ALTERNATIVE
SOCIALIST ISSUE #94 l JUNE 2023
subscription address box
INSIDE TRANS RIGHTS SCHOOL WALKOUT HOLLYWOOD WRITERS STRIKE BIDEN’S ANTI-IMMIGRANT PLAN
p.4 p.6 p.12
WHAT WE STAND FOR Mobilize Against Gender Oppression & Attacks On Bodily Autonomy • Fight back against the brutal anti-trans legislation in many states and all right-wing attacks on LGBTQ people. Noncompliance with these bigoted laws should be organized by the labor movement among workers tasked with enforcing them. • Full legal rights and equality for trans and queer people, including the right to selfidentification! We completely oppose the attempts of the right wing to spread antitrans bigotry and isolate LGBTQ people from society. • The overturn of Roe v. Wade opened the door for vicious attacks on bodily autonomy across the country. We need a mass movement against the reactionary right on the scale of the 60s and 70s when Roe was first won. • Free, safe, legal abortion. All contraception should be provided at no cost as part of a broad program for reproductive health! • Fighting gender oppression means fighting for our rights to bodily autonomy, reproductive justice including universal childcare, and Medicare for All including free reproductive and gender-affirming care.
Fight Inflation & Rebuild A Fighting Labor Movement
Party politicians, and spend it instead on efforts to organize the unorganized. • Unions should form consumer protection committees to monitor price increases. They should have the power to review corporate finances, especially when money is squandered on CEO pay and stock buybacks. Profits off basic goods should be heavily taxed and price-gouging companies should be brought under democratic public ownership.
Invest In Our Basic Needs • Pass strong rent control. End economic evictions. Tax the rich and big business to fund permanently affordable, high-quality social housing. • No pay cuts! We need a significant raise in the minimum wage and to tie raises to inflation. • Capitalism failed to stop COVID-19, with the “post-pandemic” new normal consisting of total indifference to public health. We urgently need permanently free and accessible testing, paid sick leave, and to take Big Pharma into public ownership – vaccines should be for public health, not profit! • Make the child tax credit permanent and fully fund high-quality, universal childcare. No cuts to food stamps! • An immediate transition to Medicare for All. Take for-profit hospital chains and Big Pharma into public ownership and retool them to provide free, state-of-the-art healthcare to all. • Fully fund public education! End school privatization. Give educators an immediate 25% raise and increase staffing. Cancel all student debt and make public college tuition-free.
• As thousands of workers are winning union recognition for the first time, it is critical that unions fight to win strong contracts. We need unions that are armed with clear demands like contractual cost of living adjustments (COLA), and they have to be prepared to go on strike to win them. • Union leaders across all unions should A Socialist Program For accept the average wage of a worker in their industry and should be accountable to their Environmental Disaster membership and the broader working class. • People across the country are seeing their • An injury to one is an injury to all! Unions communities turned into disaster zones from need to fight all manifestations of racism, corporations’ ecological warfare and from sexism, queerphobia, and all forms of the devastating impact of climate change. oppression. • We need fully-funded emergency systems • Unions should stop spending hundreds of to protect and evacuate people from evermillions of dollars on electing Democratic increasing storms, floods, and fires, and we need to tax the rich to reimburse working people for their destroyed homes and livelihoods. • In the wake of ecological disasters, corporations should immediately be responsible for relocation costs, health costs, and home remediation. When many residents need to relocate, the businesses responsible for the www.SocialistAlternative.org disasters should offer to buy people’s land at info@SocialistAlternative.org a rate well above pre-disaster market value. • Make the polluters pay for the million-dollar @Socialist Alternative cleanups – not working people! We need @SocialistAlt strict accountability and oversight to pro/SocialistAlternative.USA tect the interests of communities and the /c/SocialistAlternative environment. @socialistus • We need a union jobs program to rapidly expand green infrastructure including free
WHY I JOINED SOCIALIST ALTERNATIVE AMELIA HILL, BOSTON In late June of last year, I met Socialist Alternative for the first time waiting in an hour-long food truck line at Trans Resistance, a pride festival in Boston. Sam, the first member I’d ever met, was talking to a group in front of me about a plethora of struggles SA had been involved in locally, nationally, and internationally: coffee shop unionization at Darwin’s, Pavement (local coffee chains), and Starbucks; walkouts by nurses, teachers, and students around the recent overturn of Roe v. Wade; and fights around the world. Growing up, I was almost always the most political person in the room. I was constantly online and angry about something, trying to soak up as much frustrating and distressing news as possible just to talk to friends, family, and peers about the current issue in hopes of changing something, even if that was just one person. 2020’s massive outbreak in struggle around Black Lives Matter exacerbated that anger and outspokenness, but also represented a significant shift in my politics. The mass protest movement, larger than any in US history, showed millions of young people around the world that change can only be made through this kind of mass disruption. It sparked a wave of anticapitalist ideology, exposing both parties as enemies to the masses as they continually backpedaled on concessions made to the movement as it died down. As a result, I,
like many others, felt stuck: I knew capitalism was the issue and that neither political party was on my side, but I didn’t see any viable alternative, and I quickly grew more and more demoralized by the world. At some point, Sam asked me to sign a petition, vowing that I would never vote for a Democrat and demanding that we need a new workers’ party which would be representative of and accountable to the masses. This idea was very new and intimidating for me, but made me think deeply about the role of the political establishment and the collective power that students and workers have to fight for something new. Joining Socialist Alternative has given me faith in the power of the working class and a connection to people all over the world fighting for a better, socialist, future. J
public transit. • De-escalating the rapidly deteriorating situ• Fossil fuels can’t coexist with a sustainable ation in Ukraine requires the return of Rusfuture – take the top 100 polluting compasian troops to the barracks in Russia and nies into democratic public ownership while the withdrawal of all NATO troops from implementing a democratically planned, just Eastern Europe. transition to 100% green energy! • Build a massive anti-war and anti-imperialist movement linking up workers and youth across borders! Sending increasingly End Racist Policing And destructive weapons to the conflict only Criminal (in)Justice serves to escalate & poses a greater risk of all-out war – only socialist internationalism • There is still a massive fight to be waged can end war and destruction and win lasting against police violence. We need a new peace and stability for the working masses movement in the streets and mass organizaaround the world. tions of struggle to fight for Black liberation! • Arrest and convict killer cops! Purge police forces of anyone with known ties to white A New Political Party For supremacist groups or any cop who has Working People committed violent or racist attacks. • End the militarization of police. Ban the use • The capitalist Democratic Party offers of “crowd control” weapons. Disarm police no solution to right-wing attacks against on patrol. workers and marginalized people and has • Put policing under the control of democratirepeatedly failed to use their majorities to cally-elected civilian boards with power over protect our rights. hiring and firing, reviewing budget priorities, • We need a new, working-class, multiracial and the power to subpoena. left party that organizes and fights for work• Beyond fighting to end racist policing, we ers’ interests and is committed to socialneed a struggle against all forms of racism ist policies to lead the fight against the in our society, including segregationist right and point a way out of the horrors of housing and education policies. capitalism.
No To Imperialist Wars
The Whole System Is Guilty
• Socialist Alternative completely opposes • Capitalism produces pandemics, povRussian imperialism’s brutal invasion of erty, racism, transphobia, environmental Ukraine. Ordinary Ukrainians who already destruction, and war. We need an internasuffer exploitation, oppression, corruption, tional struggle against this failed system. and growing poverty conditions now face • Bring the top 500 companies and banks the horror of war and bloodshed. into democratic public ownership. • We oppose the aggressive imperialist • We need a socialist world. This means a agenda of NATO and the US for whom democratic socialist plan for the economy Ukrainians are a pawn in the wider Cold War based on the interests of the overwhelming conflict with Chinese imperialism. majority of people and the planet.
EDITORIAL
THE MOST
(UN)DEMOCRATIC
PRIMARY IN DECADES ERIN BRIGHTWELL, BAY AREA As the presidential primary season begins to heat up, Joe Biden’s numbers are a cause for concern for Democratic party strategists. In a late April NBC News poll, 70% of Americans and 51% of Democrats said Biden should not run again. While Biden’s age tends to be the voter doubt that gets highlighted in the media (he’s already the oldest ever president), Biden’s record in office is a massive problem for him. Workers have been battered by rising prices and a crisis of affordable housing virtually everywhere. The COVID relief bill, Biden’s one significant accomplishment benefitting workers, is now completely expired. Young people have gotten no relief on student debt or help with higher education costs. Women and LGBTQ people are under attack by the right with no real response from the Democratic Party. The Biden administration promise to pass legislation reforming the police was abandoned. Pledges to pass a healthcare public option and pro-union legislation are all gone by the wayside. Climate change, and its catastrophic impacts on people’s lives, continues at a terrifying pace while Biden opens up more land for drilling in the Arctic. By any measure meaningful to ordinary working people, the Biden administration has been a failure.
are over; Sanders endorsed Biden hours after Biden’s official announcement. He refused to break with the Democrats in both 2016 and in 2020 when he had mass support, a tragic setback for the development of a left political alternative in the US. Sanders and members of “The Squad” in Congress now pose next to no threat to the Democratic Party’s corporate, anti-worker agenda. The mass politicization around income inequality and the billionaire class that Bernie Sanders’ presidential runs had is a dynamic which will be completely absent from the 2024 Democratic Party coronation of Joe Biden. Broadly popular demands that Sanders championed, such as Medicare for All and free public college education, won’t be on the agenda during the primary season as they were in the previous two elections. The only candidates who have so far emerged to challenge Biden, spiritual guru Marianne Williamson and anti-vaccine activist Robert F. Kennedy Jr., are in no way a continuation of Bernie’s left-wing challenge and, with their major weaknesses, are unlikely to develop any major following.
The mass politicization around income inequality and the billionaire class that Bernie Sanders’ presidential runs had will be completely absent from the 2024 coronation of Joe Biden.
Bye Bye Bernie Despite Biden’s policy failures and broken promises, his humiliation at the hand of coal baron Joe Manchin, his refusal to mount any real fightback against the right, and the cost of it all to working people and youth, the Democratic Party establishment has already chosen him as its 2024 candidate. With a Democratic primary schedule rearranged to avoid any suspense, and no primary debates planned and the absence of any truly serious contenders, the major Democratic donors and party bosses will arrive at the convention in Chicago next August determined to nominate Joe Biden to be their candidate. Bernie Sanders’ days as a presidential contender who popularized a left-wing, proworker program within the Democratic Party JUNE 2023
Four Years Of Failures The primary appeal of Biden, and the one which his campaign will focus on, is that he beat Donald Trump. Understandably, there are millions of voters who dread the possibility that Trump could return to the White House with his chaotic right populism and racism, sexism, xenophobia, and transphobia. The Biden administration, with its platitudes on democracy and national unity, tries to paint a picture of representing normalcy. Beyond the rhetoric, however, the Biden administration’s legacy so far is marked not only by an abject failure to deliver for working people, but also the continuation of Trump’s brutal immigration policies on the southern border and a massive ramping up of geopolitical tensions and militarism. Both Trump and Biden represent the obscenely greedy and utterly corrupt system of capitalism that benefits only a miniscule fraction of humanity at the expense of the rest. That the vast majority of the population in the United States has gained nothing through
Biden’s presidency is a factor in the growth of sections of the right wing, and makes it much less likely that Biden beats Trump in a second general election. Lesser evilism – the notion that we have to vote for the lesser of two evils – is exactly the logic that has gotten us to the very bad place that we’re in now, with worsening discrimination and oppression against women and LGBTQ people, no gains in the struggle against racist police violence, and an economy that punishes workers. With Biden presiding over a decline in the standard of living for millions struggling with rising prices while the Democrats do nothing to mitigate it, the door is open for the right to make gains using a divide and conquer approach. LGBTQ people and particularly trans people, as well as homeless people of color, are being targeted by the right all across the country. The door is wide open for Trump and other right wing figures to criticize the $46 billion that the US has sent to Ukraine in military spending so far, as there are no “progressive” Democrats willing to challenge the Biden administration on this issue. Since the main pillars of the left in office, Bernie Sanders and the Squad, have fallen in line behind the Biden agenda, there isn’t any credible figure who can put forward a positive left program based on uniting all working people and rejecting discrimination. Millions voted for Biden to stop a Trump presidency, but without any left-wing force putting forward an alternative, the Biden presidency has been transformed into a builder of the right wing. From Sanders’ failed campaigns in the Democratic primaries to the Squad voting to prevent rail workers from going on strike, attempting to reform the Democratic Party into a force for left-wing politics is hopeless. While the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), the largest socialist organization in the US, have failed to develop into a serious political alternative of any scale, the sheer rot of the Democratic Party establishment compared to the leftward shift in big sections of workers and youth means that cracks are continually surfacing. Megan Hunt, a progressive state senator from Nebraska, led the fight against state bans on abortion and transgender-affirming healthcare. She drew the conclusion that, “The political dysfunction is extreme and at the national level, the parties are ideologically
bankrupt,” in explaining her recent departure from the Democratic Party. Hunt’s own lived experience in the Nebraska State House showed that the Democratic Party is worthless for waging a real fight against oppression.
Working People Deserve A Real Choice Politics are being falsely polarized around book bans and drag shows. The giant gulf that divides society, between the billionaires who control the economy and workers who do the work, is actively obscured by the ruling class and the two political parties that represent it. Working people need our own political party to consistently fight for pro-worker and anti-discrimination measures, and run candidates who are held accountable to a proworking class program, not the Democratic Party establishment or its billionaire benefactors. Politicians prepared to fight against discrimination like Hunt, or Zooey Zephyr, the Montana state legislator who was formally censured for speaking against an anti-transgender healthcare ban, would be supported by a new left party, not hung out to dry by the Democratic establishment. The future holds the threat of another Trump presidency, but workers, immigrants, LGBTQ people, women and youth are suffering the consequences of a Biden presidency in the present. In order to push the struggle for a new party to a higher level, working people have to reject the absurdly undemocratic primary process and reject voting for Biden at all. Instead workers and youth should insist on political independence from the two parties of capitalism. A new political party of and for the working class is a necessary step to replace the catastrophic system of capitalism and replace it with socialism. J
3
Q U E E R L I B E R AT I O N
SOCIALIST ALTERNATIVE
PRIDE
CALENDAR OF EVENTS BOSTON
CHICAGO
Socialist Contingent at the Boston Dyke March
Organize To Fight The Right’s Anti-Trans Attacks!
FRIDAY 6/9 @ 6:30 PM BOSTON COMMON
Organize To Fight The Right’s Anti-Trans Attacks!
SATURDAY 6/17 @ 4:30 PM CHURCH ON THE HILL
WEDNESDAY 6/28 LOGAN SQ. MONUMENT Follow @chicagosocialistalternative on Instagram for updates!
HOUSTON
NYC
Rally to Defend Trans Rights
Labor for Trans Rights @ Queer Liberation March
FRIDAY 6/24 @ 4 PM DOWNTOWN HOUSTON Action Assembly to Defend Trans Rights
TUESDAY 6/27 @ 7 PM THE MONTROSE CENTER
SUNDAY 6/25 @ 1:30 PM CHAMBERS & CENTRE
Organize To Fight The Right’s Anti-Trans Attacks!
MONDAY 6/26 @ 6 PM WASHINGTON SQ. PARK ARCH
WE WALKED OUT FOR TRANS RIGHTS
NOX TAN, PHILADELPHIA
On a sunny afternoon in late April, 200 students from across Philadelphia marched up the middle of Broad Street between City Hall and the Philadelphia School District building. Like many other students across the US who have entered into struggle against the reactionary, anti-trans rhetoric put out by the farright and right populists this year, we walked out of school at noon on April 25 to demand the protection of our trans classmates. With calls against the three bills on the table in Pennsylvania that would restrict trans access to healthcare, education, and sports participation – as well as calls against both the Republicans for launching these attacks and the Democrats for failing to put up a fight – students took and blocked Broad Street for over an hour. The walk out was hugely successful, with nearly twice the number of people attending than what we expected. This did not happen on its own, rather it took hard work from the organizers over the course of several weeks.
Building Our Walkout
PHILLY
PITTSBURGH
Socialist Contingent at Pride
March with the Socialists at Pittsburgh Pride
SUNDAY 6/4 @ 10:15 AM 6TH & ARCH
SATURDAY 6/3 @ 9:45 AM LIBERTY & 11TH
Organize To Fight The Right’s Anti-Trans Attacks!
Queer Socialist Speakout and Picnic
THURSDAY 6/8 @ 6 PM 1906 RITTENHOUSE SQ.
SUNDAY 6/4 @ 3 PM FRIENDSHIP PARK
RALEIGH
SEATTLE
Organize To Fight The Right’s Anti-Trans Attacks!
SATURDAY 6/25 DOWNTOWN RALEIGH Follow @nctriangle_sa on Instagram or Twitter for updates!
4
March with Socialist Alternative at Seattle Pride
SUNDAY 6/25 @ 10:30 AM 4TH & JAMES Labor’s Role in Fighting LGBTQ Oppression
MONDAY 7/10 @ 6 PM UW PACCAR HALL RM 192
Two weeks before the walkout, a leading organizer from another school in the Philadelphia School District proposed a public meeting where students from schools looking to get involved could meet with the organizers to discuss. This meeting focused on a plan to build for the walkout. Additionally we formulated our demands of making Philadelphia and Pennsylvania sanctuaries for trans people, voting down the bills HB 138, HB 216, and HB 319, fully funding public schools to support resources for LGBTQ+ kids, and universal healthcare that includes gender-affirming care. Over the next weeks, the organizers focused on writing speeches and, importantly, actively building the walkout to ensure it would have high attendance and energy by convincing their friends, classmates, and teachers to walk. At my school, a group of four students including myself spent the two weeks between the public meeting and the walkout actively talking to everyone in our school about the event. As one of my friends who was crucial in mobilizing our school put it, we had to “annoy everyone with how much we talked about the walkout.” We printed dozens of flyers that detailed when and where we would meet to walkout at our school, handed them out , and put them up around campus. More significantly, however, in building the walkout was actively politically motivating our friends and classmates in discussions. This included going to
clubs and electives and asking to make an announcement or simply talking to classmates during breaks to convince them of the importance of taking action. On top of this, Socialist Alternative helped students to table in school zones which allowed students who had not heard of the walkout yet to either start organizing their schools or connect with people leading the walkout at their schools. Not only are students engaged in this issue, but a number of working people are too. During the rally, several teachers walked out with their students in a show of support for their trans students. At my school, we were able to convince some of our teachers to walk out with us. Many teachers were ready to walk out as soon as we mentioned to them that they were welcome to walk with us, but pointing to the power the labor movement can have in social movements still helped to point in the direction of what is necessary to win our demands.
What Comes Next Despite the strength of the walkout, during the public meeting that followed, we agreed that there were many things we could have done better. The main aspect of the walkout that we did not make as strong as possible was the political messaging. While we did formulate several demands which were periodically mentioned throughout the rally, the messaging still tended towards moral arguments for trans rights. Of course, it is important to recognize that trans kids at this point in time have spent much of their lives arguing for the morality of their existence due to the spitfire culture war many have been immersed in online. However, next time we will emphasize the importance of putting our demands front and center as well as emphasize how important it is to show a clear way of fighting for said demands. I am a member Socialist Alternative and we put forward the need for an escalation plan to strengthen and expand the movement. There was energy amongst those who walked out to escalate the movement. Students are currently trying to organize for further actions in the Philadelphia region. We as students are ready to enter into struggle around trans rights and have proven that we know how to organize actions. However, walkouts alone are not going to win this fight. We need energetic, coordinated actions nationwide, with strong political messaging and a clear path forward that includes the labor movement. We have proven that students have what it takes to spearhead this movement, and we will prove that we have what it takes to win it. J S O C I A L I S TA LT E R N AT I V E . O R G
FIGHTING THE RIGHT
THE RISE OF THE WOMAN-HATERS
GRACE FORS, CHICAGO
On balance, the deterioration of women’s social position in the US over the last year alone is mind-numbing. This is a far cry from back when the reverberations of the Women’s Marches and #MeToo movement still echoed in public life and millions felt like real social change was taking shape. We’ve taken one step forward only to be flung miles backward by an avalanche of backlash and hate. The constitutional right to an abortion, won 50 years ago with Roe v. Wade, vanished into thin air last June leaving tens of millions of women in the crosshairs of deranged state legislatures. 15 states, with Florida the most recent addition, now have full (six-week) bans on abortion.
Discipline & Punishment What has followed has been a merciless stripping of women and girls’ basic rights to reproductive healthcare, criminalization, and callous apathy toward those suffering the
ELIN MILLER NYC
The Worst Man You Know Has A Podcast
Meanwhile, if you haven’t been living under a rock, you’ve probably already noticed that the fringe “manosphere” has elbowed its way into mainstream virality. It wasn’t enough for Andrew Tate to be suspended from major social media platforms then arrested for sex trafficking. It feels as if a thousand mini-Tates have cropped up after their own piece of the clout, equipped with a mic, a TikTok account, and a bottomless pit of contempt for women. There is a crisis of men that exists alongside the broader mental health crisis and economic crisis. Young men are finding themselves downwardly mobile, lonely, and alienated by the system that thrives on all of our misery – the perfect victims for capture by the misogynist right. These viral trends, alongside high-profile political attacks, have a real impact on the social landscape: a 2022 study found 62% of young Republican men and 46% of young Democratic men say feminism is a net negative for society – a marked increase from similar studies just two years ago. In the absence of a united movement with a program against the misery and alienation that plagues all of
us, there’s an endless supply of fuel for the fire of right-wing bigotry.
The Final Chapter? A key strength of socialist feminism is the understanding of the cataclysmic, contradictory, non-linear, and dialectical nature of history. When movements assert themselves, there is always a backlash: take the “law and order” and “refund the police” movement that followed the George Floyd rebellion of 2020. It takes mass movements being sustained and escalated to win real change. Pushing forward social progress is a historical task that the women’s movement has a key role in. We need to meet the backlash with a revitalized women’s struggle to thoroughly dismantle the political forces that want to send us back. This will mean appealing to working-class men for solidarity in action, untangling muddled consciousness with political clarity around who our real enemies are. It is also crucial that we firmly refuse to allow women’s rights to be pitted against trans rights – a deliberate agenda of the right wing that want to eradicate both. Our society’s reliance on gender roles, and the antagonism between men and women, is a historical phenomenon created by class society. Because it was created, it can also be undone. Capitalism relies on the subjugation of women, as well as racism and nationalism, to oppress and divide the working class. This is precisely why multiracial, multi-gender struggle is the key to not only women’s liberation but the liberation of all of humanity. Women, and all working people, need to fight for the right to take control over our own lives, and to collectively take control of society, through bold mass action that can send the misogynists back into the shadows. J
Fair Play: Debunking Right-Wing Myths About Trans Athletes
In 2023, the tide of public opinion increasingly favors protections for transgender individuals. But as anti-trans legislation sweeps the country, anti-trans ideas are beginning to take root among some ordinary people. Sports bans are increasingly entering the discourse of the political establishment and media, even in states seen as progressive on LGBTQ issues. The right-wing talking points in these bills hinge on the public’s generally low level of education on gender and sexuality, using disinformation and distortion to mislead people into believing that trans women and girls have “unfair advantages” over their cisgender peers.
What The Research Really Shows Anti-trans talking points often JUNE 2023
worst effects. The “pro-life” movement has so far succeeded in seven states in passing bans with no exceptions for rape or incest. The “life of the mother” exemptions that exist on paper are a total farce in practice, with the letter of the law entangled in gray areas and gynecological science fiction. Going to the emergency room for a medically-necessary abortion in states with harsh bans essentially gets the response: “if you’re not about to die, we can’t help. Come back when you’re about to die.” The Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), the Christian nationalist hate group that was instrumental in the repeal of Roe “seeks to recover the robust Christendomic theology of the 3rd, 4th, and 5th centuries,” in its own words. They will say their goal in attacking abortion rights is to “empower women.” But make no mistake, this goal is based on a misogynistic fantasy of only one type of acceptable woman: a pure, submissive, and obedient housewife and mother. It should come as no surprise that the very same
organization are the architects of the attacks on trans rights nationwide. And they aren’t finished. The battle over mifepristone, the first step pill in the medication abortion regimen, is ongoing and could have devastating consequences. If the right wing is able to continue filling out their tally cards without meeting serious resistance, no-fault divorce and even birth control can be in the crosshairs.
cite testosterone levels that cause male and female people to develop differently during puberty. This argument rests entirely on outdated bad science. Separating female and male anatomy on the basis of testosterone is overly simplistic and doesn’t account for the reality of natural human variation: not all males naturally have more testosterone than all females. What’s more, testosterone does not automatically translate into athleticism. Abnormally high levels of testosterone can produce effects that may hinder athletic performance. Other physical factors, like hand-eye coordination, agility, and strategic thinking – to say nothing of the role of practice, training, and commitment – are equally or more important to athletic prowess, and not fundamentally related to testosterone or sex assigned at birth. In the final analysis, attempting
to box all people into either “men’s” or “women’s” sports is fundamentally unfair to all genders. Pre-adolescent, coed sports demonstrate the benefits of teams not split by gender that facilitate more balanced, well-rounded competition. In general, the ability to play team sports freely as a child has immense social and emotional benefits.
Concern For Women Or Control Over Women? Proponents of anti-trans legislation often fall back on “protecting women and girls.” But are they actually fighting for women? During Trump’s presidency, his administration was a key enabler and accelerant of the anti-trans attacks we’re seeing today, and yet Trump himself and those surrounding him have consistently shown themselves to be virulently
misogynistic. Banning trans athletes from playing sports according to their gender identity opens the door to more policing of all women in sports and bans on the basis of being “too good,” because gendered teams rest on the idea of fundamental differences between men and women that always result in women occupying a weaker, inferior position. Anti-trans arguments are at the end of the day anti-feminist arguments that have nothing in common with a real fight for women’s equality.
It’s About More Than Just Sports Leaked documents from the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) illustrate their plan to use school sports bans as a “foot in the door” issue, with the ultimate
goal of essentially eradicating trans people from public life. What’s really behind the sports bans is the right’s aim to artificially pit trans and cisgender people against one another, because capitalism relies on a divided population to distract us from the fact that the ruling class and their political representatives have no real answers to the crises facing us. What we really need is to build a fight for better jobs and lives on the basis of all workers and oppressed people against the tiny minority of the ruling class. Socialist Alternative opposes all attempts to segregate trans and queer people from society and deny queer people the same opportunities and experiences as their cisgender peers. We need a united fight against these attempts among the whole working class on the basis that trans rights are in all our interests! J
5
L ABOR MOVEMENT DAVID RHOADES, LOS ANGELES “Writers are an essential part of creating content that our audiences enjoy, really across all platforms,” said Paramount CEO Bob Bakish to investors while boasting about their 60 million streaming subscribers. At that same moment, the writers who’d helped generate millions in subscription revenue were picketing outside for their right to a living wage and secure employment. On May 2, the Writers’ Guild of America – a union of about 11,500 film and TV writers – went on strike for the first time since 2007. Their opponent is the Alliance of Motion Picture & Television Producers, a trade association of about 350 firms led by a handful of major studios, including Disney, Netflix, Amazon, and Warner Bros. The core issue of the strike is how streaming generated billions on the creative labor of the film and TV industry over the last decade. The top studios generated $28–30 billion a year in profits from 2017–2021. In 2000, those same studios produced $5 billion in profits; in 2022, Netflix generated $5.6 billion in profits by itself. Much of those profits are the result of exploiting loopholes in union contracts, paying writers less money for more output in increasingly precarious employment terms. “The companies’ behavior has created a gig economy inside a union workforce,” the WGA negotiating committee said in a letter to its members.
How Streaming Turned Union Labor Into Gig Work The 2023 WGA strike has been brought on by a decade of rapid changes to how movies and TV are produced. The popularity and critical acclaim of shows like Game of Thrones and Mad Men led to deeper investment in “prestige television.” Streaming platforms like Netflix and Amazon started producing their own movies and shows inhouse while established studios like HBO and Disney built their own streaming services. Their plan was to attract subscribers by rapidly buying or producing as many film/ TV projects as possible, capitalizing on the few properties that became hits. At first this seemed to create a plethora of writing jobs, but not for long. Before the rise of streaming, TV shows were generally produced by writers’ rooms: a staff of 6–12 writers who were paid for 20–26 weeks per season on a three-year contract. Because streaming companies needed to generate new content quickly, they hired “mini-rooms” of 1–3 writers who would pitch ideas for an entire season of television in a few days, then rapidly draft a season’s worth of episodes in 5–10 weeks. Many of these pre-written seasons of TV have not been produced or were canceled before filming started; the few that entered production did so one or two years after the episodes were written. In essence, streaming companies received an entire season of scripts and ideas for a fraction the cost of a fully staffed writers’ room, eliminating jobs while leaving writers
6
WRITERS' STRIKE
have continued without writers on set. That highlights an obstacle for WGA: the strike needs to disrupt production, but projects currently being filmed will be able to continue through the strike – albeit producing a far inferior product, which is what happened to numerous projects in 2007. That doesn’t mean the writers’ strike won’t have a major impact – the economic weight of the 2007 WGA strike was roughly $2.1 billion – but the impact on the studios’ bottom line could be delayed. Regardless, the studios’ key weakness remains: without labor, there are no profits. Trucks driven by IATSE and the Teamsters have refused to cross the picket line at multiple lots; actions like that need to broaden out to every production. At a recent strike rally in the Shrine Auditorium, WGA workers hosted members and representatives from the major entertainment unions, including IATSE, DGA, SAG-AFTRA, the Teamsters, and LIUNA. The collective power represented at the Shrine that night is what the studios fear most. The situation is remarkably different from 2007; although rank-and-file members of each union expressed support for the WGA then, union leaders negotiated independently with AMPTP. Today, there is far more support for the WGA strike among the members of other entertainment unions. Those same union members could call for a vote to strike alongside the WGA. Even if the strike broadens to just the DGA and SAG-AFTRA, who both have upcoming negotiations with AMPTP, it would immediately shut down all production. The negotiating committee and National Board of SAG-AFTRA have both unanimously agreed to authorize a strike. If they take strike action alongside the writers, all of Hollywood will grind to a screeching halt. This would be hugely important in ensuring writers and actors are working under fair conditions. The AMPTP knows that a collective strike from the major unions would force them into serious concessions. Socialist Alternative stands in solidarity with WGA and calls for: An end to mini-rooms: Studios must hire a full staff of writers for each production as determined by the WGA. Living wages year-round: No more depending on seasonal work! Contracts should include off-season stipends to ensure workers can afford to live all year. Fully shut down production: Members of SAG-AFTRA and DGA to call on their unions to authorize a strike vote to join the WGA. No deal without a collective deal: WGA, DGA, and SAG-AFTRA should publicly resolve to accept no deal until the memberships of each union approve their tentative agreements. J
TACKLES EXPLOITATION-ON-DEMAND with less pay and shorter-term employment. Mini-rooms became industry standard as streaming shows became the only option for many writers. Prospects for writing feature films also turned bleak: because many films are now produced for direct-to-streaming release, studios get away with paying screenwriters the “movie of the week” rate instead of a much-higher theatrical film rate, despite many of these films possessing theatricallevel budgets. “What was once a difficult-toget but well-paying job has become an impossible-to-get job that pays very little,” said Kit Brogden, a strike supporter who represents individual writers in employment negotiations who spoke to Socialist Alternative.
WGA Calls For An End To MiniRoom Exploitation The central demand from the WGA is simple: no more mini-rooms. For shows in pre-production, studios need to hire at least 6 writers for 10 weeks minimum. Most streaming shows in production would hire a staff of 6–12 writers for 24–52 weeks per season, depending on the number of episodes. Streaming movies with a budget over $12 million would need to pay full theatrical terms to screenwriters. The WGA has also demanded strict limitations on the use of AI programs like Chat GPT for writing, an increasingly real threat to entertainment writers today. Though it’s not possible for the studios to use AI programs to generate all their content in an immediate sense, it’s a threat they dangle over the heads of workers in the WGA – accept what we’re willing to give you, or face being replaced. Though AI programs aren’t currently capable of writing coherent longform stories on their own, the WGA is right to look ahead at this problem: any introduction of AI into the writing process would be akin to the two-tiered hiring faced by the logistics union; a huge concession to the bosses. The AMPTP outright rejected most of these demands with no counter proposal. If they conceded a strong deal to the WGA now, the AMPTP knows it would be weaker in its upcoming negotiations with the directors’ union (DGA) and the performers’ union
(SAG-AFTRA). In short, the studios aren’t vwithholding better pay because they don’t have the means, but because they know one concession would embolden other workers to fight for more as well. “It’s the same story every time,” Melody Cooper, a striking writer/producer, said to Socialist Alternative. “Studios tell us ‘You’ll ruin the industry, we can’t pay you more.’ They said that in 1960, 1988, and 2007.” Meanwhile, just eight Hollywood CEOs made $800 million collectively last year. Melody pointed out that the studios have relied on writers’ desperation for years: “They know writers who are paid less are less likely to fight back.” But the context of this strike is a remarkably different period of capitalism than previous WGA strikes. Adjusted for inflation, writers’ wages have fallen 23% over the last 10 years while CEO compensation has skyrocketed. Despite massive profits, the logic of capitalism demands streaming platforms achieve nigh-impossible subscriber growth to meet shareholder expectations. In other words, despite making enormous profits, these companies are potentially less likely to grant concessions than in earlier strikes. In order to win these demands, the WGA may need to disrupt production at a broader scale than ever before.
What’s Needed To Force AMPTP To The Table Even after scripts are finalized, writers are vital to production. On-set input from writers is crucial to producing a coherent story with the collective labor of hundreds of artists, craftspeople, and technicians. However, that doesn’t stop studios from pressing forward anyway. While some productions like Netflix’s Stranger Things have shut down to respect the WGA pickets, other productions
S O C I A L I S TA LT E R N AT I V E . O R G
UPS CONTRACT FIGHT HEATS UP TEAMSTERS NEED TO GET STRIKE READY
L ABOR MOVEMENT
take this campaign effort further than previous actions by asking every UPS Teamster to indicate their level of commitment through the various “pledges:” from downloading the UPS Teamsters app to participating in actions and organizing for the campaign in their building. This was followed in March and April by calls for locals to demonstrate their unity through organizing parking lot rallies, participating in days of action, and developing contract action teams.
PHIL SNYDER, TEAMSTERS LOCAL 406 (personal capacity) A potentially generation-defining contract struggle is currently unfolding between the International Brotherhood of Teamsters (IBT) and logistics giant, United Parcel Service (UPS). With over 350,000 Teamster employees, moving up to 6% of the US GDP and 2% of global GDP, UPS is the single largest unionized employer in the United States, and a key point of leverage on the entire economy. This behemoth of a company owes its financial success to a brutal internal regime and reliance on low-paid part-time labor. The existing contract, imposed on membership despite a majority ‘no’ vote in 2018, is set to expire July 31. Much like the election of the O’Brien/Zuckerman slate to union leadership in 2021, this is rightly seen by many as an opportunity to reverse course from decades of concessionary agreements under the Hoffa Jr. regime. Teamsters at UPS are demanding an end to the two-tier driver position, referred to as 22.4, higher wages, no frontward facing cameras, an end to forced overtime, more full time jobs for part-time workers, ending the practice of subcontracting non-union feeder drivers and personal vehicle delivery drivers (PVDs), improved pensions, more paid time off, and much more. For decades UPS had driven down wages in warehouses by introducing, and then continually expanding, low-paid part-time workers. For the first time, through the 22.4 job classification, this profit-seeking push toward worker precarity was extended outside of the warehouses and onto drivers. These workers receive less pay, fewer protections, and despite being considered a combination inside/driver position, are effectively used as a permanent second-class driver. The current contract expires in less than three months, and UPS is not wasting any time in its attempts to divide and demoralize union workers. Thousands of these 22.4 combo drivers as well as part-time inside workers are currently facing layoffs, while full-time inside workers have had their overtime opportunities slashed. How the new union leadership responds to these attacks, the firmness of their demands, and what measures are taken to prepare the JUNE 2023
membership for a possible strike in August will be the real tests of their mettle.
The Need For Bold Demands The strongest demand in this campaign is for the elimination of unfair 22.4 combo driver positions and – importantly – to reclassify these workers as regular full-time package car drivers with all the protections they formerly lacked and a unified pay-scale. It cannot be overstated how significant the creation of a second-class driver position was to the discontent over the current contract, and consequently, the shift in leadership away from Hoffa’s old guard in 2021. However, it is far from the only issue affecting UPS workers, and it isn’t even the first unequal pay-tier to be implemented at UPS. Unfortunately, most demands by the union stop at asking for “higher part-time pay” and an “end to MRA abuse.” This non-specific language offers more questions than answers, and does little to inspire the average part-time worker to action. UPS Teamsters needs to mobilize around fighting demands such as: • $30/hour starting pay for part-timers with catch-up raises for all current part-timers. • Wages cannot be reduced after a market rate adjustment is implemented. • $10/hour raises for all full-time workers regardless of progression. • Real cost of living adjustments to match inflation going forward!
Positive Steps Forward The UPS contract campaign took a positive step forward in February with the launch of a Contract Unity Pledge. The Unity Pledge will
These are all positive developments and point in the correct direction, but the August 1 deadline goes both ways. UPS has been preparing by, among other things, telling managers not to take time off in July or August so they can be prepared to deliver packages in the event of a strike.
Strike To Win O’Brien has said time and again that Teamsters will strike UPS if an acceptable agreement is not reached by the August 1 deadline. Such strong rhetoric may be encouraging, but with evidence mounting that UPS is not interested in good faith negotiations, these words must be followed up with an equal degree of action if that threat is to hold any weight. Despite encouragement from IBT leadership, relatively few locals have proactively organized campaign rallies, informational pickets, or rank-and-file action teams in their areas. In some areas, a layer of militant rank-and-file workers have taken steps to bypass their local union and organize events themselves. These actions need to be massively scaled up if UPS Teamsters are to be ready in time for a strike. A strike at UPS would be the most important event of the labor movement in decades, and the largest strike in the United States since the 1997 UPS strike! Teamsters can show the entire working class what it looks like to fight and win. A strong contract at UPS would solidify that the working class is back in action in the US. J A longer version of this article can be found at www.socialistalternative.org
U P D AT E FROM THE FIGHT TO UNIONIZE AMAZON’S LARGEST AIR HUB
The below is an excerpt from an article in the first issue of “Voice Of Our Union,” the campaign’s monthly newsletter. Hundreds of our coworkers have signed a union card and attended a meeting or a training session since our launch rally on March 18th. There is excitement among workers from all backgrounds, languages, departments, and shifts over the potential for our campaign to improve our lives by fighting for a $30 an hour starting wage, 180 hours of PTO, and union representation in disciplinary meetings. Workers who have been with Amazon for more than 10 years and new hires who have worked for the company for less than 10 days have signed union cards. Amazon’s union busting has been ruthless. For months now, the company has brought in highly paid union busters from Seattle, New York, and throughout the midwest to hold captive audience meetings with small groups of workers to lie about our union, intimidate and manipulate workers against our efforts. These “Employee Relations” managers are Amazon employees with decades of experience attacking unions, laying off thousands of workers and firing workers without just cause. As of writing, we have filed over 26 Unfair Labor Practice charges with the National Labor Relations Board, documenting Amazon’s illegal union busting at KCVG. We have also fought back. When management told us we couldn’t distribute flyers in the break areas for our first organizing meetings last year, we asserted our rights and refused to back down. When the General Manager tried to shut down our union tables at the doors of the facility we exposed their intimidation to hundreds of thousands of workers on TikTok and forced management to back down. When Amazon instructed site management to remove members of our organizing committee from their learning ambassador roles and force them to train their replacements, they refused and handed in their vests. In order to win a union at Amazon we have to act like a union. This means coming together every time management unjustly fires one of our coworkers or retaliates against us over union activity. J
7
ACT UP
& THE STRUGGLE FOR QUEER RIGHTS TODAY by GREYSON VAN ARSDALE “The AIDS Coalition To Unleash Power is a diverse, non-partisan group of individuals, united in anger and committed to direct action to end the AIDS crisis.”
UNI TE D IN AN G E R 8
This credo was recited every Monday night, in a usually-packed room on 13th Street in Manhattan. From 1987 to 1993, over 800 people – most of them queer or with queer family and friends – routinely attended ACT UP meetings in New York, and by 1990, more than 100 ACT UP chapters existed across the globe. Before it split in 1992, ACT UP revolutionized the survivability of HIV/AIDS by taking an all-out, combative approach against government inaction. This was a life or death struggle for leading ACT UP activists, as many of them had contracted the virus themselves or loved someone who had. The movement designed, and forced the FDA to adopt, a fast-track system for sick individuals to access experimental drugs. They won changes to the CDC’s definition of AIDS to include women, allowing them to access experimental drug trials and benefits. They ended insurance exclusion for people with AIDS, and won legalized safe needle exchange in New York City. Likely the strongest case for ACT UP’s success was its inarguable impact on the epidemic itself: cases of AIDS in the US were sharply rising through the 1980s, peaked in the early 1990s, and have continued to fall ever since. All this was won in a relatively short period of time, by a movement that was (in the scope of mass movements) quite small – its largest demonstration was a protest of 7,000, a far cry from the heights of the women’s movement of the 1970s or the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s. ACT UP overcame their size, and a homophobic Reagan administration that delayed action on HIV/AIDS until thousands had already died, with militant tactics and a strategy they called “inside/outside.” As much as we can learn from ACT UP’s success, it is just as crucial to learn from its failures. By 1992, the conflict of strategy that had been growing within ACT UP for years resulted in a division that arrested the momentum of the movement. Queer activists today have much to learn from the history of ACT UP. In just a few years, the legal status – and daily lives – of transgender people in many US states has radically changed. As of May, 21 states now ban trans athletes competing in sports consistent with their gender identity. Seventeen states ban gender-affirming care for trans youth. Seven states ban K-12 trans students from using bathrooms consistent with their gender identity. Nine states censor school discussions of queer identity. Where ACT UP
activists were fighting for a chance to live against a deadly disease, today trans and queer people are faced with our own fight – for our legal right to exist.
HOW THE ACT UP MOVEMENT WAS BUILT From the get-go, ACT UP was faced with the problem of how to force the government to act on something it wanted absolutely nothing to do with. Initially nicknamed “gay cancer” by the media, and formally called GRID (gay-related immune deficiency) by the CDC, AIDS was as poorly understood as it was deadly. The first US cases were identified in 1981 – by year’s end, 337 cases had been reported, and already, 130 of them died. The Reagan White House treated HIV/ AIDS as a punch line, rebuffing questions on the topic with jokes. But more damaging than words was Reagan’s relentless pursuit of austerity. Alongside cutting social services and busting up the unions, Reagan cut funding to the CDC and the National Institutes of Health, and even pulled the US out of funding the World Health Organization. When the Reagan administration finally did publicly acknowledge the AIDS epidemic, it pressured the Public Health Service to adopt an HIV travel ban, making it impossible for immigrants with HIV to enter the country. By the time Reagan left office in 1989, almost 83,000 cases of AIDS were confirmed, and nearly 50,000 died. In the 1990s, Bill Clinton did not fundamentally change the approach – he continued and even codified the HIV travel ban, which was not ultimately overturned until 2010, and promoted the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy for the military. During the time when the government’s policy on AIDS was silence, panic grew among the gay community. This was certainly the case at the federal level, as well as in New York City where Mayor Ed Koch and the rest of the political elite slashed spending on healthcare. It wasn’t clear how HIV/AIDS spread, and no effective treatment existed. Getting diagnosed with AIDS didn’t just mean likely death – it also most often meant being abandoned by your family and community for being gay. Aid organizations cropped up to house, feed, and support people with AIDS, but without effective treatment, this was essentially hospice care. The FDA wouldn’t approve a single drug to fight AIDS until 1987. It was this pressure cooker scenario that led to the explosion of ACT UP. In 1987, Larry Kramer warned a crowd gathered at the Lesbian & Gay Community Services Center in New York City: “In five years, half of you will be dead!” He later asked, “Do we want to start a new organization devoted to
S O C I A L I S TA LT E R N AT I V E . O R G
political action?” To which the answer was a resounding “yes” – 300 people met two days later to form ACT UP. Just a few weeks later, ACT UP held its first action, now known as First Wall Street. The activists laid down in the road, trying to cause maximum disruption to rush-hour traffic. Their demands included the immediate release of new experimental drugs (like Ribavirin, Ampligen, and Glucan) to be available to AIDS patients, the ending of double-blind studies in which some fatally sick people got placebo pills, treatment affordability, and a massive public education campaign to stop the spread of AIDS. 250 people attended and 17 were arrested. In 1988, the group held likely its most famous action, Seize Control of the FDA. This demonstration of 1,500, bringing together ACT UP chapters that had cropped up across the country, ended up on the front cover of most major newspapers, despite the fact that it was held at the FDA headquarters in suburban Maryland. This was a core part of ACT UP’s strategy – that to be effective, actions had to be specific and targeted to where they perceived the problem to be. “One group appeared in white lab coats with bloody handprints on their chests, another did a die-in, holding cardboard gravestones over their heads,” said David Barr, an ACT UP organizer, in Sarah Schulman’s Let The Record Show. “It looked much, much larger on television than it actually was because it was so theatrical… This was really the start of the national AIDS movement.” The action, and the implicit threat that a bigger movement would grow, worked – less than a year later, the FDA approved a new AIDS drug, and expanded clinical trials for one more.
FIGHTING TO WIN ACT UP’s core driving force was desperation – the reality that if they didn’t get organized, many of them were facing death. They didn’t have any kind of centralized structure, or any elected leadership focusing on finding ways to be effective. To make an impact, their demonstrations could not just be protests that could be ignored, but had to have weight and impact on the people making the decisions. They adopted in much of their work a “dual” approach. Some of their members, particularly those who had backgrounds in science and data, pored over medical research, identifying drugs that they wanted the FDA to approve, studying how clinical trials were held to see if they could be amended to treat more people faster. Those members, many of them in the Treatment & Data subgroup, would try to get
JUNE 2023
“inside” the government – gain an audience with the FDA or the NIH and make their specific cases. But what gave the “inside” tactic any possibility of being effective was its counterpart – confronting government and media officials in public, and making their case to the public rather than just behind closed doors. Meetings that normally pass without comment were the site of protests publicizing demands like increased drug access or expanded clinical trials. ACT UP became particularly famous for their “zaps,” short, punchy actions that assailed vulnerable targets with media attention and raucous noise. But in the final analysis, “inside” and “outside” were never equal counterparts. Before the Seize Control Of The FDA action in 1988,
the FDA took a dismissive approach to the activists of ACT UP. People within the FDA wouldn’t return their calls. After the action, as David Barr recounts, “they returned the call the next day.” (Let The Record Show, p. 133) Today, nobody remembers ACT UP for the lobbying they did. Their strength was in their well researched and specific, targeted demands which brought attention to the movement. It was the direct action, the big theatrical demonstrations, and the education to the public through the media, that made ACT UP successful and memorable. Importantly, ACT UP understood that being combative was key. In the literal fight for their lives, there couldn’t be any middle ground – even if government officials, politicians, and media figures had sympathy for them in private, that was useless without real action on ACT UP’s demands.
LEARNING FROM MISTAKES The real tragedy of ACT UP was that, as truly effective as it was at saving the lives of thousands of people with AIDS, it had a relatively short life. One important cause for that decline was that many of its foremost members died – for the very people who pioneered access to AIDS treatment, it became in many cases too little and too late to save themselves. But ACT UP’s split in 1992 was effectively the end of the half-decade movement. What led to the split, and what lessons can be drawn
from it for activists today? In part, ACT UP’s horizontalist approach was a factor. Actions and efforts were not centrally coordinated, allowing many people to take up different approaches and for many things to be going on at once: treatment research, big actions, media outreach, and much more. But the lack of elected leadership and of democratic structures (besides one massive floor vote to support things or not) came with a very massive drawback: that de-facto leaders of ACT UP emerged anyway, and in many ways steered the direction of the group – and increasingly, over time, in divergent directions. But the split was ultimately a crisis of strategy. Tensions grew over time between the Action Committee and the Treatment and Data Committee, until finally in 1992 the Treatment and Data Committee left ACT UP and reformed as the Treatment Action Group (TAG). Basically, the “outside” and “inside” split from each other. But inside and outside could be better named as “direct action” and “lobbying.” ACT UP continued to hold actions after the split in a similar style to how they used to, and TAG became an advocacy lobbyist group, wanting to work more directly with the government and pharmaceutical companies. Lobbying remains the dominant strategy of queer organizations today. Organizations like the Human Rights Campaign make appeals to Democratic Party politicians and try to move the needle from the inside. Today, we need to learn this important lesson from the ACT UP period: that government officials and politicians only play ball under duress – under the threat that disruption from a movement will make conducting “businessas-usual” impossible. Still, the strategy of direct action was incomplete, too. As effective as ACT UP was in winning a future for people with AIDS, what it ultimately never won was affordability. Today, effective treatment for AIDS exists, but only if patients can afford it, because healthcare in the US is still dominated by the capitalist class and the profiteering of phar-
maceutical corporations. As ACT UP activist and historian Sarah Schulman wrote, “While advocates were able, in a sense, to beat HIV, they could not beat capitalism.” Had ACT UP taken on bigger fights, like the fight for universal healthcare, it could have built broader support in the working class connecting with the shared struggle against forprofit healthcare. It was important to show that people dying of AIDS and people going bankrupt from cancer treatments was a product of the same systemic problem. Such an approach would have also been effective at fighting the homophobia and transphobia that alienated people with AIDS from society. Movements like the Lesbians and Gays Support the Miners, a queer solidarity effort for a year-long miners’ strike in the UK just two years before ACT UP was founded which radically changed the social attitudes of workingclass people in the UK, show just how powerful this approach is.
APPLYING THESE LESSONS TODAY In the over two decades since ACT UP, lobbying has played an ever-increasing role in queer activism. Of course this has meant focusing on the Democratic Party. In a confirmation of the lessons of ACT UP, lobbying ultimately couldn’t get the job done on same-sex marriage, either – mass demonstrations and direct action were needed to win it. In the fight to defend the rights of trans people from an onslaught of right-wing legislation, the lessons of ACT UP are critical – that to win, we first have to get organized, and we have to take a direct, combative approach with the right wing. We have to make it impossible for them to conduct business-as-usual. Queer students have taken an admirable fighting lead by organizing school walkouts, and this foundation can be built upon with mass mobilizations, occupations of state legislatures, and sharp demands for our equality backed up with demonstrating our majority support in society. Following the legacy and lessons of ACT UP, we can build a queer rights movement in the modern day capable of winning not just trans rights, but much, much more. J
Where ACT UP activists were fighting for a chance to live against a deadly disease, today trans and queer people are faced with our own fight: for our legal right to exist.
9
WA R O N T H E P O O R
POOR PEOPLE LOSE IN DEBT CEILING FIGHT KEELY MULLEN, CHICAGO
It is a universal truth in the United States that if politicians have a choice between harming the poor or harming the big banks, the poor will always lose. This is as true under Biden as it was under Trump. The debate on the debt ceiling in DC is purposefully hazy, but it really boils down to one simple question: how can we spend less money on poor people? When banks fail, Democrats and Republicans always join hands to bail them out. But when poor people struggle to make rent, to make their car payments, to find childcare, they both lament that “tough choices” will need to be made. Right now, Biden is preparing to make some tough choices in order to resolve the standoff over the debt ceiling – tough choices that will amount to barbaric attacks on the most vulnerable members of our society. He’ll lay blame on the Republicans, and surely they are salivating over the idea of attacking the poor, but this is and always has been a bipartisan initiative.
What Does The Government Spend Money On? The US is in such profound debt not because it provides robust services to working people, but because it hemorrhages our tax money on weapons and refuses to collect on the piles of wealth held by the super rich. The US spends more on “defense” than China, Russia, India, Saudi Arabia, the UK, Germany, France, South Korea, Japan, and Ukraine combined. Nearly half of that goes to defense contractors, major corporations that make their billions off killing. The combined salaries of the top defense contractor executives could send 17,655 students to college for a year. Just one quarter of Lockheed Martin’s yearly contract with the government could end homelessness in the US. The amount the US spent on weapons alone so far in 2023 could pay for free public college for all, triple current spending on cash assistance for poor families, and there’d still be enough left over to buy every single kid in the US two brand new iPhones.
Working People Foot The Bill The Republicans are demanding that in exchange for agreeing to lift the debt ceiling, which is the legislative limit on the amount of debt the US Treasury can take on, the Democrats have to agree to massive spending cuts. The catch, however, is that the cuts can’t be made to defense spending, Social Security or Medicare, or veteran’s health care. If the Republican plan were to be adopted, 1.2 million poor Americans with young children would lose food assistance, 80,000 students would lose Pell grants, two million families would lose access to care at community health centers, 200,000 fewer children would have access to Head Start programs, and this is just the beginning. The agenda of the Republican Party amounts to a declaration of war on poor families in the US, stripping them of what dismal social
10
services they currently have. DC politicians make up an elite class of salesmen who do little more than compete to more convincingly package their big-business agenda as somehow pro-worker. The Republicans, particularly the right populists who’ve risen to fame in the wake of Trump’s election, posture as defenders of the little guys, but this falls flat on its face when you look at their plans to gut social spending. The Democrats, on the other hand, are perhaps even better at selling this lie. Biden was described as the “most progressive president since FDR,” but just this March was responsible for handing over more than $250 billion to failed banks, making this the second big bank bailout of his political career. He’s also signaled a willingness to compromise with Republicans on vicious spending cuts.
The Social Safety Net We Need The list of things the government doesn’t provide us with is just as bleak as the list of what it does. We don’t have universal public healthcare, we don’t have paid family leave, we don’t have free public college, and we don’t have universal pre-K. What the government does provide is desperately below what’s needed and demands that poor people jump through hoops to gain access. Unemployment and disability benefits are gutter-level, with only $15,100 in average yearly benefits for a disabled adult. The free school lunch program is so bare-bones that it excludes millions of desperate families for the crime of living just a hair above the poverty line. With all the lies coming from DC about overspending, it can be hard to imagine a world in which the government provides for even our basic needs. But during COVID, we got a glimpse into what they are capable of providing. For a brief moment at the beginning of this decade, child poverty was cut in half. COVID-era policies saw more money going into the hands of ordinary people than what we have ever been told was possible. But it was all temporary. Under Biden’s watch, the entire emergency social safety net has been torn down, leaving us worse off than before. Working people keep society running, and we need to fight – at minimum – for a transformative set of safety net policies. Winning this type of progressive change will require a mass, working class fightback that is highly organized and prepared to go head to head with the political elite in both parties. It would take a knock-out-drag-out war, and the rulling class would need to genuinely fear the overthrow of their system in order to grant this level of change. And at core, they’re right. A society where the needs of all working people are permanently met is fundamentally incompatible with capitalism. Writing working people’s rights into the DNA of our society will require a revolutionary struggle against capitalism and for a socialist world. J
WHEN THE RICH MAKE THE DECISIONS... WE LOSE. If we cut Lockheed Martin’s yearly defense contract by just onequarter, we could end homelessness in the US. If the US spent $0 on weapons in 2023, we could pay for free public college for all and triple current spending on cash assistance for poor families. If we cut defense contractor spending by less than one-fifth, we could pay for tuition free public college for all.
WE NEED MEDICARE FOR ALL UNIVERSAL CHILDCARE PAID FAMILY LEAVE HIGH-QUALITY, PERMANENTLY AFFORDABLE HOUSING LIVABLE UNEMPLOYMENT BENEFITS FREE PUBLIC COLLEGE AND A CANCELATION OF STUDENT DEBT FULLY FUNDED COMMUNITY CENTERS WITH FREE AFTER-SCHOOL RESOURCES A PUBLIC WORKS PROGRAM TO REHABILITATE CRUMBLING INFRASTRUCTURE
S O C I A L I S TA LT E R N AT I V E . O R G
HOUSING CRISIS
500,000 MADE HOMELESS BY CAPITALISM
WE DEMAND EMERGENCY RESPONSE Immediate conversion of vacant office space into shelter for the homeless.
b y E L L A R A P P, N Y C
Under capitalism, the working class is constantly struggling to make ends meet. Today, in the context of persistent inflation and the erosion of the limited assistance we received during the height of the pandemic, it’s getting even harder for many working people and families to meet our basic needs. The current homelessness crisis is just one illustration of this. The truth is that homelessness is a fundamental feature of capitalism: so long as capitalism treats basic needs like housing as a commodity to be sold for profit, countless people are priced out of a roof over their heads. In the United States, the richest country in the world, over 500,000 people experienced homelessness in the year 2022. In New York City, the richest city in the country and one of the most expensive to live in, almost 70,000 people are living on the streets or in shelters, including over 20,000 children. The average rent for a one-bedroom apartment currently sits above $4,000 per month, which is about $1,200 OVER the average monthly income for someone living in this city.
Billionaires And Corrupt Politicians Caused The Problem And Make It Worse Working people are constantly squeezed between low wages and rising rents, lining the pockets of the landlords and the billionaires while we struggle to maintain a basic standard of living and resist being pushed out of our neighborhoods. Rather than tax the rich to fund the social services that working people require to live with basic levels of comfort and dignity, the ruling class responds to the homelessness crisis, which they of course created, with nothing but brutality. Very commonly this takes the form of essentially making it a crime to be poor in public, and moving the homeless “out of sight and out of mind,” into jails and prisons. We saw this with Proposition B in Austin, Texas, which resulted in over 330 people being cited for “crimes” like sitting down
SOCIALIST ALTERNTIVE IN ACTION
EDDIE R., NYC Eddie is a member of Socialist Alternative in New York City and a member of the Socialist Alternative Black Caucus. The following is an excerpt of a speech he gave at a protest following the death of Jordan Neely.
JUNE 2023
in public just within its first year on the books. The problem of widespread homelessness is also intimately tied to the mental health crisis in this country. Mental healthcare is scarce and inaccessible to swaths of the working class, and the symptoms of many mental illnesses, like depression and schizophrenia, make it extremely difficult to meet the grinding pressures of working life needed to hold down a job or make enough money to cover your rent. Once again, the ruling class’ tactic is to drastically defund mental health treatment centers, or shut them down altogether – especially those which were accessible to the poor, and instead funnel the severely mentally ill directly into prisons.
$34,000 per year, while the biggest landlords and developer executives in the city are worth over $20 billion. Clearly, working class people and families are a hell of a lot closer to being homeless than we are to living among the ranks of the billionaire class or their political servants. But in the advance of such a movement, working class people are more susceptible to supporting “law and order” solutions or even to supporting people taking matters into their own hands as Daniel Penny did in killing Jordan Neely on the subway. In a vacuum of any real solutions to the crises of homelessness and mental illness, and with many people unsure of what a way forward would look like, there is a real risk that we as working class people lose sight of our shared interests.
Real Challenges Threaten To Undermine Working Class Solidarity The Way Forward: Class Politics & Class Struggle It’s clear that the interests of the ruling class are in opposition to ours. They will never willingly end the corporate control of the housing market – such a major source of profit – and thereby end homelessness by making housing a common good. But in some ways, what’s potentially even more dangerous than the brutality we constantly experience from the bosses and their political servants is divisions among working-class and poor people who really should be fighting together against our common enemy. Homelessness and its related problems like crime, drug use, and violence are real social issues in our communities, neighborhoods, and workplaces. No one wants to walk around their city or get on public transportation feeling like they or their loved ones are at risk. All that being true, the only way to really address the homelessness crisis, and poverty more broadly, is through concessions from the ruling class won through the united struggle of workers and oppressed people, and independent political representation of our interests. The average person in NYC makes around
Corporate politicians from both parties will never offer significant concessions to working people unless they are forced. With over 26 Empire State Buildings’ worth of empty office space in Manhattan, we currently have Eric Adams claiming that we can’t afford to shelter our city’s homeless and immigrant. We will never win by asking our politicians nicely. Through our city council office in Seattle, Kshama Sawant and Socialist Alternative have won landmark victories for renters including a cap on late rent fees at $10, a right to legal counsel in housing court, and millions of dollars in taxes on Amazon’s profits to be spent on affordable housing; the kinds of reforms which address our most immediate concerns, both for the homeless and as working people living in cities increasingly affected by this issue. Victories like these, as well as our ultimate goals of taking housing out of private, for-profit hands, must be fought for on a class basis in our workplaces, on the streets, and through independent political representation in the halls of power. J
IMMEDIATE RENT CONTROL Skyrocketing rents are pushing us out of our neighborhoods, and in some cases onto the streets. Fight for rent control now!
TAX THE RICH TO FUND AFFORDABLE HOUSING Billions need to be redirected from the super rich and corporations to fund affordable, green housing in our cities!
MEDICARE FOR ALL AND FULLY FUNDED SOCIAL SERVICES Homelessness is deeply tied to the lack of access to mental healthcare and treatment for addiction. Tax the rich to fully fund social services and offer a real chance to escape homelessness!
BUY-IN FROM THE LABOR MOVEMENT Workers in transportation, education, and healthcare are often on the front lines of the homelessness crisis. Our unions should organize to fight for permanently affordable housing.
END FOR-PROFIT HOUSING AND FIGHT FOR A SOCIALIST WORLD We ultimately need a society which is organized according to the needs of the masses, rather than the profits of a few. Join Socialist Alternative to fight for an end to capitalism and a socialist world.
“WE GOTTA DEMAND THE RESPECT AND DIGNITY THAT WE ALL DESERVE.” I’ve been living in Brooklyn for 15 years. And I gotta say, I’m tired! I’m so tired of seeing Black life treated with such disregard for its humanity. I’m tired of seeing those with mental health challenges being stigmatized and abandoned. Whether it be at the hands of Eric Adams who defunds healthcare services, mental health services, and education programs and gives that money to his police for robot dogs. Or whether it’s by the people who snatched Jordan’s life away
from him. He deserved his life, he deserved to see it through. I’m also tired of showing up at marches and rallies to speak the names of people who should be here today with us. We could be out here for a year, y’all. That needs to end now. We gotta start drawing some real lines in the sand. Start making some real demands of our politicians and our police departments and each other. This capitalist system got us thinking that we ain’t gotta take care of one another. That there’s not
enough to go around. There’s more than enough wealth and resources in this country, especially in this city, to meet everyone’s needs. It’s just that some people’s needs are being prioritized over others. Working class folks and poor folks are being attacked on all fronts. Whether it be racism, sexism, transphobia, the violence against the homeless, and even our very own right to strike on the job. So what’re we gonna do about it y’all? We in Socialist
Alternative are calling for full demilitarization of the police, an elected civilian review board to grant community control over our police department when they brutalize us. We’re calling for continued mass struggle against racism and all forms of oppression brought on by capitalism. We’ve already seen that they ain’t gonna give it to us. We gotta fight for it. J
11
I M M I G R AT I O N Hundreds of migrants camped out in the streets of El Paso overnight on May 1, 2023.
TITLE 42 EXPIRES
BIDEN'S REPLACEMENT IS JUST AS BAD
SOCIALIST ALTERNATIVE STATEMENT If you come to the U.S. seeking asylum, chances are you’ll get rejected – at least according to Biden’s new immigration policy going into effect any day now. At midnight May 12, Title 42, Trump’s COVID-era immigration policy, ended. In its place is Biden’s new plan to handle the surge at the southern border. The only thing that really differentiates Biden’s plan from Trump’s pre-COVID approach is he’s not openly championing the construction of a border wall (though he’s quietly continuing to build it). Like Trump, he’s literally sent thousands of federal troops to the border, alongside thousands of Texas National Guards. Now, this shouldn’t come as much of a surprise. It was Biden’s border patrol that chased Haitian immigrants through the Rio Grande on horseback.
What is Title 42? Title 42 was a COVID-era immigration policy that was passed from Trump to Biden with a handshake in January 2021. Since it’s been in effect, the policy has been used to expel 2.8 million people from the US-Mexico border. Under the auspices of preventing the spread of COVID, Title 42 gave border patrol broad authority to turn away asylum seekers at the US-Mexico border. This move is steeped in irony, as Trump’s entire approach to fighting the pandemic greatly exacerbated the spread, leading to tens of thousands of needless deaths not just in the US but internationally. Immigrants rights activists have been pushing for Biden to retire Title 42 for years, On June 7, 2021, VP Kamala Harris' infamous warning to Guatemalan migrants: "Do not come."
12
citing the human rights abuses that have been carried out under its authority. Unfortunately though, the expiration of Title 42 does not mean the brutality associated with it will end.
Biden’s Plan: Title 42, 2.0 Under Biden’s replacement plan, asylum seekers will have to jump through near-impossible hoops in order to qualify for protections. A petition circulated by 38 immigrants rights organizations alleges that Biden’s plan amounts to an asylum ban. And they’re right. The plan bars any asylum seeker from gaining protection unless they can prove that they applied for and were denied asylum status in another country on their way to the U.S. For someone coming from Nicaragua, that would mean applying for protection in Honduras, Guatemala, or El Salvador – countries faced with the very conditions they’re fleeing – or Mexico, where the asylum process regularly takes more than 10 months. The other path to protection in the US is if you manage to get an appointment at a port of entry on the new Customs and Border Protection (CBP) smartphone app which is riddled with glitches and errors. This is an obvious deterrent. For the tens or even hundreds of thousands of people seeking to enter the US every month, there are nowhere near enough available appointments, and even getting access to a smartphone and internet is not guaranteed on the treacherous journey to the border.
Immigrant rights activists have been pushing for Biden to retire Title 42 for years, citing the human rights abuses that have been carried out under its authority. Unfortunately, the expiration of Title 42 does not mean the brutality associated with it will end.
We Need Justice For All Immigrants! There are more than 1.5 million asylum seekers currently in the US waiting for US Border Patrol agents on horseback use reins to stop Haitian migrants from entering ncampments on the banks of the Rio Grande, September 2021.
Despite campaign promises to stop all construction on the US-Mexico border wall, Biden's administration has continued to authorize "filling in gaps."
hearings. They exist in a desperate limbo, with an average wait time of over 1,500 days (more than four years) and very few legal opportunities to work. This creates a permanent underclass of people in this country whose tenuous legal status makes them perfect victims for parasitic corporations to coax into dangerous and unstable work. Many undocumented immigrants are forced to make money under the table, in often highly exploitative conditions. Others are forced to work for pennies for bosses who routinely hang the threat of deportation over their heads. Immigration is a highly useful tool for the bosses. They are able to abuse immigrant labor, and they’re also able to use the threat of hiring desperate immigrant workers to force native-born workers to accept low wages and poor working conditions. Despite the lies of the super rich and corporate rulers, there is absolutely enough wealth in society to meet all of our needs, and the solidarity of immigrant and nativeborn workers is the key to fight for a genuine social safety net in this country. Neither native-born nor immigrant workers are guaranteed high-quality, free healthcare. Neither native-born nor immigrant workers are guaranteed reasonable rents and safe housing. Universal childcare, a livable minimum wage, paid time off. Instead of spending trillions on war, we can fund Medicare for All. Instead of subsidizing corporate real estate developers, we can provide high-quality, permanently affordable housing. All workers need to see the fight for immediate citizenship for undocumented immigrants as part of the fight for a world where all our needs are met. J
Intensive care tents at a facility for unaccompanied child migrants in Carrizo Springs, Texas.
S O C I A L I S TA LT E R N AT I V E . O R G
THE ALMOST-REVOLUTION OF MAY 1968 BOB SULATYCKI, ISA
Four months of protest across France. Over a dozen national strike days of action. Rolling strikes and protests, student and school student strikes, hundreds of arrests, road blockages, the storming of luxury shops and restaurants. The catalyst for this movement has been the so-called pension reform – Macron’s attempt to increase the retirement age from 62 to 64, planned to take effect starting September 1. But the movement is also tied in with wider discontent about the economy, inflation, the cost-of-living crisis, the growing disparities of wealth, the environment, police violence, sexual harassment, and the other miseries of life under capitalism. French capitalism, with its push for cuts to public spending and for closer economic alignment with the rest of the EU, wishes to inflict a defeat on the working class. It’s not just about pensions, it’s about rolling back the accumulated gains of French workers. This is understood by the working class.
The Specter Of ‘68 In the course of this struggle, many have raised comparisons to the general strike of May 1968. This is certainly correct, since the current movement of the French working class is the biggest since those titanic events. The events of May and June 1968 are often misrepresented as being simply a largescale student revolt which was just a reflection of the spirit of the age. Although the students played a very important part, it was the eruption of a mass general strike, involving upwards of ten million French workers, which was the key element of this movement. The strike demonstrated the fundamental power of the working class in a modern capitalist society. As section after section of blue as well as white collar workers went on strike in late May, a revolutionary ferment gripped society. Impromptu meetings were held, factories and workplaces were occupied, strike committees were established, and different ideas for organizing society were discussed in meetings of thousands of workers. In some cities, such as Nantes and Caen, control slipped from the hands of the existing ruling class into the hands of strike committees. All the conditions for a peaceful revolutionary transformation of society, as envisioned by Lenin fifty years before, existed. The bourgeois and its leaders were paralyzed. Not only was the ruling class split, but the President of the Republic, De Gaulle, fled the country to see whether the French army on the Rhine were still loyal to him. Other sections of the state apparatus were crumbling under the impact of the revolutionary tide. Even the police threatened to join the strike. The European and American ruling classes watched JUNE 2023
HISTORY
class, we are not yet at the stage of a strike on the scale of May 1968. For the time being, the Intersyndicale – the common front of France’s eight largest trade unions federations (CFDT, CGT, FO, CFE-CGC, CFTC, helplessly in trepidation would have been fatally undermined if there Unsa, Solidaires, FSU) – has continued with as one of the world’s key had emerged a democratic, socialist workers’ the tactic of one-day coordinated actions. imperialist powers stood state in France. The PCF leadership shared On April 14, the key elements of the new on the brink. this approach, and attacked as ‘ultra-left’ law were approved by the Constitutional Yet, this uniquely anyone who argued the need to push for fun- Council, and enacted by Macron the same favorable revolutionary damental socialist change. night. But the struggle is far from over. In situation was squandered and capitalism in However, if the PCF had been a genuinely 2006, youth-led protests in France were able to overturn a new labor law attacking job security for young workers, even after parliament had agreed to the bill. There is an urgent need for escalation towards an all-out general strike. Such a strike would represent a challenge to the position of Macron and the rule of capital in France itself. It is the fear of unleashing such a revolutionary challenge, which would be difficult to control, that causes the union leaderships to hesitate. Clearly, it is not sufficient to rely on the existing trade union bureaucracy to build for general strike action. To achieve it will require a serious campaign from below. Key will be the role of the General Assemblies, which have been set up in many workplaces. We say that anti-Macron strike committees should be set up across the country, in workplaces, schools, universities and neighborhoods. These should create Students and workers fill the street between Republique committees of action tasked with spreadand Denfert Rochereau squares on May 13, 1968. ing and linking action in all sectors of the workFrance survived and continued. Why was this? ing class, particularly the millions of workers in the poorly orgaHistoric Opportunity Wasted nized precarious sector. The decisive factor was the lack of a Mass meetings should mass revolutionary party rooted in the workbe organized on every ing class with a clear strategy of overthrowestate in each town ing capitalism. The mass workers’ party that and city, linking workdid hold sway in 1968 was the French Comers’ demands with wider munist Party (Parti Communiste Français, social questions facing PCF). The PCF also had decisive influence in working people. This the CGT (Confédération Générale du Travail) would concretely help to union federation. But, despite its name, the draw wider sections into PCF did not look at the movement of May the movement for a genand June as an opportunity, but as a threat. eral strike, on the lines The PCF leadership worked to derail it, of what occurred in May to separate the workers from the radicalized and June 1968. French rail workers demonstrate on the youth, and to ensure that the demands of the If such a movement train tracks during the struggle against the raisworkers were limited to winning short-term could be built, challenging of the retirement age earlier this year. concessions on pay and conditions, rather ing the rule of Macron, than organizing for a fundamental, socialist it would raise the idea change in French society. They opened secret revolutionary party, it would have looked to of a democratic revolutionary constituent negotiations with government representatives the example of the Bolsheviks of 1917, who assembly, linking the action committees on on a deal to end the strike. led the working class to power, and not the a national basis. This would pose very clearly In pursuing this strategy, the PCF were loy- conservative, degenerated Communist Party the question of who should rule France – the ally following their ideological masters in the that existed in Russia since the triumph of bankers and billionaires, or the millions of Soviet Union, where in 1968 there existed Stalin in the mid-1920s. French workers and their allies. a corrupted, bureaucratized version of ‘ComSuch a strategy was completely within Unlike in 1968, there is no mass party in munism’ – far removed from the ideas of the reach of the PCF at the time, if they had France playing a decisive role in the struggle. the Russian Revolution of October 1917. By chosen to embrace it. A peaceful socialist This would require a party rooted in, and 1968, the Soviet Union had long abandoned transformation of society was completely actively involving the widest possible layers any attachment to the idea of assisting in possible, and the global impact of a workers’ of working class people. La France Insoumise the creation of democratic socialist societies state in a major imperialist power would have has taken positive steps in calling for an allbased on Marxist principles. Their main con- been as profound as any previous revolution out general strike, and for mass working class cern was not to rock the boat. in history. struggle, and could play an important role in Russian foreign policy preferred to keep De building such a party if it adopts a revoluGaulle in place. He had maintained a foreign tionary program to see this struggle through Crucial Lessons For Today policy slightly independent of the US, and to the end. It is in the course of the titanic so, in Moscow’s geo-political considerations, Key questions face the trade union and battles of the French working class taking that was in its favor. Of more importance, the left leaders in France today where, despite place today that such a party can be built. J Russian bureaucracy, with all its privileges, the endurance and exertions of the working
13
I N T E R N AT I O N A L
BRITAIN
WORKERS PREPARE FOR ROUND 2 OF STRIKE WAVE Striking NHS workers from St Thomas' Hospital march to Trafalgar Square in London. May 1, 2023.
SOCIALIST ALTERNATIVE ENGLAND, WALES, AND SCOTLAND We are on the cusp of what could potentially be another huge turning point in British history. The strike wave that began last September has re-established the mighty and potentially transformative role of the workers’ movement in society. The right’s preferred strategy of contemptuously ignoring union demands and refusing to negotiate is increasingly being abandoned wholesale. But their second-preference approach – attempting to lean on right-wing union leaders and divide and rule tactics to split the unions – is also now falling apart. The result is that a strike wave which the Tories had hoped was beginning to wind down, now has the potential to enter a new and more combative phase. A spring/summer offensive of the working class is on the cards, and its potential is enormous. The historic vote by Royal College of Nurses (RCN) members to reject the government’s inadequate pay offer is a particularly important development. The NHS strikes have been a touchstone for working people across the country. The public support for these workers is massive, and the rejection of the deal is a huge victory for rank and-file union members. The Tories’ strike strategy relied on the collusion of right wing union leaders in the NHS. They hoped these leaders would be able to force through a poor deal with the minimum of democratic input by union members. Leaders or officials in RCN, Unison, and GMB obligingly attempted to play their part. So the RCN result was a stunning rebuke to all the NHS union leaders who so eagerly attempted to sell workers short. Such was the strength of feeling expressed in this vote, that despite a vicious, witch-hunting campaign against their own members who supported “reject,” the RCN’s leadership has been forced to immediately call new strike action – the first round of which took place from April 30-May 2. It is vital that the workers’ movement more widely mobilises to support this historic action with huge turnouts on pickets. Nurses in RCN organized themselves semi-spontaneously to push back against this deal, making use of important ad-hoc networks like NHS Workers Say No. But this result shows what enormous potential there would be should genuine, democratic,
14
broad left formations be built around clear demands for militant action across the union movement. There’s an urgent need for forums based on real engagement by fighting union reps and activists which can act to challenge the role of the right in the unions and hold those elected on a left platform to account. What has happened in a union with such deeply conservative traditions as RCN shows what will potentially be possible across the union movement in the next period. There is a perfect storm of factors which is currently driving workers towards an increasingly militant approach. They range from the intense cost of living crisis, to the effects of a decade of wage cuts, the self confidence gained through striking and the decisive way that COVID had already affirmed that workers are the ones who keep society running. Yet the union leaderships that currently exist, by and large, do not yet reflect this shift. This reality points to a period in which intense battles can develop within trade unions over the way forward. Socialists have a vital role to play within this in helping to push for militant action and, crucially, to help those who want to fight get organized. In the health unions, what is needed is a program of escalating action based on maximum coordination across the NHS, especially with the junior doctors, as well as with workers striking back more widely. The NHS Workers Say No campaign could take a lead in pushing the momentum gathered in the reject campaign further by calling a national conference open to all health workers across all the unions, to discuss the way forward for the disputes and how to change the unions. Other groups like Health Campaigns Together can also have a potential role in organizing solidarity. There is now a strong case for a national demonstration called to support the NHS strikes and fight to save the service. The health unions who have voted (albeit not necessarily convincingly) to accept this offer, are all ones in which the majority of those balloted have not had the empowering collective experience of taking strike action. Union members have instead been presented with a recommendation to accept a poor but improved offer, without any suggestion of the potential that exists to build and escalate a fightback. But with RCN members now once again taking to the picket lines, the question of reballoting for action across the NHS must be posed. The RCN’s rejection of the deal
creates an entirely new scenario. It is only right that NHS workers are given the democratic opportunity to vote to join their colleagues in once again taking strike action. The momentum created by both the strikes and the reject campaign must not be squandered. A generation of workers are in the process of rediscovering their collective strength. This is setting the stage for a whole period of intense class struggle, the outcome of which will determine the kind of future that exists for society. Alongside increasing industrial militancy, it is clear that the development of mass left political organizations rooted in struggle will also be possible. A figure like Jeremy Corbyn, now banned from standing as a Labour candidate by the anti-strike, anti-worker Labour Party leadership, should see in this strike wave the potential for the mass mobilization that could win his seat back. On that basis, Corbyn could play to his best strengths and act as tribune for workers and oppressed people in parliament. Crucially, he could play a decisive role in helping to develop a new left party of struggle.
WE SAY: •
•
• • • • •
Step up the strikes! For maximum coordination across the NHS and more widely. Fight for a general strike to bring down the Tories. No sell-out deals! Fighting workers must get organized now within every union – the need for democratic broad lefts and rank-and-file networks has never been greater. Fight for real, above-inflation pay rises for all. For a national conference of health workers to discuss the way forward across the unions. For the regular election of all senior paid union officials and negotiators. For the right of recall over all elected positions! Jeremy Corbyn: Don’t delay! Run independent of Labour For a new left party of struggle to give a real political voice to working class and oppressed people. For socialist change! Capitalism is broken for people and the planet. Only a socialist society, based on public ownership of the big monopolies and an economy planned democratically by workers, can meet the needs of all while safeguarding the environment for future generations. J
READ MORE
SOCIALIST ANALYSIS & UPDATES FROM AROUND THE WORLD
PAKISTAN | DOWN WITH CAPITALIST PDM RULE! Following the arrest of deposed former Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan, a wave of social unrest not seen in years has been ignited. Protests of his supporters have shaken the entire country which will no doubt continue even after his temporary release. He is by far the most popular politician in Pakistan today, which strikes fear into the heart of the military establishment given the scheduled upcoming October elections.
BELGIUM | DELHAIZE SUPERMARKET WORKERS FIGHT Belgian supermarket workers are fighting against brutal attacks on their working conditions at the Delhaize grocery chain. There have been strikes at various shops across the country since March. The struggle needs to be broadened and deepened with local actions and a sector-wide strike.
INTERNATIONALSOCIALIST.NET S O C I A L I S TA LT E R N AT I V E . O R G
ANNOUNCEMENTS
NATIONAL EVENTS THIS MONTH:
SOCIALIST ALTERNATIVE BLACK CAUCUS
22 JUNE 8:00 PM ET
THURSDAY Public Meeting with Professor Cedric G. Johnson, author of After Black Lives Matter: Policing and Anti-Capitalist Struggle
In the aftermath of the George Floyd rebellion in 2020, we saw the most significant social explosion against racial oppression, law enforcement terror, and the capitalist agenda amid the COVID pandemic in US history. We are witnessing a lull and political confusion as the institutions of US capitalism and their political parties (Democrats and Republicans) capture the moment to derail the possibilities of building a sustained multiracial, multi-gendered working class mass movement against racial oppression and capitalist exploitation. Socialist Alternative Black Caucus is excited to be in conversation with Cedric G. Johnson, Professor of Black Studies and Political Science at the University of Illinois at Chicago and author of the newly published book, After Black Lives Matter: Policing and Anti-Capitalist Struggle. Join us on Thursday, June 22, at 5:00pm PST, 7:00pm CT, and 8:00PM EST as we politically analyze the state of the struggle against racial oppression, the rise of the carceral state, and capitalism. We will also discuss the method and program needed to dismantle the edifice of racial oppression and capitalism.
GET INVOLVED!
Socialist Alternative is an active organization with members across the country. Joining means basic agreement with our ideas and a commitment to putting them into action. Apply to join and a member in your area will reach out to you shortly! If you don’t see an area near you listed below, contact our national office. (646) 371-9016 info@SocialistAlternative.org facebook.com/SocialistAlternativeUSA Instagram: @Socialist_Alternative Twitter: @SocialistAlt Tik Tok: @socialistus Socialist Alternative is part of International Socialist Alternative (ISA), (ISA) which has sections in over 30 countries. Learn more about the ISA at internationalsocialist.net.
MID-ATLANTIC
NEW YORK CITY, NY...............ny@socialistalternative.org PHILADELPHIA, PA...........philly@socialistalternative.org PITTSBURGH, PA............................sapghbc@gmail.com Contact our national office for: BALTIMORE, MD & CAPITAL DISTRICT, NY
NEW ENGLAND
BOSTON, MA...................boston@socialistalternative.org WORCESTER, MA........worcester@socialistalternative.org Contact our national office for: NEW HAVEN, CT; PROVIDENCE, RI; & PORTLAND, ME
MIDWEST
CHICAGO, IL..................chicago@socialist.alternative.org MADISON, WI................madison@socialistalternative.org MILWAUKEE, WI........milwaukee@socialistalternative.org MINNEAPOLIS, MN...............mn@socialistalternative.org
GET SOCIALIST NEWS IN YOUR MAILBOX SUBSCRIBE TO SOCIALIST ALTERNATIVE AND GET OUR MONTHLY PAPER DELIVERED RIGHT TO YOUR DOOR.
Contact our national office for: CINCINNATI, OH; COLUMBUS, OH; DETROIT, MI; GRAND RAPIDS, MI; & KANSAS CITY, MO
PACIFIC
LOS ANGELES, CA........socialistalternativela@gmail.com BAY AREA, CA................bayarea@socialistalternative.org SAN DIEGO, CA............sdsocialistalternative@gmail.com SEATTLE, WA..................seattle@socialistalternative.org Contact our national office for: PORTLAND, OR & TACOMA, WA
SOUTHEAST
GAINESVILLE, FL....................gainesvillesalt@gmail.com NORTH CAROLINA....................nctrianglesa@gmail.com Contact our national office for: ATLANTA, GA; BIRMINGHAM, AL; NEW ORLEANS, LA; NW ARKANSAS; & ORLANDO, FL
SOUTHWEST
HOUSTON, TX............houstonsa@socialistalternative.org
SOCIALISTALTERNATIVE.ORG/PAPER SOCIALIST ALTERNATIVE ISSN 2638-3349
Editor: Keely Mullen Editorial Board: George Brown, Tom Crean, Grace Fors, Chris Gray, Josh Koritz, Calvin Priest, Greyson Van Arsdale, Tony Wilsdon Editors@SocialistAlternative.org
JUNE 2023
15
SOCIALIST
ALTERNATIVE ISSUE #94 l JUNE 2023
HOW CAN WE ACTUALLY FIGHT CAPITALISM? ANNE LIU, PITTSBURGH
What Is Capitalism And Can It Be Defeated? More and more young people prefer socialism to capitalism, identify as “anti-capitalist,” or have a feeling that the bottomless pit of human suffering we see today is caused, or at least worsened, by a system driven by profit. But there aren’t obvious ways to crystallize these conclusions. Capitalism can feel too big to fail, or too big an enemy to take on. Some people can understandably look around and believe that people do not want to fight back. But we have to take a long view of history to understand that a mighty struggle against the system is inevitable. There’s nothing eternal or inevitable about capitalism. While initially being a technological leap forward from feudalism, capitalism is just another stage in a long line of class societies that have evolved and increased in sophistication over time. Only now, the economic system operates on new principles: a) the private ownership of production by a handful of capitalists and b) the exploitation of workers by those capitalists to maximize profits. As workers, our only apparent choice is to feed our labor into this machine in return for meager wages to spend on products that the capitalists sell back to us. Socialists understand that this dynamic – where the owning minority holds the whip over the working majority – lies at the core of the poverty and oppression we see today. This dynamic, however, is a temporary state of society. Every single system that has made up the framework of human existence has been eventually replaced. Capitalism itself only exists because centuries ago, a series of revolutions overthrew the outmoded, land-based feudal system and resulted in the establishment of the capitalist status quo we have today. There is nothing to suggest that
the same can’t be repeated, this time with the working class at the helm to break the cycle of exploitation once and for all. To quote author Ursula K. Le Guin, “We live in capitalism. Its power seems inescapable. So did the divine right of kings.”
What Will It Take? Workers, students, and oppressed people everywhere need to act as a unit against the capitalist elites. This not only means recognizing our common interests, but organizing the majority of society – the working class – into a fighting revolutionary force. In the US, we’ve seen recent moments of struggle that have pointed to the potential for organizing this force. Movements against attacks on abortion rights, climate change,
"we live in capitalism. its power seems inescapable. so did the divine right of kings." -Ursula k. le guin
and police violence have mobilized huge swathes of people into struggle. BLM in particular struck a vital nerve with working people in every corner of the world, drawing millions of youth and workers into the streets for the first time in their lives. That seed of widespread fury is exactly what we need. But we need to develop sustained, democratic organizations that can take the fight directly to those who fatten themselves on profits from oppression and environmental destruction: the billionaires and their political
representatives. Right now, young people across the US are starting to do so by unionizing their workplaces, showing a powerful instinct to struggle at the very site of their exploitation. As the basic organizations of defense against the bosses, unions are crucial for building mass power, but the highest iteration of union power to actually change society comes when they are coordinated at a national and global level with the goal of transferring power to working people. Take the recent situation in France, for example, where popular strikes have paralyzed profits and polls show that 74% of people want to bring down the government. The only way to leverage the revolutionary potential of the working class is to coordinate our organizations and parties across borders, languages, and cultures, especially as many of our exploiters are multinational corporations (e.g., Amazon). This is why Socialist Alternative is part of International Socialist Alternative, and why we call for worldwide solidarity of working people at all times.
Why You Should Join Socialist Alternative Given capitalism’s inherent tendency to create, with everexpanding profits, an everlarger working class in worsening conditions of crises and deprivation, it’s almost inevitable that the working class will rise up. From France, to Myanmar, to Colombia, to Iran – it happens all the time. However, there’s no guarantee that our struggle will be translated into permanent victories and an end to capitalism. Socialist Alternative believes in developing a working class leadership on a mass scale,
one that is committed to using revolutionary tactics in the day-to-day struggles of our class to prepare for an ultimate confrontation with the bosses. For a small organization, we’ve achieved a lot on that basis. We have used our position on the Seattle City Council, through the election of our member Kshama Sawant, to help workers win historic gains in the city, including an annual $210+ million Amazon Tax to build affordable housing and the first $15 minimum wage in a major US city. After Roe v. Wade was overturned, we organized for abortion sanctuary legislation in Seattle and in Dane County, Wisconsin. We mobilize for labor struggles across the country with baristas, nurses, teachers, grocery workers, and more. ISA has helped resist the Israeli occupation of Palestine, and led protests against corporate climate destruction at COP26. We see all forms of oppression as deeply connected under capitalism, which is why we’re at pretty much every protest calling for a united movement against injustice. Socialist Alternative is a disciplined, democratic force of working class fighters with one overarching goal in mind: to defeat capitalism and transform society on the basis of socialist ideas and methods. If that’s something you stand for, join us! J