Chicago Teachers Union hosts International Women’s Day rally

Scan page 5

SOCIALIST ACTION APRIL 2017...5 CHICAGO — Over 1000 trade-union women and supporters gathered at the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) Hall on Mar. 8 to celebrate International Wom­ en’s Day and declare solidarity with women everywhere struggling to pro­ tect and extend woman’s rights.

Chairing the rally, Adriana Alvarez of Fight for $15 spoke of the struggle of woman workers against sexual harass­ ment at Burger King and McDonalds restaurants. She reported on a demon­ stration earlier in the day targeting a local Burger King that woman workers charged with EEOC violations.

The context for the Mar. 8 rally was the local and state government assaults on unions representing large numbers of women. State workers represented by AFSCME recently voted overwhelmingly to strike if negotiations with Governor Bruce Rauner continue to stall.

Demanding a fair contract, Charter School teachers set a strike date of Mar. 17. State worker Marion Murphy of AF­ SCME Local 2806 and Marines Martinez of Chicago Alliance of Charter Teachers and Staff Local 4343 conveyed details of their struggles and received cheering ... Fighting climate change (continued from page 1: “How can we fight”)

pear, nearly 99 percent of the auto industry is still cranking out fossil-fueled cars and trucks. More than 900,000 American workers are directly involved in making parts and assembling these vehicles. Millions more earn a paycheck by selling, maintaining, repair­ ing, insuring—and ultimately scrapping them. Hun­ dreds of thousands of others are employed in building and maintenance of highways and city streets. And, of course, auto is a prime customer for the steel, rubber, and glass industries.

With zero redeeming social benefit, the fighters, bombers, tanks, cruise missiles, and drones used in constant wars of intervention to advance the interests of capitalist globalization are also a huge greenhouse polluter.

Of course, it has never been the intention of the capitalists to wreck our biosphere. That’s collateral damage in the class war they wage, which has made today’s American ruling class the richest in history.

Some of them favor measures they hope will slow down global warming so that the next generations can figure out something better.

The bosses and bankers mainly promote ineffective schemes like carbon price, carbon tax, and carbon off­ sets, which have been widely used since the Kyoto Ac­ cords were adopted in 1997—but never implemented by Clinton or Bush II.

Obama’s much hailed “Clean Power” initiative— which Trump is now trying to dismantle—was the first American contribution to world efforts to adopt goals to reduce carbon emissions. It was mainly based on inducing many power plants to convert from coal to somewhat less carbon-polluting natural gas. This hasn’t happened out of climate concerns by the utili­ ties. Gas has become cheaper than coal—mainly be­ cause of Obama’s promotion of environmentally de­ structive hydraulic fracturing (fracking.)

“Clean Power” also relied on the cooperation of states to develop carbon markets and quotas—much like Obama’s Affordable Care Act counted on states doing the right thing. And because this “historic” plan was introduced through an executive order, it can be modified and perhaps even nullified by order of the current Denier-in-Chief.

Real solutions are available Since burning fossil fuels is the main culprit in cre­ ating the greenhouse effect driving climate change, a total solution is simple and obvious—quit burning them, leave them in the ground. We in fact don’t need them. There are clean, renewable energy sources available free for the taking everywhere on Earth— sun, wind, and water.

We can replace dirty, inefficient internal combustion and diesel engines that consume fossil fuel with elec­ tric motors. We can conserve energy and reap many other ecological benefits by reversing urban sprawl, reclaiming the forests, wetlands, and farm lands that once surrounded and nurtured many of our cities be­ fore being wrecked by irresponsible “development.”

To facilitate population return to our depleted, long ovations of support from the crowd.

Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU) Local 308 leader Deborah Cosey-Lane addressed the plight of Chicago transit workers who have been without a con­ tract for over 14 months. “We’re sick and tired of being sick and tired!” she said, after describing working condi­ tions of woman drivers, who are forced to endure unsafe and demeaning rules, working long hours, and being denied bathroom facilities and breaks.

Earlier in the day, a group of CTA wom­ en workers, participating in Woman’s Strike activities, rallied at Chicago Tran­ sit Authority offices in Chicago. Joined by other ATU members, they demanded adequate bathroom break time and im­ proved maternity leave benefits.

Dozens of Muslim women from the Arab American Action network joined the CTU rally, and were represented crowd. A prominent figure in the Pal­ estinian national liberation movement, Odeh in 1969 was subjected to sexual abuse and psychological torture while confined in an Israeli military prison.

neglected urban cores would require craft workers now building pipelines and fracking wells to be put to work rebuilding and renovating quality affordable housing and a sustainable infrastructure. Safe, reli­ able, electric-powered mass transit would be a high priority project.

Climate change is a global crisis. No country can es­ cape its impact—not even the U.S., the richest country in history. A large part of this American wealth—of which the lion’s share is controlled by about one-tenth of one percent of our population—is accumu­ lated through exploitation of other nations, leaving them “underdeveloped” and polluted. Sustainable restructuring of the world’s biggest economy can convince the whole world that there is now a road to development far superior to our history marked by unintended ecological destruction.

When American capitalism decided to go all-in for the Second World War, they didn’t try to induce indus­ try to build unprecedented numbers of ships, planes, and tanks through tax credits or other fiscal and mar­ ket measures. Instead, the government essentially took control of the entire economy and dictated prod­ ucts and production quotas. This project of Big Gov­ ernment was the most successful crash mobilization of economic resources in history.

To be sure, this is a far from perfect analogy. The end use of that production led to 70 million deaths and the beginning of the era of nuclear war. We want to end wars and war spending, not make them bigger or more efficient.

Nor is it realistic to expect a capitalist government to carry out a planned economy to combat climate change. The capitalists were rewarded handsomely for compliance with the government’s World War II plan, and the U.S. victory led to opening up vast new markets to U.S. domination. They will not make any sacrifices to eliminate the most important sources of profit.

The only force in society with both the potential power and material interest to challenge destructive capitalist rule is the working-class majority. With the same sense of wartime urgency, our class that does nearly all the work, in alliance with scientists and en­ vironmentalists, can take charge of a planned rapid restructuring of a sustainable economy and run it democratically.

Some hopeful signs from labor The only class-based mass organizations in the USA are the trade unions. This movement has long been divided over climate and environmental issues. But today a number of important national unions are edu­ cating and mobilizing their members around climate as well as class justice. Those making that connection include the Amalgamated Transit Union, American Federation of Teachers, American Postal Workers, Communications Workers of America, National Nurs­ es United, Service Employees International Union, and the United Electrical, Radio & Machine Workers.

Some of these unions are part of the labor/environ­ mental Blue Green Alliance. All are affiliated with the Labor Network for Sustainability, which is doing valu­ able work in hammering out a program for “Making a Living On a Living Planet.”

(Left) Palestinian activist Rasmea Odeh addressed the Chicago rally. She will now accept a plea agreement and be deported.

She endured intense abuse for three weeks, and was coerced into a false confession of involvement in Jerusalem bombings. As a result, her U.S. citizen­ ship was revoked in 2014, and her de­ portation has been under review by an immigration court.

To a standing ovation Odeh declared: “I stand before you as a 50-year survi­ vor of sexual abuse at the hands of the Israeli military.” Two weeks later, Odeh announced that she had decided to ac­ cept a plea agreement in which she must plead “guilty” to unlawful procurement of naturalization. She will avoid more prison time but lose her citizenship and be deported.

Other speakers at the March 8 rally included Karen Lewis, president of the Chicago Teachers Union (opening re­ marks); Christel Williams, CTU; Liz Rad­ ford, Woman’s March of Chicago; Alyx Goodwin, Black Youth Project 100; Faith Arnold, SEIU Healthcare Illinois & Indi­ ana; and Katie Thiede, Planned Parent­ hood. n Most have also joined the global Trade Unions for Energy Democracy. Among other demands, TUED fa­ vors socialization of all energy under worker manage­ ment—a goal Socialist Action heartily supports. But to secure the needed massive restructuring plan, we think socialization will need to also include at the very least the financial and transportation sectors and, be­ cause of its central importance, the auto industry as well.

Both the LNS and TUED strongly support the appli­ cation of Just Transition—a topic of an article in the February issue of this newspaper. This long standing working-class principle holds that when workers lose their livelihood for the better good of society we have a collective obligation to give them income, retraining, and relocation support until they can find suitable new jobs.

Unlike Trump’s phony promise of putting miners back to work digging coal, we can honestly and con­ fidently guarantee Just Transition to the millions of workers who will be affected as we replace climatewrecking jobs with sustainable ones. At the same time as we save our biosphere, we will generate full em­ ployment with a decent standard of living for genera­ tions. As the working class replaces the present capi­ talist ruling class, we can use some of their ill-gotten wealth to also provide generous solidarity grants to nations exploited by the old rules, so that they too can be part of making a decent living on a healing planet.

This, of course, won’t be done overnight. While cli­ mate change relentlessly advances, the struggles for both climate and class justice are in their early stages. There are no short cuts. We need to continue to edu­ cate and motivate around the urgent need for climate action while helping the working class recover from class identity theft. Periodic mass demonstrations, along with education in union halls and workplace break rooms, and teach-ins on college campuses, re­ main essential Scientists and environmentalists have done their job well in explaining the climate crisis and offering ways to satisfactorily resolve it. But the necessary alterna­ tives require taking political power away from the climate-wrecking class. That won’t be done until the working class breaks the two-party political monop­ oly that allows this tiny destructive minority to rule. The need for a mass working-class party in the United States—likely arising from our unions—is every bit as urgent as the climate crisis itself. n