Bay Area United Against War Newsletter, October 26, 2023

    

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"The Rock" on top of Bernal Hill overlooking downtown San Francisco painted October 23, 2023. 

As of October 26, 2023, the total number of Palestinians killed by Israel is now over 7,028 (at least 3,000 of them children—with at least 18,482 Palestinians injured) vs. 1,400 Israelis killed by Hamas (30 of them children) and 200 abducted by Hamas on October 7, 2023.

NO JUSTICE! NO PEACE!

FROM THE RIVER TO THE SEA  PALESTINE WILL BE FREE!

END ALL U.S. AID TO ISRAEL!

FOR A DEMOCRATIC, SECULAR PALESTINE!

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PLEASE SIGN AND FORWARD WIDELY!

 

To endorse the following statement as a trade unionist, please click here:

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSd2tpd2c62Sh5YEVDOr2vmGWTuQArt-6OPQMDwd2wUnfNi_rQ/viewform

 

To endorse as other, please click here:

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdzWaP1U_KOHlH-ou1R3OD8zsuI5BWW1b9H4gtPoFK_lIQB3g/viewform

 

The list of signers will be updated periodically

Contact: info@laborforpalestine.net

Website: laborforpalestine.net

 

Stand With Palestinian Workers: 

Cease the Genocide Now—Stop Arming Israel!

Labor for Palestine, October 24, 2023

 

“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.” An Urgent Call from Palestinian Trade Unions: End all Complicity, Stop Arming Israel (October 16, 2023)

 

The undersigned U.S. workers, trade unionists, and anti-apartheid activists join labor around the world in condemning the Israeli siege on Gaza that has killed or maimed thousands of Palestinians—many of them children—and stand with Palestinians’ “right to exist, resist, return, and self-determination.”

 

The latest Israeli attacks reflect more than a century of ongoing Zionist settler-colonialism, dispossession, ethnic cleansing, racism, genocide, and apartheid—including Israel’s establishment through the uprooting and displacement of over 750,000 Palestinians during the 1947-1948 Nakba. Indeed, eighty percent of the 2.3 million people in Gaza are refugees from other parts of historic Palestine.

 

Israel’s crimes are only possible because of more than $3.8 billion a year (or $10+ million per day) in bipartisan US military aid that gives Israel the guns, bullets, tanks, ships, jet fighters, missiles, helicopters, white phosphorus and other weapons to kill and maim the Palestinian people. This is the same system of racist state violence that, through shared surveillance technology and police exchange programs, brutalizes BIPOC and working class people in the United States and around the world.

 

In response, we demand an immediate end to the genocide, and embrace the recent Urgent Call from Palestinian Trade Unions: End all Complicity, Stop Arming Israel:

 

1.     To refuse to build weapons destined for Israel. To refuse to transport weapons to Israel. 

 

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

 

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

 

4.     Pressure governments to stop all military trade with Israel, and in the case of the U.S., funding to it.

 

We further reaffirm the call on labor bodies to respect previous Palestinian trade union appeals for solidarity by adopting this statement, and/or the model resolution below to divest from Israel Bonds, sever all ties with the Israel’s racist labor federation, the Histadrut, and its US mouthpiece, the Jewish Labor Committee, and respect the Palestinian picket line for Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS). 

 

Initial Signers on behalf of Labor for Palestine

(organizational affiliations listed for identification only)

Suzanne Adely, Labor for Palestine, US Palestinian Community Network, Arab Workers Resource Center; Food Chain Workers Alliance (staff); President, National Lawyers Guild; Monadel Herzallah, Arab American Union Members Council; Ruth Jennison, Department Rep., Massachusetts Society of Professors, MTA, NEA; Co-Chair, Labor Standing Committee River Valley DSA; Delegate to Western Mass Area Labor Federation; Lara Kiswani, Executive Director, Arab Resource & Organizing Center (AROC); Block the Boat; Michael Letwin, Former President, Association of Legal Aid Attorneys/UAW Local 2325; Jews for Palestinian Right of Return; Corinna Mullin, PSC-CUNY International Committee; CUNY for Palestine; Clarence Thomas, Co-Chair, Million Worker March; Executive Board, ILWU Local 10 (retired.)

 

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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 

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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]

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[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) 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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2) 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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3)  The Bronx Defenders Union

UAW Local 2325 Statement in Support of Palestinians

October 20, 2023

https://drive.google.com/file/d/15Hzyy_ufSJ9h8GjiYdg4eRKdGIUyikRE/view

Rescue workers look for survivors in home in Deir al Balah demolished by Israeli on October 15, 2023.

We, The Bronx Defenders Union—UAW Local 2325 are the Union representing the workers of The Bronx Defenders. As people of conscience, we heed the urgent call by Palestinian trade unions for  organized workers worldwide “to end all forms of complicity with Israel’s crimes.”[1]

 

We vehemently oppose the decades long Israeli occupation and ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people. In the last 13 days Israel has made its genocidal intent in Gaza unequivocally clear. In announcing Israel’s “complete siege of Gaza,” Israel’s Defense Minister stated: “There will be no electricity, no food, no fuel, everything is closed. We are fighting human animals, and we are acting accordingly.”[2] Israel’s Prime Minister further clarified that for Israel, “[t]his is a struggle between the children of light and the children of darkness, between humanity and the law of the jungle.”[3]Israel’s genocidal rhetoric is only outmatched by its genocidal actions. Beyond cutting off electricity, food, and water to 2.5 million Palestinians confined and heavily surveilled in an open-air prison[4], Israel has relentlessly attacked Gaza with over 6,000 airstrikes in 13 days[5], including the October 17 Israeli airstrike of the Al-Ahli Arab Hospital that killed over 500 Palestinian hospital workers and civilians.[6] In the past 13 days alone Israel is responsible for killing over 3,000 Palestinians and injuring over 12,500 Palestinian civilians.[7]

 

We refuse to decontextualize these atrocities committed by Israel and we condemn any attempts to create false equivalencies between the oppressed and the oppressor. As Toni Morrison and others wrote: “Each provocation and counter-provocation is contested and preached over. But the subsequent arguments, accusations, and vows, all serve as a distraction in order to divert world attention from a long-term military, economic and geographic practice whose political aim is nothing less than the liquidation of the Palestinian nation.”[8] We recognize that 75 years of Israeli occupation and its apartheid laws[9] are the root cause of the violence unfolding in Palestine.

 

We understand that even acknowledging the suffering of the Palestinian people at our workplace can come with consequences.[10] Recently, BxD staff were subjected to a settlement agreement, approved by the Board of Directors and without consent of the Union, that forced all-staff participation with the Louis D. Brandeis Center, an organization that is proudly Zionist and that describes “anti-Israelism on university campuses” as the “leading civil and human rights challenge.”[11] And yet despite these attempts at silencing support for Palestinians, we will not be intimidated. We recognize that our duty to speak out and defend Palestinians is deeply rooted in our commitment as public defenders and unionized workers.

 

As public defenders defending the most demonized and oppressed communities in the United States—poor, criminalized, immigrant, Black, and Indigenous people—we are familiar with how the U.S. political establishment legitimizes state violence against our communities through courts, prisons, police, deportations, and the media.

 

We recognize these same tactics at work in Israel’s 75-year occupation and its apartheid laws enforced by Israel’s military and increasingly fascist court system.[12] We are also familiar with how the U.S. political establishment attempts to manufacture public consent and support for Israel’s violence against Palestinians by repeating unverified reports[13], lies[14], and misinformation.[15]

 

Let this public statement reflect we do not consent to Israel’s genocidal rhetoric and actions against the Palestinian people and we do not consent to U.S. political support for this genocide.

 

We urge all people of good conscience who claim to be committed to the abolition of the prison industrial complex, to migrant rights, to housing justice for all, to ending the family-regulation system, to join us in publicly condemning the atrocities of Israel and defending the Palestinian people from ethnic cleansing and genocide. Your silence puts Palestinian people at risk of total annihilation and weakens our collective power in our shared movements. As Angela Davis stated: 

 

“With our oppressors uniting, it is becoming increasingly clear that all of our struggles for freedom are interconnected, and that no one will be free until we are all free.”[16]16

 

The Bronx Defenders Union—UAW Local 2325—supports Palestinian liberation and resistance under occupation.

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[1] Workers in Palestine, An Urgent Call from Palestinian Trade Unions (Oct. 16, 2023), https://progressive.international/wire/2023-10-16-an-urgent-call-from-palestinian-trade-unions-end-all- complicity-stop-arming-israel/en

[2] Emanuel Fabian, Defense minister announces ‘complete siege’ of Gaza: No power, food or fuel, Times of Israel (Oct. 9, 2023), https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry/defense-minister-announces- complete-siege-of-gaza-no-power-food-or-fuel/

[3] Sonam Sheth, Netanyahu deleted a post on X about a struggle against ‘children of darkness’ around the time of a tragic hospital explosion in Gaza, Business Insider (Oct. 17, 2023), https://www.businessinsider.com/netanyahu-deleted-children-of-darkness-post-gaza-hospital-attack- 2023-10

[4] Press Release by the United Nations Human Rights: Office of the High Commissioner (OHCHR), Dismantle Israel’s carceral regime and “open-air” imprisonment of Palestinians: UN expert, OHCHR (July 10, 2023), https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2023/07/dismantle-israels-carceral-regime-and-open- air-imprisonment-palestinians-un

[5] Israel says 6,000 bombs dropped on Gaza as war with Hamas nears a week, Al Jazeera (Oct. 12, 2023), https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/10/12/israel-says-6000-bombs-dropped-on-gaza-as-war- with-hamas-nears-a-week

[6] Nidal Al-Mughrabi, In deadly day for Gaza, hospital strike kills hundreds, Reuters (Oct. 18, 2023), https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/least-500-victims-israeli-air-strike-hospital-gaza-health- ministry-2023-10-17/

[7] Abeer Salam, At least 3,000 killed in Gaza strip, Palestinian Health Ministry Says, CNN (Oct. 17, 2023), https://www.cnn.com/middleeast/live-news/israel-news-hamas-war-10-17- 23/h_03783b2e3d701d37bfcceb1d7226070c

[8] A Letter from 18 Writers, The Nation (Aug. 18, 2006), https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/letter- 18-writers/tnamp/

[9] Israel’s apartheid against Palestinians: Cruel system of domination and crime against humanity, Amnesty International (Feb. 1, 2022), https://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/mde15/5141/2022/en/

[10] Carl Campanile, NYC legal aid group forced to apologize, pay $170K over anti-Semitism claim, NY Post (March 8, 2023), https://nypost.com/2023/03/08/bronx-defenders-apologize-settle-antisemitism- claim/

[11] Mission and Values, Brandeis Center (last accessed Oct. 18, 2023), https://brandeiscenter.com/about/mission-and-values/

[12] Ohad Zwigenberg, Protests against Israel’s judicial overhaul kick off at Supreme Court a day before crucial hearing, AP News (Sept. 11, 2023), https://apnews.com/article/israel-politics-justice-minister-

judicial-overhaul-netanyahu-b93481650524a63c4e85199c0ea3fb4d

[13] Kat Tenbarge and Melissa Chan, Unverified reports of ‘40 babies beheaded’ in Israel-Hamas war inflame social media, NBC News (Oct. 12, 2023), https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/internet/unverified-

allegations-beheaded-babies-israel-hamas-war-inflame-social-rcna119902

[14] Steve Holland and Nidal Al-Mughrabi, Biden says Gaza militants appear to be behind hospital blast as anti-Israel protests spread, Reuters (Oct. 18, 2023), https://www.reuters.com/world/biden-heads-middle-

east-inflamed-by-gaza-hospital-blast-2023-10-18/

[15] Josh Fiallo and Alex Nguyen, Israel Denies Role in Gaza Hospital Blast That Killed Hundreds, Daily Beast (Oct. 17, 2023), https://www.thedailybeast.com/at-least-500-killed-in-gaza-city-hospital-blast-health-ministry-says

[16] Angela Davis calls to unite anti-racist struggles for Israeli Apartheid Week 2020, BDS (March 16, 2020), https://bdsmovement.net/news/angela-davis-calls-unite-anti-racist-struggles-for-israeli-apartheid-week-2020

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4) Death Toll Climbs in Gaza as Israel Intensifies Airstrikes

More than 700 people were killed overnight, the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry said. One of the two hostages released by Hamas on Monday said she had “gone through hell.”

By Nadav Gavrielov, Oct. 24, 2023

https://www.nytimes.com/live/2023/10/24/world/israel-hamas-war-gaza-news

Workers searched for victims in the rubble of a destroyed home in Khan Younis, Gaza, on Saturday. Credit...Yousef Masoud for The New York Times

The Israeli military said on Tuesday that it had escalated bombardments in Gaza overnight, and Palestinian officials said that hundreds of people had been killed, adding to the devastating toll as Israel faces pressure to delay a ground invasion.

 

Israel said it had struck more than 400 targets in the past 24 hours, after hitting more than 320 a day earlier, in some of the most intense aerial attacks on Gaza in recent days. The Gaza Health Ministry, which is controlled by the armed group Hamas, said that it had recorded the highest single-day death toll of the war: at least 704 people killed in dozens of strikes on homes, a refugee camp and other places. It was not possible to independently verify the toll.

 

While Israeli military officials say they are well prepared for a ground assault in Gaza, part of their strategy to eliminate Hamas, it remains unclear when and if such an invasion will occur. American officials have said Israel’s military is not yet ready with a plan for a successful ground invasion, and have also urged Israel to give more time for hostage negotiations and aid deliveries.

 

During the delays, Israel has intensified its bombardment from the air. The Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry said Israel’s airstrikes had killed more than 5,700 people, nearly half of them children, since Oct. 7, when a Hamas-led attack killed more than 1,400 people in Israel.

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5) U.A.W. Expands Strike to G.M.’s Texas Plant

The union told 5,000 workers on Tuesday to step down at the plant, General Motors’ largest in the United States, as it escalates its labor action at the three large U.S. automakers. A day earlier, the U.A.W. had added a Ram pickup truck plant to its strike.

By Jack Ewing and Neal E. Boudette, Oct. 24, 2023

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/24/business/economy/uaw-general-motors-strike.html

Picketers outside a General Motors processing center in Burton, Mich., in September. Credit...Nick Hagen for The New York Times

In another major expansion of its six-week long strikes at the three large U.S. automakers, the United Automobile Workers union on Tuesday told 5,000 workers at General Motors’ largest U.S. plant, in Arlington, Texas, to stop working.

 

The union expanded the strike on the same day that G.M. announced a drop in its third-quarter profit and said U.A.W. work stoppages had cost it $800 million so far.

 

The work stoppage in Arlington continued the union’s strategy of targeting some of the carmaker’s most profitable vehicles. The Texas factory makes large sport utility vehicles including the Chevrolet Tahoe, GMC Yukon and Cadillac Escalade.

 

On Monday, the union also struck at a Ram pickup truck plant, the largest U.S. factory that Stellantis operates. The U.A.W. has also struck Ford Motor’s largest plant, in Louisville, Ky., which produces the Ford Escape and Lincoln Corsair, which are small S.U.V.s.

 

“Another record quarter, another record year; as we’ve said for months: record profits equal record contracts,” the U.A.W. president, Shawn Fain, said in a statement. “It’s time G.M. workers, and the whole working class, get their fair share.”

 

G.M. executives had said earlier on Tuesday that they hoped to reach a tentative agreement with the union soon. The Arlington walkout dimmed those hopes. The longer the strike lasts, the greater the risk it will become a drag on the U.S. economy.

 

“We are disappointed by the escalation of this unnecessary and irresponsible strike,” G.M. said in a statement. “It is harming our team members who are sacrificing their livelihoods and having negative ripple effects on our dealers, suppliers and the communities that rely on us.”

 

Where Autoworkers Are Walking Out:

Ala.; Ariz.; Ark.; Calif.; Colo.; Conn.; Del.; Fla.; Ga.; Idaho; Ill.; Ind.; Iowa; Kan.; Ky.; La.; Maine; Md.; Mass.; Mich.; Minn.; Miss.; Mo.; Mont.; Neb.; Nev.; N.H.; N.J.; N.M.; N.Y.; N.C.; N.D.; Ohio; Okla.; Ore.; Pa.; R.I.; S.C.; S.D.; Tenn.; Texas; Utah; Vt.; Va.; Wash.; W.Va.; Wis.; Wyo.; 19 locations on strike in Michigan and Ohio.

 

G.M., the largest automaker based in the United States, said on Tuesday that the strike was partly to blame for a 7 percent decline in net profit from a year earlier. The company reported that it earned $3.1 billion from July through September. Including the Texas factory, the strike has idled three of the company’s vehicle plants and 18 spare-parts warehouses.

 

Before the U.A.W. expanded the strike, G.M. said Tuesday that U.A.W. work stoppages had lowered its earnings before interest and taxes by about $200 million in the final weeks of the third quarter and about $600 million since the fourth quarter started on Oct. 1. The automaker estimated that the strike could cost it $200 million a week going forward, though that number will likely grow now that workers at the Texas plant are on strike.

 

“They’ve demanded a record contract — and that’s exactly what we’ve offered for weeks now: a historic contract with record wage increases, record job security and world-class health care,” the company’s chief executive, Mary T. Barra, said in a letter to investors. “It’s an offer that rewards our team members but does not put our company and their jobs at risk.”

 

G.M. has offered the union a contract that would give workers a 23 percent increase in pay over four years, lifting the standard wage for veteran workers to more than $40 an hour from $32; newer workers earn a lower rate. Employees working 40 hours a week at the top rate would earn about $84,000 a year, not including extra pay for overtime or profit-sharing bonuses, which have topped $10,000 in the past two years.

 

Ford and Stellantis have made similar offers.

 

The union had initially demanded raises of 40 percent, saying that more modest increases will not make up for the erosion in living standards that its members have suffered from inflation and concessions in past contracts.

 

Mr. Fain, who was elected president of the union in March, has taken a more confrontational approach to negotiations than his predecessors. He has portrayed talks with G.M., Ford and Stellantis as the first step in a broad effort to organize workers at Tesla, Toyota, Honda and other companies which do not have unions at their U.S. factories.

 

On Friday, Mr. Fain said that G.M., Ford and Stellantis had not yet put their best offer on the table. “Despite all the bluster about how much the companies have stretched,” Mr. Fain said, “there’s clearly still room to move.”

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6) Gaza Health Crisis Deepens as Israeli Strikes Continue

Amid shortages of fuel, medicines and other supplies, the World Health Organization warned that 12 of 35 hospitals in Gaza were not functioning and several were well over capacity.

By Matthew Rosenberg and Nadav Gavrielov

https://www.nytimes.com/live/2023/10/25/world/israel-hamas-war-gaza-news

Since Oct. 7, UNICEF said in a statement, 2,360 children in Gaza and more than 30 children in Israel had been killed, more than 5,360 children in Gaza had been injured.

With just eight aid trucks making it into Gaza overnight and hospitals increasingly overwhelmed, the humanitarian crisis in the besieged enclave deepened on Wednesday as Israel said it had conducted “wide-scale” strikes and again warned Gazans to flee south ahead of a possible invasion.

 

The World Health Organization said on Wednesday that 12 of Gaza’s 35 hospitals were not functioning and that seven major hospitals were well over capacity, risking patient safety. European Union leaders scheduled to meet in Brussels on Thursday were set to ask for a “humanitarian pause” to facilitate aid deliveries.

 

Twenty aid trucks had been due to cross into Gaza through the Rafah crossing with Egypt overnight but just eight made it through, the Palestinian Red Crescent and a spokesman for the Palestinian side of the crossing said. Israel was still inspecting the remaining 12 trucks, according to a local Egyptian official who spoke on the condition of anonymity. Israel has wanted to inspect trucks to ensure weapons for Hamas are not embedded in the aid.

 

The Hamas-run Health Ministry in Gaza raised the death toll in Israeli strikes since Oct. 7 to more than 6,500 people. Its figures could not be independently verified. More than 1,400 people were killed in the Hamas-led terror attack in southern Israel on Oct. 7.

 

The war's toll on children has been devastating, according to the U.N. agency for children's welfare. Since Oct. 7, UNICEF said in a statement, 2,360 children in Gaza and more than 30 children in Israel had been killed, more than 5,360 children in Gaza had been injured, and dozens of other children were being held hostage in Gaza.

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7) Why Must Palestinians Audition for Your Empathy?

By Hala Alyan, Oct. 25, 2023

Dr. Alyan is a Palestinian American writer, clinical psychologist and professor in New York City.

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/25/opinion/palestine-war-empathy.html

Illustration by Shoshana Schultz/The New York Times

I’ve moved back to the United States twice since my birth. Once as a child, after the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait. Then again for graduate school. I’d had the privilege of a youth — adolescence and young adulthood — in countries where being Palestinian was fairly common. The identity could be heavy, but it wasn’t a contested one. I hadn’t had to learn the respectability politics of being a Palestinian adult. I learned quickly.

 

The task of the Palestinian is to be palatable or to be condemned. The task of the Palestinian, we’ve seen in the past two weeks, is to audition for empathy and compassion. To prove that we deserve it. To earn it.

 

In the past couple of weeks, I’ve watched Palestinian activists, lawyers, professors get baited and interrupted on air, if not silenced altogether. They are being made to sing for the supper of airtime and fair coverage. They are begging reporters to do the most basic tasks of their job. At the same time, Palestinians fleeing from bombs have been misidentified. Even when under attack, they must be costumed as another people to elicit humanity. Even in death, they cannot rest — Palestinians are being buried in mass graves or in old graves dug up to make room, and still there is not enough space.

 

If that weren’t enough, Palestinian slaughter is too often presented ahistorically, untethered to reality: It is not attributed to real steel and missiles, to occupation, to policy. To earn compassion for their dead, Palestinians must first prove their innocence. The real problem with condemnation is the quiet, sly tenor of the questions that accompany it: Palestinians are presumed violent — and deserving of violence — until proved otherwise. Their deaths are presumed defensible until proved otherwise. What is the word of a Palestinian against a machinery that investigates itself, that absolves itself of accused crimes? What is it against a government whose representatives have referred to Palestinians as “human animals” and “wild beasts?” When a well-suited man can say brazenly and unflinchingly that there is no such thing as a Palestinian people?

 

It is, of course, a remarkably effective strategy. A slaughter isn’t a slaughter if those being slaughtered are at fault, if they’ve been quietly and effectively dehumanized — in the media, through policy — for years. If nobody is a civilian, nobody can be a victim.

 

***

 

In 2017, I published a novel about a Palestinian family. It was published by a respectable publisher, got a lot of lovely press, was given a book tour. I spoke on panels, to book clubs. I answered questions after readings. There was a refrain that kept coming up. People kept commenting on how human the story was. You’ve humanized the conflict. This is a human story.

 

Of course, literature and the arts play a crucial role in providing context — expanding our empathy, granting us glimpses into other worlds. But every time I was told I’d humanized the Palestinians, I would have to suppress the question it invoked: What had they been before?

 

A couple of weeks ago, in a professional space, someone called Palestinians by name and spoke of the seven decades of their anguish. I sat among dozens of co-workers and realized my lip was quivering. I was crying before I understood it was happening. I fled the room, and it took 10 minutes for me to stop sobbing. I didn’t immediately understand my reaction. Over the years, I’ve faced meetings, classrooms and other institutional spaces where Palestinians went unnamed or were referred to only as terrorists. I came of professional age in a country where people lost all sorts of things for speaking of Palestine: social standing, university tenure, journalist positions. But in the end, I am undone not by silence or erasure but by empathy. By the simple naming of my people. By increasing recognition that liberation is linked. By spaces of Palestinian-Jewish solidarity. By what has become controversial: the simple speaking aloud of Palestinian suffering.

 

These days, everyone is trying to write about the children. An incomprehensible number of them dead and counting. We are up at night, combing through the flickering light of our phones, trying to find the metaphor, the clip, the photograph to prove a child is a child. It is an unbearable task. We ask: Will this be the image that finally does it? This half-child on a rooftop? This video, reposted by Al Jazeera, of an inconsolable girl appearing to recognize her mother’s body among the dead, screaming out, “It’s her, it’s her. I swear it’s her. I know her from her hair”?

 

***

 

Take it from a writer: There is nothing like the tedium of trying to come up with analogies. There is something humiliating in trying to earn solidarity. I keep seeing infographics desperately trying to appeal to American audiences. Imagine most of the population of Manhattan being told to evacuate in 24 hours. Imagine the president of [ ] going on NBC and saying all [ ] people are [ ]. Look! Here’s a strip on the edge of the Mediterranean Sea. That’s Gaza. It is about the same size as Philadelphia. Or multiply the entire population of Las Vegas by three.

 

This is demoralizing work, to have to speak constantly in the vernacular of tragedies and atrocities, to say: Look, look. Remember? That other suffering that was eventually deemed unacceptable? Let me hold it up to this one. Let me show you proportion. Let me earn your outrage. Absent that, let me earn your memory. Please.

 

I don’t hesitate for a second to condemn the killing of any child, any massacre of civilians. It is the easiest ask in the world. And it is not in spite of that but because of that I say: Condemn the brutalization of bodies. By all means, do. Condemn murder. Condemn violence, imprisonment, all forms of oppression. But if your shock and distress comes only at the sight of certain brutalized bodies? If you speak out but not when Palestinian bodies are besieged and murdered, abducted and imprisoned? Then it is worth asking yourself which brutalization is acceptable to you, even quietly, even subconsciously, and which is not.

 

Name the discrepancy and own it. If you can’t be equitable, be honest.

 

There is nothing complicated about asking for freedom. Palestinians deserve equal rights, equal access to resources, equal access to fair elections and so forth. If this makes you uneasy, then you must ask yourself why.

 

***

 

Here is the truth of the diasporic Palestinians: They are not magically diasporic. Their diaspora-ness is a direct result of often violent, intentional and illegal dispossession. One day a house is yours; one day it is not. One day a neighborhood is yours; one day it is not. One day a territory is yours; one day it is not. This same sort of dispossession is grounded in the same mind-set and international complicity that is playing out in Gaza.

 

I’m a poet, a writer, a psychologist. I’m deeply familiar with the importance of language. I’ve agonized over an em dash. I’ve spent afternoons muttering about the aptness of a verb. I pay attention to language, my own and others. Being Palestinian in this country — in many countries — is a numbing exercise in gauging where pockets of safety are, sussing out which friends, co-workers or acquaintances will be allies, which will stay silent. Who will speak.

 

Here’s another thing I know as a writer and psychologist: It matters where you start a narrative. In addiction work, you call this playing the tape. Diasporically or not, being Palestinian is the quintessential disrupter: It messes with a curated, modified tape. We exist, and our existence presents an existential affront. As long as we exist, we challenge several falsehoods, not the least of which is that, for some, we never existed at all. That decades ago, a country was born in the delicious, glittering expanse of nothingness — a birthright, something due. Our very existence challenges a formidable, militarized narrative.

 

But the days of the Palestine exception are numbered. Palestine is increasingly becoming the litmus test for true liberatory practice.

 

In the meantime, Palestinians continue to be cast paradoxically — both terror and invisible, both people who never existed and people who cannot return.

 

Imagine being such a pest, such an obstacle. Or: Imagine being so powerful.

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8) Death Penalty Focus

Kevin Cooper lawyers urge CA Gov. Gavin Newsom to reject biased and inaccurate innocence investigation of his case, via email.

 

Dear DPF Supporters,

 

We wanted to update you on the Kevin Cooper case, which we have written extensively about over the years.

 

Cooper, who has been on California's death row for 35 years, is asking California Gov. Gavin Newsom to reject the findings of an investigation into his case by the law firm Morrison Foerster that was released in January.

 

He included his request in a detailed rebuttal to the Morrison Foerster report. Orrick's 77-page response (and an additional 364 pages of exhibits) methodically debunks the report point-by-point, and asks Newsom to appoint a new special counsel consistent with his May 2021 Executive Order: https://www.gov.ca.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/5.28.21-EO-N-06-21.pdf?eType=EmailBlastContent&eId=dd296879-52f5-4989-ae18-1bb47d76bb17

 

Morrison Foerster failed to conduct an independent innocence investigation and has produced a report "riddled with a steadfast commitment to 'stick to the script' the prosecution has been peddling for the last 40 years," Orrick states.

 

Newsom's order called for an investigation into Cooper's 1985 death penalty conviction for a quadruple murder in San Bernardino County in 1983. The instructions were to "conduct a full review of the trial and appellate records in this case, and of the facts underlying the conviction, including facts and evidence that do not appear in the trial and appellate records. The firm's review shall include an evaluation of all available evidence, including the recently conducted DNA tests."

 

But Morrison Foerster didn't do what was asked. Instead, its report was shockingly and openly biased toward the San Bernardino County District Attorney and Sheriff's office. The law firm relied on "expert" witnesses who weren't experts, dismissed legitimate questions about evidence that had been destroyed, gone missing, and showed signs of tampering. It ignored documented Brady violations, and the pervasive racism surrounding the case, and failed to interview relevant witnesses.

 

Orrick's report states that "Special Counsel’s Report is filled with confirmation bias, incompetent analyses, and conclusory statements that are unsupported by any reasoned analysis. Incompetently, Special Counsel did not seek to uncover significant issues bearing on Mr. Cooper’s innocence, including an improper police investigation, prosecutorial misconduct, and ineffective assistance of counsel."

 

The rebuttal refers to a similar recent investigation of the Richard Glossip case in Oklahoma, another man sentenced to death despite similar credible evidence of innocence. That pro bono investigation, conducted by the law firm Reed Smith, involved 30 lawyers, three investigators, and two paralegals devoting more than 3,000 hours to interviewing jurors, experts, and witnesses, including civilians and members of law enforcement. The result was five reports that concluded that Glossip's trial could not "provide the basis for the government" to take his life.

 

"This serious and comprehensive review. . . stands in conspicuous contrast" to Morrison Foerster's report "that is devoid of even identifying what process Special Counsel followed. . . and perhaps most importantly, what witnesses he interviewed and what documents he reviewed," Orrick stated.

 

"When Mr. Cooper was tried almost 40 years ago, law enforcement failed to pursue the multiple, concrete leads on all possible suspects in their investigation of the Ryen/Hughes crimes and instead utilized all their resources to pin the guilt on a man who is innocent. Special Counsel tragically repeated this senseless and grave error," Orrick said.

 

As a result, Cooper is now asking Newsom to "select new unbiased and fully vetted special counsel to conduct such an investigation and ensure that such counsel has the requisite experience to conduct that investigation with professional, experienced, and qualified investigators."

 

You can read Orrick's full report here:

https://deathpenalty.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/Orrick_2023.06.20-Rebuttal-Memo-to-Special-Counsel-Report.pdf?eType=EmailBlastContent&eId=dd296879-52f5-4989-ae18-1bb47d76bb17

 

Death Penalty Focus

500 Capitol Mall, #2350  | Sacramento, California 95814

415-243-0143 | information@deathpenalty.org

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9) US auto workers and activists in Michigan show up for fired VU Manufacturing workers in Mexico

Amid the ongoing UAW strike, US auto workers are standing up for their Mexican brothers and sisters at VU Manufacturing, which shut down a newly unionized facility along the Mexico-US border in August.

By Ashley Bishop, October 24, 2023

https://therealnews.com/us-auto-workers-and-activists-in-michigan-show-up-for-fired-vu-manufacturing-workers-in-mexico

Amid the ongoing UAW strike, US auto workers are standing up for their Mexican brothers and sisters at VU Manufacturing, which shut down a newly unionized facility along the Mexico-US border in August.

On Tuesday, Sept. 26, protesters affiliated with the United Auto Workers (UAW), Labor Notes, Unite All Workers for Democracy (UAWD, the rank-and-file reform caucus within the UAW), the Democratic Socialists of America, Latino/a Workers’ Leadership Conference, and Casa Obrera del Bajío gathered outside of VU Manufacturing’s headquarters in Troy, Michigan, to deliver a list of demands in support of 400 Mexican workers in Piedras Negras, Coahuila, who were recently laid off by the company. VU Manufacturing shut down the newly unionized facility along the Mexico-US border in August, while 71 workers were still in their employ.

 

The protest was organized by the Mexico Solidarity Project—an independent organization focused on building connections between workers and left organizations across the US and Mexico—in partnership with Labor Notes, under their joint Mexico Solidarity Project Labor Support Committee.

 

VU Manufacturing, a second-tier auto parts supplier that produces interior pieces for automakers like Stellantis, GM, Toyota, and Tesla, began laying off workers in April. The layoffs were set in motion back in August 2022, when workers voted against the company-preferred corporate union, Confederacion Trabajadores Mexicanos (CTM), in favor of an independent union, la Liga Sindical Obrera Mexicana (la Liga). 

 

When it appeared that VU was deliberately stalling and attempting to run out the clock on the six-month contract negotiating period stipulated by Mexican labor law, la Liga and the Border Workers Committee, a workers’ center based in Piedras Negras, filed a complaint using the Rapid Response Labor Mechanism of the US-Mexico-Canada-Agreement (USMCA), which replaced NAFTA. The Rapid Response Labor Mechanism allows Mexican workers and their representatives to file a formal complaint against companies believed to be acting in violation of Mexican labor law with the US Department of Labor and the Office of the US Trade Representative. US authorities are expected to then press for an expedient resolution.

 

This complaint resulted in a six-month remediation plan between VU and la Liga. The remediation plan, agreed upon by Mexico and the US, detailed actions to address VU’s failure to bargain in good faith with la Liga, as well as other labor violations committed by the company. However, workers and activists say that little to no progress had been made when the remediation period ended on Sept. 30—more than a month after VU had already closed down the plant. 

 

On Oct. 10, less than two weeks later, the US Department of Labor announced that their agency has closed the workers’ case against VU Manufacturing, without any sanctions or other disciplinary actions against the company as permitted under the USMCA. Deputy Undersecretary of Labor for International Affairs Thea Lee stated her “disappointment” over closing the case, adding, “we knew employers would not choose compliance in every instance.” The case is now the responsibility of the Mexican government. 

 

The last 71 workers have not received their legally mandated severance pay and have been left without access to company-managed savings accounts. Former VU workers also report being blacklisted from work within the maquilas that employ the majority of workers in Piedras Negras due to their association with the plant.

 

“The people, the workers, are desperate. They want their money and they need it,” said Victor Sevilla, one of the 71 VU workers who did not receive severance pay. “And the only way that they’re really going to get it is by pressuring the owner of the company in Michigan.” Sevilla also lost access to his company-managed savings account, which he says he was using to save up money for the Christmas holiday. 

 

Despite the recent closure of the case, activists say they are still working to fulfill the list of demands presented to VU headquarters in Troy, Michigan. 

 

The demands cover the immediate needs of VU workers like severance and unpaid wages for the 71 laid-off workers, restitution for two union organizers who were unjustly fired, and an end to the employment blacklist in Piedras Negras, which workers and activists believe is being led by the CTM. 

 

“They did not want to take the list of demands. They were pretty indignant that we were there,” Zach Rioux, a labor organizer based out of Detroit who coordinated the action on the ground, told TRNN. “They overreacted and started to yell, which, to me, is pretty rich—to be so indignant in a situation where VU has acted so illegally and cruelly towards their workers.” 

 

Activists are also continuing to demand sanctions against VU Manufacturing to prevent the company from reopening under a different name and continuing to export goods to the US. Additionally, they are calling for a public forum with labor authorities from Mexico and the US to discuss the lessons of the VU campaign and how the Rapid Response Labor Mechanism of the USCMA can better respond to violations of workers’ rights going forward.

 

Meizhu Lui, co-coordinator of the Mexico Solidarity Project, said via email: “Neither the VU workers nor their supporters in Mexico and the US consider it ‘case closed’ until justice is done.” 

 

On Oct. 18, former VU workers and activists protested in front of the city government offices in Piedras Negras. “The factories here refuse to give us jobs. We are, apparently, on a blacklist here, in the border city of Piedras Negras, Coahuila,” said Miguel Ángel Fraga Martinez, a former VU worker. “Even those of us that did receive severance pay, the money is already gone, because we haven’t been able to get stable work.”

 

The coalition is continuing to organize further actions to pressure the authorities of the US and Mexico.

 

VU Manufacturing had not responded to activists’ demands before the case was closed.

 

“If the labor mechanism is allowed to fail like this—and you can only say that this is a failure—it sets a very bad precedent for the future,” said Jeff Hermanson, a longtime organizer in Mexico and the US. “This is a test of the commitment of the labor authorities in both countries to the functioning of this agreement of the labor rights chapter of the USMCA.”

 

“I think that means that it’s also a test case for all of us who are supporting the workers, and who are on the side of the working class in the US or Mexico, to stand up and say that we’re not going to let this happen. Companies can’t do whatever they want with workers’ lives,” said Charlie Saperstein, a labor activist and organizer with the Border Workers Committee in Piedras Negras. “I think the protest that happened [on Sept. 26] is a perfect example of that.” 

 

Sean Crawford, a UAW auto worker and founding member of UAWD, has worked for GM since 2008 and was among the first groups of workers to be hired under the 2008 contract, which introduced the tier system.

 

“Back in 2019, I was a member of UAW Local 598 at Flint truck assembly. And we make heavy duty pickup trucks there. These are the same pickup trucks that they make in Silao, Mexico, where Israel Cervantes used to work,” says Crawford. “So, he led a campaign to refuse overtime in solidarity with striking GM workers in 2019 and I just thought that was fantastic.”

 

Israel Cervantes worked at the GM plant in Silao, Mexico, for 13 years. He was one of several workers fired for the act of solidarity described by Crawford. After being terminated, Cervantes and the other workers who had been fired formed an organization called Generating Movement (a play on “GM”) to organize workers in the plant, which led to workers not only voting out their existing, corrupt union, but subsequently voting to be represented by an independent union, Sindicato Nacional de Trabajadores y Trabajoras de la Industria Automotriz (SINTTIA).

 

Cervantes, who is now an organizer with Casa Obrera del Bajío, came out to the protest in Troy, Michigan, to support VU workers and to walk the picket line with striking UAW workers. 

 

“It’s important for UAW workers to get the sense of solidarity from other countries, such as the solidarity message that was sent from the auto workers in Brazil, as well as the rubber industry workers from Puebla, Mexico,” said Cervantes, adding that workers in other countries understand that it’s important not to give in to the demands of the company by speeding up production or working overtime, to not work against the striking UAW workers in the US.

 

“We work for the same companies. It’s right there, there are GM plants in Mexico and the whole supply chain criss-crosses the border. So, if capital can be on both sides of the border, we should be on both sides of the border,” echoed Rioux.

 

Cervantes and Crawford met for the first time at the protest at VU Headquarters. In a moment, linguistically facilitated by Luis Feliz Leon of Labor Notes and captured on video, Crawford thanks Cervantes for his “brave act of solidarity” during the 2019 UAW strike before shaking hands.

 

“The cool thing about meeting him is, really, he’s just a normal guy like you and me,” Crawford told TRNN after meeting Cervantes at the protest. “And, to me, that just goes to show that these big acts that can really change the world and change the narrative, they’re done by just average working class people who decide they’ve had enough. And that’s pretty cool.”

 

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Republish our articles for free, online or in print, under a Creative Commons license.

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10) Solidarity Between American Activists and Palestinians — Including a Rebuke of Biden

By Charles M. Blow, Oct. 25, 2023

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/25/opinion/palestine-biden-activists-israel.html

Ahmed Gaber for The New York Times

Since the heinous Oct. 7 Hamas attacks and Israel’s declaration of war against the terrorist group, I have been going over and over a question I’ve not been able to answer fully: During this episode, why has the Palestinian cause sparked so much passion among veteran activists of the movement for Black lives?

 

Last week, I wrote that this could be traced to the ideological lens and residual energy of a younger generation attuned to protest and the ideas of equality and justice. But after interviewing several prominent activists in recent days, I realize there’s more to explore in the critical dynamics fueling that passion, which is born, in part, out of longstanding personal connections and a common sense of purpose.

 

There are two pivotal events that seem to have ignited the new era of solidarity between some young American activists and the people of Palestine. The first came in the form of Palestinian activists expressing support on social media for the 2014 protests in Ferguson, Mo., which activists describe as an uprising, not just a series of protests. Palestinians provided not just moral support, but offered practical tips that, as activist Cherrell Brown told me, included advice for protesters about how to protect themselves from tear gas.

 

Around that time, a small delegation of Palestinians even traveled to Ferguson and St. Louis to meet with American activists. This all created a moment of bonding around a shared sense of resistance.

 

The second event was a 2015 pilgrimage to Israel and the Palestinian territories organized by Ahmad Abuznaid, a Jerusalem-born Palestinian American who co-founded the Dream Defenders, a group of activists who came together in response to the 2012 killing of Trayvon Martin.

 

The small delegation included some people who would also become central in the American movement, like the journalist and scholar Marc Lamont Hill.

 

When we spoke, Abuznaid, who has been criticized for his support for B.D.S., a movement calling for boycott, divestment and sanctioning of Israel, said he has led or been a part of several delegations to the Palestinian territories focused on what he describes as the injustices caused by the Israeli occupation.

 

These trips help not only to develop strong bonds between communities half a world away from each other, but also to connect the issues facing them. Hill, who lost his job as a CNN contributor after he gave a speech at the United Nations about Israel and Palestine that was condemned by groups including the Anti-Defamation League, would go on to be a co-author of a book about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, “Except for Palestine: The Limits of Progressive Politics.”

 

The events during this period reinforced a sense of internationalism among activists and connected a present solidarity with a historical one. It called back to a time when an American figure as notable as Malcolm X spoke out for the Palestinian cause.

 

Even activists who didn’t make these journeys describe coming to this cause in part through personal connections with Palestinians and Palestinian Americans.

 

And unlike some conflicts around the world, this one continues to play out in full view, in traditional media and social media. As the comedian, actress and activist Amanda Seales told me, this crisis has an urgency around it that others don’t because “we’re able to see it” in an unfiltered way.

 

The other thing that I initially underestimated is the level of criticism of the Biden administration for its response to this conflict and what effect that might have in 2024.

 

Shaun King, a former writer for The Daily News who has millions of followers on Facebook, Instagram and X, the site formerly known as Twitter, posted recently about how he would not vote for President Biden next year because of his embrace of Israel.

 

King, who has never been a strong Biden supporter and is far from a mainline Democrat, told me, “I feel like a voter without a candidate.”

 

While most activists I spoke to didn’t sound a note as strident as King’s about their voting intentions, several of them sounded an alarm about a possible wave of voter disappointment on the left over Biden’s stance in this conflict.

 

As Maurice Mitchell, the national director of the Working Families Party, told me, he couldn’t think of a more “demobilizing experience” for young, democracy-minded, multiracial coalition voters than an escalating war and escalating human suffering “with the understanding that our country and our government could have done more to prevent it.”

 

Tiffany Loftin, who describes herself as a civil rights activist and labor union organizer, and is a former national director of the N.A.A.C.P. youth and college division, said she would have a difficult time casting her ballot for “somebody who supported genocide” of Palestinians, which is how she characterized Biden’s position in the Israel-Gaza war. “I don’t know if I can do that, Charles,” she said.

 

The questions for the Democratic Party and the Biden administration are: How much of their support base does this discontent represent, and how much voter abstention can they absorb?

 

A lot will happen next year, and public attention will inevitably turn to other issues and controversies, but in a tight presidential race, an increasingly disaffected activist base on the left could be disastrous for Biden, and in a rematch with Donald Trump, that could be disastrous for our democracy.

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11) U.A.W. and Ford Reach Tentative Contract Agreement

The deal, subject to approval by union members, could ease the way for deals with General Motors and Stellantis and end a growing wave of walkouts.

By Neal E. Boudette and Noam Scheiber, Oct. 25, 2023

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/25/business/economy/uaw-ford-contract-agreement-strike.html

The United Automobile Workers union has staged a growing wave of walkouts aimed at factories making some of the automakers’ most profitable models, including a Ford assembly plant in Chicago. Credit...Jamie Kelter Davis for The New York Times

The United Automobile Workers and Ford Motor have reached a tentative agreement on a new four-year labor contract, the union announced Wednesday, nearly six weeks after the union began a growing wave of walkouts against the three Detroit automakers.

 

The union said the deal included a roughly 25 percent pay increase over four years, cost-of-living wage adjustments, major gains on pensions and job security, and the right to strike over plant closures. It called on striking Ford workers to go back to work while the tentative agreement awaits ratification.

 

Shawn Fain, the union president, said in a livestream on Facebook that the accord would be submitted to the U.A.W. council that oversees relations with Ford at a meeting in Detroit on Sunday. If the council approves, the union will submit the contract terms to the company’s 57,000 union workers for their verdict.

 

“We made history,” Mr. Fain said. “We told Ford to pony up, and they did.” He said the terms included an immediate 11 percent wage increase upon ratification.

 

Ford issued a brief statement that said in part, “We are pleased to have reached a tentative agreement on a new labor contract with the U.A.W. covering our U.S. operations.”

 

The union continues to negotiate with General Motors and Stellantis, whose brands include Chrysler, Jeep and Ram.

 

“We know it breaks records,” Mr. Fain said of the tentative agreement with Ford. “We know it will change lives.” But he underlined that it was up to union members to deliver the ultimate verdict.

 

Two weeks ago — when it said it had reached the limit of what it could afford without hurting its business — Ford offered to increase wages 23 percent, adjust pay in response to inflation and cut the time for new hires to rise to the top wage, to four years from eight. The other companies have made similar offers.

 

But the U.A.W. pressed for greater concessions, ratcheting up the walkouts and aiming them at factories producing some of the automakers’ most profitable models.

 

“This is a major victory for the union after years of erosion by inflation, division by wage tiers and other real issues in the workplace that made people angry,” said Harley Shaiken, a professor emeritus at the University of California, Berkeley, who has followed the U.A.W. for more than three decades. “It sets a standard for other workers throughout the economy.”

 

President Biden, who had championed the union’s cause and joined a picket line on a visit to Michigan last month, hailed the accord. “I applaud the U.A.W. and Ford for coming together after a hard-fought, good-faith negotiation and reaching a historic tentative agreement,” he said.

 

The union said the agreement would ultimately lift the top wage to more than $40 an hour, giving a member working 40 hours a week a base pay of more than $83,000, not including overtime and profit-sharing bonuses, which were more than $14,000 in 2022.

 

The current top wage is $32 an hour, or about $67,000 a year based on a 40-hour week.

 

Recent hires who make considerably less than the top wage will see their pay nearly double over the life of the contract, the union said.

 

The tentative deal with Ford could increase pressure on the other companies to reach an agreement with the union. In the past, once the union reached a deal with one automaker, tentative agreements with the others quickly followed. But that history may not be as relevant now because the U.A.W. had never struck all three companies simultaneously until this year.

 

Altogether, about 45,000 workers at Ford, G.M. and Stellantis are on strike across the country, including 8,700 workers at Ford’s Kentucky truck plant in Louisville, the company’s largest, and almost 10,000 others at Ford factories in Illinois and Michigan.

 

The companies are investing billions in a transition to battery-powered vehicles, a financial commitment that they say makes it harder for them to pay substantially higher wages. Last week, Ford’s executive chairman, William C. Ford Jr., said the union’s demands risked damaging the ability of Detroit automakers to compete against nonunion companies like Tesla and foreign rivals.

 

“Toyota, Honda, Tesla and the others are loving the strike, because they know the longer it goes on, the better it is for them,” he said. “They will win, and all of us will lose.”

 

The U.A.W. makes a different case: that success in its contract battle with the Big Three will give it momentum to organize autoworkers at other companies as well.

 

It began its walkouts when the companies’ union contracts expired in mid-September. It won immediate support from Mr. Biden, who called on the automakers to “ensure record corporate profits mean record contracts” and briefly joined workers on a picket line at a G.M. plant near Detroit late last month.

 

The union initially demanded a 40 percent wage increase over four years — an amount that union officials have said matches the raises the top executives at the three companies have received over the last four years. Those raises are also meant to compensate for more modest increases the autoworkers received in recent years and concessions the union made to the companies beginning in 2007.

 

In addition, the union called for an end to a system that pays new hires just over half of the top wage of $32 an hour. It demanded adjustments that would nudge wages higher to compensate for inflation. And it wanted a reinstatement of pensions for all workers, improved retiree benefits and shorter work hours.

 

G.M. and Stellantis faced the most recent escalation of the U.A.W. walkouts when the union called out 6,800 workers at a large Ram pickup truck plant in Michigan on Monday and 5,000 workers at a G.M. plant in Arlington, Texas. That factory makes large sport utility vehicles including the Chevrolet Tahoe, the GMC Yukon and the Cadillac Escalade.

 

“Ford knew what was coming for them on Wednesday if we didn’t get a deal,” Mr. Fain said. “That was checkmate.”

 

On Tuesday, G.M. reported a third-quarter profit of $3.1 billion, a 7 percent decline from a year earlier, owing in part to the strike. Ford is scheduled to announce its third-quarter earnings on Thursday.

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