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


With the global crisis deepening, California is being hit hard. Two consecutive booms then busts, in high tech and then housing, have left the state devastated. The official jobless rate for California is 12.4%, but the reality is probably twice that. Millions of foreclosed homes sit empty alongside tent cities springing up across the state. Austerity was forced on the working class with almost no opposition -- until students rose up last fall. There have been occupations and strikes. On Thursday there will be statewide strikes, walkouts, and direct action. Hopefully it will spread beyond the campuses and become a general strike.



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The Global Organic Crisis:

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."


Read the full article here.

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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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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


Tanta Flax blog #1

Tanta Flax blog #2


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



Greece: new week of strikes



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.


Repression in Honduras



Howard Zinn dies, aged 87



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 Gilbert Achcar 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


Copenhagen - Klimaforum09: Naomi Klein calls for disobedience as Copenhagen deal could be "worst kind of disaster capitalism"



Copenhagen: UN talks in disarray after leak of 'rich nations' secret agreement to monopolize climate power



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


Read more here


The Story of Cap and Trade

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

 

BBC opinion poll: Almost a quarter of people across 27 countries believe that capitalism is fatally flawed



Portugal: What's behind the success of the Left Bloc?


 

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 Wiki page

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.