Capitalism and Economy

March 4 Education Protests Rock the Nation!

Fight Back — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 02:10:24 +0000

The March 4 national day of action for education was a huge success! Over 100,000 people marched, rallied and took action at over 100 schools and colleges. The biggest protests were in California, both on college campuses and in city streets. College students and union members joined parents with their children, as well as high school students, to demand education funding from the state government. Across the country, students, union workers and faculty marched across campuses and rallied outside administration buildings, while administrators hid or snuck out the back door. In some cases university chancellors and presidents locked themselves inside their offices surrounded by police while students tried to deliver petitions.

We are excited to see a new movement arising out of California and spreading in response to the various states’ budget crisis. We oppose program and class cuts, layoffs, pink slips, furlough days, raising tuition and fees. We stand against university presidents closing African-American, Chicano/Latino and oppressed people’s programs and centers. We oppose shutting down women’s centers and gay, lesbian, bi-sexual and transgender support programs. Cut administrators and their bloated salaries, not financial aid and childcare! We oppose the rich and their politicians, while supporting the struggle of students, workers and educators. We say states should tax the rich and not pit education against other needed social services! Now is the time to mobilize the masses and raise the level of militancy. When the governors and boards say, “Cut back,” we say, “Fight back!”

The right-wing media is claiming that student protesters are self-serving and greedy. Nothing could be further from the truth. The students are fighting for what is right in an attempt to forge a better society. What the corporate media and rulers are truly afraid of is the possibility that the student movement will spark a broader movement during the economic crisis. The education rights movement is a challenge to the powers that be, because of the example it sets. And the powers that be respond accordingly - just look at the 16 arrests at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.

March 4 was a tremendous day for Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) both locally and nationally and more students should join SDS so the education rights movement can continue. It is important to organize protests both nationally and on the local level, uniting activists to make practical mass demands in the context of the biggest economic crisis since the Great Depression. At colleges, coalitions of union workers, graduate student and faculty unions and student organizations like MEChA and SDS can make an incredible difference. Students from kindergarten through high school, parent and community organizations alongside teachers’ unions are uniting to find common demands and stop privatization.

These coalitions have and will bring out hundreds and thousands of protesters to march and place demands on school and college administrators, boards of education, state legislators and governors. There is also growing resistance to the federal government’s spending on war abroad and anti-union policies in education at home.

The fight has just begun, there are more cuts coming. State budgets are in crisis and it is not going to get better anytime soon. University administrators wring their hands and point at politicians and governors. The politicians, funded with wealthy people’s money, give excuses and even justify themselves as carrying out the ‘people’s will.’ It just isn’t so. In our country, education is more and more about big business and profits and less and less about what is good for people or for a just, fair and healthy society. We have begun to build a mighty movement to defend public and free education.

Chop from the top!

Tax the rich!

Education, not occupation!

A First Look at the Job Market in the New Year

Fight Back — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 02:39:33 +0000

San Bruno, CA - On Feb. 5 the Department of Labor released their report on the January 2010 job market. The good news in the report was that the official unemployment rate fell from 10.0% in December to 9.7% in January. This is the biggest drop in the unemployment rate since the recession began in December 2007.

There was also a fair amount of bad news in the jobs report. Some 20,000 payroll jobs were lost in January, and the job loss in December was revised up to 150,000 jobs. There was an increase of 52,000 temporary jobs in January, which means that 72,000 permanent jobs were lost.

Despite the overall drop in the official unemployment rate, the unemployment rate for African Americans increased from 16.2% in December to 16.5% in January. This is twice the rate of white workers and is the highest unemployment rate for Blacks in the United States since 1984.

There were two parts of the jobs report that can be considered downright ugly. The first is that the total number of jobs lost in the recession was revised up by a million, to a total of more than 8.4 million jobs lost since the recession began in December 2007. Even if the economy recovers and jobs are added at the same rate as the 2001-2007 business expansion (which was aided by the housing boom), it would take more than seven years just to restore all the jobs lost in the recession.

The other ugly part of the jobs report was the continued rise in long-term unemployment. In January, more than 6.3 million people had been out of work for six months or more. This number has risen by 5 million since the recession began. With so many people out of work and so few job openings, it is taking an average of 30 weeks for jobless workers to find work or give up looking altogether.

One of the things even uglier than the job market is the lack of action by the U.S. Senate. Right now the extended federal unemployment insurance benefit program for the long-term unemployed will expire this month. If the Senate does not act to renew extended federal benefits, more than one million jobless workers will lose their benefits in March. This number will rise to five million by June.

Protest Demands Moratorium on Foreclosures, Tax the Rich, No Cutbacks

Fight Back — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 05:22:25 +0000

St. Paul, MN - About 100 people gathered here Feb. 4 on the steps of the Minnesota State Capitol for a protest that coincided with the opening of the Minnesota State Legislature. The Minnesota Coalition for a People’s Bailout organized the protest. Standing at the top of a giant banner reading, “Tax the rich, no cuts to poor and working people,” Angel Buechner of the Welfare Rights Committee led the chant, “Hey politicians, here’s the fix - tax the rich! Tax the rich!”

Linden Gawboy, of the Minnesota Coalition for a People’s Bailout, gave the first speech, stating, “The MN Coalition for a People’s Bailout has legislation for a People’s Agenda. We demand jobs or income now. If this state does not do the right thing and give us jobs - we need income. We want unemployment benefits extended. We want a moratorium on the five-year limit on welfare. We want the creation of a public works program to put people to work now. We call for no layoffs, no furloughs and no attacks on wages, for state and University of Minnesota workers and for all workers. Now is the time to be protecting jobs, instead of putting more people in the unemployment lines.”

Gawboy continued, “We are sick of seeing destruction that foreclosures and evictions cause in our communities. We call for a moratorium on home foreclosures and on evictions from foreclosed properties.” Many participants at the rally held signs calling for a moratorium on foreclosures and evictions.

Mick Kelly, of the Minnesota Coalition for a Peoples Bailout said, “The economic crisis continues to hit poor and working people hard. Every month more jobs are lost and more homes hover on the brink of foreclosure. We are bringing the message to the politicians at the capitol that this is an emergency and something has to be done.”

He continued, “The rally is in support of House File 2604, which will place a moratorium on foreclosures and evictions of renters from foreclosed properties while the economic crisis is still hitting so many families.” Both HF2604 and its senate companion, SF2242 were introduced Feb. 4.

Charlene Wilford of the Welfare Rights Committee told the crowd, “To those politicians who just don’t get it, we say, ‘Get out here.’ Talk to the moms who have been surviving on $437.00 per month. Talk the homeowners who have given their blood, sweat and tears over the years, only to find themselves facing foreclosures by greedy banks. Talk to families whose unemployment insurance and welfare have hit their time limits.” The Welfare Rights Committee and the Coalition are promoting legislation that will place a moratorium on the five-year time limit on public assistance.

Trade unionists played a big role in the rally. Phyllis Walker, the president of AFSCME 3800 said, “We need to extend unemployment insurance in Minnesota. The homes of many of our union members are in jeopardy because their spouse is out of work and they cannot keep up the mortgage without unemployment payments.” Nearby, members of her local held the union’s banner.

Other labor leaders speaking at the rally included Bernie Hess, of the United Food and Commercial Workers and representatives of the SEIU Local 26, whose janitors recently authorized a strike.

Other speakers included representatives from the coalition’s youth, student, tenant, anti-war and immigrant rights member groups.

Deb Konechne of the Minnesota Coalition for a Peoples Bailout says that the coalition will undertake all out mobilizations to fight for justice at the capitol this legislative session.

MN Foreclosure Moratorium at Senate and House Hearings

Fight Back — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 14:29:36 +0000

St. Paul, MN - The battle is under way to put a moratorium on home forecloses in Minnesota. The first legislative hearing on an bill to put a moratorium on foreclosures and evictions began with a joint hearing by State Senate Economic Development and Housing Budget Division and Health and Housing and Family Security Committee, Jan. 27 at the Minnesota state capitol.

Before the hearing, there was a news conference featuring legislators who are sponsoring the legislation - state Senator Scott Dibble and state Representative Jeff Hayden - along with Deb Konechne of the Minnesota Coalition for a People's Bailout and Leslie Parks, a Minneapolis woman who is resisting foreclosure took place before the hearing.

At the press conference, Konechne stated, "The legislation being sponsored by Senator Dibble and Representative Hayden and being heard this week is an initiative to protect working and low-income people from the worst effects of the foreclosure crisis as well as protect tenants in rental properties that go into foreclosure."

Konechne continued, "Low-income and working people did not create this crisis and we should not be losing our homes due to the economic crisis of the rich and powerful. The federal government is providing hundreds of billions of dollars to banks and corporations. Minnesota must take action."

The Minnesota Coalition for a People's Bailout, a group of community, labor and other organizations, has been working with a broad range of community organizations to win support for the legislation.

The act would put in place protections for tenants in rental properties that are foreclosed.

"Tenants should not be evicted from their homes just because the landlord loses the property. Because the Legislature prescribes the foreclosure and eviction processes in this state, it can revise those processes to protect tenants in their homes," said Peter Brown of Minnesota Tenants Union, who testified at the Jan. 27 senate hearing.

Phyllis Walker, president of AFSCME Local 3800 at the University of Minnesota, also testified. "When working people are laid off and cannot pay their mortgage, they try to renegotiate their loan. But it doesn't work because banks and lending institutions do not negotiate in good faith. They simply go through the motions and then foreclose on the property. Why is that? Is it because the home owner who has been paying a note every month for the past ten years can’t be trusted to live up to the terms of a new agreement? Is it because the bank or financial institution will take such a huge loss they will have to close their doors. The answer to both is no."

The National Alliance to End Homelessness, in a January 2009 report, estimated that 1.5 million additional people in the U.S. would become homeless over the next two years. This is over and above the number who would experience homelessness without the effects of the economic crisis.

"With the unemployment rate staying high for some period of time, with the overall effects of the economic crisis, working and low income people and our communities need continued protection from losing our homes and stability," said the Bailout Coalition's Alan Dale.

The Minnesota Coalition for People's Bailout is planning a demonstration for Feb. 4, the opening day of the legislature. The bill for a moratorium on foreclosures will be formally introduced that day.

University of Minnesota Workers and Students Rally to Demand Administration Chop from the Top

Fight Back — Sat, 23 Jan 2010 08:58:43 +0000

Minneapolis, MN - More than 75 workers, students and community supporters rallied at Morrill Hall, the central administration building here, Jan. 21, to oppose attempts by President Bruininks and senior administrators to balance the budget on the backs of staff and students.

Cherrene Horazuk, chief steward of AFSCME Local 3800, the union that represents clerical workers, told the crowd, “We all know that we are living through the worst economic crisis this country has faced since the Great Depression. But we also all know that we - the working people of this country - did not create this crisis. Yet, when it comes time to discuss state budgets and university budgets, the people in charge want us to bear the burden.”

Horazuk continued, “It has been said and it bears repeating that the layoff of every single public employee in Minnesota would not make up the budget deficit. This problem requires a real solution. Further impoverishing working Minnesotans is not the answer and must be opposed.”

Phyllis Walker, president of AFSCME 3800, stated before the rally: “One of their plans is furlough days. President Bruininks told senior administrators that he intends to make staff take ten furlough days - unpaid days off - over the next year. This is a pay cut for hourly staff at the university and we can’t afford it. Pay and holidays are negotiated with the unions on campus and cannot be unilaterally dictated.”

Students also joined the noon protest. Grace Kelly of the University of Minnesota Students for a Democratic Society said, “This administration continues to make education unaffordable. Between 2000 and 2007, undergraduate tuition went up over 68%. The administration wants to pit students against staff by telling us it’s either tuition increases or layoffs. This is a false choice.”

Another speaker at the protest, Kim Defranco of the Minnesota Coalition for a People’s Bailout said, “As we know, corporations and banks have gotten bailed out but we haven’t. We have to suffer with more cuts and cutbacks. We are sick and tired of being the scapegoats for corporations, institutions and politicians when the economy is in crisis. Now we are all in this together, whether we are workers, staff, students, families, the poor, we need to stand and fight back together. We need to demand enough is enough! Together we are stronger.

AFSCME Local 3800, which is a part of the Minnesota Coalition for a People’s Bailout, is among the organizations that will be participating in rally at the State Capitol Building Feb. 4, the opening of the Minnesota legislative session. That protest will demand an end to layoffs of public employees, the extension of unemployment benefits, a moratorium on home foreclosures and taxes on the rich to balance the state budget.

Protest Opposes State, University Cutbacks

Fight Back — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 18:33:04 +0000

Chicago, IL - Over 200 workers, faculty and students at the University of Illinois-Chicago (UIC) marched here, Jan. 21, to demand full funding for higher education and an end to threatened furloughs and layoffs. The rally was held outside the meeting of the University of Illinois Board of Trustees. It was called by a coalition of unions, including SEIU and the Graduate Employees Organization (GEO), as well UIC Concerned Faculty, an ad hoc group, and student activists.

At the start of the semester, University of Illinois (UI) President Stanley Ikenberry announced furlough days and layoffs of administrators, faculty and staff. This is a result of the state failing to provide funds already allocated. Illinois has a state budget crisis that is second only to California. Since July 1, the state has provided the university with only $17 million of $436 million.

For weeks, departments have been meeting to respond. The College of Liberal Arts and Sciences has been pushed to announce that they will not be able to recruit new graduate students for the fall of 2010. Ikenberry has also announced that he will be forced to raise tuition by 10% next year as well.

The main fire of the protest was aimed at the state legislature. In fact, President Ikenberry and Board of Trustees Chair Chris Kennedy (son of Senator Robert Kennedy), came out to thank the picketers, spending about ten minutes shaking hands with everyone on the picket line.

But the coalition United In Campaign Against Budget Cuts (UIC ABC), had plenty of criticisms of UI and UIC management, as well. Judith Gardiner, a professor of English at UIC for 40 years, criticized top administration for having made their decisions on cutbacks before students or employees had any input. Speaking to the rally on behalf of UIC Concerned Faculty, she called for alternatives to the furloughs, pay cuts and layoffs to protect students and faculty and staff who are not at the top of the pay scales.

In preparing for the protest and to respond to the crisis, SEIU Local 73 held meetings with 200 members over the last two weeks. Regina Russell, a leader in the Patient Access department, a call center in the Medical Center, said that her management reported an all time record in work performance this past year. “We registered and verified insurance for half a million patients. With 60 employees, that’s about 50 a piece every working day. It’s more than double what we were doing a few years ago. Even then, the hospital was banking profit. Why should we have to take layoffs and no pay raises?”

GEO Organizing Chair Jes Cook, and Willie English, a service representative for Local 73 and former UIC employee, spoke to the rally, denouncing the failure of UIC to negotiate fair contracts. Both GEO and the clerical unit of Local 73 have been meeting with Labor Relations for months with no progress to report. GEO represents 1400 workers; Local 73 has three units currently without contracts, totaling 2500 employees.

Raucous chanting and speeches lasted for over two hours, including almost an hour in a freezing rain, displaying a spirit that promises to keep this fight alive.

Purchasing Power of Workers' Weekly Wages Fall 1.6% in 2009

Fight Back — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 14:56:55 +0000

San José, CA - On Friday, Jan. 15, the Department of Labor released reports on inflation and real earnings (wages adjusted for inflation) for 2009. The rate of increases in prices for workers who live in cities was moderate, at 3.4%. This figure was higher than the official inflation rate of 2.7%. However wages failed to keep up with the rise in prices, so weekly real earnings, or the purchasing power of workers' weekly wages, fell by 1.6% in 2009. This fall in wages was mainly because the average increase in hourly wages was less than the rise in prices. This reflected the lack of raises and spreading wage cuts last year. Cuts in workers' hours, which also reduced weekly pay, also played a role.

This fall in workers' real earnings was the largest on records dating back to 1990 and shows the impact of the economic crisis on working families. Workers' standard of living took a triple whammy with the recession in 2009. The first hit was from less purchasing power. Then there were rising numbers of foreclosures that put many working families, both home-buyers as well as renters, out of their homes. Finally, there were cuts in school programs and government services that help low-income and working families due to local and state budget crises.

But this decline in workers' standard of living did not just appear with the recession that began in 2007. Another measure of standard of living, the median or typical household income, was lower in 2008 than in 2000, right before the last recession in 2001. This means that for the first time since the 1930s, average incomes failed to grow with the economy, as all the economic gains went to those with higher incomes. A separate report on private sector workers (excluding government workers), shows weekly wages in 2009 the lowest since 1980.

The value of what U.S. workers produced each hour was 85% greater in 2009 than in 1980. But wages have been stagnant, so the gains in productivity have gone to businesses in the form of higher profits. Under capitalism businesses are driven to cut wages and hours, while raising prices, in a race for ever greater profits. At the same time these profits are reinvested to increase output and productivity even more. This leads to crises of overproduction or recessions, when the limited purchasing power of workers collides with the increased ability of businesses to produce.

But why have recessions been less common and milder during the 30 thirty years? For one, a part of the growing profits were made into loans to finance the sale of the homes, cars and other goods and services that working people could not really afford with their pay. This increase in credit gave a boost to the economy as the construction of homes and shopping centers produced more construction and retail jobs. But at the same time workers went deeper and deeper into debt, as seen in the rising rates of bankruptcies. Another part of these profits went into finance and real estate, supporting an army of mortgage brokers and real estate agents. At the same time these profits were lifeblood of a frenzy of speculation in financial products cooked up by Wall Street. But this build up of household debt and financial speculation finally collapsed into a financial crisis in 2008.

At this time working people need to organize to fight for our jobs, our homes and the public schools and government programs that we need to survive. But ultimately we need to fight to replace capitalism with an economic system that puts peoples needs, not profits first - socialism.

Geithner Should Go!

Fight Back — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 02:29:31 +0000

In September of 2008 the New York Federal Reserve gave the U.S. insurer American International Group (AIG) an $85 billion loan as part of the bailout of Wall Street. The NY Fed told AIG to pay big banks in full the $62 billion AIG owed for credit default swaps. In addition, the NY Fed told AIG not to tell the public how much they owed or who they were paying off. The government bailout of AIG has been increased three times since then and now totals more than $180 billion.

The corporate-owned mainstream media has been crowing about the ‘success of the bank bailout as the biggest banks have repaid their Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) funds. But little mention is made of how these same big banks that have repaid their TARP moneys got this secret bailout via AIG.

Current Secretary of the Treasury Timothy Geithner was president of the New York Federal Reserve when AIG and big banks were given the secret bailout. The editors of Fight Back! say that Geithner should resign, or be removed from the post of Treasury Secretary.

The federal government should also have tax on financial transactions. A small tax of one-half of one percent or less could raise more than $100 billion a year. Representative Peter DeFazio (Democrat-Oregon) has recently reintroduced a bill to tax financial transactions. Unfortunately, many Democratic representatives who are in bed with Wall Street have opposed this, calling it a “huge new tax burden.” In fact, a financial transactions tax could crimp the profits of big Wall Street firms and big banks, but since they helped create the economic crisis, why shouldn't they pay?

Working people are facing higher state and local taxes and severe service cuts, while the official unemployment rate is still above 10% nationally. People are now paying five or even ten percent sales taxes on the goods that they buy, why shouldn’t there be a small tax on the financial assets that Wall Street sells? This money could be used to cover the costs of the bank bailout and be spent by the government to create jobs.

Production and Profits are Growing As 85,000 More Jobs Are Lost in December

Fight Back — Sat, 09 Jan 2010 02:15:12 +0000

San José, CA - On Friday, Jan. 8, the Labor Department reported that 85,000 more jobs were lost in December of 2009. This was much worse than mainstream economists predicted and shows that another ‘job-loss’ recovery may be underway. Following the last official recession in 2001, the economy began to grow in November of 2001 but workers continued to lose jobs until the summer of 2003.

Government reports show that production of goods and services began to grow again during the summer of 2009, which may signal the official end to the recession. But with almost 7.5 million jobs lost since the beginning of the recession two years ago, workers cannot stand for another year or two of job losses while corporate profits and the stock markets boom.

The official December unemployment rate was the same as November, at 10%. But this was only because more than 600,000 people dropped out of the labor force by stopping to look for work. Over the last year, the labor force (people who are working and the unemployed who are looking for work) shrank by more than 1.5 million people. If the labor force stayed the same size (and it normally would be growing due to young people finishing school and immigration), the official unemployment rate would be 11%.

Despite the steady overall unemployment rate, the official unemployment rate for African Americans rose by six-tenths of one percent to a new high of 16.2%. This is the highest official unemployment rate for Blacks in 26 years.

A growing number of those who are working are either part-time or temporary workers. Including the part-timers and those who said that they stopped looking for work, the rate of unemployment and underemployment was 17.3% in December, or more than one out of six workers. There was also a large increase in the number of temporary workers - almost 47,000 in December. Combined with the overall loss of 85,000 jobs, this meant that businesses shed more than 130,000 permanent jobs last month.

In another sign that there is no recovery for working people, it is taking longer and longer for jobless workers to find employment. The average length of unemployment rose again, reaching 29 weeks in December 2009 as compared to less than 20 weeks a year ago. About 10 million unemployed were collecting unemployment insurance benefits in December, up from about 6 million a year earlier. More and more jobless workers are losing their state unemployment benefits, which generally only last for six months. The number of unemployed collecting federal emergency benefits has almost tripled over the last year, to 4.5 million.

But these federal emergency programs are set to expire at the end of February. Without a further extension, a million jobless workers a month will start to lose their unemployment benefits, adding even more pain to working households. Extending unemployment benefits would be a start for Congress, but what is really needed is a federal jobs program. The federal government also needs to provide more aid to state and local governments, whose budget problems are forcing tax increases, service cuts and layoffs that working people cannot afford right now.

Build the Fight for Jobs, Income, Housing, Education and Justice

Fight Back — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 09:01:07 +0000

Across the country, more working people are losing our jobs and our homes. Each week, the ranks of those running out of our unemployment benefits grow. In every state, public schools and programs that serve poor and working people are being cut. Health care is in crisis and congress is debating another bailout for the insurance companies. Oppressed nationality - Black, Chicano, Latino, Asians and Native Americans - are hit the hardest by the economic crisis.

Some in government, the media and a few economists say the economic crisis is over and that “we have turned a corner.” This is a joke that’s not funny. More money flowing into the stock market does not change the fact that life is getting worse for the people of the United States. Bailouts for the banks let the bankers maintain the standard of living they are accustomed to - the best mansions, vacations, cars and luxuries money can buy. The rest of us get what is left, which is less than we had before.

There are talking heads who say we all should be glad that things are not getting worse as fast as they were before. Try using this happy talk to pay the grocer, landlord, or gas station and you will end up hungry, homeless, and sitting by the side of the road. The fact that the pace of home foreclosures is slowing and that growth in the ranks of the unemployed are not growing quite so fast is not reason to rejoice - it is reason to be angry and to do something about it. It’s time to fight back

What we need is a powerful movement of working and oppressed people that puts our demands for jobs, income, housing, education and justice front and center. The sad fact of the matter is that we cannot have faith that either of the two political parties of big business will address our needs. For example, 48 of the 50 states are experiencing budget crises, where programs that serve poor and working people are on the chopping block. In each of the states the Democratic Party has proved to be a party of cuts to the programs that serve us. At the federal level there are plans to send 30,000 more combat troops to Afghanistan. Each soldier will cost over $1 million a year, money that is not available for needs here at home. Is the Republican Party worse? Sure, in general it is. But opponents are opponents and the point here is that working people need to take things into our own hands.

Since the economic crisis began there have been bright spots of resistance to the attacks on our standard of living. At the onset of the crisis, the Republic Windows and Doors workers of Chicago lit a light that illuminated the way forward. They occupied their factory until they got justice.

In recent months, the successful strikes at SK Hand Tools in Chicago, the GEO strike in Urbana, Illinois and the SEPTA transit workers strike in Philadelphia demonstrated that it is possible to make some gains in hard times. The militant fight of homeowners like Rosemary Williams and Leslie Parks in Minnesota show that is possible to build real battles against foreclosures and evictions. And students and workers at the University of California campuses showed that it is possible to build huge mass struggles against the attacks on public education.

In October, more than 150 trade unionists, community leaders, immigrant rights, housing and student activists came together in Chicago and created the Network for Economic Justice. This shows there is both a need and a desire for more coordination and organization among those who are standing up to the effects of the economic crisis.

In the period ahead it is vital that every effort is made to build the struggle to defend our standard of living. Where militant local struggles break out and can serve as an example to the working class as a whole, support should be built regionally and nationally. A single spark can start a prairie fire. The lessons of these battles should be spread far and wide.

Because the African American, Chicano, Latino and other oppressed nationality communities are being hit the hardest by the economic crisis, serious attention needs to be paid to building the fight against racial discrimination and for the defense of programs and institutions that serve the communities.

The same goes for the struggle of undocumented workers, who face mass firings as a result of forced ‘verification’ programs along with raids and deportations. The demand for full equality and legalization needs to be advanced as attacks on immigrant workers are resisted. The determination of the California workers at American Apparel and Overhill Farms to fight mass firings deserves the support of workers everywhere.

Now is the time to go all out in building the struggles of working and oppressed people. The rich and powerful who rule the United States have a plan. They want to shift the burden of the crisis onto the backs of working people. Bailouts for banks, job cuts and attacks on the social safety net make this crystal clear. There is a way out. We can build our fights, and as we do so, can educate and organize to put an end to a system - capitalism- that puts profits before people.