Verizon Strikers Stand up to Attacks on Their Unions
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AUSTRALIA $1.50 · CANADA $1.50 · FRANCE 1.00 EURO · NEW ZEALAND $1.50 · UK £.50 · U.S. $1.00 INSIDE Capitalism turns Ecuador quake into a social disaster — PAGE 8 A SOCIALIST NEWSWEEKLY PUBLISHED IN THE INTERESTS OF WORKING PEOPLE VOL. 80/NO. 18 MAY 9, 2016 Washington, Verizon strikers stand up ‘Workers, Moscow seek to attacks on their unions unions need to impose new Workers rally, answer bosses’ propaganda to control Mideast ‘order’ job safety’ BY MAGGIE TROWE BY JOHN STUDER Washington and Moscow are scram- “My job at Verizon has gotten more bling to hold together an agreement dangerous. I’ve been electrocuted to impose some stability and order in twice on the job, once while they Syria and the broader Mideast region. made me work by myself,” John Hop- But the competing interests of differ- ent ruling classes and factions, includ- Socialist Workers Party ing between the U.S. and Russian gov- ernments themselves, keep getting in candidates speak out the way. Millions of workers and farm- ers in the region pay a terrible price for per, a 25-year outside field technician the ongoing bloodshed. from Rockland County, New York, Talks on ending the five-year war told Socialist Workers Party presi- in Syria hit a stumbling block when dential candidate Alyson Kennedy forces opposing the regime of Presi- and campaign supporter Tony Lane as dent Bashar al-Assad declared a pause they joined a strike rally in Trenton, in their participation April 18. They New Jersey, April 25. “You put your accused the Syrian government of life on the line but the company is un- refusing to end hostilities or to allow CWA District 2-13 grateful.” Strikers and supporters picket Philadelphia Verizon store April 22. Verizon wants to contract humanitarian aid to reach 15 besieged out more work, raise health costs and assign workers to be out of town for extended periods. “The working class has to take towns. U.N. envoy Steffan de Mistura control over safety conditions on the has asked Moscow, Washington and BY JANET POST of Electrical Workers in nine states job,” Kennedy said. “I worked as a regional powers to help get the nego- TRENTON, N.J. — Two weeks and the District of Columbia struck coal miner, and our union waged big tiations going again. into their strike, Verizon workers April 13. Their contract expired Aug. battles in the 1960s and ’70s over More civilians were killed in Alep- across the Northeast have been hold- 1. The company wants to raise health safety. We were able to win the right po April 22 when Syrian and Russian ing rallies, pickets and following to refuse to work when things were warplanes bombed the opposition- strikebreakers around as they press VERIZON STRIKE IS FIGHT unsafe. The union safety committees held city to back up ground attacks by their fight against the telecommunica- controlled the situation in the mine. government troops and their Iranian tion giant’s concession demands. FOR ALL WORKERS! That’s eroded, and most mining is allies. Nearly 40,000 members of the — SWP campaign statement, p. 7 nonunion today.” Since the reduction of hostilities Communications Workers of Ameri- “Since the early 1970s, the boss- Continued on page 7 ca and the International Brotherhood care costs, outsource jobs and force es’ rate of profit has been declining. some unionists to work out of town They’ve stopped putting money into for up to two months at a time. production and new machinery be- The strikers work for Verizon’s cause they don’t get a big enough re- Join with SWP to back strikers, landline, Internet and television ser- turn,” Kennedy said. “Instead, they get on ballot, build conference! Continued on page 5 Continued on page 6 Chernobyl disaster points to need for workers power, not ‘No nukes’ BY JOHN STUDER of the carelessly flawed design of the Thirty years ago, on April 26, 1986, plant, the government’s decision not the worst nuclear disaster in history to construct any containment vessel took place in Soviet Ukraine when around it, and a series of disastrous the Chernobyl nuclear power plant decisions and delays by government exploded. The blast set off an uncon- bureaucrats attempting to hide the ex- trolled meltdown in the reactor core istence and severity of the meltdown. and a fire that burned for 10 days, Chernobyl released roughly 400 showering Ukraine, Belarus, Russia Continued on page 9 and parts of Europe with highly ra- dioactive material. Some opponents of nuclear power are using the anniversary to argue that Inside Chernobyl proves this energy source Protests of 1994 Clinton law should never be used. The facts, how- spur debate on crime, prisons 2 Militant/Jacquie Henderson ever, point to the need for workers to David Rosenfeld, Socialist Workers Party candidate for U.S. Congress in Minnesota, at St. Paul take political power and control over Workers discuss how to take on rally for $15 an hour and a union April 14. SWP candidates call for solidarity with union battles. safety. The cause of the disaster lies steel job cuts in UK and world 3 BY MAGGIE TROWE making progress in several states put- squarely on the extraordinary neglect Across the country — from Fort ting the party’s presidential ticket of of the Stalinist regime then in power ‘Teamster Politics’: Lessons of Morgan, Colorado; to Opelousas, Alyson Kennedy and Osborne Hart in Moscow and its contempt for work- 1930s battles for fighters today 4 Louisiana; to Rutherford, New Jersey on the ballot. ing people — a contempt also shown — communist workers are explaining SWP members and supporters have by the capitalists and their govern- NY action demands the Socialist Workers Party program, been walking East Coast picket lines ments around the world. freedom for Oscar López 9 engaging in political discussion and Continued on page 3 The social calamity was a result Protests of 1994 Clinton law State and Federal Prison Population, 1925-2014 spur debate on crime, prisons BY SETH GALINSKY cartels,” Hillary Clinton said in a 1996 A sharp debate broke out when Bill speech defending the 1994 law. “These Clinton was heckled April 7 by protest- are not just gangs of kids anymore. ers in Philadelphia, who shouted slogans They are often the kind of kids that are against an anti-crime bill and other anti- called ‘superpredators.’ No conscience, working-class laws signed by the former no empathy” and “we have to bring president and backed by presidential them to heel.” She now says that her candidate Hillary Clinton. choice of words was unfortunate. Ac- The hecklers, who have been part tually, her words express the contempt of Black Lives Matter protests against the wealthy ruling class has toward all working people. COMMENTARY Gangs emulate capitalists The gangs are often connected to police brutality, carried signs that said, the drug trade, but she misses the key the largest absolute numbers and per- tary confinement, the death penalty. “Clinton crime bill destroyed our com- point: the gangs emulate the capitalist centage of prisoners in the world. Through fighting against these mea- munities,” “Black youth are not super- class. The goal of the gang leaders is to The U.S. prison population tripled sures and joining other social struggles, predators” and “Welfare reform in- get rich. And they don’t care how many from 300,000 to 1 million from 1974 to working people will learn that “the pur- creased poverty.” people they step on to get there. They’re 1994 — before the law was passed. The pose of the cops is to keep workers in They were referring to the 1994 Vio- just like the propertied rulers, but with prison population peaked in 2007 and line, to make an example of you if you lent Crime Control and Law Enforce- higher risks. has declined slightly since then. come from the wrong class — and more ment Act, which increased penalties In Philadelphia Bill Clinton heatedly The jump was caused by increased so if you also happen to be the wrong for nonviolent drug offenses, included defended the law with arguments that arrests, more discretion for prosecutors color or the wrong nationality,” Jack “three strikes and you’re out” manda- still get resonance among working peo- in what charges they could bring, and Barnes, national secretary of the Social- tory sentencing for many federal crimes ple — regardless of nationality — be- mandatory state sentencing laws adopt- ist Workers Party, says in the book Cap- and funded 100,000 more street cops. cause they deal with the fallout of gang ed as capitalist politicians jumped on the italism’s World Disorder. That is true The law was backed by Republicans violence and other anti-social behavior bandwagon of the “fight against crime.” for the entire “justice system,” from the and Democrats alike, including two- in their daily lives. It’s no secret how it works. The prosecu- courts to the prisons, under the dictator- thirds of the Congressional Black Cau- “I don’t know how you would charac- tor says, “Agree to a plea bargain, or ship of the capitalist class — it can’t be cus, many Black churches and then Rep. terize the gang leaders who got 13-year- I’ll throw the book at you and you’ll do reformed. It must be replaced. Bernie Sanders, now Hillary Clinton’s old kids hopped up on crack and sent triple the time.” When working people in the millions main opponent in the race for the Dem- them out on the street to murder other In the early 1960s about one-third engage in struggle in the street and on ocratic Party nomination.