California:
live updates from Socialist Worker
Today, students, teachers, faculty, campus workers and community members are making their voices heard--in California and around the country. They're taking a stand against the ongoing attack on public education at every level, from pre-K through to colleges and universities.
SocialistWorker.org readers will contribute their reports, views, pictures and more throughout the day, and will post them here--and at 5 p.m. (PST, 8 p.m. on the East Coast and 7 p.m. in the Midwest), we'll have a live video stream from the San Francisco regional rally against the cuts.
Keep checking back here for the latest news on the battle for our schools.
California State University - Fullerton, Occupation
FULLERTON, California – As of 3AM, CSU Fullerton’s 8-story Humanities building has been barricaded from the inside by some fairly heavy materials. Their communique below.
updates:
6:22am: Cops have raided the occupation. Four have been detained while the rest of the occupiers remain held up and negotiating with the police.
6:51am: Police have released the four detained, the rest of the 15-18 people inside are now being talked to, but will also probably be released on the spot. A full update will be posted later.
7:35am: Correction to previous update: The barricades were secure, but service ladders inside the building extend to tunnels below the building and had not been secured. The police entered through there, detaining four of the occupiers almost immediately. The rest of the occupiers scattered elsewhere in the building. All were eventually cited and released. The barricades that had been placed were indeed dumpsters chained to the doors from the inside, some stacked on each other.
Read more on this libcom story here
Campuses across California explode in protest
Protests exploding across California, more protests around the nation - check out US Indymedia
For continuous updates and twitter feeds try LA Indymedia and Northcoast Indybay
For a list of the days events and planned protests check out this link on Socialist Worker
Strikes & Walkouts in Northern
California March 4th
Paradoxes, Dangers and Opportunities
by Stephen Gill
The capitalist world has experienced its deepest economic meltdown since the Great Depression of the 1930s. Paradoxically, whereas the earlier period saw the breakdown of liberal capitalism, the rise of fascism and Nazism, and the Soviet alternative to liberal capitalism, today neo-liberalism and capitalist globalization still remain powerful, and apparently supreme, on the stage of world history. Despite the financial implosion on Wall Street and its "near-death experience," few coherent left programs have commanded sufficient political organization or popular support to mount a serious challenge to the G8's somnambulant political leaders and to pose credible alternatives to financial capitalism.
So, what arguments can progressive political forces use to begin to mobilize transformative resistance in ways that can give credibility to new forms of politics and society? We start with the simple observation that appearances can be deceptive and indeed this is to be expected in the present politically paradoxical global conjuncture. This conjuncture corresponds, in part, to the Chinese character for crisis, a character that combines moments of danger and opportunity. It is linked to the fact that the current global political situation involves far more than a crisis of capitalist accumulation since it is pregnant with the following paradox:
"The crisis consists precisely in the fact that the old is dying and the new cannot be born; in this interregnum a great variety of morbid symptoms appear."
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Case Western Fair Trade and Second
Hand Expo - Saturday 27th February
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Bring the SOA Protest Back to Case -
Saturday February 20th
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«StartPrev12345NextEnd»International News
Greece: Workers refuse to pay for crisis (Real News)
Portugal: March 4th - Public sector national strike against austerity measures
A 24-hour strike by Portugal’s 500,000 public sector workers caused widespread disruption effecting transport, schools and hospitals. About 80 percent of workers participated in the action.
Greece: March 4-5th - Long battles erupt in Athens protest march
California and US: March 4th - strikes and occupations across the state and nation
Greece: Mass strikes in response to new measures
Mass strikes with only hours prior warning are unfolding in Greece after the government announced new crippling measures for workers. The people's reaction to the austerity measures are expected to further explode as the EU Commission is pressuring for the implementation of similar measures for the private sector. It is believed that such a move could bring the country to the brink of social insurrection.
Greece: Nation in a "state of war" declares PM
The greek PM, Giorgos Papandreou, has declared the country in "a state of war" after extended meetings with the EU economics commissioner Mr Rehn, leading workers to declare more strikes
Chile: Private property and rule of law take priority over human life in the post-quake chaos
Bahrain: Chinese workers clash with police after bossnapping
Police attacked a group of Chinese migrant workers who had taken nine of their superiors hostage near a construction site in Zallaq, 25 km south of the capital Manama.
Greece: Crisis, resistance and challenges for the left
A successful 24-hour strike was held across Greece on February 24, against the social-democratic PASOK government initiative to make the workers pay for the capitalist crisis.
Egypt: Workers protest against Tanta Flax and Oils Company
Greece: General strike and clashes in Athens
The general strike in both private and public sectors has seen mass protest marches across the country and extended clashes in Athens with dozens of shops and banks destroyed and one man arrested.
Greece: Fuel running out as customs officers extend strike
France: Total refinery occupied in Dunkerque
Belgium: Rail workers blockade depot as strike grows
Egypt: Security forces attack workers at Tanta after 2 day sit in
In an action that is considered a serious development, security forces have attacked workers of Tanta Linen, Flax and Oil Company who have staged a sit-in in front of the Egyptian Cabinet since Monday. Journalists and media interviewers have been expelled from the sit-in area by security forces. Egypt CTUWS communication.
Greece: General strike live blog (The Guardian)
Greece: Mass strike paralyzes nation (Libcom)
The 24h public sector general strike supplemented by private sector strikes has brought Greece to a complete standstill
Haiti: Statement from workers' organization Batay Ouvriye
Greece: Strikes greet austerity measures
Less than 24h after the announcement of the hardest austerity measures in the history of the greek republic, strikes have erupted in the public sector
Greece: "No margin for blockades and strikes" announces PM before tide of labour action
Honduran resistance in the streets of Tegucigalpa
Hundreds of thousands of Hondurans took to the streets on Wednesday, January 27 to protest the inauguration of Porfirio "Pepe" Lobo Soza.
The Crisis of Capital:
Economy, Ecology, and Empire
by John Bellamy Foster
"We are being told that this is simply another economic crisis and we're now in the midst of recovery, and we'll be out of it and everything will be fine. What I'm trying to suggest here is that we're facing something else. It isn't simply a crisis in capitalism; it's a crisis of capitalism."
South Africa: New wave of repression
Greece: Farmer's offensive brings nation to a standstill
Haiti: Fault line of neoliberal imperialism
"The media coverage repeatedly state that the government was completely unprepared to deal with the crisis. This is true. But they left out why."
Mexico: Wildcat strikes at Luz y Fuerza as union abandons workers
Greece: As debt crisis deepens labor minister warns - "There will be blood"
Britain: Building left unity out of the wreckage
French radical philosopher and political leader Daniel Bensaïd dies after long battle with HIV
Author and socialist pays tribute to his comrade
Copenhagen (The Guardian): Climate protests live blog
• More than 100 climate activists have been arrested for trying to break into the talks
• Police hav
e fired teargas at protesters
• Inside the talks remain deadlocked as the chair of conference Connie Hedegaard resigns.
Follow live updates
David Harvey: Organizing for the anti-capitalist transition
"The historical geography of capitalist development is at a key inflexion point in which the geographical configurations of power are rapidly shifting at the very moment when the temporal dynamic is facing very serious constraints."
South Africa: Rustenburg miners' strike - solidarity urgently needed
Copenhagen: Danish police detain nearly 1,000 during large protest
Wildcat strikes of Czech workers in Hyundai and Dymos get massive attention
Second day of clashes in Greece
Athens (Libcom): Riots and police brutality on first day of Alexandros murder anniversary
Athens (The Guardian): Riots break out at Alexandro s murder anniversary
Britain: Fascists attack asian students during troop parade in Nottingham
is a fast-paced, fact-filled video looking at the leading climate solution being discussed at the climate talks in Copenhagen. Cap and trade is also variously described as "carbon trading'' and "emissions trading''.
A lesson from Seattle for Copenhagen: Vigorous activism can defeat the denialists.
Spread the Word! U.S. Should Not Recognize Sham Honduras Elections
Tension in Greece before critical weekend
Honduran elections marred by police violence, censorship, international non-recognition
Venezuela: Anti-police impunity activist assassinated
Response of Forth International leader to Chavez's call for a new International
'The Caracas Commitment' -- Declaration from World meeting of left parties
Chavez calls for formation of Fifth Socialist International: Either socialism is built globally or there will be no 22nd century for humanity... "The time has come for us to organise the Fifth International."
See also Chavez calls for international socialist unity and Chavez's Historic Call for a Fifth Socialist International
U.S. group that supported overthrows of democratically elected governments in Haiti and Venezuela will observe this weekend's elections in Honduras
Athens under siege: Police HQ attacked, hundreds detained, many wounded
Moscow anti-fascist activist Ivan “Vanya Kostolom” Khutorskoy shot dead at his home
Portugal: What's behind the success of the Left Bloc?
Local News History
Statement
Discussion Group
The topic of the next discussion group is:
"Workers' Councils: From the soviets to contemporary Latin America"
Reading material is as follows:-
Workers Councils: Anton Pannekoek - 1936
Letter on Workers Councils - Anton Pannekoek
The Bolsheviks and Workers Councils: 1917 - 1921
A System to Carry Out Workers' Democracy - Paul D'Amato (ISO)
Venezuela's Co-Managed Inveval
Argentine Self Management - Michael Albert
Last week's discussion group topic was "Worker Co-Ops. Why members should join the Union".
The reading material was an article by the IWW titled "Collectives, Workers' Co-operatives and the IWW".
Below is a brief summary of the discussion:-
The salient points that come across from the IWW's commentary on co-operatives are that worker's co-operatives in the absence of union membership are isolated small enterprises, separated from the rest of the working class. The power to bring about revolutionary change comes through collective action, not isolation.
The essential role of the union for co-operatives is illustrated by debunking two myths: 1) That co-operatives are more revolutionary than the IWW and 2) that co-operatives are incompatible with the IWW. A number of reasons are given for why both myths are false. Regarding the first myth items 2 and 6 listed in the article were picked out as particularly relevant. Item 2 states that "workers gain collective power not from isolating themselves from other workers in small autonomous units, but rather by organizing large industrial based organizations". This stands out as especially pertinent because it illustrates the fact that the workers co-op or collective needs to be a means to an end, as described in the words of our mission statement - 'a permanent physical space in the area to facilitate our activities... promoting revolutionary ideas, activities and struggle' and therefore should not be an end in its own right. Item 6 states that "Historically workers collectives alone are not enough to bring about revolution." During the Spanish Civil War of 1936, "it was not collectives that brought about the revolution but rather the revolution that brought about the collectives." This is relevant because as a collective with revolutionary objectives we need to be aware that worker's collectives alone are insufficient to bring about revolution. Collectives in revolutionary situations have minor roles in comparison to organs of mass organization, such as unions like the CNT in the Spanish Civil War. In summary it is not just our own bosses that we seek to overthrow, but the entire capitalist class. Therefore collectives need to be aligned to the broader working class which they are not if they are isolated in the illusion of independence and having achieved their own ends. The idea that the union structure is important for maintaining the integrity of the co-operative's ideals and revolutionary potential was also felt to be very important.