Sympathy for the Devils...

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Re: Sympathy for the Devils...

Post by blindpig » Mon Nov 21, 2022 4:31 pm

As Biden ramps up for a Trump rematch, Democrats worry he’d lose to another Republican
By Edward-Isaac Dovere
Published 5:00 AM EST, Mon November 21, 2022

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President Joe Biden speaks at a meeting with business and labor leaders in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building in Washington, DC, on November 18, 2022.
Al Drago/Bloomberg/Getty Images

Top Democrats see Republicans’ unenthusiastic greeting of Donald Trump’s third White House bid with a combination of schadenfreude and perhaps some other German word for terrifying, unintended consequences: They love seeing the former president struggle, but privately some tell CNN they worry this could lead to a more difficult 2024 campaign against a younger, fresher Republican.

<snip>

When asked, though, how they’d feel about Biden’s chances against Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis or other Republicans who could make a generational argument without the baggage Trump brings, many Democrats’ voices tend to tighten. “Not great,” said one top operative. “Uneasy,” said two others, in separate conversations.

Others point out that nearly all of Democrats’ key midterm victories were narrowly won, leaving them worried about how little room for error there likely will be next time.

Four Democratic members of Congress, asking not to be named to speak candidly, estimated that at least half of their colleagues would pick someone other than Biden as their 2024 nominee – if they could vote by secret ballot.

<snip>

A Trump rematch might be easier, several Democratic operatives involved with the preliminary thinking said, because they’d know how to go about it. They hope that one lesson of the midterms is Democrats’ ability to make voters see many leading Republicans as extreme and tainted by Trump.

(more...)

https://us.cnn.com/2022/11/21/politics/ ... index.html

*********

Happy Birthday, Mr. President
Said in the least Marilyn Monroe–like voice possible.
BY BEN MATHIS-LILLEY
NOV 20, 20225:45 AM

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Photo illustration by Natalie Matthews-Ramo. Photos by Jupiterimages/iStock/Getty Images Plus and Samuel Corum/Getty Images.

Happy birthday, Joe Biden! You made it: You are the oldest president. You were already the oldest president. You’re now the first eighty-year-old president. Wow!

<snip>

Then, earlier this month, voters returned your party to power across the country—a historically non-disastrous showing—largely because of two other things you had very little to do with: An unpopular Supreme Court decision and the lingering weirdness and frankly unprecedented unpopularity of your 2020 opponent.

Now, because the opposition party is taking control of the House of Representatives, but by a very narrow margin, you have two years of your term left to enjoy with neither the expectation that you will do much of anything, nor the threat that they will cause you too many problems.

(more....)

https://slate.com/news-and-politics/202 ... s-old.html

Biden 'delivers' reliably for the ruling class, therefore their suckfish in the DNC will support him to the hilt. Trump, despite throwing bribes at his boss peers, is unreliable in executing the eternal hegemony of the USA. Biden promised them 'no changes' upon nomination and has surely achieved that. He has delivered nothing to the working class except the increased possibility of nuclear annihilation.

Internally, Trump plays the divide & conquer card against the working class too diligently due to his racist inclinations. As we can see by the ruling class embrace of 'wokeness' a more subtle approach achieves the purpose without inciting civil war as 'diversity' subsumes any mention of unifying class. (From an Olympian perspective one must admire how they have taken our cause and twisted it to their purpose, jujitsu like. We cannot underestimate the bastards)

Biden, by his adroit play of Democratic Party politics utterly neutralized his party's 'progressive left'(which ain't really much of either anyway...), foregoing any possibility of relief from the ever growing inequality of the classes.( Which was in the final analysis the core reason for the fall of Rome, though of course historians favored by the bourgeoisie don't see it that way. )

Biden needs Trump to run like a bat needs a ball.
"There is great chaos under heaven; the situation is excellent."

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Re: Sympathy for the Devils...

Post by blindpig » Fri Nov 25, 2022 3:44 pm

Biden, everyone knows Cuba is not a terrorist country!
November 23, 2022 Cheryl LaBash

Image
At the National Network On Cuba 2022 Fall Meeting, Cuba’s Ambassador to the United Nations Yuri Gala López explains how State Sponsors of Terrorism designation intensifies the U.S. blockade. Photo: Bill Hackwell

The Biden administration certainly must have gotten the message after the United Nations General Assembly condemned the U.S. starvation blockade on Cuba by a vote of 185 to 2 and for the 30th consecutive year. Country after country denounced the U.S. economic war while making special emphasis to remove Cuba from the spurious, arbitrary U.S. State Department State Sponsors of Terrorism (SSOT) list.

Both capitalist parties may thumb their noses in imperial fashion at the world’s U.N. votes, but already two U.S. labor organizations are telling the Biden administration to pay attention to voices in the U.S. beyond the minority in South Florida and take Cuba off the SSOT.

At the end of October, the Inlandboatmen’s Union of the Pacific, Southern California Region, issued a resolution that “strongly urges President Biden and Congress … to remove Cuba from the United States list of state sponsors of terrorism.” Now, just weeks later, the Troy, New York, Labor Council’s Nov. 16 resolution also called for the Biden administration to remove Cuba from the SSOT.

A draft resolution calling on the Biden administration to use its executive authority to remove Cuba from the State Department’s sanction-enhancing list is being circulated among city councils, state legislatures, labor organizations, county commissions, school boards and others. Already resolutions from elected bodies opposing U.S. policy toward Cuba have been passed that represent more than 40 million U.S. constituents.

Facts should matter. The Obama administration removed Cuba from the unilateral State Department list. Nothing had changed when on Jan. 12, 2021, outgoing President Donald Trump used his authority to besmirch Cuba by declaring it a SSOT.

And who is the U.S. government to create such a list, considering the havoc it wreaks on the planet? Cuba has been an example of solidarity throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, saving lives at home by developing its own vaccines and across the world with the Henry Reeve Brigade. Even before the SSOT designation, some 243 surgically-honed additional sanctions targeted Cuba’s economy in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, intentionally harming the Cuban people.

(more...)

Does anyone other than the lobotomized think for a second that Biden give two rat's asses about what unions think(unless they threaten the delusion of his regime's successul management of the economy...)? The sorry excuse that the Dems must placate the booj refugees from socialism(or it's precursors) is satisfactorily self fulfilling, it's what the Dem bosses always want and gives them an 'out' with their gullible(or worse) 'progressives'.
There hasn't been a Dem in power who actually was friendly to socialism since Henry Wallace.

Perhaps it will take the BRICS to sanction Washington to turn this around...Might sound fanciful but that seems the way the tide if flowing.

**************

Democrats show true colors with allegiance to war and enabling of fascism
November 22, 2022 John Parker

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Bronx, New York, protest against U.S./NATO wars and sanctions, Oct. 15. SLL photo: Melinda Butterfield

If anyone needs further proof that the Democrats are just as willing as the Republicans to recklessly push the world into crises, the letter from some Democratic congresspersons renouncing a previous, very weak plea delivered by them to President Biden provides plenty of evidence.

On Oct. 25, Rep. Pramila Jayapal, chair of the Progressive Caucus of Congress, issued a withdrawal of a letter sent the previous day, which had asked President Joe Biden to concentrate more on negotiation rather than escalation of the war in Ukraine.

The letter, in addition to justifying the U.S. proxy war against Russia and Donbass, states that Democrats have “strongly and unanimously supported and voted for every package of military, strategic and economic assistance to the Ukrainian people …”

Up until this withdrawal was written, folks could still hold onto the illusion of the “progressive” Democrat. But, in spite of the stances some take on domestic issues, can they still be considered “progressive” if they are helping the Biden administration gamble with a nuclear nightmare and the next world war?

The destruction of World Wars I and II would pale in comparison to the devastation and death now possible with far greater weaponry and delivery systems than the atomic bomb and Boeing B-29 bomber that killed hundreds of thousands of civilians in Hiroshima, Japan, in 1945.

Have these politicians forgotten that horrendous war crime by the U.S. government, which – after seeing the destruction and death it created in Hiroshima, which instantly killed 80,000 civilians, then 140,000 more in a tortuous and painful way – decided to do it again days later in Nagasaki?

Have they forgotten the many genocidal massacres the U.S. and NATO committed after being given free rein with the disbanding of the Warsaw Pact in 1990? Did they forget the 1999 bombing of Yugoslavia, targeting civilians, Chinese journalists, passenger trains and homes? Or Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya and Syria, also using the U.S.-led NATO alliance – the most violent, belligerent and aggressive military alliance the world has ever witnessed?

Have they forgotten the blood of millions dripping from the overflowing coffers of military profiteers Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Raytheon and others?

Support for endless war

In a further pledge of allegiance to this imperialist proxy war against Russia, the withdrawal letter states: “Every war ends with diplomacy, and this one will too after Ukrainian victory.” This statement damns all its signatories.

Not even the most optimistic imperialist observers think the Ukrainian military is capable of defeating Russia within a year or even longer – especially not with the over 6 million people who voted by over 96% to join the Russian Federation in the Donbass republics and in Kherson and Zaporozhye.

What the statement really means is that these so-called progressive Democrats are okay with extending this war with greater and greater weapons of mass destruction sent by the U.S., targeting those millions of people and the Russian soldiers protecting them, and indefinitely continuing a conflict that could spill into World War III.

The fact that these congresspeople immediately rescinded their original letter, which was in no way critical of this U.S. proxy war and even helped to justify the escalations, shows the extreme cowardice of these politicians, who are much more aware than most people about U.S. war and its aims.

Ukraine: a U.S. puppet state

But there’s more. That original letter sent on Oct. 24 states: “Your support for the self-defense of an independent, sovereign and democratic state has been supported by Congress, including through various appropriations of military, economic and humanitarian aid in furtherance of this cause.”

The fact is that Ukraine is no longer a sovereign state. That disappeared when the U.S.-orchestrated, -funded and -trained neo-Nazi organizations overthrew the democratically elected government of Ukraine in 2014 and replaced it with an anti-Russian, pro-NATO administration dominated by Washington.

In fact, leaked conversations after the coup by U.S. diplomat Victoria Nuland — now Biden’s Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs –exposed her discussions with other U.S. officials deciding who would be part of the new Ukrainian government.

After 2014, any real opposition to the coup government and growing neo-Nazi influence, especially the military and security forces of Ukraine, was eliminated, sometimes by fire – as in the burning alive of anti-fascists and workers in May 2014 at the House of Trade Unions in Odessa by neo-Nazi gangs.

Currently socialist and communist parties are banned in Ukraine, as are capitalist parties critical of the war. So is the use of the Russian language, which is spoken by a majority of people in the Donbass region and much of eastern Ukraine.

Any elections or activities of the Ukrainian state after February 2014 existed without any real democratic freedom. Guarantees were imposed to insure that any subsequent administrations would be anti-Russian and loyal to Western and U.S. imperialism.

Eight-year massacre of Donbass

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky continued the massacre of the people of the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics in the Donbass region. Between the spring of 2014 and Russia’s intervention last February, over 14,000 people died because of Ukraine’s war on Donbass. The casualties continue to grow by the day, especially in the capital of Donetsk and surrounding areas.

Zelensky is now calling for a nuclear first strike against Russia, the country that, for the first time in eight years, was able to stop the genocide occurring in much of the Donbass region. The fact is that by Feb. 23 the Ukrainian military had at least 150,000 troops amassed at the border of the Donbass republics and had escalated the bombing of the region 20-fold in just the five days prior to Russia’s intervention.

A massacre of Donbass residents – whom the Ukrainian regime openly calls “subhuman” – was about to occur; a fact the Washington “progressives” refuse to admit, since they don’t even recognize the existence of the people of the Donbass region.

This is why they also aren’t willing to acknowledge the formal and legitimate request for assistance by the LPR and DPR for Russia’s military support on Feb. 23 to protect millions of people targeted for death by Kiev. The only thing that stopped an ensuing massacre was the Russian intervention, condemned so vehemently by the “progressive” congresspeople in their letters to Biden.

Why the 180-degree turn?

The original letter of the “progressives” also includes this passage, which quotes Biden: “It is imperative to avoid direct military conflict with Russia, which would lead to ‘World War III, something we must strive to prevent.’

“The risk of nuclear weapons being used has been estimated to be higher now than at any time since the height of the Cold War. Given the catastrophic possibilities of nuclear escalation and miscalculation, which only increase the longer this war continues, we agree with your goal of avoiding direct military conflict as an overriding national-security priority.”

The withdrawal letter actually does a 180-degree turn and advocates escalation towards World War III and extension of the war.

Did something change from one day to the next, negating that threat of nuclear disaster? No, it did not.

What did change is that the orders came down from the capitalist ruling class – the bankers, bosses and Big Oil barons – that the Democratic National Committee had to get their “progressive” wing in line before the midterm elections. No perceived opposition to the war, even this timid, could be allowed to stand.

And so they did get in line. The “progressives” proved themselves to be just as cowardly as the “moderate” Republicans who bowed to Trump and the ultra-right.

Since then, one thing has changed, but it aggravates rather than negates the threat of nuclear conflict. The Pentagon announced in November that U.S. boots on the ground were no longer limited to Kiev, creating further opportunities for “miscalculation” when U.S. troops get killed while they assist in targeting Russian soldiers.

If the U.S. remains on this most dangerous trajectory, it will destroy all of the good work some of these “progressive” politicians have done in the past, if only by giving lip service to genuinely progressive movements and causes.

These politicians are now enabling endless U.S. wars; increasing the possibility of World War III; and aiding the continuing rise of fascism and white supremacy supported by the U.S. in Ukraine and blowing back in places like Buffalo, New York, where a white supremacist inspired by the fascist Azov Battalion killed 10 Black people in a supermarket on May 14.

These politicians know better. Shame on them all!

The congressmembers who signed the two letters are: Pramila Jayapal, Earl Blumenauer, Cori Bush, Jesús “Chuy” García, Raúl M. Grijalva, Sara Jacobs, Ro Khanna, Barbara Lee, Ilhan Omar, Ayanna Pressley, Sheila Jackson Lee, Mark Pocan, Nydia M. Velázquez, Gwen S. Moore, Yvette D. Clarke, Henry C. “Hank” Johnson Jr., Rashida Tlaib, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Mondaire Jones, Peter A. DeFazio, Jamaal Bowman, Marie Newman, Alma S. Adams, Chellie Pingree, Jamie Raskin, Bonnie Watson Coleman, Mark Takano, André Carson, Donald M. Payne Jr. and Mark DeSaulnier.

https://www.struggle-la-lucha.org/2022/ ... f-fascism/

John Parker for President!

Of course he can't win and we should not expect him to. Our participation in bourgeois elections on this level serve primarily as as gauge of strength.
And yes, we are currently very weak but ya gotta start somewhere and if not now then when? A publicized socialist run would be good PR('any PR is good'...) and would compel these phony progressives to declare. And removing the progressive, worker friendly veneer from the Dems (which they achieved under FDR and have been quietly walking back ever since) is the first necessary step.

We've got a program, peace and the economy. Or, to make a snappier slogan, "Peace and bread!" Where have I heard something like that before?
"There is great chaos under heaven; the situation is excellent."

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Re: Sympathy for the Devils...

Post by blindpig » Tue Nov 29, 2022 4:40 pm

AFTER THE ELECTION: THE ROAD AHEAD
Posted by Greg Godels | Nov 28, 2022 | Featured Stories | 0

Image

November 13, 2022

Without saying it in so many words, The Wall Street Journal summarized the results of the November 8 mid-term election: The US electorate feared the Republicans more than they disliked the Democrats.

Historically, a major party with an incumbent president overseeing a painful economy and with the President polling negatively receives a big hit from the electorate. That didn’t happen this year.

As the WSJ puts it more diplomatically:

Voters were in a sour mood that usually signals that they are ready for change in Washington and state capitals. But in many cases, they were not looking for the change that Republican candidates were offering.

Some of the movers-and-shakers in the social democratic movement seem to agree. Writing in Jacobin, they observe:

A major factor in Democrats’ stronger-than-expected showing nationally appears to be the rock-bottom expectations of their voters. An NBC exit poll captured a deep sigh of resignation at the ballot box, with Democrats winning among voters who “somewhat disapprove” of Joe Biden’s job performance. Overall, more than seven in ten voters said they are “dissatisfied” or “angry,” according to exit polls conducted by Edison Research.

Such results suggest that Democratic voters weren’t inspired to vote for their candidates; they just couldn’t tolerate the alternatives.


And why would voters feel otherwise? They had just suffered through a vicious, but hollow campaign that raised and spent an obscene amount of money (supposedly a quarter of a billion dollars in Pennsylvania, over 30 dollars per person in Georgia on the respective Senate races). Republicans portrayed Democrats as socialists while Democrats responded by calling Republicans “fascists.” Neither side had the foggiest understanding of socialism or fascism.

Democrats were convinced that they could run on little more than the abortion issue and trashing ex-President Trump, even financially supporting Trump’s candidates in some primaries, convinced that they could more easily defeat them in the general election.

Republicans relied on their conventional toolbox of baiting– crime, race, reds under the bed– and economic management.

While Democratic candidates and spin doctors touched none of the most critical issues facing US voters– a host of urgent matters like a failing, low-income economy, health care costs, exploding costs of food and housing, massive debt, ineffective and costly education, immigration reform, inequality, and, most importantly, an expanding US/NATO/Russia war in Ukraine– they correctly gauged that many centrist voters were fed up with Trumpite rhetoric and bombast, and voters were enthusiastic about rejecting him.

Likewise, they were correct about alarm over the Supreme Court anti-abortion decision. The number of voters who thought that abortion was the most important issue grew three-fold to 10% from the last two elections.

The Democrats held their ground despite losing one of their most reliable allies in recent elections: suburban women.

Their cavalier presumption of Black and Latino voters continues to cost Democrats, especially among younger Black voters. The AP VoteCast survey shows that “Younger Black voters moved a substantial 22 percentage points toward Republicans in 2022.” How much longer can the Democratic leadership ignore the pressing needs of African Americans and other minorities and the widening inequalities that they suffer?

The five prominent progressive co-authors of the Jacobin article, Eight Lessons from the Midterm Election, correctly recognize the growing gap between the needs and desires of most US voters and the program that the Democratic Party leadership and its electoral machine will accept. Further, they argue that where Democrats put forth a more people-oriented program, they fare better.

True enough.

But the article’s authors fail to equally recognize that even on the rare occasion when the campaign promises are more progressive, they tend to evaporate after the election. And more often than not, Democratic “progressivism” is opportunism of the moment.

For example, Fetterman, the Senate winner in Pennsylvania, was a strong anti-fracker when that suited his audience, but a pro-fracker when it suited his political ambitions. His support for health care never took him to strong advocacy of Medicare for All, but left him in the rhetorical twilight zone of “healthcare is a human right”. And then there is the centerpiece of economic comparative advantage: marijuana production. His trajectory is not an uncommon story among Democratic Party “progressives” (I cringe when I remember how Reaganaut liberal-baiting made Democrats cravenly give up the word “liberal” for “progressive”).

It is challenging to imagine that this election will change much. With the presidency, the House of Representatives, and a very slim advantage in the Senate, the Democrats accomplished very little. And, as was true of the Obama years when they owned a super-majority for two years, they sought to do far less than they promised. Thus, in power for ten of the last fourteen years, the Democratic Party has clung to centrist policies that offered no serious opposition to corporate power.

And yet the hardships facing the US people are far greater than they were when Obama took office in 2008. In the face of economic setbacks and burgeoning inequality, the Democrats have answered the call of monopoly capitalism while asking the people to sacrifice– largesse for one class, austerity for the other.

It certainly seems that the urgent fight to overcome desperation, inequality, austerity, and war will now only come with masses in the streets, rather than in the voting booth.

https://mltoday.com/after-the-election-the-road-ahead

"Lesser evilism" wins again.

How long, lord, how long?
"There is great chaos under heaven; the situation is excellent."

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Re: Sympathy for the Devils...

Post by blindpig » Wed Nov 30, 2022 6:04 pm

US House set to block rail strike
By AI HEPING in New York | chinadaily.com.cn | Updated: 2022-11-30 11:54

Image
An aerial view of gantry cranes, shipping containers, and freight railway trains ahead of a possible strike if there is no deal with the rail worker unions, at the Union Pacific Los Angeles (UPLA) Intermodal Facility rail yard in Commerce, California, US, Sept 15, 2022. [Photo/Agencies]

The US House of Representatives plans to vote Wednesday to block a potential rail strike next week, which President Joe Biden warned would be "catastrophic"' to the economy.

The Democratic-controlled House will impose a tentative White House-brokered compromise struck in September on a dozen unions representing 115,000 workers, Speaker Nancy Pelosi said. "I don't like going against the ability of unions to strike, but weighing the equities, we must avoid a strike. Jobs will be lost. Even union jobs will be lost," she said.

Biden on Monday urged Congress to act, saying up to 765,000 Americans could lose their jobs in the first two weeks of a strike.

"Congress, I think, has to act to prevent it. It's not an easy call, but I think we have to do it. The economy is at risk," Biden said.

The impact of a possible strike on Dec 9 is already being felt. Chemical companies and essential product manufacturers have been making plans to avoid rail shipments. Nonworking train lines would halt supply chains for commodities like lumber and coal and delay deliveries of automobiles, produce and other consumer goods, driving up prices.

The US Chamber of Commerce and some 400 business groups representing a wide range of industries from meatpackers to jewelers sent a letter to Congress on Monday saying the looming rail strike is of "grave urgency" and called for Congress to intervene.

House-approved legislation would go to the Senate. But it isn't clear that the evenly divided upper chamber could act quickly. There could be divisions among Democrats who are pro-union and those whose top priority is heading off a strike.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky told reporters that "we're going to need to pass a bill" to avert a railway strike, suggesting that Republicans didn't intend to try to block such a move.

In a statement Monday, Biden himself expressed sympathy with the workers: "As a proud pro-labor president, I am reluctant to override the ratification procedures and the views of those who voted against the agreement. But in this case — where the economic impact of a shutdown would hurt millions of other working people and families — I believe Congress must use its powers to adopt this deal."

The Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employees, one of four unions that voted against the contract, objected to Biden's call to Congress to intervene, saying "the railroad is not a place to work while you're sick. It's dangerous ... it is unreasonable and unjust to insist a person perform critical work when they are unwell."

There are no paid sick days under the tentative deal after unions asked for 15, and railroads settled on one personal day.

Railroad companies have been negotiating with the unions for the past three years. In August, a presidential emergency board established by Biden recommended a compromise. The two sides reached a tentative agreement in September that would raise wages and give workers an additional paid day off but doesn't meet their demands for paid sick leave.

Most of the 12 unions that must ratify a new contract have voted to approve it, but four of them voted to reject it.

Congress has intervened at least 18 times since the passage of the Railway Labor Act in 1926 to prevent crippling strikes and it has acted rapidly at times. Lawmakers halted a 1991 strike in less than 24 hours.

The last time that Congress intervened to settle a nationwide rail dispute was in 1992, when the International Association of Machinists launched a nationwide strike. Congress stepped in to stop the strike two days later and it was signed by President George Bush the same day.

http://global.chinadaily.com.cn/a/20221 ... a1e66.html

Whenever a US politician says "jobs" what they're really saying is 'profits'.
Why the unions continue to tail this wretched lying party is a testimony to Taft-Hartley and the resultant paralyzed. compromised union leadership.

Dump them chumps!

***************

Workers Furious Over Biden Move to Preempt Rail Strike
November 29, 2022

The White House’s intervention answers the call of rail giants and corporate lobbying groups who’ve been pushing for congressional action as rail companies refuse to drop their opposition to workers’ basic sick leave demands.

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Sept. 30, 2020: Presidential candidate Joe Biden campaigning by train. (Adam Schultz / Biden for President, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)

By Jake Johnson
Common Dreams

Rank-and-file rail workers voiced frustration and anger late Monday after Joe Biden — a self-described “pro-labor president” — urged Congress to pass legislation forcing unions to accept a contract agreement without any paid sick days, a step that would avert a looming nationwide strike and deliver a win for the profitable railroad industry.

“By forcing workers into an agreement which doesn’t address basic needs like healthcare and sick time, President Joe Biden is choosing railroads over workers and the economy,” said Ross Grooters, an engineer and co-chair of Railroad Workers United, an inter-union alliance that supports public ownership of the national rail system.

Another worker was more blunt in a text message to labor reporter Jonah Furman: “Words cannot express how fucking livid I am at this administration… people in power, LIKE HIM, would rather screw workers than stand up to fucking robber barons.”

While Congress could put forth legislation that would improve the tentative White House-brokered contract deal announced in September, Biden made clear he wants lawmakers “to pass legislation immediately to adopt the tentative agreement between railroad workers and operators — without any modifications or delay — to avert a potentially crippling national rail shutdown.”

Image
The Union Pacific Davidson Yard in Fort Worth, Texas. (Lars Plougmann, CC BY-SA 2.0, Wikimedia Commons)

That agreement, which has been rejected by more than half of the country’s unionized rail workforce, does not include a single day of paid sick leave and would only allow three penalty-free days off per year for medical visits. But even that time off is heavily constrained: It’s unpaid; can only be taken on a Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday; and must be scheduled at least 30 days in advance.

“These agreements were rejected because the quality of life rail workers and their families have today is abysmal,” Ash Anderson, a member of the Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employes Division (BMWED) — one of the unions that voted against ratifying the tentative deal — wrote on Facebook. “There were no provisions to improve the quality of life for rail workers, who continue to be exploited by companies that are earning record-breaking profits while their service suffers and they cut their workforce to the bone.”

Anderson continued:

“I just want Americans to see the stories of these men and women, the stories of their families. I want Americans to recognize that these workers are being driven out of their chosen profession by the continued harsh conditions, callous discipline, long hours far from home, and basic lack of respect and dignity in the work that President Biden just stated was too important to allow to stop, regardless the cost.

The railroads’ record profit margins are safe, their exorbitant stock buybacks and shareholder returns are secured. Americans will have all the conveniences available this busy shopping season. Rail workers will work sick to make sure it’s all done, because that’s what they have to do.”


Shortly following Biden’s statement, outgoing House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) announced her chamber will move this week to take up legislation requiring rail workers to accept the tentative deal and denying them their right to strike. Without a contract deal or congressional action, a strike could begin early next month.

Echoing Biden, Pelosi insisted that lawmakers are “reluctant to bypass the standard ratification process” and declared that “we must recognize that railroads have been selling out to Wall Street to boost their bottom lines, making obscene profits while demanding more and more from railroad workers.”

“But,” the Democratic leader added, “we must act to prevent a catastrophic nationwide rail strike, which would grind our economy to a halt.”


The White House’s intervention answers the call of rail giants and corporate lobbying groups—including the powerful U.S. Chamber of Commerce — that have been pushing for and banking on congressional action as contract talks remain at a standstill, with rail companies refusing to drop their opposition to workers’ basic sick leave demands.

Rail unions had originally pushed for 15 days of paid sick leave, a policy that rail companies estimated would cost around $688 million a year — less than what billionaire Warren Buffett, the CEO of BNSF Railway’s parent company, added to his net worth in a single day last week.

Image
Warren Buffett in 2013. (Fortune Live Media, Flickr, CC BY-ND 2.0)

The unions have since moved down to asking for four paid sick days, but rail companies remain opposed even as they rake in huge profits and enrich their executives and shareholders. The Lever reported in September that “the CEOs of five of the largest railroad conglomerates have been paid more than $200 million in the last three years, and company shareholders have been boosted by nearly $200 billion in stock buybacks and dividends over the last dozen years.”

Matthew Weaver, a carpenter with BMWED, told The New York Times that Biden’s decision to step in and force workers to accept a contract agreement opposed by a majority of rail union members “seems to cater to the oligarchs.”

“All of rail labor is going to suffer because of this,” said Weaver.

Grooters of Railroad Workers United argued that Congress “should ignore White House shortsightedness and introduce the labor-friendly version of a railroad bill”—but it’s not yet clear whether progressive lawmakers in the House or Senate will attempt to force amendments to the tentative agreement.

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), an outspoken supporter of rail workers, told reporters Monday that any legislation preventing a strike must guarantee workers sick leave.


Citing unnamed sources, CNN reported late Monday that “following House passage, Senate action could occur later this week or next.”

“The Senate is expected to have the votes to break a filibuster on the bill to avert a potential railway strike, according to those sources,” the outlet noted. “There are likely to be at least 10 Republicans who will vote with most Senate Democrats to overcome a 60-vote threshold. The only question is how quickly the bill can come to the floor since any senator can object, dragging out the process and delaying a quick vote.”

“Sources are watching Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders closely to see if he upends an effort to get a quick vote,” CNN added. “A Sanders spokesman declined to comment.”

[Late Tuesday afternoon, Sanders tweeted that he intended to “block consideration of the rail legislation until a roll call vote occurs on guaranteeing 7 paid sick days to rail workers in America.”]

https://consortiumnews.com/2022/11/29/w ... il-strike/

These Democrats are enough to make ya puke. 'Friends of the unions', whadda joke, it is telling that in these situations it is always the workers who are forced to concede, 'for the national good'.(Gimme that barf bag...)

Here's an idea: how about forcing the corps to accept the union offer, 'for the good of the nation'? I think I know how that would fly with the US Chamber of Commerce....Which illuminates the question, "Which side is the Democratic Party really on?"(I'll be you know.)

As for that old phony Bernie Sanders, we see another one of his patented 'speaking truth to power' grandstands because he, Biden and Mitch all know that there's plenty of Republicans to assure that the anti-labor bill is passed. But people no better than snitches will tell you that he and his gang of junior phonies are all we got, because Trump.

Jfc people, would it be so bad if we all walked away from this treacherous pig of a party? Sure, the Repubs would run amok for a bit and some shit could get ugly, but isn't that happening anyway? Both parties have been becoming increasingly, blatantly for the Rs, sneakily for the Ds, since the 70s, if not the late 30s. We may have to take a hit in order to get on track we may have to think ahead, think of a future which may not happen if we do not act now.
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Re: Sympathy for the Devils...

Post by blindpig » Sun Dec 04, 2022 11:39 pm

Rail Workers Betrayed By Biden & The “Squad”
By Kshama Sawant -December 2, 20222435

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When AOC and other members of the “Squad” were first elected, most of them did so as self-identified “democratic socialists.” They ran on working-class platforms that included Medicare for All and a federal $15 minimum wage, vowing they would be accountable to working class and oppressed people.

In the first year after Biden took office, with the Democrats in control of all three branches of government, Squad members abandoned the first two of these commitments, first refusing to force the vote on Medicare for All and then rejecting any sort of fight for the $15 minimum wage.

Now the third of these promises has been utterly shattered, as all but one of the “Squad” members crossed the picket line and voted with a majority of both Democrats and Republicans in Congress to break the rail workers’ strike — cutting off those workers’ right to legally withdraw their labor. In doing so they took a clear side with the billionaire railroad bosses against rail workers who have suffered intolerable conditions over decades.

This is a profound betrayal of working-class people.

Years of negotiations between 12 unions representing 115,000 railroad workers and the handful of corporations that control 90 percent of freight rail traffic (as well as the tracks that carry most passenger trains) have now been brought to a screeching halt under the leadership of a Democratic President who describes himself as “pro-labor” along with the “left” of his party.

The “Squad” and Congressional Progressive Caucus, including Rep. Pramila Jayapal, attempted to give themselves left cover by voting for a second bill that included the rail workers’ key demand for paid sick leave alongside the primary legislation to kill the strike.

This sleight of hand should fool no one, however, as it was widely recognized that the sick leave bill would face a sudden death in the Senate (which it did the following day), and all that would be left would be a broken strike.

Dire Conditions For Rail Workers
Workers across four unions which together represent a majority of the workforce – the Sheet Metal, Air, Rail, and Transport Workers’ Transportation Division, the Brotherhood of Railway Signalmen, the Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employees-Teamsters, and the International Brotherhood of Boilermakers – had rejected the proposed contract. But the votes of 80 U.S. Senators and 290 U.S. Representatives were enough to enforce the deal that the rail magnates wanted. This outcome was the one the bosses had counted on from the start, knowing that they hold both political parties in the palm of their hands.

The immense pressures that railroad workers are under, following years of staffing cuts, have been well documented. Yet President Biden claimed, with practiced hypocrisy, to be acting on behalf of the millions of workers who might be harmed if this strike went ahead.

Despite the fact that retailers’ shelves are already stocked for Christmas, the Democrats have implied that the needs of other workers to “enjoy their holidays” supersedes the needs of rail workers to have any control over their lives, families, or health. But this logic is totally backwards. A win for rail workers would have been a win for workers all over the U.S. who are increasingly ground down by overwork, and by the knowledge that they are living to work, not working to live.

After today’s vote, a retired rail worker and union officer wrote this:

“It’s not just money. It’s quality of life. The press has you think that a 25% raise over 5 years is a lot. It’s not, not when inflation is between 8 and 10% a year. It’s not even breaking even. But the bigger issue is quality of life.

“Freight railroads operate 24/7/365. Almost all train employees work on call, with only 2 hours or less notice before going to work, not including travel time. With the massive cutbacks over the past period, everyone has to live by the phone. It is not unusual for employees at some railroads to work 3 or more weeks without any real time off from the job other than the federally mandated rest periods between shifts (most of which was time spent sleeping). Disciplinary charges, meaning suspensions without pay were given to a lot of employees. In some cases, they were even denied the ability to attend family funerals under threats of suspension and/or dismissal. This is why the employees are fighting this time around. Enough is enough.”

This is the context for Biden’s negotiated TA (tentative agreement), wherein the sole improvement was a single paid personal day which was itself undermined by absurd conditions: that it could only be on a Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday and would have to be scheduled 30 days in advance.

Despite calls by some on the left for an illegal wildcat strike, the absolute failure of the union leaders to mobilize or prepare for strike action now makes this an extremely difficult option for their members, despite the blazing anger of thousands of workers at this brutal attack on their rights. The union leaders preferred instead to rely on the tried-and-failed strategy of begging Democratic Party politicians to come to their defense.

It is of course not ruled out that rail workers will take independent action in the face of yesterday’s betrayal, in which case Socialist Alternative and my office will be there every step of the way to support them. Successfully carrying out wildcat action on the scale necessary would require that independent and democratic organizing structures are immediately set up, strike leaders are elected across the various locals, and a strike fund be established and built rapidly.

The Squad’s Capitulation and DSA
When it became clear that Congress would be asked to intervene to prevent a strike, Bernie Sanders looked for procedural ways to soften the blow of this defeat on workers. His solution was to include an amendment giving workers seven days of paid sick time – a little under half of workers’ original demand. To his credit, Bernie was quite clear from the beginning that without this addition he would not vote to impose the TA, and when his amendment failed, he voted “no.”

It’s utterly shameful that the same cannot be said of AOC and the majority of the “Squad” in the House — all but one of whom voted to crush the strike.

AOC justified her vote by claiming she was fighting “tooth and nail” for the additional sick days. Jamaal Bowman claimed he was “always fighting in solidarity with the workers.” But what the Congressional “Progressive” Caucus pulled was a con job, and a hamfisted one at that. They colluded with Pelosi to separate out the vote into two, promising their roughly 100 votes on the rotten TA in exchange for a separate vote on the sick day amendment, which they knew full well would get crushed in the Senate. It took only one day to confirm the brutal reality: that the majority of the “Squad,” in coordination with the leaders of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, sold rail workers down the river while blowing smoke about paid sick days.

On November 30, Democratic Socialists of America’s (DSA) national center posted a statement of support for the rail workers which included this sentence:

“Any member of Congress who votes yes on the tentative agreement is siding with billionaires and forcing a contract on rail workers that does not address their most pressing demand of paid sick days.”

What then of their own members and endorsed elected officials in Congress who voted yes? What this statement implies, and what the actions of the “Squad” definitively prove, is that these elected officials are, and see themselves as, part of the capitalist state, the state that acts for the billionaires and against the interests of the majority, the working class.

A socialist cannot be a strike breaker. This needs to be the end of any pretense by DSA that the “Squad” is socialist, and should result in their expulsion from the organization. Failing that, the Squad’s betrayal of the working class becomes DSA’s betrayal.

The danger inherent in this sellout, beyond the obvious quality-of-life damage to rail workers themselves, is that it will drive working people into the arms of the right wing who can posture as the working-class political alternative to the Democrats. The fact that more Republican senators voted against imposing the TA than Democrats is stunning proof of this.

The task of building a left-wing, working-class alternative to the “progressive” politics of the big business Democratic Party has never been more urgent than it is today.

https://www.socialistalternative.org/20 ... the-squad/

Quite right, they're a gang of self-serving tools. And I wouldn't cut Bernie any slack either, votes, 'principled and meaningless' are his specialty, maintaining his cred for an audience more interested in theatrics than real progress.

Even more problematical is this site's expectation that the DSA is socialist. Any examination of that outfit's record or that of 'democratic socialists' since 1914 reveals utter opposition to the primary tenet of socialism: worker control of the means of production. These people would reform capitalism to make it a bit more palatable without touching the capitalist's control of the means of production. Which might work for a heartbeat every now and then but it always returns to maximizing profits at the expense of humanity and it's only environment. In other words a waste of time when 'time's a' wastin'.
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Re: Sympathy for the Devils...

Post by blindpig » Mon Dec 05, 2022 4:36 pm

Arnold August: Dems Seek Political Gain by Pretending Opposition To Right-wing Fascism (Interview)
DECEMBER 4, 2022

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Arnold August speaks at an event for his book Cuba-US Relations: Obama and Beyond. Photo:Jon Flanders.

A Canadian expert on American internal affairs, Arnold August, says the Democrats’ opposition to the “right-wing fascism” is not genuine.

“The interest of the Democrats and its media, such as CNN, is not to oppose right-wing fascism but rather to build a straw man for political gain in order to cover their own traces,” August, a member of the Black Alliance for Peace (BAP), tells the Tehran Times.

August also says people in Europe and the United States know that “the US/NATO war against Russia” is the cause of unprecedented inflation in recent decades.

Following is the text of the interview:

Q: Inflation and economic challenges have become the first concern of the American people in the recent election. “How did the Democrats fail to protect the economy during the last six months?”

A: Let us take the first sentence: “Inflation and economic challenges have become the first concern of the American people in the recent election.” The problem is that the sentence is biased because it takes for granted that the concerns of the people can actually be translated through voting. The question seems to assume, as does the international mainstream media, that the people are actually involved in the elections. But are they? In the US, a felony is the most serious charge leading to incarceration. The United States is the only country in the world in which those who have served a prison sentence on felony-related offenses are barred from voting for life once they have served their sentence. (The Sentencing Project) An estimated 4.6 million people (2% of the total US population eligible to vote) are disenfranchised due to a felony conviction. The figure has declined by 24% since 2016, as more states enacted policies to curtail this practice and state prison populations modestly declined. (Locked Out 2022: Estimates of People Denied Voting Rights, Christopher Uggen, Ryan Larson, Sarah Shannon, and Robert Stewart, October 25, 2022).

Let us now turn to voter turnout, or the percentage of the voting-age population that actually votes, to assess whether the people’s concerns can be translated into actual policies. More than 50% of the population who are of voting age say no. In the US midterm elections, including this one in 2022 (even though all statistics are not yet in), less than 50% actually vote. (Washington Post, Kati Perry, Luis Melgar, Kate Rabinowitz, and Dan Keating, November 9, 2022)

Let us look at the second part: “How did the Democrats fail to protect the economy during the last six months?” The most serious concern regarding the economy is inflation. Everyone knows that the cause is the US/NATO war against Russia. In fact, in Europe, millions of people are demonstrating against the European Union’s involvement in the war and want out of NATO, the end of sanctions, and thus access to Russian gas and oil. However, the anti-Russia, anti-Putin US narrative is so strong in the US that people cannot and do not want to make the connection that Europeans are already making at the grassroots level. The progressive anti-imperialist left forces in the US are fighting to relate the US and NATO to economic woes such as inflation. However, I have never witnessed such an airtight bipartisan narrative, in this case the NATO anti-Russian narrative, dictating to the electorate.It is a current feature of the US political system, without which no serious analysis can take place. Thus, on election night, at a White House press conference, Biden could extol the election results in this way: “It was a good day for democracy,” he said. “I believe it was a good day for America…”Our democracy has been tested in recent years, but with their votes, the American people have spoken and proven once again that democracy is who we are.” Not one journalist asked him about the fact that less than half of the voting-age population voted.

Midterm Elections in the US and What Is Behind Them


Q: Some Republicans insist on voting-machine irregularities. How do they support their claim? What was the evidence of electoral fraud by Republicans?

A: This is the Republican claim: dozens of electronic vote-counting machines in the battleground state of Arizona were seized by former Republican President Donald Trump and his followers, who falsely claimed it was evidence of electoral fraud by Democrats. “The problem was that ballots were not lining up properly inside the machines and were not being read,” said Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer, adding that “despite the problems, all votes would be counted.” Richer called the malfunctions “disappointing” and correctly predicted that election deniers such as Trump would “exploit” the issue. Just a few hours into Election Day, Stephen Richer told reporters that about 20% of the electronic vote tabulation machines in the state’s most populous county were malfunctioning, and technicians were being deployed to fix them. (Voting machine problems in Arizona seized on by Trump and election deniers, by Tim Reid) Reuters, November 9, 2022.) So, no fraud there by the Democrats.

However, the Democratic Party is as bad at electoral fraud and machinations as the Republicans. For example, Democratic activists fretting about potential Republican strength in North Carolina, a state considered to be leaning red for the midterms, have mounted an aggressive campaign to keep the left-leaning Green Party off the ballot there to avoid diluting Democratic turnout. Green Party activists claim Democrats from the national party apparatus are spearheading a number of challenges to the legitimacy of Green Party petitions and trying to get people who signed those petitions to remove their signatures after the fact. (Democrats maneuver to keep Green Party candidates off the midterm ballot in swing states like North Carolina and New York, The Sun, Russell Payne, July 14, 2022.)

Q: Many right-wing groups like the Proud Boys became active during the last month. How serious is the threat posed by extremists to American national security?

A: I have always found that the terms “extremist” and “right-wing groups” in US politics are misleading. It purposely nourishes the myth that in US politics there are “right-wing extremists” linked to the Republicans as opposed to the “left-wing” Democrats. If one takes the time, as I do, to watch the US mainstream media, including the political satire shows that are influential in the US and the West, there is a virtual continuous emission of buzz words about the “right” Republicans and the “left” Democrats. Is there such a thing as a right-wing extremist phenomenon? Yes. Since its inception in 1776, the United States has evolved into a right-wing extremist white supremacist colonial/imperialist state based on genocide against Native Americans and slavery. In fact, the current state is a relic of slavery, with the ongoing war on Blacks in the United States and abroad, increasingly against Africa, while being the primary supporter of the fascist terrorist Zionist entity.

Q: Many analysts say the US is on the edge of a civil war. “How close do you perceive it?”

Once again, taken at face value, the notion of “civil war” at this time feeds into the left-wing Democrat mantra of pointing the finger at the right-wing Republicans as the cause of an impending civil war, for example by painting the January 6 Capitol Hill demonstration as an insurrection. The Democrats and their media, such as CNN, are more interested in constructing a straw man for political gain in order to cover their own tracks.For example, President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris have built a solid reputation, among other reactionary traits, as architects of the mass incarceration of blacks. Thus, how convenient is January 6, 2021?
None of us in the West can forget how we were virtually lynched for opposing the narrative behind Biden’s bid in the 2020 US presidential election, consisting of a so-called anti-fascist united front vote against Trump.

Now, this brings me to your last question:

What the 2022 Midterm Election Charade Offers Us


Q: How do you see the 2024 presidential election from a general point of view?

The same way I saw the presidential elections in 2020, 2016, 2012, and 2008. In a chapter entitled Democracy in the U.S. in my 2003 book, I based myself on the Black radical revolutionary tradition, which argues and organizes against the notion that the people must choose the “lesser of two evils.” In my case study of the Obama 2008 mandate, published in that book, I highlighted this radical tradition to indicate that Obama is not the lesser of two evils but rather the most effective of two evils. Has history proven this thesis, elaborated originally by the late Glenn Ford of Black Agenda Report, to be wrong? (Page 42, Cuba and its Neighbors: Democracy in Motion, Arnold August) No, the lesson is as valid as ever, and that is the need for those of us outside the US to support those forces in the US that prioritize organizing against the two-party system. The current Biden Administration, like Obama, exemplifies how the lesser of two evils mantra is used to maintain the imperial status quo. How is that? Look, Biden has at his disposal the so-called left of the democratic party, such as the fraudulent Bernie Sanders and the AOC scam, to get the people to swallow the pill of Biden’s most dangerous escalation of wars by the US since World War II, literally getting away with murder.


(Tehran Times) by Mohammad Hassan Nikbin

https://orinocotribune.com/arnold-augus ... g-fascism/
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Re: Sympathy for the Devils...

Post by blindpig » Mon Dec 19, 2022 3:48 pm

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Sanders withdraws Yemen War Powers Resolution vote over Biden opposition
Originally published: Antiwar.com on December 13, 2022 by Dave DeCamp (more by Antiwar.com) (Posted Dec 16, 2022)

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) on Tuesday night withdrew his request to vote on the Yemen War Powers Resolution that would end U.S. support for the Saudi-led war and blockade on Yemen, citing White House opposition to the bill.

Sanders said on the Senate floor that he was informed ahead of the scheduled vote of the administration’s opposition to the legislation, meaning President Biden would veto the resolution. The Intercept reported earlier in the day that The White House was pressuring senators to vote against the bill, and Democrats came out in opposition to Sanders’ resolution earlier on Tuesday, including Sen. Alex Padilla (D-CA).

Sanders’ justification for not holding the vote was that the administration claimed it would work with Congress on ending the war in Yemen. He said the White House wanted to “work with us on crafting language that would be mutually acceptable” and insisted if that didn’t happen, he would resume his efforts to end the war through a resolution.

But even if the White House really wants to engage with Congress on the issue, or if Sanders chooses to reintroduce the resolution, the plan will take time, which Yemenis don’t have. There has been a cessation in violence in Yemen, with no Saudi airstrikes since March, but there has been a recent uptick in fighting on the ground.

A ceasefire expired in October, and without a real peace deal, the war could flare up again at any time. The resolution could have ended U.S. support for the Saudi-led coalition, including maintenance of its warplanes, which would effectively ground the Saudi air force. Even if Biden vetoed the resolution, its passage through Congress would have sent a message to the White House and Riyadh to work faster on a real end to the war.

While Democrats started to fold in their support for the resolution, Republican Senators Rand Paul (R-KY) and Mike Lee (R-UT) both came out in favor of the legislation. In the House, a version of the resolution was also introduced that has gained 118 cosponsors, including 10 Republicans.

The U.S. first intervened to back the Saudi/UAE-led coalition in Yemen against the Houthis in 2015. A few months earlier, the Obama administration was sharing intelligence with the Houthis as part of the effort against al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. After the Obama administration switched sides against the Houthis, the U.S.-backed coalition recruited al-Qaeda fighters, and U.S. arms ended up in the hands of the terror group.

According to UN estimates, by the end of 2021, at least 377,000 people had been killed in the war. The UN said that about 150,000 people had died in violence while the rest were killed by starvation and disease caused by the war and blockade on the country. The U.S.-backed coalition is notorious for bombing civilians, and civilian casualties spiked earlier this year, right before the ceasefire was reached in March.

https://mronline.org/2022/12/16/sanders ... pposition/

He's enough to make ya sick, but is it enough to keep you from voting for him and his proxies? A gutless whiner is the best the US 'Left' can do? Mebbe...
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Re: Sympathy for the Devils...

Post by blindpig » Wed Dec 21, 2022 3:21 pm

LEARNING FROM THE BIDEN STRIKEBREAKING
Posted by Chris Townsend | Dec 19, 2022

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BY CHRIS TOWNSEND
December 12, 2022



The Biden regime’s shameful betrayal of the railroad workers unfolded in late November and early December as the possible railroad strike crisis slowly wound to its ending. The gang-up on the railroad workers and their desire to exercise the basic right to strike was practically all-encompassing. Politicians from both political parties – with only a handful of exceptions – all of the media, every single large corporation in the country, and even some liberals and so-called leftists all made the case why the strike must be stopped. Broken even before it had started. This chorus all echoed the same canard, that it was too important to allow a rail strike, no matter that it was in response to the refusal of the company barons to seriously negotiate in the first place. The lack of time off for the workers alone qualified as a serious human rights violation, but of course their human rights had to be sacrificed for the monstrous profits of the railroad companies. All those who supported this shameful act by Biden, all who try to minimize it or even support it, are to be blasted. Thoroughly blasted. This strike breaking is unforgivable. Period. To excuse or forgive or conveniently overlook it is to invite more of this conduct.

The struggle of the railroad workers will continue. It has to. They have no choice. Conditions have become intolerable for a majority of the workforce. The draconian attendance policies of the rail bosses that virtually ban time off for the large operating sections of the workforce, and the fact that most workers are sure to “fire themselves” under these outrageous personnel policies give them no choice to keep up the fight.

From these strikebreaking acts come down several lessons, among others. We need to learn them.

Biden Is a Fraud

A President claiming repeatedly to be “The most pro-union President in U.S. history.” quickly revealed himself as a cynical fraud, a cheap charlatan eager to win political favors for himself while knuckling under to the rail industry. This despite the fact that the rail union membership was pleading and praying not for a home-run union contract but something as simple as a few days off per year. For many in labor and on the left this comes as no surprise. Labor and left veterans have seen this many times before. It did seem, however, to come as a shock to many. Some new, some only now paying attention were taken by surprise at Biden’s gross anti-worker and anti-union acts. But it shouldn’t have. To claim to be the most pro-union President in the U.S. is of course a very low bar, and his repeated claims to this effect have certainly now been exploded by this inexcusable act. Biden is a fraud. If you had to learn that fact from this battle, then don’t forget it in the future for your own wellbeing. And whatever you do, don’t invite him to get involved in your next union contract negotiations unless you want to give your employer some heavy artillery to use against you and your members.

Biden Incapable of Confronting the Rail Companies

The big railroad companies won this fight, and the workers lost. For now, at least. And the record will reflect that throughout the entire long and drawn-out rail union negotiations fracas the Biden regime found itself unable – really unwilling – to publicly confront or denounce the outrageous conduct and policies of the rail corporations. Throughout the process the companies were nearly invisible, and even when they appeared briefly the rail bosses were treated politely, even deferentially by the Biden regime operatives. Not once did Biden or Secretary of Labor Walsh raise their voices to the corporations. That was reserved for the “disobedient children”, the union membership that just didn’t want to play along with the corporate program that was literally working them to death.

From the start of the Biden-Walsh involvement it was apparent that they were only interested in stopping the workers from striking. They had many, many alternatives to what they eventually did. Biden controls an enormous federal regulatory machinery that could have brought real pressure on the rail companies, but he refused to use it. He could have spoken out clearly on behalf of the workers against the rail outfits. He did not do that. The only role played by Biden and Walsh was to try to convince the workers to abandon their only tool to win justice – the strike. No discernable pressure was placed on the rail companies by Biden. So addled in fact is the Biden regime that a very valid case could be made that had Biden actually led the rail strike on the sick leave issue he would have emerged victorious in the eyes of a working class and middle class weary of the unending dictatorship of the employers. Biden’s claim that his strike-breaking acts were for everyone’s benefit neglected to point out that simultaneously his regime has been actively and eagerly consorting with the Federal Reserve bank to trigger a potentially crippling recession through massive increases in interest rates. Biden could likewise address that attack now falling on working people, but again his loyalty ends up ultimately being with the bosses, not the people. The entire country will be negatively affected or even devastated economically if the Biden recession kicks in. Again, his pro-union claim is exposed as a sham, as bogus.

Enormous Monopoly Concentration a Huge Factor

All the forces arrayed against the railroad workers claimed in one way or the other that a strike would be an apocalyptic calamity, so it had to be stopped. This was a dubious claim by itself, and they all conveniently ignored the fact that underlying the rail union situation – and holding a key to explaining much of it – is the near complete monopoly concentration of the Class 1 railroads in the U.S. Over the past century the number of Class 1 railroads – the bigger railroads with the largest revenues and the power to dominate rail service in the regions they serve – has been allowed to concentrate through government-approved mergers from several hundred Class 1 railroads to merely 5 at present. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Class_I_railroads No other industry has seen this degree of corporate monopoly concentration. As a result, company profits have reached all-time highs, the rail workforce has been devasted and slashed continuously, safety has deteriorated, and service to shippers has become a mostly take-it-or-leave-it affair.

This mind-boggling monopoly concentration is the direct result of Congressional Republicans and Democrats and the White House handing to the rail companies just about anything they have wanted for many decades, including certain regulatory approval for the disastrous and endless rail merger mania. With the monopoly process nearly complete and with only 5 remaining major railroads this makes all the more contemptible Biden’s unwillingness to confront them in defense of the workers. If ever a situation cried out for partisan and Presidential intervention on behalf of the workforce in a trustified industry this was it! Biden’s decision in the end was to join forces with the rail barons, and abandon the worked-to-near-death union members. There is no other way to see this, unless one is searching for some excuse to support such an anti-union course of conduct.

Rail Union “Leaders” Bear Much Responsibility

The bulk of the rail union leadership was angling and maneuvering from the start to avoid a strike. Most of them in the 12 rail unions have no stomach for a fight with the companies and are even more terrified at the thought of having to speak up to the Biden regime. There were some exceptions, but they were too few in number to impact the larger direction of the fight. In several of the unions their contract negotiations are also contracted-out to law firms and labor relations consultants who have no interest in a strike as it would negate their profitable role in the process. For a diagnosis of this situation I will direct everyone to a recent article by a rail union leader who lays out the situation better than I can: Rail Unions in the U.S. Are in Bad Need of Consolidation, Democracy, and Militancy. None of us can blame Biden or Walsh or any of the other politicians for the sad situation among the rail union leaderships, but to ignore them or fail to expose their real roles allows these “leaders” off the hook. One can only hope that new union forces will emerge to challenge this tragically failed set of rail union bigs.

Commanding Heights of the Economy

Those of us on the labor left had better take note of the fact that the rail industry is undeniably a part of the “commanding heights” of the economy. It is a lynch pin in the overall economic and political set up, which explains why the political elites moved so decisively to shut down any strike threat. This should be a roadmap for our overall work. It is important to relate to these workers, to encourage young class conscious workers, leftists and militants to seek employment in this industry, to conduct left agitation in this workforce, and to encourage organizations such as Railroad Workers United (RWU) Railroad Workers United who are laboring to challenge and correct the situation confronting the rail workers. The left and militant forces in this industry are small and scattered, a primary reason why the struggle to reject the contract and build towards strike fell short. The growth of RWU is to be supported in every way as they obviously hold the only hope for future progress on any of the current questions.

United Parcel Service (UPS) Battle Looms

The Biden regime has for the moment delivered a huge Christmas present to the rail industry – and big business generally – while doling out an historic defeat to all of organized labor and the working class. But the White House celebrating will be brief. Biden’s shameful actions now set the stage for an even larger showdown with labor when the gigantic UPS contract with the Teamsters Union comes to a head next year on July 31. Many of the worker issues are the same, wide layers of Teamster rank-and-file and even union leadership have been patiently preparing for a major showdown battle, and the same corporate forces will be expecting Biden and Walsh to likewise hand over a win when the 25th hour arrives. Two of the largest rail unions are a part of the Teamsters union and more than 300,000 UPS workers are Teamsters. In a coming fight more than three times as large and in another key section of the economy we should have every reason to expect that the same forces who sabotaged the rail strike will be on duty to attack the UPS workforce. As the UPS battle shapes up it will be imperative for the labor and the left to show complete support for the union. Ultimately another confrontation with the Biden regime is likely. Those confused or weak on the Biden question will again be tested.

William Z. Foster on Rail Labor

U.S. labor leader William Z. Foster spent many years as a rail worker, and later in his career he wrote extensively about the plight of the workforce at the hands of pro-company and corrupt union leaders, the rail companies, and politicians from both parties. An entire chapter on the rail situation of his day is included in his collected works, “American Trade Unionism”, available from International Publishers. Foster’s observations are required reading for anyone seeking background to the current rail situation and coming to grips with the approaching UPS battle. American Trade Unionism – International Publishers (intpubnyc.com)

Need Deeper Ideological Understanding

In the final section of Lenin’s work, “The Three Sources and Three Component Parts of Marxism”, he observes that; “People always have been the foolish victims of deception and self-deception in politics, and they always will be until they have learned to seek out the interests of some class or other behind all moral, religious, political and social phrases, declarations and promises. Champions of reforms and improvements will always be fooled by the defenders of the old order until they realize that every old institution, however barbarous and rotten it may appear to be, is kept going by the forces of certain ruling classes.”

The left is duty-bound to support the next stages of the railroad worker’s struggle as well as the UPS workforce when that day arrives in a few months. An understanding of the mechanics and politics of the class struggle and the balance of class forces will show the way forward. The roles played by Biden and the other presumably “pro-union” politicians must be seen for what they really are. The interests of the workers must be held as paramount. The same chorus that attacked and abandoned the rail workers will surely come forward to try to wreck any chance of a successful strike against UPS. Those so-called “progressives” and others among the broad left who continue to make excuses for the inexcusable Biden strikebreaking must be held to account and confronted. Even if some try to apply rhetorical gymnastics to the coming UPS fight it is a simple division between those who support the workers and their union, their just demands, and those who support the corporations and the politicians who surrender to them.

To sum up, a fraud is a fraud. Once recognized, we must learn from it and chart a better course forward. Politicians whose loyalties lie with the corporate dictators cannot be trusted regardless of the party they belong to. Their words are only that. They must be measured by their deeds, and the magnitude of their deeds. To fail or refuse to do this is to invite further losses and defeats.

https://mltoday.com/learning-from-the-b ... ebreaking/

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Death Of Nuclear Deal With Iran Adds To Biden's Failures In U.S. Foreign Policy

When the Biden administration came into office it had promised to reenter into the JCPOA nuclear deal with Iran. Under Trump the U.S. had left the deal and had reissued sanctions against Iran. Tehran followed up by increasing its enrichment capabilities and by accumulating more enriched Uranium.

It would have been easy for Biden to immediately eliminate the sanctions and to rejoin the deal. Iran would surely have followed up by returning to the enrichment levels the deal allows for.

But Biden bungled the issue. For months nothing happened. Then he send negotiators to Iran who demanded additional concessions by Iran while offering less sanction relief. Iran rejected that. It demanded that Biden guarantees that the U.S. would stick to the deal under future administrations. The negotiations were drawn out and made little progress.

The European Union, which is part of the JCPOA deal, finally wrote a compromise draft agreement which was submitted to the Iranian negotiators in Vienna. Iran made some small changes to the draft and send it back. The EU foreign affairs representative Josep Borrell publicly said that Iran's changes were "reasonable" and that he hoped for a quick U.S. agreement to the draft. But the Biden administration, which worried about the midterm elections, called the Iranian changes "not constructive" and rejected the draft agreement.

Meanwhile old accusation were re-raised over alleged finds of radioactive substances at two places that had never been part of Iran's civil nuclear program. U.S. intelligence agrees that Iran never had a military nuclear program though it allegedly once studied how one could be set up. The IAEA demanded that Iran explains how the substances got there. Iran says it does not know. Further IAEA inspection demands were rejected and IAEA inspections of some elements of Iran's enrichment facilities were limited.

The Biden administration had thought that, under sanction pressure, Iran would eventually succumb to its demands. That was a rather stupid miscalculation. The revolutionary Iran is not a country that succumbs to pressure.

Iran is still ready for a deal but Biden has given up:

Biden in newly surfaced video: Iran nuclear deal is "dead"

President Biden said on the sidelines of a Nov. 4 election rally that the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran is “dead,” but stressed the U.S. won’t formally announce it, according to a new video that surfaced on social media late Monday.
Why it matters: It's the strongest confirmation so far that the Biden administration believes there's no path forward for the Iran deal, which leaves key questions about the future of Tehran's nuclear program.

In late October, U.S. envoy for Iran Rob Malley said that the administration is not going to "waste time" on trying to revive the Iran nuclear deal at this time considering Tehran's crackdown on protesters, Iranian support for Russia's war in Ukraine, and Iran's positions on its nuclear program.
Driving the news: Biden made the remark in a short conversation with a woman who attended an election rally in Oceanside, California.

The woman asked Biden to announce that the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), as the Iran deal is formally known, is dead.
Biden responded that he would not “for a lot of reasons."
But then he added: “It is dead, but we are not gonna announce it. Long story."
The woman replied that the Iranian regime doesn’t represent the people. “I know they don’t represent you. But they will have a nuclear weapon that they'll represent," he said.
What they're saying: "The JCPOA is not our focus right now. It’s not on the agenda," a White House National Security Council spokesperson told Axios.

"We don’t see a deal coming together anytime soon," the spokesperson said, pointing to Iran's crackdown on protesters and support for Russia in the war in Ukraine. "Our focus is on practical ways to confront them in these areas."


The U.S. has supported the protests and arranged for the attacks on Iranian security personnel by armed ethnic Kurd and Baloch insurgents. It is the U.S. that had kept up the sanctions up. It is the U.S. that pushed the IAEA to investigate the old unfounded claims. Iran is free to sell and buy arms to and from whomever it wants.

If the U.S. really wants 'practical ways to confront Iran' over any of those issues it will have to fight against Iran. Without the JCPOA deal there will also be more pressure on Biden and whoever follows him to go to all out war against Iran. But Iran is well protected and its missiles can hurt a lot of U.S. installations and friends in the region. A war would likely end with huge damage to Iran and a U.S. retreat from the Middle East.

Iran will continue to increase its civil nuclear capabilities. But it is unlikely to start a military program to build nuclear weapons. Its religious leaders have decided that weapons of mass destruction are against their religious duties and beliefs.

President Obama had invested quite a lot to get the JCPOA done. One wonders what he thinks of Biden's decision to not resurrect but to destroy his signature foreign policy achievement.

For other countries the U.S. behavior towards the nuclear deal demonstrates again that the U.S. is not-agreement-capable. That alone is already a huge failure for U.S. foreign policy.

Posted by b on December 20, 2022 at 17:47 UTC | Permalink

https://www.moonofalabama.org/2022/12/d ... .html#more

So then, how far is "Not Trump" gonna carry ya? And as it seems that the Chumpster is slowly decaying whadda the Dems gonna do without him? They're toast, nobody believes them, it's pathetic. Only idiots and class enemies can support such a party.
"There is great chaos under heaven; the situation is excellent."

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Re: Sympathy for the Devils...

Post by blindpig » Tue Dec 27, 2022 4:24 pm

Why I’m Glad Joe Biden Beat Donald Trump

Image

As 2022 winds down and we approach the halfway point of President Biden’s first term, it’s probably a good time to talk about all the wonderful things he has done for the world and remind ourselves how bad it would have been if the election results had turned out differently in November 2020.

Here are the top seven reasons why I’m very glad Joe Biden won that election instead of the evil, sinister Donald Trump.

1. Trump would have continued abusing immigrants and keeping kids in cages.
Thank goodness that’s over now!
The Dirty Truth (Josh)
@AKA_RealDirty
Joe Biden has 5000 illegals locked up in a facility that has the maximum capacity of 1000 people. Yet the “kids in cages” group is staying silent on this one.[
The Dirty Truth (Josh) (@AKA_RealDirty) December 19, 2022
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2. Trump was normalizing and whitewashing neo-Nazis.
Neo-Nazis! Can you believe it? Actual neo-Nazis! Why’d we even fight a world war only to turn around and start getting cuddly with Nazis?
Ben Norton
@BenjaminNorton
There are thousands of videos and photos, even in mainstream media outlets like CNN here, showing Ukrainians wearing Nazi symbols and doing fascist salutes.

This is not a "fringe minority." The US-sponsored, fascist-led coup in Ukraine in 2014 led to widespread Nazi infiltration

— Ben Norton (@BenjaminNorton) November 14, 2022
Louis Allday
@Louis_Allday
It’s legitimately difficult to express how disgusting and deceitful this is. Open, shameless and deliberate whitewashing and rehabilitation of an overtly Nazi group as “an elite battalion challenging its far right reputation”. The epitome of inventing reality.
Image

— Louis Allday (@Louis_Allday) March 30, 2022
3. If Trump had won, the war in Yemen would still be underway.
I’m so grateful Joe Biden won so that he could fulfill his campaign promise and end the worst mass atrocity in the world.
Caitlin Johnstone
@caitoz
Biden Kills Senate Resolution To End Yemen Genocide

"If intervening to ensure the continued mass starvation of children and mass military slaughter of civilians is not evil, then nothing is evil. It's actually hard to think of anything more evil."
caitlinjohnstone.substack.com
Image

— Caitlin Johnstone (@caitoz) December 14, 2022
So Much for Biden’s Promise to End U.S. Support for the War in Yemen.

The best chance to end hostilities in the war-torn nation has fizzled out, leaving proponents of peace to wonder what went wrong.https://t.co/B2wDN6fUog

— AWPR (@WarPowersReform) December 24, 2022
4. Without President Biden, the Iran nuclear deal would still be dead.
One of the most dangerous things Trump did during his presidency was inflame tensions in the Middle East by tearing up the JCPOA. Thank goodness he didn’t win, otherwise Biden wouldn’t have been able to set things right and restore the deal so that tensions can begin to de-escalate.
"It is dead but we're not going to announce it."

Pres. Biden admits that he won't return to renegotiate the Iran nuclear deal in this newly-surfaced video from November 4.

Source: @DamonMaghsoudi pic.twitter.com/CgoxZxiAqb

— MintPress News (@MintPressNews) December 20, 2022
Israeli leaders take credit for blocking Iran nuclear dealhttps://t.co/pbwP7BvsI9 via @BenCaspit

— Al-Monitor (@AlMonitor) December 26, 2022
5. Trump would have kept inflating America’s already bloated military budget.
Luckily we’ve got President Biden in charge, who understands that militarism only leads to more war and all those hundreds of billions can better serve the American people at home.
Biden Signs $858 Billion 2023 NDAA
The president is expected to sign the $1.7 trillion omnibus bill that funds the NDAA this week
by Dave DeCamp@DecampDave #NDAA #Pentagon #UkraineNews https://t.co/IMwPIK5kQn pic.twitter.com/JxCLdYLHMF

— Antiwar.com (@Antiwarcom) December 26, 2022
6. Roe v Wade would be dead if Trump had gotten another term.

Fortunately the American people heeded the Democratic Party’s warnings and prevented the US from turning into an embarrassing backwards Puritanical theocracy where women are forced to carry pregnancies to term.
Joe Biden, who as a Senator voted to repeal Roe v Wade, is now waging his finger at abortion rights activists for going too far

Biden has been anti choice his entire life. Women lost that rights during his time as president because he’s playing his role pic.twitter.com/GNw9lIB3zK

— Revolutionary Blackout Network🥋 (@SocialistMMA) July 11, 2022
7. Trump would probably have us on the brink of World War III by now.

That crazy bastard would probably have us staring down the barrel of nuclear armageddon if he’d won re-election.

Thank God he didn’t win!
The US Empire Is Accelerating Toward Global Conflict On Two Fronts

"And that's just Russia; tensions are rapidly escalating between the US-centralized empire and China as well."https://t.co/VS9wjUh54W

— Caitlin Johnstone (@caitoz) September 22, 2022
Yessir, there sure are a lot of reasons to be thankful things turned out the way they did on that crucial November day. Three cheers to the man who saved us from the awful fate of what could have been! Three cheers for President Trump!

I mean Biden.

President Biden.

https://caitlinjohnstone.com/2022/12/27 ... ald-trump/
"There is great chaos under heaven; the situation is excellent."

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Re: Sympathy for the Devils...

Post by blindpig » Fri Jan 06, 2023 4:41 pm

The Right-Wing Nuts Upending the House Are Right About One Thing
Amidst the insanity, the GOP defectors have identified a very real problem with the concentration of power in Congress.
BY ALEXANDER SAMMON
JAN 06, 20235:45 AM

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Reps. Lauren Boebert and Matt Gaetz are two of the Republican hardliners opposed to electing Kevin McCarthy’s Speaker of the House. REUTERS

All is not well in Washington, clearly. Over three days of voting, Republican Kevin McCarthy has already lost eleven elections for speaker of the House. The 118th congress still hasn’t sworn in its new members. With 20 entrenched defectors, Republicans have had a hard time this week finding enough votes to even vote to stop voting.

But amidst the insanity—and the Democratic glee at the Republican dysfunction—a very real problem with the concentration of power in Congress has surfaced, and the McCarthy holdouts have pushed for some changes that could hypothetically lead to some actual improvements in governance within the chamber.

Put another way, though McCarthy’s defectors are plenty pointlessly disruptive, they are pushing for a few things that count as actual solutions. In theory, those proposals could even benefit progressive Democrats.

(More...)

https://slate.com/news-and-politics/202 ... aucus.html

"More democratic'..., Well, I agree, said measures would provide more of a possibility for democracy to function. And for this reason they will be ruthlessly squashed, poisoned by their association with the MAGA wingnuts. Easy as pie.

Democracy is too iffy for an oligarchy, the necessity of 'stability' for maximum profitability makes this inevitable. Various dissenters will be whipped into line, the 'party line' that is, as defined by the party leadership, the conduit of ruling class desire. Bernie will make one of his patented futile grand-stands while his erstwhile 'posse' follow that party line, just as Nancy trained them to.

Genuine democracy is always a danger to the oligarchy which capitalism inevitably develops into. Which explains the numerous checks on democracy built into the constitution, like the Senate and the Electoral College. Other checks developed historically, like the two party system and the too obvious and thus discarded property requirements. Our phony democracy is every bit as loaded in favor of wealth as was that of ancient Rome, that primary inspiration of the founding Fuckheads.

'Eternal vigilance is the price of class domination' or something like that... And ya never know, we recently had an outbreak of democracy(or demagoguery, the ruling class can never tell the difference) in the nomination of Trump. He might be anti-democratic as Mussolini but he was supported by a groundswell of a portion of the working class which defied all attempts to squash and was abetted by widespread opportunism within the Republican Party. The hubris of most of the ruling class and the Dems in not recognizing this danger to stability completed the 'recipe for disaster'. The instability and disinclination to follow or even recognize 'imperial necessity' was tolerated or tempered when possible and the disruption of Trump was waited out. Now under the slippery war-monger Biden we have a return to normalcy that Joe promised.

(Despise him as we should, do ya think the Ukraine Crisis would have been exasperated with such alacrity had Trump won in 2020?. Not that they were ever gonna let that happen: resources and attention were deployed this time guaranteeing the desired result without resort to 'monkey business'.)

**************

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NYC – Battery Park City: Nelson A. Rockefeller Park – The Real World (Photo: Wally Gobetz)

The Progressive Left is maintaining systemic racism in New York City
By Kathy Lu, Sarah Ahn (Posted Jan 05, 2023)

For more on this topic we recommend the following event, at which Michael D. Yates (author most recently of Work Work Work: Labor, Alienation, and Class Struggle) will be speaking: Decriminalize the Underclass: Michael Yates to speak at Peter Kwong Immigrant Workers Learning Center (1/12/2023).

Workers in the United States once united across trade and background to fight for the 8-hour workday. Today, many lament how weak the labor movement has become, often pointing to attacks from the right to strip unions and workers of power. The fight against the 24-hour workday in New York City shows that the racism of the progressive left, including a union, 1199SEIU, and some socialists, is also to blame for worsening conditions for the working class.

For eight years, immigrant women of color home care workers have been fighting to end 24-hour workdays. Employers force immigrant women to work 24-hour shifts caring for sick, disabled, and elderly patients—lifting patients, cooking, and cleaning for them—without sleep, for days on end. Mei Kum Chu, a Chinese-American Planning Council (CPC) worker, says, “My first patient had many illnesses. CPC said to turn her body over every 90 minutes each night to prevent bedsores. One day, while helping her bathe, to prevent her falling, I injured my wrist. I couldn’t work for half a year. My second patient called for me every 1-2 hours all night, so I was exhausted. I slipped in the shower and was injured. I continued working, but eventually my injury and pain became too much. I had to retire.” Chu is like countless other workers who, due to violent 24-hour workdays, have become sick and disabled.

The 24-hour workday is common only for immigrant women of color in New York City, whereas in upstate New York, 24-hour care is split into two or three shifts. In New York City, employers super-exploit the thousands of immigrant women home care workers, saying only 24-hour shifts are available, and if they don’t want it, someone else will do it. With 24-hour shifts, home care agencies extract maximum profits by illegally paying only 13 hours of wages. State law says unless workers get five hours of continuous sleep, the employer owes all 24 hours of wages, and for patients, care must be split into shifts of maximum 12 hours. However, the government’s racist refusal to enforce laws allows wage theft and 24-hour workdays to continue. Workers have been fighting this state-sponsored, systemic racism, which upholds an entire industry on the backs of a super-exploited racial underclass.

Why does this racism continue in progressive New York City?

In New York State’s privatized home care industry, public Medicaid dollars flow through health insurance companies, which collude with home care agencies to rob workers. Surprisingly, instead of fighting to enforce labor laws or account for public dollars, 1199SEIU and many elected officials use their leftist reputations to help employers violate laws and hold immigrant women hostage, saying there’s nothing bosses can do unless insurance companies receive more money from the state government.

They say that the bosses are helping the community. Mei Kum Chu’s employer, CPC, one of the largest home care agencies, has threatened immigrant women workers with jail for “defrauding the government,” when workers documented their 24 hours of work and asked for their wages. CPC supposedly helps immigrants and supports Black Lives Matter. According to progressive Assemblymember Yuh-Line Niou, CPC cannot be blamed for abusing women.

They say, if a poor woman worker wants a job, she must sacrifice her wages and health to keep employers afloat. Home care workers, 1199SEIU members, started suing employers for wage theft in 2015. But 1199 intervened, forcing them into mandatory arbitration. This year, 1199 touted its “historic” class-wide arbitration award, which lets employers wipe away their crimes by paying $250 per worker. While employers have stolen 11 hours for each 24-hour shift, and non-union workers have won at minimum 5.5 hours per shift in court, 1199’s settlement recovers only 0.5 percent of what its members are owed, or about three minutes per shift. The industry must not collapse.

They say, in effect, socialism requires that women of color continue to die. Due to home care workers’ organizing, elected office holders have introduced city and state bills to ban 24-hour shifts and mandate split shifts. A majority of council members, including Republicans, support the city bill. 1199 lobbies against both bills. Council Members Sandra Ung (progressive) and Alexa Avilés (Democratic Socialists of America) also oppose, saying that they, unlike workers, want to end 24-hour workdays the right way—waiting for more state money to fill insurance company and home care agency coffers. Do they hate women of color so much that they need “socialism” to cover their racism and sexism? Do they hate socialism and want to forever tarnish its name with 24-hour workdays?

Immigrant women have been shouting from the rooftops about the racist violence—broken bodies, chronic illnesses, too many deaths of home care worker sisters. In response, 1199 and leftist elected officials maintain 24-hour workdays, hurting not only immigrant women but all working people. These labor aristocrats reinforce super-exploitation: immigrant women of color at the bottom, less than human, and everyone else dragged down not far behind. By refusing to limit how long a workday can be, how inhumane are our working conditions, they pit us against each other to compete for worse and worse jobs, to squeeze more out of all of us. Just as home care workers are forced to accept 24-hour workdays, workers across most occupations are increasingly forced to work long hours that kill us, if we want any job at all.

Immigrant women home care workers are leading the fight against the systemic racism that divides and oppresses the working class. They refuse to be treated as subhuman garbage. They call on all working people to unite against the violence perpetrated by employers and sanctioned by the state. It’s not enough to demand more compensation for our labor. We must demand rest, our health, our time. True socialists should denounce the “progressive” and “socialist” lackeys of home care agencies and insurance companies, and stand with home care workers to end the racist violence of 24-hour workdays. If we do not stand with home care workers to end the racist violence of 24-hour workdays, we will be abandoning some of our most vulnerable workers, something labor unions, the labor movement, and progressive politicians must not do.

https://mronline.org/2023/01/05/the-pro ... york-city/

"NIMBY" has long been a hallmark of liberals, be it the environment or labor.
"There is great chaos under heaven; the situation is excellent."

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