,000 packages every day.

Eventually, it will have 100 parking spaces for planes, and employ 11,000 workers.

Amazon plans for 80% of its air freight to be handled by KCVG. The Air Hub is the cornerstone of Amazon’s plan to achieve same-day delivery to anywhere in the country.

But within the Death Star of Amazon’s empire, a rebel fighting force is growing.

KCVG workers, who joined up with Amazon Labor Union (ALU) and launched card collection in March, are building a bold and uncompromising campaign to unionize the Air Hub. It is, without question, the most important union effort happening in the U.S. right now – winning a strong union at KCVG would set an example for Amazon workers to replicate and adapt to their workplaces across the country.

Card Collection Launches At KCVG In the parking lot of the Air Hub on March 18, KCVG workers executed a tight balancing act – leading a rally from the bed of a truck, signing up their coworkers on union authorization cards, and defending their action from managers attempting to cut across it.

In the days leading up to the rally, which served as the launch of union card collection at the facility, Amazon made every attempt to shut it down. While the original plan was for workers and community labor supporters to rally together in the parking lot, Amazon issued a ‘cease and desist’ letter and set up barricades and a security checkpoint preventing community members from attending in solidarity. This ‘cease and desist’ notice was intended in particular to prevent leading members of the Amazon Labor Union, like ALU President Chris Smalls, from attending.

Amazon management aimed to whittle down this event as much as they could, even claiming that workers might be breaking federal aviation law if they showed up at the rally, an obvious lie. Managers hovered in the elevators as workers walked to their cars to leave work, and they parked their cars on the side of the road, with their sirens blaring, as workers drove towards the rally.

The general manager of the facility stood at a checkpoint, checking workers’ badges as they pulled into the parking lot.

Rather than cowering in fear of Amazon’s ‘cease and desist’ threats, workers and the wider community found a way to still come out in force to show Amazon they

wouldn’t be bullied. Community supporters and local labor leaders rallied at the edge of Amazon’s property, right by the barricades, chanting in support of the workers who organized their own rally inside. In a powerful display of unity, when the rally was over

Members of the Unionize KCVG Organizing Committee (OC) and visitors from Amazon Labor Union (ALU) in New York City huddle before the March 18 launch of card collection.

“In order to build a strong union, it’s necessary to act like one, and set an example of not bending to the bosses.” inside, workers marched out of the parking lot to join union supporters for an energetic press conference.

During and after their rally in the parking lot, members of the KCVG Organizing Committee helped their coworkers sign union authorization cards, while defending their table from attempts by management to shut it down.

“We’re not gonna accept you hovering over workers while they’re engaging in union activity,” said Griffin Ritze, a tug driver at KCVG and member of the organizing committee, to a manager in a video that has now reached over half a million views on TikTok. “So yeah, unless there’s anything else to say, I think we’re done here. If you’d like to talk to our lawyer I’ll put him on the phone.”

The manager seen in the video, a “security expert” shipped in from Texas, claimed the small table, set up outside the entrance to the facility, was a safety hazard and needs to be moved to the opposite side of the parking lot.

“This is not a safety hazard,” Ritze responded firmly. “We’re not gonna accept being shoved to the corner of the parking lot.”

Despite Amazon’s intimidation tactics, dozens of KCVG workers signed union authorization cards that afternoon. In the end, management’s aggressive intimidation backfired, and more workers than ever have expressed interest in the union.

A CLASH OF TITANS

Amazon’s Intimidation Backfires As workers launched a vibrant card collection campaign, management launched their all-out campaign of bullying and intimidation. All of their tactics are blatantly illegal, but Amazon does them anyway because they have all the lawyers and money in the world, and they can easily deal with fines and penalties later if it means stopping the union effort now.

This is why it’s essential that workers are prepared to organize and stand up to managers every time they try to bully workers.

HOW AMAZON IS FIGHTING TOOTHAND-NAIL TO STOP WORKERS FROM UNIONIZING ITS BIGGEST AIR HUB Chris Gray

The new logo of the campaign to unionize Amazon’s KCVG Air Hub, which has joined up with the Amazon Labor Union (ALU). ALU became the first union to successfully organize an Amazon facility in April of 2022.

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S O C I A L I S TA LT E R N AT I V E . O R G

When workers force managers to back down, it massively boosts the confidence of all workers across the facility, no matter how small the win might be.

After pulling off the successful launch of card collection despite intimidation, KCVG workers had renewed confidence. The day after the rally, Amazon’s incompetent managers tried to force ramp workers, who normally load and unload planes, to cover shifts in the package sortation building to save money.

However, managers refused to train the workers to do the job safely. Workers stood together in opposition and confronted management for two hours, refusing to work without training. They eventually forced management to back down. After the victory, these workers showed up at the union office ready to make a pro-union video for the campaign’s social media, hoping to inspire more workers to do the same thing.

Withstanding Amazon’s Anti-Union Machine At the launch rally, workers got a taste of how far Amazon will go to shut down union activity, but Amazon has far more union-busting tools in their belt. They will host captive audience meetings, they will plaster the facility in anti-union posters (at the JFK8 warehouse, they spend $4 million on posters alone), and much more. At LDJ5, Amazon lied to workers about their benefits going away if they unionized. And during the 2021 campaign to unionize a warehouse in Bessemer, AL, Amazon

It’s essential that the KCVG union drive started out on a footing of confronting management. In order to build a strong union, it’s necessary to act like one, and set an example of not bending to the bosses. This includes both demonstrating how workers are stronger taking on managers together than alone, as well as showing how having a union will actually improve workers’ lives.

A crucial way to do this is to make the concrete demands the union will fight for front and center in the campaign. The demands at KCVG are so central to the campaign that they’re pictured on the campaign’s logo, and include a $30/hour starting wage, 180 hours of paid time off, and union representation at all disciplinary meetings.

These bold demands inspire workers, but Amazon also uses them to claim that the union is making “promises it can’t keep.” This was a key line of attack in the campaign to unionize JFK8 in Staten Island, the first unionized Amazon facility in the country.

In a recent flyer, KCVG workers reply, “demands are not promises. Demands are clear goals that we democratically decide to all fight for.” This is the approach a fighting union should take. Demands are the anchor of any successful union campaign, and the strategy to win them should be as bold as the demands themselves.

Organizers with the Amazon Labor Union in Staten Island made similar points during their union drive last year: “We can’t promise to win all these things, but we promise to fight for them.”

Amazon workers outside the KCVG facility sign union authorization cards at the launch rally on March 18, 2023.

even installed a fake mailbox to collect union votes.

In February, they fired Darryl Richardson, a lead organizer from the Amazon union drive in Bessemer, and they are targeting other workers as well. In January, they fired Edward Clarke, a load planner at KCVG, and other workers for daring to show any support for the union. They would rather pay a fine later than let a union organizer continue building the union. Their main goal is to terrify other workers who are already facing dwindling savings, rising rents, price-gouging food corporations, and rising health care costs.

The only way to counteract this is to have a well-organized team that can answer every anti-union lie Amazon tests out and that can demonstrate how to hold their ground against the corporate giant.

APRIL 2023

Building The Shop Team A crucial part of winning the union at KCVG will be building the strongest possible engagement from workers in the facility. This will mean creating a strong shop team, which is a wider team of worker leaders in the facility who are committed to growing the campaign among their coworkers.

In getting more workers involved in actively building the union, the Organizing Committee (OC) is taking time to hold weekly orientations for workers who support the union (or are on the fence). There were four separate orientations during the first week of the drive, each one facilitated by a member of the OC. At the orientation, new union contacts discuss the approach of the union drive, how to approach workers with clear demands, and how to

KCVG tug driver Griffin Ritze speaks to a crowd of Air Hub workers and community supporters next to ALU President Chris Smalls at the March 18 launch rally.

answer Amazon’s anti-union propaganda.

After that, new union contacts learn how to collect union authorization cards. The first step is for them to identify three of their coworkers who they will approach about the union using the opening line: “Do you support a $30/hr starting wage here at KCVG?” After a discussion with their coworkers about demands, they introduce signing a union authorization card.

Linking the authorization cards to demands is essential to deal with Amazon’s attempts to confuse workers about what they are signing.

A crucial next step for the campaign will be to ensure that there is the most diverse possible group of union activists involved. KCVG has eight different shifts of workers who do over a dozen very different jobs in two separate buildings. While demands like $30/hr link all workers into a unified struggle, each job type and shift of workers deals with specific workplace issues that also need to be addressed by the union fight.

It is crucial to guarantee every section of the workforce is engaged and represented. This means building a concerted effort to win over workers who speak various languages and represent various ethnic groups inside the facility.

A first step in ensuring this balance is making sure all key union material is translated into multiple languages, which has already been a feature of the campaign’s material. The next step will be taking a systematic approach to reaching out to key workers among various sections of the workforce, and organizing special meetings in locations where immigrant workers in particular feel comfortable and are able to communicate in their native languages.

Hit Amazon Where It Hurts The only way to get Amazon to meet the demands of its hyper-exploited workforce across the country is to hit them where it hurts most: in the wallet. This means disrupting Amazon’s profit-making machine, and nowhere is this machine more vulnerable to work stoppage than at KCVG. Organizing this facility will take marches on the boss, strikes, and walkouts. Amazon’s main goal is to protect their bottom line, and until this is threatened, they won’t stop.

A key weapon the union has is support from the wider labor movement and working class in the area. Three unions, the Ironworkers Local

44, IBEW Local 212, and Laborers Local 265 have made donations to the campaign and mobilized their membership to rallies and events.

In addition, national unions like the Minneapolis Federation of Teachers, United Federation of Teachers in New York, and the Northshore Education Association in the Seattle area have also made donations. It’s urgent that other unions follow suit. Unionized pilots

“When workers force managers to back down, it massively boosts the confidence of all workers across the facility, no matter how small the win might be.” fly Amazon’s planes, UPS workers and postal workers deliver Amazon’s packages, and building trades workers construct their vast facilities. These unions can directly support the struggle by endorsing the campaign, donating, and most importantly by showing up to support any organizing happening at the facility. All of this sets the basis for being able to shut KCVG down to win workers’ demands.

Polls show 70% of Americans support unions, and worsening living standards and workplace conditions are pushing workers to take action. However, popularity is not enough to overcome corporations who have decades of union-busting experience under their belts.

Never underestimate your opponent, especially an opponent like Amazon. They’ve already shown they will fight a union every step of the way, and like a cornered animal, they will only get more dangerous as the union drive gains more and more support. There are no shortcuts to winning, and we need to remain focused on building a solid team of workers on the shop floor armed with clear demands, a strategy to organize the whole workforce, and most importantly, the willingness to fight. J

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WORKERS STRIKE BACK

Excerpt from socialist City Councilmember Kshama Sawant’s speech to the Workers Strike Back launch rally in Seattle, WA.

WE NEED A RECKONING

Worki n g people are facing an all-out assault on our living standards. The cost of everything is soaring through the roof, at the same time that we face the existential threats of war and environmental catastrophe. Meanwhile, billionaires and the bosses are making historic profits off our backs.

Millions of American working people understand that they are being sold out from every direction, on every level.

There is huge anger, and with it, a historic opening for workers’ struggles. Support for unions is the highest in modernday polling. Last year saw the launch of a wave of unionizing drives, including at Amazon and Starbucks, and the number of strikes went up significantly.

But it is far from automatic that workplace organizing efforts will succeed. Because there is a chasm between the unprecedented potential and the leadership that’s on offer.

There have been important working-class victories, such as the historic win at Amazon’s JFK8 facility in New York.

But the norm has been either stagnation and a silent loss of ground, or outright defeats, despite what is possible.

We have a problem, and I think we should name that problem: it’s a failed strategy called “business unionism,” which is unfortunately accepted by a large majority of the labor leadership. Business unionism is the idea that workers should let labor leaders quietly negotiate contracts with the bosses, rather than getting organized to wrench a strong contract from the hands of the bosses. Business unionists put their stress on the bargaining process and they fear antagonizing management by mobilizing workers, much less going on strike.

This has been a total dead end, leading to steadily worsened wages, benefits, and working conditions over the past decades. And we are talking about unionized workers, let alone the even worse conditions facing the vast majority of the working class who don’t have unions to defend them. The bosses will never concede anything unless they are forced to – because their profits are directly derived from underpaying and exploiting workers just as much as they can.

Working-class people urgently need unions and we need to rebuild a fighting labor movement. If we are serious about turning things around. If we’re serious about unionizing Amazon and workplaces around the country, we can’t just tweak the status quo. We need a reckoning.

We need to return to the kind of militant, fighting ideas that the labor movement was built on. That is why we are launching Workers Strike Back.

What kind of labor movement do we need? We need to learn from past struggles. History shows that power at the bargaining table comes not from clever arguments, but from our organizing power in the workplaces and on the streets.

We need to organize around clear, strong demands. Clear

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unity we can around a fighting program. Not unity with the bosses and their political representatives, but unity on a working class basis.

Capitalism relies on a divide and rule strategy: in order for a tiny minority at the top to exploit the billions of working people on the planet – they need to divide us in every possible way, and disorient us. We cannot let them.

As a socialist, I fight for reforms because I think we must fight for every real gain we can for working people – because our lives depend on it. But at the same time, we should have no illusions. As hard as we need to fight to win any reform under capitalism, all the reforms added up together will not be enough. We need a fundamentally different kind of society – a socialist society – based on solidarity and equality – run by and for working people, not the billionaires. The capitalist system is owned by the bosses – it is inherently unequal and oppressive, and it is completely unsustainable.

We have a lot of work in front of us. Millions of working people in this country are looking to fight back. We need to take that and all the energy I see here this afternoon, and turn it toward this historic fight. Solidarity! J

demands can inspire our fellow workers and union members to fight, and can help build regionally and nationally unified campaigns. Bold demands or often even having any demands at all are something the business unionists strongly disagree with us about. Because they don’t want to be on the hook to win anything for workers, and they don’t want workers to get politically active. But that’s precisely why we need to insist on demands that actually relate to what workers want and need.

Our greatest power comes from withholding our labor.

Nothing moves under this system, and the rich don’t make a dollar of profit, unless a worker makes it happen. Workers have the power to shut everything down through strike action.

Lastly, we are strongest when we stand together as the working class. We need broad campaigns, involving workers from every industry, workers of every race and gender, fulltime and part time workers, contractors and permaROB DARAKJIAN, LOS ANGELES nent employees. And we need to involve the The city of Los Angeles has just been the site of a wider community in our historic three-day strike which for the first time brought fights. all LAUSD education workers, teachers, and support staff I also want to be together in a terrific display of collective power. SEIU clear: Workers Strike Local 99 – representing about 30,000 cafeteria workers, Back is not only about bus drivers, custodians, special education assistants, and organizing the unorgaother non-teacher education workers – had been worknized and fighting for ing in LA’s schools without a contract for two and a half better wages and workyears. The average salary of these workers was $25,000 ing conditions. We need per year, while the superintendent of LAUSD, Alberto Carvalho, had given himself a raise to to unite non-union and bring his salary up to $440,000 per year. As he was making more money than the President union workers, young of the United States, Carvalho was complaining that SEIU 99 was creating a “circus” simply people, and oppressed for demanding pay increases, healthcare benefits, and full time hours. people to build a multiSEIU Local 99 voted by 96% to strike on February 11. Shortly thereafter, the United racial, multi-gender Teachers Los Angeles union, representing the 35,000 teachers who work side by side with movement to fight support staff to teach, feed, transport, and clean up after LA’s students, committed to strikback. Not only in the ing in solidarity with them. Not even during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic had LA workplace, but also for schools been completely shut down; now with the full weight of 65,000 workers, the superrent control, for affordintendent was forced to close the schools over the course of the three-day strike, stretching able housing by taxing from Tuesday March 21 through Thursday March 24. the rich. To hold corSocialist Alternative members joined teachers and support staff at the pickets and at porations accountable the noon-daily mass rallies outside the superintendent’s office in a show of strength. Bravfor racism, sexism and ing the wind and rain from an atmospheric river, workers on the picket lines were lively other discrimination, to and determined. Many teachers recounted having to endure similar conditions during their fight for women’s and 2019 strike, but were happy to be supporting their union siblings in SEIU Local 99. We LGBTQ+ rights against interviewed one teacher who captured the mood: “They’re asking to be able to make enough the right wing, to orgamoney to live and exist in Los Angeles…As a teacher I’m happy to support the people that nize workers alongside help keep my school up and running every single day”. students and young As of this writing, a tentative agreement has been reached between Los Angeles educapeople against climate tion workers in SEIU Local 99 and LAUSD. If accepted by the membership, it would bring change. Workers Strike a 30% pay increase over three years, along with an expansion of healthcare benefits to Back is a tool, a platpart-time workers, an increase in hours for those working with special needs students, and form, for all of these other measures to address work conditions. In stepping up to support their fellow education struggles. workers, UTLA has set a shining example of what solidarity in action can mean. An offensive The bosses desvictory of this scale will reverberate through the labor movement, as the conditions faced by perately want us to be education workers in LA are shared by workers across the country. J divided – our strength is building the maximum

LAUSD WORKERS STRIKE AND WIN

S O C I A L I S TA LT E R N AT I V E . O R G

WA R & I M P E R I A L I S M HAZEL GRINBERG, NYC Last month, President Biden made a surprise visit to Ukraine, making it clear that the U.S. is prepared to stay invested in this war of attrition for as long as it takes. But each visit, each new weapons shipment, and each escalation brings the U.S. closer to the possibility of direct confrontation between NATO and Russian forces. Socialists completely opposed Russia’s brutal invasion a year ago and we defend the Ukrainian people’s right to selfdetermination, but what is clear is that this war, from the start, has become subsumed in the wider Cold War conflict between the U.S.- and Chinese-led imperialist blocs.

Part of what is driving this escalatory spiral is that the U.S. and NATO will not accept a stalemate as the outcome of this war.

With the Ukrainian army short of skilled troops and artillery, and the Russian forces making modest gains on the battlefield, the U.S. is looking for ways to reassert its dominance in the area and strike a more decisive blow against Russia.

Additionally, Ukraine’s goal of reunifying the entire country is growing increasingly unrealistic without serious NATO intervention, which they will be angling for. While NATO is still attempting to put off a more full-scale engagement involving their own forces, they are coming about as close as possible, with Poland and Slovakia now pledging to send fighter jets and UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak declaring that Ukrainian fighter pilots will be trained on NATO standard aircrafts, setting the stage for increased shipments of fighter jets to Ukraine.

But how do we overcome this trend of increasingly dangerous geopolitics? It won’t be by supporting one imperialist power in this war or another. Instead we need to build an international movement of working people against escalation of the war which consistently opposes all imperialism and imperialist war.

For those of us in the U.S., this means first and foremost opposing the Biden administration’s push towards escalation including further armaments.

War Escalates In Ukraine

WE NEED A MASS WORKING-CLASS ANTI-WAR MOVEMENT

The Movement Today When the U.S. invaded Iraq in 2003, it sparked a mass anti-war movement including large parts of the liberal left.

Today these forces, for the most part, are either supporting Biden or staying quiet. It is an absolute scandal that APRIL 2023

the most prominent “anti-war” voices in Congress are people like the odious Marjorie Taylor Greene, while the “left” like The Squad and even Bernie Sanders completely back U.S. imperialism in the name of supporting Joe Biden’s supposed fight of “democracy against autocracy.”

The most prominent instance of anti-war activity recently was the “Rage Against the War Machine” protest in Washington, DC. It was organized by YouTuber Jimmy Dore along with the likes of Chris Hedges and Max Blumenthal, founder of left-wing blog The Grayzone, as well as long time libertarian leader Ron Paul and other libertarians. Dore and Hedges explicitly argued that this should be a “left-right” alliance against the existential threat of war and accused people on the left who don’t agree with this of living in a “bubble” and being unwilling to work with people with very different views.

As Marxists, we have no problem working with a diverse array of people. In mobilizing the labor movement and trying to organize the unorganized we of course have to work with people who voted for Donald Trump or consider themselves libertarian or “hard right” even. But when we engage with people who hold these ideas, it must be on the basis of fighting for demands to help working people make real gains while fighting to convince as many people as possible of our broader socialist program.

A Marxist view on the war is entirely incompatible with that of the libertarians, who only oppose war and military buildup because they do not see it as in the “national interests” of the U.S. Marxists never begin our analysis from the standpoint of national interests, but instead from the interests of the international working class. We emphasize how dangerous this war is for all workers, especially those in Ukraine whose lives have been completely uprooted, as well as Russian conscripts being thrown into their current offensive, and the working people and poor around the world who have suffered skyrocketing food and energy prices since the war began last year.

This is why it is absolutely necessary to build a mass, working-class oriented, anti-war movement, which crucially is internationalist, drawing the connections between all struggles faced by working people under capitalism.

The Kind Of Movement We Need We must be very clear that there are no “good guys” in an inter-imperialist conflict. Any anti-war movement must simultaneously condemn Western military aid to Ukraine as well as weapons shipments to Russia. An internationalist anti-war movement must support the right of Ukrainian self-determination. But this will not be achieved by subordinating this struggle to the aims of Western imperialism which will demand a major price in return for the “aid” it sends. Nor does the Ukrainian right of self determination negate the right of Russian

speakers in Crimea and Eastern Ukraine and other ethnic minorities in Ukraine to decide their fate free from coercion.

We must support every independent action by the Ukrainian working class, for example against the Zelensky regime’s vicious anti-union laws. A movement with basic anti-imperialist demands oriented towards working people and young people would point a way forward that doesn’t rely on strings-attached aid from imperial powers, and would have a much wider draw than any “left-right” alliance.

While the “Rage Against the War Machine” drew between 2,000 and 5,000 attendees, a demonstration in Berlin on February 25 called by left populist Sahra Wagenknecht drew a crowd of 30,000. The crowd would have been much larger had Die Linke, Germany’s left party where International Socialist Alternative regularly intervenes, not caved to pressures from the establishment and opposed its members attending the event.

What’s Next?

There are still anti-war actions gaining traction in the U.S., but they have major weaknesses and do not yet form the basis for an effective anti-war movement. For instance, another protest in March in Washington, DC, organized by the ANSWER coalition, was correct to demand peace and an end to U.S. imperialist aggression, but failed to clearly oppose Russia’s invasion or the role of Russian and Chinese imperialism generally. The attendance was relatively small, only garnering a crowd of a few thousand.

The left needs to answer this with a clearer, sharper anti-imperialist program if we want to bring out the wider sections of the working class ready to see an end to this war. Anti-war, anti-imperialist activists must also not have illusions in the negotiations between the capitalist world leaders to reach sustainable peace.

There must be a mass working-class movement including on the ground in Ukraine and internationally if we expect to see a resolution that does not leave the Ukrainian and Russian, and in fact the whole international working class worse off than before this offensive began.

Neither the U.S. nor Zelensky’s reactionary regime can provide a real path toward peace or a way forward for the Ukrainian working class. In all countries we must start building a real anti-war movement, bringing together all working people in a common struggle against the capitalist system of exploitation which relies on stoking nationalism and waging endless wars. The demonstration in Berlin as well as those in other cities across Europe such as Paris, Rome, Yerevan, and Warsaw show the potential that exists for this, despite their weaknesses.

It will take an independent, mass working class movement to end the war in Ukraine. But to end all war, we must fight to end imperialism, and to end imperialism we must fight to end capitalism– and fight for socialism! J

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C U LT U R E

COMMUNISM GETS A CAMEO IN HBO’S THE LAST OF US GRACE FORS, CHICAGO HBO’s latest hit series The Last of Us, based on the 2013 video game of the same name, depicts a wasteland. Cordyceps – one type of which, Ophiocordyceps, is known to infect insects like carpenter ants and control their behavior – evolves to be able to infect humans. It is suggested that this is caused, in part, by global warming. A rapid spread of the virus worldwide paired with a futile government response (deja vu!) results in total societal collapse.

For the first five episodes of the season, the main characters, Joel and Ellie, fight tooth and nail as they travel west from a “Quarantine Zone” in Boston to Jackson, Wyoming in search of Joel’s brother, Tommy.

When they find him in episode six, they’re surprised to find a thriving community in Jackson. After seeing the repressive authoritarianism of FEDRA – the “official” authority of what remains of the U.S. military that imposes backbreaking labor on a permanently-impoverished underclass in the Quarantine Zones – and the senselessly violent “post-revolutionary” terror of the gang in control of Kansas City, Jackson is a welcome relief.

A Utopian Commune Amid Dystopian Wreckage As Joel and Ellie walk through Jackson, decked out with Christmas decorations, schools, and even movie theaters, Tommy’s partner, Maria, explains how their community operates.

“Everything you see in our town, greenhouses, livestock, all shared. Collective ownership.”

They make impressive use of hydrvopower for renewable energy. Work is shared. Government positions are appointed democratically and regularly rotated to create the widest possible participation in the administration of society.

“So, communism,” Joel teases, which Tommy denies. Maria corrects him: “This is a commune. We’re communists.”

Is this actually communism as Marxists would describe it? Not really. But many experiences in the history of the communist movement, whose lessons live on today, bear resemblance to Jackson. Attempts at creating cooperative villages were undertaken by philanthropic capitalist Robert Owen in the early 17th century. Later in 1871, the Paris Commune saw the armed working class driving off the French state to establish a workers’ state which survived for a short period. The Paris Commune left a lasting mark on consciousness with its example of what a communist society could accomplish, as the workers of Paris rapidly implemented progressive reforms like separation of church and state,

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equal pay for women, and the requirement that state officials take only the average workers’ wage.

A genuine communist society, which would take shape through a period of socialism and transitioning away from capitalism - would need to be truly global. While the people of Jackson make the best of what they have, they don’t have enough. The democratic organization of production would need to be coordinated locally, regionally, and globally to ensure everyone has what they truly need, from the best medicine to technology and production techniques. Furthermore, they’re under constant threat from the outside: the people of Jackson nearly killed Joel and Ellie when they first arrived, aware that hostile forces could come in and destroy everything they’ve built. There can be no “socialism in one country” – or in one town, city, or parish for that matter – that won’t immediately suffer hostility and sabotage from the rest of the capitalist world hell-bent on eliminating any threats to their system.

A Better World is Possible And the good news is, it won’t take an apocalypse that turns the population into zombielike monsters to achieve. On the other hand, we won’t be able to rely on a freak accident of fungal mutation to wipe the billionaire class off the planet and render useless their wealth and the institutions that defend it.

While we can’t say episode six of The Last of Us was genuine socialism or communism, many young people watching the show, the majority of whom prefer socialism to capitalism, were no doubt pleasantly surprised to see a positive depiction of a non-capitalist, collectivist society.

But for this type of society to be won, to survive in the long term, and to truly flourish, it will take a fight. This fight won’t look like the Fireflies’ tactics of underground networks and terrorism, but a broad movement of working people and the oppressed united in solidarity to overthrow the regime of capitalism, seize the wealth and means of production from the ruling class, and build from the ground up a society of our own.

The Last of Us, starring Bella Ramsey as Ellie and Pedro Pascal (who is related on his mothers’ side to Chilean socialist leader Salvador Allende) as Joel, is an exciting watch. While the story of The Last of Us, in the show and the game, ultimately provides nihilistic themes on violence and human nature, the post-apocalyptic setting provides for interesting depictions of how society might be organized without the fetter of capitalism. With Season 1 wrapped up, HBO watchers can now enjoy the dysfunctional antics of the wealthy megalomaniac Roy family in the final season of Succession! J

IS THE NEW FUNGAL THREAT SPREADING IN HOSPITALS THE LAST OF US IN REAL LIFE? Absolutely not. That said, the alarming trajectory of Candida auris gives genuine cause for concern.

Fresh off the season finale of HBO’s The Last of Us, in which a pandemic of mutant Cordyceps fungus turns its hosts into deadly monsters, a March 21 report in the Annals of Internal Medicine triggered a collective public health panic attack when researchers warned of a new fungal pathogen spreading at a concerning pace across the U.S. Candida auris is a yeast. Yeasts make up many of the ordinary microbes that we use to make bread and that live peacefully on our skin and in our gut. When certain yeasts make their way into places they don’t belong, they can cause illness ranging from run-of-the-mill oral thrush and yeast infections to the much less common but more serious infections of the blood, lungs, or nervous system.

C. auris infections have risen at an “alarming rate” in the past few years according to the CDC. What began as an incremental spread starting in 2016 saw a sharp spike starting in 2019. The infection is now present in 28 states, with 17 of those having identified their first C. auris case between 2019 and 2021. However, the main factor behind its alarming rise seems to be its ease of transmission in hospitals and nursing homes. It spreads through surfaces, contaminating nursing gowns, gloves, and – especially dangerously – IV catheters and ventilators. The COVID-19 pandemic saw sick patients hospitalized for long periods of time in crisis-stricken hospitals, with workers often forced to reuse PPE due to insufficient supply. This created the perfect scenario for C. auris, which is difficult to detect and resistant to many common disinfectants.

In addition to its rapid transmission through U.S. healthcare facilities, the greatest concern about C. auris is its resistance to most antifungal medications. Some strains are resistant to all existing antifungals, making it difficult or even impossible to treat. Antimicrobial resistance is an increasingly common phenomenon, meaning containment and prevention will be absolutely crucial.

The disease’s lethality is unclear – out of all infections, between 30 and 60% end in “potentially associated” fatalities.

Because already-sick patients are most likely to develop C. auris infections, its role in patient deaths is difficult to identify with certainty.

Scenes of deformed “infected” tearing victims limb from limb are not in play, but what is possible is yet another wave of preventable illness and death targeting the most vulnerable.

The Neverending Public Health Nosedive Despite a general tone of alarm from public health officials, epidemiologists, and the media, they all make sure to

remind us that “it won’t affect healthy people.” The problem is, this is hardly reassuring when so few of us are truly healthy. Not only are working people in the U.S. broadly deprived of access to healthcare, our health is under attack from all sides. Chemical disasters, environmental disasters, and air pollutionall create lasting impacts on our bodies.

This is to say nothing of just three years ago when a system caught off-guard by COVID-19 sent us all into lockdown to grapple with uncertainty, fear, and eventually a million-plus death toll. There’s no denying the apocalyptic feel.

So how can we fully eradicate the possibility of a fungal apocalypse? Hospitals will need to take the greatest possible care in screening for C. auris infections and in thoroughly cleaning equipment and materials with the proper disinfectants. That simply will not work with profit-driven hospital conglomerates that consistently short-staff their facilities and cut every possible corner in hospital administration. These hospitals, and research labs tasked with identifying Candida strains, need to be taken into public ownership, fully funded, and equipped to the fullest extent to provide state-of-the-art diagnostic and treatment services to everyone.

Capitalism is costing us our health. We need Medicare for All so that at the very least, these costs we pay with our bodies aren’t compounded – or left untreated entirely – by sky-high copays and premiums we can’t afford. It’s also important that ordinary people can visit doctors to ask questions and get the best information on concerns they have about their health or new diseases.

As The Last of Us correctly points out, there are no existing vaccines against fungal infections. One promising vaccine in development is struggling to finance even a phase one clinical trial. Yet, even in the best case scenario of a successful trial showing efficacy in humans, there will be further years-long hurdles to fasttrack manufacturing and make it truly accessible to all. We can’t go through another COVID scenario where the reckless, profit-driven administration of treatment allowed worse variants to spread.

We need massive public investment in research, testing, and manufacturing of promising vaccines and antimicrobial medications – and this can only be possible by throwing off the fetter of profit incentives in healthcare.

Fungus, with its billion-year history, rich diversity, and life-sustaining properties, is no enemy to human welfare. It can play a vital role in curing diseases and restoring damaged ecosystems. Fungal mycelium can even be used to create eco-friendly building materials from insulation. But like everything in nature, whether or not it’s allowed to benefit society to the fullest, or to wreak havoc, will depend on whether or not we can build a society that fundamentally works in the interests of humanity. J S O C I A L I S TA LT E R N AT I V E . O R G

I N T E R N AT I O N A L Battle of the Bogside in Derry, Northern Ireland, August 12, 1969.

opportunity to link the movement to a united working-class struggle. This enabled establishment nationalist forces to shift the focus away from united class struggle, and allowed reactionary unionist figures to peddle the idea that a gain for Catholics had to come at the expense of resources for Protestant workers. Demoralization set in, violence erupted, and British troops were deployed. The period of wanton violence known as the Troubles began.

By the 1990s, the working class could no longer tolerate the situation. This led to pressure from below for an end to the conflict, with mass demonstrations of Protestant and Catholic working-class

NORTHERN IRELAND IN CRISIS BREXIT’S ‘NORTHERN IRELAND PROTOCOL’ INFLAMES RISK OF SECTARIAN VIOLENCE

ANDY MOXLEY, ISA

Since the Brexit referendum of 2016 mandated the UK’s exit from the European Union, the hope among sections of the British ruling class that it would inaugurate a new, prosperous, and ascendant period of UK capitalism has been completely undone. Instead, it has accelerated economic decline and developments that pose an existential threat to the “union” of the United Kingdom – composed of England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland.

This tension has been exacerbated by a series of bumbling right-wing Tory governments. The mood for independence in Scotland, which has been a significant feature for over a decade, is now a dominant and unavoidable question. There is also a growing nationalist sentiment in Wales. But the most consequential development for the working class has been the breakdown of the political institutions of, and prospect for the return of sectarian violence in, Northern Ireland.

Origins Of The Issue April of this year marks the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement (GFA) in Northern Ireland. The GFA was an agreement that came out of the so-called “peace process” of the mid-1990s, which formally ended the era of sectarian violence between Catholic and Protestant communities, known as the Troubles, which had left over 3,500 people dead.

In 1921, fearful of not just

APRIL 2023

national but social revolution, British imperialism made a rotten deal with pro-capitalist nationalist leaders in Ireland to separate the island into two states. The six counties in the North (some but not all of which were majority Protestant) became Northern Ireland and remained part of the UK. The other 26 became the newly formed, nominally independent Irish Free State, today the Republic of Ireland.

In order to maintain its grip on the North, British imperialism had to continue its divide-andrule policy. This took the form of oppression and legal discrimination against the Catholic minority. Housing, education, and employment were segregated.

The political establishment maintained support for the Unionist parties of the government by preying upon genuine fears of the Protestant community that, in a united capitalist Ireland, they would be an exploited minority. This also reinforced the grip of the corresponding sectarian, nationalist parties over the Catholic community.

Influenced by developments such as the U.S. Civil Rights movement, France in 1968, and the antiVietnam War movement, a similar mass movement emerged demanding civil rights for Catholics. This was a movement with revolutionary potential, and strong left-wing currents emerged particularly among the youth that were originally aimed at bridging the sectarian divide with demands like quality housing and jobs for all.

However, the union leadership and main “socialist” forces like the NI Labour Party squandered the

people against sectarian murders, threats, and bomb attacks, initiated by trade union activists. This opened the “peace process” culminating in the Good Friday Agreement of 1998. However the GFA solved nothing, kicking the can down the road and ensuring the issues at root of the Troubles would re-erupt at a later stage.

as part of the European market for goods. This has effectively erected an “Irish sea border” between the North and the rest of the United Kingdom.

This, plus other developments, has ignited fears among Protestants that they are being forced against their will into a de facto united capitalist Ireland in which they would be a marginalized minority.

The Unionist parties have since used this genuine anxiety to whip up their reactionary, sectarian agenda. The main one – the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) – withdrew from the government in 2022 in protest of the Protocol. This triggered an election that saw Sinn Fein (the main nationalist party) become the biggest party in Northern Ireland’s legislature, the Stormont. It was the first time a nationalist party had become the biggest party in the history of the state. Since then, the DUP has refused to allow the formation of an Executive which, due to the power-sharing provisions of the GFA, has left no functioning government in Stormont.

The main parties’ sectarian campaigning has also increased the prospect of a return to violence.

The Protocol crisis has seen Loyalist paramilitary groups threaten return to terrorist campaigns if the DUP appears to soften its position towards its declared “seven key tests” for an acceptable resolution of the Protocol.

However, UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak recently announced a “breakthrough” in the situaBritish soldiers charging Catholics in Londonderry, Northern Ireland, in 1971

Capitalist Crisis And Brexit Overturn The Applecart The chickens are now coming home to roost in the form of the Northern Ireland Protocol. While on the surface, the Protocol is just a trade and customs agreement, it is bringing to the fore long-standing sectarian tensions.

Written to avoid the implications of a “hard border” on the island (a physical border with monitored checkpoints for authorized crossing of people and products), the Protocol keeps Northern Ireland

tion. The biggest provisions of the newly-proposed “Windsor Framework” would establish green and red lanes for goods transported to Northern Ireland. The green lane would be for goods headed for sale in Northern Ireland, and it would be exempt from customs controls. The red lane goods would be sold in the South and in the rest of the European Union, and these would be subject to the applicable checks.

The Windsor Framework was passed in Parliament supported by the Tories, Labour, and the SNP with only 29 votes against from the DUP and some hardline Tory MPs.

DUP party leader Jeffrey Donaldson has said the new framework still does not deal with fundamental problems with the Protocol which relate to sovereignty and Northern Ireland’s place within the UK. A recent poll indicated that 73% of DUP voters oppose the Windsor Framework, and the DUP leadership would risk losing significant support to more hardline unionist forces if they accept this deal and risk the outbreak of loyalist violence.

No Solution On The Basis Of Capitalism Even if Brexit were resolved and a functioning government formed in Stormont, this particular conjuncture would just be one episode in a new, potentially violent chapter in Northern Ireland’s history. The material basis for sectarianism will still exist: Northern Ireland has been experiencing the worst cost of living crisis in the UK. 76% of the population now lives in fuel poverty, and weekly gross wages continue to be below the UK average.

Capitalism’s inability to deliver for working people, and the lack of an organized force of the united working class to push back, means the legacy of divide-and-rule will continue to have an impact. The increasing likelihood of a border poll, which will be nothing more than a sectarian headcount, and the possibility of Sinn Fein emerging as the largest party both North and South out of the next elections can further harden the fears of Protestants of being forced into a united Ireland against their will, and incubate a return of sectarian violence.

There is a force that can prevent this. A united working-class movement of Catholics and Protestants can prevent a new Troubles.

Already we’ve seen mobilizations of working-class people, youth, and trade unionists against acts of recent sectarian violence like those in Omagh under the slogan “No Going Back” – a mark of the still huge desire among workers and young people to prevent backsliding to the worst era of tensions and violence. The wave of united strikes and struggles by Catholic and Protestant workers against the cost of living crisis also shows there is the basis to build a new mass, crosscommunity working class party to oppose capitalism and all of the sectarian parties that are part of the problem.

The only way to resolve the national conflict in Ireland is by building a common struggle of the Catholic and Protestant working class to defeat sectarianism and capitalism in the fight for a socialist society. J

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I N T E R N AT I O N A L

FRENCH PENSION FIGHT CONTINUES

Protestors burn an effigy of French President Emmanuel Macron in Paris.

STRIKE DOWN MACRON & AUSTERITY! The following text was distributed as a leaflet by International Socialist Alternative members on the massive demonstrations in France in late March.

ALTERNATIVE SOCIALISTE INTERNATIONALE, ISA IN FRANCE The attack on pensions was forcibly pushed through by [French President] Macron on March 16, using Article 49.3 of the Constitution which allowed them to sideline the parliament. Yet the front of the country’s main trade unions is holding firm.

The two months of struggle have created a balance of power that prevented Macron and co. from daring a vote in parliament, and almost lost him a vote of no confidence.

Macron and his government are weaker than ever. That is why police brutality is being stepped up. The use of tear gas is on the rise, as are complaints of arbitrary arrests. The aim is twofold: on the one hand, to try to create more violence in the hope of creating division in our camp about what to do. On the other, to ensure there is cohesion among the defenders of the current order at a moment when a majority of the population supports the struggle.

The attacks on pensions, and the whole policy of President Macron and Prime Minister Borne, will not be defeated through no-confidence motions or referendums, but through struggle! It comes down to seizing the opportunity to mount a determined offensive against Macron and the entire capitalist system.

The use of Article 49.3 to push through the attacks without a vote in parliament took the movement to a new level. The anger and motivation to bring down the attack on pensions should be turned into a call for a general strike of indefinite duration with daily votes on whether to extend the strike.

The strongholds of the labor movement can play a leading role in this, but attention has to be paid to pull along the less mobilized sectors and strata. We are the majority. If we organize, power is within our grasp Support for an indefinite strike has increased to 58%. 68% say they still oppose pension reform and an almost equal number want the mobilization to continue. This is a huge reservoir of energy that should not be lost!

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A number of sectors have called for an indefinite strike: railways (SNCF), Paris public transport (RATP), energy company EDF, some refineries, garbage collectors in some cities, and some teachers. The question is how to sustain this momentum, extend it to other sectors, and deepen it, including by occupying companies. Where better to locate the struggle than in the heart of the workplace?

Shifting up a gear and going beyond the simple succession of separate strike and mobilization days is absolutely crucial. There is an urgent need, if it has not already happened, to organize workplace action meetings open to all colleagues, whether they are union members or not, and to organize similar committees at high schools, universities, and in the neighbourhoods to build a general strike of indefinite duration and to link the various initiatives of the struggle around it. The creation of democratic anti-Macron strike committees at local level, and then on a larger scale, would make it possible to involve all the movement’s support in the actions and in taking decisions.

Building the indefinite strike is a central step, but it is only one step in confronting the capitalist state. The prospect of a “million-dollar march” on the Elysée Palace from the regions, assisted by “Robin Hood actions,” is incredibly important. The stakes of the struggle go far beyond pensions: it is about the fall of the Macron-Borne government and the end of austerity.

For A Society Led By And For The Majority There is no shortage of resources!

TotalEnergies made a net profit of €19 billion in 2022, the largest in its history. The listed companies of the CAC 40 distributed €80.1 billion to their shareholders in 2022!

At the same time, they are the ones most supported by the government, with €157 billion of government support per year!

These criminals and all vultures should be expropriated and nationalized under workers’ control and management. In this way, and with the nationalization of key sectors of the economy (finance, big business, etc.), it would be possible to ensure a dignified future for all, and for the planet, thanks

A TEN-POINT PROGRAM TO WIN 1. Pension at 60!

2. For a minimum pension aligned with a minimum wage raised to €2,000 net!

to rational and democratic planning of the economy. The organized working class could play the leading role and will need to involve the climate movement, the women’s movement, and other social movements.

This would lay the foundation for the overthrow of the capitalist system.

With the “Robin Hood” actions, the striking energy personnel established free gas and electricity for schools, hospitals, social housing, public sports centers, and public interest associations in a coordinated manner across the country. They also restored distribution to users disconnected due to unpaid bills and offered a reduced rate of up to 60% for small traders, who did not get similar help from the government on rising prices!

These actions are initiatives taken and coordinated by working people across the country at their workplaces. Decisions and actions are democratically voted on by the workers. This gives an idea of how the wealth produced by workers can be managed in a democratic socialist society.

Moreover, it helps small traders and brings them closer to the working class, making them more willing to support strike movements and join workers in struggle. It is a step toward expanding and unifying the struggle in our camp, and overcoming the divisions that are so precious to the right wing, who dare not oppose the movement head-on. The labor movement in action is the best remedy against the divisions sown within the working class, because unity is necessary to win. J

3. For an immediate 10% increase in all wages and the return of the sliding pay scale. Bring the low-paid sectors under government control to guarantee a real status for staff, with good wages and working conditions.

4. Guaranteed jobs and time to live: for a collective reduction in working hours, without a reduction in wages, with compensatory recruitment and a reduction in the pace of work. For women’s economic independence and an end to precarious work.

5. For a massive public investment plan in care, education, social housing, sustainable public transport and climate protection measures. Public services must meet needs; they must be of high quality, accessible to all, within 30 minutes of where they live.

6. Expropriate and confiscate the assets of billionaires and reintroduce the wealth tax.

7. Nationalize the energy and banking sectors under democratic control and management of the working class.

8. The 5th Republic has turned out to be a republic that works only for the rich.

For the creation of a truly democratic revolutionary Constituent Assembly based on elected representatives of struggle committees in the neighbourhoods, workplaces, universities, and schools as a necessary step towards a truly democratic workers’ government that works according to the needs of all and not the profits of a few.

9. We need a democratically owned and ecologically planned economy, with real democratic control by workers in companies and society as a whole to create millions of sustainable, well-paid jobs and build a new green economy.

10. Toward a democratic socialist society based on the needs of the working class, the young, the oppressed and the planet.

Demonstrations at Place de la Concorde – translation: power is in the streets!

S O C I A L I S TA LT E R N AT I V E . O R G

REPORTS

Trans Students & Staff Fight Back: Pitt Rallies Against Far Right On Campus PIP MOSTERN, PITTSBURGH On March 24, 300+ students and staff rallied against the first of several anti-trans speaking events at the University of Pittsburgh.

Over 11,000 people have signed a petition calling on the university to cancel the events. Importantly, the rally highlighted the need for a fullystaffed LGBTQ+ campus resource center, as well as trans-inclusive housing and healthcare for all, with alternatives to campus police responding to mental health crises.

On April 18, a so-called debate will feature Michael Knowles, who’s called for the “eradication” of “transgenderism.” This rhetoric fuels momentum for nationwide anti-trans bills like sports bans; it also encourages violence towards

SOCIALIST ALTERNATIVE SOCIALIST ALTERNATIVE ISSN 2638-3349

LGBTQ+ people. Pitt defends these events on the basis of free speech.

However, it cannot claim equity and inclusion while spending millions on union-busting firms against organizing staff and students, when unions are a vital tool for winning protections and supports for trans people.

As a trans student involved in the rally’s organizing, I’m angry at Pitt for defending hate speech that puts us at risk. But I’m not alone as students and the wider community come together to fight these rightwing attacks. We need democratic planning meetings open to all students and staff to organize escalating actions like sit-ins, walkouts, and mass rallies to keep the far right off campus, and to defend and win real victories for trans people nationwide! J

EDITOR: Keely Mullen EDITORIAL BOARD: George Brown, Tom Crean, Grace Fors, Chris Gray, Joshua Koritz, Greyson Van Arsdale, Tony Wilsdon

Editors@SocialistAlternative.org

NATIONAL (347) 457-6069 info@SocialistAlternative.org facebook.com/SocialistAlternativeUSA Instagram: @Socialist_Alternative Twitter: @SocialistAlt Tik Tok: @socialistus

INTERNATIONAL

Socialist Alternative is part of International Socialist Alternative (ISA), which has sections in over 30 countries.

Learn more about the ISA at internationalsocialist.net.

IN YOUR AREA MID-ATLANTIC

DON’T DRINK THE WATER:

Another Chemical Accident Endangers The Health Of Working Class Communities

 On March 24, 6ABC reported the Trinseo chemical plant in Bristol, PA spilled 8,000 gallons of “latex binders” into Otter Creek, which flows into the Delaware River.

The spill included ethyl acrylate, MMA, and butyl acrylate — also found after the train derailment in East Palestine.

In the days following the announcement, Philly residents were being advised to not drink or cook with tap water. Bottled water flew off the shelves and stores instituted limits on purchases. Once again the reckless pursuit of profit is endangering the lives of working people and our basic right to clean water.

This chemical spill is on top of the lead, Chromium 6, and other chemical contaminants that flow into working class homes.

Philadelphia is joining Flint, Michigan, Jackson, Mississippi and East Palestine, Ohio as communities affected by entirely preventable environmental devastation.

In East Palestine, Ohio, residents were told time and again that the water and air

were safe after more than 100,000 gallons of highly-toxic chemicals were spilled and burned just outside their town. New reporting has confirmed what Socialist Alternative and many other outlets warned: dangerous levels of dioxin, a lethal carcinogen, have permeated East Palestine soil.

Capitalism has failed to prevent and effectively clean up after these disasters.

Only by taking polluting industries out of the hands of profiteers and into democratic ownership of the working class can we institute the type of safety measures necessary to prevent these disasters and properly repair the damage if they do take place.

In the immediate term, we need a joint struggle across communities affected by chemical spills to make the big corporations pay. Joe Biden should immediately grant residents in these towns and cities Medicare coverage for life, and the big corporations responsible for these accidents should offer massive buyouts to any family needing to relocate for their health and safety. J

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SOCIALIST Issue

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ALTERNATIVE

How the American Tax System Favors the Rich and Punishes Working People

SAWYER SMITH, NYC Tax season is approaching in the United States, bringing with it a laundry list of headaches and anxieties.

What is in theory a system designed to collect and fairly distribute the gains of society in the interest of public welfare is instead a puzzling and irritating chore, the benefits of which workers are rarely granted.

A process which in other countries is highly streamlined, with many sending their citizens a clearly-worded and straightforward bill, has over time been further and further complicated and obscured by legislators in the pockets of corporate lobbyists in the U.S. One such corporate interest in particular is Intuit, the provider of a service many of us will find ourselves dealing with in the coming month – TurboTax. In an effort to make their product not just relevant but often essential to those in need of a shortcut when calculating and filing taxes, TurboTax has spent decades and untold millions of dollars strong-arming legislators to maintain their stranglehold on the tax filing system. Those who wish to eschew the practically ubiquitous software will instead be forced to navigate an increasingly opaque and convoluted maze of ever-changing tax codes and regulations.

Money For War And Wall Street And to what end? What does the general public actually gain from this system? Ultimately, your tax dollars are not used to sufficiently fund public education, transportation, or healthcare; a vastly disproportionate share of your generous donation to the United States government is funneled into police budgets, the war in Ukraine (not to mention the countless other military campaigns being waged every day around the globe), and bailouts for venture capitalists like the ones who ran Silicon Valley Bank into the ground.

The public school system, a system reliant on property taxes, is completely broken. The barebones public transportation system, already a pathetically underfunded service which pales

in comparison to the robust transit networks of other countries, is critically over-reliant on revenue rather than public funding, leading to massive fare hikes. Social safety nets like Medicare and Social Security are insufficient and constantly on the chopping block whenever government spending programs are being discussed. Under this system, a system which devalues human life and the right to a dignified existence, these problems of structural deprivation are, rather than being properly addressed, used as a means of justifying further privatization.

For what programs are funded – the military, the police, finance capital – who is footing the bill? When the time comes for the Internal Revenue Service to conduct audits, they overwhelmingly target working people, with an increasing focus on lower-income families. In the eyes of the IRS, these families are significantly easier to torment, lacking the resources to navigate the bureaucratic maze of tax filing, to combat unfair claims of tax fraud or, in some cases, to pay what they supposedly owe at all. Decades of tax cuts on the wealthy have sharply deepened the crisis of wealth inequality in this country, making this problem worse with every passing tax season. As Bernie Sanders regularly and correctly identified during his presidential campaigns, there was a time when the top income tax rate went as high as 90%.

Today, the highest earners in society pay a mere fraction of what was once a matter of common sense.

Make the Rich Pay Their Fair Share!

Of course, not everyone is having every last cent wrung out of them.

Whereas Americans in lower tax brackets are highly susceptible to having their lives thrown into chaos by aggressive IRS audits, the super-rich are essentially untouchable by a government agency which received a boost of $80 billion last year. Low-income workers are basically defenseless when it comes to being targeted by the IRS, but billionaires and megacorporations find themselves armed to the teeth with dedicated armies of accountants and tax lawyers on the hunt for every conceivable loophole to dodge paying their fair share. By exploiting offshore accounts and lobbying heavily with corrupt establishment politicians who force through tax cuts and kneecap the IRS’ capacity to prosecute them, these capitalist interests have successfully immunized themselves from the consequences of their ruthless pursuit of hoarding wealth. Whatever limited regulatory power the IRS may once have

o

Whereas Americans in lower tax brackets are highly susceptible to having their lives thrown into chaos by aggressive IRS audits, the super-rich are essentially untouchable.

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been able to levy against the capitalist class has long since been stripped down and converted into a weapon at their disposal, diverting efforts to limit their own greed into campaigns of economic warfare against the working class.

Fighting For An Overhaul It goes without saying that a system like this is in desperate need of a complete overhaul. Democrats, even moderates like President Biden, have made gestures that point in the direction of reforming the tax system, but even if they could make such a change, they wouldn’t dare.

What workers really need to successfully turn the odds in their favor is a coordinated, mass movement to enact a massive tax on the rich and corporations. We can use the model of the highly successful Tax Amazon campaign, which mobilized workers to establish one of the most effective taxation efforts in the country against one of the largest corporations in the world. Not only did Tax Amazon succeed in forcing Amazon to comply with tax laws and pay what they truly owe, but the movement demanded an actual say in how the tax dollars were spent.

Ultimately, the Tax Amazon campaign successfully allocated hundreds of millions of dollars, all collected from large corporations rather than average working people, for the construction of affordable housing in compliance with Green New Deal standards, creating tens of thousands of green union jobs in the process.

It is worth noting that progressive taxation of this sort is a far cry from a socialist transformation of society.

This country’s wealth is not collectively owned, and using the state to extract and appropriate the wealth of a small number of extraordinarily wealthy individuals and groups does not even remotely resemble the end goals of any serious socialist movement. That said, imposing a serious tax on the rich and on corporations is not a fruitless endeavor, both out of an immediate need to protect the interests of the working class, and as a critical step towards winning a society that is earnestly run by the working class. J