A specter haunts Walmart

Union organizer on winning strategy 5

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BAnglAdesh fire 8 Congo 8 egypt 9 free AAfiA siddiqUi! 3

Dec. 6, 2012 Vol. 54, No. 48 $1workers.org

Workers and oppressed peoples of the world unite!

Protesta en república dominicana Gaza resiste terror 12

By Brenda Ryan

Protesters gathered at hundreds of Walmart stores across the country on Nov. 23, or “Black Friday,” the heaviest shopping day of the year, to support Walmart workers on strike for better wages and working conditions.

In Oakland, Calif., the protest began even earlier, at 10 p.m. on Thursday. Walmart work-ers had been forced to leave their families on so-called “Thanksgiving” and open the doors at 8 p.m. so the store could pull in shoppers ahead of the competition and make greater profits. A picket line was held in front of the store, while demonstrators handed out educational leaflets in support of workers’ rights to organize and not have to work on the holiday. About 40 people from Occupy Oakland periodically went into the store and loudly advocated for the workers.

Workers at Walmart, the most notorious an-ti-union corporation in the United States, can barely survive on the extremely low pay they re-ceive. According to an internal pay plan recent-ly obtained by the Huffington Post, employees can work at Walmart for decades before earn-ing much more than minimum wage ($7.25 per hour). Workers began striking against work-ing conditions and low pay in September. They stepped up the fight and drew in support from people around the country on Black Friday.

The Food & Commercial Workers union (UFCW) noted in a press release that Walmart workers in Miami, Dallas, the Bay Area and Wis-consin walked off the job on Thursday and that workers from Chicago and Washington, D.C., joined them on Friday. UFCW said 1,000 Black Friday protests were expected in 46 states.

In Dearborn, Mich., at least 50 people turned out, primarily union workers from the UFCW and organizers from Occupy Detroit. The demonstration started with the chant, “Walmart workers deserve respect!” Walmart bosses would argue that workers who want health care, living wages and decent working conditions should quit and find another job. But in an increasingly shrinking job market, they have no choice but to stay and fight. As the demonstration ended, the crowd chanted to the Walmart workers, “You don’t need your boss; your boss needs you!”

More than 600 people, including 100 Walmart

WW PhotoWorkers World Party youth at Times Square rally in support of Palestinian struggle, Nov. 18. See page 9.

ViCtory After 55-dAy piCket

WW Photo: ANNE PRUDEN

Mahoma Lopez, organizer for Laundry Workers Center, announces victory in Hot & Crusty strike. See article, page 4.

Win for trans rights 2

Oakland Port strike 4

WWP conferenceGlobal crisis, global fightback 6-7

Monsanto monoply 11

gaza solidarity

Walmart workers on the rise strikes, protests hit retail giant nationwide

WW PhotoS: g. DUNkEl

Inside Secaucus Walmart, support for workers.

Continued on page 5

Page 2 Dec. 6, 2012 workers.org

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Vol. 54, No. 48 • Dec. 6, 2012 Closing date: Nov. 27, 2012Editor: Deirdre GriswoldTechnical Editor: Lal RoohkManaging Editors: John Catalinotto, LeiLani Dowell,Leslie Feinberg, Kris Hamel, Monica Moorehead,Gary WilsonWest Coast Editor: John ParkerContributing Editors: Abayomi Azikiwe,Greg Butterfield, Jaimeson Champion, G. Dunkel,Fred Goldstein, Teresa Gutierrez, Larry Hales,Berta Joubert-Ceci, Cheryl LaBash,Milt Neidenberg, Betsey Piette, Minnie Bruce Pratt, Gloria RubacTechnical Staff: Sue Davis, Shelley Ettinger,Bob McCubbin, Maggie VascassennoMundo Obrero: Carl Glenn, Teresa Gutierrez,Berta Joubert-Ceci, Donna Lazarus, Michael Martínez,Carlos VargasSupporter Program: Sue Davis, coordinator

Copyright © 2012 Workers World. Verbatim copying and distribution of articles is permitted in any medium without royalty provided this notice is preserved.

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In the U.S.

Walmart workers on the rise . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

Syracuse passes trans rights bill. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

Boston ACT UP pickets Kerry. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

Tell U.S. to ‘Free Aafia Siddiqui!’. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

Indigenous protest at Plymouth Rock. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

Peltier: ‘Recapture the freedoms we’ve lost’. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

Ohlone people protest mall . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

Workers shut down Port of Oakland . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

On the picket line . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

Walmart haunted by the specter of union organizing . . . . 5

Why Walmart is vulnerable to workers’ organizing. . . . . . . . 5

WWP conference: ‘We’ve achieved much this year’ . . . . . . . 6

Youth panel focuses on capitalism and police terror. . . . . . 6

Global crisis needs global fightback. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

Activists protest ‘Red Dawn,’ defend People’s Korea. . . . . . 10

Rosa Parks Day events planned . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

Monsanto: A monopoly of proprietary seeds. . . . . . . . . . . . 11

Around the world

Bangladesh fire kills 120 workers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

Mining and military interests underlie Congo war . . . . . . . . 8

Cease-fire halts Israeli assault; Gaza struggle unresolved . 9

Condemnation of Israel goes global . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

Egypt erupts over Morsi power grab . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

Editorial

Free Private Manning! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

Noticias En Español

Protesta en República Dominicana . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

Gaza resiste terror . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12Continued on page 4

syracuse passes trans rights bill

Photo: BoNNiE StRUNk

Activists demand freedom for transwoman CeCe McDonald.

Boston ACt Up pickets kerryACT UP Boston took its anti-

austerity demonstration to the streets and the actual front door of U.S. Sen. John Kerry’s house in the “millionaires’ row” section of Boston’s Beacon Hill on Nov. 21.

Chanting “Fund health and not defense!” ACT UP members held a mock austerity “Thanksgiving” dinner, complete with empty pill bottles and barren dinner plates signifying community opposition to planned cutbacks in Ryan White and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention funding and so-called “fiscal cliff” austerity cutbacks slated for Jan. 2.

Kerry is a Vietnam War veteran, a “dove” turned “hawk” and a multimillionaire. His spouse is heiress to the Heinz family fortune. Their joint holdings are mea-sured in the hundreds of millions of dollars. From this privileged position, Kerry could speak out in defense of the very lives of people living with HIV and all poor and working people. Instead, he is hoping to be appointed U.S. secretary of state, an office from which he could di-rect U.S. occupations in the Middle East, targeted drone bombings of innocent Pakistanis and the continued fat-

tening of defense contractors. His silence is deafening and truly equals death for millions, in the U.S. and globally.

After a 20-year absence, ACT UP Boston has returned to activism, this time with more of a global focus and a primary concern for the austerity impacts on people liv-ing with the virus. Its constituent members come from the Boston Living Center, Dorchester’s Healing Our Land, the Harvard AIDS Coalition, people living with HIV from oppressed and other communities, and many medical students from Harvard and Boston universities.

— Report and photo by Gerry Scoppettuolo

By Minnie Bruce Pratt Syracuse, N.Y.

After 20-plus years of struggle, activists here celebrated on Nov. 19 as the Syracuse Common Council overwhelmingly passed a trans rights law. When signed by the mayor, the measure will amend the city’s existing Fair Practices Law passed in 1990 to prohibit discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation.

The new law guarantees rights regardless of a person’s “actual or perceived sex, or their gender identity or gender expression” in the areas of employment, pub-lic accommodations, housing, school, commercial space and public services.

The Council also passed a resolution urging the New York State Legislature to approve the Gender Expression Non-Discrimination Act (GENDA), which would extend similar protections on a statewide basis.

Family members of LaTeisha Green, a transwoman of color killed in Syracuse in 2008, testified for the legisla-tion. Other individuals and groups organizing for passage included the Transgender Alliance; the Central New York State chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union; Em-pire State Pride Agenda; Sage Upstate, advocating for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender elders; a contingent of youth from the Q Center at AIDS Community Resources; and members of Planned Parenthood.

Van Robinson, president of the Council and a long-

time civil rights activist, read a statement in which he re-membered being denied the right to eat and drink in pub-lic spaces, being denied jobs and access to schools, and being targeted with racist epithets and threats. He noted that the transgender rights law was “a continuation of civil rights legislation enacted because of the struggles of yesteryear,” and hoped the legislation would “bring us a step closer to the dream of Martin Luther King Jr., where people are judged solely on character and not by race, creed, color, gender, transgender or sexual preference.”

After the “yes” vote, activists cheered, clapped and whistled exuberantly in the Council chambers. Then they spilled out onto the steps of City Hall for a press confer-

workers.org Dec. 6, 2012 Page 3

Indigenous people and their sup-porters gathered in Emeryville, Calif., on Nov. 23 at the site of the Emeryville Shellmound, the oldest and largest shell-mound burial site of the Ohlone people. The annual event here is in protest of a shopping mall that has been built on top of the sacred shellmound, destroying and desecrating it. Now the mall owners call it private property and refuse to allow the Ohlone people and their supporters to distribute fliers on the sidewalks of the “private” open-air mall. Security guards called police on community supporters who were asking shoppers to take their business elsewhere.

— Report and photo by Terri Kay

ohlone people protest mall

McKinney, Flounders to visit Pakistan

tell U.s. to ‘free Aafia siddiqui!’

‘Day of Mourning’

indigenous protest at plymouth rock

peltier:

‘Recapture the freedoms we’ve lost’

By LeiLani Dowell

In support of continuing efforts to pressure the U.S. government to repatri-ate Dr. Aafia Siddiqui to Pakistan, former U.S. Congressperson Cynthia McKinney and International Action Center Co-Di-rector Sara Flounders will travel to Paki-stan from Dec. 2-9.

The trip will focus on due process and justice and expose U.S. practices of secret renditions, illegal confinement and torture — practices highlighted by Siddiqui’s case.

Siddiqui is a Pakistani political prisoner who has been held in solitary confinement for years in U.S. prisons. She was tried for attempting to shoot U.S. interrogators in Afghanistan in 2008. Although the only person injured in the supposed attack

was Siddiqui herself — she was shot in the stomach — the court sentenced her to 86 years in U.S. federal prison in 2010.

Siddiqui’s many supporters note that, as a citizen of Pakistan who was never charged with committing a crime on U.S. soil, she should not have been extradited to the U.S. in the first place. During her highly publicized trial, the U.S. corporate media consistently labeled Siddiqui a “terrorist.”

For many in Pakistan, Siddiqui stands as a national symbol of the many who have been “disappeared” from their homes. In court appearances, she de-scribed being abducted from Pakistan with her three young children; her young-est son, Suleman, remains missing. Sid-diqui has consistently asserted that while

in U.S. custody in Afghanistan, she was held in a series of secret prisons, tortured and abused. She has overwhelming sup-port among the Pakistani people, who want their sister returned to them both in the interest of justice and on humanitari-an grounds.

Outside of Pakistan, Siddiqui’s case has garnered international support. A petition released by the IAC has been signed by individuals around the world, generating more than 100,000 email messages sent to U.S., United Nations and Pakistani of-ficials, as well as major media outlets. Un-burdened by the bogus “terrorist” claim against her, the IAC organized in support of Siddiqui’s freedom throughout her trial and sentencing.

Dr. Fowzia Siddiqui, her sister, and

the Free Aafia Movement are organizing Flounders’ and McKinney’s trip to Paki-stan, which will help further the demand for Aafia Siddiqui’s immediate repatria-tion to Pakistan and an end to kidnapping and torture practices under the auspices of the U.S. so-called “war on terror.” That war includes near-daily U.S. drone at-tacks on Pakistan and the assassination of Muslims who have been targeted by the CIA.

The IAC petition can be found at www.iacenter.org/SiddiquiPetition. For more information on Siddiqui’s case, visit —freeaafia.com.

Hundreds of Native people and their supporters gathered in Plymouth, Mass., on Nov. 22 to commemorate the 43rd an-nual National Day of Mourning — a pro-test of the “Thanksgiving” holiday.

Moonanum James detailed the history of the NDOM, saying that “the Pilgrims and Native people certainly did not live happily ever after." Indigenous speakers described current conditions for Indig-enous people, including the high youth suicide rates on some reservations, and went over the history of Native nations following the arrival of European settlers.

Juan Gonzalez gave a statement from the Mayan elders that the world is not going to end on Dec. 21, 2012, despite false claims by some non-Mayan people to that effect. "The world already ended for us in 1492" when Columbus arrived, said Gonzalez.

Mahtowin Munro explained some par-allels between the Palestinian and Native struggles and expressed solidarity with the people of Gaza. The assembled crowd listened intently to a statement from Leonard Peltier. Later, they marched through the streets of Plymouth to a rally at Plymouth Rock, described by Moona-

WW Photo: liZ gREEN

num James as a "monument to racism and repression." Other speakers included Tiokasin Ghosthorse, Rosalba Gonzalez, Anawon Weeden and Stephanie Adohi. A full audio of the program is available at tinyurl.com/ccxzg6t.

— WW Boston Bureau

From greetings sent by Leonard Pel-tier, imprisoned leader of the American Indian Movement, to the Day of Mourn-ing in Plymouth, Mass., on Nov. 22.

I’m saddened that we have to call this a Day of Mourning, but we must take every opportunity to remind this nation when it comes to keeping its word about treaties, about human rights, about the environment, about excess pollution — that it has failed miserably on all of those concerns. I also want to remind the ma-jor religions that speak about peace and love and brotherhood and are celebrat-

ing this thing called Thanksgiv-ing, that we, the Native people of this land, realistically overall have nothing to truly be thank-ful about regarding the arrival of the Pilgrims.

And I would also like to remind the major various reli-gions of this country that in all their teachings it says you reap what you sow. And if that is a true statement, if that is the law given by the Creator, then you have to only look around at the news of the day to see that that statement is coming to pass. This country is not keeping its solemn word under god that it gave regarding our treaties. And they don’t keep their own Scriptures that say not to bear false witness or lie. They’ve tried to keep us from honoring our fathers by destroying our culture. They violated their word where it says “thou shalt not kill,” violated every one of their commandments regarding our people in this land. And they will truly reap what they sow. ...

I want to encourage all the young peo-ple to always remember that your health and the health of the earth are the most important things that you possess. And that self-discipline is the most important thing that you can learn. And taking re-sponsibility for ourselves and our future is the most empowering thing that we can do. ... Educate yourself to our true history, educate yourself to what is really going on today, and educate yourself as to what needs to be done to make a better tomorrow for yourselves and your

children’s children, our future generations. ...

We need each other. If I am ever to be free, I need you. And the truth is, none of us is truly free right now, because any people who is afraid of their government is not free. We all need to be warriors of one. Each needs to know how to defend themselves on any level. And as I’ve

said before, we need to recapture the freedoms we’ve lost and protect the ones we still have.

In closing I want to encourage each and every one of you to stand up in your own way in whatever way you can for what’s right, try to right what’s wrong, and know that in my heart and in what-ever way I can help you, that I will be with you. We need each other, you need each other, and we need the help of all peoples to correct this great damage that is taking place throughout the earth. Our battle is not with a race, a people, or a color, our battle is with ignorance and greed that is ruling the governments of men today.

In the spirit of Crazy Horse and all those beautiful people who have stood up for what’s right in the past, and the ones standing up now, stay strong and support one another,

Your Friend Always and in All Ways,Leonard Peltier

Page 4 Dec. 6, 2012 workers.org

‘We are determined to get a fair contract’

Workers shut down port of oaklandBy Terri Kay Oakland, Calif.

“Picket line means don’t cross,” chant-ed striking Service Employees Local 1021 workers and their community supporters as they picketed all seven terminals at the Port of Oakland on Nov. 20. The workers had walked out in an unfair-labor-practices dispute with the port.

After 16 months of negotiations, over 220 SEIU electricians, clerical workers, security personnel and janitors decided they’d had enough and demanded that the port commis-sioners bargain with them in good faith. The port was pushing a concessionary contract.

Millie Cleveland, SEIU 1021 port field staff, says, “SEIU workers refuse to go back-wards, no takeaways. The workers want to remain above water and keep up with infla-tion. Once again workers had to withhold their labor to get the employers to under-stand how determined we are to get a fair contract.”

She talked about how “the strike was significant in that, with the support of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union, they were able to shut down all seven terminals.”

The workers’ picket lines were fortified by community supporters, including sizable numbers from Occupy Oakland. Other com-munity supporters included the Justice for Alan Blueford Coalition, Occupy San Fran-cisco and the Transport Workers Solidarity Committee. These extra numbers were sig-nificant. The picket lines had to be substan-tial in order to have the arbitrators declare a health and safety risk, which then allowed the ILWU workers to get paid, despite not crossing picket lines and not working.

It’s important to note that SEIU 1021 had just endorsed a resolution by the Jus-tice for Alan Blueford Coalition demanding that Oakland police officer Miguel Masso be fired and tried for the murder of Blueford, a Black youth killed last May. The Blueford Coalition, including Adam Blueford, father of the slain 18-year-old, was on the picket lines in solidarity and reciprocation. That is what solidarity looks like.

The strike also covered the Oakland air-port, but picketers did not attempt to shut down passenger travel.

The walkout was planned to last 24 hours, shutting down the afternoon shift as well. However, when the port commissioners saw the solidarity between the SEIU, ILWU and the community, they got Oakland May-or Jean Quan to step in and restart nego-

On the Picket Line By Sue Davis

Victory for Hot & crusty workersAt a press conference called by the Laundry Workers Center on Nov. 16, Hot &

Crusty workers announced that they will return triumphantly to their workplace at 63rd Street and Second Avenue on Dec. 17 after an 11-month struggle and a 56-day strike for their rights. Now represented by the Hot and Crusty Workers Association, the courageous immigrant workers won a historic, precedent-setting three-year contract that includes a wage increase, paid vacation and sick time, a union hiring hall, and seniority, grievance and arbitration procedures. Mahoma Lopez, who has worked at that H&C shop for seven years, said this struggle was about “workers having a chance to be leaders.” He noted that the workers are especially excited about the hiring hall because “now we can control who gets hired.” Lopez added that they were victorious because “we’ve received a lot of support!” That was affirmed by the numerous solidarity statements by union representatives who had rallied behind the struggle. The press conference ended with the chant: “There are no borders in the workers’ struggle! ¡La lucha trabaja-dora no tiene frontera!” A victory party for the workers and a fundraiser for the Laundry Workers Center will be held Nov. 29 at the Solidarity Center, 55 West 17th St., Manhattan, from 9 to 11 p.m. For more information, call 212-633-6646.

Thanks to WWP labor activist Anne Pruden for her report on the press conference.

bakers’ strike exposes Hostess mismanagementThe bakers who make Twinkies and Wonder Bread went on strike Nov. 9 to

protest draconian concessions demanded by Hostess Brands. But the company, already in bankruptcy, retaliated Nov. 16 by filing to liquidate and throw 18,500 workers out of work. Hostess claimed the strike forced them to shut their doors, which corporate media have reported ad nauseam. But the Bakery Workers union (Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers) exposed the real reason: the company is drowning in debt — after years of flagrant misman-agement and an earlier bankruptcy. The bosses were so brazen, they gave them-selves huge bonuses only days before the second bankruptcy. But the bakers refused to bail them out as they had done before. According to David B. Durkee, the union secretary-treasurer, the workers were advised that they would be “fac-ing liquidation in 12 to 16 months from now, even if we took more concessions.” (New York Times, Nov. 20) After the bankruptcy judge ordered mediation Nov. 19 between Hostess and the union, he agreed Nov. 21 to let the company sell off its brands to the highest bidders for an estimated $1 billion. (Bloomberg News, Nov. 26) And many baking companies, including Pepperidge Farm, Flower Foods and Grupo Bimbo, as well as financial investors, are eager to buy the pop-ular brands. But what will happen to the workers and their unions? Stay tuned.

car washers strike in bronx, N.Y.After not being paid for three weeks, more than a dozen workers at the Sunny

Day Car Wash in the Bronx, N.Y., walked off the job Nov. 11. Later that day they were fired. After consulting workers at the nearby Webster Car Wash, who had just joined the Department Store union (RWDSU), the mostly immigrant workers called an unfair-labor-practice strike on Nov. 13 to demand back pay, their jobs and union recognition. “We’re tired of this. We’re working in the cold. We need money to pay our rent,” Nelson Aquino told the Nov. 13 Daily News. Aquino earns $5.50 an hour plus tips drying cars. “Even when they give us a check, it bounces because there’s no funds.” This was the first strike in the WASH New York campaign, a joint effort of Make the Road New York and New York Communities for Change, supported by RWDSU. With 5,000 low-wage, mostly immigrant workers at more than 200 car washes in New York City, the industry is known for exploiting its workforce, paying below minimum wages and not paying overtime. Workers at two car washes voted overwhelmingly to join RWDSU in September.

NY times workers fight cutbacksPrint and digital workers at the New York Times, including writers, and other

editorial and administrative staff represented by The Newspaper Guild of New York, Communication Workers Local 31003, voted to ratify a three-year con-tract on Nov. 13. During a 21-month struggle, which included several public statements (saveourtimes.com) and a picket line on Oct. 25, the workers battled major concessions on wages, pensions and health benefits. The Sept. 24 open letter to management called the cutbacks “untenable and destructive.” Like many newspapers in the U.S., the NYT has been losing money for years, a com-bination of sharply reduced advertising and subscription revenue, and millions spent developing its website. Adopting capitalism’s worst anti-worker tactics in this dead-end economic crisis, management tried to make the workers pay, while lavishing generous salaries and bonuses on top-tier management, which the Guild denounced. The new contract retains a defined benefit pension plan, increased overall compensation and, for the first time, a bonus plan starting in 2014. (NYT, Nov. 14) This is yet another example of why it pays to fight back.

American Sugar fined for safety violationsThe 1,300 highly skilled workers at American Crystal Sugar, located in Iowa,

Minnesota and North Dakota, have been locked out for 15 months because the bosses refuse to pay them a fair wage and want to break their union. Mean-while, ACS hired untrained replacement workers. No wonder inspectors from Iowa’s Occupational Safety and Health Enforcement division issued nearly $50,000 in fines Oct. 9 after finding serious safety violations — a dangerous buildup of combustible sugar dust. That’s what caused a 2008 explosion at Imperial Sugar in Port Wentworth, Ga., which killed 14 workers. To support the workers, sign a petition demanding that ACS immediately end the lockout at tinyurl.com/d9yhymu.

tiations. After returning to negotiations on Nov. 23, SEIU staff member Cleveland said they are “attempting to bargain and addressing some concepts, but are still far apart, returning to negotiations Monday.” She pointed out that the strike committee “continues to meet.”

Why picket lines must be respectedWorkers World asked Clarence Thomas,

ILWU Local 10, about why the longshore workers risked a day’s pay by not crossing the SEIU picket lines. He told this reporter that Local 10, Local 34 and Local 91, repre-senting longshore workers, clerks and walk-ing bosses, respectively, all refused to cross the lines. Thomas explained the ILWU’s strong history of not crossing picket lines. In recent years that included a community picket to protest the killing of people bring-ing humanitarian supplies to Gaza and Oc-cupy Oakland’s two port shutdowns in 2011.

Thomas explained that the ILWU is “one of the most democratic and militant organi-zations, which understands the importance of class unity. … We were keenly aware of the situation with SEIU and their being without a contract. The strike was their decision. We don’t allow the sanctity of the contract to be used as a subterfuge to undermine worker unity.”

Thomas quoted from the ILWU’s Ten Guiding Principles. He said that item four, “To help any worker in distress,” must be “a daily guide in the life of every trade union and its individual members. Labor solidar-ity means just that. Unions have to accept the fact that solidarity of labor stands above all else, including even the so-called sanctity of contract. We cannot adopt for ourselves the policies of union leaders who insist that because they have a contract, their members are compelled to perform work, even behind a picket line. Every picket line must be re-spected as if it were our own.”

Thomas went on to say: “What’s missing today is that kind of labor solidarity. The in-terests that the port represents are those of the shipping companies, its customers, steve-doring companies and capital, not the work-ers, in my opinion. What’s not talked about is the impact of the SEIU Local 1021 strike on the shipping companies, Walmart, and other global retailers, as opposed to the focus on in-dependent truckers losing a day’s pay.”

He then quoted from Frederick Douglass: “There is no progress without struggle.”

Thomas summed up: “The ILWU has a living history. We are teaching our young-er members how to contribute to that rich historical legacy by learning the lessons for working-class unity.”

Pending grain lockout or strikeA major grain contract with ILWU work-

ers in the Pacific Northwest is set to expire on Nov. 28 after months of negotiations. The employers are demanding a highly con-cessionary agreement, like the one forced on ILWU workers in Longview, Wash., last January. “The companies that operate the NW Pacific grain terminals,” said Thomas, “have presented their ‘last, best, and final offer.’” It is one that ILWU workers will be very reluctant to accept.

ILWU Local 8 members in Portland are already organizing for picket duty. Portland and Seattle Occupy activists are preparing to support the workers if the ILWU strikes or is locked out. How this struggle will play out will be significant for longshore and oth-er workers, given the militant history of the ILWU and the extreme concessions being demanded by the grain companies.

ence and gathered for a photograph, hold-ing up a boldly lettered “Free CeCe” sign.

CeCe McDonald is a transwoman of color jailed for her act of self-defense against white supremacist and neo-Nazi attackers. A 2011 report from the National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs states that violence against LGBT people is increasing, and notes that of those murdered in the previous year, 70 percent were people of color, while 44 percent were transgender women. (avp.org)

With chants and cheers, the activists drowned out a right-wing street preacher spouting brimstone threats of damnation across the street. Then, as their final act to mark Trans* Remembrance Week (Nov. 12-20), activists shouted out: “Free CeCe!”

Continued from page 2

Syracuse passes trans rights bill

workers.org Dec. 6, 2012 Page 5

Walmart •Haunted by the specter of union organizing

Why Walmart is vulnerable to workers’ organizingExcerpted from a talk by Dante

Strobino, an organizer with United Electrical Workers, at the WWP Nation-al Conference on Nov. 17. He was in El-wood, Ill., during the Walmart workers’ strike and rally.

Walmart, the world’s largest private sector employer, has been entirely union-free in the United States since its found-ing in Arkansas 50 years ago. The labor movement has launched many campaigns against the company for two decades. But until recently, Walmart had never seen workers’ actions with such a national char-acter, affecting all levels of their operations.

The key to Walmart’s success has been getting low-cost goods to customers quick-ly. This is what makes it so vulnerable to work stoppages in the global supply chain.

Workers have been organizing in the logistics industries that supply the goods between California and New Jersey ports, and in the massive warehousing hub out-side Chicago. The city transports half the nation’s rail freight and is the world’s third-largest container port.

Organizers agree on the disproportion-ate power warehouse workers have to dis-rupt the company’s just-in-time supply chain. Seventy percent of Walmart’s im-ported products travel through the distri-bution center in Elwood, Ill.

Workers have also been organizing re-tail stores countrywide. Most of this orga-nizing is done with a new model, as in the unorganized U.S. South, not demanding immediate union recognition, but allow-ing workers to build power.

Unorganized workers are organizing in four links in Walmart’s global sup-ply chain – food production, processing, warehousing and retail. Transportation and port workers are largely organized.

From Louisiana immigrant “guest” shrimp workers striking over forced la-bor and wage theft to California ware-house workers walking out and marching 50 miles from Riverside to Los Angeles, Walmart workers are fighting back.

The Warehouse Workers for Justice Campaign, led by United Electrical Work-ers and Change to Win, has been organiz-ing Chicagoland warehouses for almost three years. Seventy percent of them em-ploy temporary workers rather than di-rect hires.

WWJ has seen short checks, unpaid overtime, forced work off the clock and other abuses in these warehouses. Some workers sleep in foreclosed homes and tents because they cannot afford rent.

In March, WWJ organized a public hearing on International Women’s Day on wage theft and rampant sexual harass-ment of women warehouse workers there, as bosses have no accountability.

In late September, WWJ organized a workers’ march through Elwood’s ware-house to deliver demands to the boss, who chased them with a forklift. Then, 38 loading dock workers struck against un-fair labor practices for three weeks.

At the strike’s end, thousands attended a mass rally on Oct. 1. There, 17 commu-nity, labor and clergy supporters were ar-rested during a civil disobedience action blocking the road so trucks couldn’t enter the warehouse. They forced Walmart to shut it down for the day, costing the com-pany millions of dollars.

Fired workers were reinstated and all strikers won three weeks’ full back pay.

On Oct. 9, hundreds of retail store workers in 12 states struck for two days. November has seen a walkout at an Ennis, Tex., Walmart, and a sit-in and strike at a Richmond, California store.

OUR Walmart campaign is organizing retail workers backed by the United Food and Commercial Workers Union. Work-ers allege that Walmart has responded to their efforts with the same hardball tactics it perfected in past anti-union campaigns.

Workers report legal intimidation, like mandatory “captive audience” meetings bashing OUR Walmart, and illegal retali-ation, like firing key supporters. Walmart denies breaking the law. Such retaliation is the impetus for the strike wave. Striking over alleged crimes offers workers great-er legal protection against permanent re-placement.

OUR Walmart brought 200 striking Walmart workers from 28 stores in 12 states to a shareholders’ meeting in Ben-tonville, Ark., on Oct. 10.

A Walmart memo leaked to the Huff-ington Post confirms the seriousness with which the company views the strikes, re-vealing organized labor’s power when it taps into strong community support, uti-lizes social networks, and engages in di-rect action.

The campaign plans mass actions – flash mobs, sit-ins, leafleting and walk-outs — at Walmart stores on “Black Fri-day,” the year’s busiest shopping day.

Low-wage workers are winning and

building power. Walmart workers have already won some local grievances. The most dramatic concessions have been made to warehouse workers, not retail. For example, WWJ won over $1 million in stolen wages for Chicago-area ware-house workers.

Once low-wage workers take down Walmart, there will be a huge shift in or-ganizing all unorganized workers from coast to coast, North to South.

By Teresa Gutierrez Secaucus, N.J.

The capitalist 1% class is trembling at the specter of a union victory at Walmart, the largest multinational corporation in the world. On Black Friday, the busiest shopping day of the year, shoppers did not just find cheap goods. They encoun-tered some class truth.

In more than 1,000 stores in 46 states, a multitude of actions took place. They in-cluded not just community and labor sup-port but strike actions by many Walmart employees.

This is historic and in some ways unprecedented. It could signal a turn-ing point of struggle in the midst of a deep economic crisis. Workers here and abroad face an unparalleled assault and for the most part are on the defensive. But Walmart could be a sign that workers are going on the offensive.

Here in Secaucus, N.J., several hun-dred community, labor and Occupy Wall Street activists gathered at the Walmart store. Several tactics were used, includ-ing mic checks inside the store, leafleting shoppers, pickets in front of the store and on the sidewalk for passersby to see, and the ever popular Rude Mechanical Or-chestra, which marched up and down in front of the store playing union songs.

Activists boldly gathered inside the store to chant and talk about the goals of OUR Walmart, before being brusquely es-

corted out by guards. Shoppers not only stopped to take cellphone pictures of the protests but listened to their message.

The issues of low wages, cuts in benefits and lack of respect and dignity on the job had to resonate with them. After all, you don’t shop at Walmart if you are making a quarter of a million dollars a year.

Certainly the owners of Walmart don’t need to shop there. The Walton family has accumulated as much wealth as the bottom 40 percent of the people in this country combined — a whopping $73 bil-lion to $89 billion!

New Jersey shoppers smiled as they took pro-testers’ pictures. So did some of the workers on the job. Outside, drivers honked their horns in support.

Walmart attempted to dismiss the signif-icance of the Friday actions. Yet the week before, the megacorpo-ration had requested that the National Labor Relations Board issue an injunction against the protests — in flagrant violation of the right to or-ganize and in step with their countless retaliatory measures against the workers.

With each passing day, the possibili-ty of organizing a union at Walmart be-

comes stronger. Workers in right-to-work states like Texas, Florida and Tennessee are joining workers in more liberal areas as they walk out and go on strike, many all alone.

Great opportunity for class struggle

U.S. workers are fed up. A flame has been lit that could burst into fire worldwide.

Walmart workers had to contend with the threat that they would be fired if they participated in the strike. The common prac-tice at Walmart is that when workers complain about working condi-tions, bosses make their schedules chaotic, cut their hours or fire them. Yet many did strike on Black Friday. In Califor-nia some participated in civil disobedience that brought arrests.

Walmart is a megacor-poration bigger than Exx-on or Bank of America. It counts on retaliation,

abuse and temping out work to maintain its low-wage work force. It counts on ware-house workers to distribute cheap goods imported from abroad. It’s the warehouse workers who opened this recent struggle and lit the union flame.

Walmart is the largest employer of

Black and Latino/a workers in this coun-try, who experience brutal racism both on the job and in their communities. They are ripe for organizing. In 2011, Walmart was forced to settle a lawsuit brought by workers in California who had been called “f—-ing wetbacks” and were told that “Mexicans are only good for cleaning homes.” Even some with legal status were threatened with deportation. The Wal-tons give generously to anti-immigrant politicians and campaigns.

A Black pharmacist who blew the whis-tle on Walmart for dumping expired drugs at a store in an impoverished Black com-munity was fired. Several West African workers filed a lawsuit against Walmart after their bosses told them too many Af-ricans worked in the Colorado store.

But history is on the side of the Walmart workers. In the 1920s and 30s, companies like Walmart counted on threats and in-timidation to deny workers their rights. Goons beat and intimidated workers, try-ing to break their struggles. But unions began to thrive and the government had to make concessions, like a national jobs program.

The masses at that time organized for themselves in a genuine people’s assem-bly movement, providing food for the hungry and money for rent, much the way Occupy Sandy is doing today.

The campaign at Walmart provides a great opportunity for class struggle. Let’s take it.

workers, protested outside a Walmart in Paramount, Calif. Nine were arrested. Some 400 workers, unionists and other activists demonstrated outside a Walmart Superstore in Hanover, Md.

Protests were held at Walmart stores in several other cities in the Bay Area, including Richmond, San Leandro, San

Pablo and San Jose, as well as in Chica-go; St. Paul, Minn.; Landover Hills, Md.; and in several cities in Colorado, Florida, Kentucky, North Carolina and Texas. One of the largest demonstrations was held at the Walmart store in Secaucus, N.J.

Ray Duprey and Terri Kay also con-tributed to this article.

Continued from page 1

WW PhotoS: g. DUNkElSecaucus, Nov 23.

Walmart workers on the rise

Page 6 Dec. 6, 2012 workers.org

Workers World Party conference Workers World Party conference .

‘We’ve achieved much this year’

WW Photo: g. DUNkElEva Panjwani

youth panel focuses on capitalism and police terror

WW Photo: FACEBook/DANtE StRoBiNoYouth and students meet and strategize during WWP conference.

Following are excerpts from a wel-coming talk given by Eva Panjwani at the Nov. 17-18 Workers World Party con-ference in New York City. Panjwani is a member of the Durham WWP branch.

It would be easy to make our assess-ment of the year 2012 as a major year of fightback against repression. After all, 2012 is the year of Trayvon Martin and Alan Blueford, two innocent young men of color gunned down in the streets.

2012 is the year of the struggle around the arrest of CeCe McDonald, an Afri-can-American transwoman harassed, as-saulted and imprisoned in Minnesota.

2012 is a year of countless austerity measures and cuts. It is the year the stu-dent debt bubble passed $1 trillion.

The U.S. election cycle yet again put re-productive rights on the chopping block.

We see in 2012 the drone strikes on Ye-men, and the fresh new attacks on Gaza.

It is the year of the superstorm Hur-ricane Sandy, showing us what happens when a society is structured around profit instead of people’s needs.

On the eve of my 25th birthday, I am reminded again of the words of my late father.

The night of my 18th birthday, my fa-ther told me, “Always be proud of who you are and what you have achieved.” Born in Pakistan to a Burmese mother and a Bengali father with Persian and In-dian roots, being proud of who I am has always been about remembering where I come from. Many of my fellow first- and second-generation immigrants know the pressures of working so hard to maintain a model minority or immigrant identity.

But there is also an immense pressure to succeed.

I often find myself thinking about the last part of my dad’s words. In a capitalist society, success is so often measured by how much money you make, how many letters are behind your name, how much you can assimilate into the hierarchal so-ciety. In my third year of college in North Carolina, I lost the funding for my full merit scholarship and have not been in school since that time.

Growing up in a family that pushed me to be smart, to be educated, to have a de-gree, this was a very difficult time for me. I felt aimless, without a family, without a community, without a direction for my future.

I felt I had failed my father. I found myself even more drawn to activism and community organizing. Ever since I was in high school, organizing had been an outlet to speak out, to use my voice, to be proud of who I am. All of a sudden it was a source of not just community, but true respect for my experiences, for the work I do, even for my intellect.

I started working with the Raleigh chapter of FIST — Fight Imperialism, Stand Together — and became closer with the folks who are now my comrades. I couldn’t be more proud to be a member of Workers World Party, a truly multination-al organization with so many role models for a young woman of color.

Under capitalism, it was considered a success or an achievement for me to survive, to be able to clothe and feed and house myself.

But after studying more seriously al-ternative models of organizing societies, I now see that we should all be given the tools needed to survive. But also, I see that I have achieved much. I am an organizer, a mentor; I am out and proud of being Mus-lim and queer; I am in a party that affirms my identity; I have survived homeless-ness; I have survived nights in domestic violence shelters; I have survived the loss of my father; and I have achieved knowing my purpose, knowing my voice.

So when we look back at the year 2012, I ask you to remember the words of Ro-shan Panjwani, to always be proud of who you are and what you have achieved. This year, our struggle has achieved the inspir-ing strikes of the Chicago public school teachers, followed by the freedom fight-ers doing actions at Walmarts. Our Party has been instrumental in challenging the resegregation of Boston schools. We have been at the forefront of public speakouts against police brutality and repression in Baltimore.

And this September in Charlotte, N.C., we pulled off one of our Party’s major mobilizations — pouring months of organizing and outreach into helping build the Coalition to March on Wall Street South. In building in the seat of the Southeast financial capital, in an an-ti-union state, we didn’t just pull off a successful march of over 2,000 people, we woke the sleeping giant of communi-ty organizing in Charlotte.

Right before the Democratic Nation-al Convention, we put on the 1st Annual Marxist School of Theory and Struggle, grounding our work with a revolutionary analysis, while simultaneously building the Party. We have achieved much, and we must be proud of who we are, because who you are is the global movement against capitalism, and who you are is my family.

By Tachae Davis New York

Workers World Party held its annual national conference here this year at a Native community center. Members of numerous organizations, all part of the working class, attended and gave speech-es of solidarity and information riddled with passion.

Among the many speakers were youth — tired of the dead-end offerings of capi-talism — who took to the streets to stand up for workers and organize in their own communities.

Cameron Aviles, founder of Building Revolutionary Conscious Knowledge, opened the conference with a poem he wrote. Summer Smith, of the Revolution-ary Students Union in Utah, and Dinae Anderson, a high school organizer in New York, were among the many speakers, in-

cluding this writer, who participated in a panel on why we joined WWP.

The many failings of capitalism have become a painful truth that youth can no longer turn away from. At a separate work-shop panel catering to youth, the many issues we face were discussed in small groups after we introduced ourselves and the organizations we belonged to.

Highlighted speakers were Zaina Al-sous, from the North Carolina Student Power Union and WWP Durham branch, and Shannon X, from the Baltimore People’s Assembly and WWP Baltimore branch. Topics discussed were police brutality, race relations, spreading con-sciousness and building people’s power.

The root concern that seemed to be the common thread in all the issues discussed was the increasing rate of police brutal-ity. Ideas were then formulated on how to raise awareness through a change of

language, like referring to “police brutal-ity” as “police terrorism,” and informing people of the many legal and illegal tac-tics that police are using to carry out these terrorist acts in communities nationally. Through this information, a local organi-zation that people can become involved in — be they victims of police terror or just those concerned — can be formed.

Another major step toward organizing was networking youth organizations that are now working together nationally to keep each other updated on events and community issues as they arise. WWP national youth fraction conference calls are a major part of keeping together and spreading consciousness. The calls are conducted from Durham, N.C. For inqui-ries on youth fraction conference calls, contact wwyouth@workers.org.

Tachae Davis is one of the newest members of the Detroit WWP branch.

workers.org Dec. 6, 2012 Page 7

Workers World Party conference Workers World Party conference .

Global crisis needs global fightbackBy Monica Moorehead New York

Revolutionary communists and activ-ists filled the hall of a beautiful Indigenous community center in Manhattan Nov. 17-18 for the annual national conference of Workers World Party. The theme of this year’s two-day gathering was “Beyond the 2012 Elections: How to Get Back to the Struggle vs. the 1%.”

Several hundred party members, friends and allies traveled to this city from the West Coast, the South, New England and everywhere in between for the confer-ence. Hundreds more observed the con-ference via live stream. At least a third of the participants were under 35 years old, helping to fill the conference with revolu-tionary energy and optimism. WWP Sec-retariat members Sara Flounders, Fred Goldstein, Deirdre Griswold, Teresa Guti-errez, Larry Holmes and Monica Moore-head spoke on various panels.

The opening plenary session set the overall political tone for the conference, with a major focus on the worldwide cap-italist economic crisis and the need for global struggle and solidarity. Gutierrez, an organizer with the May 1 Coalition for Worker and Immigrant Rights, and Larry Hales, a WW contributing editor, both gave motivational remarks on why People’s Power Assemblies are import-ant and timely to challenge capitalist rule. Goldstein, author of “Capitalism at a Dead End,” spoke on the relationship between Marxist theory and practice. Holmes, WWP First Secretary and International Action Center co-director, spoke about the need to take the class struggle to a higher political level, including develop-ing a global fightback perspective.

Eva Panjwani, a new member of the Durham, N.C., WWP branch and an orga-nizer of the Sept. 1 March on Wall Street South (MOWSS), gave a moving welcome address. Tova Klein, from the San Fran-cisco branch, chaired and read a WWP statement in solidarity with the people of Gaza who are resisting the latest round of Israeli terrorist bombing. Klein, who is Jewish, was born in occupied Palestine.

Building People’s Power

The theme of the second plenary was “Fightback and Solidarity.” Speakers in-cluded Ayende Ignacio Alcala, an Occu-py Charlotte and MOWSS activist; Raul Jimenez, an organizer with the Farm La-

bor Organizing Committee in North Car-olina; WWP national organizer Sharon Black and Southern Christian Leadership Conference Baltimore Chapter President Rev. Cortly “C.D.” Witherspoon, both representing the Baltimore People’s As-sembly; North Carolina Student Power Union and MOWSS organizer Ben Car-roll and United Electrical Workers Local 150 organizer Dante Strobino, both from the Durham branch; long-time United Auto Workers member Martha Grevatt and Moratorium Now! organizer Mi-chael Shane, Detroit branch members; Steve Kirschbaum, former vice president of Steelworkers Local 8751 and Boston WWP member; and Eric Struch, Chicago branch member and WW writer.

Issues raised in the plenary included struggles against police brutality and rac-ist repression; Walmart and low wages; student tuition hikes and debt; resegre-gation as well as the significance of the Chicago teachers’ strike; and the need for a shorter work week. Cathey Stanley, from the Durham branch, chaired and read a statement from long-time WWP member and “Stone Butch Blues” author Leslie Feinberg, which included solidarity with CeCe McDonald, an imprisoned Af-rican-American transwoman.

A resolution was passed by the confer-ence affirming to continue the struggle for freedom of all U.S. political prisoners, in-cluding Mumia Abu-Jamal, Leonard Pel-tier, the Cuban Five and Lynne Stewart.

The third plenary focused on “Hurri-canes Katrina, Sandy: Climate Crisis, Cap-italism and Socialism.” The speakers were WW managing editor LeiLani Dowell; Deirdre Griswold, WWP founding mem-ber and WW editor; Imani Henry, a WWP national organizer and co-founder of Rainbow Flags for Mumia; WWP youth organizer and Occupy Wall Street activist Caleb Maupin; Betsey Piette, a represen-tative of the Philadelphia WWP branch; and Brenda Stokely, a leader of the Mil-lion Worker March Movement and a founder of New York Solidarity Commit-tee for Katrina Survivors. Peter Gilbert, from the Durham branch and an activist in the struggle against environmental rac-ism, chaired the plenary.

Need for a fighting party

The theme of the fourth plenary was “Workers World across the Decades: In-tergenerational Stories on What It Means to Be a Revolutionary.” This panel fea-tured four members of the WWP youth fraction: Dinae Anderson from New York, Tachae Davis from Detroit, Andy Koch from Durham and Summer Smith from Salt Lake City. Other speakers were John Parker, a leader of the Los Angeles WWP branch and West Coast coordinator of the IAC, and Monica Moorehead, a WW managing editor and editor of “Marx-ism, Reparations and the Black Freedom Struggle.” The speakers summarized their unique paths to joining WWP.

The fifth plenary titled “Wars without End and the Need for Internationalism” focused on the struggles against impe-rialism and austerity, including South Africa, Palestine, Venezuela, Iran, China and Europe. The panelists were Abayomi Azikiwe, a Detroit WWP member and Pan African News Wire editor; Kazem Azin, an organizer with Solidarity with Iran; John Catalinotto, WW managing editor; Berta Joubert-Ceci, Philadelphia WWP organizer and Mundo Obrero edi-tor; Bill Dores, New York WWP member and vice chairperson of external affairs of the International League of People’s Struggle; Berna Ellorin, secretary-gener-al of BAYAN-USA; Sara Flounders, IAC co-director and author of “War Without Victory;” and Fred Goldstein. The panel was chaired by Dianne Mathiowetz from the Atlanta branch.

The final plenary session was chaired by Julie Fry, a member of the New York Ed-ucational Committee. Featured talks were given by Detroit branch member Jerry Goldberg on party building and a sum-mation by Larry Holmes. “This confer-ence was mainly organized by young peo-ple. They basically told us when we were speaking,” Holmes stated. The conference ended with the singing of the “Interna-tional” in English and Spanish and chants.

The conference included three work-shops: one for youth activists, an intro-ductory guide to Marxism and revolu-tionary potential in communications and information. Organized by the WWP youth fraction, break-out groups around the theme “Fightbacks and Building Peo-ple’s Power” were held on the issues of labor and organizing against austerity; Occupy: What is it now and where will it go from here; repression and brutality: vigilantism, detentions, police murders; and anti-war and international solidarity.

Two open-mike sessions included a solidarity message from Mick Kelly, of the Freedom Road Socialist Organization, whose members have been targeted by FBI repression; and René Imperato, ac-tivist in the WWP Committee for People with Disabilities. Cultural presentations were performed by Cameron Aviles from the Durham branch and Steve Gillis, Steve Kirschbaum and Frank Neisser from the Boston branch.

Following the conference, many of the participants joined their Palestinian sis-ters and brothers at a Times Square pro-test against the U.S.-backed Israeli bomb-ing of Gaza.

Breakout group on labor and austerity issues, Nov. 17. WW Photo: g. DUNkEl

WW PhotoConference plenary in session.

Page 8 Dec. 6, 2012 workers.org

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Bangladesh fire kills 120 workers

What’s the Walmart connection?By Kathy Durkin

What is the value of workers’ lives un-der global capitalism? Once again, Ban-gladeshi garment workers have been sac-rificed on the altar of capitalist profits.

A blazing inferno swept the Tazrin Fashion plant in Ashulia Savar, outside Dhaka, the capital, on Nov. 24, in possi-bly the country’s worst industrial fire. Lo-cal media reported that at least 120 died, mostly women. Hundreds were injured.

Two days later, thousands of outraged Bangladeshi workers and their support-ers demanded justice as they marched through Savar. They blocked streets, threw rocks at factories, smashed vehicles and blocked a major highway. More than 500 factories were forced to close as the protests grew larger and more militant.

This terrible tragedy could have been averted if safety measures had been im-plemented. Most who perished were trapped inside the multistory plant, where there were no staircases or emer-gency exits leading outside. Exits and gates were locked. Managers barred workers from leaving their workstations. At least 12 people died when they jumped

to escape the flames.Clothing manufacturing plants are no-

toriously dangerous workplaces. Since 2006, more than 500 Bangladeshi work-ers have died and thousands more were injured in scores of frequent garment fac-tory fires, says the anti-sweatshop group Clean Clothes Campaign.

There are more than 4,000 garment factories in the country, with 3.5 million workers. Many work places don’t con-form to basic safety standards, which have been enacted only due to labor unions’ demands.

The National Garment Workers Feder-ation, which fights for these workers and seeks to prevent these catastrophes, says that factory owners routinely flout safety regulations throughout the garment in-dustry. So too do many government offi-cials, as a large number have investments in these businesses.

Garment is the largest industry in the country, which is the second-biggest clothing exporter in the world. The Ban-gladeshi economy garners $20 billion a year from garment sales abroad, mostly to U.S. and European corporations, includ-ing Walmart, JC Penney and H&M. Tazrin

Fashion is owned by Tuba Group, which exports goods to Walmart, IKEA and Car-refour. Li & Fung of Hong Kong purchases garments from Tazrin for Walmart.

Walmart executives are equivocating about whether Tazrin produced goods for them. However, major media — with photographic evidence — report that “documents and logos” found in the fire’s debris showed the plant manufactured clothes for Walmart’s “Faded Glory” line.

Walmart is the largest purchaser of garments from Bangladesh, which pro-vides the lowest labor costs. It is the world’s largest private employer, noto-riously anti-union, denying its workers everywhere decent wages, working con-ditions and organizing rights.

Global capitalists cry crocodile tears

Who is to blame for this disaster? The company’s owners are immediately re-sponsible, for seeking to maximize their profits while devaluing the lives of their own work force. However, the transna-tional corporations that purchase goods at Tazrin and other factories cannot be let off the hook. Bangladeshi workers and unions lambast them for disregarding ba-

sic safety measures in the plants that sup-ply their stores.

Although the global capitalists cry croc-odile tears when a disaster happens and workers die, they do not insist on crucial preventive measures from either the gar-ment company owners or the manufac-turers’ entity, Bangladesh Garment Man-ufacturers and Exporters Association. In fact, the imperialists view the workers only as a means to earn super-profits by paying them low wages and by refusing to fund improvements in working condi-tions, including those that are life saving. If the workers die or are injured, they are replaceable, say corporate bosses.

It’s only the workers, their unions and allies who fight for safe working condi-tions. Earlier this year, 350 clothing fac-tories near Dhaka closed for a week as workers demanded better, safe working conditions, along with wage increases.

However, it’s the capitalists who are responsible for these needless worker deaths, another major reason why this brutal system must be replaced by so-cialism, which puts human lives first and assigns the profit motive to the dustbin of history.

Mining and military interests underlie Congo warBy Abayomi Azikiwe Editor, Pan-African News Wire

The continuing conflict in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo’s North Kivu province led to convening a regional summit in Kampala, Uganda, in late No-vember. The March 23 rebel organization had taken control of the town of Goma and other areas in this mineral-rich area of the country.

M23 Commander Sultani Makenga, a former member of the Congolese Defense Forces (FARDC), says he will halt M23 operations if the central government of President Joseph Kabila negotiates an ac-ceptable settlement.

Most observers, including the United Nations, believe that M23 is supported by the Rwandan government of President Paul Kagame. Washington supported Kagame and his group even before they took power in Rwanda.

Rwanda, Uganda and Burundi have intervened militarily, politically and eco-nomically in the eastern DRC for many years. Between 1998 and 2003, a war against the attempted annexation of the east of the country, as well as a plot aimed at regime change, was waged against the government in Kinshasa, then led by Lau-rent Kabila, father of the current president.

The Southern African Development Community military commission inter-vened under the leadership of Zimbabwe in August 1998. Zimbabwe, along with

troops from Namibia and Angola, halted the movement westward and south by the then-Congolese Democratic Rally (RCD), a rebel group established and coordinat-ed by Rwanda and Uganda with the assis-tance of Burundi.

Millions of people were reportedly killed during the 1998-2003 war and sub-sequent conflicts over the following years.

The current conflict is viewed as rooted in the breakdown in relations between the DRC and its Rwandan and Ugandan neigh-bors over the last year. Although Rwanda and Uganda have denied any involvement or support for the M23 rebels, much docu-mented proof exists of repeated interven-tions by these U.S.-backed regimes.

Despite the fact that the U.S., the Euro-pean Union and the United Nations have called for a halt to the conflict, mining firms based in North America and Europe have substantial interests in the region, which is a source of coltan, copper, cobalt and other strategic resources. The U.S. and NATO continue to rely on the role played by the military forces of Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi in carrying out their aims in East and Central Africa.

Mineral firms and imperialist militarism

Since the late 19th century, Congo has been a major hub for the extraction of natural resources that earned tre-mendous profits for the world capitalist economy. From the Belgian rubber plan-tations of the colonial period to the unreg-

ulated looting of coveted minerals in the 21th century, this region has monumental attraction for transnational corporations and international financial institutions.

It is estimated that the DRC contains $24 trillion in mineral deposits that are yet to be extracted. The world’s largest reserves of cobalt and large quantities of diamonds, gold and copper are located inside Congo, particularly in the east and the south.

During the occupation of the eastern region by the RCD rebels in the late 1990s and early 2000s, the Rwandan- and Ugandan-backed group was paid $1 mil-lion per month to provide coltan to min-ing firms. As of 2011, at least 25 interna-tional mining firms were involved in the exploitation of the resources in the DRC.

These firms are based in Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, South Afri-ca, the United States and other countries. Two leading firms from the U.S. — Cen-tury Aluminum and Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold — are well aware of the source and conditions under which these resources are extracted.

U.S. and Canadian firms are respon-sible for mining more than two-thirds of Congolese copper and cobalt. In July 2010, the U.S. Congress passed the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, including Section 1502, ostensibly designed to create transparen-cy in the mining industry. (International Crisis Group Report, Jan. 18)

Nonetheless, the legislation has come

under criticism because of its failure to halt the massive looting, environmental damage and resultant conflict in the min-ing sector in the DRC. According to the International Crisis Group, “The Dodd-Frank Act disclosure also does not ban or penalize the use of conflict minerals.”

In the southern regional province of Katanga, the Glencore firm has come un-der criticism for its use of child labor and environmental crimes. A documentary re-leased by the BBC in April probed Glen-core’s use of children as young as 10 to work in the company’s mining operations.

Allegations were also made that Glen-core allowed the dumping of acid into a river located near its facilities. The firm says it has inherited mining practices that have been in effect for decades.

Glencore was originally known as Marc Rich & Co. Rich fled prosecution in the U.S. for $48 million unpaid taxes but was pardoned by Bill Clinton.

The role of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank is significant in these mining operations, since much of the capital is supplied by them for these profit-making ventures. Negotiations sur-rounding a debt-relief program broke down between the World Bank and the DRC in 2010 when the Canadian government at-tempted to block the deal due to problems associated with the operation of two Cana-dian mining firms inside the country.

The vast reservoir of minerals in East and Central Africa is of course linked to the rising militarism of the Pentagon and NATO in this region. The Obama ad-ministration has increased funding for the U.S. Africa Command and raised the number of CIA personnel in the region.

There are U.S. Special Forces and ad-visers deployed in the DRC, Uganda, the Central African Republic and South Su-dan. Drone operations continue in Soma-lia, Ethiopia and the Seychelles.

With recent findings of oil and natural gas throughout East and Central Africa, the involvement of transnational corpora-tions, international banks and the imperi-alist military forces will inevitably escalate.

Name _____________________ Phone ______________________

Address _________________ City/ State/ Zip __________________

Email: _________________________________________________

workers.org Dec. 6, 2012 Page 9

Cease-fire halts israeli assault; gaza struggle unresolved

Condemnation of israel goes global

egypt erupts over Morsi power grab

By David Sole

A cease-fire agreement went into effect in battle-scarred Gaza on Nov. 21. After a week of heavy bombing raids and missile attacks by the Israeli armed forces that killed more than 160 Palestinians and wounded over 1,000, mainly civilians, Is-rael and the elected Hamas government of Gaza agreed to end hostilities. The gov-ernment of Egypt, with the participation of U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, brokered the agreement.

Before the truce, it had appeared that Israeli troops and tanks would be enter-ing Gaza in a full-scale assault. But the Palestinians never relented in defending themselves. Almost 1,000 Palestinian short-range missiles replied to the Israeli bombardment. It was reported that six Is-raelis were killed.

Hamas fighters were also prepared to fight the Israelis on the ground in Gaza, an area about the size of Detroit. Most ob-servers agree that Hamas’ determination increased its prestige inside Palestine and internationally.

The BBC reported that “a shift in in-ternational support” away from Israel

deterred an Israeli ground invasion. Im-ages showing large numbers of Gaza’s ci-vilian casualties, especially children, had prompted mass demonstrations around the world. Public support inside Israel for this new attack on Gaza also waned as rockets fell throughout southern Is-rael, even reaching the outskirts of Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. Israel’s much-tout-ed “Iron Dome” anti-missile system was reported to have stopped only about one-third of the projectiles fired.

Israel also aroused international criti-cism when the Israeli military admitted it had purposely targeted a building hous-ing media in Gaza on Nov. 18, wounding eight journalists, one of whom needed his leg amputated.

Speculation is widespread as to the reasons behind the Israeli attack on Gaza. Some sources noted that it came before Israel’s elections. Others questioned whether it is only a practice run for an Is-raeli attack on Iran. The Palestine Libera-tion Organization’s scheduled application to the United Nations for recognition of Palestine as a nonmember state, set for Nov. 29, may also have been a factor.

Whatever the hidden causes, it is clear

that Israel did not carry out, and could not have carried out, such a large-scale operation without the approval of the U.S. government. President Barack Obama re-peated the tired mantra that “Israel has a right to defend itself” for the entire week that Israel slaughtered Palestinian civil-ians with weapons made in the U.S. and paid for by billions of dollars of U.S. mili-tary aid to the Zionist state.

Obama even promised more U.S. mon-ey for expanding the Iron Dome short-range anti-missile system, while con-tinuing to fund the Arrow and Arrow-3 medium-range system. A third anti-mis-sile system, said to thwart long-range missiles and called David’s Slings, is now being prepared. It is sure to cost U.S. tax-payers billions more.

The cease-fire itself is very ambiguous and fragile. While it called for an end to the major military attacks and targeted assassinations of Palestinian leaders, it failed to address the underlying problems of the people in Gaza.

Israelis still gun down civilians

Discussion is supposed to take place on the rigid restrictions placed on Palestin-

ians in regard to the border “buffer zone,” fishing rights and the strangling econom-ic blockade of the area imposed by Isra-el. When Palestinian farmers entered the buffer zone after the cease-fire, however, Israeli soldiers gunned them down, kill-ing one and injuring 25, according to the Gaza Ministry of Health. Despite the risk, Palestinian fisher people tested the cease-fire by sailing out past the restrictive 3-mile limit, without incident.

The Israeli government responded to the wide support for Gaza on the West Bank by arresting numerous Palestinian activists, mainly Hamas supporters. Four members of the Palestinian Parliament were among those jailed.

While Egypt used its influence with Hamas to win approval of the truce, President Mohamed Morsi’s future is un-certain. When Morsi unilaterally seized additional powers over the Egyptian gov-ernment on Nov. 23, this led to mass pro-tests across Egypt. Contending demon-strations of Morsi’s supporters and the opposition are expected on Nov. 27.

Long-term prospects for peace in Pal-estine remain grim in light of attitudes

By Betsey Piette

Within days of the start of Israel’s latest aerial offensive on the imprisoned people of the Gaza Strip, solidarity protests with the Palestinian people were held in over 300 cities worldwide. Demonstrations have continued since the Nov. 21 cease-fire agreement.

From New York to Chicago to Los An-geles, protests in the U.S. were marked by demands to end U.S. funding for Israel’s occupation of Palestine. Three demonstra-tions in San Diego, Calif., — two at the Fed-eral Building and another outside a Zion-ist event — called for justice for Palestine and the right of Palestinians to return to their homeland. Detroit-area demonstra-tors fighting massive foreclosure evictions denounced the billions of U.S. tax dollars sent to Israel, money that is funding the destruction of homes in Gaza. Activists from the Occupy Wall Street movement took part in demonstrations in over 50

U.S. cities, including several in the South. Jewish activists participated in many pro-tests with signs saying “Not in my name.”

In Athens, the anniversary of the dead-ly suppression of a 1973 student uprising turned into a massive anti-Israel demon-stration, with 120,000 people marching on the Israeli Consulate. In many Euro-pean cities rocked by earlier anti-auster-ity protests, tens of thousands filled the streets in solidarity with Palestine.

The corporate media’s one-sided pro-Israel coverage was the target of pro-tests in Scotland, where pro-Palestinian demonstrators also occupied the roof of the Scottish Parliament. Demonstrators also rallied outside CNN headquarters in Atlanta, Ga.

‘Todos somos palestina’Pro-Gaza sentiment was strong

throughout Latin America with protests outside Israeli and U.S. embassies. A com-mon banner was “Todos somos palestina”

— We are all Palestinians. Venezuela and Bolivia severed diplomatic ties with Israel as an act of solidarity with Gaza.

Demonstrators gathered in Seoul, south Korea, and Okinawa — where strug-gles against U.S. militarism have raged for half a century. Many protests took place in Southeast Asia. Bangkok youth held a “Stop the Killing” flash mob. Malay-sian youth wore T-shirts with the slogan “Save Gaza.” Indonesian Muslim students demonstrated outside the U.S. Embassy in Jakarta. Large protests for Gaza took place in Pakistan and Bangladesh.

Mass demonstrations also took place throughout India. In Kolkata, protesters organized by the International Anti-Im-perialist Coordinating Committee and the All Indian Anti-imperialist Forum burned effigies of Israeli Prime Minister Benja-min Netanyahu and his principal backer, President Barack Obama.

In many countries, sporting events were used to express solidarity with

Gaza. Soccer fans in Turkey, Bosnia and Chechnya unfurled banners in solidarity with Palestine. German-Turkish soccer players decorated uniforms with pro-Pal-estine slogans.

Throughout the Middle East and North-ern Africa, pro-Palestine solidarity rallies filled squares where anti-austerity demon-strations had marked the Arab Spring in 2011. Demonstrations took place in Egypt, Tunisia, Morocco, Iraq, Iran, Qatar, Jor-dan and Saudi Arabia. Algeria sent a cara-van of pharmaceutical aid to Gaza.

Protesters also gathered in many West Bank cities in occupied Palestine, includ-ing Jaffa, Haifa, Bethlehem and Ramal-lah. In Jerusalem, hundreds of Palestin-ians demonstrated with Hamas flags and chants against Operation Cloud Pillar and in support of rockets reaching Tel Aviv. Jewish anti-war activists in Tel Aviv pro-tested at the home of Israeli Defense Min-ister Ehud Barak with signs reading “Siege = Terror.”

By Abayomi Azikiwe Editor, Pan-African News Wire

Mass protests erupted across Egypt fol-lowing President Mohamed Morsi’s Nov. 22 announcement of a series of decrees that would further consolidate his admin-istration’s power over areas of law, the ju-diciary and the constitution. On Nov. 26, he met with leaders of the Supreme Ju-diciary Council in Cairo in an attempt to calm the atmosphere on the eve of sched-uled demonstrations both for and against his ruling.

But the Muslim Brotherhood an-nounced it was calling off its planned demonstration in support of Morsi in order to ease tensions. At the same time, a spokesperson for the president tried to soften the impact of his earlier announcement.

As Workers World explained in an ed-itorial last June 20, three main forces are contending for power in Egypt following the February 2011 overturn of President Hosni Mubarak. The best organized are (1) the remaining pro-Mubarak forces who are concentrated in the army, the police and the judiciary and (2) the Mus-lim Brotherhood leadership, which Morsi represents and which was in the opposi-tion during the Mubarak years.

Still out of any form of power are (3) the main mass forces behind the revolu-tion: the workers who struck, the unem-ployed and disillusioned youth who mo-bilized using the Internet, some Muslim Brotherhood rank and file who provided defense for the demonstration in Tahrir — in short, the Egyptian masses.

The secular, pro-socialist and anti-im-perialist organizations that represent the

workers’ needs do not have enough orga-nizational strength to rule on their behalf at this moment. The corporate media in-stead focus on bourgeois democratic po-litical leaders like Mohamed el-Baradei, who the imperialists can work with.

Both the reactionary state forces on one side and the secular democratic and pro-socialist forces on the other — from opposite perspectives — oppose a Muslim Brotherhood takeover.

Jurists, most of them holdovers from Mubarak’s reign, have threatened an in-definite strike over the new measures. Morsi claimed that he acted to expedite the charging and prosecution of those responsible for killing activists during the uprising of early 2011 that led to Mubarak’s ouster. This puts a popular face on his maneuver.

But the mass movement didn’t accept

this explanation. After widespread pro-tests in Cairo, Alexandria, Suez and the Nile delta, Morsi announced on Nov. 25 that the decrees would be temporary.

National protests condemn presidential actions

Clashes had occurred earlier in com-memoration of anti-military demonstra-tions one year ago that resulted in the massacre of civilians. Youth fought police in several areas of Cairo for several days leading up to Morsi’s announcement of the new decrees.

Some 10,000 people marched through Cairo’s Tahrir Square with the body of the latest youthful martyr to the revolution, Gaber Salah, 16, who died of head injuries sustained during clashes with police in earlier protests. Images of Salah began ap-

Continued on page 11

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Page 10 Dec. 6, 2012 workers.org

editorial

Free Private Manning!

Activists protest ‘Red Dawn,’ defend People’s Korea

rosa parks day events planned

WW Photo Rhode Island organizers after a planning meeting.

Sometimes a trial will throw a light upon the injustices inherent in an entire society. Such a trial is the

one scheduled for February 2013 that puts Army Pfc. B. Manning — a whis-tle-blower and a true friend of peace and justice — in danger of life imprisonment.

Imperialism is a social and economic system based on exploiting workers at its centers in the U.S., Europe and Japan and superexploiting workers in Asia, Af-rica, Latin America, the Middle East and of course also among peoples of color in the centers. Superexploitation, operated by neocolonial rule, breeds resistance from nearly every sector of the nations where it is in place. Thus, the imperialist ruling class maintains a gigantic military apparatus to suppress any resistance against imperialist rule, as in Afghani-stan, Iraq and Libya.

To succeed, modern imperialist war needs also to mobilize the exploited workers at its centers. They must at least accept these military adventures. Some of their youth must fight and die in them. So every kind of lie, distortion and racist expression is used to mobilize the work-ers at home to support these wars.

At the same time, the people are never permitted to see how, behind the scenes, governments and military brass work hand in hand with the banks and giant corporations to brutally suppress the vic-tims of their wars and at the same time to profit from them.

The imperialist “justice” system, and especially its “military justice” branch, considers exposing these war crimes a capital crime.

Pfc. Manning has been jailed for two and a half years for supposedly leaking Pentagon and State Department war secrets to the whistle-blower website, WikiLeaks. Arrested in 2010, Pfc. Man-ning was tortured for eight months at the Quantico Marine Base in Virginia, en-during 24-hour isolation while chained and stripped naked. The Pentagon’s goal was to force Manning to testify against WikiLeaks’ founder Julian Assange. But Manning refused to do that. Only after a strong public outcry did the Army trans-fer Manning to the “standard” prison at Fort Leavenworth.

This November, motion hearings are being held on the Manning case at Fort Meade in Maryland. Manning’s defense team has presented a rarely used motion of “pleading by exceptions and substitu-tions.” Manning’s civilian lawyer, David Coombs, explains that Manning is not pleading guilty to the “specifications as charged by the government.” Nor is there a plea deal with the government.

Rather, according to an article at couragetoresist.org, this defense motion enables Manning to present himself as a whistle-blower to “expose crime, fraud, corporate malfeasance and abuse.”

Manning’s new defense strategy should be used to galvanize even more support for his case. Gens. David Pet-raeus and John Allen, plus Dick Cheney and George W. Bush — these are the real war criminals who should be put on trial. Private Manning is a hero and should be set free immediately.

By Workers World New York bureau

Demonstrators gathered in front of the Regal Stadium 13 movie theater near Times Square as the film “Red Dawn” opened Nov. 21 in theaters across the country. They carried the flag of the Peo-ple’s Korea. They also carried placards reading “Who are the real villains? The Pentagon killed 3 million Koreans” and “The 99% rule in People’s Korea! The U.S. is a Wall Street dictatorship.”

“Red Dawn” is a remake of a 1984 film in which Cuba, Nicaragua and the Soviet Union all invade the United States. The new version portrays an equally incred-ible and ludicrous scenario in which the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea invades the United States.

The first take on this new version showed China leading the invasion. The filmmakers decided that by changing the plot and digitally altering Chinese sym-bols to Korean, it would boost sales.

The protesters reached out to film-go-ers during a speak-out. Occupy Wall Street activist Yoni Miller said the film aimed to strengthen U.S. militarism. “Next they will be making a movie about Afghanistan invading the United States!”

Justin Wooten, of the Students for a Democratic Society Club at Montclair State University in New Jersey, spoke about the repression of civil liberties in south Korea and how U.S. military bases threaten the people there.

Sara Flounders, co-director of the Inter-national Action Center, said the anti-war movement must oppose every form of war propaganda and fight to cut the military budget.

Railroad worker Steve Millies spoke of

how a similar propaganda campaign had been used to demonize Col. Moammar Gadhafi before the brutal U.S./NATO in-tervention that killed thousands of Lib-yans. He urged those walking into the theater to boycott the film and pointed out that war propaganda films like “Red Dawn” were declared war crimes at the Nuremberg Tribunal that tried Nazi lead-ers after World War II.

In fact, a woman walked out of the screening and joined the protest, saying: “The movie was so full of violence. It was just sick. I couldn’t stand it.”

A member of the Korean Friendship As-sociation who had recently visited People’s Korea said, “I have just been in North Ko-rea and everything you heard in the media is a lie. The people are happy, and the peo-ple are friendly.”

Alex Majumder, a longtime Cuba sol-idarity activist, spoke of how the war threats against Korea came from the same source that is currently bombing Gaza. He also highlighted how threats against Korea are part of the anti-communist war drive of U.S. imperialism.

Workers World Party youth organizer Caleb Maupin said, “Not a single person in north Korea is homeless. Yet in the United States there are 20 empty houses for every homeless person. Our enemy isn’t in Korea. It’s in Wall Street and Washington, D.C.”

As the protest ended, some demonstra-tors walked into the lobby of the movie theater holding high their placards and the flag of the Democratic People’s Re-public of Korea. They performed an Oc-cupy-Wall-Street-style “mic check” ex-posing the film as war propaganda. Then, chanting “Peace with Korea! Peace with Korea!” they walked out.

By Bill Bateman Providence, R.I.

The Rhode Island Rosa Parks Human Rights Day Committee will hold its sev-enth annual event on Dec. 1 to commemorate this hero-ic Black woman’s refusal to move to the back of the bus. In defiance of Jim Crow seg-regation of the public trans-portation system in Mont-gomery, Ala., Parks’ action on Dec. 1, 1955, led to the victori-ous Montgomery Bus Boycott.

The day begins at 1 p.m. with a rally in Providence’s South Side, on Broad Street in front of Central High School. At 2:30, a re-enactment of Parks’ refusal to move

from her seat will take place, and at 3 a reception will take place inside the DARE [Direct Action for Rights and Equality] of-fice at 340 Lockwood St.

While saluting Parks’ act of courage, the RPHRD Committee also reminds every-one of the many collective coordinated efforts of the Montgomery NAACP, the Montgomery Women’s Council, the Black churches — led by a young pastor, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. — and by the Black masses who organized and participated in the boycott by the thousands.

The historic boycott lasted 382 days. It ended on Dec. 20, 1956, when the Su-preme Court declared segregation on public buses to be unconstitutional.

Along with Emmett Till’s murder in Au-gust 1955, the Montgomery Bus Boycott helped birth the Civil Rights Movement, which eventually led to the abolition of legal segregation in transportation, public places and accommodations and housing, as well as gaining access to the ballot box.

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. rose to assume the weighty re-sponsibility of being the move-ment’s most recognized and in-fluential leader. King recognized that the struggle for civil rights must be combined with the struggle for economic rights. It was support for a strike by low-wage sanitation workers which drew him to Memphis, where he was assassinated in 1968. King added a third prong, against militarism and war, to his plat-form in 1967, when he came out

against the Vietnam War, comparing the military budget to a “demonic suction tube” drawing away people and resourc-es needed to fight the war on poverty at home.

The RPHRD Committee cautions that a giant struggle is looming to beat back a massive attack on 75 years of social and economic progress, including Social Se-curity, Medicaid and Medicare, human needs programs, and civil rights and civil liberties.

The committee urges everyone to stay vigilant and learn the lessons that Rosa Parks and Dr. King taught us: combine individual courage with a high level of or-ganization; do broad and deep outreach and education among the masses of poor and working people and their organiza-tions; use a creative combination of di-rect action and mass mobilization; and expose the links between racism, poverty and war, and fight them together as three heads of the same beast.

pearing on Tahrir’s walls with the words: “Your blood will spark a new revolution.” (AP, Nov. 26) Salah was a member of the April 6 movement, a key organization in the uprising that ousted Mubarak.

A Muslim Brotherhood youth was re-portedly killed on Nov. 25 when a group of anti-Morsi protesters tried to storm the offices of his Freedom and Justice Party. (Ahram Online, Nov. 25) The Minister of Health said that 444 people were wound-ed between Nov. 22 and 26.

Secular and Christian forces have with-drawn from the 100-seat panel charged with drafting a national charter.

International implications

Since the signing of the Camp David Peace Accords in 1978, Egypt has been the main ally of U.S. imperialism and the state of Israel. The Egyptian masses have gained nothing from the accord, nor from the billions in aid supplied by the U.S. since the 1970s. When the uprising against the U.S.-backed Mubarak regime occurred in early 2011, it sent shockwaves through ruling circles, intelligence agen-cies and the Pentagon.

Next to Israel, Egypt is the largest recip-ient of direct U.S. military aid. Its army has been fully integrated into the Pentagon and CIA strategy for North Africa and Western Asia. Since Morsi took office, the U.S. and

its allies have sought to undermine the popular aspirations of the revolution.

Military ties between Egypt and the U.S. as well as Israel have continued. The Morsi administration has sought to rees-tablish the supply of natural gas to Israel in the Sinai. The corporate media praised Egypt for its role in mediating the latest conflict between Tel Aviv and Hamas in Gaza. This is a role that Egypt had played under the Mubarak regime.

The worsening economic situation in Egypt, coupled with the aggressive policies of the Israeli government, will serve to keep the masses in a heightened state of mobili-zation and political awareness. A possible outcome might be a new coalition of na-tionalist, left and religious forces who could take Egypt’s revolution to a higher level.

Continued from page 9

Egypt erupts

RhODE ISLAND

workers.org Dec. 6, 2012 Page 11

MONSANTO:

A monopoly of proprietary seeds Part 2

By Betsey Piette

Along with DuPont and Syngenta, Monsanto controls 47 percent of the worldwide proprietary seed market.

Today farmers buying Monsanto pat-ented seeds must agree not to save the seeds for replanting or sell seeds to other farmers. Each year farmers must buy new seeds as well as more Roundup weed kill-er from Monsanto.

A farmer who attempts to reuse or cull seeds is likely to receive a visit from Mon-santo “seed police.” Monsanto’s seed pat-ents, which make it illegal for farmers to reuse genetically engineered seeds, apply even if GE seeds end up in fields by ac-cident. Over a third of U.S. cropland is already contaminated with genetically modified organisms (GMOs).

According to the Organic Seed Growers and Trade Association, Monsanto seed police investigate more than 500 farmers every year. Since the mid-1990s, Monsan-to has sued 145 farmers for patent infringe-ments; an additional 700 farmers settled disputes with Monsanto out of court.

Traditional seeds are disappearing. In the 1990s most seed companies were pur-chased by pesticide manufacturers who saw a potential profit in monopolizing both aspects of farm production.

The problem is global. With the as-sistance of the World Bank’s structural adjustment policies, agriculture in India was laid open to Monsanto GE seeds in 1998. Peasant farmers in India, while paying higher prices to plant GMO seeds, hoped to reap the higher yields Monsan-to promised. But instead Indian farmers ended up buying greater quantities of pesticides. The GE seeds also required more water to grow.

Farmers became dependent on Mon-santo to buy seeds for the next year’s crops, further increasing their poverty and indebtedness. Since the introduction of GE seeds in India an estimated 200,000 farmers have committed suicide — unable to overcome their new impoverishment.

In 2009, Monsanto’s GM maize failed to produce kernels for South African farmers, leaving some with 80 percent crop failure. The company compensated large-scale farmers, but gave nothing to small-scale farmers who had been given “free” packets of seeds. (Natural Science, April 19)

From super seeds to super weeds

The increased use of Roundup Ready seeds has led to a 20-fold increase in the use of Monsanto herbicides. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), in 1994, farmers applied 4.9 million pounds of glyphosate on soybean crops. By 2006 (last available data), they used 96.7 million pounds. (Mother Jones, July 18)

Planting GMO seeds hasn’t always pro-duced the crop yields promised by Mon-santo, but farmers are increasingly “har-vesting” something they never planned for — super weeds!

As a result of Roundup Ready seeds overuse, a massive amount of “super weeds” now affect around 15 million acres of U.S. agricultural crops. Super weeds are also being documented in Australia, Ar-gentina, Brazil, Chile, Europe and South Africa. Around a dozen super weeds, in-cluding giant ragweed, have become re-sistant to spraying with Roundup weed killer, even at 24 times the recommended dose. (BBC World Service, Sept. 18)

GE crops have also increased cumu-lative pesticide use – about 400 million pounds since 1996 – as insects become

more resistant. Just as DDT (dichlorodi-phenyltrichloroethane) use led to the evo-lution of resistant pests and the need for even more toxic pesticides, GMO seeds today have “joined the pesticide tread-mill,” says food activist Jill Richardson, with the Organic Consumers Association. (PR Watch, Aug. 28)

While repeated use of Roundup weed killer has been linked to a reduction in the Monarch butterfly population, because it destroys their milkweed habitat, other insect populations are increasing, having become pesticide resistant due to wider use of Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) seeds.

When simply sprayed on crops, the in-secticidal protein Bt breaks down quickly. But genetically engineered Bt seed crops retain the chemical in every cell. As of 2012, 67 percent of corn and 77 percent of cotton in the U.S. are being grown from Bt seeds. A 2010 study found Bt in 93 per-cent of maternal blood and 80 percent of fetal blood sampled.

Increased pesticide use has been linked to widespread amphibian decline over the last 30 years and also declining bee populations. Combined with a return to arsenic applications in agricultural fields, it puts rural communities, farm workers and the general population at greater risk.

Arsenic still kills

Since the 19th century, arsenic could be found in many common pesticides, including calcium arsenate preferred for cotton field use. This dangerous practice continued until the 1950s. While many farm children died from exposure, farm-ers overlooked arsenic’s lethal nature be-cause it was effective against some hard-to-kill pests.

It’s not known how many African- American farm workers, the dominant labor force in cotton fields, died from exposure. By the 1930s, over 100 million people in the U.S. showed symptoms of arsenic and lead poisoning, but the USDA still supported its use. (Contributor Net-work, Sept. 20)

In 2006, the U.S. Environmental Pro-tection Agency banned the use of arsen-ical pesticides, including MSMA (mono-sodium methanearsonate) on food as well as cotton fields. However, in 2009, claim-ing that weeds affecting cotton fields had become glyphosate resistant, cotton farmers successfully lobbied the EPA to again allow MSMA use indefinitely.

A study published by Consumer Re-ports found high levels of arsenic in rice products, including baby food. (issue dat-ed November 2012) Rice with the high-est concentrations of arsenic came from south central U.S. states with a history of MSMA use on cotton crops.

‘Monsanto Protection Act’

Just how dangerous GMO products may be to human health is unknown. “The [Food and Drug Administration] has not conducted a single indepen-dent test of any genetically engineered product. The agency simply accepts the testing completed and provided by bio-technology corporations like Monsanto,” wrote Dr. Joseph Mercola in Natural So-ciety. (Sept. 14)

The Pesticide Action Network charges that “the USDA has been ‘speed approv-ing’ the latest creations coming from Monsanto, reducing the approval time and subsequently the ability to measure the true effects.” Earlier this year, requests for 12 new genetically engineered crops were submitted to the USDA for approval.

Nine are under a new fast-track process that requires no independent studies.

This speed-up resulted from industry backlash following legal challenges to the deregulation of Roundup Ready alfalfa and Roundup Ready sugar beets. In both cases the courts required the USDA to complete a more extensive Environmen-tal Impact Statement prior to deregulat-ing crops, instead of an Environmental Assessment that limited the level of pub-lic involvement and shortened the time allowed for response. The courts also ruled that the crops in question could not be planted during the appeals process.

The USDA has since completed EISs for both crops and approved their de-regulation, despite massive public oppo-sition. But this was not good enough for the industry giants, who got the 2013 ag-riculture appropriations bill amended to include a rider, Section 733, referred to as the “farmer assurance provision.” Food Democracy Now! calls Section 733 the “Monsanto Protection Act.”

If the bill passes with this rider, any farmer requesting to plant a GMO that had been removed from the market after USDA regulation would have to be grant-ed a permit to do so, even if the crop’s safety was in question or under review.

The 2012 Farm Bill was also amended to limit the time and scope of future re-views of GE crops by requiring only EA, not EIS, reviews, and mandating that the USDA complete the reviews in 18 months. The provision forbade the USDA from spending money for a broader environ-mental impact study on a GMO.

Monsanto plagued by Rachel Carson, now rats

This government rubber stamping of GMO permits has not lessoned the heat on Monsanto.

In September, while Congress was busy rewriting legislation to protect Monsanto and Dow, French scientists released a study that found rats fed on Monsanto’s GMO corn or exposed to Roundup Ready seeds suffered tumors and multiple organ damage. (Reuters, Sept. 12)

Gilles-Eric Seralini and colleagues at the University of Caen fed rats a diet containing NK603 — a Roundup Ready seed variety — or gave them water with Roundup weed killer at levels permit-ted in the U.S. The rats died earlier than those in the control study.

The rats fed the GMO diet also suffered tumors, as well as severe liver and kidney damage. The study tracked the animals

throughout their two-year lifespan. Given that three months is only the equivalent of early adulthood in rats, Seralini noted that his lifetime rat tests provided a more realistic view of the risks than the 90-day feeding trials typically used for GMO crop approvals.

Just as Rachel Carson’s early call for action against the environmental haz-ards of DDT was ridiculed by its produc-er Monsanto, it is not surprising that the company was quick to dismiss the French findings. Monsanto took issue that the “strain of rats [in the study] is very prone to mammary tumors.” Seralini respond-ed that he used the same rat strain that Monsanto did to get government authori-zation in its 90-day trials.

The FDA approved Monsanto’s use of recombinant bovine growth hormone (rBGH) in cows after only a 90-day test using small animals. Wisconsin geneticist William von Meyer noted, “But people drink milk for a lifetime.” (Vanity Fair, May 2008)

Monsanto is facing more challenges. In July, the Organic Seed Growers and Trade Association asked a U.S. Appeals Court in Washington to reverse a dis-missal of the association’s 2011 lawsuit to invalidate Monsanto’s GMO seed pat-ents and prevent the company from suing farmers whose crops became contaminat-ed by air-borne GMO seeds.

Hawaii is a global center for open-air field testing of experimental GE crops grown for export. As a result, a majority of food is being imported to the islands as the biotech industry takes over valuable agricultural lands and water.

Monsanto operates about 8,000 acres for GE seed production there, yet no envi-ronmental impact studies have been done. In June protesters demonstrated outside the company’s headquarters on Oahu to demand that Monsanto leave Hawaii and that GMO foods be labeled. Similar pro-tests were held on Maui and Kauai. Orga-nizers vowed more protests until Monsan-to leaves the islands. (Eco Watch, July 5)

Monsanto and other companies spent over $45 million to defeat California’s Nov. 6 ballot initiative to require labeling of foods containing GMOs. But the fight is far from over.

California’s Prop. 37 campaign put the spotlight on GMOs’ potential threat to human health and the environment. Can these same companies that lied about DDT, Agent Orange, PCBs and other toxic chem-icals be trusted to tell the truth about the dangers of genetically modified foods?

like that of Israel’s interior minister, Eli Yishai, quoted by the Palestine News Net-work (Nov. 20) as saying, “We must blow Gaza back to the Middle Ages.” The PNN article noted that Israeli military “deter-rence without any possibility of a political settlement ensures that this madness will go on indefinitely.”

But that, then, is the role of the Israeli state. Israel was created by the United States — which controlled the new-ly formed United Nations — in 1948 by funneling desperate Jewish refugees into Palestine. There, they became the inevi-

table and willing agents of imperialism against the rising tide of Arab nation-alism that threatened the profits of the Western oil corporations.

Israel’s role has not changed in the 64 years since then. Hundreds of billions of dollars from the U.S. in economic and military aid make the Israeli government a subservient tool of U.S. interests in the region. Only a mass movement in the U.S. demanding an end to U.S. aid to Israel, along with a movement inside Israel of Jewish people opposed to Zionist apart-heid, can break this cycle of violence.

Continued from page 9

Cease-fire halts Israeli assault; Gaza struggle unresolved

Correspondencia sobre artículos en Workers World/Mundo Obrero pueden ser enviadas a: WW-MundoObrero@workers.org

¡Proletarios y oprimidos de todos los paises unios!

policía mata a estudiante durante protesta en república dominicanaEspecial para Workers World/Mundo Obrero Santo Domingo, República Dominicana

La policía disparó, matando a un estudiante en la Uni-versidad Autónoma durante una protesta celebrada en el recinto universitario, contra el aumento del impuesto de ventas y el proyecto de privatización de la escuela.

Unos testigos dijeron que William Florián Ramírez, de 21 años de edad, sólo estaba observando la demostración el 8 de noviembre, cuando recibió un disparo en la es-palda. La Universidad es la más grande del país, con 180.000 estudiantes.

La administración del presidente Daniel Medina está bajo fuego por actos de corrupción cometidos por su par-tido, el gobernante Partido de la Liberación Dominicana. Los críticos dicen que el déficit del presupuesto este año en la cantidad de $4,6 mil millones proviene en gran me-dida del robo generalizado de fondos públicos. Usando el déficit como excusa, el Gobierno ha aumentado el im-puesto sobre la venta de un 16 a un 18 por ciento, po-niendo la carga directamente en la clase trabajadora ya sumida en la pobreza.

El impuesto se aplica a casi todos los productos, in-cluyendo alimentos y combustible.

La protesta en el recinto universitario contra el au-mento del impuesto fue sólo una de las muchas que tu-vieron lugar por todo el país.

Medina fue electo este mes de agosto, pero pertenece al mismo partido que la administración anterior. Los que le acusan dicen que gran parte del dinero robado por el partido gobernante fue utilizado para su elección.

Los asesinatos de civiles por la policía son comunes aquí. Aproximadamente 400 personas al año son ase-sinadas por la policía, que rara vez, o más bien nunca es detenida y juzgada. Sin embargo, la indignación pública

sobre este tiroteo fue tan grande, sobre todo en un mo-mento en que el gobierno estaba a la defensiva por las acusaciones sobre corrupción, que Medina rápidamente hizo despedir y arrestar al policía. Otros policías que habían estado en la escena están “bajo investigación”. Incluso el jefe conservador del Senado pidió una “justicia rápida” contra el policía que mató al estudiante.

El arresto del policía es muy raro y refleja el temor en los círculos gobernantes de que la desesperación creci-

ente de las masas sobre las medidas económicas del nue-vo Presidente, conducirá a mayores luchas.

Durante la mayor parte de las décadas desde que los marines de EE.UU. invadieron por primera vez a la República Dominicana en 1916, gobiernos corruptos de derecha han gobernado aquí con la bendición de Wash-ington. Un breve período de nacionalismo revolucionar-io a mediados de 1960 terminó con una segunda invasión de EE.UU. en 1965.

Por Gene Clancy y Deirdre Griswold

[Nota de la redacción: Luego de escrito este artículo, el 21 de noviembre se anunció un cese al fuego bilater-al.]

19 de noviembre — Israel ha lanzado otro ataque militar brutal contra el pueblo palestino en Gaza, una pequeña franja de tierra densamente poblada que alber-ga a 1,7 millones de personas. Una vez más, Israel tiene el respaldo total del gobierno de Estados Unidos que durante décadas ha financiado al estado colono sionis-ta y a sus fuerzas militares, permitiendo sus numerosos ataques contra los pueblos árabes y musulmanes de esa región rica en petróleo.

Gilad Sharon, un mayor en el ejército israelí y el hijo del ex primer ministro israelí Ariel Sharon, escribió en el ‘Jerusalem Post’ el 18 de noviembre: “tenemos que ar-rasar barrios enteros en Gaza. Arrasar todo Gaza”. Jus-tificó esto comparando Gaza a Nagasaki, donde Estados Unidos lanzó la bomba atómica a finales de la II Guerra Mundial, matando a por lo menos 75.000 personas.

Israel ha lanzado cientos de misiles y ataques aéreos en Gaza desde el 14 de noviembre. Sus objetivos más re-cientes han sido vehículos y oficinas de medios de comu-nicación. Los estrategas israelíes no quieren que el mun-do vea las imágenes desgarradoras de lo que han hecho, como la foto de un padre devastado por la pena cargando el cuerpo sin vida de su hijo de 11 meses de edad, vícti-ma de una “bomba inteligente” israelí hecha en EE.UU. Jihad Misharawi, un empleado de la BBC Árabe, no sólo perdió a Omar, su joven hijo. Su cuñada fue asesinada y su hermano resultó gravemente herido cuando su casa fue alcanzada en el ataque israelí.

Durante días, la máquina de propaganda militar is-raelí ha ido produciendo masivamente imágenes y co-

mentarios jactanciosos sobre “ataques quirúrgicos” y sobre el asesinato del comandante militar en jefe de Hamas, Ahmed Saíd Khalil al-Jabari al comienzo de este nuevo embate.

Los medios de comunicación capitalistas de Estados Unidos se enfocan mayormente en las pocas bajas en el sur de Israel causadas por misiles disparados desde Gaza. Cuando se muestra la destrucción y la muerte cau-sadas por los ataques aéreos israelíes, rara vez obtienen una cobertura igual. Las cifras de bajas, sin embargo, cuentan la historia real: las muertes y los/as heridos pal-estinos/as son 10 veces las de los israelíes. Para el 19 de noviembre, las personas muertas en Gaza sumaban 91 y heridas, 700. Israel reporta tres muertes y 79 heridos por cohetes de Hamas.

A pesar de la abrumadora ventaja militar de Israel, la población empobrecida de Gaza no se ha acobardado por estos ataques más recientes. Siguen apoyando a Hamas, que exige el fin del bloqueo israelí que por cinco años ha sostenido contra Gaza y el compromiso de no atacar otra vez. Hamas también exige una garantía multinacional para que Israel cumpla con sus compromisos. Mientras tanto, Hamas dice que continuará lanzando cohetes a Israel, incluyendo una nueva generación de misiles que puede alcanzar hasta Tel Aviv, capital de Israel.

Las noticias sobre funerales de gazatis muertos/as en los ataques describen una apasionada determinación para continuar la lucha, en lugar de rendirse al terror israelí — como el asesinato de un palestino de 13 años por un vehículo militar israelí. Fue cuando los/as palestinos/as respondieron atacando al vehículo que Israel reclamó el derecho a revivir su política criminal de “asesinatos selec-tivos” y lanzó su ataque mortal contra la ciudad de Gaza.

La condena de estos atentados mortales ha sido rápida y mundial. Las manifestaciones contra Israel y en soli-

daridad con el pueblo palestino en Gaza están teniendo lugar en todos los continentes.

Mientras miles se manifestaban en la Plaza Tahrir de Cairo en apoyo a Gaza, Egipto retiró a su embajador en Israel y envió al primer ministro Hisham Kandil a Gaza para ofrecer la solidaridad de Egipto.

Los políticos árabes que colaboraban con el imperialis-mo estadounidense ahora se encuentran en una situación difícil debido a la reacción masiva a la agresión israelí. El representante de Irak a la Liga Árabe, Qais al-Azzary, pidió a los estados árabes que usaran el petróleo como arma para presionar a los Estados Unidos e Israel.

Hasta el rey Abdullah de Jordania canceló un viaje a Bretaña en medio de temores de que su país pudiera ser el próximo a experimentar las demandas por un cambio de la Primavera Árabe. Ya los/as manifestantes habían llenado las calles de Amman, la capital, exigiendo un fin al régimen del rey. Luego de la cancelación siguieron protestas en solidaridad con Palestina pero también oponiéndose a un alza en los precios de la gasolina. Por lo menos un manifestante resultó muerto y 75 heridos.

El primer ministro de Turquía, Recep Erdogan, que se ha unido a los ataques imperialistas contra Siria, dijo la verdad cuando calificó a Israel como un estado de terror después de su ataque a Gaza.

El pueblo palestino tiene todo el derecho a regresar a la histórica Palestina pero le está prohibido por un régi-men asesino de colonos que proceden principalmente de Europa y Estados Unidos y que cada año invaden más sus tierras.

El pueblo palestino tiene todo el derecho a defenderse contra el ataque militar y el estrangulamiento económico de Israel. Ahora es el momento para apoyar su heroica determinación para resistir ante el terror de los Estados Unidos e Israel en el Medio Oriente.

gaza resiste terror israelí-eeUU

Protesta el 11 de noviembre en Santo Domingo, República Dominicana. El cartel indica “la desigualdad social es más violen-ta que cualquier protesta”.