'Bosses' Assaults, Workers' Resistance Are Worldwide'
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AUSTRALIA $1.50 · CANADA $1.00 · FRANCE 1.00 EURO · NEW ZEALAND $1.50 · UK £.50 · U.S. $1.00 INSIDE René González presses fight to return to Cuba — PAGES 6-7 A SOCIALIST NEWSWEEKLY PUBLISHED IN THE INTERESTS OF WORKING PEOPLE Vol. 76/no. 32 AUGUST 27, 2012 Profit drive, Caterpillar ‘Bosses’ assaults, workers’ China rivalry strikers say, resistance are worldwide’ spur Clinton’s ‘We have to Socialist presidential candidate speaks in NY, NJ Africa tour take a stand’ BY BRIAN WILLIAMS BY ALYSON KENNEDY U.S. Secretary of State Hillary JOLIET, Ill.—On Aug. 1, members Clinton conducted a nine-nation 11-day of Machinists Local 851 began the African tour in early August, aimed fourth month of their strike against at strengthening U.S. investment and Caterpillar here. After overwhelm- Washington’s military clout through- ingly rejecting a union-gutting con- out the continent and countering China, tract proposal, the workers, who build which overtook the U.S. as Africa’s hydraulic systems for Caterpillar ma- largest trading partner three years ago. chinery, walked off the job May 1. Clinton was accompanied by a siz- Caterpillar bosses are demanding able U.S. business delegation, includ- a six-year contract that would freeze ing representatives of major compa- wages, double the cost of health insur- nies like General Electric, Boeing and ance, eliminate pensions and give the Walmart, anxious to seal profitable company the ability to move workers deals. GE last year made $1.8 billion to any shift at their discretion without in revenue from the continent. regard to seniority. She visited Senegal, Uganda, South In recent weeks a number of arti- Sudan, Kenya, Malawi, South Africa, cles on the strike have appeared in the Nigeria, Ghana and Benin. big-business media as the propertied Militant/Arnold Weissberg “Africa offers the highest rate of rulers watch the unfolding labor battle James Harris, Socialist Workers Party candidate for U.S. president, talks with Dillon St. return on foreign direct investment of with keen interest. Claire and Junita Reed while campaigning in Harlem neighborhood in New York, Aug. 11. any developing region in the world,” “At Caterpillar, Pressing Labor Clinton pitched to a U.S. business fo- While Business Booms,” was the BY REBECCA WILLIAMSON and went well over their goal of 6,000, rum in Washington, D.C., in mid-June headline of a July 22 New York Times NEW YORK—James Harris, collecting 6,658 signatures. prior to her trip. article by Steven Greenhouse. Similar Socialist Workers Party candidate Joining Harris was Callie Miaoulis, In an Aug. 1 speech at the University articles appeared in the Washington for U.S. president, was the featured SWP candidate for the Nebraska Continued on page 9 Continued on page 5 speaker Aug. 11 at a meeting celebrat- Legislature in the 29th District; Róger ing the successful completion of the Calero, SWP candidate for Senate petitioning drive here to get SWP from New York; and César Sanchez, candidate Deborah Liatos on the bal- one of the party’s electors in New Tens of thousands of autoworkers lot in the 13th Congressional District. Jersey. For three weeks supporters of The celebration was part of a week- the campaign fanned out across end visit to the area that included strike Hyundai in South Korea Harlem and Washington Heights in a meeting in Garfield, N.J., where BY SEth GALINsky ing campaign, especially at plants that Manhattan and a portion of the Bronx Continued on page 3 Some 43,000 workers in South provide parts to the auto giant. Korea at Hyundai Motor Co. began Workers are demanding that tem- a series of two- to four-hour strikes porary workers be made permanent, Socialist Party gov’t in France Aug. 8 in face of an open union-bust- a wage increase and an end to grave- yard shifts, which workers say are a health hazard. scapegoats Roma, immigrants Workers at GM plants in BY LOUIS MarTIN migrant workers for the problems fac- South Korea are organiz- Barely three months after being ing the French economy. ing similar rolling work elected president of France, Socialist From Aug. 9 to 14, the French po- stoppages. Party leader François Hollande is lice expelled some 450 Roma from Hyundai, which also firmly engaged in a law and order encampments in a series of cities owns Kia Motors Corp., is campaign aimed at scapegoating im- across the country, including Paris. the fifth-largest automaker Some 240 were put on a charter flight in the world. Autoworkers in Lyons and sent back to Romania, in South Korea have a long Richmond, Calif., their country of origin. history of militant action, Roma are an oppressed national- including going on strike residents confront Continued on page 9 against Hyundai every year from 1987 to 2008. As a result they are among Chevron over fire the best paid workers in the Also Inside: country. at refinery “Emboldened by the ab- BY JOEL BRITTON West Virginia Steelworkers sence of strikes for the past RICHMOND, Calif.—Hundreds strike against concessions 2 three years, the company of angry workers attended a meeting is ignoring our demands,” at Richmond Memorial Auditorium UK: relatives battle cop the Korean Metal Workers organized by Chevron management killings of black men 2 Union said in a statement. Aug. 7, one day after a fire at the com- “Autoworkers usually pany’s large refinery covered this city Labor rally in Philadelphia work 10 hours a day six and nearby areas in the San Francisco protests attacks on workers 4 days a week and they are Bay Area with a huge plume of black Seong joon Cho/Bloomberg via Getty Images Arnaldo Barrón: ‘revolutionary Strike action at Hyundai in Ulsan, South Korea, July 13. on a different shift every smoke. Autoworkers are demanding higher wages, end to night week,” Hyewon Chong, “You are killing us!” resident combatant of old vanguard’ 7 shift work and permanent hiring of temporary workers. Continued on page 9 Continued on page 4 W. Virginia Steelworkers strike against concessions BY TOM NICHOLS younger and on strike for the first time. anD LINDA JOYCE In May 2011, Constellium bought R AV E NSWOOD, W.Va .— Nea rly the Alcan Rolled Products plant, which 700 workers went on strike here Aug. 5 was part of the Ravenswood complex. against Constellium Rolled Products, a The rest of the complex is now Century major manufacturer of aluminum used Aluminum, which closed down in 2009 in airplanes and automobiles. At the end and is seeking to reopen. Local 5778 of July members of United Steelworkers organizes both plants as well as other Local 5668 voted 604-20 to reject the workplaces in the area. company’s contract offer, largely be- Since the early 1990s workers have cause of its proposal to increase the cost given up wages to keep their health care of medical insurance. coverage, Miller said, and prided them- Jason Miller, local union president, selves in maintaining health benefits. told the Militant Aug. 12 that workers “This is our chance to let everyone Militant/Linda Joyce wanted the union bargaining commit- know that these corporations are trying United Steelworkers Local 5668 members picket in Ravenswood, W.Va., Aug. 12. Nearly 700 tee to hold the line on health care costs. to attack the working man,” continued workers went on strike at Constellium Rolled Products Aug. 5 over increased medical costs. Their slogan is “Keep your hands off Miller, who works at the Century plant. our health care!” “They keep inching at us to give up a Constellium has accused union mem- eotaping picket lines and insulting and Under the current plan workers are re- little and then a little more and soon we bers of placing jack rocks on the road, harassing picketers. sponsible for copays. There is no vision will be working for nothing. The most puncturing the tires of trucks entering State police arrested two union mem- care and dental coverage “is so mini- important thing is that we take a stand or leaving the mill. But Randy Moore, bers Aug. 9 accusing them of felony de- mal as to be nonexistent,” Miller said. against the big companies, showing a union negotiator, told the Charleston struction of property. Steelworkers note that the proposed in- them that the workers are the ones mak- Daily Mail Aug. 9 that it’s the company Constellium did not return calls from crease in insurance costs would “more ing the money for them.” guards that are causing problems, vid- the Militant requesting comments. than wipe out” the small wage increase the company offered. Workers are cur- rently paid on average $19 an hour. Miller added that the company also UK: relatives battle cop killings of black men wants to increase its use of outside con- BY TONY HUNT the forefront of these and other fights 40-year-old who suffered from schizo- tractors, which the union opposes. LONDON—Two recent events here against killings by police. phrenia, was the result of a four-year- From 1990 to 1992 workers at the highlight the routine brutality and cover- A specialist firearms cop killed long campaign by Rigg’s family to force Ravenswood Aluminum Corp. com- up methods of the police. Duggan as a police unit on gun crimes in some of the facts to light against a wall plex here were locked out for 20 months. On Aug. 6, a memorial service was the black community tried to arrest him. of obstruction and lies. Through their fight for a contract they held for Mark Duggan, a 29-year-old The Independent Police Complaints In August 2008, staff at a hostel where won solidarity from other workers in the shot and killed by police in August 2011, Commission, the government body Rigg lived called police when he was U.S.