https://www.ueunion.org/political-action/2018/nafta-20-delivers-for-corporations-underscores-need-for-international

On September 30 the U.S., Canada and Mexico announced that they had agreed on a new “U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement” to replace the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). The new trade pact contains modest improvements for workers, but falls far short of the transformative changes demanded by the labor and progressive movements. It also includes new corporate giveaways, especially to banks, pharmaceutical companies, tech companies and the energy industry.

UE’s officers issued a statement declaring that the agreement “reveals the stranglehold that corporate interests have upon our government, and underscores the absolute necessity of international solidarity among working people from all three countries in order to move forward.”

UE, together with our allies in Mexico and Canada, mobilized to demand that the needs of working people be put front and center in the renegotiations. UE members signed and collected postcards opposing NAFTA’s notorious Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) process during and after the 75th convention last summer. ISDS gives corporations the right to sue governments for trying to protect their people or the environment, if those protections could in any way lead to lower profits.

UE also participated in a #ReplaceNAFTA Day of Action in December, mobilizing members to call Congress to demand a worker- and community-friendly agreement. UE General President Peter Knowlton joined leaders of other organizations, including Public Citizen, the American Federation of Teachers, the National Farmers Union and the Catholic social justice lobby NETWORK, at a #ReplaceNAFTA press conference in Washington, DC.

UE also participated in meetings to build international solidarity in Mexico and Canada, and helped coordinate and host a trinational conference of trade unionists from all three countries in Chicago last October. The trinational gathering held a rally outside the Mexican Consulate in Chicago to draw attention to the Mexican government’s failure to protect the rights of their own workers during the NAFTA negotiations. It was led by representatives from several independent Mexican labor organizations, including longtime UE ally the Frente Auténtico del Trabajo.

https://fighting-words.net/2018/10/22/fascist-gangs-attack-protesters/

By David Sole

New York City was the scene of fascist gangs violently attacking protesters on October 12. It was widely reported that demonstrators outside of the Metropolitan Republican Club on Manhattan’s upper east side were brutally assaulted by several dozen members of the ultra-rightwing Proud Boys group after they attended a meeting featuring Proud Boys founder Gavin McInnes. The Southern Poverty Law Center also identified members of several skinhead groups who joined the Proud Boys’ attack.

As the Proud Boys spilled into the streets to attack counter-protesters, their leader, McInnes, brandished a sword. He had announced that the sword celebrated the 1960 murder of Japanese Socialist Party leader Inejiro Asanuma during a televised debate in Japan by fascists. McInnes was not arrested for brandishing this weapon.

Proud Boys members were caught on camera beating people while shouting anti-LGBTQ and anti-immigrant epithets. The fascist gang stayed around long enough to take a group photo. New York City police stood by while the attacks proceeded, only intervening to arrest three anti-fascists after the incident.

The following day, October 13, Proud Boys marched and beat progressive activists in Portland, Oregon. Just a few months ago, a militant crowd in Oakland, California, marched to the site where Proud Boys had announced a meeting of their group. The meeting was set for July 23, only one day after a white assailant had killed Nia Wilson and wounded her sister at a train station in Oakland. The victims were African-American and the assault was described as the act of a white supremacist.

Earlier, on June 23, several Proud Boys showed up in Detroit, Michigan, at a demonstration against the Trump administration’s separation of children from their undocumented parents. The Proud Boys walked up and down along the picket line of 150 people, taunting and baiting protesters. Demonstration security teams closely followed the fascists. It was thought that the Proud Boys were looking to provoke a fight that would have given the police reason to break up the large anti-Trump protest.

Behind the fascist violence

The pre-election and post-election rhetoric of President Donald Trump has clearly emboldened racist, sexist, anti-LGBTQ, anti-immigrant and outright fascist elements.

Trump’s defense of the fascists who beat progressive protesters and killed anti-fascist Heather Heyer on August 12,  2017, in Charlottesville, Virginia, has given these reactionary thugs a green light to organize ever-bolder attacks.

Most liberals have faulted the New York City police department for its failure to curb the fascist attacks, but this is not an aberration. The same disregard for the rights of progressives and the masses of poor and working people can be seen over and over again. In fact, the police are the agents of the state apparatus and the state is the tool of the ultra-rich ruling class.

Fascist organizations have always served the interests of the ruling elite, whether it be in 1930s Germany or today in the United States. Sometimes the fascists are given hidden support and sometimes the support is more open — but in either case it is meant to keep a “rabid dog” in reserve in order to attack and intimidate a potentially revolutionary movement which might threaten the rule of the bankers and corporate bosses.

Progressive and revolutionary organizations should not rely on the police forces, whether they are local, state or federal. Organizers of progressive demonstrations must look to forming united fronts with other progressive forces and take more seriously the formation of capable defense teams that can effectively guard meetings, picket lines and rallies against surprise attacks by fascist gangs.

https://bit.ly/2PKZdBz

But if you’re unable to attend a protest or rally this week, and you want to help, here are some action items that will make an impact.

Donate directly to transgender non-profit organizations and to TGNC people on the GoFundMe pages.

• Trans Lifeline is a trans-led hotline that offers service to and for the community.
• The Transgender Law Center is also led by trans people, for trans people who need legal representation.
• There’s an entire thread on Twitter where you can find personal pages to donate directly to transgender and non-binary people who need help.

http://www.riverwestradio.com/shows/

CLOSEmsdf Picket

901 N 9th Street, 11:30 A.M. – 1 P.M.

Why do we picket?
1. To educate people on the inhumane conditions at MSDF
2. To memorialize the 17 people who have died in MSDF since it opened.
3. To let WI taxpayers know that each day someone spends in MSDF for a crimeless rule violation it costs us $100.84 vs $40 to treat that person in the community where their job, housing & support systems stay secure.
4. Former Governer Tommy Thompson has said building MSDF was a mistake. Its time the state corrects that error.

Please join us during the lunch hour on Oct 20 on the 10th Street side of the courthouse. Respond to this post with your shirt size & we’ll bring you a #CLOSEmsdf shirt.

If you haven’t signed the petition yet yourself, please do here: https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/its-time-to-close-milwaukee-secure-detention-facility-msdf

Parking is metered or nearby public lots. If you don’t mind walking a couple blocks, its often easier to find free parking on the other side of the freeway.

We’ve been holding down this monthly picket since the spring of 2017. A coalition of Milwaukee organizations have joined up to shut down MSDF. This facility is a building within a building, where captives have no access to fresh air or sunlight. They are triple bunked in lockdown cells for over 20 hours a day. There is no outdoor rec. The facility was built and is run using funds that should be used for diversionary programs to keep people out of jail, instead it’s being used to keep them on supervision under arbitrary and vindictive probation and parole officers.

We are organizing this protest on every 23rd (unless that lands on a weekend, when there’s less foot traffic). The National Religious Campaign Against Torture has called for actions on the 23rd of every month (to bring attention to 23 hour a day lockdowns). http://www.nrcat.org/about-us/take-action-current-legislation/563-together-to-end-solitary

https://tinyurl.com/yb7axcf4

Workers are on strike in Marriott owned hotels across the nation as they fight for better pay and increased safety protocols. When workers strike in the country we all have a responsibility to support labor advancements for them, yet NBA teams don’t have a strong position on supporting their working class fans.

Right now, players from NBA teams can cross picket lines for convenience over justice because the larger management in the Association doesn’t observe strikes in hotels where the players stay.

Many fans of the NBA are working class people who deserve to be invested in the way they invest in the league. The NBA needs to commit to not booking in Marriott owned hotels while workers are not strike.

SIGN PETITION: https://tinyurl.com/yb7axcf4

Hosted by Peace Action of Wisconsin

An Evening with Kathy Kelly

https://www.globalresearch.ca/exploitation-and-dislocation-continues-in-detroit/5657371

Recognizing that the ongoing strike by service workers at the hotel where City Lab is scheduled to occur could result in a public relations disaster for the Bloomberg and Atlantic conference, the Detroit News reported on October 15 that the big expensive gathering will be moved to another location if the labor dispute is not resolved. Whether the strike is settled by October 28 or not is almost a secondary issue. The contradictions developing in the city of Detroit and around the U.S. will continue to result in the widening gulf between the have and have nots. 

Only a fundamental transformation of the political and economic system in the U.S. can alter

https://fighting-words.net/2018/10/19/will-the-u-s-attack-china-part-1/

In 2015, the Chinese government launched the “Made in China 2025” initiative, combining heavy investments in education as well as research and development to gain a “a leadership position in the key technologies and industries of the future, from artificial intelligence to biotech and robotics.” (Forbes, Aug. 10)

The Chinese working class has endured decades of suffering at the hands of the imperialist exploiters. But they have won a four-fold increase in their wages and an annual economic growth rate of 10 percent for their country. By some measures, including that of the World Bank, China has already surpassed the U.S. as the world’s largest economy.

In a socialist world, where the wealth that the world’s workers produce can be equally shared, this would not be a problem at all. But in a world still dominated by imperialism, headed by the U.S. ruling class and currently led by the fanatical Trump and his ultra-rightist clique, China represents a deadly threat to their imperialist hegemony. And that, as Lenin pointed out a hundred years ago, is the root of imperialist war.

To be continued.

https://www.prisonradio.org/media/audio/mumia/ramona-fights-life-149-mumia-abu-jamal