Feb. 2, 2012 Vol. 54, No. 4 $1
Amenazas contra Irán
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TUNISIA
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SOMALIA
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AFGHANISTAN
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WW PHOTO: BILL BOWERS
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By Bill BowersSan Francisco
Thousands of demonstrators came out Jan. 20 to“Occupy Wall Street West” to mark the second anni- versary of the Supreme Court Citizens United deci-sion. This ruling called anonymous campaign contri- butions “free speech” and claimed corporations were“people,” thus increasing the already overwhelmingpower of the rich over politicians.In response, the Occupy movement around thecountry demonstrated at federal courthouses. Oc-cupy San Francisco decided to target Wall Street
West, the complex housing the local head ofces of the major banks and nancial institutions that rule
the country. Demonstrators held a series of actions at
different nancial institutions, including a protest at
the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals.
Siege of Wells Fargo, BofA
At least 250 people took the street as Occupy activ-ists chained themselves to all four entrances of a large Wells Fargo bank branch. People chanted, “Banks got bailed out, we got sold out!” and — if you replace theX with “jobs,” “schools,” “health care,” etc. — “Weneed X, make the banks pay!” A group marched from Wells Fargo to the Im-
migration and Customs Enforcement ofce nearby.
They denounced the Obama administration’s depor-tation of immigrant workers and their families as wellas Wells Fargo’s investment in constructing privateprisons and holding pens.
Meanwhile, another group put an ofce of Bank
of America under siege, holding up a big bannerand chanting, “Bank of America, bad for America!”Of course, the bank is based in the U.S., but it is un-doubtedly bad for the entire hemisphere. Occupy ac-tivists also chained themselves to the doors.The BofA deserved more than just a siege, so the99% decided to hold a peoples’ trial with the big bank facing charges. About 400 people witnessed asforeclosed homeowners detailed BofA’s and Fannie
Mae’s manipulations and deceits when rst offering
and then foreclosing on mortgages. The main chantafter each testimony was “Give the deed back!” which was repeated continually.Bank of America and Wells Fargo have foreclosedon more people in San Francisco than any othermortgage-holders. The mostly African-American andLatino/a communities of Mission, Bayview and Ex-celsior have been hit especially hard. At midday more than 1,000 people took to thestreets and marched through the Financial District,
In San Francisco, thousands say
Put banks on trial!
Continued on page 7
WISCONSIN
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PENNSYLVANIA
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CALIFORNIA NORTH CAR0LINA
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Occupy Wall Street West march in central San Francisco.Gwen Ivey, Phila. Postal Workers Union.
WW PHOTO: JOE PIETTE
LeiLani Dowell, Workers World Party.
WW PHOTO: BRYAN G. PFEIFER
Donna Dewitt, president South Carolina AFL-CIO, speaking.
WW PHOTO
ARIZONA
bigots ban books
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Martin Luther King
Day of struggle
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SOPA-PIPA
Internet strike
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Roe v. Wade
Year 39
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‘Gay families matter’
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Black History 2012
Page 2 Feb. 2, 2012 workers.org
In the U.S.
Put banks on trial! ......................................... 1Internet strike stalls ‘piracy’ laws ............................2Coalition sets demonstrations for DNC..................... 3WWP leader speaks, protests racist Tea Party................3One million say: ‘Recall Gov. Scott Walker’ ...................3 Transport union ghts for fair contract......................4Pa. teachers strike for contract..............................4LGBTQ protesters: ‘Gay families matter!’ .....................5Defending legal abortion on 39th anniversary ............. 5Women, Civil Rights and the struggle ahead ................6Rally honors MLK’s labor legacy.............................6People’s Assembly continues Dr. King’s legacy...............6Newark community group protests.........................7Workers, supporters ‘occupy’ NYC cafe ......................7Anti-Mexican Studies bigots now banning books ...........8Feb. 4 anti-war actions vs. imperialist threats to Iran........10Occupy Atlanta takes on the banks -- and wins! ............10
Around the world
Rally supports locked-out Caterpillar workers...............4Historic strike halts Panama Canal expansion .............. 8U.S.-backed armies try to subdue Somalia...................9Haiti prison guard trial ends in surprise conviction ..........9U.S.-led ‘coalition’ shows cracks ............................11Anniversary of Tunisian uprising...........................11Global Day honors Egyptian revolution ....................11
Editorials
Elections? Stay in the streets ..............................10
Noticias En Español
Amenazas contra Irán .......................................
Workers World55 West 17 StreetNew York, N.Y. 10011Phone: 212.627.2994E-mail: ww@workers.org Web: www.workers.org
Vol. 54, No. 4 • Feb. 2, 2012
Closing date: Jan. 24, 2012Editor: Deirdre GriswoldTechnical Editor: Lal Roohk Managing Editors: John Catalinotto, LeiLani Dowell,Leslie Feinberg, Kris Hamel, Monica Moorehead,Gary Wilson West Coast Editor: John ParkerContributing Editors: Abayomi Azikiwe,
Greg Buttereld, Jaimeson Champion, G. Dunkel,
Fred Goldstein, Teresa Gutierrez, Larry Hales,Berta Joubert-Ceci, Cheryl LaBash,Milt Neidenberg, Bryan G. Pfeifer, Betsey Piette,Minnie Bruce Pratt, Gloria RubacTechnical Staff: Sue Davis, Shelley Ettinger,Bob McCubbin, Maggie VascassennoMundo Obrero: Carl Glenn, Teresa Gutierrez,Berta Joubert-Ceci, Donna Lazarus, Michael Martínez,Carlos VargasSupporter Program: Sue Davis, coordinatorCopyright © 2011 Workers World. Verbatim copying anddistribution of articles is permitted in any medium with-out royalty provided this notice is preserved. Workers World (ISSN-1070-4205) is published weekly
except the rst week of January by WW Publishers,
55 W. 17 St., N.Y., N.Y. 10011. Phone: 212.627.2994.Subscriptions: One year: $30; institutions: $35. Lettersto the editor may be condensed and edited. Articles can be freely reprinted, with credit to Workers World, 55 W.17 St., New York, NY 10011. Back issues and individual
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Fighting censorship, repression
Internet strike stalls ‘piracy’ laws
Pamphlet and book are available at www.LowWageCapitalism.org and www.workers.org/books and www.amazon.comOrder ‘Capitalism at a Dead End’ pamphlet from Workers World55 W. 17 St., 5C, NY, NY 10011$2 (plus $1 shipping)
LOW-WAGE CAPITALISM
What the new globalized high-tech imperialism meansfor the class struggle in the U.S.
An easy-to-read book analyzing the roots of the current globaleconomic crisis, its implications for workers and oppressedpeoples, and the strategy needed for future struggle.
By Greg Buttereld
A massive Internet strike closed down websites largeand small on Jan. 18 in opposition to two bills in the U.S.Congress that would tighten corporate domination of the Web and increase censorship.The bills, known by their acronyms SOPA and PIPA (the Stop Online Piracy Act and the Protect Intellectual
Property Act), are backed by the money and inuence of
the massive U.S. corporate entertainment industry, in-cluding the Motion Picture Association of America andthe Recording Industry Association of America.Besides targeting individual Web users, the legislationis seen as taking aim at countries like China and Russia, which have resisted U.S. corporate domination of theirdomestic Internet services and copyright laws.The bills seemed headed for easy passage in Congress.But the political climate is changing, and as word spreadof the censorship bills, mass opposition mounted quickly.The corporate-owned media focused attention on theshutdown of Wikipedia and half-hearted protests by tech-industry-dominated sites like Google and Amazon.But the strike’s real strength came from the millions of Web users in the U.S. and around the world who partici-pated by calling Congress and the White House, holdingrallies and educational meetings, replacing their pagesfor the day with pro-strike information, or just stayingoff the Internet altogether.On the micro-blogging platform Tumblr, to give justone example, some 650,000 users reportedly joined thestrike, shutting down their personal blog pages for 24hours. (Tumblr Staff blog, Jan. 20)The show of Internet-user strength won a temporary
victory: Congress declared an indenite delay to voting
on SOPA and PIPA.But this struggle is only beginning.
The 1% demand Web domination
After years of piecemeal attacks on Internet users forso-called piracy — that is, the free sharing of culture andinformation — a major section of the U.S. and global rul-ing class seems intent on carrying out a full-court press
to wrangle wholesale control of the Web for the pro
-teers in the name of “intellectual property rights.”The government/media propaganda message is thatthese laws are meant to protect artists’ and inventors’
rights. But the only ones they benet are the 1% — huge
transnational corporations that have stolen people’s ideas
and creations for decades in the name of megaprots.
The corporations’ message is sheer hypocrisy. Theirentire capitalist system is built upon piracy, stolen laborand resources, and cultural appropriation. As millions of websites were shut down in protestof SOPA and PIPA, the U.S. Supreme Court on Jan. 18 joined in the attack on free expression and culture andruled 6-2 that works of writing, art and music long inthe public domain could be re-copyrighted — that is, putunder the control of private companies and individuals.
The case in question involved millions of works rst pub
-lished abroad from 1923 to 1989.The public domain is not “a category of constitutional
signicance,” the court majority ruled. (New York Times,
Jan. 18) The decision opens the door to further re-priva-tization, a long sought-after goal of the corporate enter-tainment juggernaut.
FBI repression as ACTA looms
The mounting battle for Internet freedom must beseen in the context of the global uprising against capital-ist austerity. From Tahrir Square to Occupy Wall Street,this upsurge of class struggle has used the Internet as atool to mobilize millions into action against the wealthy and powerful. While the current legislative battle is couched in thelanguage of copyright law, the potential of SOPA andits ilk to be used to repress online political activity andspeech is staggering.On Jan. 19 — just a day after the massive Internet strike— the U.S. government retaliated and shut down the
popular le-sharing site MegaUpload. The site’s founderand several associates were arrested in New Zealand.
File-sharing sites are used not only to download mov-ies and music — much of it in the public domain or withartists’ approval — but also as an easy way to share politi-cal materials over the Web.MegaUpload’s homepage is now plastered with fascis-tic FBI and Department of Justice logos. The FBI attack has had a chilling effect: FileSonic, a similar site, has shut
down its le-sharing capabilities, and others are expect
-ed to follow suit.The online protest group Anonymous in turn respond-ed by hacking the homepages of the FBI, the DOJ andentertainment industry giants. Waiting in the wings is ACTA — the Anti-Counter-feiting Trade Agreement — a secret international tradeagreement backed by both the Bush and Obama admin-istrations, and about to go before the European Parlia-ment for approval.Some details of the agreement have been leaked. If enacted, ACTA would force Internet service providersto closely monitor individuals’ Internet use and reportsuspected “copyright infringement” to governments andcopyright holders.Under ACTA, people traveling across borders could be subject to having their laptops, phones, music playersand other personal electronic devices searched for “pi-rated” content. With these two provisions alone, the potential for po-litical repression against anti-capitalists or anyone op-posing injustice is enormous.Online activists are now working to spread the wordabout ACTA and mount a new protest campaign prior tothe European vote.
workers.org Feb. 2, 2012 Page 3
Coalition sets demonstrationsfor Democratic National Convention
One million say:
‘Recall Gov. Scott Walker’
WWPHOTO: BRYAN G. PFEIFER
At Milwaukee Area Technical College Jan. 17
WWP leader denounces racist Tea Party
WW PHOTO: BRYAN G. PFEIFER
By Ben CarrollCharlotte, N.C.
When the Democratic National Con- vention meets in Charlotte, N.C., in Sep-tember, there will be thousands of peoplefrom across the country in the streets toraise demands for jobs and justice on the world stage.That’s what the Coalition to Protest at
the DNC announced at its rst press confer
-ence Jan. 19, held outside the Time WarnerCable Arena in Charlotte, where the con- vention will be held Sept. 3-6. More thanthree dozen labor, anti-war, civil rights, an-ti-foreclosure, immigrants rights, studentand youth organizations, and many promi-nent activists from across North Carolina,the South and the U.S. have joined togetherto initiate this coalition.They are united behind demands for“Good jobs for all! Economic justice now – make the banks and corporations pay for their crisis!” “Money for education,health care, housing and all human needs,not for war and incarceration!” and “Jus-tice for immigrants and all oppressedpeoples! Stop the raids and deportations!” At the press conference, held duringthe week commemorating Dr. Martin Lu-ther King Jr., representatives from many organizations explained why they will bedemonstrating.“We’re here to demand an end to the war on Black people, here and in Africa— from police brutality and mass incar-ceration, to AFRICOM [the United States Africa Command] and proxy wars across
the African continent,” said Ea Nwan
-gaza, founder and director of the MalcolmX Center for Self-Determination.Nwangaza continued, slamming theDemocratic Party for their “silence on thedepression-level, African-American un-employment,” for taking no action to stopracist predatory lending and home fore-closures, and for the continued imprison-ment of political prisoners.
Wall Street of the South
Coalition organizers call Charlotte “the Wall Street of the South.” With the worldheadquarters of Bank of America and theeastern headquarters of Wells Fargo, ithas the second largest concentration of
nance capital in the U.S., behind New
York City. Both banks are notorious forforeclosing homes, holding huge amountsof student loans, bankrolling the prison-industrial complex, and funding environ-mental destruction, among many othercrimes against our communities.North Carolina is also the least union-ized state in the U.S., with a Jim Crow-era law still on the books that bans public workers from collectively bargaining. Vir-ginia is the only other state with this ban.In both cases, Democrats enacted the bansand have done nothing about them since.Donna Dewitt, president of the SouthCarolina AFL-CIO, raised that city work-
ers in Charlotte have been ghting for years
just to win the basic right of dues deduction.Dewitt spoke about why workers should bemobilizing to protest at the DNC.“Located in the Deep South of historicalstruggles for civil, worker, immigrant andhuman rights, North Carolina, like otherSouthern states, continues the competitionto underbid other Southern states to attractcorporations that locate to the South forlower wages and exploitation of workers.
… Elected ofcials of both major parties
have followed the practices of the corporate world in their bid to protect the rich anddeny the working families of our country.”Concluding the press conference, AnaMaria Reichenbach, with the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill chapter of Students for a Democratic Society, gavea spirited talk calling on young peopleto come to Charlotte this September.
“Working-class youth of this country nd
our prospects of attending higher educa-tion diminished as tuition continues torise. We’re forced to go deeper into debt with student loans.“Unemployment rates are soaring andthose jobs available fail to provide us withliving wages. … We are rising up because
we have the right to a dignied life and
because we refuse to be a lost generationof jobless, uneducated people. We are ris-ing up because this two-party system hasfailed to meet our needs.”Following the example of other citiesthat have hosted political conventions,Charlotte is preparing to pass restrictivenew ordinances regulating demonstra-tions. They have denied every request by the Coalition to Protest at the DNC forpermits to march, and have told organiz-ers that the DNC has reserved every park in the city the weeks prior to, during andafter the convention. Coalition organizers
have vowed to ght the city for the right to
protest during the DNC.Organizations including Occupy move-ments across the country are already planning to mobilize to be in the streetsof Charlotte during the DNC. For moreinformation on the Coalition to Protest at
the DNC and to nd out how your organi
-zation can join, visit protestdnc.org.On Jan. 17, after 60 days of poorand working people working tirelessly throughout Wisconsin, it was announcedthat 1 million petition signatures had beengathered to recall the anti-union, anti- worker Gov. Scott Walker, a darling of the Tea Party. This blow to the right-winggovernor was celebrated in statewide ral-lies, with a thousand-strong celebration inMadison and a large rally at the Milwau-kee Area Technical College (pictured.)
— Report & photo by Bryan G. PfeiferBy Bryan G. PfeiferMilwaukee
LeiLani Dowell, Workers World Party leader and WW managing editor, visited Wisconsin Jan. 20-22 to participate in theongoing people’s uprising sparked by thestate capitol occupation in February 2011and Occupy Wall Street.“We realize the occupation in Madison was a spark for Occupy Wall Street andmany of the occupations that have hap-pened, and we’ve been inspired by all of the struggles since then. It was great tomeet some of the amazing activists, amaz-ing women who are doing things, andother people in the communities who are
really ghting back,” Dowell told WW.Dowell rst participated in a women’s
meeting in Milwaukee’s African-American
community, meeting many women ght
-ers. From there she met numerous activ-ists and leaders engaged in many anti-capitalist, anti-racist forms of struggle. Shealso met leaders from the lesbian, gay, bi-sexual, transgender and queer community.On Jan. 21, Dowell was the featuredspeaker at a Milwaukee Workers WorldParty Forum, “Occupy For Socialist Revo-lution,” at the Center Street Library, an African-American community institution.Later on, a robust discussion took place with the multinational crowd focusingon socialism and the need for oppressedpeople to have their self-determinationrespected by progressive and revolution-ary movements. Many Workers WorldParty newspapers and literature were dis-tributed and sold.“The meeting was a great success. It isreally exciting that socialism was raised
in the title of the event and reects that
people are interested in socialism now inthe United States, including in Wiscon-sin,” said Dowell. After the Jan. 21 meeting a delegation,including Dowell, went to Wauwatosa, just west of Milwaukee, to join a labor-community-student counterprotest of aTea Party/Republican Party rally of a few thousand. The right-wing racist recruit-ment rally was in opposition to the Recall Walker movement in Wisconsin. Thismovement announced on Jan. 17 that ithad gathered 1 million petition signaturesto recall the union-busting Wisconsingovernor. After participating in the counterpro-test, a member of the Wisconsin BailOut the People Movement and a mem- ber of Workers World Party waded intothe crowd to the front of the stage andunfurled a banner that read: “Stop Rac-ist Anti-Worker Assaults, Recall Walker/Jobs Now, Make Banks Pay!” that com-pletely disrupted the right-wing rally.The progressive activists were sur-rounded by the racists, who tried to rip the banner and assault them, but the activistsheld their ground for a few moments lon-ger before departing. They made the pointthat right-wing racists of any stripe will be directly confronted wherever they are. While on the sidewalk counterprotest-ing, Dowell and another sister of African- American descent resisted racist slurs by Tea Party-types.Dowell and the rest of the delegation re-turned to Milwaukee to visit members of Occupy Milwaukee, Decolonize The Hoodand Occupy Riverwest, among others.“I’m so impressed by the people. Thereis a high interest in socialism, which isgreat, but also a real level of opennessaround struggle, raising issues such asself-determination, and particularly the women of color we met raising their is-sues. I’m really impressed by the dia-logue that’s going on in Wisconsin to- ward building real, true solidarity. Wethank Wisconsin for the struggle. It’s soimportant, and it really motivates all of us in New York, around the country andaround the world,” Dowell concluded.
Milwaukee
Contact Milwaukee Workers World at milwaukee@workers.org.
At forum at Center StreetLibrary Milwaukee; LeiLaniDowell, second from right.
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