Kiswani noted that more than 10,000 Palestinian women and children are illegally detained in […] prisons right now and that just a few days ago, occupation forces launched a ground invasion against a refugee camp in the West Bank, killing and injuring hundreds of people. “This has been our reality for over 76 years,” Kiswani said. “It is our responsibility to put an end to the genocidal state.”

People flooded the New York streets with a march of more than 50 blocks that ended in Washington Square Park. Following the protest, WOL and Healthcare Workers for Palestine held a fundraiser for Palestine to help raise funds for Doctors Against Genocide.

Eventbrite took down a notice about the fundraiser. Meta, the owner of Facebook and Instagram, shut down the Instagram account of WOL in early February. In early July, Meta also shut down the Instagram account of the Samidoun Palestinian Political Prisoner Network, and in the last week shut down the accounts for Columbia Students for Justice in Palestine, and NYU’s People’s Solidarity Coalition.

Despite Meta’s attempts to destroy the ability of these groups to organize support for Palestine and to expose the U.S. rôle in the genocide, they continue to find alternative means to build this solidarity movement with Palestine that brings thousands into the streets since Oct. 7.

There are some reactionaries in the St. Louis area — and throughout the U.S. — who do not want people to learn about historical Black freedom struggles, such as the Jefferson Bank protest. As one example, a predominantly white school district located in a suburb of St. Louis attempted to ban Black studies as recently as December 2023. That month, the Francis Howell School Board voted 5-2 to stop offering Black History courses.

The bigoted board members do not want students to learn that African Americans in St. Louis had to fight to secure employment. Fortunately, the Francis Howell School Board was forced to reverse their backward decision.

Far right forces want to erase history by ignoring important struggles of the past. Workers and oppressed people can effectively counter anti-education reactionaries by observing and memorializing the legacy of historical battles for Black Liberation and working-class emancipation like what happened in St. Louis more than 60 years ago.

Since the unionization campaign began in Buffalo, New York, in August 2021, the number of union stores has grown from zero to nearly 500. Earlier this year Starbucks agreed to negotiate with SBWU, but the workers still don’t have a contract. The Red for Bread actions were held to let workers know they have community support.

Shown above, a Red for Bread action outside a unionized Starbucks store in Cleveland Heights, Ohio, was organized by the local chapter of Steelworkers Organization of Active Retirees. Retired members of the United Auto Workers and Service Employees Union also took part. Customers were almost all supportive of the workers inside, who in turn voiced appreciation for the solidarity action.

After the court’s ruling Aug. 23, FIEL’s Executive Director Cesar Espinosa texted this reporter a copy of the ruling and wrote, “We won! Paxton lost!” He issued a statement, saying: “We look forward to continuing our work with the community. We hope today’s ruling will let us go back to what’s really important, which is serving our membership. Justice has prevailed. La lucha sigue!” (Texas Tribune, Aug. 13)

The Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund and an Austin-based attorney challenged the lawsuit.

MALDEF Southwest Regional Counsel Fátima Menéndez stated on Aug. 16: “Texas’s Attorney General does not have the authority to bring this lawsuit. This most recent attack by the Texas Attorney General demonstrates his reckless leadership, retaliatory nature and unwavering desire to target nonprofit organizations that he disagrees with. MALDEF is honored to defend FIEL in this litigation, an organization [which] serves immigrants and families in need in Houston.” (houstonpublicmedia.org)

After the favorable Friday ruling, Menéndez said, “We hope this is permanently the end of this case.” (Anna Núñez on X [formerly known as Twitter])

Paxton has spent untold amounts of tax dollars suing a number of Texas organizations along the Texas/Mexico border that provide services for immigrants, including several run by the Catholic Church. None of the lawsuits have succeeded.

In July, after Houston was hit by Hurricane Beryl, Espinosa and other leaders of FIEL discovered their office was severely damaged. The roof had caved in, two floors were flooded and expensive equipment was damaged. Then, as they were sitting in the damaged office trying to make plans, Espinosa was served papers announcing the lawsuit.

In between finding a new office and working with lawyers to counter the suit, FIEL launched a GoFundMe appeal and raised almost $15,000 from supporters, many of whom were immigrants who had been helped by the group in previous years. Contributions ranged from $5 to hundreds of dollars.

Now, situated in a new office space, the victory against Paxton is cause for a celebration of the resistance that has kept FIEL in the forefront of all struggles for immigrant rights in the Houston area.

While 10,000 Palestinian political prisoners remain in [neocolonial] jails under conditions of torture and deprivation, their condition is almost completely ignored by the [neoimperialist] crusaders.

A representative from the “Sea-Tac 46,” activists who shut down the Seattle-Tacoma airport in April and were arrested protesting […] genocide, spoke. She said the 46 had to organize all summer long against the charges they faced — and finally got all charges dropped on Aug. 13.

Protesters marched to the county jail and rallied at City Hall. While marching, people chanted, “In the millions and the billions, we are all Palestinians!”

See also: Normalization of genocide in Gaza and where to look for change

The genocide in Palestine, the primary issue for demonstrators outside the DNC, was also an issue inside the convention. Several dozen delegates represented the 800,000 voters in a number of states who cast an “uncommitted” or “undecided” ballot in Democratic Party primary elections. This was a means to express opposition to President Joe Biden’s support for […] genocide against Gaza.

When a few delegates unfurled a banner reading “Stop arming Israel,” they were physically assaulted and subject to chants of “USA, USA!”

The uncommitted delegates were joined by many pro-Harris delegates in demanding a Palestinian representative be allowed to speak at the convention. When this very modest request was denied, delegates held a sit-in outside the DNC. There was mass disgust at the Democratic Party machine. A group called Muslim Women for Harris/Walz disbanded in protest.

[…]

Workers World contributing editor Sara Flounders stated: “WWP took part in the demonstrations against the DNC in Chicago as we have always opposed both imperialist parties since our founding. This year both the DNC’s and RNC’s total support for Zionism and genocide in Gaza exposes their criminal rôle on a global scale. We salute the cohesion and determination of the Coalition in the mobilization of thousands of people for Palestine.”

The large actions showed that the Palestine solidarity movement understands the need to confront the Democratic Party regardless of who it puts forward as the presidential candidate.

See also: No vote for genocide

Climate change is a long-term shift in the average weather patterns that have come to define Earth’s local, regional and global climates. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change states that the “scientific evidence for warming of the climate system is unequivocal.” According to NOAA, the Earth’s temperature has risen by an average of 2 degrees Fahrenheit since record-keeping began in 1850.

Furthermore, the rate of warming since 1982 has tripled, and the majority of this warming has occurred since then. This warming is caused by human activity, referring to the extreme amount of greenhouse gasses emitted under the industrial capitalist mode of production. The United States is the largest per capita contributor to greenhouse gas emissions, and studies indicate that climate denialism, as a cultural and political phenomenon, is most pervasive in the United States.

These weather events are made more frequent and severe because of the rapid heating of the oceans, atmosphere and land. What were once in a lifetime weather events are becoming annual or semi-annual events.

The United States’ aging infrastructure has exacerbated the effects of this extreme weather. Recent tornado storms in Ohio, which were caused by the mixture of humid air from hurricane alley and cool temperatures from a low-pressure ridge in the Midwest, have caused severe power outages in Cleveland.

As of Aug. 18, nearly 300,000 people had been without power since Aug, 12. Meanwhile, Texas has been dealing with a power outage affecting 2.7 million people since Hurricane Beryl made landfall on July 8. That category 1 hurricane has devastated large parts of Texas because of the state’s particularly faulty power grid infrastructure.

In order for capitalism to develop and sustain its need to maintain and increase profits, it must exploit the environment at a steadily increasing pace. Capitalism requires infinite growth in a world with finite resources. It plunders workers and ecological systems throughout the world.

Class systems perpetuated by capitalism also make poor and oppressed peoples more at risk of climate-related health issues. Poor people are often the first to suffer and the last to be evacuated during disasters; they receive the least effective medical care. Often, they lose their land or assets permanently without proper compensation. All capitalist politicians do is make empty promises and spread climate denialism.

To end this existential threat workers must unite and implement the integration of science into economic planning under socialism.

See also: Consciousness raising: personal and social — The struggle for change

During the Aug. 15 streamed news conference, three active duty U.S. military members, a veteran of the [IOF] and a current [Jewish] Conscientious Objector explained why they decided to stop participating in war. While each of the speakers had their own story, all urged U.S. military members to use the “Appeal for Redress V2” to protest their rôle as accomplices to the war crimes in Gaza.

The veteran, who lost a sister in a suicide bombing, and a Palestinian, who was a participant in the 1987 Intifada and has lost 80 family members in Gaza, together are in Combatants for Peace, an anti-war organization encouraging Conscientious Objection within the [IOF].

Among the [Jewish] resisters was Sofia Or, who was released from prison in June after serving 85 days as a C.O. Or said that during that time she learned the power of saying “No” to occupation. “Support for Israel can never lead to anything good,” she added.

U.S. resister Larry Herbert stood in front of the U.S. Capitol refusing to eat “while the children in Gaza starve.” Herbert said that Aaron Bushnell’s action is what made him decide to take this public position. Later he met military veterans from the wars in Vietnam and Iraq. He believes he is following in their footsteps.

Joy Metzler, a second lieutenant who went to the military academy believing that the U.S. represented freedom and liberty, is now a C.O. She called on “all active duty service people to break with the military and sign the Appeal for Redress.”

Lisa Davis, a local organizer with the Hands Off Uhuru! Hands Off Africa! Campaign, said, “We are here to demand that the colonial corporate media stand up with courage as journalists, the supposed embodiment of free speech and a free press, and speak out against the outrageous attempt by the Department of Justice to lock up the Uhuru 3 simply because they express opinions that the government doesn’t want you to hear.

“This is a precedent-setting case that will put an end to constitutional protections of everyone’s free speech rights, because it is the first time that a ‘foreign agent’ law is being used to prosecute alleged ‘crimes’ consisting exclusively of giving speeches, attending conferences, printing articles and running for elected office,” Davis said.

A trial of the Uhuru 3 is to begin on Sept. 3 in federal court in Tampa, Florida. They face up to 15 years in federal prison. The Hands Off Uhuru! Hands Off Africa! Campaign is calling on activists to join a march and rally for the Uhuru 3 on Aug. 31 in St. Petersburg, Florida, and to pack the court on Sept. 3.

Workers World Party spokesperson Sara Flounders said: “We don’t leave anyone behind when all the powers of the state come down. That’s the time you have to step forward and demand the charges be dropped. We’ve got to defend this whole political movement and say that these charges are an outrage. The charges are the crime!”

The news conference included representatives from the December 12th Movement, the Nationalist Party of Puerto Rico/NY Committee, the Black Is Back Coalition for Social Justice, Peace and Reparations, the International People’s Democratic Uhuru Movement and the Palestinian Assembly for Liberation.

The participants closed the event standing together in front of the New York Times entrance chanting, “Never give up! We’ve got your back!”

America, America, land of the free. The society filled with justice and equality. This is a clear example of hypocrisy, unless they forgot to include me and millions of others kept in captivity. Confined behind tall walls and razor wires, with the nation of prisoners constantly rising higher. Most of us will never be released — except in a body bag, once deceased.

Most inmates have done their wrong, but guidelines designed to hold prisoners are much too long. America’s prison in America has become the number one prison industry. Where men and women are stocked as a commodity, and actually forced to work for a paltry sum under servitude for free. Refusal and being without pay and thrown into the hole, along with a definite denial of parole.

Since the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation, minorities have been swallowed by incarceration. It’s easy to see the similarities between prison life and slavery. Inside these walls, phone rates and commissary prices are still high, because financial support comes from Securus, Global Tel Link, Aramark food service and Smart Communications, too. As far as these corporate raiders, that’s just a few. Inmates are forced to make prisoners’ clothes, bed linens, bras, panties, boxers, T-shirts, socks, boots, hats, and coats, too.

It’s a shame many tax-paying citizens don’t know. We are in an era of the new Jim Crow. There’s no justice or equality. America was built from slavery. Don’t take my word for it; study your history. Three, two, one. Racist lawmakers and politicians make decisions causing Blacks, [indigenes], de facto whites, and poor whites to fill the prisons. Outsiders believe we are being rehabilitated. But being caged only generates hatred.

The majority of defendants are victimized and doomed way before entering the courtroom. The vocabulary and legal terminology used leave most inmates confused. And often the attorney who’s allegedly protecting your constitutional rights, is secretly drinking martinis with the DAs and judges. Quick to offer some type of plea deal or make you wait many years for an appeal.

Court officials share a bond of which we’re not part, stacking the odds against you from the very start, just like slave masters by selling slaves, working them till they’re dead in their graves. So at times it seriously baffles me why America is called the Land of the Free, especially when the United States of America is warehousing the largest nation of prisoners in the country.

According to Rideshare Drivers United: “Today, the Supreme Court of California decided that Prop 22 was not in violation of our state constitution, allowing Big Tech to continue exploiting drivers under a law they wrote and paid for, that replaced decades of common sense labor law in exchange for complete disregard of basic standards like hourly minimum wage standards and basic benefits like unemployment, family leave, workplace safety standards and the like.

“It allowed billion-dollar companies to rewrite labor law for their own workers, making it legal for them to pay app drivers and delivery workers less than federal minimum wage after expenses.” (drivers-united.org, July 25)

Rideshare Drivers United is a grassroots organization founded in 2018 by Los Angeles drivers. Since then, its membership has increased to 20,000 with chapters in Los Angeles, San Francisco and around the Bay Area. RDU has successfully organized two strikes that drew international solidarity.

Big Tech spent over $220 million to get Prop 22 passed in the November 2020 election, sending a message that California labor law is for sale.

Despite setbacks, the gig workers are determined to overcome obstacles by organizing and building solidarity. Unions can provide important assistance. In a 2021 article, “Unionizing the Gig Economy: A Path Forward For Gig Workers,” Ken Green explains: “The guidance of the Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW) was key for getting drivers for food delivery company Foodora in Toronto to organize.

[…]

Disneyland workers won a 31% raise just by threatening to strike, which was meant to shut down the park. Disney Corporation weighed the consequences the closing of the park would have on their bottom line and opted to give in to workers’ demands. Most workers will get a $6.10 per hour wage bump, raising minimum pay at Disneyland to $24 an hour. The four unions that represent 14,000 Disneyland workers waged a contract campaign as Disney Workers Rising.

The Amtrak Service Workers Council won a significant wage increase for on-board Amtrak workers in the latest contract negotiations. The average worker will make $80,000 over the length of the contract. The unions also won 10 weeks paid parental leave.

[…]

The National Labor Relations Board upheld a litany of Unfair Labor Practice charges against Red Rock Casinos in Nevada and parent company Station Casinos. Some of the illegal practices of casino management included posting anti-union messages and instituting benefits that would only apply to workers not engaged in union activity. The NLRB ordered Station Casinos to immediately begin contract bargaining with the Culinary Union representing casino workers.

Culinary Union Secretary-Treasurer Ted Pappageorge said: “This decision affirms what we have been saying for years — that Station Casinos violated the law, and the company must bargain with the union because of its unlawful actions that corrupted the prospect for a free and fair union election. Station Casinos needs to stop breaking the law and treat its workers with respect.” (hrdive.com, June 25)