USA/Canada

Harvard's academic helots organise

Following a near-five year effort to build a campaign, recruit organisers, seek national union affiliation, and build sufficient levels of initial support, the Harvard Academic Workers union ( HAW ) launched on 6 February 2023. HAW is affiliated to the UAW (United Autoworkers Union), which now has nearly a quarter of its 400,000 members in higher education, despite its historic roots in the automotive industry. UAW is currently going through major internal upheaval, forced by grassroots activists involved in the UAWD (Unite all Workers for Democracy) campaign who have just won significant...

Eleven rail cars of hazmat crash

On 3 February, a freight train derailed near the town of East Palestine, Ohio. The crash upended and set ablaze 50 of the train’s 150+ cars. Despite the Norfolk Southern freight train trailing a mass of over 18,000 tonnes and having a total length of 1.8 miles, miraculously no one was killed in the crash itself. Instead, the damage has been paid by locals’ health and the surrounding environment: eleven of those cars were loaded with hazardous, carcinogenic chemicals. Firefighters were unable to tackle the fire in the immediate aftermath given the outpouring of toxic gas. Days later, local...

Anti-LGBTQ culture war in USA, and a fightback

Before the commencement of the 2023 US state legislative session, state senators across the US submitted 299 separate anti-LGBTQ bills to their state houses. According to the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), across different states these share many common themes: banning “adult cabaret performances” in public spaces, restricting classroom discussion of sex and gender, and attacking the rights of transgender children, ranging from their rights to play sport, through to banning their access to necessary gender-affirming healthcare. If passed as law, some of these bills would see physicians...

New York nurses win

Seven thousand nurses in two major New York City hospitals struck in January for three days, and won significant improvements to their contracts. For many strikers the key issues related to unsafe workloads and low pay. The promised deal will provide nursing staff a 19% pay rise (spread over three years), and — in a bid to tackle chronic under-staffing of hospitals — the introduction of 170 new nursing jobs across the two sites and guaranteed patient staffing ratios. Their short, sharp action won the day, and is inspiring others. Earlier this month, 800 nurses nearby on Long Island voted 99%...

The racism of "The Birth of a Nation"

Eugene Debs (1855-1926) was the main public figure of the US Socialist Party in the era when it won over 900,000 votes in the presidential elections of 1912 and 1920. Later socialists, learning from the Bolsheviks and the Russian Revolution as well as rising black struggles, were critical of Debs's limitations, and of course the language he used was the language of his time; but Debs spoke out eloquently against racism. The Birth of a Nation (1915) has been called "the most influential film in history". The merits of the spectacular drama The Birth of a Nation excite bitter comment whenever it...

Protest against Bristol airport expansion

On 4 February 250 people protested in Bristol following a High Court ruling to allow Bristol Airport to expand, dismissing campaigners’ appeal. This ruling is a blow both to local democracy and to the climate. The local councils have repeatedly rejected the expansion, but have been overruled by central government. The government’s own advisors, the Climate Change Committee, have advised against net airport expansion. No- or low-emission flying is not viable on any scale in the near future — despite green-washing claims — so any serious attempt to curb climate change must seek to restrict, not...

US police killings up since 2020

On 7 January, 29 year old Tyre Nichols was driving home when he was stopped by five Memphis Police Department cops, by their account for “reckless driving”. Nichols was dragged out of his car, pinned to the floor, and after attempting to flee, assaulted by armed officers. Over half an hour later, Nichols was transported to a nearby hospital. Three days later, he died from the injuries he sustained. Nichols was 80 yards from his mum’s home and in the now-released police footage of the event can be heard calling out to her. He was unarmed. He had been out photographing the sunset. Family...

Women's Fightback: Women's marches across the USA

Thousands turned out for protests across the United States on 22 January, the 50th anniversary of the Roe v Wade supreme court decision that made abortion a constitutional right in 1973, but which was struck down last year. There were more than two hundred Women’s March events in 46 states. This is an issue that affects many women. Approximately one in four American women will have an abortion at some point in the course of their reproductive lives. Since the Supreme Court ruling on 24 June 2022, abortion has been banned or severely restricted in 14 states. This poses a serious health risk to...

Emmett Till: a lynching which fired the Civil Rights Movement

Twas down in Mississippi not so long ago When a young boy from Chicago stepped through a southern door This boy’s dreadful tragedy I can still remember well The colour of his skin was black and his name was Emmett Till - Death of Emmett Till , by Bob Dylan Till , a film now showing at local cinemas, tells the story of a lynching in the Southern USA which did not go almost unnoticed outside its area as many other such lynchings did. Instead it became a cause célèbre and gave a major impetus to the Civil Rights Movement. The USA presents itself as a great “melting pot” — a country where diverse...

Ahmed Shawki, 1960-2023

Ahmed Shawki, formerly the most prominent leader of the International Socialist Organization in the USA, died on 22 January at the age of 62 after some years of ill-health. With maybe 900 members, and over 1,000 at some high points, the ISO was in the early 2000s the most active revolutionary socialist group in the USA. Its political history could be traced back to the Workers' Party of Max Shachtman (from 1940) - with twists and shifts along the way, and as it turned out enough of those to destroy the legacy. The Workers' Party's continuation, the Independent Socialist League (ISL), stopped...

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