Unidad de clase 12 Salario mínimo 12 Workers and oppressed peoples of the world unite! workers.org Vol. 63, No. 10 March 11, 2021 $1 COVID, health crisis Release Mumia now! By Betsey Piette Initially SCI Mahanoy officials said Abu-Jamal’s Philadelphia COVID-19 tests were negative. His supporters, however, aware of the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections’ Word has come that Pennsylvania political prisoner historic neglect of serious health conditions for Mumia Mumia Abu-Jamal has tested positive for COVID-19. and other incarcerated people, posted an alert calling on Supporters learned of the diagnosis March 3, as they prison officials to seek additional health treatment. It were gathered in front of the office of Philadelphia appears that this international pressure campaign made District Attorney Larry Krasner to call for Abu-Jamal’s a difference. release and that of all incarcerated people over 50, who Fernandez reported that 66-year-old Abu-Jamal has are vulnerable to premature death from COVID-19 and severe liver damage, because in the past the PA DOC had other illnesses. delayed treatment for his hepatitis C. “Prisons in the U.S. Johanna Fernandez, with the Campaign to Bring are a death trap. U.S. prisons have resisted decarceration Mumia Home, received word from Abu-Jamal’s medi- under COVID-19, yet countries around the world, includ- Johanna Fernandez speaks outside the WW PHOTO: JOE PIETTE cal attorney Robert Boyle confirming a diagnosis all had ing Iran and Italy, have had mass release of prisoners. Philadelphia DA’s office, March 3. feared. Abu-Jamal, who had been hospitalized to remove “There were over 500,000 unnecessary deaths in the excessive fluid from his lungs, was also diagnosed with U.S. because of COVID-19. Who are we as a society— congestive heart disease. described as ‘having a little elephant on my chest.’ willing to allow elderly people, disproportionately Black Fernandez described speaking with Abu-Jamal on Mumia rarely complains about his health. We immedi- and Latinx, to die prematurely and unnecessarily because Feb. 26, noticing his speech was altered. “He reported ately mobilized to put pressure on the prison system to of the vindictiveness of the criminal justice system? having labored breathing and feeling a weight he test him for COVID-19.” Continued on page 6 Workers are not robots Racism, high-tech speedup and the Amazon union drive By Minnie Bruce Pratt labor struggle. They are part of the proud history of the Bessemer-Birmingham A historic organizing drive is under- area’s Black community, from the inde- way in Bessemer, Ala., at the Amazon pendent, interracial unionism of the BHM1 warehouse. Almost 6,000 majori- International Union of Mine, Mill and ty-Black workers—almost half women— Smelter Workers in the 1930s and 40s to are deciding whether to unionize with the the 1963 Children’s March against racist Retail, Wholesale and Department Store segregation. Union (RWDSU). Voting is continuing Amazon’s system is entrenched in rac- until March 29. ism, as revealed Feb. 26 by Vox/Recode. If the workers succeed, they will form Review of internal data and interviews the first-ever union inside Amazon in the with workers and diversity managers U.S.— a huge victory against the interna- showed that Black Amazon employees tional capitalist behemoth. are underrepresented in decision teams, According to BAmazonUnion.org, promoted less frequently and assessed workers are fighting for “dignity and more harshly than non-Black peers. respect” along with safer working condi- (tinyurl.com/kjuvs9k6) tions. Theirs is both a civil rights and a Continued on page 7 Breonna Taylor 3 Khalida Jarrar 3 On the picket line 2 Warehouse memoir 7 Where has all the soil gone? 3 Editorial Book ban challenged 6 The true Amazons 10 Support for #BAmazon grows 7 Vaccine racism 8 Bay Area: Prison profits out! Buffalo antiwar action 9 Jailhouse Lawyers Speak They’re capitalists, not Neanderthals 10 Free Palestinian students! COVID lockdown in prison 4-5 Editorial The REAL culprit 10 Palestine pandemic crisis 9 Haiti struggle continues 11 Page 2 March 11, 2021 workers.org Other workers were brought back and forced to work at different jobs for less pay. The company also removed when we safety barriers that had protected disabled workers from fight areas where heavy machinery is used. Dave Perry, a visu- On the we win! ally impaired member of Teamster Local 100 and factory this week worker, referenced Teamster organizers of the 1930s who preferred a short, page-long union contract. He said, “the ◆ In the U.S. bosses clearly seem to have more difficulty sticking to picket line Release Mumia Now! ........................1 By Marie Kelly even that length of a contract without us making them do it.” (The Militant, March 8) Workers are not robots .......................1 On the picket line............................2 Bosses retaliate against Remembering Breonna Taylor .................3 Teachers union ties Hunts Point workers Depletion of fertile soil . .3 to Women’s History Rally demands: Prison profiteers out!...........4 Business retaliation against union organizing is noth- Jailhouse Lawyers Speak: ‘Shut ’em down!’ ......4 ing new. Weak laws and minimal fines embolden corpo- Prior to the industrial revolution, teaching was a job Mental health and COVID lockdown in prisons...5 rations like Amazon to hire strikebreaking law firms to for men. There was no public education system, and Free Palestinian students .....................5 intimidate workers into voting down attempts to unionize teaching was nothing like the profession it is today. their workplace. Workers who strike or successfully orga- Industrialization provided more work opportunities, and Mass pressure stops Amazon Censorship ........6 nize face the threat of losing their jobs. men moved on to better and higher paying jobs and away Remembrances of a warehouse order picker .....7 Teamsters Local 202 reports that at least 26 union from teaching. Young women were tapped to become Philadelphia: Protests outside Whole Foods .....7 members from Hunts Point Produce Market in New York teachers to fill the gap, because of the expanding popula- Vaccines: China vs. Western imperialism....... 8 City have been laid off since work resumed following tion in the late 19th century and the development of the the strike for a $1 an hour pay increase. These essential public school system. Texas governor, Neanderthals and COVID-19 ...10 workers continued to work 12-hour shifts throughout the Patriarchy still defined the field. Women were paid less Haitians community denounces coup regime ...11 pandemic. Hunts Point Market is a vital link in the food than their male counterparts and were forced to leave distribution system for this country. their positions when they married. Men were the admin- ◆ Around the world Proving that the layoffs are retaliatory is difficult and istrators of the public school system. Women responded Free Khalida Jarrar! . .3 labor laws don’t go far enough to protect workers’ orga- to this exploitation by demanding better conditions and Israel’s denial of vaccines to Palestinians ....... 8 nizing efforts. (tinyurl.com/87776sh8) equal pay. The Chicago Teachers Federation was formed in 1897 by teachers Catherine Coggin and Margaret Haley. Haiti protests: ‘Moïse, U.S., U.N. out ..........11 It grew into what is today the American Federation of Editorial Workers with disabilities Teachers, one of the most powerful unions in the coun- ◆ try. By the 1940s, the AFT was collectively bargaining with The true Amazons of the working class.........10 fight in Cincinnati school boards. Migrant deaths: Who’s the REAL culprit? ......10 Today, AFT and other teacher union locals in major Visually impaired and blind workers, who are two- cities across the country are fighting for the safety of ◆ Noticias en Español thirds of the workforce at a factory run by the Cincinnati their members. They are defying mayors and board of Aumentar el salario mínimo a $15, ¡al menos!...12 Association of the Blind and Visually Impaired, have peti- education officials by refusing to return to in-person Todo el mundo está mirando .................12 tioned management to address unfair labor and safety classrooms until it is safe for both teachers and their stu- concerns. After the factory reopened following a pandem- dents. They continue the legacy of the women who defied ic-related shutdown, management failed to follow senior- the patriarchal norms of the 19th and 20th centuries. ity rehiring rules. The complaint states several blind (tinyurl.com/rnh957nw) ☐ workers have been unfairly targeted and not reinstated. Workers World 147 W. 24th St., 2nd Fl. Join us in the fight New York, NY 10011 Phone: 212.627.2994 for socialism! E-mail: [email protected] Web: www.workers.org Workers World Party is a revolutionary Marxist-Leninist and trans people are gunned down by cops and bigots on Vol. 63, No. 10 • March 11, 2021 party inside the belly of the imperialist beast. We are a mul- a regular basis. Closing date: March 10, 2021 tinational, multigenerational and multigendered organiza- The ruthless ruling class today seeks to wipe out tion that not only aims to abolish capitalism, but to build a decades of gains and benefits won by hard-fought strug- Editors: John Catalinotto, Martha Grevatt, Deirdre socialist society because it’s the only way forward! gles by people’s movements. The super-rich and their Griswold, Monica Moorehead, Betsey Piette, Minnie Capitalism and imperialism threaten the peoples of the political representatives have intensified their attacks on Bruce Pratt world and the planet itself in the neverending quest for the multinational, multigender and multigenerational Web Editors: ABear, Harvey Markowitz, Janet Mayes ever-greater profits. working class. It is time to point the blame at— and chal- Prisoners Page Editors: Mirinda Crissman, Ted Kelly Capitalism means war and austerity, racism and repres- lenge— the capitalist system.