Trump riled by NFL player protests

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women, LGBT people, national minorities, etc. We support the right of self-determination Socialist Action is a national organization of activists committed to the emancipation for oppressed nationalities, including Blacks, Chicanos, and Puerto Ricans. We are of workers and the oppressed. We strive to revitalize the antiwar, environmental, labor, internationalists, and hold that workers of one country have more in common with workers anti-racist, feminist, student, and other social movements with a mass-action perspective. of another than with their own nation’s capitalist class. We seek to link struggles across Recognizing the divisions that exist on the left and within the workers’ movement, we seek national boundaries, and to build an international revolutionary movement that will facilitate to form united front type organizations around specific issues where various groups have the sharing of experiences and political lessons. We maintain fraternal relations with the agreement. In this way we seek to maximize our impact and demonstrate the power and Socialist Action believes that the capitalist state and its institutions are instruments of the In the process we hope to bring activists together from different backgrounds into a ruling class, and that therefore they cannot be used as tools of the working class but have revolutionary workers’ party that can successfully challenge the wealthy elite—whose profit- to be smashed. That is why we fight for revolution. When we fight for specific reforms, we do so with the understanding that in the final analysis real social change can only come We are active partisans of the working class and believe in the need for independent about with the overthrow of capitalism, the establishment of a workers’ government, and the working-class politics—not alliances with the bosses’ parties. That is why we call for workers fight for socialism. Our ultimate goal is a truly democratic, environmentally sustainable, and in the U.S. to break from the Democratic and Republican parties to build a Labor Party egalitarian society organized to satisfy human needs rather than corporate greed. We invite Socialist Action (ISSN 0747-4237) is published monthly by Socialist Action Publishing Association, P.O. Box 10328, Oakland, CA 94610.

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Signed articles do not necessarily represent the views of Socialist Action. These are expressed in editorials. Socialist Action is edited, Clip and mail to: Socialist Action newspaper, P.O. Box 10328, Oakland, CA 94610. President Trump has gone apoplectic about pro­ fessional athletes taking a knee during the National Anthem in order to protest racial injustice and po­ lice brutality against Black people. Trump had this to say at an Alabama rally on Sept. 22: “Wouldn’t you love to see one of these NFL owners, when somebody disrespects our flag, to say, ‘Get that son of a bitch off the field right now. Out! He’s fired.

He’s fired!’”

For weeks, the Trump administration has pursued its attack on NFL players. Vice President Pence, in a maneuver that had been pre-arranged with Trump, walked out of a Colts-49er game when some players kneeled.

What was the response? On the first weekend af­ ter Trump’s demand that kneeling players be fired, the Pittsburgh Steelers refused to take the field dur­ ing the anthem. Many of the Super Bowl champion New England Patriots took a knee. National Anthem singers at two separate games, Meghan Linsey and Rico Lavelle, took a knee while performing.

The Oakland Athletics’ Bruce Maxwell was the first baseball player to take a knee. Basketball star Steph Cur­ ry refused to attend the White House celebration for the NBA Champion Golden State Warriors. The new cast of “Star Trek: Discovery” knelt on their premiere night.

The list goes on. The expressions of solidarity have been incredible. Despite his absence on the field due to the league’s refusal to hire him, the NFL Player’s Union awarded Colin Kaepernick with the Week One MVP for his charity work. Kaepernick initiated the antiracist protest in August 2016. He has defiantly stated, “I’m not going to stand up to show pride in a flag that oppresses Black people and people of color.” Recently, Kaepernick donated $25,000 in the fight for the rights of immigrant youth affected by DACA.

It is likely that the NFL owners are scrambling to find a way around slumping popularity to maintain their profit JOIN SOCIALIST ACTION!

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2 SOCIALIST ACTION OCTOBER 2017 margins. Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones originally loathed the kneeling protests, yet he linked arms with his players and took a knee before the national anthem dur­ ing Monday Night Football on Sept. 25. The spectacular photo-op was a perfect way to begin blurring the lines between the original intent of Kaepernick’s protest and the owners’ self-interest.

League ratings continue to fall. The NFL boycott and player protest is working. Broadcasting stocks took a nosedive last month, a fall of between 1% and 8%. Trump attributed the low ratings to “new league rules” that pe­ nalize excessively hard tackles. This hyper-masculine ex­ planation defies all scientific evidence of increased brain trauma among current and retired players. Recent discov­ ery of one of the most severe case of Stage 3 Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE) was found during an autopsy of Aaron Hernandez, who committed suicide while awaiting trial for murder charges.

Many fans are sick and tired of injustice. They want to stand in solidarity with Kaepernick. What does it mean for the working class when the president calls for the best-paid workers to be fired for their political beliefs?

Fourth International. We support the struggles of those who are specially oppressed under capitalism— you to join us in the struggle to make the world a better place! • Buffalo, NY: [email protected] • Chicago: P.O. Box 578428 Chicago, IL 60657, [email protected] • Connecticut: (860) 478-5300 • Duluth, Minn.: [email protected]. www.thenorthernworker.blogspot.com • Kansas City: [email protected] (816) 221-3638 • LOUISVILLE, KY: [email protected], (502) 451-2193 • Minneapolis/St. Paul: (612) 802-1482, [email protected] • New York City: (212) 781-5157 • Philadelphia: (267) 989-9035 [email protected] Facebook: Red Philly He is signaling to employers everywhere that it is open season to fire workers for expressing their own unique ideas.

On Oct. 10, Trump demanded that NFL teams whose players refuse to stand be denied “mas­ sive tax breaks,” and some NFL officials began to buckle. On Oct. 11, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell sent a letter to the owners of all 32 teams stating that players should stand for the anthem. But when Cowboys owner Jerry Jones, in an abrupt change of heart, said a day earlier that he would bench any player who did not stand, Local 100 of the United Labor Unions in Texas filed a complaint against the team, stating that Jones’s order violated the National Labor Relations Act. Is it unrealistic to consider an NFL player strike? The deepening political consciousness of profes­ sional athletes is opening an interesting arena in the class struggle. This includes a solidarity let­ ter to Kaepernick penned by military veterans: “However you choose to use your voice, please do so with an under­ standing that many veterans do not condemn the protest of activists like Jackie Robinson, Colin Kaepernick and everyday Americans seeking justice. Indeed, we see no higher form of patriotism.”

The U.S. government pays millions to NFL owners to convene patriotic displays during games. It can be argued that the Pittsburgh Steelers’ not appearing on field dur­ ing the “Star Spangled Banner” was a type of brief work stoppage or wildcat strike. The patriotic illusion is not successfully created when the players are not standing and saluting the flag.

Workers everywhere are getting a real lesson that the U.S. flag really represents police brutality, war, and the bosses’ profits. What could a player strike accomplish? It could quickly resolve Kaepernick’s status on the NFL owners’ blacklist and put an end to harassment by Trump and the bosses. A player strike could also build confidence in the working class and serve as an example of the power of mass collective struggle against the bosses. n For info about Socialist Action and how to join: Socialist Action National Office, P.O.

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When U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson told a National Security Council meeting last week, from which President Trump had de­ parted, that his boss was a “fucking moron,” it’s likely that Tillerson, who has refused to deny his characterization, was not referring liter­ ally to any diminished mental capacity of the president. After all, any billionaire who can ac­ cumulate a fortune in real estate and gambling casinos, socially associate with the ruling-class elite, including the Clintons, and appear on his own reality TV show is likely to be within the “normal” range of human intelligence.

A few days later, another Republican higher up, Bob Corker, chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee told The New York Times that Trump was treating his presidency like a “reality TV show … like he was doing ‘The Ap­ prentice’ or something.” Unrestrained, Corker added, “He concerns me. He would have to con­ cern anyone who cares about our nation.”

Corker said that Trump’s “recklessness threat­ ens World War III.” In an Oct. 8 public exchange of denunciatory tweets, Corker revealed a not so hidden aspect of the Trump presidency. “It’s a shame that the White House has become an adult day care center,” he stated, “Someone has obviously missed their shift this morning.”

Paraphrasing Corker, The Times interviewer continued, “Mr. Trump poses such an acute risk that a coterie of senior administrative officials must protect him from his own instincts.” And finally from Corker: “I know for a fact that every single day in the White House, it’s a situation of trying to contain him.”

Corker and Tillerson tell us that “something is

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