Americas

Jobs in the USA continue to hemorrhage with no end in sight. Companies keep announcing layoffs as the official unemployment rate reaches a 16-year high of 7.2 percent and is expected to reach 10 percent or higher over the next 12 months. The number of Americans continuing to claim unemployment is now at 4.78 million, the highest level since records began in 1967. Workers are beginning to think.

Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff has just declared his intention to support the Conservative budget. In response, an angry Jack Layton said that the NDP-Liberal coalition has been replaced by a Liberal-Conservative coalition. However, we don't know why he is so angry. When the NDP leadership bailed out the Liberals through the unprincipled coalition they gave the Liberals the opportunity to save the Conservatives. Canada has been through two months of intense political turmoil and it is important to take a balance sheet of events.

American workers are faced with an economic and social crisis on a scale not seen in decades. One after another, the pillars of American capitalism are crumbling around them: all the major banks and financial services companies; all the major auto makers; the dream of home ownership and a secure retirement; the aura of invincibility of U.S. military might; the promise of a tomorrow better than today. In short, the bedrock upon which U.S. capitalism has justified its continued exploitative existence has turned to quicksand.  This is the backdrop for Obama's inaugural speech.

We republish here an interview from Upside Down World with Mark Meinster of the United Electrical Workers union in Chicago which was directly involved in the occupation of the Republic Windows and Doors factory in December. It is significant that the union president in the factory has been politicised and inspired by a visit to Inveval in Venezuela, the factory that was occupied by its workers, later nationalised and is being run under workers' control, and where the Revolutionary Marxist Current plays a leading role.

Barack Obama has been sworn in as America's 44th president. Now that the electoral dust has settled, many are already disappointed with Obama and his cabinet picks. Nonetheless, he enjoys astonishing approval ratings of over 80 percent. But this only means that the reaction to the inevitable disappointment will be that much more explosive.

Less than a week after Obama’s electoral win, and when “change” was still the battle cry of many of his supporters, the Wall Street Journal ran a piece entitled “Obama builds ties to Chicago School.” As many are no doubt aware, the “Chicago School” refers to the notorious Chicago School of Economics, known for touting free markets, so-called “free trade,” and for being fiercely opposed to any democratic oversight of market activities. 

Barack Obama was elected on the promise of “change.” Socialist Appeal has explained that this is nothing more than an empty vessel that honest supporters have used to fill with their own content, with what they want to see in him. Now a concrete picture of what can be expected is emerging. So do any of his cabinet selections actually represent anything that could seriously be called “change”?
Obama and King - not so alike like after all. Photo on the left by bonayur on Flickr

Racism is interwoven into the very fabric of capitalism. Malcolm X once said: “You can’t have capitalism without racism.” We would add: “You can’t have racism without capitalism.” In other words, we cannot end the scourge of racism, while leaving capitalism intact, and ending capitalism is something that Barack Obama will not, and cannot do.

On Thursday morning, December 11th, the 250 workers occupying the Republic Windows and Doors factory in Chicago had something to be proud of: they had fought back against one of the biggest banks in the U.S. and had won all of the severance pay owed to them. The workers unanimously agreed Wednesday evening to approve a deal reached between negotiators from their union and Republic's creditor, Bank of America, prompting an end to the six day occupation. While the struggle did not result in keeping the factory open and jobs in place, the UE workers were able to win an important partial victory by winning the money owed to them.

Yesterday a communique reached the Campus Antiwar Network national discussion e-mail list announcing the occupation of the New School University's cafeteria by students both from the New School, as well as from other universities in the surrounding area from New York and New Jersey. The students have occupied the cafeteria, claiming it as an autonomous students center.

Workers from the Revolutionary Front of Occupied Factories (FRETECO) in Venezuela and Members of the Executive Committee of CC.OO. branch in Navantia-Ferrol (Spain) send messages of solidarity and support to the courageous workers of Republic Windows and Doors in Chicago, USA. In English and Spanish/En español y inglés.

Despite the new majority Liberal government in Quebec, the defeat of the chauvinist ADQ and the victory of Amir Khadir of Quebec Solidaire are important wins for the working class. Solidaire must now use this platform to wage a fightback againt the inevitable atacks from the Liberals and capitalists in Quebec.

Beginning Friday, around 300 workers at the Republic Window & Door factory in Chicago have occupied the plant demanding severance and back-pay owed by the company. For the first time since the birth of the CIO union federation in the 1930s, US workers are occupying their workplace. As the bosses push to place the burden of the failing economy on workers' shoulders, the class struggle is back on the agenda in the US.

An overwhelming 95 percent of black voters cast their ballots for Barack Obama in the recent elections in the United States. The scenes on the streets in Chicago and around the country were full of jubilation, as many working people, both Black and white, fervently believe that change is now on the horizon. But does Obama's victory really mean the end of racism in America?