December 4, 2018 TeleSUR remembered Fred Hampton, an anti-fascist fighter and anti-racist revolutionary, leading member of the Black Panther Party and of the NAACP Youth Council member, who was cowardly assassinated on December 4, 1969. The raid was led by the FBI, the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office and the Chicago police. This brutal act of state repression took the live of one of the greatest revolutionary fighters at the age of 21, although he died young he left a lifetime of work and a legacy. He remains a symbol of anti-racism, civil rights and a huge figure in the history of American socialism. Rest in Power comrade. teleSUR English

Workers at GM’s Oshawa Assembly in Canada walk out to protest plant closure, mass layoffs. | Lars Hagberg, AFP/Getty Images

https://fighting-words.net/2018/12/07/workers-and-community-can-fight-gm-plant-closings/

By David Sole

General Motors (GM) announced on November 26 plans to end production at five plants in North America in 2019. Three of them are auto assembly factories located in Detroit-Hamtramck, Michigan; Lordstown, Ohio; and Oshawa, Ontario. Transmission plants in Baltimore, Maryland, and Warren, Michigan, are also on the list, as well as two unnamed overseas facilities.

Together, the jobs of over 6,000 union workers are threatened. Another 8,000 salaried GM workers face layoffs in the coming year. The closing of entire factories has broad effects on the surrounding communities, as each job lost has a ripple effect throughout the local economies and neighborhoods.

Workers at the Oshawa plant immediately walked off the job to protest the announcement. These workers had given concessions on their pensions to GM in their 2016 contract negotiations in order to strengthen job security. Canadian government officials expressed anger at the company; the Canadian government had contributed to the 2009 bailout of GM and had provided funds to modernize the Oshawa plant in 2005…

GM Fleetwood workers gather by the hundreds inside the plant to talk about keeping the plant open. T-shirts say “stop plant closings.” (1987) | Photo: a Fleetwood worker

…Only a mass militant movement of the workers together with the affected communities can succeed in stopping the giant corporations from doing whatever they please. Driven by the desire and need to maximize profits, corporations have no concern for the lives of the workers who create all the wealth, nor for the destruction to surrounding communities. The Moratorium NOW! Coalition to Stop Foreclosures, Evictions, and Utility Shutoffs along with other community organizations, like the National Action Network, have already announced plans to fight the closings. Moratorium Now has presented a Freedom of Information Act request demanding the precise figures for the Michigan MEGA tax credits and the precise figures on jobs that were supposed to be preserved. Unifor has been mobilizing its members from day one. The UAW must join the fight and mobilize the workers to join the community in beating back this latest outrageous attack on the working class.

Workers have a property right to their jobs, which they have more than paid for with their stolen labor for years. The community has a property claim on the plants as they have paid for them with massive tax breaks and blighted communities caused by the company over the years. If General Motors persists in their closings, the workers and the community have the right and duty to occupy the plants to assert their property rights and run them under worker-community control. The battle is just beginning.

David Sole worked at GM’s Fleetwood Plant from 1970 to 1987. He served on the Executive Board of UAW Local 15 and was co-chair of the Stop Plant Closings Committee of the local union. He also served as an organizer for the “A Job Is A Right” campaign.

To get involved in this struggle contact the Moratorium Now Coalition at moratorium@moratorium-mi.org or on Facebook @MoratoriumNowCoalition.

A Job is a Right leaflet, August 1988

Moral Call for Migrant Justice

New Sanctuary Movement from Voces de la Frontera
and Unitarian Universalists of Southeast Wisconsin invite you, your community, and all local faith communities to join a Jericho Walk, a quiet, reverent demonstration of solidarity and outrage, in support of Border Communities and those seeking Sanctuary on:
Monday, Dec 10, at 10am at
The U.S. Immigration Office, 310 E Knapp St, Milwaukee, WI 53202

As people of faith, we call for an end to border militarization. We call on the U.S. government to respect our human siblings’ human rights to migrate and seek asylum. Our faith calls us to welcome the stranger, the migrant, the human being seeking refuge.

Vigil for Human Rights in the Philippines

In commemoration of International Human Rights day, join us for a vigil in front of the Philippine Consulate to demand an end to extrajudicial killings, and an end to US Military aid to the Philippines.

As the human rights situation in the Philippines worsens, with the massacre of 9 peasants in Sagay, and the murder of Attorney Benjamin Ramos, the brutality of The US backed Duterte regime has been laid bare for the world to see. Benjamin Ramos was the 34th attorney murdered since Duterte came to power.As the drug war, and its over 23,000 victims becomes an international human rights crisis, the US-Duterte regime has painted the map of the Philippines bloody, marking the archipelago with massacres from Sagay, to Antique, to Bicol. This crisis will only escalate as Duterte seeks to expand his declaration of Martial Law from Mindanao to the entire country, putting the nation’s people under armed military control.

On December 10, we will honor the victims of human rights violations and extrajudicial killings, and raise our demands:
Stop the Killings, Stop the Attacks, End US Military aid to the Philippines!

Sponsor: The Malaya Movement
Co-Sponsor: Chicago Committee for Human Rights in the Philippines, Anakbayan Chicago, Gabriela Chicago, Migrante Chicago

Rally to Win the Acero Strike

1901 W Caroll Avenue, Chicago Teachers Union, 1 – 3 P.M. 

(Español abajo)

CTU teachers, paraprofessionals and support staff at 15 charter schools run by the Acero charter network formerly known as UNO are in the midst of their historic strike—the first against a charter operator in U.S. history.

Our demands are simple:

· Smaller class sizes
· Increased special education funding
· More autonomy over curriculum and grading
· Equal pay for equal work
· Additional resources for classrooms and students
· Sanctuary schools for our overwhelmingly Latinx student population
· Better compensation and treatment of paraprofessionals

We’re inviting families, students, all CTU district and ACTS members, and labor and community allies to show up, support Acero strikers and show that the whole community and family of labor is in solidarity to win for the students, teachers and support staff throughout the network!

ESPAÑOL

Los miembros de CTU en 15 escuelas charter UNO/Acero en Chicago están en huelga, la primera huelga de un operador de escuelas charter en la historia de los Estados Unidos.

Nuestras demandas son simples:
· Clases más pequeñas
· Aumento de fondos para educación especial
· Autonomía adicional sobre el curriculum y la calificación
· Salario igual para trabajos iguales
· Recursos adicionales para aulas y alumnos
· Escuelas Santuario para nuestra población mayoritaria de estudiantes latinx
· Mejor compensación y trato de los paraprofesionales

Venga para mostrar que la comunidad entera y la familia laboral están en solidaridad para ganar por los estudiantes, maestros y personal de apoyo por todas partes de la red Acero.

Hosted by Chicago Teachers Union

Tensions between Russia and Ukraine have risen sharply following the Nov. 25 seizure of three Ukrainian naval vessels and the detention of 24 Ukrainian sailors by the Russian navy. The incident took place as the vessels were attempting to pass from the Black Sea through the narrow Kerch Strait into the Sea of Azov, a shallow body of water bounded by Ukraine to the northwest and Russia to the southeast. After the incident, Russia blocked some additional naval traffic through the strait.

Ukraine is calling the Russian actions a violation of international law, while Russia says the Ukrainian ships attempted an unauthorized passage through Russian territorial waters. [read more]

Click here to read and sign the petition initiated by the Black Alliance for Peace to shut down AFRICOM, the US African command.

Many UNAC leaders and members participated in the First International Conference against US/NATO Military Bases, which was held on November 16-18 at Liberty Hall in Dublin, Ireland and attended by more than 300 activists from 35 countries.  Around 60 people registered from the US.

The conference was organized by the Global Campaign Against US/NATO Military Bases of which UNAC is a founding member.  The campaign has been endorsed by over 700 organization internationally. [read more]

Protest NATO, Washington, DC, Lafayette Park (across from the White House)
1 PM Saturday, March 30, 2019.
Additional actions will take place on Thursday, April 4 at the opening of the NATO meeting

Please join us in DC and read the full call to action and endorse by clicking here

Temple University professor and CNN commentator Marc Lamont Hill was fired from CNN after giving a powerful speech at the United Nations in support of Palestinian rights. The Nov. 29, 2018, U.N. meeting was to commemorate the 70th year of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.  The meeting also fell on the 70th anniversary of the Nakba, when 700,000 Palestinians were forced from their homes by the newly declared state of Israel and hundreds of Palestinian towns and villages were emptied and destroyed.

Marc Lamont Hill spoke of the many violations of Palestinians’ human rights by the authorities in Israel.  Not one fact that he mentioned in his talk was disputed by CNN, but his contract was terminated with a simple statement that said, “Marc Lamont Hill is no longer under contract with CNN.” [read more]