The following are notes two readers sent World-Outlook in response to the appeal to our readers for help with expanding the number of subscribers and for financial assistance in covering the costs of maintaining and improving the site. We want to express our gratitude to both readers for their notes, which we are publishing with their permission.
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Dear Friends, World-Outlook needs your help! To continue to maintain our website and expand our list of subscribers, we are need our readers to assist with covering our costs. Over the last year, we have taken steps to improve the content, reach, readability, and functionality of our website. World-Outlook sent reporters to provide eyewitness coverage of important developments in the class struggle, such as the union organizing efforts at Amazon warehouses; we purchased software to allow rapid and accurate transcription of videotaped interviews and sought publishing permission for articles and photos; we fully integrated the English and Spanish sides of the website; and we increased World-Outlook’s visibility on social media. Please help us build on these successes by encouraging your friends, colleagues, and acquaintances to subscribe to the site. Equally vital is your financial support.
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ALBANY, New York — Amazon workers at ALB1, the company’s warehouse in Schodack, New York, will vote in October in a union representation election. The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) announced September 14 the election will take place 8am-noon and 8pm-midnight on October 12, 13, 15, and 17. Workers will vote in a tent at ALB1’s parking lot in front of the warehouse.
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September 15, 2022 — A national rail strike has been postponed for now. Under enormous pressure from the Biden administration and threats in Congress to impose onerous conditions, leaders of the two largest rail unions and the National Carriers Conference (representing railroad (RR) owners) announced a tentative agreement on a new national rail contract this morning.
Details concerning the most important issue fueling the anger of RR workers are only beginning to emerge. That issue is relief from draconian attendance policies that deny workers adequate time off for rest, family, and medical needs. Whatever concessions the billionaire RR owners may have made at the last minute were only the result of the strike deadline that was set for 12:01 am September 16. Until RR workers themselves can read and discuss the proposed contract, nothing is settled.
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On the last weekend of August, local coalitions organized car caravans and other actions demanding an end to Washington’s economic war against Cuba. The activities took place in more than 20 cities across Canada and the United States, as well as other countries. Organizers of these actions in five Canadian and two U.S. cities sent World-Outlook the reports that follow.
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Amazon’s massive two million-square-foot warehouse, called RDU1 Fulfillment Center, is located in Garner, North Carolina (NC), a few miles from downtown Raleigh. It opened in 2020 and employs some 6,000 people. Carolina Amazonians United for Solidarity and Empowerment (C.A.U.S.E.), founded in January 2022, describes itself as “a worker-led movement defending workers’ rights & organizing to battle the corruption and exploitation by Amazon.” It is not affiliated with any established union but seeks to form one. This article is based on an interview with Destiny Blackwell, a 25-year-old worker at RDU1, member of the C.A.U.S.E. Steering Committee, and chair of the Publicity Committee. She is a stower, which entails putting items into inventory. She works a twelve-hour shift, from 6:00 PM to 6:30 AM.
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August 26, 2022 — Some 100,000 workers on the nation’s freight railroads are one step closer to a decision on whether to go on strike or not. That’s the result of the recommendations made August 16 by Presidential Emergency Board (PEB) Number 250, established by President Joe Biden in June of this year. The government’s intent is to resolve an impasse between the railroad owners and all of the 12 unions representing rail workers organized into the Coordinated Bargaining Coalition and BMWED/SMART MD Coalition (Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employees Division and Sheet Metal, Air, Rail and Transportation Workers — Mechanical and Engineering Department). The national freight contract expired almost three years ago. The impasse is largely a result of policies imposed by the railroad owners that make working and living conditions for workers increasingly intolerable. This includes imposing draconian attendance policies coupled with the carriers’ demands to cut the workforce even further by altering work rules.
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MIAMI — Puentes de Amor (Bridges of Love) leader Carlos Lazo condemned the call by U.S. Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) for the FBI to investigate him as an unregistered agent of a foreign power — a violator of the Foreign Agents Registration Act. Lazo was speaking at an August 13 news conference here, organized by the Miami Caravan Against the U.S. Blockade of Cuba. The group is another target of Rubio’s smears, along with the well-known Cuba solidarity organization Pastors for Peace. Univision’s Channel 23, a major Spanish-language TV station here, broadcast a report on the event the next evening. The Miami Caravan received numerous statements of support in response to Rubio’s threats.
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ALBANY, New York, August 17, 2022 — “Today, Amazon workers at the ALB1 warehouse in Schodack, New York, have officially filed to have a union election,” Connor Spence told the media at a press conference outside the Federal Building here.The Amazon Labor Union (ALU) sponsored the event. Spence is ALU’s secretary treasurer in New York City. The ALU leader addressed the media alongside two ALB1 workers: Heather Goodall, a lead organizer at Amazon’s Schodack fulfillment center, and Kenneth Arrington. “We are looking forward to going up against the company again, in another union election,” Spence continued. “We’re really proud of our fellow workers in upstate New York. They are very dedicated even in the face of Amazon’s anti-union campaign, which, as a JFK8 worker, I’m very familiar with. ”ALB1 workers partnered with the New York City-based ALU two months ago in their effort to organize the Schodack warehouse, located in a small town 10 miles southeast of Albany.
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Heroic efforts by Cuban firefighters and other emergency personnel, aided by colleagues from Mexico and Venezuela, have brought under control a major fire at a vital oil facility in Matanzas, Cuba, that began August 5. However, as a statement by six North American organizations explains, “A province and country already suffering from acute shortages of medical supplies and power cuts due to the US blockade has now suffered a major further blow.” The Interreligious Foundation for Community Organization (IFCO), Global Health Partners, and other organizations have launched an emergency appeal to send badly needed supplies to Cuba, says a statement by these North American solidarity groups, which World-Outlook is republishing here.
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On July 31, local coalitions organized car caravans and other actions demanding an end to Washington’s economic war on Cuba. The activities took place in a number of U.S. cities, as well as other countries. Organizers of these Cuba solidarity activities in Miami, New York, and Los Angeles sent World-Outlook the three reports that follow.
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SCHODACK, New York, July 27, 2022 — Workers at Amazon’s fulfillment center in this small town near Albany, New York, protested the death of a fellow worker at EWR9, the company’s warehouse in Carteret, New Jersey. “We called this action today to honor Rafael’s life and to highlight unsafe job conditions at ALB1,” said Heather Goodall, a picker at Amazon’s warehouse here, known as ALB1. Goodall is also the union campaign manager here. Rafael Reynaldo Mota Frias, 42 died while working at EWR9 on July 13. His family later confirmed on Facebook posts that he died from cardiac arrest. The fatality occurred during the company’s Prime Day shopping rush at the Carteret fulfillment center.
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ALBANY, New York, July 23, 2022 — Amazon workers at ALB1, the retail giant’s fulfillment center in Schodack, New York, have called a walkout for Wednesday, July 27. They will hold the protest during the 1:30 -2 p.m. lunchtime at ALB1’s parking lot to honor the memory of a fellow worker who died July 13 while working at EWR9, Amazon’s warehouse in Carteret, New Jersey.“ We will also demand that Amazon be held accountable for job conditions and disregard for safety that could have led to this death,” Heather Goodall told World-Outlook today. Goodall is a picker at ALB1 and the union campaign manager at the warehouse in Schodack, a small town near Albany.
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ALBANY, New York, July 17, 2022 — About 100 Amazon workers and their supporters rallied at Townsend Park here today. They came to show support for organizing a union at the company’s fulfillment center in Schodack, a small town near the New York State capital. “It’s been incredible,” said Heather Goodall, the union campaign manager who works as a picker at ALB1, the acronym for the Schodack warehouse. “To know on the inside what employees are going through and see that they can’t feed their families. We joke about barely making it to work on gas fumes on pay day, hoping our pay gets deposited.” Unionizing ALB1 will help workers push for a decent wage, at least $27 an hour, and improved safety conditions, Goodall told those assembled.
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LOS ANGELES, July 16, 2022 — A diverse crowd, representing more than a dozen organizations, streamed into a meeting here today to raise medical aid for Cuba. The Elliott Cane jazz trio entertained approximately 65 people as they entered the McCarthy Memorial Church in LA’s Black community for the event. Carlos Lazo was the featured speaker. Lazo is a Cuban American, organizer of Puentes de Amor (Bridges of Love), and leader of the international caravan movement demanding an end to the U.S. blockade of Cuba. The Los Angeles Hands-off Cuba Committee sponsored the event.
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About 4,000 unionists from across the country and 200 international guests from around the world attended the Labor Notes conference the weekend of June 17–19 in Chicago. The size of the gathering was noteworthy as was the participation of many young workers. A conference panel titled “Amazon Workers in Motion” highlighted some of the union organizing efforts that mark new developments in the U.S. labor movement. Among the most important is the Amazon Labor Union’s (ALU) stunning April 1 victory in the union election at JFK8, Amazon’s giant fulfillment center in Staten Island, New York. The panel brought together four Amazon workers from four different geographic regions, each with its own history and demographics. These union organizers shared their experiences while outlining differing views on strategy and tactics. Soon after the Labor Notes conference, it became clear that organizing efforts at Amazon — the second largest employer in the United States after Walmart — are spreading to other parts of the country. According to a July 9 report by ABC News, the ALU has thrown its support behind unionization efforts at two other Amazon warehouses: in Campbellsville, Kentucky; and Schodack, a small town near Albany, New York. A union solidarity rally is planned at Schodack, NY, on July 17.
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Congressional hearings on the January 6, 2021, right-wing mob attack on the U.S. Capitol are ongoing. The public debate around these hearings has made one fact clear: The number of Republican office holders and nominees for the upcoming midterm elections who embrace the outlandish lie of a “stolen election” in 2020 has grown in the last 18 months. As recently as last month, the Republican Party of Texas — the second largest state — declared at its convention that President Joe Biden “was not legitimately elected.” Republican office holders across the country echo this falsehood. A week after the 2021 attack on the Capitol, World Outlook noted in its inaugural article that “a not insignificant minority of the privileged classes” backed Trump’s big lie aimed at subverting the popular vote and installing an anti-democratic regime. A few weeks later, we documented the extent of financial support among a number of wealthy ruling families for that fateful assault in an article we are republishing here in two parts, the second of which follows.
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Congressional hearings on the January 6, 2021, right-wing mob attack on the U.S. Capitol are ongoing. The public debate around these hearings has made one fact clear: The number of Republican office holders and nominees for the upcoming midterm elections who embrace the outlandish lie of a “stolen election” in 2020 has grown in the last 18 months. As recently as last month, the Republican Party of Texas — the second largest state — declared at its convention that President Joe Biden “was not legitimately elected.” Republican office holders across the country echo this falsehood. A week after the 2021 attack on the Capitol, World Outlook noted in its inaugural article that “a not insignificant minority of the privileged classes” backed Trump’s big lie aimed at subverting the popular vote and installing an anti-democratic regime. A few weeks later, we documented the extent of financial support among a number of wealthy ruling families for that fateful assault in an article we are republishing here in two parts, the first of which follows.
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During the June 25-26 weekend, local coalitions organized car caravans and other actions demanding an end to Washington’s economic war on Cuba. The actions took place in a number of U.S. cities, as well as other countries. Organizers of the monthly Cuba solidarity activities in two cities, Miami and New York, sent World-Outlook the two reports that follow. Pete Seidman writes from Miami that “pent-up frustration with their growing isolation and political impotence boiled over on June 26 when about 30 ultrarightist thugs attacked the Miami Caravan Against the U.S. Blockade of Cuba. Caravanistas made a disciplined and dignified, if hasty, retreat to their vehicles and left. None of them were injured or arrested in the fray. Join the Miami caravan in its campaign to defend free speech!
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Evelyn Reed (1905 – 1979) was a Marxist scholar and a decades-long leader of the Socialist Workers Party. At the time of her death, an extensive article documenting her life appeared in the April 6, 1979, issue of The Militant newspaper: “Evelyn Reed: Marxist and feminist fighter.” Reed was “one of the foremost exponents of the Marxist analysis of the origins of women’s oppression,” the article explained. “She was a historical materialist who made a substantial contribution to Marxism on this subject.” In 1951, Reed began the anthropological research that would eventually produce her pioneering work, “Woman’s Evolution: From Matriarchal Clan to Patriarchal Family.” She completed the book more than 20 years later; Pathfinder Press published it in 1975. Prior to the book’s publication, Reed wrote many articles on the origins of women’s oppression and the Marxist perspective on how to fight and end it. World-Outlook is republishing below one of those articles — “Is Biology Women’s Destiny?” Today women’s right to choose abortion is under the fiercest attack since the 1973 Supreme Court decision in Roe v. Wade recognized this right under federal law. The June 24, 2022, U.S. Supreme Court ruling that overturned Roe left no doubt. In this context, Reed’s writings remain of the utmost importance, especially for younger generations of women’s rights supporters to whom these works may be unfamiliar. This is the last of a three-part series.
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Evelyn Reed (1905 – 1979) was a Marxist scholar and a decades-long leader of the Socialist Workers Party. At the time of her death, an extensive article documenting her life appeared in the April 6, 1979, issue of The Militant newspaper: “Evelyn Reed: Marxist and feminist fighter.” Reed was “one of the foremost exponents of the Marxist analysis of the origins of women’s oppression,” the article explained. “She was a historical materialist who made a substantial contribution to Marxism on this subject.” In 1951, Reed began the anthropological research that would eventually produce her pioneering work, “Woman’s Evolution: From Matriarchal Clan to Patriarchal Family.” She completed the book more than 20 years later; Pathfinder Press published it in 1975. Prior to the book’s publication, Reed wrote many articles on the origins of women’s oppression and the Marxist perspective on how to fight and end it. World-Outlook is republishing below one of those articles — “Is Biology Women’s Destiny?” Today women’s right to choose abortion is under the fiercest attack since the 1973 Supreme Court decision in Roe v. Wade recognized this right under federal law. The June 24, 2022, U.S. Supreme Court ruling that overturned Roe left no doubt. In this context, Reed’s writings remain of the utmost importance, especially for younger generations of women’s rights supporters to whom these works may be unfamiliar. This is the second of a three-part series.
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Evelyn Reed (1905 – 1979) was a Marxist scholar and a decades-long leader of the Socialist Workers Party. At the time of her death, an extensive article documenting her life appeared in the April 6, 1979, issue of The Militant newspaper: “Evelyn Reed: Marxist and feminist fighter.” Reed was “one of the foremost exponents of the Marxist analysis of the origins of women’s oppression,” the article explained. “She was a historical materialist who made a substantial contribution to Marxism on this subject.” In 1951, Reed began the anthropological research that would eventually produce her pioneering work, “Woman’s Evolution: From Matriarchal Clan to Patriarchal Family.” She completed the book more than 20 years later; Pathfinder Press published it in 1975. Prior to the book’s publication, Reed wrote many articles on the origins of women’s oppression and the Marxist perspective on how to fight and end it. World-Outlook is republishing below one of those articles — “Is Biology Women’s Destiny?” Today women’s right to choose abortion is under the fiercest attack since the 1973 Supreme Court decision in Roe v. Wade recognized this right under federal law. The June 24, 2022, U.S. Supreme Court ruling that overturned Roe left no doubt. In this context, Reed’s writings remain of the utmost importance, especially for younger generations of women’s rights supporters to whom these works may be unfamiliar. This is the first of a three-part series.
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The U.S. Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey is an enormous setback to women’s rights. It is the biggest step to restrict democratic rights in at least half a century. It marks a sharp shift to the right in bourgeois politics, one that has accelerated in recent years. There is no reason to believe the assault on a woman’s right to choose abortion will end with the 6-3 ruling in Dobbs vs. Jackson Women’s Health Organization. To the contrary, within hours of the decision abortion became virtually illegal in nine states. More will follow quickly. Where do we go from here? As World-Outlook wrote on May 10, “We should begin with an understanding that was more widespread when the fight for women’s liberation shook U.S. politics over 50 years ago. If women and those who support women’s rights do not fight in a consistent and uncompromising way, and independent of the capitalist parties, no one else will…. We must debate and answer the opponents of women’s rights. We need to take the fight into the trade unions and among the thousands of workers at Amazon, Starbucks, and elsewhere fighting to organize unions. Women’s equality on the job, as in all areas of social life, is impossible without the right to control one’s own body.”
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June 21, 2022 — Three days ago, World-Outlook published “Amazon Seeks to Prevent Certification of Union at NY Warehouse.” The article reported on the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) hearing considering Amazon’s objections to certifying the Amazon Labor Union (ALU) as the choice of workers at JFK8, the company’s 8,000-strong warehouse in Staten Island, New York. The ALU won a landmark victory in a union representation election there on April 1. Amazon’s goal is to overturn the election results. If that is not possible, the corporate giant hopes to delay the NLRB’s final certification of the ALU as the bargaining agent for JFK8 workers, thus weakening ALU’s efforts to win a decent contract there. The NLRB’s Region 29 Brooklyn office, which oversaw the election, ruled the ALU the winner. The federal labor board, however, and the entire process of “mediation” it supervises, has been no friend of labor since the U.S. government established the agency over 85 years ago.
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PHOENIX, Arizona, June 13, 2022 — The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) opened a hearing here today on Amazon’s objections to the landmark victory of the Amazon Labor Union (ALU) at JFK8, the company’s giant fulfillment center in Staten Island, New York. The ALU — a newly formed union led by young workers at the 8,000-employee facility — won a representation election on April 1. Amazon has challenged the outcome of the vote. Amazon’s lawyers said they plan to call “dozens and dozens” of witnesses and expect the hearing to go on for “the next several weeks.” In doing so, Amazon’s attorneys revealed the company’s strategy of trying to prolong the proceeding’s duration as long as possible. At this point, it is up in the air when the hearing may end.
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Public hearings on the January 6, 2021, ultra-rightist mob attack on the U.S. Congress are now underway. The facts presented at these hearings offer a reminder that the effort Donald Trump led to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election was far outside the previous norms of U.S. bourgeois politics. For this reason, World-Outlook is republishing its inaugural article posted that fateful January. That analysis largely stands up to the test of time. It outlines the stakes for working people in those events. The issues involved go well beyond establishing historical accuracy. It is still likely that Trump will run again for president in 2024. His unfounded and conspiracy-laden claim that the 2020 election was “stolen” still holds sway among the base of the Republican Party and Republican office holders at the federal, state, and local levels. Trump remains the most authoritative leader of the GOP. What is important to working people is what unfolded after the 2020 election. It begins with recognizing the “big lie” of the “stolen election” and the lengths to which its proponents were willing to go to enforce it. This is the second of two parts.
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Public hearings on the January 6, 2021, ultra-rightist mob attack on the U.S. Congress are now underway. The facts presented at these hearings offer a reminder that the effort Donald Trump led to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election was far outside the previous norms of U.S. bourgeois politics. For this reason, World-Outlook is republishing its inaugural article posted that fateful January. That analysis largely stands up to the test of time. It outlines the stakes for working people in those events. The issues involved go well beyond establishing historical accuracy. It is still likely that Trump will run again for president in 2024. His unfounded and conspiracy-laden claim that the 2020 election was “stolen” still holds sway among the base of the Republican Party and Republican office holders at the federal, state, and local levels. Trump remains the most authoritative leader of the GOP. What is important to working people is what unfolded after the 2020 election. It begins with recognizing the “big lie” of the “stolen election” and the lengths to which its proponents were willing to go to enforce it. This is the first of two parts.
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The Supreme Court appears on the verge of overturning the 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling that established the federal right of women to choose abortion. Many states are poised to join Texas, Mississippi, and Oklahoma in criminalizing virtually all abortions. Millions see that these dangerous attacks are aimed at a woman’s right to control her own body. Yet some leading organizations that defend the right to choose abortion now explicitly decline to defend women’s rights. “From Planned Parenthood to NARAL Pro-Choice America to the American Medical Association to city and state health departments and younger activists, the word ‘women’ has in a matter of a few years appeared far less in talk of abortion and pregnancy,” wrote Michael Powell in the New York Times. “Progressive groups and medical organizations have adopted inclusive language, which has led to terms like ‘pregnant people’ and ‘chestfeeding’.” This approach undermines and weakens the fight for the right to choose abortion and all women’s rights. It is a political choice that should be soundly rejected.
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We are pleased to announce that World-Outlook is now on Facebook (@World-Outlook) and on Twitter (@WorldOutlook3). You can find the links to W-O’s Facebook page and Twitter account on every page on World-Outlook’s website by clicking on widgets on the left-hand side of each page, underneath the thematic Categories listings (see the relevant icons pictured below) as they appear on each page). We want to thank the nearly 50 readers who have already liked W-O’s Facebook page. We encourage all our readers to like our Facebook page and follow us on Facebook and Twitter. We further urge you to ask all your friends to do the same. Doing so will help World-Outlook expand its reach and increase its circulation.
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June 3, 2022 — One hundred days since Moscow’s unprovoked invasion of its neighbor, Russia’s war on Ukraine shows no sign of abating. Stiff resistance aimed at defending Ukraine’s sovereignty has pushed Russian forces back in parts of the country — particularly around the capital Kiyv and most of Ukraine’s north.In the eastern region, however, the Russian military continues to conquer territory. The Institute for the Study of War, a U.S. “think tank,” estimates that 95% of the Luhansk region is presently under Russian control. News reports on June 1 stated Russia was close to capturing the eastern Ukrainian city of Severodonetsk. This would give Putin control of the last major city in the Luhansk province still in Ukrainian hands. Meanwhile, the consequences of Moscow’s war continue to spread around the globe. Vladimir Putin’s ongoing aggression has handed Washington a pretext to consolidate its military hegemony in Europe by further expanding the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). The Russian assault, and the U.S.-European sanctions imposed in response, pose increasingly deadly dangers to working people around the world.
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MIAMI, May 29, 2022 — The 23rd consecutive monthly caravan to oppose Washington’s economic war against Cuba took place today. What a victory for the fight against the U.S. blockade of Cuba! What a victory for the right to free speech in this city! About 130 people in 75 vehicles assembled along Ponce de Leon Boulevard in Coral Gables to start the event. As one woman who had missed the last few caravans put it, “This is one I had to be at!” Supporters of the right to protest and speak out for ending the U.S. blockade came to show their support from all over: Vancouver, Canada; Minneapolis, Minnesota; New York City; Las Vegas, Nevada; Tampa and Jacksonville, Florida. Prominent activists came to stand with us in defiance of threats by rightist YouTube personality Alex Otaola.
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This is the second part of a recent interview the People’s Forum in New York City did with with Cuban revolutionary Esteban Morales Domínguez. Morales died from a heart attack on May 18, 2022. Born in Cárdenas, Matanzas, Cuba, in 1942, he became one of the most prominent Afro-Cuban scholars. He was a member of Cuba’s Communist Party, the National Union of Writers and Artists (UNEAC), and of UNEAC’s José Antonio Aponte Commission. The responsibilities of this commission included U.S.-Cuba relations and the fight against racism in Cuba. Morales was a member of the Cuban Academy of Sciences and held numerous academic posts — including professor at the University of Havana. He is the principal author, or co-author, of 15 books and has published many articles. His 2007 book, Desafios de la problemática racial en Cuba (Challenges of the Racial Question in Cuba) was the first book-length publication on this subject by a scholar in Cuba since the 1959 revolution. A collection of his essays in English can be found in Race In Cuba: Essays on the Revolution and Racial Inequality (Monthly Review Press, 2012).
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This is a recent interview the People’s Forum in New York City did with with Cuban revolutionary leader Esteban Morales Domínguez. Morales died from a heart attack on May 18, 2022. Born in Cárdenas, Matanzas, Cuba, in 1942, he became one of the most prominent Afro-Cuban scholars. He was a member of Cuba’s Communist Party, the National Union of Writers and Artists (UNEAC), and of UNEAC’s José Antonio Aponte Commission. The responsibilities of this commission include U.S.-Cuba relations and the fight against racism in Cuba. Morales was a member of the Cuban Academy of Sciences and held numerous academic posts — including professor at the University of Havana. He is the principal author, or co-author, of 15 books and has published many articles. His 2007 book, Desafios de la problemática racial en Cuba (Challenges of the Racial Question in Cuba) was the first book-length publication on this subject by a scholar in Cuba since the 1959 revolution. A collection of his essays in English can be found in Race In Cuba: Essays on the Revolution and Racial Inequality (Monthly Review Press, 2012).
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Tens of thousands of angry, defiant women and their supporters took to the streets in at least 380 U.S. cities and towns on Saturday, May 14, demanding that legal abortion remain the law of the land. Chants and signs insisted: “We won’t go back,” “Abortion is a human right,” and “Bans off my body.” Inspired by recent gains women and their supporters have made in decriminalizing abortion in Latin America — Argentina, Chile, Colombia, and Mexico — protesters in some cities wore green to identify with the Marea Verde (Green Wave) movement for women’s rights in those countries. The May 14 actions were large and spirited, but fell short of the truly massive actions that would reflect the broad majority support that still exists for a woman’s right to choose abortion. As a recent World-Outlook editorial argued, mobilizing such a response will require a change in course for the fight to defend and extend women’s rights. “A new strategy and a new leadership are necessary,” it said. “The balance sheet on the strategy of organizations that are tied to the Democratic Party machine is in: It has failed.”
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On May 4, 2022, Amazon fired Amazon Labor Union (ALU) organizer Mat Cusick, who worked at DYY6, the company’s delivery station in its Staten Island, New York, complex. This is an interview Cusick gave to World-Outlook reported Mark Satinoff on May 12.
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This is a statement by Amazon Labor Union (ALU) organizer Tristan “Lion” Dutchin, who was fired by Amazon on May 7, 2022. Dutchin worked at JFK8, the company’s giant fulfillment center in Staten Island, New York, where the ALU won a landmark union representation election on April 1. As part of his efforts to help secure this historic victory, Dutchin, who is also an artist, has written and performed a number of pro-union songs. Three days earlier, on May 4, Amazon fired another ALU organizer, Mat Cusick, who worked at DYY6, the company’s delivery station in its Staten Island complex. We also publish here the link to a May 11 Democracy Now interview with both workers, who explain the retaliatory character of Amazon’s actions.
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World-Outlook needs your help to report on the May 14, 2022, protests scheduled for this Saturday in defense of women’s right to choose abortion and to oppose the US Supreme Court’s plan to scrap Roe v. Wade. We know many of you plan to join these actions. We welcome both photos and brief reports.
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The leak of the draft Supreme Court decision to overturn Roe v. Wade confirms what has been clear since September 2021 when the court refused to enjoin Texas law SB8. That measure largely made abortion illegal in the second largest state of the union. The court majority now plans to scrap the 1973 Roe decision and open the door to making most if not all abortions illegal in many other states. This is the most serious attack on women’s rights and all democratic rights in decades. The Republican Party has championed the assault. But the Democratic Party has been complicit in eroding women’s right to choose abortion virtually since the moment Roe became law.
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HAVANA, Cuba, May 1, 2022 — The entire city of Havana felt on the move by 3 a.m. today. The excitement was palpable. The Covid-19 pandemic had prevented the Cuban people from celebrating International Workers Day for two years, and, despite the suffocating US-imposed blockade, the working people of Cuba have much to celebrate. Over 700,000 people from all over Havana converged in a spirited, disciplined way on Revolution Square to show the world that “Cuba lives and works for its present, its future, and its continuity” — the theme of the May Day mobilizations. Estimates by the Cuban daily Granma and other Cuban media put total participation throughout the island above 5 million people. That exceeds 43% of the country’s population of 11.4 million!
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BROOKLYN, New York, May 2, 2022 — “We lost this battle, but we’ll win the war,” Michael Aguilar told fellow Amazon Labor Union (ALU) members, union supporters, and the media this grey, rainy afternoon. An Amazon worker at LDJ5, the company’s sorting facility in Staten Island, New York, Aguilar was speaking to those gathered outside the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) office here today. The labor board had just announced the ALU lost the union representation election at LDJ5.The final tally was 380 votes in favor to 618 against the union, and 2 voided ballots. Of the 1,633 workers eligible to vote, 1,000 cast ballots. This means 38% of the LDJ5 workers backed the ALU, compared to 55% at JFK8.
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This is a joint call to action by the Amazon Labor Union (ALU) and Starbucks Workers United regarding protests taking place on May 1, 2022, the international workers’ day.Workers at these two companies have scored some of the most important union organizing victories in the United States in decades. Starbucks workers have unionized 17 stores across the country; workers at the ubiquitous coffee retailer in another 170 locations in 30 states are slated to cast ballots in union elections in coming months. On April 1, the ALU won a landmark representation vote at JFK8, Amazon’s giant fulfillment center in Staten Island, New York, employing 8,000 workers; round two for the ALU is taking place April 25-29 at the adjacent LDJ5, Amazon’s sorting facility employing 1,600 people, with results to be announced in early May.
STATEN ISLAND, New York — “Be a part of something truly great,” said Amazon Labor Union (ALU) treasurer Maddie Wesley. “Be part of a movement,” she added, urging her 1,600 coworkers at LDJ5, Amazon’s sort facility here, to vote for the ALU in the representation election taking place April 25-29. “This is just the beginning. This is a call for all of you to join our brothers and sisters… at JFK8 and join ALU Local #1!” Speaking at a spirited pre-election rally here on Sunday, April 24, Wesley was referring to Amazon’s giant fulfillment center, employing about 8,000 people, where the ALU won a landmark vote on April 1. The victory of the ALU, an independent worker-led union, has inspired many in the labor movement and beyond. The atmosphere here on Sunday afternoon was electric. ALU president Chris Smalls chaired the rally of about 300 people who came together to urge a “Yes” vote the day before the election began. Four workers at LDJ5 addressed those gathered and expressed cautious optimism about the ALU’s chances of unionizing a second Amazon facility.
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Like any revolution, the one led by Thomas Sankara aroused strong opposition. Just as its example inspired activists elsewhere, it stirred animosity among established rulers who feared that their own citizens might want to emulate the Burkinabè. The US, France, and other European powers did not hide their alarm at the National Council of the Revolution’s (CNR) radical foreign policy and its solidarity with liberation struggles in Africa, Latin America, and Asia. Their African client states, especially in neighboring Côte d’Ivoire, Mali, and Togo, attempted to destabilize the Sankara government by helping dissident military officers conduct bombings. In 1986 Mali even waged a brief war against Burkina Faso. Within the country, those political and social circles that saw their interests threatened resisted the CNR’s programs and policies. They included: merchants linked to illicit commercial networks or smuggling rings, senior officers and bureaucrats removed from powerful positions, corrupt personnel no longer able to pilfer state resources, and traditional chiefs who lost some of their control over land or other prerogatives to young activists in the Committees in Defense of the Revolution (CDRs).
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The moment the presiding judge of a military tribunal read out guilty verdicts against eleven accused killers of Burkina Faso’s revolutionary leader Thomas Sankara, the courtroom audience burst into applause. As news spread across the capital, Ouagadougou, drivers honked horns and youths danced in the streets. Some chanted: “La patrie ou la mort, nous vaincrons!” (Homeland or death, we will win), the slogan of Sankara’s revolutionary government. A procession of activists and youth groups laid flowers at a memorial site dedicated to Sankara and the twelve aides slain with him in the 1987 military coup.Many thought the day would never come. Not least because the chief accused was Blaise Compaoré, who crushed Sankara’s revolution and then ruled the country with an iron hand—and with complete impunity—for the next 27 years. But Compaoré’s own overthrow in a popular insurrection in 2014 left him exposed to the possibility that he might one day have to answer for his crimes. So he fled to neighboring Côte d’Ivoire (Ivory Coast), beyond the reach of Burkina Faso’s judicial system, which thus had to try him in absentia. Still, the life sentence for Compaoré and sentences from three years to life for the others convicted, brought some satisfaction to the many, many Burkinabè who revere Sankara.
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This interview first appeared in the on-line journal Spectre on April 11, 2022. World-Outlook is publishing it because it provides information that will be of interest to our readers. Yuliya Yurchenko is the author of Ukraine and the Empire of Capital: From Marketization to Armed Conflict. She is also a Senior Lecturer on Political Economy at the University of Greenwich in the United Kingdom and Vice-Chair of the Critical Political Economy Research Network. At the time of the interview, Yurchenko was in Vinnytsia, Ukraine. The interview offers valuable insight into the struggle to defend Ukraine’s right to self-determination after centuries of Russian domination. It includes information on the establishment of the “people’s republics” of Donetsk and Luhansk with Russian government support following Putin’s seizure of the Crimea in 2014. Yurchenko also discusses the role of far-right forces in Ukraine. Her description of the way capitalism was re-established in Ukraine following the dissolution of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) in 1991 is persuasive.
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On February 25, 2022, a top official in Joe Biden’s administration said US sanctions imposed on Russia following the invasion of Ukraine were also intended to hit Cuba, Venezuela, and Nicaragua. That month marked the sixtieth anniversary of the US blockade of Cuba, introduced in February 1962 by President John F. Kennedy’s Embargo on All Trade with Cuba. The embargo of Cuba constitutes the longest and most comprehensive set of sanctions in modern history. It is not merely a legal or a bilateral issue, as proponents claim. It is a key instrument in the US toolkit to pursue regime change on the island. It is an act of war, a violation of human rights designed to obstruct Cuban development, to undermine its example as a revolutionary alternative, and to intentionally cause suffering among the Cuban people.
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STATEN ISLAND, New York — At an April 8 press conference — more like a workers’ rally — here, Amazon Labor Union (ALU) organizers called on union members and supporters to focus their efforts over the next two weeks on winning the upcoming union vote at LDJ5. This is Amazon’s sort facility across the street from JFK8, the company’s giant fulfillment center employing 8,000 workers, where the ALU just won a landmark union election. The ALU urged everyone to join an April 24 rally in front of LD5. While describing the key lessons of how a team of rank-and-file workers organized Amazon’s first warehouse in the U.S., ALU members also drew attention to the main tasks ahead: the election campaign at LDJ5, beating Amazon’s challenge to the JFK8 victory, unifying the workforce to fight for a contract, and a nationwide organizing campaign.
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These are the lyrics of three union songs written by Tristan “Lion” Dutchin, and videos of their performances. The Amazon Labor Union (ALU) organizer sung the first two with fellow organizer Justine Medina at an April 8, 2022, ALU press conference outside LDJ5, Amazon’s sort center on Staten Island, New York, where a union vote is set to take place April 25-29. Tristan performed the third song, “Election Time,” at a February 22, 2022, ALU fundraiser held at the People’s Forum in New York City. The artist sent the lyrics and the “Election Time” video clip to World-Outlook. We are publishing them because of their artistic value and the inspiration they continue to provide to ALU’s magnificent organizing campaigns.
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This is a Reporters’ Notebook. It is based on conversations World-Outlook reporter Mark Satinoff held with Amazon Labor Union (ALU) members on April 1, 2022, outside the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) in Brooklyn, New York. Satinoff interviewed the Amazon workers in the hours leading up to the announcement of ALU’s monumental victory in the union election at JFK8 — the company’s giant fulfillment center in the New York City area, a key market for Amazon. The interviews point to how Amazon workers organized themselves to make this victory possible. They also outline the union’s next steps ahead, detailing how these workers plan to carry out the ALU pledge in the union’s recent newsletter, which says: “With this first historic victory in the record books, we now turn our attention to the election campaign at LDJ5, the bargaining process for the unionized workers at JFK8, and our nationwide organizing and training campaign launching soon. If you work at Amazon, anywhere in the country, and you want to unionize your workplace, get in touch. We are here to support and empower our coworkers everywhere. When we unite together, we win. Hasta la victoria siempre.” — ALU Newsletter #16
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This is a resolution adopted by the Central Committee of the Russian Communist Party (Bolsheviks) in November 1919. Russian revolutionary leader V.I. Lenin drafted the original text. The resolution can be found in Vol. 30 of Lenin’s Collected Works under the title “On Soviet Rule in Ukraine.” World-Outlook is publishing it because it is relevant to the world-wide discussion and debate on Kremlin’s invasion of Ukraine. Moscow’s brutal attack on a sovereign neighboring republic smacks of the Great Russian chauvinism prevalent under the czars, the barbaric monarchy that ruled the Russian empire for centuries before it was overthrown by workers and peasants in 1917. That same chauvinism animated the reactionary policies re-established by the late 1920s in the former USSR (Union of Soviet Socialist Republics) during the counterrevolution led by Joseph Stalin—a regime Russian president Vladimir Putin faithfully served decades later as an officer of the KGB, the secret police. The resolution illuminates the stark contrast between the position of Putin and Russia’s capitalists today, with that of the workers and peasants’ government Lenin led after the Russian revolution.
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