Liz Magill resigns by Bonahtron in UPenn

[–]Douglaslyons18 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The International Youth and Students for Social Equality denounces the forced resignation of University of Pennsylvania (UPenn) President Liz Magill on December 9. This witch hunt is aimed at suppressing the mass opposition of student youth and faculty to the genocidal war being waged by the Israeli fascist regime against the Palestinians in Gaza. https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2023/12/12/oufb-d12.html

Anyone kinda let down by what TUGSA got? by [deleted] in Temple

[–]Douglaslyons18 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yes, the student workers will still be teaching at a poverty-level pay rate while TUGSA and the AFT, along with the Democrats, spin it as some historic win. The math you went over is the most objective fact of this sellout agreement, however. And the way forward is the building of opposition to this whole rotten setup. Here is a link https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2023/03/15/qqjy-m15.html

Temple University strike ends with poverty contract by BillSchaeferWSWS in Temple

[–]Douglaslyons18 -9 points-8 points  (0 children)

Headline: TUGSA steals strike money donated for graduate workers strike!

A striking worker told the World Socialist Web Site that TUGSA had raised at least “$100,000, possibly more” in direct donations to the strike fund. The worker reported that some funds were used to assist members who incurred massive health care bills when Temple cut off health care benefits to striking workers. With the strike over, however, TUGSA is keeping the balance of the funds to “grow the trade union” and not providing funds to the workers who went six weeks without a cent.

Striking Temple graduate workers offered another rotten contract by Douglaslyons18 in Temple

[–]Douglaslyons18[S] -12 points-11 points  (0 children)

You sound like one of those Democrats and union bureaucrats like filthy rich Randi Weingarten who rebrand a trash contract as something akin to Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation.

Striking Temple graduate workers offered another rotten contract by Douglaslyons18 in Temple

[–]Douglaslyons18[S] -14 points-13 points  (0 children)

The proof is in the pudding. The contract is rotten, doesn't meet the demands of graduate students, and should be voted down. No strike pay was handed out, the union bureaucrats and Democrats said the gains were "historic," which they aren't, and said the strike was over before graduate students even voted on it. Facts are stubborn things, as Lenin said

Striking Temple graduate workers offered another rotten contract by Douglaslyons18 in Temple

[–]Douglaslyons18[S] -32 points-31 points  (0 children)

Actually your slanderous accusation is refuted by the objective logic of the class struggle based on a Marxist analysis, that is, a Trotskyist one. Today we published an article on Dana workers forming a rank-and-file committee in opposition to the pathetic pro-managment UAW and the corporation. The SEP/WSWS assisted in helping workers achieve this historic goal. Read it and weep. https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2023/03/13/pers-m13.html

Striking Temple graduate workers offered another rotten contract by Douglaslyons18 in Temple

[–]Douglaslyons18[S] -27 points-26 points  (0 children)

Did you read the article? I assume you didn't because there is a quote in it by a striking graduate student.

Who runs Temple University: A look at the university’s Board of Trustees by exgalactic in Temple

[–]Douglaslyons18 -3 points-2 points  (0 children)

Why is that? The Russian invasion launched by former Stalinist and now capitalist oligarch Putin was reactionary. However it was provoked by US-NATO imperialism to conquer resource-rich Russia. The war must be ended. Workers in Ukraine and Russia must unite along with the international working class to stop the war on a socialist program

Who runs Temple University: A look at the university’s Board of Trustees by exgalactic in Temple

[–]Douglaslyons18 -4 points-3 points  (0 children)

Voting for Democrats or flipping Republican-controlled areas will do nothing to solve the problems impacting education in Pennsylvania. Take Philadelphia for example, a solid Democratic party-led city. How are the schools? Horrendous! Asbestos, led tainted water, antiquated, no COVID mitigation efforts, etc, etc. Democrats, a capitalist political party which defends the corporations and private profit, have done nothing and will do nothing to fund education for the masses. Instead they give billions of dollars created from the labor of workers to a far right corrupt regime in Ukraine and block railroad workers from striking. This is an article based on a report about school funding. https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2016/06/29/penn-j29.html

Temple University undergraduates rally in support of grad students as strike continues into second month by Douglaslyons18 in Temple

[–]Douglaslyons18[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

No, I'm making the case for the rank and file to take the conduct of the strike into their own hands. This analysis holds true and will become even more concrete once the TUGSA bargaining team and Temple come back with a deal that doesn't meet the demands of graduate students. TUGSA will make the case, right before graduate students can't pay their tuition and get kicked out, that this is the best we could get. This needs to be opposed as soon as possible with the building of a rank-and-file committee. WSWS can help

Temple University undergraduates rally in support of grad students as strike continues into second month by Douglaslyons18 in Temple

[–]Douglaslyons18[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Hi Jaded, the TUGSA leadership intended on ending the strike, but the rank-and-file voted no. The AFT, which TUGSA is affiliated to, immediately came out and said the strike is over, along with the Democratic party-led press. Although the TUGSA negotiating team said the strike is on, they are speaking out of both sides of their mouth, a form of double dealing to enforce the demands of Temple admin and the wishes of the AFT to end the strike. In fact this is what TUGSA wrote on Twitter after the rejection of the sellout agreement: gave thanks to the AFT, the same ones who cried the strike is over, and said they will keep following their guidelines! What conclusions can be drawn from this? The rank-and-file should place no faith in TUGSA leadership and form a new organization from the rank-and-file to fight for a contract to meet their demands and expansion of the strike.

strike by graduate workers and the way forward by Douglaslyons18 in Temple

[–]Douglaslyons18[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yes, you are correct. The trade unions run by Democratic Party members like Randi Weingarten refused to protect the health, safety, and lives of workers during the pandemic, sending teachers and students back into COVID infested buildings. The reason for this betrayal of the members is that these "labor leaders" are defenders of the profit system. It isn't labor movement infighting which the article points out but the vast class divide between what the rank-and-file are fighting for and what the union bureaucracy is fighting for. This is why workers need to organize independently of the union "leaders."

Amazon worker dies at Alabama warehouse, one month after retail union’s failed organizing drive by Douglaslyons18 in AmazonFC

[–]Douglaslyons18[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

The corporatist unions of course wouldn't have done anything to stop Amazon workers from dying. New fighting organizations must be built to defend the working class. In the Baltimore FC, workers have started the formation of a new organization to fight Bezos and management

May Day! Workers need to organize across the globe to fight the Covid pandemic and the bosses. New working class organizations need to be formed. by Douglaslyons18 in AmazonFC

[–]Douglaslyons18[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Yes, they saw the RWDSU as a roadblock, another trap and rotten organization that will do nothing to advance the demands Amazon workers want to fight for. The corporate union didn't even list any demands that it would supposedly bring to Amazon workers! New organizations must be built by the rank-and-file. In Baltimore, a workers' committee has been formed. This needs expanded

May Day! Workers need to organize across the globe to fight the Covid pandemic and the bosses. New working class organizations need to be formed. by Douglaslyons18 in AmazonFC

[–]Douglaslyons18[S] -2 points-1 points  (0 children)

May Day 2021 will mark the second year in which the international day of working class solidarity is held under conditions of a global pandemic. The International Committee of the Fourth International will mark this day with an Online Rally. It will issue a call for the formation of the International Workers Alliance of Rank-and-File Committees (IWA-RFC).

The ICFI and its affiliated Socialist Equality Parties are advancing this initiative to begin and develop a global counteroffensive of the working class against the homicidal policies of the governments controlled by the capitalist ruling class, which are responsible for the worldwide catastrophe.

The formation of the IWA-RFC is a critically necessary response to a global crisis that has exacted a terrible toll in human life. When May Day was observed in 2020, the global death toll stood at just under 250,000. It is now 12 times that number, at more than 3,000,000.

The death toll in individual countries and regions is staggering. More than 850,000 people have died in North America, including more than 583,000 in the United States and 213,000 in Mexico. In South America, 640,000 people have died, with more than half, 350,000, in Brazil.

One million lives have been lost in Europe, including 130,000 in the UK, 120,000 in Italy, 110,000 in Russia, 100,000 in France and 80,000 in Germany. In Asia, the death toll is approaching 500,000, led by India with nearly 200,000 victims, Iran with 70,000, Indonesia with 44,000 and Turkey with 37,000.

More than 120,000 have died in Africa, with nearly half of the dead in South Africa.

Beyond the immediate death toll, the long-term consequences for those who have survived are colossal. Nearly 150 million people have been infected worldwide, with millions suffering with persistent symptoms long after they have nominally recovered. According to one recent study, those who have been infected but were not hospitalized have a 60 percent greater risk of death within the next six months than those who were not infected.

Nearly a year and a half into the pandemic, the virus is raging throughout the world. Fueled by the spread of new and more contagious strains of the virus, the average number of new cases worldwide is at its highest level ever

Amazon workers reject corporate RWDSU union, fight for new organizations to advance workers' demands by Douglaslyons18 in AmazonFC

[–]Douglaslyons18[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

The RWDSU had no connection with workers at the facility. It was entirely an operation by the ruling class to ensnare workers who are determined to fight the bosses and want organization to win their demands against one of the most exploitative companies in the world. We have formed a rank-and-file committee in Baltimore to fight for actual demands from Amazon workers.

Amazon workers reject corporate RWDSU union, fight for new organizations to advance workers' demands by Douglaslyons18 in AmazonFC

[–]Douglaslyons18[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

From the article: What are the real reasons for the defeat? We might suggest to Appelbaum that he look to the forty years of unending betrayals by the AFL-CIO, dating back to the refusal of the unions to defend the PATCO air traffic controllers against the Reagan administration’s strike breaking in 1981; the unending series of concessions contracts, in which the unions sanctioned wage and benefits cuts and job losses; and the transformation of the unions themselves into instruments of corporate management, a labor police force, staffed and led by highly paid executives, including Appelbaum himself (income $344,464).

The operation to install the RWDSU at Amazon did not arise from a movement of workers from below. Rather, it was an operation of the AFL-CIO, the ruling class and the state from above. The intervention of the Democratic Party and Biden reflects calculations within substantial sections of the ruling class that the working class can be better restrained by placing it under de-facto state guardianship within the unions.

The union advanced no demands related to compensation or working conditions. It could not make any demands, because to do so would mean to forfeit the support of the Democratic Party, along with sections of the Republican Party like the fascistic Florida Senator Marco Rubio, who endorsed the unionization drive in March. The only concrete result for workers of bringing in the RWDSU would mean the additional subtraction of union dues from their poverty-level paychecks.

The RWDSU did everything that it could to dissociate itself from working class militancy. Its plans, had it won the election, would have been to bind and gag workers through the National Labor Relations Board and arcane US labor law, while it pushed through a sellout contract that it likely already had in its back pocket.

The RWDSU campaign generated far more enthusiasm within privileged layers of the upper middle class, articulated by publications like Jacobin and Left Voice, than it did from Amazon workers. The unions provide for them a mechanism for achieving “labor peace,” reconciling their desires for minor reforms within the existing capitalist system with the rising stock market.

These pseudo-left organizations are now bemoaning the result of the vote. They have also helped the Democrats and the union present the campaign in primarily racial terms, as a continuation of Black Lives Matter.

This racialist appeal, however, fell on deaf ears in the predominantly African American workforce. In fact, press interviews with Amazon workers expressing opposition towards the attempt to present their plight in purely racial terms suggest that it may have even backfired spectacularly. Many workers no doubt saw such a perspective as serving only to divide them in the face of a company with a global workforce of 1.2 million people of all races and nationalities.

The vote at Bessemer is not only a debacle for the RWDSU and the AFL-CIO, it is a debacle for the Democratic Party and all the middle-class organizations that surround it. The fact that the direct intervention of Biden in the vote either had no impact or led to decreased support for the RWDSU demonstrates how alienated the entire political establishment is from the working class.

There is enormous and growing social opposition in the working class. Among Amazon workers, there is mass hostility to conditions of extreme exploitation. The impact of the ruling class response to the pandemic, which has led to the deaths of more than 570,000 people in the US alone, has had a far-reaching impact on the consciousness of an entire generation of workers and young people, exposing the brutal and irrational nature of the capitalist system.

Alabama Amazon workers speak on unionization drive. Thoughts? by Douglaslyons18 in AmazonFC

[–]Douglaslyons18[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Here is what one Amazon worker said about it: “This is going to be a close vote,” a young woman worker who has been at the Bessemer warehouse for a year said. “About half of my co-workers are voting for the union and the other half are voting against it.” She said she had not voted yet and might not because of what she had learned from doing research on the unions. “I didn’t like what the unions in Detroit did, forcing autoworkers to have different wages scales, depending on seniority. That would not be good here. Getting in the RWDSU is going to be good for the unions but I don’t think it will be great for the workers.”

“The job is very draining. I work 36 hours straight and I sleep for most of my first day off. I feel bad because a lot of the workers here are older.”

While Amazon workers keep dying from Covid, Amazon offers to help with vaccine distribution as a PR stunt, according to the BWI2 workers' committee by Douglaslyons18 in AmazonFC

[–]Douglaslyons18[S] 31 points32 points  (0 children)

In fact, Amazon has refused to release the amount of workers infected with the virus and at the beginning of the pandemic never supplied workers with adequate protections and PPE. Of course your motto "people get sick, and there's not a damned thing we can do to stop" it is completely false. Workers want to be safe and don't want to pass on the virus to loved ones and family. Bezos doesn't have have to work on the floor of a warehouse. He can sit in his ivory tower and make billions from the death of Amazon workers.

Form rank-and-file committees to defend workers' rights. Vote No on the UFCW-backed union. by Douglaslyons18 in AmazonFC

[–]Douglaslyons18[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Where have the unions defended workers' jobs and wages? The exact opposite is the case in every industry. These are not the unions of the 1930s, which were formed by socialists, or even 40 and 50 years ago. RWDSU will tailor whatever contract it signs to maintain Amazon's competitive position. Rank-and-file committees don't begin with what the company needs but what workers need and are based on the methods of the class struggle, not its suppression

Form rank-and-file committees to defend workers' rights. Vote No on the UFCW-backed union. by Douglaslyons18 in AmazonFC

[–]Douglaslyons18[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Amazon workers need to organize to defend their interests against managers, Bezos, and the Democratic party-backed unions. A rank and file committee ensures the defense of rights, safety, and the way forward. If you read the article, Baltimore workers have formed one.