Armando Robles, president of UE Local 1110 and one of the leaders of the Republic Windows and Doors occupation, addresses the crowd outside the bankers' convention Oct. 27. (Fight Back! News/Jonathan Labe)
Chicago, IL - The American Bankers Association met here the week of Oct. 26, in luxury hotels, spending millions for their comfort. Outside, 2500 working people marched and chanted, “You got bailed out, we got sold out!”
Rosemary Williams, who fought eviction from her home in Minneapolis, Minnesota, was in the march and said, “We need a moratorium on foreclosures.” She spoke at a breakfast for Jobs With Justice to kick off the day of protest. Her message to anyone facing foreclosure is to fight. “If the bank comes for your home, don’t go quietly in the night. Get people together and fight back.”
The following movie review from Fight Back! News is by Doug Michel:
Michael Moore has done it again, only this time he’s coming out strong against the most pervasive evil in the United States: capitalism. Moore serves to moviegoers a searing critique of capitalism that is well needed during the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression.
On Thursday, Oct. 1, a supportive crowd of 200 progressives and activists came to one of the many locations in Chicago showing Capitalism: A Love Story. The special showings benefited United Electrical Union Local 1110, the same local that carried out the historic Republic Windows and Doors factory occupation this past December.
Capitalism: A Love Story is filled with comedy, satire, and chilling analysis of the economic crisis in the U.S. It highlights the American people’s “love affair” with capitalism that ends in heartbreak for believers in the “American Dream”.
Paul Craig Roberts was Assistant Secretary of the Treasury in the Reagan administration. He is coauthor of The Tyranny of Good Intentions. He can be reached at: PaulCraigRoberts@yahoo.com. The following article is from CounterPunch:
Dead Labor: Marx and Lenin Reconsidered
By PAUL CRAIG ROBERTS – October 7, 2009
“Capital is dead labor, which, vampire-like, lives only by sucking living labor, and lives the more, the more labor it sucks.”
–Karl Marx
If Karl Marx and V. I. Lenin were alive today, they would be leading contenders for the Nobel Prize in economics.
Marx predicted the growing misery of working people, and Lenin foresaw the subordination of the production of goods to financial capital’s accumulation of profits based on the purchase and sale of paper instruments. Their predictions are far superior to the “risk models” for which the Nobel Prize has been given and are closer to the money than the predictions of Federal Reserve chairmen, US Treasury secretaries, and Nobel economists, such as Paul Krugman, who believe that more credit and more debt are the solution to the economic crisis.
Take the fundamental laws of modern states, take their administration, take freedom of assembly, freedom of the press, or “equality of all citizens before the law,” and you will see at every turn evidence of the hypocrisy of bourgeois democracy with which every honest and class-conscious worker is familiar. There is not a single state, however democratic, which has no loopholes or reservations in its constitution guaranteeing the bourgeoisie the possibility of dispatching troops against the workers, of proclaiming martial law, and so forth, in case of a “violation of public order,” and actually in case the exploited class “violates” its position of slavery and tries to behave in a non-slavish manner.
The following video shows police kicking and pepper-spraying protesters as they evict Rosemary Williams for GMAC. The people’s occupation of Rosemary Williams’ home has lasted for more than a month, following a long struggle to keep her home. It has been one of the most important and advanced struggles of this economic crisis.
Seven people arrested trying to stop the eviction of Rosemary Williams
By staff
Minneapolis, MN – After a months long fight against her foreclosure, police came to evict Rosemary Williams from her home, Sept. 11. Dozens of police cordoned off the street, sidewalks and alley all around the home, police with rifles and tear gas were at the ready at windows inside the house, as a private security company used metal grating to board up windows and doors. The police showed up as preparations were being made for a birthday party for Rosemary Williams’s grandson, Talib, who turned two that day.
More than a hundred supporters gathered to support the Williams family, as they hastily removed their personal belongings from the house. In a last ditch effort to stop the eviction, seven supporters went onto the property and were immediately arrested. They were dragged away by police, who kicked people laying on the ground and sprayed the crowd with pepper spray.
Click on the image for a PDF flyer for the conference
The following is the call to the “We Say Fight Back” conference, a very important national working class conference that will take place October 3rd in Chicago:
We are now in the midst of the greatest economic downturn since the Great Depression of the 1930’s. Millions of homes are in foreclosure. Unemployment is growing. Massive cuts are taking place to the programs that benefit poor and working people, while the government tries to balance budgets on our backs. Inequality is growing, oppressed people–African-Americans, Chicanos, and Latinos are the last hired and the first to lose their jobs.
The rich and powerful are waging a war on working people and many of us have decided to respond by fighting back. In cities around the country there are sharp struggles to stop evictions and to demand a moratorium on home foreclosures. At places like Chicago’s Republic Windows and Doors there have been intense battles in response to plant closures. From California to New York, people have taken to the streets to protest cuts to programs that serve our communities.
On October 3, 2009, trade unionists, immigrant rights activists and members of low-income, community, housing, student and other progressive organizations will come together in Chicago for a conference that will help build our collective movements. We will take this opportunity to learn from one another’s experience. We will lend support to key struggles. Importantly, we will make common plans. Together we can make a difference and build a more powerful fight back.
Go to the Conference website for a list of endorsers and other important info: http://wesayfightback.com/
Minneapolis, MN – On Saturday, August 8, the second day of a round-the-clock sit-in at her house, Rosemary Williams and supporters held a press conference on her front porch. Rosemary was officially evicted from her home on Friday. But within one hour of the eviction supporters from the Minnesota Coalition for a People’s Bailout, Poor Peoples Economic Human Rights Campaign, neighbors and many others from the South Minneapolis community gathered at Rosemary’s home. They retook the house and are resisting the eviction.
They are making a stand for Rosemary to keep her home, and also speaking out for an end to all foreclosures and evictions, which are tearing apart neighborhoods and families around the country. They are demanding that GMAC immediately negotiate with Rosemary Williams so she can stay in her home.
As of Sunday, the round-the-clock sit-in at Rosemary’s home at 3138 Clinton Ave S. in South Minneapolis, is now in its third day and is continuing. There has been an outpouring of support for Rosemary and her struggle from neighbors and the community in general.
The first video shows Rosemary Williams speaking at the Saturday press conference, and the second video has Mick Kelly of the Minnesota Coalition for a People’s Bailout speaking at the press conference.
Rosemary William Speaks at press conference, August 8, 2009
Mick Kelly of the MN Coalition for a People’s Bailout speaks at press conference, August 8, 2009
Rosemary Williams Evicted from her home Peoples’ occupation to resist the eviction taking place
By Steff Yorek
Rosemary Williams and Steff Yorek
Minneapolis, MN – Fight Back! News is reporting from the home of Rosemary Williams on the 3100 block of Clinton Ave S. in Minneapolis, MN. Early this afternoon, Hennepin County Sheriff Deputies came to Rosemary’s home and evicted Rosemary, her daughter in law and two of her grandchildren. The deputies carried out the wishes of GMAC mortgage with calculated precision. They allowed the Williams family to collect a few personal items, then changed the locks on the home and padlocked the garage. A family locked away from their life so the GMAC can be the proud owners of another vacant home on a block with 7 other vacant homes.
This eviction is not like the others though. Rosemary Williams has been fighting this eviction from the very beginning and that struggle is continuing. Within one hour of the eviction supporters from the Minnesota Campaign for a People’s Bailout, Poor Peoples Economic Human Rights Campaign, neighbors and many others from the South Minneapolis Community gathered at Rosemary’s home. The house was reopened in the name of the Williams family. It is currently being occupied by more than 50 people. Many have vowed to remain in the home for as long as it takes for Rosemary to get her home back from the bank.
The following article is from Études Marxistes, n°84, October-December 2008 and is being reposted here from the website of the Workers Party of Belgium
by Jo Cottenier and Henri Houben
It’s likely that September 2008 will continue to ring in our minds in the same way that September 2001 does. After the attacks on the Twin Towers, America went to war. After the recent financial crisis on Wall Street, the warrior is knocked out. After September’s tidal wave, Americans are worrying and wondering: what does the future hold? Two million families have lost their homes. Savings, jobs and pension benefits are all in danger. Purchasing power was already under pressure, will it get even worse?
International Communist Seminar held in Brussels on youth and the crisis
Press Statement
From 15-17 May 2008, 49 communist and workers’ parties from 40 countries gathered in Brussels for the 18th International Communist Seminar, hosted by the Workers’ Party of Belgium. Its main theme was communist work among youth — for which 20 of the parties had sent a young delegate. The participants presented papers and held discussions on the current situation of youth, the work of communists among youth and the incorporation of new generations in communist parties. (more…)
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