Category: Forging Equality

Originally published on 10/5/2019 [Following is an interview with Baldemar Velasquez, president of the Farm Labor Organizing Committee (FLOC-AFL-CIO). Velasquez is a member of the Organizing Committee of the Labor-Community Campaign for an Independent Party, or LCCIP.] U&I: You attended the meeting of the Organizing Committee of the LCCIP in Washington, D.C., at the end of February [2019]. At the

Originally published on 10/5/2019 [Chris Silvera is president of Teamsters Local 808 in Long Island City, New York. He is the past president of the Teamsters National Black Caucus.] Something is happening in this country. Working people are rising up. We’ve seen the growth of the Black Lives Matter movement, Bernie Sanders, the mass protests against Trump at the time

Originally published on 10/5/2019 By the Organizer Editorial Board As we write these lines [May 16, 2019], the U.S. war drums are beating louder and louder. As part of a mounting series of U.S. provocations against Iran, the U.S. State Department has ordered all “non-critical government employees” to leave Iraq on the grounds that, “U.S. intelligence has learned that Iran

Originally published on 10/5/2019 By Labor Fightback Network Since the enactment of the “Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act” (ACA) in 2009, congressional Republicans have vowed to “repeal and replace Obamacare.” For seven years that promise was never anything more than a campaign slogan — no Republican ever offered an alternative health plan to Barack Obama’s signature legislation. In the

Originally published on 10/5/2019 By Labor Fightback Network With each passing year, elections in the United States have been increasingly insulting of working people’s intelligence. To be sure, the politicians have never had much respect for the people who vote them into office. During every election campaign season, the voters are subjected to a chorus of personal attacks. Meanwhile, with

Originally published on 10/5/2019 By Jerry Gordon, Labor Fightback Network Now that Governor Walker has signed the “right-to-work” bill passed by the Wisconsin legislature, whose purpose is to severely weaken private-sector unions, it is high time for trade unionists to step back and ask ourselves how it is that we have come to this critical juncture. After all, not so

Originally published 10/5/2019 By Labor Fightback Network Once again the U.S. electorate is given the “choice” between two corporate parties and urged to vote for one of the two, despite their low ratings even among their members and supporters, not to mention independents. To be sure, insurgents — first Sen. Bernie Sanders, who ran in the Democratic primary, and Jill

Originally published on 10/5/2019 By Labor Fightback Network Last September, one week after President Obama announced that he was postponing until after the mid-term elections his long-promised decision to protect 11 million undocumented immigrants from deportation by executive action, Latino activists across the country were furious. (Administration spokespersons explained that the president did not want the issue of immigration to

Originally published on 10/5/2019 Black Agenda Report (Following are excerpts from an article by Danny Haiphong that was published in the Sept. 12, 2018, issue of Black Agenda Report. The full article can be accessed at http://www.blackagendareport.com.) It should be all too clear by now that the “Resistance” to Donald Trump within the U.S. power structure is just a public

Originally published on 10/5/2019 … To Build an Independent Labor Movement By ALAN BENJAMIN (Editorial Board, The Organizer) [Note: Following is a slightly edited version of the presentation delivered by Alan Benjamin to the opening session of the Labor Fightback Conference on Saturday, May 11, 2012, at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey.] On May 20, 2011, AFL-CIO President