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