Americas

We are happy to announce the setting up of the website of the Peruvian El Militante (http://peru.elmilitante.org ), the journal of the Marxists of the Fuerza de Izquierda Socialista. The site has been running for some time and is now fully functional. We believe it will play an important role in bring the genuine ideas of Marxism to the workers and youth of Peru.

With the situation in Iraq deteriorating, his approval ratings steadily dropping, the aftermath of Katrina still haunting the nation, divisions in his own party, and the DeLay case causing a widespread erosion of faith in the government, Bush may well be threatened with impeachment. But even if the reactionary Bush Administration goes the way of Richard Nixon, where does that leave the working class in the United States?

The events of the past year have awakened millions of Americans to the bitter reality of life under capitalism. To many, the entire planet appears to have gone insane. The world has been shaken from top to bottom by natural disasters, wars, famines, political crises, riots, and revolutionary uprisings. This is a graphic reflection of the impasse of capitalism in the epoch of its decay and decline: an era of wars, revolutions, and counter-revolutions. Editorial statement of the US Socialist Appeal.

The recent blackout on the US East coast highlights the inability of the capitalist class to provide even the most basic services in the heart of imperialism. The ability of capitalism to keep even something as important as its global headquarters, New York,  has been undermined by the blind mechanics of the profit-drive, the central component of capitalism itself. By Kurt Penca. Originally published on the new issue of the American Socialist Appeal.

In a first in US Labor history, nearly 100,000 grocery workers are on strike or locked out in California, St. Louis, West Virginia, Ohio and Kentucky, demanding a halt to the ever-increasing bosses' assault on one of the working class' most essential needs: health care. Under the heavy skies of recession, these multi-billion dollar companies want to make the workers pay the full bill for the economic downturn. In order to maintain their huge profits, the capitalists are more than willing to put the physical health of the working class to the ax. This is a threat that the Labor Movement cannot tolerate, despite the braking action of their own leadership...

As the dust settles around the British Columbia teachers' strike there is an uneasy calm hanging over the province. Two facts are immediately apparent - first, neither the government nor the labour movement were decisively defeated; and second, this was only a dress rehearsal for the bigger battle to come in the spring.

“This is an historical gathering. For the first time workers from occupied factories from across the continent are meeting together” (Serge Goulart, United Workers’ Council of Brazilian group of occupied factories)

“We have shown how the workers can run the companies, and this means we can run society as well” (Ricardo Moreira, PIT-CNT, Uruguay)

The Cuban revolution continues to resist all attempts to undermine it. This recent film shows different aspects of Cuban life today, its positive and negative sides, and although there are problems the overall impression is that a large part of the population understands the need for the revolution to survive.

Workers' representatives and trade union activists from around the country met in Caracas on October 21-22, in the National Gathering of Workers towards the Recovery of Companies. The main aim of this meeting, called by Venezuela’s National Workers’ Union (UNT), was to bring together workers involved in experiences of factory occupations and different forms of workers’ management.

On Monday, October 17 tens of thousands of trade unionists brought the capital city of British Columbia to a grinding halt.  Victoria was closed for business as a regional general strike in support of the British Columbia Teachers Federation crippled the city.  The strike culminated in a massive demonstration at the BC legislature.  The comrades of Fightback were there on this historic day.

This summer the Teamsters, SEIU, UFCW, and UNITE HERE split from the AFL-CIO union federation at their annual convention in Chicago. For the first time in half a century, the US trade unions are officially divided into large, separate camps.  The break up of the AFL-CIO came as a shock to many trade unionists and activists.  These four unions alone represent over one third of the federation’s 13 million members. But is it a step forward for US workers?

In a matter of days, all of the contradictions that have been building over the last four years in British Columbia have come to the fore. Gordon Campbell's mis-named Liberals have spent their time in power attacking the working class. This has been met with several waves of unrest. Now this battle is reaching new heights. The province stands on the brink of an all-out general strike.

Yet again, the BC Liberal Government has removed the democratic right of employees to strike.  From the UBC TAs, to the ferry workers and hospital employees, workers’ rights and public programs are coming under constant attack.  Now the Liberals plan to use BC’s teachers as their next layer of cannon fodder.  On October 7, 42 000 public school teachers will illegally walk the line in defence of their right to collectively bargain, to go on strike and to save education for BC’s youth.  Fightback stands together with the striking teachers.

Also see the Picket Line Solidarity Special in PDF format...

In the last five years, gas prices in Canada have soared from about 65-cents per litre to over $1.10.  This price hike hits the working class hardest.  While the right wing are trying to blame taxes for the increase, the majority of Canadians see that corporate super-profits are the real culprit.  In a recent poll, 49% of Canadians (and 67% of Quebecers) support nationalizing the oil industry. 

Management at the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) is trying to force through a new contract on their employees – a contract eliminating restrictions on the broadcaster's ability to contract out work instead of hiring full-time employees. They have now applied a lock-out and it looks like it is going to a long and bitter struggle.