Seattle, WA – On July 29 and 30, Pacific Northwest People Over Profit (PNW POP), along with other organizations, rallied hundreds of people to protest the ministerial meetings taking place in Seattle for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC).

APEC is a forum in which governments and big business executives collude to negotiate free trade agreements and frameworks that impose the harsh consequences of neoliberalism on workers within the Asia-Pacific region. The act of protesting neoliberal policies is not unfamiliar to Seattle or the global community, as evidenced by the successful ousting of the WTO in 1999 and APEC in 2019 by the people of Seattle and Chile, respectively.

On Saturday, July 29, the community rallied together at the People’s Summit, a counter-summit to APEC. Eni Lestari, chairperson of International Migrants Alliance and the keynote speaker opened the counter-summit by saying, “Workers and migrants must stand side by side. We must understand global capitalism because it is the root cause of our suffering.”

After the keynote speaker, a panel of organizers spoke on the effects these disastrous trade deals would have on workers in the Philippines, Adidas workers, and logistics workers in the U.S.

“APEC’s claim of building a resilient and sustainable future for all is a lie!” said Clio Jensen, an organizer with UNITE HERE Local 8 who spoke on the panel. “What these deals really aim to do is build the resiliency of a deeply exploitative capitalist system.”

After the panel, 15 different organizations held workshops to build solidarity and further analyze how free trade deals harm workers, migrants, women and the environment. To quote Gemini Gnull, an organizer with Climate Alliance of the South Sound, “From the Philippines to the Navajo nation, rip and ship extraction devastates ecologies and economies for the benefit of the ruling class. This is environmental racism, plain and simple.”

On Sunday, July 30,a passionate crowd of over 600 people took to the streets in protest against APEC, commencing their march at Cal Anderson Park and culminating in a powerful rally that included the strategic blocking of the convention center's doors.

At the park, Hanna Giugler, a rank-and-file Teamster at Local 174 spoke about the gains Teamsters achieved in their recent tentative agreement with UPS. “We Teamsters have learned from past contracts that we need to fight and show the company that we are the ones that make UPS billions of dollars every year! Every gain in this contract is because of militant teamsters pushing and upholding class-struggle unionism.” The neoliberal agenda of APEC aims to build “supply chain resiliency” that would threaten the ability of logistics workers to organize, and ship jobs overseas as NAFTA did in 1994.

After the initial speeches at Cal Anderson Park, the crowd marched towards the Washington State Convention Center where APEC meetings were currently being held, chanting: “Hey hey, ho ho, corporate trade has got to go,” “No to APEC! No to war!” “APEC, let’s stop it, put people over profit” and “APEC, APEC, spewing lies, they don’t care if people die!”

At the convention center, organizers rallied and parked a truck in front of the entrance, blocking off those inside and forcing them to listen to the people’s demands. On top of this truck, an impromptu stage was created where organizers gave speeches.

Daniel Felde, a member of the ILPS US's steering committee, stated, “Institutions like APEC, and free trade deals like the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework, don’t exist to solve our problems, they exist to make a profit – always at the expense of the people!” The PNW People Over Profit coalition plans to continue coordinating actions throughout August as ministerial meetings continue.

To stay connected and up to date on mobilizations, text PNWPOP to 833-576-2920.

#SeattleWA #WorkersAndGlobalization #apec

President Maduro of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela welcomed and spoke to the participants who attended from every part of the globe. These included countries where the working class holds power, like Cuba and China, with officials from their ruling parties, trade union movements, and international relations departments.

“It is necessary to point out that we have proposed as the objective of this meeting, to contribute to a greater understanding of our national reality, providing elements that contribute to the analysis that from each of the political, popular, social and worker organizations of which we are a part: The Bicentennial Congress is carried out around the challenges that Venezuela faces today,” said Adan Chavez, the coordinator of the Organizing Committee of the Bicentennial Congress.

Chavez continued, “Dear colleagues, it is important and necessary to point out that in recent years the Bolivarian Revolution has been facing a brutal multiform aggression, led by the United States government and expressed in a systematic anti-Bolivarian campaign and a criminal blockade, economic, financial and commercial, that considerably impacts the daily life of our people; as well as, in repeated threats of military intervention, mercenary incursions and terrorist actions against it, including the assassination attempt against comrade President Nicolás Maduro.”

Adan Chavez finished by sharing, “It is well known, notorious and meant to send a message, that these actions, directed fundamentally from Washington with the complicity of other governments of the world, are aimed at trying to end the project of broad transformations initiated by Commander Hugo Chávez in 1999; imperial initiatives that have met and will continue to meet head-on with the iron will of the Venezuelan people to ensure respect for their dignity, sovereignty and independence; in defense of the legacy of the Bolivarian leader.”

The Congress is occurring within the framework of the Bicentennial Year of the Battle of Carabobo in June 1821. This was an important battle under the leadership of Simon Bolivar, when a patriotic army of Venezuelans defeated the Spanish empire. This victory for the Venezuelan people led to Simon Bolivar, known forever after as The Liberator, then marching to free the neighboring peoples today living in Colombia, Panama, Ecuador and Bolivia. This historic sense of solidarity will inform the internationalism expressed this week at the Bicentennial Congress in Caracas.

#GrandRapidsMI #WorkersAndGlobalization #Caracas #TheBicentennialCongressOfThePeoplesOfTheWorld #BolivarianRepublicOfVenezuela

“The Party calls on local and international environmentalist and human rights advocates to look into the escalating incidents of abuses perpetrated by the Duterte fascist regime against anti-mining communities while fast-tracking the enactment of the fascist Anti-Terror Bill (ATB),” stated Marco L. Valbuena, Information Officer, Communist Party of the Philippines.

The victims were arrested during the conduct of a raid by the joint elements of the police, military and local barangay officials in the said community at around 3:30 a.m.

Ayuma and his companions are not members of the New People's Army (NPA), contrary to the claims of the military and police.

Arrested with Ayuma were Lumads Pablita Hilogon, Glenn Hilogon, Bambi Hilogon, Toto Hilogon, Jun-Jun Ayoman, and Jesson Langka, all members of the Kalumbay Lumad Organization. The victims were originally from Sitio Camansi, Barangay Banglay in Lagonglong town, and were among residents who evacuated from the said community in 2018 due to intense military operations and attacks against them.

The victims have long been subjected to red-tagging and harassment by the regime's National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC), because of their leading their community's opposition against expansion plans of multinational companies in the area.

#Philippines #InJusticeSystem #OppressedNationalities #Asia #PeoplesStruggles #WorkersAndGlobalization #CommunistPartyOfThePhilippines #PoliticalPrisoners #EnvironmentalJustice #PoliticalRepression #RodrigoDuterte #AntiTerrorBill

The statement came on the heels of the August 6 threats made by Trump’s National Security Adviser John Bolton and the decision to freeze Venezuelan assets in the U.S.

Hua also said, “What the U.S. said and did constitutes gross interference in Venezuela’s internal affairs and severely violates basic norms governing international relations. China firmly opposes that. We have to point out that which political party rules the country is the domestic affair of that country and should be decided by its people. With whom a country will cooperate should also be decided by the country itself.”

#WashingtonDC #AntiwarMovement #OppressedNationalities #Venezuela #US #Asia #Americas #PeoplesStruggles #AsianNationalities #ChicanoLatino #WorkersAndGlobalization #China #Socialism #DonaldTrump #VenezuelaEmbargo

Trump threatened to raise the 10% tariffs, or taxes, to 25%, on about half of goods imported from China. In addition, he threatened to place 25% tariffs on almost all other Chinese-made goods coming to this country. These new tariffs cover a wide variety of consumer goods such as cell phones that escaped his first round of tariffs.

Despite the Trump administration’s growing use of tariffs, starting with washing machines and solar panels, then going to aluminum and steel, and finally on hundreds of billions of dollars of Chinese goods, the U.S. trade deficit actually grew last year. Perhaps frustrated by the failure of his policies to boost U.S. trade, Trump is threatening to escalate the trade war with China and is also laying the groundwork for tariffs on imported cars. The Trump administration is seeking to label imported cars a ‘national security’ threat, despite the fact that they are almost all from Canada, Mexico, Germany and Japan.

U.S. companies have mainly reacted by raising prices, not by increasing production. After the 25% tariff on washing machines, prices on both washing machines and dryers (which were not subject to tariffs but which are often sold with a washing machine) both have gone up about 12%. In the case of steel, the 25% tariffs were almost matched by a 22% rise in the price of steel. While this has fattened corporate profits, it has not benefited workers.

Other businesses are bracing for possible retaliation if Trump goes ahead with tariffs on more Chinese goods or on cars. After the imposition of tariffs on Chinese goods, U.S. exports of soybeans to China, which was almost half of U.S. production, fell to almost zero last year. While almost no cars are imported from China (GM imports a small number of smaller SUVs that it makes in China), a good number of car parts are, which will increase the cost of making trucks and SUVs in the United States.

Like white supremacists who promote the idea that whites are ‘victims’ of Black people, Mexican immigrants and Central American refugees, Trump promotes the idea that the United States is victimized by other countries. Given that the U.S. is still the world’s largest economy and has dominated the economies of many other countries for years, the idea is ridiculous, but it helps to whip up racist fears.

#SanJoséCA #OppressedNationalities #US #PeoplesStruggles #WorkersAndGlobalization #economy #DonaldTrump #tariffs #tradeWar

Minneapolis, MN – More than 50 trade unionists gathered at the United Labor Centre here, April 25, to hear Ed Cubelo, the president of Toyota Motor Philippines Corporation Workers Association and chairman of the Metro Manila chapter of the major trade union federation in the Philippines – Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU) or 'May First Labor Movement.' Also speaking was Raymond “Mong” Palatino, the chairperson of the metro Manila chapter of Bagong Alyansang Makabayan-BAYAN, a progressive alliance of people’s organizations.

KMU leader Ed Cubelo talked about the conditions faced by workers in the Philippines under the reactionary U.S.-backed regime of President Rodrigo Duterte, and the struggle for decent working conditions at U.S.-controlled multinational corporations. The KMU has organized a wave of powerful protests, strikes and workplace occupations to improve the lot of Filipino workers.

About $4000 was pledged to support a KMU workers’ school at the speaking event.

On April 26, a meeting was held which included the Philippine guests and some of Minnesota’s top labor leaders.

#MinneapolisMN #Labor #OppressedNationalities #Philippines #Asia #PeoplesStruggles #WorkersAndGlobalization #BAYAN #KilusangMayoUno #ToyotaMotorPhilippinesCorporationWorkersAssociation

The Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) joins the Filipino people in strongly denouncing the stepped-up surveillance by Duterte’s police forces against members of the Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT) as well as other democratic mass organizations.

The surveillance was exposed after leaders of ACT revealed that officials of the Department of Education in Metro Manila and other provinces were being asked to inform the police of the roster of ACT’s membership. Its members reported being tracked down by police operatives to their homes.

The police surveillance on ACT clearly aims to harass and intimidate the organization which has staunchly advanced the welfare and interests of teachers and the people’s democratic cause. It also aims to bully the teachers to make them submit to the scheme of the Duterte regime to manipulate the upcoming mid-term elections which employ public school teachers.

The surveillance against the teachers is an affront against their democratic rights. Duterte has mobilized state forces to subject his critics and opposition forces to so-called intelligence operations. Instead of addressing the demand of public school teachers for salary increases, Duterte is using public money to harass and intimidate them.

It forms part of the massive surveillance against students, journalists, lawyers and other various democratic sectors and their organizations and alliances, as well as progressive party list groups, to set them up for arrests or extrajudicial killings. Duterte has earlier ramped up his Red-tagging of these organizations using the old Marcos tactic of labeling them as “communist fronts” in a futile attempt to justify vicious all-out suppression. He has openly threatened to murder their members whom he called as “potential members” of the NPA.

Duterte desperately aims to preserve his power by cracking down against the legal democratic forces which are at the forefront of the anti-fascist united front of all groups opposing Duterte’s tyranny and de facto martial law rule.

Duterte’s fascist suppression will, however, succeed only in arousing ever wider opposition and fiercer resistance to his rule. Contrary to his aim, more and more are being enjoined to close ranks with a broad united front to call for an end to Duterte’s state-sponsored killings and terrorism, corruption, and servility to foreign powers.

He is also succeeding only in closing legal avenues of dissent and unwittingly encouraging more people to support and join the New People’s Army (NPA) to wage armed struggle.

#Philippines #Labor #OppressedNationalities #Asia #PeoplesStruggles #WorkersAndGlobalization #NewPeoplesArmy #CommunistPartyOfPhilippines #TeachersUnions #AllianceOfConcernedTeachersACT

The World Federation of Trade Unions on behalf of its more than 95 million in 130 countries of the 5 continents expresses its internationalist solidarity and support to All India general strike on 8-9 January 2019. The WFTU affiliates are taking a leading role in the preparations of the strike which is called by the joint platform of the 10 central trade unions and dozens of independent federations.

The forthcoming “All India General Strike” will be the third and biggest countrywide strike against the neo-liberal policy of Modi’s governance which is aligned with the World Trade Organization norms and is variously affecting the working class of India worsening its living and working conditions.

During the last years, the Indian working class has been resisting, undertaking struggles at local, sectoral and national level. The two-day general strike is the continuing and escalation of the previous struggles against the policy which creates a country of unemployment and stagnancy of wages in combination with rising prices, relentless attacks against the worker’s rights and unparalleled privatization policy of public sector.

In front of this situation the Trade Unions are rising up, fighting for dignified minimum wages and pension to all, creation of new dignified jobs, curbing of rising prices of essential commodities, universal, social security coverage to all, stoppage of privatization policy, end to the infraction of the labor and trade unions rights, end to contractualisation.

The World Federation of Trade Unions joints its voice with the call of the class-oriented trade unions for militant and massive participation of all the workers of the country regardless their sector or region. The WFTU supports the fair demands of the declared strike, given that the class-oriented struggle for a dignified life and work is the only way out from the capitalist barbarity.

#India #International #Asia #PeoplesStruggles #WorkersAndGlobalization #WorldFederationOfTradeUnionsWFTU #Strikes #WFTU #AllIndiaStrike

Fight Back News Service is circulating the following statement from Freedom Road Socialist Organization (FRSO) to the Central Committee, Communist Party of the Philippines.

Dear Comrades:

On the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of the Philippines, Freedom Road Socialist Organization sends our warmest greetings, and we are confident that the years ahead will bring still greater victories.

Your progress in advancing the people’s democratic revolution with a socialist orientation, and in developing a people’s war to liberate the Philippines from the burden of imperialism, feudalism, and bureaucrat capitalism is an inspiration to revolutionaries everywhere.

The monopoly capitalists who rule the United States have built an empire the spans the globe – from the Philippines to Palestine to Peru. While the U.S. imperialists have constructed an immense war machine, they are beset by fundamental contradictions and strategically doomed. The people of the U.S. and the people of the Philippines share a common enemy and every blow against imperialism is a good thing that brings closer the day of their final defeat.

We appreciate the many contributions that the Communist Party of the Philippines had made to the international communist movement. Your spirted defense of Marxism-Leninism, including the earthshaking contributions of Mao Zedong to this science of revolution, stands as an example of clarity and leadership, as does the CPP’s willingness to oppose revisionism.

We place great value on the militant friendship that exists between our organizations and we will work to build on it in the coming years. For the people of our respective countries, the future is bright!

Long live proletarian internationalism!

Long live the Communist Party of the Philippines!

Long live the unity between the peoples of the U.S. and the Philippines!

With communist greetings,

Freedom Road Socialist Organization

#UnitedStates #AntiwarMovement #OppressedNationalities #Philippines #PeoplesStruggles #WorkersAndGlobalization #CommunistPartyOfThePhilippines #Communism #Socialism #Asia

San José, CA – Stocks fell again on Friday, November 23, pulled down by the falling price of oil. The broadest major stock market index, the Standard & Poor’s 500, which measures the prices of 500 large U.S. corporations, officially entered correction territory, by closing more than 10% below its all-time high. This has been the worst week for the stocks in the S&P 500 in 80 years.

Pulling down the stock market was an almost 8% fall in the price of oil, which closed just above $50 a barrel. Oil prices have fallen by nearly one-third since their last high in October. The falling price of oil has been led by the surging production of U.S. oil, fed by the boom in fracking (hydraulic fracturing).

The United States just regained the status of being the world’s largest producer of oil, passing both Saudi Arabia and Russia. Just last month, the United States became a net energy exporter with small net imports of oil more than offset by exports of gasoline and other oil products as well as growing amounts of natural gas. In the past, when the United States was a large oil importer, a fall in the price of oil was an overall boost to the economy. But today, the benefits of cheaper oil and gasoline are largely offset by a slowdown in the domestic oil industry affecting employment and business investment.

Technology stocks were also weak, with the stock of Apple off 25%. Technology companies dominate the NASDAQ index, which is off almost 15%, about three-quarters the way to a bear market, when the stock market is down 20%.

#SanJoséCA #WorkersAndGlobalization #NASDAQIndex #StandardPoors500 #OilPrices #frackinghydraulicFracturing

Condemn the fascist US-Duterte regime and greedy SUMIFRU!

The National Democratic Front in Southern Mindanao vehemently condemned the US-Duterte regime for actively conniving and abetting the rapacious stance of the Japanese banana firm Sumitomo Fruits Corp. (SUMIFRU) that brutally dispersed the strike camps of 789 workers of the Nagkahiusang Mamumuo sa Sayupa Farms (NAMASUFA) on October 11, 2018 in Compostela town, Compostela Valley.

For eight hours, at least 300 company-hired individuals, goons and scabs attacked the makeshift barricade mounted by the workers in SUMIFRU Packing Plant (PP) 370 in Brgy. Pilar Babag, PP 98 and PP340 in Brgy. Osmena, PP 92 in Brgy. Alegria, PP 90 in Brgy. Gabi, PP 99 in Brgy. San Miguel and PP115 in Brgy. Maparat. In plain view of the PNP and the AFP forces, the rabid SUMIFRU goons destroyed the bamboo makeshifts and used the broken pieces to batter the hapless workers. They also burned the structures and demolished the makeshift kitchen, razing precious food stuff and cooked meals and looting the food supply. On the spot, 17 workers were injured including a seven-month pregnant worker. As the goons were on a rampage, members of the 66th Infantry Battalion of the Philippine Army searched and ransacked the workers’ houses, while the police arrested and detained the workers.

The US-Duterte regime-backed attack against the NAMASUFA workers aimed to end the latter’s strike which effectively paralyzed SUMIFRU operations for 11 days. SUMIFRU produces 19,000 boxes of Cavendish bananas per day from its nine packing plants out of the 2,200 hectares of farm lands in Compostela alone.

The workers were legitimately struggling for their economic and democratic rights as long-standing regular workers of SUMIFRU. Aided by a Supreme Court ruling issued last year and previous DOLE decision which affirmed their status as union members and regular employees of SUMIFRU, NAMASUFA members were merely exercising their legal and democratic rights when they militantly launched a strike on October 1.

On October 2, the AFP and PNP escorted scabs and goons to disperse striking workers of Packing Plant 115; two days later, company goons mauled 7 workers. On October 5, DOLE Secretary Silvestre Bello III issued an Assumption of Jurisdiction order, directing the workers to stop the strike, while on October 6, the Regional Trial Court 56 issued a Temporary Restraining Order. However, the workers earned a temporary reprieve on October 10 when the the same local court denied SUMIFRU’s petition to extend the TRO and a preliminary injunction.

The NDF-Southern Mindanao regime holds Silvestre Bello, III, GRP’s labor secretary, the 10th Infantry Division-Eastern Mindanao Command and the PNP, Compostela Mayor Lerma Bollo and GRP Pres. Rodrigo Duterte for systematically assaulting SUMIFRU workers in the name of defending foreign imperialist capital’s neoliberal interests.

Once more, Duterte has displayed his limitless fascism by deputizing his reactionary armed forces to savagely quell legal redress of grievance of the exploited toiling class. In vain attempt to maintain his tenuous hold to power in his decaying regime, Duterte has shown his merciless mettle to refuse the right to tenure, economic welfare and political rights of the exploited workers. Since the October 11 dispersal, SUMIFRU continued its Compostela plant operations by employing hundreds of scabs. At the same time, agents and operatives of the 66th IB conducted house to house campaign to harass the striking workers, offering P2,000 per worker to force them to resign from the company. The 66th IB is already responsible for the spate of extra-judicial killings of workers, farmers and activists in Compostela, Maragusan, Montevista and Monkayo towns in Compostela Valley province.

NDF-Southern Mindanao commends the brave alliance mounted by the banana plantation workers, peasants and their supporters in order to defend their livelihood. NAMASUFA continues to stand ground and assert the legitimacy of their strike and struggle against SUMIFRU’s unfair labor practice and the brutal dispersal.

Since forming their union in March 2008, NAMASUFA had consistently shown the power of collective action in countering the worsening exploitation of SUMIFRU against them. They have won battles in the class war against capitalist greed and continue to regard their militant union as a weapon to thwart the capitalist machinations. Last year, the workers successfully put an end to the company’s implementation of the exploitative “pakyawan system” by mounting a 13-hour strike that slowed down SUMIFRU’s production.

Decades of unabated greed buoyed up by the reactionary state’s fascist support and neoliberal policies allowed SUMIFRU to amass massive profit at the expense of workers’ rights. SUMIFRU aggressively expanded its operation over the years, exploiting at least 12,000 hectares of lands in Mindanao and contributing to galvanize the country’s backward export-oriented, imported-dependent economy. The Japanese firm continues to peg wages at measly rates, maintains workers as contractuals and refuses to recognize their unions.

The NDF in Southern Mindanao calls on the public to support the striking workers’ struggle in Compostela Valley. The recent attack against the workers’ lives and livelihood adds up to the mounting crimes of the US-Duterte regime against the Filipino people. Duterte’s time in the presidency is fast coming to a head and, like the dictator Marcos before him, the toiling masses will ensure that he will be made to answer for the atrocities he has committed.

RUBI DEL MUNDO

Spokesperson

NDF-Southern Mindanao Region

#Philippines #InJusticeSystem #Labor #OppressedNationalities #Asia #PeoplesStruggles #WorkersAndGlobalization #ndfp #Strikes #Antifascism #SumitomoFruitsCorpSUMIFRU #NagkahiusangMamumuoSaSayupaFarmsNAMASUFA

New York, NY – On the evening of October 13, members and friends of the Communist Party of Greece (KKE) celebrated the 100th anniversary of its founding at the Kefalos Society in New York City. The highlight of the evening was an address about the current situation in Greece and the world by Zissis Lymperidis, a member of the Secretariat of the Central Committee of the KKE. Before his address, various friends and fraternal parties of the KKE from New York City presented short greetings. After the greetings there was a presentation of a video showing the heroic history of this party and the struggles they have engaged in.

The KKE is one of the few communist parties in existence today that can claim a history full of all phases of the struggle of the working class to establish socialism. For the majority of its history the KKE has had a clandestine existence. It has organized among Greek workers and farmers legally and illegally. The armed resistance to the Italian fascist and German Nazi occupation during WW II was led by the KKE and its fighters. When British and U.S. imperialism re-imposed the Greek monarchy and aided right-wing forces to take over Greece after the war, the KKE led a guerilla war of resistance for three years before succumbing to a military defeat, which resulted in thousands of progressive and left-wing activists being imprisoned and murdered in concentration camps.

In present day Greece, the KKE is represented in the national parliament and carries out political and economic struggle throughout Greece among workers and farmers. Comrade Lymperidis’ speech spoke of these struggles and explained the positions of the KKE.

He stated:

“The KKE is struggling daily to develop the subjective factor (labor movement, its alliance with popular middle class divisions) so that under conditions of shock to the capitalist power to respond to the duty as the driving force of the victorious socialist revolution. It battles daily to justify its primary role as a visionary, but also as an organizer of the struggle for radical revolutionary reversal of capitalist barbarism, the construction of socialism-communism.”

He emphasized later in his speech that the KKE has made an evaluation of its previous political work and has made a strategic decision not to enter into any electoral alliances with social democratic parties such as the current governing party of Greece, SYRIZA. He said:

“. . .it has been shown that so-called ‘left-wing governments’ are a mechanism for managing and reproducing capitalist exploitation. They cultivate illusions about the humanization of capitalism and a risky expectation that in the conditions of capitalist exploitation the popular problems can be solved, people’s needs can be met.”

He went to say that these governments frequently pave the way for the return of right-wing governments.

This was perhaps one of the most relevant comments for the Marxist-Leninist left in the United States and our work, since there are many activists who considered themselves on the left and espouse reformist positions that support the idea of a ‘better’ or more ‘humane’ capitalism.

The celebration presented many thoughts and examples of struggle from one of the most battle-hardened and experience Communist parties in the world. This work will continue in Greece, when the KKE will be hosting the International Meeting of Communist and Labor Parties on November 23-25 as the peak of its 100th anniversary celebrations.

#NewYorkNY #WorkersAndGlobalization #KKE #CommunistPartyOfGreece #Socialism #Syriza #KefalosSociety

We in the Committee to Stop FBI Repression NYC stand in solidarity with the NutriAsia workers, who are currently under attack by the Philippine National Police.

NutriAsia workers are facing unsafe conditions with temperatures reaching more than 40 degrees celsius (100 F) inside the bottling and packing stations, while the products are hotter than 95 degrees celsius (200 F); the safety gear and equipment are substandard and inadequate. Work-related accidents such as second-degree burns and bone fractures can lead victims to be fired, thus workers hide their injuries. 100 workers are regularly-employed but more than 1400 are contractual; the labor union is unrecognized and prohibited.

Organizers encourage people to boycott NutriAsia condiments, which are popular at Filipino dinner tables and households; these include UFC, Silver Swan, Datu Puti, Papa, Golden Fiesta, Jufran, Locally, and Mang Tomas brands, to be found in Asian supermarkets or stores here in New York. Joselito D. Campos Jr. is the owner of NutriAsia, the CEO of Del Monte Pacific, the son of UniLab founder Beatrice Campos, and his sister, Jocelyn, currently chairs UniLab; their family’s net worth is $650 million as of 2017.

NutriAsia employees work 12-16 hrs a day for just $7 (P380 per day); while the company earns $500,000 daily (P37 million) per product line, it pays just 5 minutes out of 12 hrs of work and only P3000 (< $60) as a Christmas bonus.

Workers have faced repression and violence in retaliation for exercising their right to picket against their own exploitation; at least nineteen protesters have been arrested in Marilao, Bulacan one week ago July 30th, with others going missing or unaccounted for, which include workers, youth leaders, journalists, and supporters. About 50 NutriAsia security guards and 20 PNP members violently attacked and injured hundreds in Marilao and Meycauayan.

As an organization that stands against political repression, we understand the importance of those who are oppressed to speak out. Our organization was started after the FBI raided and subpoenaed 23 anti-war and labor activists, and we are still defending current political organizers who are being repressed. Wherever there is push back against capitalism and US imperialism, there is repression of those who speak out, especially considering how much journalists are targeted.

It is no surprise that these actions have taken place under the Duterte government, in cooperation with the Trump administration. Duterte’s regime has been targeting, arresting, and murdering labor and human rights activists in the Philippines. All of this is funded by the US, because it is crucial for the imperialists to oppress workers both here and abroad.

The Committee to Stop FBI Repression NYC lends its support to the NutriAsia workers; we will continue to stand with workers and activists in the Philippines until they achieve liberation.

#NewYorkNY #NewYorkCity #AntiwarMovement #Labor #Philippines #Asia #WorkersAndGlobalization #strike #KilusangMayoUno #Nutriasia #CommitteeToStopFBIRepressionNYC

New York, NY – On June 5, fashion designer Kate Spade died via suicide. Three days later, chef and TV personality Anthony Bourdain also committed suicide. Along with his TV show, Bourdain was a supporter of Palestine and the #MeToo movement, as well as openly criticizing Henry Kissinger for his foreign policy.

Both cases resulted in a widespread, mainstream discussion about suicide and mental health, but the solution typically suggested is for individual people to seek help via suicide hotlines, going to therapy, and reaching out to friends and loved ones for help. While all of these may help someone in need at that moment, it doesn’t address the larger issues at hand. Here are just some of the ways in which the U.S.’s monopoly capitalist system affects workers here, as well as how inflicts mental harm upon its victims around the world.

Economic basis

Band-aid solutions to mental illness only help remedy the symptom, but do not address the system that is at the root of the problem. Capitalism creates conditions for mental illness and suicide to manifest. From a study by the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, people earning less than $34,000 are 50% more likely to commit suicide, and unemployed people are 72 more likely to commit suicide than employed people. According to the Center for Disease Control, suicide rates are higher in rural areas, where Native Americans and Alaska Natives have the highest rates.

At the same time that capitalism reinforces mental illness, it also limits the accessibility to mental healthcare in the U.S. Over 6.3 million adults with mental illness are uninsured, and even those who are insured still face high costs, such as copays, treatment not covered by insurance, and providers who do not take insurance.

Treating the symptom, not the cause

The ability of working class and poor people to access adequate mental healthcare is limited by a lack of time outside of working hours, as well as an economic inability to afford treatment, even with health insurance. For those that do decide to seek treatment, the costs of such are high and the treatment is insufficient in the long term.

There is a motive for psychiatrists to prescribe medication instead of providing psychotherapy. According to Dr. Daniel Carlat of Tufts University, a psychiatrist can make two to four times more money by prescribing medication than providing therapy. While psychiatric medication can be a necessary aspect of mental health treatment, it is used in a system that prioritizes profit over people while forgoing longer-term treatment that addresses the individual’s particular conditions.

U.S. Imperialism’s effect on mental health

Along with conditions in the U.S. contributing to suicide, U.S. imperialism also is a major factor in mental illness and suicide. In May 2018, a Honduran man named Marco Antonio Munoz killed himself in a Texas jail cell after being separated from his family, who crossed the U.S.-Mexico border. Palestine, which is occupied by Israel with financial backing of the U.S., leads in the Middle East and North Africa region in depression and anxiety disorders, including in children.

Mental health under socialism

Where can we look to in order to find an alternative system to the U.S. healthcare system? Cuba is one example of how socialism can provide solutions to those suffering with mental illness.

According to Sandra Soca Lozano from the University of Havana, psychologists are incorporated into all aspects of healthcare, and psychologists and physicians work closely together. A psychologist will assess medical patients for contributing mental factors, and physicians will evaluate psychiatric patients to look for contributing physical conditions. Since no private organizations offer health services in Cuba, everyone has access to public care.

Due to the restrictions set on Cuba from the embargo, preventative care is emphasized for mental healthcare. This includes all Cubans having annual mental health screenings as part of their primary care (including home visits if unable to go to the office), the ability to access psychologists and physicians in their neighborhoods, and creating their own technology and techniques for detection of mental illness.

A more widespread discussion about mental health and suicide is a positive step, but discussion alone will not solve the problem. In order to fix the broken mental healthcare system, we must fight to overthrow capitalism and ensure that under socialism, everyone will have adequate access to mental healthcare and treatment.

#NewYorkNY #Socialism #Opinion #PeoplesStruggles #WorkersAndGlobalization #healthCare #Capitalism #mentalHealth

Glasgow, Scotland – A group of major military weapons producers organized an international arms fair in Glasgow that included over 50 companies and over 1000 delegates. One of the major sponsors of the Underseas Defense Technology conference is BAE Systems, which produces fighter jets in factories on the Clyde that are sold to the Israeli government to continue their war against the Palestinians. Other sponsors of the event include Leonardo, an Italian weapons corporation that sells weapons to the Turkish government, which are used in their war against the Kurdish people. Some referred to this arms fair as a 'supermarket of death.'

A large group of people from groups across Scotland protested outside of the Scottish Exhibition Centre, June 26, to protest the arms fair. Carrying Palestinian and Kurdish flags, they shouted at the arms dealers as they entered, “You're not welcome in Glasgow!' and “Shame on you.” A few protesters tried to blockade the entrance of the arms fair, but the cops quickly removed them and one protester got arrested.

A few leaders of the Scottish National Party (SNP) were present and expressed outraged that the Glasgow City Council would allow such an event to happen in Glasgow. Scotland has a proud history of opposition to militarism, which can be seen at Celtic games in which Palestinian flags are present, as well in the large SNP-led campaign to shut down nuclear arms-producing factories in Scotland. Therefore, it was shocking to many peace-loving Glaswegians that such an event would be held in Glasgow.

Kate Nevens, of the Campaign Against the Arms Trade said, “People in Scotland are appalled that such a terrible event is taking place, and that Glasgow City Council is supporting it. Many of the companies in attendance have armed and supported human rights abusing regimes across the world. War, repression and injustice are fueled by arms fairs like Underseas Defense Technology. It’s time to shut it down for good.”

#GlasgowScotland #AntiwarMovement #Palestine #WorkersAndGlobalization #ScottishExhibitionCentre #CampaignAgainstTheArmsTrade

Police personnel started to harass workers as early as 6 a.m. deploying two firetrucks near the picketline. Workers lay prone at the company gates to defend their protest. The police started to attack the picketline early afternoon and arrested at least four workers. Many others were hurt including five workers who were severely injured.

Nutriasia workers are demanding the regularization of more than a thousand contractual workers and the reinstatement of union leaders dismissed by the company.

The Party enjoins the broad masses of workers, students and other sectors to extend support and solidarity with the striking workers of Nutriasia, as well as workers in other companies, in their struggle to defend their right to regular jobs and for wage increases.

#Nutriasia #MarilaoBUL #Philippines #WorkersAndGlobalization #strike #CommunistPartyOfPhilippines #PoliceCrimes

Police personnel started to harass workers as early as 6 a.m. deploying two firetrucks near the picketline. Workers lay prone at the company gates to defend their protest. The police started to attack the picketline early afternoon and arrested at least four workers. Many others were hurt including five workers who were severely injured.

Nutriasia workers are demanding the regularization of more than a thousand contractual workers and the reinstatement of union leaders dismissed by the company.

The Party enjoins the broad masses of workers, students and other sectors to extend support and solidarity with the striking workers of Nutriasia, as well as workers in other companies, in their struggle to defend their right to regular jobs and for wage increases.

#Nutriasia #MarilaoBUL #Philippines #WorkersAndGlobalization #strike #CommunistPartyOfPhilippines #PoliceCrimes

Since its foundation, on 3 of October 1945 until today, the WFTU has always stood on the side of women and female workers all around the globe. The big trade union family of the WFTU, since the very start of its long journey full of struggles and sacrifices, has included in its founding principles the fight for the equality between men and women as an integral part of the anti-imperialist and anti-capitalist fight.

This way and on this occasion of the International Women’s Day, 161 years after the 8 March women’s uprising in New York, the WFTU keeps honoring this very symbolic date in memory of all female militants who fought for a world of social and gender equality, a world with no exploitation, imperialist wars and poverty. This year, the WFTU chose to pay tribute to every woman in the struggle in every corner of the world, by celebrating its World Working Women Congress in Panama City, Panama, on 8,9 and 10 March. This Congress proves that the demands which were once written on the first banners and communications of the WFTU for women equality, for equal pay for equal work, for pregnancy and childbirth leave, for respect for the women personality are still a necessity of our times.

At the same time, the WFTU and its affiliated trade unions have been the first ones to appoint female cadres to important positions within the life and activity of Trade Unions, with a substantial and not a decorative role. The WFTU was the first to call upon women and men for joint class-oriented struggles against capitalist exploitation and the aggression of monopolies and of cartels.

We are proud of our history and we continue this legacy. The slogan of the World Working Women Congress is clear: “we fight for the equality of rights at work, in society and in life”, especially in a time when capitalist forces attack the women’s rights and try to turn again workers into modern slaves of the 21st century. That’s why the WFTU underlines that the only way out are the joint struggles for a new society, for the emancipation of women from the capitalist slavery!

Also today, under the conditions of an acute capitalist crisis, we call upon every working woman to join the ranks of the WFTU, to stand up against capitalist barbarity on the side of the class-oriented trade union movement. Furthermore, we reaffirm our solidarity with every woman persecuted for her militant activity; We struggle for the liberation of the Palestinian youngster Ahed Tamimi, for our women colleagues who suffer the anti-union terrorist action of the fascist groups in Colombia, for the women rural workers in India, for every militant who dares to stand up and fight against imperialism in every corner of the world.

This way, we call on all the WFTU national affiliates and friends to honor this special date and we salute every working woman who keeps fighting for her life and contemporary rights.

Long live the International Women’s Day!

The Secretariat

#US #AntiwarMovement #PeoplesStruggles #WorkersAndGlobalization #InternationalWomensDay #WorldFederationOfTradeUnions #WFTU #WomensDay

Trump's executive action on trade has a lot of people confused, and it's understandable. Like he did on the campaign trail, Trump has played off his executive order as ‘anti-establishment’ and ‘shaking up Washington.’ After all, Wall Street and corporate America wanted the TPP passed, along with most Democrat and Republican leaders.

But Trump immediately filled his cabinet with billionaires and corporate executives, who generally support the same 'free trade' deals he criticized. For instance, Trump's pick for treasury secretary, former Goldman Sachs executive Steve Mnuchin, is a major free trade proponent, as is investment banker Gary Cohn, who will head up Trump's National Economic Council. Even Vice President Mike Pence built his political career supporting free trade. So what the hell is going on, exactly?

First off, Trump's executive order on the TPP barely drew a yawn from Wall Street, much less a harsh condemnation. Investors priced this move into the stock market months ago. Support in Congress for the TPP dried up even before Trump's unlikely victory in November 2016 due to widespread opposition to corporate outsourcing. To Wall Street, Trump's order was just a formality.

An offer he can't refuse: Opposing free trade deals important to Trump's victory

Wall Street has accepted the TPP isn't happening. The 2016 election pitted two candidates who represented Wall Street, and the billionaire, Donald Trump, won. While Trump now acts as the political representative for monopoly capitalism in the U.S., it's important to remember that he was not their first choice to win either the GOP primary or the presidency. Wall Street largely favored Clinton in the election, fearing Trump's unpredictable behavior and some of his populist rhetoric. Even Trump himself didn't expect to survive past the first few caucuses and primaries, according to campaign sources.

But from literally the first day of his campaign, Trump made repealing trade deals a defining issue. Along with building a wall along the U.S. border with Mexico, opposing trade deals became his signature platform point. Both Trump and Democratic candidate Bernie Sanders campaigned against free trade, and this message resonated with many working class voters. It's one of the major reasons why Trump trounced the field of typical corporate Republicans in the primary and mobilized enough votes to win Rust Belt states in November.

Trump had to kill the TPP. He's already walking back on other promises that were completely farcical – making Mexico pay for the wall; repeal-and-replace the Affordable Care Act on the first day; deport all undocumented immigrants. He's already made peace with Wall Street and corporate America – and they with him – but opposing free trade agreements struck a particular nerve with a massive part of Trump's mass base. He can't afford to turn them against him this early, especially in the face of giant street protests.

Bring the jobs back: Lies and damned lies

Trade deals have hurt workers on all sides of the U.S., Mexican and Canadian border. Beginning in the 1980s, Ronald Reagan launched an offensive against unions and struck down restrictions on trade. Wall Street began to buy up manufacturing businesses, outsource operations, cut jobs, bust unions, and slash wages and benefits. Corporations stepped up manufacturing goods in Third World countries because of lower wages, fewer labor laws and little to no regulations on safety or pollution. This continued into the 1990s under Bill Clinton, who signed the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) between Mexico and Canada, and into the 2000s.

From the signing of NAFTA in 1994 to 2015, the U.S. lost about 4.5 million manufacturing jobs total. Outsourcing and trade agreements contributed to this trend as corporations imported cheap goods manufactured in the Third World.

However, the major source of U.S. manufacturing job losses was automation, not trade agreements as Trump claims. Technological innovations and robotics in the last 30 years phased out millions of jobs, which lowered labor costs while raising productivity – and profits. Rising wages in developing countries, where U.S. companies exploited cheap labor for decades, has made outsourcing manufacturing operations less profitable and riskier. As a result, quite a few companies have already moved manufacturing operations back to the U.S. They simply employ less workers.

Trump's populist talk about the decline of good manufacturing jobs touched on real anger felt by workers, who saw their wages and standard of living decline because of capitalist greed. But he can't and won't deliver on his promises to “bring manufacturing jobs back” from Mexico, China and other countries – jobs largely eliminated by automation. Instead, Trump plans to viciously attack unions, wages and benefits with National Right to Work legislation and more, all in the name of corporate profits.

Rise of the machines: Using automation to boost profits, hurt workers

Contrary to Trump's claims, manufacturing output in the U.S. today is actually double that of 1979 when adjusted for inflation, totaling $1.91 trillion in 2015, according to the Department of Commerce. But while the industry produces more, it employs fewer workers due to automation. For example, auto manufacturers like General Motors employ roughly a third of their 1979 workforce despite producing far more cars.

Even when productivity increases in the U.S., the workers don't see the benefits. From 1975 to 2015, productivity increased about six times more than wages, according to the Economic Policy Institute. In other words, corporations rake in greater profits from automation and technological progress while workers lose jobs and wages.

Far from pushing a comeback of well-paid manufacturing jobs, Trump and his cabinet of billionaires plan to further leverage automation against workers. Andy Puzder, the former fast food CEO of CKE Restaurants and Trump's pick for labor secretary, strongly supports using robotics and technology to eliminate even more jobs. In 2014, Puzder argued for replacing workers with robots since, in his words, robots are “always polite, they always upsell, they never take a vacation, they never show up late, there’s never a slip-and-fall, or an age, sex or race discrimination case.” For Puzder and other fast food CEOs facing pressure from workers in the Fight for $15 movement, they see automation as a weapon against labor's demands for higher wages and benefits.

Trump and war against China: Wall Street's long-term policy

Wall Street had already accepted the fact that the TPP wasn't going to pass. To them, the trade agreement was never particularly important as a purely economic initiative. In the short and medium term, most economists projected it would actually amount to a net loss for the U.S.

The real value of the TPP to Washington was as a long-term foreign policy maneuver: a centerpiece of Obama's so-called ‘Pivot to Asia.’ Long-term, the overall policy of the U.S. is preparing for a war with the People's Republic of China. Most of Wall Street favored the Obama administration's approach of boxing out China in Southeast Asia and Latin America and positioning military pieces for war, all while avoiding direct conflicts in the meantime. They hoped the TPP would keep countries like Malaysia, Singapore, Vietnam, Mexico, New Zealand and Peru from aligning with China, bribing their national capitalists with unrestricted access to U.S. markets and investment.

Trump, along with a huge section of industry, has something different in mind. They also plan on war with China, but they favor ramping up economic and military aggressions sooner rather than later. Steve Bannon, an avowed white nationalist advisor to Trump, recently placed in charge of the National Security Council, said on his radio show in March 2016, “We’re going to war in the South China Sea in five to ten years.” Other key officials in Trump's cabinet, like commerce secretary nominee and billionaire Wilbur Ross, favor taking adverse economic action against China. Trump himself threatened to label China a “currency manipulator,” slap tariffs on Chinese imports, and risk a trade war.

Energy corporations like Exxon-Mobil – who’s former CEO Rex Tillerson now runs the state department under the Trump administration – want to speed up the time table for confronting China. In Africa, South America and even parts of Europe, Chinese investment continues to grow, which threatens U.S. energy corporations' control over key petroleum and natural gas reserves in countries like Angola and Nigeria. The Obama administration's gradual pivot to Asia offered few immediate benefits for the fossil fuel industry, especially in light of expanding domestic energy production in natural gas and shale oil.

Similarly, the auto industry and other domestic manufacturers viewed the TPP with skepticism. While weaker regulations in the agreement could have boosted car exports, industry executives also feared an influx of cheap imports, especially from Asia. With rising wages in many developing countries and automation driving down production costs, the promise of exploiting cheap overseas labor isn't as attractive to corporate executives as it used to seem.

Rather than large, multilateral free trade deals like the TPP, Trump has signaled moving towards a series of bilateral trade agreements between two countries. Britain seems particularly willing to take this approach with the U.S., following the country's vote to leave the European Union last year. Seeking to take advantage of the instability to the E.U. caused by far-right and fascist parties running for elections across the continent, many monopoly capitalists in the U.S. believe bilateral agreements grant them greater flexibility in consolidating their power in a rapidly changing international order.

The master of optics

Far from benefiting U.S. workers, Trump's protectionist trade policies are war preparation measures. Proposals to waive taxes on the repatriation of overseas corporate profits aim at bringing capital back to the U.S. in order to insulate the economy from the effects of war. Tariffs on foreign imports further incentivizes the return of manufacturing by negating the benefits of cheap overseas labor and speeding up the drive towards automation. These policies benefit big business and hurt working people, who will bear the heaviest burden from a trade war with China in the form of higher prices on basic goods.

Before becoming president, Trump was best known for his shameless self-promotion and antics on his reality TV show, The Apprentice. As a grand showman with an eye for spectacle, Trump is particularly useful to the class of monopoly capitalists that rule the U.S. for selling their agenda to the public.

Trump's game is optics designed to mask his pro-billionaire, anti-worker agenda. In a much publicized deal with Carrier corporation’s management shortly after the election, he claimed to have struck a deal to save 1100 jobs from outsourcing. It came or later that Trump's deal was a farce, saving less than 800 jobs – many of which were not manufacturing jobs – while granting the already profitable company an additional $6 million in tax cuts. When critics pointed out this deceptive corporate handout, Trump used it as an opportunity to attack United Steelworkers 1999, the union that represents Carrier workers in Indiana, and blame them for outsourcing.

Similarly, Trump took to Twitter – his mass propaganda outlet of choice – to criticize auto manufacturers like Ford and General Motors over plans to outsource factories to Mexico. When corporate executives at both companies announced plans to expand operations in the U.S., Trump claimed victory again. Never mind that both companies had abandoned their outsourcing plans months before due to market demand and further automation. Trump used the moment to boost his ‘anti-establishment’ public image, even while Ford CEO Mark Fields praised him for “pro-growth policies” and pursuing “what's right for our business.”

Meanwhile, Trump has signaled an aggressive employer offensive against organized labor. He seeks to throw millions of working people off their health insurance, and opposes minimum wage increases.

The TPP would have hurt working people in the U.S. and the other 11 countries that signed on to the deal. Unions lobbied against it, and widespread opposition to Wall Street and corporate America killed support for the agreement in Congress – long before Trump took office. From that perspective, this is a victory.

But it's not a victory delivered by Trump. Workers in the U.S. need to see Trump's so-called opposition to free trade agreements and ‘anti-establishment’ rhetoric for what it really is: the farce of the deal.

#JacksonvilleFL #CapitalismAndEconomy #Labor #US #Opinion #PeoplesStruggles #WorkersAndGlobalization #OpEd #Elections #2016Elections

The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine extends its strongest support and solidarity to the indigenous resistance at Standing Rock against the Dakota Access Pipeline and the settler colonial project of genocide and plunder in North America.

“It is no surprise that the United States and Canada, built on the genocide of indigenous peoples and the plunder of their land and resources, are today the strongest settler colonial partners of the Zionist state engaged in its own settler colonial project of destruction in Palestine,” said Palestinian leftist writer Khaled Barakat in an interview with the PFLP media office.

“The indigenous strugglers at Standing Rock are defending indigenous land and water, the resources that have been confiscated and polluted for centuries by a settler colonial capitalist project that has ravaged indigenous lives, land and resources. They are defending the very existence of their people with their valiant resistance. As a Palestinian national liberation movement, we salute these indigenous strugglers and all who stand alongside them at Standing Rock confronting the militarized forces of the settler colonial state and their privatized agents,” said Barakat.

“It is also no surprise that G4S has been involved in providing private security for the construction of the destructive, invasive pipeline through indigenous land, threatening the water and the safety of the Standing Rock Sioux and the rights of indigenous nations. This same corporation is involved in providing security to the Canadian mining corporations that plunder indigenous land for mineral wealth around the world and destroy indigenous land for the so-called ‘tar sands’ that threaten the future of the land itself. It is the same corporation that sells equipment and security services to the Israel Prison Services that imprison over 7,000 Palestinians in the service of the Zionist settler colonial project, and the same company involved in the mass incarceration of children and youth – especially youth of color – in the US, and in the deportation of migrants in the UK, Australia, US and elsewhere,” said Barakat.

“The hundreds of indigenous nations – including Palestinian participants – coming together in Standing Rock exemplify an unceasing history of hundreds of years of resistance in the face of a genocidal project,” said Barakat. “Today’s U.S. empire that bombs and threatens the lives of people around the world, especially in the Arab world, Asia, Africa and Latin America, was built on settler colonialism, the genocide of indigenous people, and the enslavement and genocide aganst Black people. Throughout its history, it has been confronted by fierce resistance.”

In the face of settler colonial genocide and destruction, the land and water defenders at Standing Rock are defending all of us. We see them reflected in the Palestinian mothers holding tight to their olive trees targeted for settler destruction; in the Palestinian farmers who resist in the so-called “buffer zones,” and the fishers who brave warship fire to preserve Palestinian fishery, in the land and water defenders of the world who resist the vicious onslaughts of settler colonial capitalism. The PFLP salutes these land and water defenders on the front line for all of our struggles around the world.

“There have been hundreds of arrests, the use of massive military equipment and the force of the state in order to enforce the Dakota Access Pipeline through sacred burial grounds and attempt to force indigenous land and water defenders from their land. The use of mass arrests and incarceration as a mechanism to confiscate land and resources and suppress liberation movements is of course not surprising. It is a technique that we see used in Palestine, keeping thousands of Palestinian political prisoners behind bars for struggling for the freedom of their people and their land,” said Barakat. “In fact, many aspects of Zionist settler colonialism in Palestine were developed in light of the colonial techniques used in the US and Canada.”

The PFLP extends its revolutionary greetings and salutes to all of the Native and indigenous peoples defending their land and water, affirming their existence and resistance over centuries of struggle. We express our strongest solidarity with Native and indigenous struggles for self-determination and liberation. We encourage all Palestinians, especially the Palestinian community in the United States, to continue to develop and build upon the efforts of Palestinian youth in support, solidarity and participation in the Standing Rock camps of struggle, and in developing long-term, sustainable, mutual joint struggle and solidarity with Native liberation movements.

We also encourage and call upon the Palestine solidarity movement to build upon the caravans to Standing Rock and cross-country actions and protests to deepen its involvement in the struggle to defend indigenous land, and note in particular the protests in New York and elsewhere linking the struggle of Palestinian prisoners and the call to boycott G4S with the defense of Standing Rock against arrests, attacks and privatized and state repressive power. It is necessary to thoroughly confront US imperialism and settler colonialism as part and parcel of standing with the struggle of the Palestinian people for liberation and return. There is a long history of connections and common struggle between our liberation struggles, together in the global movement to defeat settler colonialism, Zionism and imperialism, that we must nurture and build upon until victory and liberation.

#Palestine #PopularFrontForTheLiberationOfPalestine #PeoplesStruggles #IndigenousPeoples #WorkersAndGlobalization #Protest #Antiracism #PoliticalRepression #DakotaAccessPipeline