Occupy comes to Taiwan!

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5) Reduce the workweek to 30 hours with no cut in pay, and cut the retirement age to 55. Provide unemployment and retirement payments We propose an EMERGENCY CONGRESS OF LABOR to discuss and 6) To combat inflation: A sliding scale of wages and pensions that 1) Bail out the people, not the bankers! Open the account books of matches the rises in comsumer prices. To combat high medical costs: A the banks to full public inspection. Nationalize the banks to be super­ 7) Immediate citizenship for all undocumented workers. No job dis­ 2) No foreclosures! No forced evictions! Cancel usurious debt pay­ crimination; equal pay for equal work — regardless of gender, sexual ments, and reduce mortgage payments in proportion to their capitalist8) Nationalize manufacturing, big agribusiness, energy, and transpor­ 3) Full employment at union wages! An emergency public works pro­ tation corporations and place them under the control of elected commit­ gram to employ all jobless workers and youth! Employ people to build what we need — low-cost quality housing, efficient mass transportation, 9) To mobilize support for the demands it adopts, the EMERGENCY cheap and renewable sources of power, schools, clinics — and to con­ CONGRESS should organize ACTION COMMITTEES in every workplace and neighborhood threatened by the crisis. These committees can draw Afghanistan! Close all U.S. bases abroad! No money for the military — 10) To put all these measures into effect, we need a LABOR PARTY — use funds instead for public works! Convert the war industries to mak­ based on a fighting union movement and all people who are oppressed Editor: Michael Schreiber International Editor: Gerry Foley Canada Editor: Barry Weisleder Socialist Action (ISSN 0747-4237) is published monthly by Socialist Action Publishing Association, P.O. Box 460501, San Francisco, CA 94146-0501. Postmaster: Send address changes to: Socialist Action, P.O. BOX 460501, San Francisco, CA 94146-0501. RATES: For one year (12 issues, 1st-class mail): U.S., Canada, Mexico — $20. All other countries — $30. Money orders and checks should be in U.S. dollars.

Signed articles do not necessarily represent the views of Socialist Action. These are expressed in editorials. Socialist Action is edited, designed, and laid out entirely by volunteer labor. It is printed by members of Local 583, Allied Printing Trades Council, San Francisco, Calif.

When U.S. House Majority leader Eric Street activists as “a growing mob,” he could not have known that the movement’s influence would grow so strong that its im­ pact would be felt even at the other end of the world.

On Oct. 15, as part of an international weekend of protest, a militant demon­ stration of several hundred was held in a most unlikely place—Taipei, capital of the prosperous island nation of Taiwan. The demonstrators were mostly young and students, but they were joined by others, including young workers and retirees, who have not benefited by the country’s eco­ nomic growth.

Few would have guessed that any kind of protest would take place in Taiwan. With the unemployment rate less than half that of the United States and a steadily growing economy, Taiwan is increasingly seen as a safe haven for international investors. The country has no socialist or labor party, a weak trade-union movement, and no his­ tory of political radicalism. Travelers en­ tering the country with Marxist literature can expect to have their material seized by immigration officials and can expect to face a fine.

Yet, on a rainy Saturday, summoned by a call that originated on Facebook, protesters gathered outside of Taipei 101, a picture postcard symbol of affluent A WORKERS’ ACTION PROGRAM TO FIGHT THE CRISIS take steps to implement the following demands — vised by workers’ committees.

caused decline in value.

serve our water, forests, farmland, and open space.

4) Immediate and full withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq & ing products for people’s needs and to combat global warming.

SOCIALIST ACTION. Closing news date: Oct. 30, 2011 — $20 for 12 months — $37 for 24 months Name City Phone E-mail consumerism and ostentatious wealth and the sec­ ond largest building in the world. It is also the loca­ tion of the Taiwan Stock Exchange offices.

The rally, officially called to protest the increas­ ing wealth gap in Taiwan, was smaller than similar at the level of union wages and benefits.

free, universal, public health-care system.

orientation, skin color, or national origin.

tees of workers.

Address State Zip up more concrete demands than the ones outlined above.

and exploited. For a workers’ government! • Ashland, Ore.: [email protected] • Boston: [email protected] (781) 630-0250 • Carrboro, N.C.: (919) 967-2866, [email protected] • Chicago: P.O. Box 578428 Chicago, IL 60657, [email protected] • Connecticut: (860) 478-5300 • Duluth, Minn.: [email protected]. www.thenorthernworker.blogspot.com • Florida: [email protected] • GRAND RAPIDS, MICH.:

[email protected] • Kansas City: [email protected] (816) 221-3638 • LOUISVILLE / LEXINGTON, KY.: [email protected], (502) 451-2193 • Madison, Wis.:

[email protected] • Mankato, Minn.:

[email protected] • Minneapolis/St. Paul: (612) 802-1482, [email protected] protests in European cities, but the protestors were spirited, defiant, and determined. Marchers entered the first floor, shopping mall area of the skyscraper chanting, “No to capitalism! We are the 99 percent!” City police and building security staff tried to keep the demonstrators out, but had to give way.

The Taipei Times (Oct. 16, 2011) quoted a high-school student who said, “The economic growth fig­ ures may look good on paper, but we are not feeling it because all the money is going into the hands of capitalists. … I don’t expect instant change to hap­ pen, but I hope that this demonstration can at least be a start for change in the future.”

Students from National Taiwan University who pub­ lish a magazine, Socialist, were enthusiastic about a demonstration that “is directly targeting capitalism and the financial system in the country.”

Organizers of the demonstration emphasized that they were only at the start of building what they anticipated would become an on-going movement. They say they are still working to build consensus on ways to address the increasing disparity of wealth in Taiwanese society.

An editorial in The China Post, which reflects the views of the ruling Chinese Nationalist Party, the Kuomintang (KMT), claimed the modest number of protesters was due to “the lingering sense of civility that restrained our youth from being conspicuously rude by going on a public demonstration for what­ ever cause” (Oct. 20, 2011). The editorial concluded by claiming: “Idealists, those who wish to narrow the gap of the haves and the have-nots, have no role to play in the increasingly capitalistic Taiwan…”

Nonetheless, on the same day, another spark of protest was lit. A group of students and social activ­ ists began a 44-hour hunger strike to demand legal reforms to provide debt relief for students and for legislation that would narrow the gap between rich and poor. n For info about Socialist Action and how to join: Socialist Action National Office, P.O. Box 10328, Oakland, CA 94610, [email protected], (510) 268-9429 Socialist Action newspaper editorial offices: [email protected] Website: www.socialistaction.org WHERE TO FIND SOCIALIST ACTION • New York City: (212) 781-5157 • Philadelphia: [email protected] • Portland, Ore.: (503) 233-1629 [email protected] • Providence: [email protected] (401) 419-1706 • Salem, Ore.: [email protected] • San Francisco Bay Area:

P.O. Box 10328, Oakland, Ca 94610 (510) 268-9429, [email protected] • WASHINGTON, DC: [email protected], (202) 286-5493 National Office

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A fury of activity at Occupy Wall Street NEW YORK—Billionaire Mayor Michael Bloomberg tried to shut down Zuccotti Park early on Oct. 14 but found that the movement’s anti-corporate message had struck too deep a nerve with New Yorkers. Under pretext of cleaning the park, located a few short blocks from Wall Street, the mayor planned to have cops re­ move protesters and destroy the encampment. The mayor’s decision to back down left activists feeling ec­ static over their victory.

The AFL-CIO had sent out the alarm the night before to mobilize in solidarity with the Occupy Wall Street (OWS) protesters. Standing with the protesters in Zuc­ cotti Park at 6:30 a.m. were scores of trade-union of­ ficials, rank and filers, and union lawyers. “I think that what we saw that morning is a response to the mas­ sive outcry of support for the movement,“ said Donna Spencer Platt / Getty Images “Wall Street = War Street,” one sign declared at the Oct. 15 antiwar rally here sponsored by the United Na­ tional Antiwar Coalition (UNAC), held in conjunction with OWS protests that day.

The Labor Outreach committee in particular has at­ tracted dozens of activists to its meetings. Recently, members of Teamsters Local 808, nicknamed a “Band of Brothers,” who are on strike at the Woodlawn Cem­ etery in the Bronx, came to a labor outreach meeting. Strikers testified to gross racist treatment by Wood­ lawn bosses and ongoing retribution against outspo­ ken workers. A solidarity rally is set for Nov. 12 at Woodlawn Cemetery at 1 pm.

Another Labor Outreach project is the campaign against Sotheby’s, an elite art auction house on Man­ hattan’s Upper East Side. Sotheby’s has locked out art handler members of Teamster Local 814 since Aug. 1. The lockout began after members rejected an insult­ Tony Savino / Socialist Action (Left) OWS activists join Teamsters protesting lockout of workers at Sotheby’s auction house, Oct. 18.

pressed communities in support of OWS, changing the race and class dynamics as well as perceptions of OWS.

Unfortunately, lackluster promotion by these Demo­ cratic Party supporters and constant rain severely lim­ ited what could have been a mass protest. Neverthe­ less, determined protesters marched from City Hall to Zuccotti Park, picking up support, and then proceed­ ded to Borough of Manhattan Community College to demand tuition cuts. About 150 attended.

On Oct. 19 the N.Y. Central Labor Council, a city labor umbrella organization, passed a resolution for a Nov. 5 mass rally on Wall Street backed by a number of labor radicals and others. The motion called for the rich to pay for the crisis; no layoffs, budget, and service cuts; a federal jobs program; and an end to police harassment of OWS protesters. Surprisingly for many, the motion passed unanimously. However, the Nov. 5 rally was de­ railed by CLC bureaucrats.

The OWS Labor Solidarity Committee put out a na­ tional call for actions on Nov. 2 in solidarity with Oc­ cupy Oakland; locally there will be a rally at 4 p.m. in Washington Square Park, with a march to Zuccotti Park. In addition, OWS has chosen Nov. 17 to be a day of national solidarity with the goals of the Occupation. Momentum is building, with broad union support, for what promises to be a very large demonstration. n

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