• Posted on August 17, 2023

U.S. Billionaires Worried About Upsurge in U.S. Class Struggle

Bloomberg LP, the financial company founded by U.S. billionaire Michael Bloomberg, is deeply worried about the upsurge in the U.S. class struggle.

“More than 650,000 U.S. workers are threatening to go on strike this summer – or have already done so – in an outburst of union aåction the likes of which the U.S. has not seen in decades,” stated the Bloomberg newsletter on July 20.

The newsletter pointed to the strikes by Hollywood actors and screenwriters, the upcoming showdown with Detroit’s automakers (and likely strike), the strike preparations among teaching assistants and grad students at universities across the country, and the narrowly avoided strike by UPS workers (whose votes for or against the Tentative Agreement are being counted at the time of this publication, with significant numbers mobilizing for what they believe should be a better contract). Add to this the increased union organizing drives at Amazon and Starbucks, where Taft Hartley anti-union laws in force since 1947 are being challenged.

As elsewhere throughout the world, the record profits amassed by the capitalists, combined with the sharp decline in workers’ purchasing power, are fueling this labor upsurge. “UPS needs to share with us the billions of dollars they’ve made,” stated a New Hampshire UPS worker quoted by Bloomberg LP.

Last December, relying on the subordination of the union officialdom to the Democratic Party, Biden narrowly managed to prevent a massive rail workers’ strike for higher wages. Will he succeed again with the autoworkers?

Michael Bloomberg who has been a Republican, an “independent” and then a Democrat, in that order, is well aware that these strikes “will be a test for the new union leaderships,” particularly the Teamsters (truckers) and the UAW (autoworkers), where the new leaders “were elected because they promised to put an end to the policy of concessions to management.”

In our next (printed) issue, we will address all these issues in greater detail. Please make sure to renew your subscription so that you do not miss this report and discussion. To renew your subscriptions, go to the PayPal link at socialistorganizer.org, or send a check, payable to The Organizer, to PO Box 1782, New York, NY 10025.

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Despite Its Flaws, Oppenheimer (the Movie) Warns Against Becoming Instruments of Ultimate Destruction

By Millie Phillips

The success of the movie Oppenheimer has called new attention to the issue of nuclear weapons, an existential risk to human survival which is greater than ever, as evidenced by the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists’ Doomsday Clock. At 90 seconds to midnight – nuclear war – the clock is closer this year than at any point since it was created in 1947, just two years after Oppenheimer and his team at the Manhattan Project created the first atomic bomb.

As cinema, Oppenheimer is an excellent movie, which has done well at the box office and gotten mostly positive reviews. Despite some politically questionable choices by director Christopher Nolan as to what to include in its 3-hour run time, over all the movie points out how scientists and others, even those sympathetic to socialism, can fall prey to wartime propaganda and become instruments of ultimate destruction.

That’s an important warning to those who take sides as the U.S. and NATO up the ante in Ukraine and the U.S. threatens war with China as well as with Russia. The movie also shows how the U.S. government turns on its war heroes, should they challenge the imperialist war machine. Much of it reenacts the McCarthyite persecution of Oppenheimer in the 1950s for being a left-leaning, pro-labor liberal who had communist sympathies in the 1930s.

Oppenheimer justifies not only creating the bomb but using it to murder over 200,000 Japanese civilians in the most horrific ways imaginable. That he had second thoughts and a guilty conscience that made him speak out against further nuclear proliferation does not undo that he was a major – and willing – contributor to one of the worst war crimes in history. As such, he is presented with more sympathy than he merits, but his story does point out the danger of not being firmly committed to a principled opposition to capitalist war-mongering.

Some have criticized Nolan for not graphically depicting what happened in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, though an argument could be made that the willful invisibility of the damage to U.S. Americans is part of the story or that an accurate portrayal would be gratuitous “victim porn.”

Nolan also failed to mention the impact of the testing at Los Alamos on local indigenous people: tribal lands were stolen and poisoned and there were high cancer rates from nuclear fallout and radioactive contamination. The land is wrongfully depicted as uninhabited. 

The casually accepted racism and sexism of the 1940s and 1950s, even by leftists, is present throughout the script, but, at this point in our history, not enough for some critics. Directors make artistic choices; Nolan’s appear faithful to the culture of the historical period he is exploring, but his subtlety is apparently out of touch with current expectations of more overt condemnation. 

Nonetheless, whatever its flaws, Oppenheimer puts the issue of nuclear weapons back into the public consciousness at a time when the Biden administration is recklessly inviting nuclear war. We encourage people to see the movie and discuss its implications for rebuilding an antiwar movement. 

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Labor Fightback Network Calls to End the Russia-U.S. Proxy War; Ceasefire Now!

On August 3, the Steering Committee of the Labor Fightback Network adopted a statement on the war in Ukraine that we reprint below.

Labor Fightback Network calls on workers and people of conscience to join the growing voices for an end to U.S. military support for Ukraine to fight a proxy war with Russia. We demand an immediate, unconditional ceasefire, and a supervised withdrawal of all armies and mercenaries, the first and necessary step toward putting an end to this heinous war. US imperialism must be contained until we in the belly of that beast can overcome and slash the war budget to build back better!

Since the start of the war in Ukraine the Biden administration and Congress have supplied Ukraine with $75 Billion, 61% of that in military aid in a series of military assistance packages. That military aid supplied by U.S. taxpayers has elevated the profits for the manufacturers of Javelin anti-tank missiles; Lockheed-Martin and Raytheon. [See Lockheed Martin Reports First Quarter 2023 Financial Results and Raytheon again with Stinger anti-aircraft systems. Raytheon Technologies Reports Q1 2023 Results | RTX.]

Other military equipment includes Lockheed-Martin’s advanced HIMARS M142 light multiple rocket launcher, heavy artillery, howitzers and tactical drones, and Patriot air military systems developed and built by Northrop Grumman and Raytheon. Other major weapons include Switchblade drones manufactured by AeroVironment, Inc., other weaponized and surveillance drones, helicopters, thousands of tactical, armored, and support vehicles, tanks, boats, grenade launchers, over 100 million rounds of ammunition, and all the weapons and trappings of war you can imagine. The reports never mentioned body bags.

Now, President Biden is sending cluster munitions to Ukraine, with no regard for the international outrage, nor respect for weapons agreements. These bombs have been banned by 123 nations due to their deadly long-lasting impact on civilians. 

Civilians and soldiers are not a concern of the Biden administration and the war profiteers. We must speak up for ourselves, the working class. Workers of the world pay for the wars and die in the wars. In Ukraine and Russia, they are paying with blood; in the Global South, the food sources are interrupted or depleted, and the workers in Western Europe face rising costs for fuel and food costs and potential job loss as industries close.

Paying for war includes sacrifices that we make here in the U.S. War spending depletes every sector of our lives from education to health care, and employment to enjoyment. Poverty and climate destruction are by-products of war. The battlefield may be overseas, but it hits us here with no end to the destruction in sight. 

An estimated 6 million people have been internally displaced in Ukraine with more than 8 million people having crossed borders to Poland, Hungary, Moldova and other European nations. Poland has received the greatest number of Ukrainian refugees, about 3.5 million. 

Under capitalism, war is an essential component but is disguised as patriotism or nationalism. Profit is the selling point to attract wealth-seekers. War and exploitation of people, land, and resources are the realities of capitalism. Comfort allows people to look the other way as they invest in war but eventually it hits home. Let’s drive that point home sooner than later. Workers must unite for peace and prosperity, not war and poverty.

(You can contact the LFN at https://laborfightback.net.)

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No More Cages for Immigrants! Biden: Close All Immigrant Detention Centers Now!

Immigrants detained by ICE at Mesa Verde and Golden State Annex – two California detention centers run by the for-profit prison company GEO Group – have been on a labor strike for over a year to protest $1-a-day pay and dangerous working conditions.

Six months ago, they courageously launched a hunger strike over a month-long which motivated some Members of Congress to send a letter to DHS calling on the agency to “as swiftly as possible, end contracts with GEO for Mesa Verde and Golden State” if investigations confirm reports of abuse.

The Biden administration has refused to shut these facilities down, and individuals detained continue to face retaliation and sexually abusive pat downs because of their collective actions against GEO.

These detained immigrant workers are calling for a day of action against these detention centers on August 17!

Join the Mesa Verde – Golden State Annex Strike Support Committee to hold ICE and GEO accountable for retaliation and abuse against immigrants detained in the Central Valley in California!

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NIGER: Protecting “Our interests” … Or Those of the Multinationals?

The people want sovereignty, No to any kind of intervention by the Macron government!

Reprinted from La Tribune des Travailleurs (Workers’ Tribune) Issue No.401  –  August 9, 2023  –  Editorial

By Daniel Gluckstein

A military intervention in Niger involving France is being prepared. Its launch could ignite the whole of West Africa and beyond. Given the forces involved, in practice it would be linked to the war in Ukraine, marking a further step towards its globalization.

With France at the forefront of the confrontation, what attitude should the workers of our country adopt?

“The President of the Republic will not tolerate any attack against France and its interests,” declared the Elysee Palace. France’s interests? The French multinational Orano (formerly Areva) has a stranglehold on the exploitation of the uranium buried underground in Niger. Hundreds of French multinationals are operating in Niger and neighboring Mali and Burkina Faso, including – in addition to Orano – Total, CMA-CGM, Vinci and Veolia.

What Macron calls “France’s interests” are the interests of the multinationals. Multinationals that are superexploiting the wealth of the people of Niger and the region, just as they are superexploiting workers in France.

Why should workers in France who are fighting Macron and the multinationals make common cause with them when it comes to Niger?

Two placards were waved side by side by demonstrators in Niger in recent days: “We, the sovereign people of Niger, demand an immediate halt to the exploitation of our uranium” and “France must leave, long live Niger!”

The people of Niger want what peoples all over the world want: sovereignty. They reject the arrogance with which French neo-colonialism and U.S. imperialism claim to control the country’s wealth and the governments that do their bidding.

“Yes, but the Russian flag is being waved by some demonstrators, and that’s a terrible threat,” some right-thinking souls warn us…

Putin? He represents the interests of the wealthy oligarchs who have built their fortunes through privatization and plunder. But by the way…aren’t those who are raising this “threat” today the same people who applauded loudly 30 years ago when Russia opened up to capitalist plunder? Doesn’t the policy of privatizing and plundering the peoples’ wealth benefit the oligarchs that Putin represents, just as much as the multinationals whose interests are served by Macron and Biden?

There is conflict between them, that’s a fact. But workers in France have nothing to gain by defending the “French” plundering of Niger. Quite the opposite: Anything that weakens French neo-colonial domination and the Macron government in Africa strengthens the struggle of exploited workers in France.

Such a position involves no concessions, no weakness whatsoever regarding Putin and his regime. Let’s remember that when Russia attacked Ukraine, La Tribune des Travailleurs was the only newspaper to carry the headline: “Neither Putin, nor Macron, nor Biden! Russian troops out of Ukraine! French troops out of Africa! NATO troops out of Europe!” The combination of these slogans is particularly relevant today. The Democratic Independent Workers Party (POID) is determined to fight for them to be carried out.

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NIGER Background: The People Reject Neo-Colonial Plundering

        France Must Leave!

By Dominique Ferré

On July 26, the army overthrew President Mohamed Bazoum, denouncing his policies, which had led to “an enormous number of deaths, displaced persons, humiliation and frustration,” and calling into question his subordination to the former French colonial power. A large part of the population supports the putschists.

Macron immediately declared that he “will not tolerate any attack against France and its interests,” threatening an “immediate and intractable retaliation.” Macron and the European Union decreed sanctions. The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), linked to French imperialism, threatened military intervention. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken made known Washington’s “unwavering support” for Bazoum; the U.S. has a thousand troops and a drone base in Niger.

By contrast, the governments of Burkina Faso and Mali have rejected sanctions and warned against threats of military intervention.

Following the country’s independence in 1960, successive governments have kept it under the domination of French imperialism – what journalists have called “Françafrique.” While half the population lives in “extreme poverty,” according to the World Bank, Niger has gigantic reserves of cobalt, diamonds, platinum and above all uranium, for which it is a major supplier to the French and European nuclear industry.

Since 1968, the multinational Orano (formerly Areva), 45% owned by the French State, has been mining deposits there. The links between Orano and Niger’s government are such that Bazoum’s predecessor, Mahamadou Issoufou, president from 2011 to 2021, was a former executive of the multinational.

Both Issoufou and Bazoum (members of the Nigerien party affiliated to the “Socialist” International) have been loyal servants of French imperialism, and secondarily of U.S. imperialism. As NATO’s 2011 intervention in Libya fostered the proliferation of jihadist groups terrorizing the population, the French army was deployed in the Sahel in the name of the “fight against terrorism.” Driven out of Mali in 2022 by the new authorities, then out of Burkina Faso in 2023, French troops were redeployed to Niger, where their presence has long been contested.

As in Mali and Burkina Faso, the people of Niger are finding that the presence of the French (and U.S.) army, far from curbing jihadist attacks, merely guarantees the neo-colonial plundering of the country by multinationals. In the demonstrations, some are waving the Russian flag as a mockery of the French presence. But Putin has also declared himself “in favor of the reinstatement of President Bazoum.”

Workers in France have no common interests with either Macron or the Orano bosses who are plundering Niger. They must support the right of the people of Niger to regain control of their country and its subsoil, and demand the immediate withdrawal of French troops.

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A New Occupying Force in Haiti: The United States Has Hired Kenya!

The U.S. administration has appointed Kenya to lead a new multinational occupation force in Haiti. The decision was ratified following a meeting between Kenya’s Foreign Minister and U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, reports Berthony Dupont in the editorial of the latest issue of Haïti Liberté.

Dupont recalled that the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti (Minustah) and then the United Nations Mission in Support of Justice in Haiti (Minujusth) only plunged the country into chaos and the people into misery. “This is the result of the theft that took place with the payment of the so-called independence debt to France,” which is not that of the people,

Dupont added: “What’s new today is that the occupation has been called officially by the de-facto regime in place in Haiti. ” Dupont sees in this new occupation force the pursuit of the objectives of the previous ones: “To destabilize and reduce Haiti to nothing.”

Dupont concluded: “The Haitian popular masses … must say no to this fool’s bargain between the United States and the President of Kenya.” – I.B.

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In Haiti, Kenya Chooses Imperialist Servitude Over Pan-African Solidarity – Press Release by Black Alliance for Peace

Media Contact:
(201) 292-4591
communications@blackallianceforpeace.com

 AUGUST 3, 2023—The Black Alliance for Peace (BAP) condemns in the strongest possible terms Kenya’s proposal to lead what amounts to a foreign armed intervention in Haiti. 

Kenya has offered to deploy a contingent of 1,000 police officers to help train and assist Haitian police, ostensibly to “restore order” in the Caribbean republic. Yet, their proposal is nothing more than military occupation by another name; an occupation of Haiti by an African country is not Pan-Africanism, but Western imperialism in Black face. By agreeing to send troops into Haiti, the Kenyan government is assisting in undermining the sovereignty and self-determination of Haitian people, while serving the neocolonial interests of the United States, the Core Group, and the United Nations.

There is an urgent need for clarity on the issue of occupation in Haiti. As described in a recent statement on Haiti and Colonialism, Haiti is under ongoing occupation. No call for foreign intervention into Haiti from the administration of appointed Prime Minister Ariel Henry can be considered legitimate, because the Henry administration itself is illegitimate.

BAP has repeatedly pointed out that Haiti’s crisis is a crisis of imperialism. Haiti’s current unpopular and unelected government is propped up only by Haiti’s de-facto imperial rulers: the unseemly confederacy of the Core Group countries and organizations, as well as BINUH (the United Nations Integrated Office in Haiti), and a loose alliance of foreign corporations and local elites. 

Henry and the UN have made a mockery of sovereignty by mouthing the slogan “Haitian solutions to Haitian problems,” yet finding the only solution in violence through foreign military intervention. After repeated failed attempts to organize an occupying force to protect their interests and impose their will on the Haitian people (including appeals to the multinational organization, the Caribbean Community [CARICOM] for troops), they have now found a willing accomplice in Kenya, an east African country with its own set of internal problems. 

As Austin Cole, co-coordinator of the BAP Haiti/Americas Team, argues: “At best, Kenya is allowing itself to be used in a violent line of neocolonial puppetry that will inevitably result in more death and imperial plunder for the masses of Haitians. At worst, Kenya sees this as an easy opportunity to serve the colonial ‘masters’ and win favor for political and financial needs.” 

Indeed, what’s in it for Kenya? An opportunity to both train and enhance the salaries of local police forces and garner a patina of prestige, or at least bootlicking approval, from the West. And for Haiti? White blows from a Black hand and a further erosion of their sovereignty.

BAP demands that Kenya rescind their proposal to send 1,000 police to Haiti, while calling on the Kenyan people to join the Haitian masses and radical voices worldwide in condemning the continued occupation and governance of Haiti by the Core Group and the UN. 

No to occupation. No to foreign intervention. No to Black face imperialism. Yes to sovereignty. Yes to a true Pan-African alliance between the people of Haiti and Kenya.

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Russia : Free Boris Kagarlitsky!

          In Solidarity with Boris Kagarlitsky

On July 25, the Federal Security Service (FSB), Putin’s political police, launched a fabricated criminal case against political activist and philosopher Boris Kagarlitsky.

The FSB claimed that a text recently written by Kagarlitsky, commenting on the Ukrainian army’s attack on the bridge linking Crimea to Russia, was in breach of the Criminal Code, which punishes “apology for terrorism” with seven years’ imprisonment.

Boris Kagarlitsky was arrested and taken to an isolated region far from Moscow, 1,000 kilometers from the capital, to be tried by a regional court. The court has already set a time limit of September 24 for his pre-trial detention.

Various Russian workers’ organizations have rightly denounced this assault. The real reason for the crackdown on Kagarlitsky is his opposition to the war. In 2022, Kagarlitsky had already been branded a “foreign agent” for the same reason.

Of course, this is not the first time the regime has beaten up anti-war activists and citizens; thousands of them are languishing in prison. But given Kagarlitsky’s relative notoriety, this arrest marks a new level of repression by Putin’s regime against opponents of the war and activists claiming to be part of the workers’ movement.

In Russia and internationally, many organizations have responded to the call for solidarity launched by the RabKor editorial board, of which Boris Kagarlitsky is a member.

For its part, the Independent Democratic Workers’ Party declared on July 28: “The POID, which in France is fighting Macron’s and NATO’s war policy, and which since February 24, 2022 has spoken out ‘for the withdrawal of Russian troops from Ukraine, for the withdrawal of NATO troops from Eastern Europe’, expresses its solidarity with Boris Kagarlitsky and calls for his immediate release. It will respond to any united initiative based on this slogan.” — J.A.