Bay Area United Against War Newsletter, October 23, 2023

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Join the national march in solidarity with Palestine!

 

Now is the time to stand with the besieged people of Palestine! Gaza is being bombed by the hour. Its people are denied food, water, and electricity by Israel. Tens of thousands more people are likely to die. We must ACT! People are in the streets every day in their local cities and towns. Now we must UNITE! Join the tens-of-thousands people, from every corner of the United States, who are converging for a truly massive National March on Washington D.C. on Saturday, November 4.

 

Today, the Israeli military deliberately bombed a hospital where thousands of people had taken refuge. The death toll is staggering, and the Biden administration has announced that it is preparing 2,000 troops to support Israel after having already deployed an aircraft carrier battle group and war planes.

 

Israel, with the full backing of the U.S. government, is carrying out an unprecedented massacre in Gaza. Thousands of Palestinians are being killed with bombs, bullets and missiles paid for by U.S. tax dollars. This is the latest bloody chapter in the colonial project of Israel, founded with the objective of dispossessing Palestinians from their land.

 

Join us in Washington, D.C. on Saturday, November 4 at 1pm to demand: End the Siege of Gaza! End all U.S. aid to Israel! Free Palestine!

 

Initial co-sponsoring organizations:

 

Palestinian Youth Movement

ANSWER Coalition

American Muslim Association

The People’s Forum

National Students for Justice in Palestine

Al-Awda: The Palestine Right to Return Coalition

Party for Socialism and Liberation

U.S. Palestinian Community Network (USPCN)

U.S. Campaign for Palestinian Rights (USCPR)

Maryland2Palestine

 

Endorse the march here:

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdIoioEdHTwb1d8Qx9ZbH2a-gsh3aDa3hWSiSMPsAR0scgIfw/viewform?pli=1

 

Buses and transportation centers are being organized in cities and towns across the country. Check back here for updated information about transportation options.

 

Please make an urgently needed donation to support solidarity work with Palestine in this pivotal moment:

https://www.answercoalition.org/donate?utm_campaign=palestine_11_4_national_demo_a&utm_medium=email&utm_source=answercoalition

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Join us for an exciting Cuba solidarity event coming up on Sunday, November 12th, 4 pm at La Peña Cultural Center in Berkeley. Liz Oliva Fernández, a Cuban journalist and filmmaker with the Belly of the Beast media organization, is coming to the Bay Area as part of a national tour. She will be showing two new short documentary films exposing what's behind Biden's Cuba policy. This is an important chance for the Bay Area community to learn about current U.S. policy and show support for Cuba. 

Cuba has been outspoken about its solidarity with Palestine/Gaza during the current crisis.

Liz Oliva Fernández

Liz Oliva Fernández is a 29-year old journalist and on-camera television presenter from Havana, Cuba.  She is the award-winning presenter of the acclaimed documentary series The War on Cuba,  produced by Belly of the Beast and executive-produced by Oliver Stone and Danny Glover.  In addition to her journalism and filmmaking, Fernández is a dedicated anti-racist and feminist activist who co-founded Chicas Poderosas Cuba (Powerful Cuban Girls), an initiative that promotes change by inspiring female leadership and gender equality in Cuban society. 

Liz writes: “As a Cuban Black woman, I feel that the reality in which I grew up and still live is reflected in the stories we have told at Belly of the Beast. We challenge clichés – positive and negative – about Cuba and its people. And we are taking on issues that have been ignored or misrepresented by major media outlets both in Cuba and outside.”

Sponsored by Bay Area Cuba Solidarity Network

Venceremos Brigade, Bay Area and 

Richmond, CA - Regla, Cuba Friendship Committee

More info: bayareacubasolidarity@gmail.com

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Jewish Doctor Speaks Out on Israel and Palestine

Dr. Gabor Maté, Hungarian-Canadian physician and author describes his own life experience and expresses his view on the situation in Israel and Palestine.

“I’m personally a Holocaust survivor as an infant, I barely survived. My grandparents were killed in Auschwitz and most of my extended family were killed. I became a Zionist; this dream of the Jewish people resurrected in their historical homeland and the barbed wire of Auschwitz being replaced by the boundaries of a Jewish state with a powerful army…and then I found out that it wasn’t exactly like that, that in order to make this Jewish dream a reality we had to visit a nightmare on the local population.

“There’s no way you could have ever created a Jewish state without oppressing and expelling the local population. Jewish Israeli historians have shown without a doubt that the expulsion of Palestinians was persistent, pervasive, cruel, murderous and with deliberate intent—that’s what’s called the ‘Nakba’ in Arabic; the ‘disaster’ or the ‘catastrophe.’ There’s a law that you cannot deny the Holocaust, but in Israel you’re not allowed to mention the Nakba, even though it’s at the very basis of the foundation of Israel.

“I visited the Occupied Territories (West Bank) during the first intifada. I cried every day for two weeks at what I saw; the brutality of the occupation, the petty harassment, the murderousness of it, the cutting down of Palestinian olive groves, the denial of water rights, the humiliations...and this went on, and now it’s much worse than it was then.

“It’s the longest ethnic cleansing operation in the 20th and 21st century. I could land in Tel Aviv tomorrow and demand citizenship but my Palestinian friend in Vancouver, who was born in Jerusalem, can’t even visit!

“So, then you have these miserable people packed into this, horrible…people call it an ‘outdoor prison,’ which is what it is. You don’t have to support Hamas policies to stand up for Palestinian rights, that’s a complete falsity. You think the worst thing you can say about Hamas, multiply it by a thousand times, and it still will not meet the Israeli repression and killing and dispossession of Palestinians.

“And ‘anybody who criticizes Israel is an anti-Semite’ is simply an egregious attempt to intimidate good non-Jews who are willing to stand up for what is true.”

—Independent Catholic News, October 16, 2023

https://www.indcatholicnews.com/news/48251

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TERRORISM IN THE EYES OF THE IMPERIAL BEHOLDER - a poem

 

the French word

for rabies

is

la rage -

rage or outrage

 

and 

the French have a saying -

a man who wants to get rid of his dog

accuses it of spreading rabies

 

the people of Gaza

treated as inhuman animals

worse than dogs

are charged

with terrorism

 

come to think of it

what an honor !

 

world war two's resistance

against nazi extermination

was designated

as terrorism

by the Axis allies

 

what an honor !

 

Mandela

was monitored

as a terrorist

by the CIA

 

What an honor !

 

Tortuguita

peacefully meditating

near Israeli-funded cop city

was executed

in cold blood

on suspicion

of domestic terrorism 

 

What an honor !

 

in the spirit of Mandela

in the spirit of the Warsaw Ghetto uprising

in the spirit of Tortuguita

in the spirit of Attica

may the anti colonial outrage

of the People of Palestine

contaminate us all -

the only epidemic

worth dying for

 

 (c) Julia Wright. October 17 2023. All Rights Reserved To The family of Wadea Al- Fayoume.

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Ruchell Cinque Magee Joins the Ancestors 

                                                         1939-2023

There will be memorial services for Ruchell Cinque Magee

 

October 31, 2023, at 2:30 P.M.

Forest Lawn

21300 via Verde St

Covina, CA 91724

 

Ruchell Cinque Magee joined the ancestors October 17, 2023, after recently being released after 67 years of being caged!

 

Ruchell Magee was 84 years old and spent most of his life behind bars. Throughout his sixty-seven years of unjust captivity, Ruchell was one of the first and most consistent prisoners linking mass incarceration and the U.S. prison system to slavery. Ruchell Magee took the name Cinque from the enslaved African Sengbe Pieh who led an 1839 rebellion to commandeer the slave ship La Amistad, arguing that Africans have the right to resist “unlawful” slavery. Ruchell maintained that Black people in the US have the right to resist this new form of slavery which is part of the colonial control of Black people in this country:

 

“Slavery 400 years ago, slavery today. It’s the same but with a new name.”

 

“My fight is to expose the entire system, judicial and prison system, a system of slavery…This will cause benefit not just to myself but to all those who at this time are being criminally oppressed or enslaved by this system.”

 

“You have to deal on your own tactics. You have a right to take up arms to oppose any usurped government, particularly the type of corruption that we have today.” – Ruchell Magee

 

Ruchell’s life commitment, political stance and writings point to the need for a prison abolitionist movement to seriously address the historical legacy of slavery, and slave rebellions in order to truly be in solidarity with the millions of people incarcerated in the US. 

 

May Ruchell Cinque Magee rest in power!

 

Ruchell Cinque Magee joined the ancestors last night after recently being released after 67 years of being caged!

 

Ruchell Magee was 84 years old and spent most of his life behind bars. Throughout his sixty-seven years of unjust captivity, Ruchell was one of the first and most consistent prisoners linking mass incarceration and the U.S. prison system to slavery. Ruchell Magee took the name Cinque from the enslaved African Sengbe Pieh who led an 1839 rebellion to commandeer the slave ship La Amistad, arguing that Africans have the right to resist “unlawful” slavery. Ruchell maintained that Black people in the US have the right to resist this new form of slavery which is part of the colonial control of Black people in this country:

 

“Slavery 400 years ago, slavery today. It’s the same but with a new name.”

 

“My fight is to expose the entire system, judicial and prison system, a system of slavery…This will cause benefit not just to myself but to all those who at this time are being criminally oppressed or enslaved by this system.”

 

“You have to deal on your own tactics. You have a right to take up arms to oppose any usurped government, particularly the type of corruption that we have today.” – Ruchell Magee

 

Ruchell’s life commitment, political stance and writings point to the need for a prison abolitionist movement to seriously address the historical legacy of slavery, and slave rebellions in order to truly be in solidarity with the millions of people incarcerated in the US. 

 

May Ruchell Cinque Magee rest in power!

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The ongoing Zionist theft of Palestinian land from 1946 to now.

77 years of brutal oppression must end!

End all U.S. aid to Israel now!

For a democratic, secular Palestine!

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Leonard Peltier’s Letter Delivered to Supporters on September 12, 2023, in Front of the Whitehouse

 

Dear friends, relatives, supporters, loved ones:

 

Seventy-nine years old. Mother Earth has taken us on another journey around Grandfather Sun.  Babies have taken their first breath. People have lived, loved, and died. Seeds have been planted and sent their roots deep below red earth and their breath to the Stars and our Ancestors.

 

I am still here.

 

Time has twisted one more year out of me. A year that has been a moment.  A year that has been a lifetime. For almost five decades I’ve existed in a cage of concrete and steel.  With the “good time” calculations of the system, I’ve actually served over 60 years.

 

Year after year, I have encouraged you to live as spirit warriors. Even while in here, I can envision what is real and far beyond these walls.  I’ve seen a reawakening of an ancient Native pride that does my heart good.

 

I may leave this place in a box. That is a cold truth. But I have put my heart and soul into making our world a better place and there is a lot of work left to do – I would like to get out and do it with you.

 

I know that the spirit warriors coming up behind me have the heart and soul to fight racism and oppression, and to fight the greed that is poisoning our lands, waters, and people. 

 

We are still here.

 

Remember who you are, even if they come for your land, your water, your family. We are children of Mother Earth and we owe her and her other children our care.

 

I long to turn my face to the sky. In this cage, I am denied that simple pleasure. I am in prison, but in my mind, I remain as I was born: a free Native spirit.

 

That is what allows me to laugh, keeps me laughing. These walls cannot contain my laughter – or my hope.

 

I know there are those who stand with me, who work around the clock for my freedom. I have been blessed to have such friends.

 

We are still here and you give me hope. 

 

I hope to breathe free air before I die. Hope is a hard thing to hold, but no one is strong enough to take it from me. 

 

I love you. I hope for you. I pray for you. 

 

And prayer is more than a cry to the Creator that runs through your head.  Prayer is an action.

 

In the Spirit of Crazy Horse

DOKSHA, 

LEONARD PELTIER

Write to:

Leonard Peltier 89637-132

USP Coleman 1

P.O. Box 1033

Coleman, FL 33521

Note: Letters, address and return address must be in writing—no stickers—and on plain white paper.

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Drop the Charges on the Tampa 5!

Sign the Petition:

https://peoplespetitions.org/tampa5

 

The Tampa 5—Gia Davila, Lauren Pineiro, Laura Rodriguez, Jeanie K, and Chrisley Carpio—are the five Students for a Democratic Society protesters at the University of South Florida who were attacked by campus police and are now facing five to ten years in prison for protesting Governor Ron DeSantis' attacks on diversity programs and all of higher education.

 

On July 12, 2023, the Tampa 5 had their second court appearance. 

 

The Tampa 5 are still in the middle of the process of discovery, which means that they are obtaining evidence from the prosecution that is meant to convict them. They have said publicly that all the security camera footage they have seen so far absolves them, and they are eager to not only receive more of this evidence but also to share it with the world. The Tampa 5 and their supporters demand full transparency and USF's full cooperation with discovery, to which all of the defendants are entitled.

 

In spite of this, the charges have not yet been dropped. The case of the five SDS protesters is hurtling towards a trial. So, they need all of their supporters and all parties interested in the right to protest DeSantis to stay out in the streets!

 

We need to demand that the DeSantis-appointed, unelected State Attorney Susan Lopez and Assistant Prosecutor Justin Diaz drop the charges.

 

We need to win this case once and for all and protect the right of the student movement—and all social movements in the United States—to exercise their First Amendment right to free speech and to protest.

 

Defend the Tampa 5!

 

State Attorney Susy Lopez, Prosecutor Justin Diaz, Drop the Charges!

 

Save Diversity in Higher Education!

 

Protesting DeSantis is Not a Crime!

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Free Julian Assange

Immediate Repeated Action Needed to Free Assange

 

Please call your Congressional Representatives, the White House, and the DOJ. Calls are tallied—they do count.  We are to believe we are represented in this country.  This is a political case, so our efforts can change things politically as well.  Please take this action as often as you can:

 

Find your representatives:

https://www.congress.gov/members/find-your-member

 

Leave each of your representatives a message individually to: 

·      Drop the charges against Julian Assange

·      Speak out publicly against the indictment and

·      Sign on to Rashida Tlaib's letter to the DOJ to drop the charges: 

           202-224-3121—Capitol Main Switchboard 

 

Leave a message on the White House comment line to 

Demand Julian Assange be pardoned: 

             202-456-1111

             Tuesday–Thursday, 11:00 A.M.–3:00 P.M. EST

 

Call the DOJ and demand they drop the charges against Julian Assange:

             202-353-1555—DOJ Comment Line

             202-514-2000 Main Switchboard 

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Mumia Abu-Jamal is Innocent!

FREE HIM NOW!

Write to Mumia at:

Smart Communications/PADOC

Mumia Abu-Jamal #AM-8335

SCI Mahanoy

P.O. Box 33028

St. Petersburg, FL 33733

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Updates From Kevin Cooper 

March 23, 2023 

Dear Friends and Comrades, 

This is Kevin Cooper writing and sending this update to you in 'Peace & Solidarity'. First and foremost I am well and healthy, and over the ill effect(s) that I went through after that biased report from MoFo, and their pro prosecution and law enforcement experts. I am back working with my legal team from Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP.

'We' have made great progress in refuting all that those experts from MoFo came up with by twisting the truth to fit their narrative, or omitting things, ignoring, things, and using all the other tactics that they did to reach their conclusions. Orrick has hired four(4) real experts who have no questionable backgrounds. One is a DNA attorney, like Barry Scheck of the innocence project in New York is for example. A DNA expert, a expect to refute what they say Jousha Ryen said when he was a child, and his memory. A expect on the credibility of MoFo's experts, and the attorney's at Orrick are dealing with the legal issues.

This all is taking a little longer than we first expected it to take, and that in part is because 'we' have to make sure everything is correct in what we have in our reply. We cannot put ourselves in a situation where we can be refuted... Second, some of our experts had other things planned, like court cases and such before they got the phone call from Rene, the now lead attorney of the Orrick team. With that being said, I can say that our experts, and legal team have shown, and will show to the power(s) that be that MoFo's DNA expert could not have come to the conclusion(s) that he came to, without having used 'junk science'! They, and by they I mean my entire legal team, including our experts, have done what we have done ever since Orrick took my case on in 2004, shown that all that is being said by MoFo's experts is not true, and we are once again having to show what the truth really is.

Will this work with the Governor? Who knows... 'but' we are going to try! One of our comrades, Rebecca D.   said to me, 'You and Mumia'...meaning that my case and the case of Mumia Abu Jamal are cases in which no matter what evidence comes out supporting our innocence, or prosecution misconduct, we cannot get a break. That the forces in the so called justice system won't let us go. 'Yes' she is correct about that sad to say...

Our reply will be out hopefully in the not too distant future, and that's because the people in Sacramento have been put on notice that it is coming, and why. Every one of you will receive our draft copy of the reply according to Rene because he wants feedback on it. Carole and others will send it out once they receive it. 'We' were on the verge of getting me out, and those people knew it, so they sabotaged what the Governor ordered them to do, look at all the evidence as well as the DNA evidence. They did not do that, they made this a DNA case, by doing what they did, and twisted the facts on the other issues that they dealt with.   'more later'...

In Struggle & Solidarity,

An immediate act of solidarity we can all do right now is to write to Kevin and assure him of our continuing support in his fight for justice. Here’s his address:

Mr. Kevin Cooper

C-65304. 4-EB-82

San Quentin State Prison

San Quentin, CA 94974

 

 

Call California Governor Newsom:

1-(916) 445-2841

Press 1 for English or 2 for Spanish, 

press 6 to speak with a representative and

wait for someone to answer 

(Monday-Friday, 9:00 A.M. to 5:00 P.M. PST—12:00 P.M. to 8:00 P.M. EST)

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The writers' organization PEN America is circulating this petition on behalf of Jason Renard Walker, a Texas prisoner whose life is being threatened because of his exposés of the Texas prison system. 

See his book, Reports from within the Belly of the Beast; available on Amazon at:

https://www.amazon.com/Reports-Within-Belly-Beast-Department-ebook/dp/B084656JDZ/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_product_top?ie=UTF8

Petition: https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/protect-whistleblowers-in-carceral-settings

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Sign the petition:

https://dontextraditeassange.com/petition/

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Tell Congress to Help #FreeDanielHale

 

I’m pleased to announce that last week our client, Daniel Hale, was awarded the Sam Adams Award for Integrity in Intelligence. The “Corner-Brightener Candlestick” was presented to Daniel’s friend Noor Mir. You can watch the online ceremony here. As it happens, this week is also the 20th anniversary of the first drone assassination in Yemen. From the beginning, the drone assassination program has been deeply shrouded in secrecy, allowing U.S. officials to hide significant violations of international law, and the American Constitution. In addition to the lives directly impacted by these strikes, the program has significantly eroded respect for international law and thereby puts civilians around the world in danger. Daniel Hale’s revelations threw a beam of light into a very dark corner, allowing journalists to definitively show that the government's official narrative was a lie. It is thanks to the great personal sacrifice of drone whistleblowers like Hale that public understanding has finally begun to catch up to reality. As the Sam Adams Associates note:  “Mr. Hale was well aware of the cruel, inhumane and degrading treatment to which other courageous officials have been subjected — and that he would likely suffer the same. And yet — in the manner of his famous ancestor Nathan Hale — he put his country first, knowing what awaited him at the hands of those who serve what has become a repressive Perpetual War State wreaking havoc upon much of the world.” We hope you’ll join the growing call to pardon or commute Hale’s sentence. U.S. citizens can contact your representatives here.

Happy new year, and thank you for your support! Jesselyn Radack Director Whistleblower & Source Protection Program (WHISPeR) ExposeFacts Twitter: @JesselynRadack

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Laws are created to be followed

by the poor.

Laws are made by the rich

to bring some order to exploitation.

The poor are the only law abiders in history.

When the poor make laws

the rich will be no more.

 

—Roque Dalton Presente!

(May 14, 1935 – Assassinated May 10, 1975)[1]

---

[1] Roque Dalton was a Salvadoran poet, essayist, journalist, political activist, and intellectual. He is considered one of Latin America's most compelling poets.

Poems: 

http://cordite.org.au/translations/el-salvador-tragic/

About: 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roque_Dalton

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A Plea for the Compassionate Release of 

Leonard Peltier

Self Portrait by Leonard Peltier

Video at:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jWdJdODKO6M&feature=youtu.be

Sign our petition urging President Biden to grant clemency to Leonard Peltier.

 

https://www.freeleonardpeltier.com/petition

 

Email: contact@whoisleonardpeltier.info

Address: 116 W. Osborne Ave. Tampa, Florida 33603

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Resources for Resisting Federal Repression

https://www.nlg.org/federalrepressionresources/

 

Since June of 2020, activists have been subjected to an increasingly aggressive crackdown on protests by federal law enforcement. The federal response to the movement for Black Lives has included federal criminal charges for activists, door knocks by federal law enforcement agents, and increased use of federal troops to violently police protests. 

 

The NLG National Office is releasing this resource page for activists who are resisting federal repression. It includes a link to our emergency hotline numbers, as well as our library of Know-Your-Rights materials, our recent federal repression webinar, and a list of some of our recommended resources for activists. We will continue to update this page. 

 

Please visit the NLG Mass Defense Program page for general protest-related legal support hotlines run by NLG chapters.

 

Emergency Hotlines

If you are contacted by federal law enforcement, you should exercise all of your rights. It is always advisable to speak to an attorney before responding to federal authorities. 

 

State and Local Hotlines

If you have been contacted by the FBI or other federal law enforcement, in one of the following areas, you may be able to get help or information from one of these local NLG hotlines for: 

 

Portland, Oregon: (833) 680-1312

San Francisco, California: (415) 285-1041 or fbi_hotline@nlgsf.org

Seattle, Washington: (206) 658-7963

National Hotline

If you are located in an area with no hotline, you can call the following number:

 

National NLG Federal Defense Hotline: (212) 679-2811

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Articles

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1) Appeals for Solidarity from Palestinian Trade Unions and Unionists

Posted on October 20, 2023

Sent via email:

 sandy.eaton.icloud.com@mail.mailchimpapp.com

In this Labor Fightback Network (LFN) DOSSIER:

 

• Urgent Appeal from the Palestinian General Federation of Trade Unions (PGFTU)

 

• San Francisco Rally Speech by Monadel Herzallah (October 14) – 

 

• Palestinian Trade Unions Call for an End to Arming Israel

 

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Urgent Appeal from the Palestinian General Federation of Trade Unions (PGFTU)

 

Brothers and Sisters of trade and workers’ unions in the United States of Americas,

 

From the midst of the rubble and at the center of the ethnic cleansing war committed by the apartheid regime of Israel against our people in the Gaza Strip, we send you this urgent appeal to bring you closer to the image of the massacres and the full-fledged war crimes against more than 2 million citizens in Gaza, including over 70% who are unemployed and live below the poverty line, enduring extremely difficult conditions. 

 

Israeli aggression has exacerbated the suffering of the Palestinians in Gaza, and even demolished homes on their heads, depriving them for the tenth day in a row of electricity, water, fuel, medicine, and necessary medical supplies. As of the current date, the number of martyrs killed by Israel has exceeded 2,800, including unarmed, unemployed, working-class, and refugee civilians. Additionally, over 10,000 are injured, and approximately 1,000 citizens are trapped under the rubble. The number of killed children exceeds 500, along with 400 women. 

 

The apartheid regime of Israel is not satisfied with these heinous atrocities; it is also targeting journalists, medical teams, ambulances, and firefighters, leading to the complete destruction of Gaza’s infrastructure. And Israel has escalated its crimes by targeting institutions and trade union offices, reducing them to ruins.

 

Dear Brothers and Sisters, with deep sincerity and appreciation for the leadership role of unions and your constant support of our rights, we will never forget the previous vicious attacks in 2014 and 2021, when you made your voices loud and clear and when your heroic port workers blocked the boat (the Israeli-owned ZIM cargo ships). Now the aggressive, vicious attacks are continuing on a much larger scale, so we urge you to stand with us, again, and rise to the level of the war being waged against us all! 

 

We ask your support for the following:

 

First, to exert pressure on the U.S. administration, and the international community as a whole, to immediately halt the apartheid regime of Israel’s aggression against defenseless civilians in Gaza and condemn the collective punishment that has been imposed on us for more than 15 years.

 

Second, to end the siege that has been imposed on Gaza and pressure Israel to recognize our legitimate rights preserved by international law. Israel is the main cause of instability in the region.

 

Third, to contribute to providing urgent medical and humanitarian aid to support our people in these tragic times as quickly as possible. We trust in your ability to take urgent action to apply pressure and offer assistance, believing in the justice of our cause and our legitimate rights.

 

In struggle for a better world – a world of peace and justice. As there can be no peace without justice. 

 

Palestinian General Federation of Trade Unions

 

Signatory:

 

Basher Al-Sisi,

 

Member of the General Secretariat of the Palestinian General Federation of Trade Unions

 

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Monadel Herzallah Speaks Out (October 14)

 

(Brother Herzallah delivered this speech to the October 14 rally in San Francisco in solidarity with the people of Palestine. He is a leader of the US Palestinian Community Network and of the Arab-American Trade Union Council)

 

For the last week, there have been countless condemnations of violence, sympathy for lost lives, and outrage about acts of terror against civilians. But that is exactly what Palestinians have been doing, begging for the world’s attention, for the last 75 years. 

 

Let us make one thing very clear: This rally, and every rally before this, is happening because the Palestinian people demand an end to ALL violence and an end to these systemic problems that kill countless civilians every single year. 

 

Our oppressor (the Apartheid regime of Israel), the media, and the European and US governments would have you believe that we want this to happen, but the only thing we want is an end to the occupation, an end to the ethnic cleansing, an end on the siege against Gaza, and honest reporting that tells the truth and stops the spread of propaganda and lies. 

 

The year is 2023, but if you look at the headlines, it feels like it’s 2001. All over again, newspapers, websites, and even heads of state publish uncorroborated lies, angering millions of people against us, and then walk them back as an apology but only after the damage has been done. This dehumanization and racist rhetoric is the only way the institutions in charge can get away with mass genocide because they make you believe that we aren’t humans.

 

They do this because the only way you can accept the deaths of two million people under occupation is to paint each and every single one of them as the villain, and the worst part about all of this is that it is working. 

 

My niece Riham lives with her children (Yaser 12, Darenn 10 and Basel 8) in Rimal which is supposed to be a safe area in the city of Gaza, having survived the vicious attack on Gaza in 2008,2012,2014 and 2021. She just now sent me the following message that I promised her I would read to you.

 

#رسالة

نحن بغزة…

ربما ساعات قليلة وننقطع عن العالم بسبب انقطاع تام للكهرباء وستفقد البطاريات شحنها،فينقطع الإنترنت وشركة الكهرباء ومولدات الشوارع لا يوجدلديها مخزون من السولار، سنموت في صمت بعيدا عن عيون العالم والأصدقاء ،سامحونا على كل حال

 

“Perhaps in a few hours, we will be cut off from the world due to a complete power outage, and the batteries will lose their charge. The Internet will be cut off, and the electricity company and street generators will not have a stock of diesel. We will die in silence, away from the eyes of the world and our friends. Forgive us in any case.”

 

We ask you all to continue raise your voice against this on going  injustice. we ask you to make Riham’s voice heard. 

 

اتظن انك قد احرقني ورقصت كالشيطان فوق رفاتي …عبثاً تحاول لا فناء لثائر انا كالقيامة ذات يوم آت انا كالقيامة ذات يوم آت

 

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Palestinian Trade Unions Call for an End to Arming Israel

 

On Monday October 16, 2023, Palestinian trade unions released an urgent call for international trade unions to take action to halt the arms trade to Israel. The call comes amid a ruthless bombing campaign of Gaza, following Hamas’ October 7 offensive into Israel, and as Israel prepares for a ground invasion into the territory.

 

In the week following October 7, the full force of the Israeli military-industrial apparatus was put on display. Over just six days, Israel dropped more than 6,000 bombs onto Gaza. Human Rights Watch verified videos documenting Israel’s use of the lethal chemical white phosphorous in Gaza and Southern Lebanon.

 

Meanwhile, Israel’s far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir announced the ministry was purchasing 10,000 rifles, body armor and helmets to distribute to settler militias for use in the West Bank.

 

As Israeli politicians called for retaliation, using genocidal language that likened Gazans to “human animals,” leaders in Britain and the United States in the week following October 7, dispensed with even the fig leaf of “restraint” that usually accompanies Israeli bombing campaigns of Gaza.[1] 

 

The United States, in addition to dispatching two aircraft carriers laden with F-18 fighter jets to the region has instructed US defense companies to expedite munitions to Israel, causing an immediate $30 billion surge in US defense stocks.

 

During the May 2021 Unity Intifada, a collective of Palestinian trade unions called for international solidarity from international unions, urging them to divest their pensions from companies implicated in the occupation and release statements of solidarity. The latest call—which is reprinted in full below—focuses on the weapons industry and infrastructure of the blockade and occupation.

 

An Urgent Call from Palestinian Trade Unions—End all Complicity, Stop Arming Israel

 

Israel has demanded that 1.1 million Palestinians evacuate the northern half of Gaza, whilst subjecting them to constant bombardment. This ruthless move is part of Israel’s plan, backed by unwavering support and active participation from the US and majority of European states, to carry out unprecedented and heinous massacres against 2.3 million Palestinians in Gaza and to ethnically cleanse it altogether.

 

Since Saturday Israel has indiscriminately and intensively bombarded Gaza, and cut off fuel, electricity, water, food, and medical supplies. Israel has killed more than 2,600 Palestinians—including 724 children—leveling whole neighbourhoods, wiping out entire families and injuring more than 10,000 people. Some international law experts have begun warning of Israel’s genocidal acts.

 

Elsewhere, Israel’s far-right government has distributed more than 10,000 rifles to extremist settlers in ‘48 Palestine and the occupied West Bank to facilitate their escalating attacks and pogroms against Palestinians. Israel’s actions, massacres, and rhetoric point to its intention to implement its long promised second Nakba, expelling as many Palestinians as possible and creating a ‘New Middle East’ in which Palestinians live in perpetual subjugation.

 

The response by Western states has been one of complete and total support for the State of Israel, without even a cursory nod towards international law. This has amplified Israel impunity, giving it carte blanche to carry out its genocidal war without limit. Beyond diplomatic support, Western states are supplying Israel with armament, sanctioning the operation of Israeli weapons companies within their borders.

 

As Israel escalates its military campaign, Palestinian trade unions call on our counterparts internationally and all people of conscience to end all forms of complicity with Israel’s crimes—most urgently halting the arms trade with Israel, as well as all funding and military research. The time for action is now—Palestinian lives hang in the balance.

 

This urgent, genocidal situation can only be prevented by a mass increase of global solidarity with the people of Palestine and that can restrain the Israeli war machine. We need you to take immediate action—wherever you are in the world—to prevent the arming of the Israeli state and the companies involved in the infrastructure of the blockade. We take inspiration from previous mobilisations by trade unions in Italy, South Africa and the United States, and similar international mobilisations against the Italian invasion of Ethiopia in the 1930s, the fascist dictatorship in Chile in the 1970s and elsewhere where global solidarity limited the extent of colonial brutality.

 

We are calling on trade unions in relevant industries:

 

·      To refuse to build weapons destined for Israel.

·      To refuse to transport weapons to Israel.

·      To pass motions in their trade union to this effect.

·    To take action against complicit companies involved in implementing Israel’s brutal and illegal siege, especially if they have contracts with your institution.

·      Pressure governments to stop all military trade with Israel, and in the case of the US, funding to it.

We make this call as we see attempts to ban and silence all forms of solidarity with the Palestinian people. We ask you to speak out and take action in the face of injustice as trade unions have done historically. We make this call in the belief that the struggle for Palestinian justice and liberation is not only a regionally and globally determined struggle. It is a lever for the liberation of all dispossessed and exploited people of the world.

 

Palestinian General Federation of Trade Unions, Gaza.

General Union of Public Service and Trade Workers

General Union of Municipal Workers

General Union of Kindergarten Workers

General Union of Petrochemicals Workers

General Union of Agricultural Workers

Union of Palestinian Women’s Committees Generation

Union of Media and Print Workers

Palestinian General Federation of Trade Unions (PGFTU)

General Union of Palestinian Teachers

General Union of Palestinian Women

General Union of Palestinian Engineers

Palestinian Accountants’ Association

Professional Associations Federation including:

Palestinian Dental Association—Jerusalem center

Palestinian Pharmacists Association—Jerusalem Center

Medical Association—Jerusalem Center

Engineers Association—Jerusalem Center

Agricultural Engineers Association—Jerusalem Center

Veterinarians Syndicate—Jerusalem Branch.

Palestinian Journalists’ Syndicate

Palestinian Bar Association

Palestinian Nursing and Midwifery Association

Union of Kindergartens Workers

Palestinian Postal Services Workers Union

Federation of Unions of Palestinian Universities Professors & Employees

The General Federation of Independent Trade Unions, Palestine

The Palestine New Federation of Trade Unions

Palestinian General Union of Writers

Palestinian Contractors Union

Federation of Health Professionals Syndicates

Palestinian Union of Psychologists and Social Workers

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2) The Majority of Americans Agree: Ceasefire in Gaza

By Michael Moore

Via email, Oct. 21, 2023

An injured child is brought to the Nassr hospital after the Israeli airstrikes in Khan Yunis, Gaza on October 19, 2023.

I have joined with fellow filmmakers, actors, writers and artists — America Ferrera, Andrew Garfield, Cate Blanchett, Channing Tatum, Ilana Glazer, Indya Moore, Jessica Chastain, Joaquin Phoenix, Jon Stewart, Mahershala Ali, Mark Ruffalo, Michael Stipe, Quinta Brunson, Riz Ahmed, Wanda Sykes and others — in signing the letter below to President Biden asking him to call for an immediate de-escalation and ceasefire in Gaza and Israel before another life is lost. Hamas and Israel must immediately stop the killing. Hamas must safely return all hostages. Israel must allow all humanitarian aide to enter Gaza. And everybody needs to calm the eff down, de-escalate and find a way to end this madness. 

 

The vast majority of the American public agrees with this. Two separate polls in the past few days, one from CBS News, the other from Data for Progress, show that up to two-thirds of likely voters agree that the U.S. should be calling for a ceasefire, and the majority oppose increased military aide to Israel and favor immediate humanitarian aide to the Palestinians.

Dear President Biden,

 

We come together as artists and advocates, but most importantly as human beings witnessing the devastating loss of lives and unfolding horrors in Israel and Palestine.

 

We ask that, as President of the United States, you call for an immediate de-escalation and ceasefire in Gaza and Israel before another life is lost. More than 5,000 people have been killed in the last week and a half – a number any person of conscience knows is catastrophic. We believe all life is sacred, no matter faith or ethnicity and we condemn the killing of Palestinian and Israeli civilians.

 

We urge your administration, and all world leaders, to honor all of the lives in the Holy Land and call for and facilitate a ceasefire without delay – an end to the bombing of Gaza, and the safe release of hostages. Half of Gaza’s two million residents are children, and more than two thirds are refugees and their descendants being forced to flee their homes. Humanitarian aid must be allowed to reach them.

 

We believe that the United States can play a vital diplomatic role in ending the suffering and we are adding our voices to those from the US Congress, UNICEF, Doctors without Borders, The International Committee of The Red Cross, and so many others. Saving lives is a moral imperative. To echo UNICEF, “Compassion — and international law — must prevail.”

 

As of this writing more than 6,000 bombs have been dropped on Gaza in the last 12 days - resulting in one child being killed every 15 minutes.

 

"Children and families in Gaza have practically run out of food, water, electricity, medicine and safe access to hospitals, following days of air strikes and cuts to all supply routes. Gaza’s sole power plant ran out of fuel Wednesday afternoon, shutting down electricity, water and wastewater treatment. Most residents can no longer get drinking water from service providers or household water through pipelines.... The humanitarian situation has reached lethal lows, and yet all reports point to further attacks. Compassion — and international law — must prevail.” – UNICEF spokesperson James Elder

 

Beyond our pain and mourning for all of the people there and their loved ones around the world we are motivated by an unbending will to stand for our common humanity. We stand for freedom, justice, dignity and peace for all people – and a deep desire to stop more bloodshed.

 

We refuse to tell future generations the story of our silence, that we stood by and did nothing. As Emergency Relief Chief Martin Griffiths told UN News, “History is watching.”

 

Signed:

Alia Shawkat; Alyssa Milano; Amanda Seales; Amber Tamblyn; America Ferrera; Andrew Garfield; Ani DiFranco; Anoushka Shankar; Aria Mia Loberti; Ayo Edebiri; Bassam Tariq; Bassem Youssef; Bonnie Wright; Caroline Polachek; Cate Blanchett; Channing Tatum; Cherien Dabis; Darius Marder; David Cross; Dev Hynes; Diplo; Dominique Fishback; Dominique Thorne; Dua Lipa; Elvira Lind; Elyanna; Farah Bsaiso; Fatima Farheen Mirza; Hasan Minhaj; Hend Sabry; Ilana Glazer; Indya Moore ; James Schamus; Jeremy Strong; Jessica Chastain; Jessie Buckley; Joaquin Phoenix; Jon Stewart; Kehlani; Kristen Stewart; Macklemore; Mahershala Ali; Margaret Cho; Mark Ruffalo; May Calamawy; Michael Malarkey; Michael Moore; Michael Stipe; Michelle Wolf; Miguel; Mo Amer; Natalie Merchant; Oscar Isaac; Quinta Brunson; Rachel Sennott; Ramy Youssef; Ravena Aurora; Riz Ahmed; Rooney Mara; Rosario Dawson; Rowan Blanchard; Ryan Coogler; Sandra Oh; Sebastian Silva; Shailene Woodley; Shaka King; Simi Haze; Stephanie Suganami; Susan Sarandon; Taylour Paige; Tommy Genesis; Vic Mensa ; Victoria Monét; Wallace Shawn; Wanda Sykes; Yara Shahidi. 

https://www.artists4ceasefire.org/

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3) Elderly and Imprisoned: ‘I Don’t Count It as Living, Only Existing.’

Photographs by Joseph Rodriguez, Text by Carmilla Floyd, Oct. 21, 2023

Ms. Floyd writes about children’s rights and restorative justice. Mr. Rodríguez is a photojournalist who has reported extensively on incarceration, gangs, the police and re-entry.

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/21/opinion/aging-prison.html

Adrienne Davidson, top, and her cellmate, Eliana Sotomayor, 78.

On a clear day in March 2023, the snowy peaks surrounding the California Institution for Men in Chino were visible. Cleveland Lindley stood on a green patch in the prison yard, taking in the view.

 

He was wearing dark wraparound glasses and using crutches for support because he had overexerted himself during a recent visit from family. At age 53, he is considered elderly in the prison system. That’s because incarceration accelerates aging.

 

“My body don’t work the way it used to, my mind don’t work like it used to be, and it’s intimidating,” Mr. Lindley told us. “People are always looking for that edge, that leg up.”

 

Mr. Lindley has spent much of the past 28 years in and out of solitary confinement. Four years ago, he requested a transfer to this yard, which houses former gang members and other vulnerable residents. Joseph Rodríguez, a photojournalist, and I had come to Chino to meet residents like him, living out their twilight years behind bars.

 

“In those other yards there was only violence, manipulation, politics. I could never sit alone. Now, I can enjoy the sun coming out, the mountains, the clouds. I’m learning about compassion — something I never learned in my 53 years on this earth. I never thought about nobody. It was always about me. Walking over people to get what I want, whether it’s a high or a dollar.” — Cleveland Lindley

 

On the loop circling the yard, Frankie Morales, 71, was walking laps at a steady pace. He has been incarcerated for most of his life, first in juvenile halls, then in state and federal prisons. He gets special meals on a tray because of a stomach condition, and when his back acts up he uses a cane to walk. He told us that back in the day, he was sometimes cuffed to a four-metal-post bed in a freezing-cold cell. “That was how we were supposed to get better and instead we got crazy,” he said.

 

Older adults struggle to move around in a space designed for younger people. Adrienne Davidson, 61, is a resident at the California Institution for Women in Chino. She ceded the lower bunk to her roommate, Eliana Sotomayor, who is 78 years old and has suffered three strokes in the past year.

 

To get into her bunk, Ms. Davidson puts one foot on a metal stool and the other on a metal desk. She then holds onto the edge of the bunk bed and heaves herself up. She could request a younger cellmate, but that comes with its own risk. “There is not a lot of respect from the younger people,” she said. “There’s also a strong anti-snitch culture here, so you can’t complain.”

 

The challenges they face are becoming increasingly common. Between 1993 and 2013, the number of people 55 or older in state prisons increased by 400 percent. The American Civil Liberties Union estimates that by 2030, people over 55 will constitute a third of the country’s prison population.

 

Research shows that most people age out of criminal conduct. Moreover, the Department of Justice asserts that the risk of elderly people reoffending after release is minimal. Yet decades of tough-on-crime sentencing and increasingly rigid release policies have left many to grow old in a system that was not designed to accommodate them. The cost is high, for both the residents and the public at large.

 

Older residents who are released should be provided with support. And they should be given the opportunity to use their experiences to drive change in their communities. Advocacy groups have already demonstrated the power of restorative justice programs led by the formerly incarcerated, both inside and outside prisons, allowing for healing and growth for all parties affected by violence — victims, offenders and families.

 

Reforms have ignited hope among residents who expected to die in prison. In California, the Public Safety and Rehabilitation Act of 2016 provides a process for nonviolent offenders to be considered for parole if their release poses no unreasonable risk to the community. Also in California, the Elderly Parole Program lays out a path for some residents who are over 50 and who have served at least 20 years. The state has also established compassionate release programs for terminally ill or medically incapacitated residents.

 

Efforts to reduce the aging prison population are driven not solely by compassion but also by the tremendous cost of incarcerating older people. Residents do not qualify for Medicaid, leaving the state responsible for all care expenses. Older residents are more likely to suffer from chronic illnesses like diabetes, dementia and cancer, and struggle with depression and anxiety.

 

Yet the rules and policies around parole decisions are often obstacles to releasing elderly residents, especially if they committed violent offenses in their youth. These secretive and subjective policies should be changed to focus on risk assessment and rehabilitation rather than the initial crime. Punitive sentences like life without parole should be abolished altogether.

 

For elderly people transitioning out of prison, finding a place to live is often the most immediate challenge. Doris Roldan was released in 2020 at age 80, after spending 40 years behind bars. She lives in a senior housing facility in Los Angeles and is a member of the California Coalition for Women Prisoners, which supports and advocates systemic prison reform, and speaks on forums for restorative justice. “I think you can judge a country by their prisons, and we are in big trouble,” she said. “I don’t count it as living, only existing.”

 

Rehabilitative programs were rare when Mr. Morales and Mr. Lindley entered the system. Javier Stauring, the executive director of Healing Dialogue and Action, a California group that advocates restorative justice, explained that in the past few years, California, among other states, has made strides toward a more financially responsible and compassionate criminal justice system. “Men like Frankie and Cleveland have an opportunity to grow, face the consequences of their actions and ultimately forgive themselves,” he said. Yet much work remains.

 

Mr. Lindley will be eligible for a parole hearing in 2030. Until then, he is taking college classes and has joined self-help groups. He learned about compassion and the consequences of his actions later in the game. He now teaches residents how to be self-aware and to have more compassion. It’s time for policymakers, politicians and other stakeholders to follow his lead.

 

Mr. Morales was denied parole in July and will have to wait 18 months to apply. He spends most of his time painting in a small makeshift studio that corrections officers have helped set up adjacent to his cell.

 

He still rolls up his mattress and places it at the foot of his bed for protection, a habit from the old days. Back then people would make spears and use them to try stab others through the bars. “You never came out of your cell without boots, to protect yourself,” he said. “Nowadays, I can go out in shower sandals. Beautiful!”

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4) Israel-Hamas War First Aid Trucks Move Through Crossing to Gaza

The United Nations said the 20-truck convoy carried “life-saving supplies,” which the World Health Organization warned would “barely begin to address the escalating health needs” in Gaza.

Updated Oct. 21, 2023, 1:03 p.m. ET11 minutes ago

Current time in: Jerusalem Oct. 21, 8:14 p.m.

https://www.nytimes.com/live/2023/10/21/world/israel-hamas-war-gaza-news

A group of trucks carried much-needed humanitarian supplies into the territory from Egypt on Saturday. Credit...Samar Abu Elouf for The New York Times

A convoy of 20 trucks carrying aid moved through the Rafah border crossing into Gaza from Egypt on Saturday, according to the United Nations, after days of diplomatic wrangling to get food, water and medicine into the blockaded enclave where supplies were running out and hospitals were nearing collapse.

 

Aid officials welcomed the breakthrough but warned that the trucks, which the United Nations said carried “lifesaving supplies,” carried barely enough to start addressing the spiraling humanitarian crisis in Gaza.

 

Oct. 21, 2023, 1:02 p.m. ET13 minutes ago

 

The supplies that aid trucks carried into Gaza through the Rafah crossing included cases of water, feminine hygiene products and blankets.

 

The Palestine Red Crescent Society on Saturday said it was receiving the 20 truckloads of food, water and medical supplies that came through the Rafah border crossing with Egypt and that it intended to distribute the aid to places that are in the direst need.

 

The aid would be taken to warehouses being maintained by UNRWA, the U.N. agency for Palestinians, and then delivered to sites that need it, according to Nebal Farsakh, a Palestine Red Crescent spokeswoman. The timing of such deliveries was not clear.

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5) A Different Border Crisis Mirrors What’s Happening in the U.S.

By Lorgia García Peña, Oct. 22, 2023

Dr. García Peña is a writer, activist and scholar who specializes in Latinx studies, with a focus on Black Latinidades.

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/22/opinion/haiti-dominican-racism-immigration.html

People from Juana Mendez, Haiti, wait in vain to be allowed to cross into Dajabon, Dominican Republic, Oct. 11, 2023. Credit...Ricardo Hernandez/Associated Press

Haiti and the Dominican Republic together make up the island of Hispaniola. These countries are linked by histories of colonialism, slavery, dictatorships and U.S. military interventions.

 

Though at times they have come together to fight for sovereignty and justice or to confront the aftermaths of environmental disasters, this legacy has not united the two nations. Theirs has been a history splintered with xenophobia, colorism and violence that has seethed into the present day.

 

In September the Dominican president, Luis Abinader, sealed all land, air and sea borders with Haiti, prohibiting the passage of goods and people and denying all visas to Haitian citizens, as retaliation for what he considers to be Haiti’s illegal construction of an irrigation canal on a shared river, Rio Massacre. Haiti’s government said its farmers need the water to grow crops, while Mr. Abinader claims it will divert water needed by Dominican farmers.

 

The border closures reinforced the dangerous nativist Dominican rhetoric Mr. Abinader and his government have deployed in their efforts to contain Haitian immigration. Claims that Haitians are invading have led to the banning of Haitians from public transit, mass deportations and, reportedly, looting of Haitian-owned residences.

 

The president partly reopened the border for some commerce on Oct. 11. Haitians are still barred from entering the Dominican Republic, including for emergency medical assistance.

 

The Dominican borderlands, known as La Línea Fronteriza, stretch more than 240 miles and are home to a vibrant interethnic and multicultural community of people of Haitian and Dominican ancestry.

 

Many people from La Línea have family on either side of the border, and until Mr. Abinader sealed it off, crossed often, sometimes daily, to attend church or school or to seek medical care. The area is also an important site of commerce for Dominican farmers and traders. The border’s fluidity has been central to the livelihood of communities on both sides of the island since colonial times.

 

Because of the gang violence gripping Haiti and the country’s lack of a functional government, opening the border to commerce for Haitians and for those aiding them is critical. The Dominican Republic and the rest of the international community, particularly the United States, must take effective and compassionate measures that can support Haitians.

 

Late last year, the Biden administration said it would allow more than 100,000 additional Haitians to apply for temporary protected status, citing the extraordinary conditions in the crisis-ridden country. The homeland security secretary, Alejandro Mayorkas, extended temporary protected status for Haitians through August 2024 and redesignated it to allow Haitian nationals residing in the United States as of November 2022 to apply.

 

It’s a step in the right direction, but Washington and others can and should do more, including halting all deportations of Haitian migrants escaping violence.

 

The crisis along the Haitian-Dominican border is part of the history of anti-Haitian racism and xenophobia institutionalized during Rafael Trujillo’s dictatorship, from 1930 to 1961, which has its roots in the colonial projects that shaped the sides of the island to be different from each other.

 

In the late 17th century, the island was divided between Spain and France. In 1822 the two sides were united under the Haitian flag. But a group of men from the Spanish-speaking portion of the island moved to sever ties with Haiti, in part to avoid crippling debt to enslavers and insert themselves in the global market. They used linguistic and cultural differences to garner popular support.

 

The Dominican Republic established itself as different from Haiti in 1844.

 

In 1915 the United States invaded Haiti and the next year occupied the entire island, establishing a national guard and creating a worker program that sent Haitian workers to the Dominican Republic to cut cane in the nation’s American-owned sugar factories.

 

When the Americans left, Mr. Trujillo, who had been trained by U.S. Marines during the occupation, became president. The dictator, who envisioned a non-Black nation, institutionalized a campaign that portrayed Haitians as culturally and racially inferior. In October 1937 he ordered the massacre of over 20,000 Haitians and Dominicans of Haitian descent along the river at the center of today’s dispute.

 

In September 2013 the Dominican Constitutional Court issued a ruling that retroactively denied Dominican nationality to anyone born after 1929 who did not have at least one parent of Dominican heritage. The ruling, known as La Sentencia (the sentence), was aimed at controlling undocumented immigration from Haiti. In practice, it effectively left stateless an estimated 200,000 Dominican citizens of Haitian descent.

 

The ruling prompted anger from the international community. In 2014 the Dominican Republic offered a stopgap solution in the form of a law that, in theory, offers a path to legalization for those stripped of citizenship the year before. Yet thousands of Dominicans of Haitian descent continue to face deportation and human rights abuses as a result of their legal status. In 2022 alone, more than 150,000 people were deported.

 

The crisis along the border is another example of a global trend in which nativist and extreme nationalist rhetoric is being weaponized by government officials seeking to garner popular support.

 

In some ways what is happening on the Haitian-Dominican border echoes the reversal of basic civil rights in the United States. In 2013 as the Dominican Republic issued La Sentencia and we saw a deportation surge under the Obama administration, I implored readers to reflect on the United States’ role in the propagation of extreme ideas about immigration that harked back to Jim Crow and apartheid. Since then, children have been separated from their parents at the southern border, travel bans were aimed at Muslims, and migrants were rounded up on buses and sent elsewhere.

 

In years since, I have traded my optimism for vigilance. I invite you all to do the same. If you value freedom and justice, you must stay alert, get involved, be aware. Like many Dominicans, some Americans, particularly those of us who identify as Black, brown or descendants of immigrants, could well find ourselves without a country, suddenly illegal in our own home.

 

Lorgia García Peña, a professor at Princeton University, is the author, most recently, of “Translating Blackness: Migrations of Latinx Colonialities in Global Perspective.”

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6) After Bruising Vote, Indigenous Australians Say ‘Reconciliation Is Dead’

The rejection of the Indigenous Voice to Parliament is likely to lead to an irreversible shift in the nation’s relationship with its first peoples.

By Yan Zhuang, Published Oct. 21, 2023, Updated Oct. 22, 2023. Reporting from Sydney, Australia

"British colonialists considered Australia uninhabited, and the country has never signed a treaty with its Indigenous people, who are not mentioned in its Constitution, which was produced more than a century after Captain Cook first reached the continent."

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/21/world/australia/indigenous-voice-reconciliation-dead.html

From left, the flag of the Torres Strait Islands, the Aboriginal flag and the Australian flag, in Canberra this month. Credit...Lukas Coch/Australian Associated Press, via Reuters

The result of the referendum was decisive, and at the same time, divisive. It bruised Indigenous Australians who for decades had hoped that a conciliatory approach would help right the wrongs of the country’s colonial history. So, the nation’s leader made a plea.

 

“This moment of disagreement does not define us. And it will not divide us,” Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, visibly emotional, said this month, after voters in every state and territory except one rejected the constitutional referendum. “This is not the end for reconciliation.”

 

But that was a difficult proposition to accept for Indigenous leaders who saw the result as a vote for a tortured status quo in a country that is already far behind other colonized nations in reconciling with its first inhabitants.

 

The rejection of the Indigenous Voice to Parliament — a proposed advisory body — was widely anticipated. Nonetheless, it was a severe blow for Indigenous people, who largely voted for it. With many perceiving it as the denial of their past and their place in the nation, the defeat of the Voice not only threatens to derail any further reconciliation but could also unleash a much more confrontational approach to Indigenous rights and race relations in Australia.

 

“Reconciliation only works if you have two parties who are willing to make up after a fight and move on,” said Larissa Baldwin Roberts, an Aboriginal woman and the chief executive of GetUp, a progressive activist group that campaigned for the Voice. “But if one party doesn’t acknowledge that there is even a fight here that’s happened, how can you reconcile?”

 

She added, “We need to move into a space that is maybe not as polite, maybe not as conciliatory and be unafraid to tell people the warts-and-all story around how dispossession and colonization continues in this country.”

 

For Marcia Langton, one of the country’s most prominent Aboriginal leaders, the consequences were obvious. “It’s very clear that reconciliation is dead,” she said.

 

For decades, Ms. Langton and others championed a moderate approach to Indigenous rights. They worked within Australia’s reconciliation movement, a broadly bipartisan government approach aimed at healing and strengthening the relationship between Indigenous and non-Indigenous people.

 

One visible sign of this effort is the flying of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander flags next to the Australian flag in most official settings. Many public events start with an acknowledgment of the traditional owners of the land the event is held on.

 

But activists have long said that these displays can be tokenistic, and the focus on unity can come at the expense of agitating for Indigenous rights. And the referendum has shown that wide schisms still persist in how Australia views its colonial past — as benign or harmful — and over whether the entrenched disadvantages of Indigenous communities result from colonization or people’s own actions, culture and ways of life.

 

“We are very much behind other countries in their relationships with Indigenous people,” said Hannah McGlade, a law professor at Curtin University in Perth and a member of the U.N. Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, who is an Aboriginal woman and a supporter of the Voice.

 

In countries like Finland, Sweden and Norway, the Sami people have a legal right to be consulted on issues affecting their communities. Canada has recognized First Nations treaty rights in its Constitution, and New Zealand signed a treaty with the Maori in the late 1800s.

 

British colonialists considered Australia uninhabited, and the country has never signed a treaty with its Indigenous people, who are not mentioned in its Constitution, which was produced more than a century after Captain Cook first reached the continent.

 

To rectify this, more than 250 Indigenous leaders came together in 2017 and devised a three-step plan for forgiveness and healing. The first was a Voice, enshrined in the Constitution. A treaty with the government would follow, and finally, a process of “truth-telling” to uncover Australia’s colonial history.

 

But some Indigenous activists argued that forgiveness shouldn’t be on offer. And other Australians were rankled by the suggestion that there was something to forgive.

 

“The English did nothing wrong. Neither did any of you,” one author wrote for a national newspaper earlier this year. Another columnist argued that any compensation paid to Aboriginal people now would be “by people today who didn’t do the harm, to people today who didn’t suffer it.”

 

Some Aboriginal leaders opposed the Voice but by and large, polls showed, the Indigenous community was in favor of it.

 

But for many opponents, “this was cast as a referendum about race, division and racial privileges, special privileges — it really failed to grasp or respect Indigenous people’s rights and the shocking history of colonization, which has devastating impacts to this day,” Ms. McGlade said.

 

For decades, the country has gone back and forth on how improve Indigenous outcomes. The community has a life expectancy that is eight years shorter than the national average, and suffers rates of suicide and incarceration many times higher than the general population.

 

Although many Indigenous leaders and experts have said the repercussions of and trauma from colonization are the root cause of this disadvantage, governments — particularly conservative ones — have been resistant to this idea. The remedy, some former prime ministers have said, is to integrate remote Indigenous communities with mainstream society.

 

During the debate about the Voice, this view was echoed by Jacinta Nampijinpa Price, an Aboriginal senator who became a prominent opponent of the Voice, and who said that Indigenous people faced “no ongoing negative impacts of colonization.” Aboriginal communities experienced violence “not because of the effects of colonization, but because it’s expected that young girls are married off to older husbands in arranged marriages,” she added.

 

Such arguments helped galvanize opposition to the Voice.

 

“A significant chunk of the Australian public has been able to find legitimacy in that opposition to not to come to terms with that past,” said Paul Strangio, a professor of politics at Monash University.

 

In April, the main opposition party, the conservative Liberal Party, said it would vote against the Voice, all but sealing its fate — constitutional change has never succeeded in Australia without bipartisan support. Its leaders argued that proposal was divisive, lacked detail, could give advice on everything from taxes to defense policy, and was a politically correct vanity project from Mr. Albanese, the prime minister, that distracted people from issues like the high cost of living.

 

This stance, Mr. Strangio said, appealed to a sense of “economic and cultural insecurity” among many voters, particularly those outside big cities.

 

The particulars of the Voice, Mr. Albanese and other supporters said, would have been hashed out by Parliament if it succeeded. But the lack of concrete details gave rise to misinformation and disinformation, the sheer volume of which shocked experts.

 

In such a climate, any pursuit of more forceful politics by Indigenous activists may bring a more combative response. On Friday, Tony Abbott, a former conservative prime minister, said Australia should stop flying the Aboriginal flag next to the national flag, and acknowledging traditional place names.

 

The defeat of the Voice, Mr. Strangio said, is likely to emboldened the conservative opposition to continue with “the politics of disenchantment, of cultural and economic insecurity, that taps into that grievance politics.”

 

He added, “We are in for a polarized, divisive debate.”

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7) Attorneys Warn Biden's Support for Israeli Assault on Gaza Could Make Him Complicit in Genocide

"The United States—and U.S. citizens, including and up to the president—can be held responsible for their role in furthering genocide," says a brief by experts at the Center for Constitutional Rights.

By Jake Johnson, Oct. 20, 2023

https://www.commondreams.org/news/biden-complicit-genocide

Made in Israel by Mr. Fish

A day before President Joe Biden delivered his primetime Oval Office address demanding more military aid for Israel, a group of expert attorneys issued a grave warning.

 

By continuing to arm the Israeli military as it carries out a massive assault on the Gaza Strip, the lawyers argued in an emergency briefing paper published Wednesday, the Biden administration is rendering itself complicit in possible genocide against Palestinians in the occupied territory.

 

"The United States is not only failing to uphold its obligation to prevent the commission of genocide, but there is a plausible and credible case to be made that the United States' actions to further the Israeli military operation, closure, and campaign against the Palestinian population in Gaza rise to the level of complicity in the crime under international law," warned experts with the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR), a U.S.-based nonprofit.

 

CCR's brief notes that "the United States—and U.S. citizens, including and up to the president—can be held responsible for their role in furthering genocide," both under international and U.S. law.

 

"Israel's invocation of self-defense for the campaign it has unleashed against the entire Palestinian population in Gaza, and the full credit the United States gives it when affirming its unconditional support, does not negate genocidal intent or serve as a justification for its crimes under international law," the brief adds. "In the absence of accountability, we have now reached the point of genocide. All states must now—finally—act, including the United States, to end and address all of these crimes."

 

The brief was released following Biden's visit to Israel earlier this week, during which he embraced Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and vowed to keep backing the far-right leader's devastating military campaign, which has killed more than 4,000 Palestinians in Gaza and left large swaths of the enclave in ruins.

 

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs estimates that at least 30% of Gaza's housing units have been destroyed or damaged by Israeli airstrikes.

 

CCR observed in its legal analysis that "prior to and alongside these acts of mass killings and targeting of civilian infrastructure, Israeli officials in the political and military hierarchy have made clear, unambiguous statements that reveal an intent to destroy the Palestinian population in Gaza, including by creating conditions of life calculated to bring about the population's destruction (in whole or in part)."

 

Katherine Gallagher, a senior attorney with CCR, emphasized in an interview with The Intercepton Thursday that "U.S. officials can be held responsible for their failure to prevent Israel's unfolding genocide, as well as for their complicity, by encouraging it and materially supporting it.”

 

"We recognize that we make serious charges in this document—but they are not unfounded," said Gallagher. "There is a credible basis for these claims."

 

The brief provides a day-by-day summary of Israeli officials' "statements and conduct advancing genocide" since October 7, when Hamas carried out a deadly attack on Israel. The brief then examines statements from U.S. officials signaling unconditional support for Israel on those same days, even as the evidence of war crimes mounted.

 

For example, on the day that Israel Defense Forces (IDF) spokesperson Daniel Hagari announced that the Israeli military had already dropped "hundreds of tons of bombs" on Gaza and declared that the focus of the assault was "on damage and not on accuracy," Biden said that his administration "will make sure that Israel has what it needs to take care of its citizens, defend itself, and respond to this attack."

 

Days later, a member of the Netanyahu government's "war cabinet" said in an interview that Gaza "must be smaller at the end of the war." According to a White House readout from that day, Biden "spoke with Prime Minister Netanyahu to reiterate unwavering U.S. support for Israel."

 

Even in the face of warnings from genocide studies scholars, human rights groups, and the United Nations that Israel is running roughshod over international law and committing crimes against humanity, Biden is expected Friday to request that Congress approve $14 billion in additional military assistance for Israel as part of a supplemental funding package.

 

That sum, according toCNN, "reflects requests Biden received while traveling to the region on Wednesday."

 

CCR attorneys stressed in their brief that the Biden administration's pledges of military support for Israel "have been made with full knowledge of Israeli statements and Israel's action from which genocidal intent against the Palestinian civil population can be inferred."

 

"Furthermore and critically," the brief reads, "the material assistance and pledges of assistance and encouragement have never diminished, and in fact, continued, after Israeli officials clearly stated the goal of subjecting the entire civilian population of Palestine to conditions of life intended to destroy the group in whole or in part, through the killing of Palestinians by indiscriminate bombardment, including after the death toll of children surpassed 1,000."

 

"It continued after the deprivation of the most essential necessities to sustain human life reached a point where the Palestinian population was largely without food, water, electricity, and fuel, with the attendant devastating impacts on their access to medical assistance and health," the document adds.

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8) Death Toll Rises in Gaza, Officials Say, as Israel Launches Intense Airstrikes

More deaths were reported after Israel said it had launched one of the heaviest barrages of airstrikes in recent days. The United States has advised Israel to delay a ground invasion to allow more time for hostage negotiations and aid deliveries, U.S. officials said.

https://www.nytimes.com/live/2023/10/23/world/israel-hamas-war-gaza-news

At least 436 people were killed in Israeli airstrikes “in the past hours,” including 182 children, the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry said, adding that most casualties were in the southern part of the territory. Israel has told civilians in northern Gaza to flee south as it prepares a possible ground invasion. Israel’s military said Monday that it had struck more than 320 targets in Gaza over the past day.

The death toll in Gaza rose sharply on Monday, according to the Hamas-run health ministry, after Israel said it had struck hundreds of targets in the territory in one of the biggest barrages of airstrikes in recent days.

 

The Israeli military also said it had attacked Hezbollah positions in Lebanon, even as President Biden led an international diplomatic effort to try to ensure the conflict does not ensnare other nations in the region.

 

In a joint statement on Sunday, Mr. Biden and the leaders of Britain, Canada, France, Germany and Italy urged Israel to protect civilians as it defended itself, and called for the release of all hostages believed to be held in Gaza. The Gaza health ministry said Monday that Israeli airstrikes had killed at least 436 people “in the past hours,” bringing the death toll to more than 5,000 since Oct. 7, when Israel began launching airstrikes in retaliation for an attack by the Hamas militant group that killed 1,400 people.

 

U.S. officials said that the Biden administration had advised Israel to delay a ground invasion of Gaza, a move that would allow more time for negotiations to release the more than 200 people being held hostage by Hamas and other armed groups in Gaza, and for more humanitarian aid to reach the territory. There have been glimmers of hope on both fronts — two convoys of aid entered Gaza over the weekend, and Hamas released two American hostages on Friday.

 

On Sunday, Mr. Biden also spoke with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel. The two leaders, according to a White House statement, affirmed that “there will now be continued flow” of humanitarian aid into Gaza.

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9) U.A.W. Expands Strike to a Ram Plant in Michigan

The United Automobile Workers union called on 6,800 workers to walk off the job at a large factory that makes one of Stellantis’s most profitable vehicles.

By Neal E. Boudette, Oct. 23, 2023

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/23/business/economy/uaw-strike-ram-pickup-truck.html

Ram is one of the most important of Stellantis’s auto brands, because of the popularity and higher prices that pickup trucks command. Credit...Brittany Greeson for The New York Times

In a major escalation of its six-week strike at the three large U.S. automakers, the United Automobile Workers union on Monday told 6,800 workers at a large Ram pickup truck plant in Michigan to walk off the job.

 

Union workers at the plant, which is owned by Stellantis, the parent of Ram, Chrysler and Jeep, in Sterling Heights, Mich., joined the strike on Monday morning. Shutting down production at the plant, the largest Stellantis factory in the United States, suggests there are still big gaps between the automakers and the U.A.W., which is seeking raises of 40 percent over four years, better retirement benefits and other changes.

 

“Stellantis has the worst proposal on the table regarding wage progression, temporary worker pay and conversion to full-time, cost-of-living adjustments, and more,” the U.A.W. said in a statement.

 

The walkout at the Ram plant is the first escalation in the strikes since the U.A.W. called 8,700 workers to leave their jobs at Ford Motor’s largest plant, in Louisville, Ky., on Oct. 11. That plant produces the Super Duty version of the company’s popular F-150 truck and the Ford Expedition, a full-size sport-utility vehicle.

 

Ram is one of the most important of Stellantis’s many auto brands, because of the popularity and higher prices that pickup trucks command in the United States. The plant, about 25 miles north of Detroit, makes Ram 1500 pickup trucks, the brand’s top-selling vehicle. In the first six months of this year, Stellantis reported about $12 billion in profit, more than General Motors and Ford combined.

 

Stellantis is a relatively new company and was formed by the merger of Fiat Chrysler and Peugeot, the French automaker, in January 2021. The combined company is based in Amsterdam and has its U.S. headquarters in Auburn Hills, Mich., near Detroit.

 

Altogether about 40,000 workers at Ford, G.M. and Stellantis are on strike across the country. The union is on strike at Ford plants in Michigan, Kentucky and Chicago; a plant in Ohio and spare-parts warehouses owned by Stellantis; and two plants in Michigan and Missouri and warehouses owned by G.M.

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10) Nonunion Workers Are Playing a Big Role in the Autoworkers’ Strike

The three U.S. automakers say they are already at a disadvantage to nonunion rivals while labor leaders hope that big gains in negotiations will inspire workers in Southern states to unionize.

By Jack Ewing, Oct. 23, 2023

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/23/business/union-nonunion-autoworkers-uaw.html

The United Automobile Workers union views its strike as a step toward better pay for both union and nonunion workers. Credit...Taylor Glascock for The New York Times

Tens of thousands of people who work for Toyota in Kentucky, Mercedes-Benz in Alabama or Tesla in Texas are technically not involved in the high-stakes negotiations taking place between labor and management in and around Detroit.

 

But they are very much a presence.

 

Executives at Ford Motor, General Motors and Stellantis, the parent of Chrysler, invoke nonunion automakers, many of them in the South, as a competitive threat that makes it impossible for them to meet striking workers’ demands for big raises, more generous benefits and better working conditions.

 

“Toyota, Honda, Tesla and others are loving this strike because they know the longer it goes on, the better it is for them,” Bill Ford, the executive chair of Ford Motor, said in Michigan last week. “They will win, and all of us will lose.”

 

The United Automobile Workers union sees such statements as an attempt to play workers off one another. It views the strikes, entering their sixth week, as a first step toward better pay for not only U.A.W. members but also the nonunion workers that it plans to recruit in the future.

 

“We won’t be used in this phony competition,” Shawn Fain, the U.A.W. president, said on Friday, reacting to Mr. Ford’s speech. He added, “Nonunion autoworkers are not the enemy. Those are our future union family.”

 

The pay gap between union and nonunion factories has long been a point of contention. Some industry executives have argued that high union wages were a big reason G.M. and Chrysler had to resort to bankruptcy after the 2008 financial crisis.

 

Union leaders and progressive lawmakers have asserted that the growth of nonunion manufacturing, mostly in the South but also in the Midwest and West, has helped to erode the middle class over the past several decades.

 

Veteran union autoworkers tend to make more than production workers who are not represented by unions. They often have more say in their schedules and overtime work.

 

But starting pay at Ford, G.M. and Stellantis factories can be lower than at nonunion factories. And the pay of nonunion workers at Southern auto plants tends to go further because the cost of living there is lower than it is in the Midwest.

 

Even the geographic divide between union and nonunion plant is not always as clear as it may seem. Toyota and Honda have plants in the South, where unions are weak, but they also have factories in Ohio and Indiana, where unions are stronger. And G.M. and Ford have union operations in Kentucky, Tennessee and Texas.

 

The debate about auto industry wages has become more urgent as automakers invest billions to build factories that produce batteries for electric cars. Most of those factories are being built in Southern states, like Georgia and Tennessee, where local laws make it more difficult for unions to organize a factory.

 

“A good agreement with the Detroit Three would be powerful because it gives union organizers better arguments for joining the union,” said Ian Greer, a Cornell research professor who studies the effect of electric vehicles on labor.

 

Even with a union wage of almost $32 an hour from her job assembling chassis at a Ford factory in Chicago, Schataan Lyke said she did not have it easy. She is the sole breadwinner for three children and worries about how to afford a prom dress for her oldest.

 

Ms. Lyke, who has been on strike, said she was glad to have the union behind her. “You’ve got someone on the outside fighting for you,” she said.

 

But Ms. Lyke, 37, has it better than people doing similar work in the South. At a Nissan factory in Canton, Miss., Morris Mock, 49, makes about $1 less than Ms. Lyke per hour even with more than 20 years of experience, he said.

 

An attempt to unionize Nissan in 2017 failed to win enough support from workers. That means Mr. Mock, one of the people who led the union drive, will not benefit directly from the contract that the U.A.W. works out with automakers. But he said he was glad the union was fighting to protect wages as the industry switched to electric vehicles.

 

“The market is about to change,” Mr. Mock said. “I’m glad that they understand that we must put workers first.”

 

Government statistics suggest wide regional pay gaps. Michigan autoworkers make 22 percent more than production workers in Tennessee, 23 percent more than South Carolina workers and 28 percent more than Alabama workers, according to a Census Bureau survey. Those figures include people who work for suppliers, where pay is often lower than in factories that assemble vehicles.

 

Some labor experts said the bigger difference between union and nonunion autoworkers had less to do with pay and more with things like mandatory overtime and the scheduling of shifts. Union workers tend to have more say in those matters.

 

The auto industry has been moving South for decades, drawn by lower costs, weak unions and local government incentives. Foreign automakers have often chosen sites in the South when they set up factories in the United States. BMW and Volvo Cars have factories in South Carolina; Mercedes and Hyundai in Alabama; Toyota in Kentucky; and Volkswagen in Tennessee.

 

Most of the foreign automakers do not disclose what they pay their workers. Volkswagen, an exception, said the starting pay at its factory in Chattanooga, Tenn., was $21.10 for hourly production workers. Veteran workers earn more than $29, the company said.

 

Foreign automakers concentrated in the South sometimes pay their U.S. workers more than Ford, G.M. and Stellantis, according to a study by EY for Autos Drive America, an industry association that represents Nissan, Toyota, Mercedes and others.

 

The average starting wage at foreign automakers was $19 an hour, the survey said, more than the $17 starting wage for U.A.W. members. But the average maximum pay at the foreign automakers was $28, compared with $32 for U.A.W. members under the current contract.

 

A Nissan spokesman declined to say how much the company pays its U.S. workers, but he said the average was higher than that reported by the Autos Drive America survey.

 

Tesla, which is based in Texas and has factories there and in Buffalo; Fremont, Calif.; and Sparks, Nev., does not disclose what it pays its workers, but the Detroit automakers say it is less than what they pay.

 

Ford has said its labor costs, including benefits and bonuses, are 40 percent more per worker than Tesla’s. That figure does not include stock awards that at least some Tesla employees receive. On Tesla’s website, job advertisements for a production associate pay $20 to $23 an hour.

 

Even if autoworker pay in Alabama or Mississippi is less than what it is in Michigan or Illinois, it is often more than what employers in other industries pay in those places.

 

Working conditions are often a bigger issue than pay, labor representatives say.

 

In February, Emily Erickson of the University of Warwick in England and Berneece Herbert of Jackson State University published a survey of 211 workers at Mercedes’s factory in Vance, Ala., near Tuscaloosa.

 

The workers reported earning an average of $27 an hour at Mercedes, high for the region. But they said they were forced to work overtime or change their work schedules with little notice. Almost half worked more than 50 hours a week. The study also found that white workers made an average of $3 more per hour than Black workers.

 

Mercedes denied that it discriminates. “Our pay structure is equal for all team members regardless of race, age or ethnic origin, and our pay progressions are based on seniority,” the company said in a statement.

 

It noted that the company employed 6,000 people in Alabama, suggesting that the study sampled too few workers. “We do not agree with its conclusions,” Mercedes said.

 

The gulf between pay in the South and the North is certain to widen when Ford, G.M. and Stellantis agree on new contracts with the U.A.W. The union is demanding a 40 percent increase over four years. Ford, G.M. and Stellantis have already offered raises of 23 percent and could go higher.

 

Unions have made some progress in the South recently. Workers at Blue Bird, which makes school buses in Georgia, voted to join the United Steelworkers in May and are negotiating a contract. Workers at ZF, which makes axles for Mercedes in Alabama, ended a monthlong strike last week after the German company agreed to raise the top hourly wage to $23.

 

Labor leaders say they have already been deluged with calls from workers at Toyota, Volkswagen and Hyundai who expressed interest in organizing unions. Workers at Volkswagen voted not to join the union in 2019, but the environment may be different this time.

 

“These workers will say, ‘Look what the U.A.W. did for these workers at G.M., Ford and Stellantis,’” said Tim Smith, director of U.A.W. Region 8, which includes all of the Southeast.

 

“We’ve got organizers on the ground there right now,” he said. “We’re starting to make our move.”

 

Ben Casselman and Bob Chiarito contributed reporting.

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