T.O. 129: State of the Union, “Exit Plan” from Gaza, Haifa Antiwar Demo, Block the Boats in Australia

Antiwar demonstration in Haifa (Israel), first since October 7

IN THIS ISSUE:

• EDITORIAL: Today’s America: A Revolutionary View (Part 1 of a Series, Next: The State of Black America)

• Biden Seeks a “Crisis Exit Plan”, Netanyahu Steps Up Provocations Against Iran – by J.A.

• During the Genocide, “Post-War” Maneuvers Have Begun 

• Israeli Police Dictated Harsh Conditions on Haifa Antiwar Demo, But Still Attacked the Demonstrators – by Yoav Haifawi

• Melbourne (Australia): Dockworkers and Demonstrators Block Israeli Boats – by our correspondents

• Australian Trade Unionists Speak Out

• Argentina: The Working Class in Self-Defense Mode – by correspondent Ricardo Martinez in Buenos Aires

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EDITORIAL: Today’s America: A Revolutionary View (Part 1 of a Series, Next: The State of Black America)

This year, President Biden is scheduled to give the State of the Union address to Congress on March 7, the latest in the year that it has been delivered in 90 years. There is no delaying the inevitable. Spin it as he may, the state of the union is terrible for the working class under Biden, and indeed under all presidents and congresses controlled by either major political party.   

However, the working class is resilient, and has been fighting back one struggle at a time. Recent victories in worker and community organizing highlight the incredible potential of collective action. Yet, these successes must not overshadow the stark reality: inch-by-inch progress is insufficient in our struggle against capitalism. Real change requires seizing political power, transcending the limitations of Democrats, who ultimately do the bidding of the ruling class as much as do the Republicans.

State of the Union: the Rich Get Richer

The already wealthy are hoarding obscene amounts of wealth, while the poor get poorer and quality of life declines. A supposedly advanced industrial country, the U.S. cannot fulfill a single promise to better the lives of working people and the oppressed. Child poverty rates have more than doubled since the government ended the Child Tax Credit, erasing all the gains that had been made against childhood poverty. The rise in the poverty over all , also has been fueled by the 6 million people cut from Medicaid, the largest cut on record in over 50 years.   

According to a 2015 study by the Economic Policy Institute, “Our country has suffered from rising income inequality and chronically slow growth in living standards of low- and moderate-income Americans.” The study highlights how wage stagnation is not an economic inevitability but a result of policy choices favoring the wealthy. This is starkly illustrated by the fact that the vast majority of wealth is concentrated in the hands of millionaires and billionaires, with just three individuals owning more wealth than the bottom half of the U.S. population.

Environment: The world at the brink  

 Our natural world continues to collapse around us. The Republicans, for their part, continue to push for the planet’s rapid destruction — with the House of Representatives passing legislation to cut funding for the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) by 40%, and the conservative Supreme Court significantly curtailing the power of the EPA to regulate the nation’s wetlands and waterways.

Meanwhile the Democrats continue to pass misleading legislation designed to make us feel better about having “tried” to stop the planet’s allegedly inevitable destruction, while doing in reality the opposite.

For example, the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA, 2022) is not designed to move away from gas and oil, but to reduce CO2 emissions without reducing the use of hydrocarbons, going so far as to promote gas as a replacement for coal. 

The United States surpassed Qatar and Australia in 2023 to become the world’s largest exporter of liquid natural gas (LNG) and has developed into one of the top five oil exporting countries.

The Center for Biological Diversity’s report, “Out-polluting Progress,” documents that potential carbon emissions from the 17 fossil fuel projects approved by the Biden administration so far “are larger than the projected emissions reductions from the IRA and other climate policies.” What’s more, the Environmental Protection Act has not banned neonics, the most-used insecticide in the country linked to die-off of bee and other pollinators as well as birds and other animals. Nor has it banned the use of the glyphosate (Round-up) which is used widely to control weeds. This is despite well- researched documentation about the destruction of animals, the environment, and the growing number of cases of workers who use the product developing cancer, often leading to their death.

The threat this poses to the world food supply cannot be overestimated. Both parties seem content to watch or to fast-track these destructive policies, and to let the world burn as they reap the financial benefits.

Immigration – Biden builds Trump’s wall

 In classic Democrat fashion, Biden has done an about face from his campaign promise of 2020. During the campaign, Biden told NPR’s Lulu Garcia-Navarro, “There will not be another foot of (border) wall constructed on my administration, No. 1.”

However, the Biden administration is now moving forward with a controversial plan to build a new section of the border wall in Texas, waiving more than two dozen federal environmental laws to add 20 miles to the barrier.

As a part of his $110 billion national security package, Biden is proposing to include $14 billion for “border security,” much of which would go to funding a hiring spree of ICE officers and border patrol agents. The Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agency, which includes Border Patrol, is already the largest federal law enforcement agency in the United States, with nearly 60,000 employees as of 2023. According to the ACLU, the Border Patrol has been conducting secret, violent arrests of immigrants for years, abducting people off the streets of Portland in 2020 while failing to identify themselves or their agency. This is the force that Biden and the Democrats want to fund to hire an additional 1300 agents.

Palestine war – funded by U.S dollars

The U.S. continues to fund a genocidal war against the Palestinian people. However, community organizations are fighting back more and more. In Ann Arbor, Michigan, the local school board passed a resolution supporting a ceasefire in the conflict, marking one of the first times a public school district in the U.S. has taken a formal stance on this issue.

The resolution, which also condemns Islamophobia and antisemitism, encourages classroom discussions about the conflict. And in an even more significant development, many unions in the United States have also issued resolutions calling for a ceasefire. The movement is unprecedented, as unions in the U.S. have historically supported Israel.

Because it is our country that is funding this genocide, it is important that unions direct their demands to the U.S. government — End all Aid to Israel. This is the surest way to stop the bombardment and end the siege of Gaza.

LGBTQ – attacks on trans youth sweep the country

 About one in four high school students now identifies as LGBTQ, but nearly half of the states in the country have banned gender-affirming care for transgender youth. Recently in New Hampshire, a bill that would ban such care for anyone under 18 living in the state narrowly passed the House, and only because 14 Democrats joined Republicans in voting for the bill. In North Carolina, two House Democrats joined the Republican legislature in overriding a veto of a similar law that would bar medical professionals from providing hormone therapy, puberty-blocking drugs and surgical gender-transition procedures to anyone under 18, with limited exceptions. A similar bill in Texas also saw Democratic support.

Of course, the brunt of these attacks is coming from Republicans, but the Democrats are mounting a poor defense, even at the very top. In his February 2023 State of the Union address, Biden gave lip service to “safety and dignity” for trans youth but failed to commit to fight anti-trans legislation. Biden also proposed a Title IX rule change that allows schools and colleges to create limits on the participation of transgender athletes.

Neither party truly “ha[s] their backs”– as Biden once self-proclaimed on the Transgender Day of Visibility.

Abortion bans come up against ballot measures  

Since Roe v. Wade was overturned, two dozen U.S. states have banned or severely restricted access to abortion care. More than half of these no longer have facilities where women can receive abortions. This never would have happened, had the Democrats followed through on their campaign promise to push through things like the Women’s Health Protection Act.

Clearly, abortion rights make a good fundraising item for the Democrats, but it has not been a priority for them beyond that.

However, the tide has been turning recently for the defenders of a woman’s right to choose. Organizing at the base, activists have organized the passage of state ballot measures in the red- states of Kansas and Ohio, protecting abortion for their citizens. Activists are additionally pushing for ballot measures in 11 more states, including Arizona, Missouri, Florida, and Montana.

In Missouri, a coalition of reproductive-rights groups has launched a campaign to enshrine the right to abortion in the state constitution. This initiative is particularly significant because Missouri was the first state to outlaw abortion following the Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v. Wade. If successful, it could become the first state where a citizen-led initiative reverses a near-total abortion ban.

The campaign’s progress and eventual outcome could have significant implications for the national movement for abortion rights, especially in conservative and religiously influenced states.

Democrats are not the answer

The entire time Biden has been president, the Democrats have failed to use their power to pass important laws for working people. They didn’t fight hard enough to get through the Women’s Health Protection Act, which would have safeguarded reproductive freedom and ensured that a woman’s health care decisions stay between her and her doctor. Nor did they pass the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, that would have modernized and revitalized the Voting Rights Act of 1965, strengthening legal protections against discriminatory voting policies and practices.

They didn’t pass the Protecting the Right to Organize Act, which would allowed allow the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) to fine employers for violations of labor law. As with the Clinton Administration not passing the Striker Replacement bill in the 90s, it’s a telling tale that the Democrats constantly fail to pass major pieces of legislation that could have had a tangible and sustainable positive impact on working people in this country.

Passing this legislation when Biden was in office would have been incredibly important, as there would not have been a veto to overcome. These bills could have been passed with an overturn of the filibuster and cloture Senate rules. The Democrats have given excuse after excuse, year after year, for why they are not willing to fight to make major improvements to the quality of life for millions of Americans. It’s time to change this.

Union Successes

As usual, working people and working-class institutions are showing the way forward. Despite the major declines in living standards overall, there have been some major wins for unions. Highlighting just a select few, the United Auto Workers (UAW) used an historic strike to win significantly higher wages, in addition to other protections, forcing non-union car companies like Tesla to raise their wages too.

The Communication Workers of America (CWA) reached an agreement with Microsoft that would allow for anonymous card-check elections through an electronic platform. The Writers Guild of America (WGA) won streaming bonuses based on high viewership, rules around the use of artificial intelligence (AI), and financial gains for screenwriters.

The Screen Actors Guild (SAG-AFTRA) won compensation increases, a raise of the pension and health benefits caps, unprecedented protection from the threat of AI, and a streaming participation bonus.   

Labor and community point the way forward

The Democrats, and certainly the Republicans, are not the answer. They represent the ruling class, with goals that diametrically oppose the goals of working people in this country. Labor unions and community organizing are the only sources of power for working people. This has been shown in recent years by the gains made in the face of major losses to quality of life brought about by the twin parties of capital. And labor has only begun to show a minuscule fraction of its potential power.

As this power grows — as working-class people strengthen their unions and grow their community organizations to be strong enough to fight back against the ruling class — we must use the power we have to promote independent working-class candidates at the local and state level.

Save the date – March 24 – for the LCIP National Conference (via zoom). Get involved to create essential independent working-class political action! — The Editors

 (More on this conference in our upcoming issues.)

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Biden Seeks a “Crisis Exit Plan, Netanyahu Steps Up Provocations Against Iran

The U.S. elections are approaching … and Biden still has no “result” to present to voters, who are increasingly disapproving of his policy in support of Israel. On January 21, the Wall Street Journal revealed that “the United States and its Arab allies have proposed a plan.” The negotiations between the U.S. administration, the Egyptian regime, and the Emirate of Qatar aim to “put pressure on Israel and Hamas” to end the war, free the hostages, “normalize” the diplomatic relations between Arab regimes and Israel, and open “talks for the creation of a Palestinian state.”.

Biden dispatched his special advisor, Brett McGurk, to Egypt and Qatar, accentuating the crisis in Israel’s “war cabinet,” torn between Netanyahu and former Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) Chief of Staff Gadi Eisenkot. The latter declared on January 19, targeting Netanyahu: “Those who speak of a total defeat [of Hamas] are not telling the truth.”

Netanyahu, for his part, is playing his last cards. Part of the Israeli army units that were withdrawn from Gaza have been sent to the Lebanese border in preparation for a confrontation with Hezbollah, an ally of Iran. On January 19, in the heart of Damascus’ high-security neighborhood, where the Syrian regime’s dignitaries live, an Israeli shell killed five high-ranking Iranian military officers.

Already on December 25, 2023, Israel had shot dead an Iranian general. Then, on January 2, an Israeli strike killed leaders of Hamas in the Hezbollah-controlled district of Beirut, Lebanon. The moderate responses from the mullahs’ regime and Hezbollah show that, beyond the rhetoric, neither wants to enter into direct conflict with Israel.

On the other hand, Netanyahu’s last hope is to provoke a regional conflict to force the hand of the U.S. administration. The day before the attack in Damascus, Netanyahu trumpeted in Tel Aviv: “Who says we’re not attacking Iran? We are!”

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During the Genocide, “Post-War” Maneuvers Have Begun 

The advance of Israeli tanks and the bombardment of Khan Yunis, the main town of the southern Gaza Strip, were as brutal in their intensity as those in Gaza City in October-November.

The news reaching us from Gaza is alarming. The canvas-laden refugee camps are drowning in mud due to incessant rain. The deaths from the bombardments have multiplied, as have the first deaths from hunger and epidemics (dysentery, cholera).

In the West Bank, Israeli army assaults on refugee camps and outlying villages have increased dramatically. Netanyahu, because his survival is at stake (he’ll likely go to prison for corruption when he’s no longer Prime Minister), keeps repeating that he will continue his genocidal war “for months to come.” He is also multiplying provocations against Iran.  

But Netanyahu knows that his days are numbered: “At the top” of the Zionist state, “the divisions inside the war cabinet war are being expressed publicly ” (Le Monde, January 20). “At the bottom, Israeli society is beginning to fracture. On January 22, the families of hostages held in Gaza forced their way into the Knesset (Israeli parliament), demanding a prisoner exchange agreement with Hamas.

All this is worrying the Biden administration, which, despite its indispensable financial and military support for Israel, is no longer certain of keeping control of the situation. Aligned with the U.S. leaders, European Union leaders are also alarmed. Josep Borrell, “head” of the European Union’s diplomacy, declared on January 19: “A two-state solution must be imposed from outside to bring peace – even if, and I insist, Israel reaffirms its refusal (of this solution).”

This is a far cry from the “unconditional support for Israel” of Ursula Von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, in Tel Aviv in October 2023.

What do these statements mean?

A genuine Palestinian state can only result from the exercise of the Palestinian people’s right to self-determination – but neither Biden, nor the European Union have the slightest intention of “imposing” it.

However, by evoking the so-called “two-state solution,” the powers-that-be recognize that the genocide perpetrated by Israel will not succeed in wiping out the Palestinian people – and that a “solution” to the “Palestinian question” will have to be found to guarantee the stability of the imperialist order in the region.

For the workers of the world, in solidarity with the Palestinian people, the urgent need is to impose an end to the massacre. It is the responsibility of the leaders of the workers’ movement to organize the blocking of arms’ shipments to Israel.

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First antiwar demonstration in Israel (Haifa) since October 7

Israeli Police Dictated Harsh Conditions on Haifa Antiwar Demo, But Still Attacked the Demonstrators

By Yoav Haifawi

(special to The Organizer and Workers Tribune/France)

Since October 7, there has been no antiwar demonstration in Haifa. The first attempt to hold a demonstration in solidarity with the people of Gaza – on October 18, after the massacre in the Gaza Baptist Hospital – was repressed violently. More than three blood-soaked months later, a coalition of civil society organizations led by the Israeli Communist Party, succeeded in securing a permit for a demonstration for Saturday, January 20. Obtaining the permit was not easy, and the organizers had to turn to the “Bagatz” (Israel’s wrongly named “High Court of Justice”) several times to force the police to grant it.

Despite all the court’s lofty words about “freedom of protest at the time of war,” the conditions for the demonstration were very restrictive: The number of participants was restricted to “about 700.” The location that was granted, Paris Square, was far from the populated districts or commercial centers, and the time was Saturday at 1:30 p.m. – not a time when local people are used to demonstrating.

Though it was the first organized antiwar demonstration in Haifa, and though the Communist Party, which was the main force behind the demonstration, is mostly rooted in the Arab Palestinian community in Haifa and the surrounding Galilee, the content of the demonstration sought to appeal mostly to the antiwar sentiment in the Jewish Israeli public.

The demonstration stressed the need to return the captured Israelis in Gaza as one of the main reasons to stop the war now. One of the speakers on the stage represented a group of mothers who are calling to end the war to save the lives of their soldier sons who are now fighting in Gaza. Accordingly, most of the participants were democratic and leftist activists from the Jewish society and almost all the slogans and speeches were in Hebrew.

In the days before the demonstration, there was a lot of noise in the local media about the preparation of a counter-demonstration. The police tried to use the threats of right-wing extremists as an excuse to ban the demonstration altogether, claiming that they do not have enough forces “to keep order.” In the end, only a few fascists waving Israeli flags gathered in the “counter-demonstration,” and all the disturbances were caused by the police itself.

A large number of police forces gathered around the designated location of the demonstration. As the speakers delivered their speeches from the small stage, the police organized incursions into the crowd to inspect the banners and forcibly remove what they regarded as unacceptable. Their main target was to remove any banner stating “Stop the Massacre” (in Hebrew).

A banner with “Stop the Genocide” in English stayed uninterrupted. One demonstrator was detained while he tried to defend his daughter, who was thrown to the ground by the police.

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Melbourne (Australia)

Dockworkers and Demonstrators Block Israeli Boats

Responding to the call of “Unionists for Palestine,” hundreds of dock workers, trade unionists and demonstrators have been blocking the ships of the Israeli company ZIM in the port of Melbourne since January 19.

Day and night, despite police charges, the demonstrators have set up picket lines at the terminal entrance, and dockworkers unionized with the Maritime Union of Australia (MUA) have refused to cross the pickets, citing “security concerns,” thus circumventing anti-union laws that forbid them from striking for political reasons.

To put pressure on the strikers, the port authorities at Victoria International Container Terminal laid off the strikers, without pay, for refusing to cross the picket line. A call for labor solidarity was immediately issued:

“Safety at work and the right not to be pressured by employers to work in dangerous conditions has always been a demand of the labor movement. All unions should condemn this shameful intimidatory behavior on the part of the port bosses.”

In response, over Aus$20,000 [$13,149 USD] was raised for the strike fund under the slogan: “We support workers who support Palestine.”

The action initiated by “Unionists for Palestine” prevented the loading of four cargo ships belonging to the Israeli shipping company ZIM, blocking 30,000 containers, some of which could be carrying weapons.

“Unionists for Palestine” organizer Mohammed Helmy told Middle East Eye on January 21 that the blockade of the docks was aimed at putting pressure on the federal government (led by the Labour Party, a party that claims to be Labour but supports U.S. policy in support of Israel):

“Our action completely blocked the port in order to send a strong message to the government that the people of Melbourne refuse to allow ZIM ships to be loaded from the port of Melbourne. With the genocide in Gaza, the world can’t carry on with business as usual. People want the genocide to stop, and if governments won’t act or pay attention, then we’ll force them to!”

–              January 22, compiled with our correspondents

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Australian Trade Unionists Speak Ou

Like the dockworkers, many union activists in various sectors believe that the labor movement must organize a blockade of all arms shipments to the State of Israel.

For Tori Ball, an activist with the National Tertiary Education Union: “We will continue to put pressure on the Melbourne port authorities to say no to ZIM and its ships. We’re calling for more picketlines at all ports that allow such companies to operate as if nothing has happened, while genocide is taking place.”

For Tihtina Merid, an activist with the Health & Community Services Union (public services):

“The ZIM company is a major carrier of weapons of mass destruction to Israel, from the port of Melbourne, the country’s largest. Unionists for Palestine believes that Australia must refuse to play any role in aiding the genocide in Gaza, and we demand that ZIM and all the ships it charters be expelled from Australian ports.”

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ARGENTINA

The Working Class in Self-Defense Mode

In Argentina, the CGT trade union federation is calling a strike on January 24 against the anti-worker measures taken by Javier Milei, the far-right president.

A few days after taking office, Milei published a Decree of Necessity and Urgency (DNU) amending more than 300 existing laws; it covers various aspects of the economy, finance and labor law, among others.

Among the measures that have had a brutal impact on the working class are: decontrolling prices for foodstuffs and basic necessities that had been regulated before (meat, flour, dairy products, etc.); the abolition of the “sliding scale of pensions,” which had provided for three annual increases in the amount of pensions; decontrolling fuel prices; the end of subsidies on electricity, gas and tap-water rates; the increase of transport fares; the privatization of public companies; the repeal of the law regulating rents; decontrolling the prices of medicines; and the liberalization of imports.

The gains won by workers in their historic struggles are being seriously undermined. For example, the employers who hire workers without declaring them are now exempt from fines, and the law on workers’ compensation has been repealed. It will now be possible to dismiss without cause, and therefore without redundancy pay, any employee who has taken part in a picket line or company occupation, to challenge the right to protest.

What is more, the right of union representatives to take action at the workplace is restricted, as is the right to strike in certain so-called essential sectors. These measures are added on to others, including the sharp devaluation of the Argentinian peso, which has led to price hikes of up to 100 % for some products, raising the inflation rate to a record 40 % for the month of January.

The Argentine working class is resisting these measures.

Sometimes through spontaneous actions such as taking to the streets and banging pots and pans, or general assemblies at the workplace. The CGT is calling for a general strike on January 24, and the left-wing parties have taken a stand in favor of an active strike, with a call for mass demonstrations on the Plaza de Mayo, a historic site in the center of the capital.[1]

In some regions away from the major cities, demonstrations, particularly those by public sector workers, were stamped down by the security forces under the leadership of the new Minister for Security, Patricia Bullrich, who is well known for promoting the “iron fist” method, as demonstrated by her involvement in the suppression of the 2001 demonstrations.

By our correspondent in Buenos Aires, Ricardo Martinez

Endnote:

[1] The location of the demonstrations by the mothers and wives of the 30,000 “missing” and assassinated activists during the military dictatorship (1976-1983)