“It’s the turn of the working class to stop the status quo and demand change”: workers denounce police repression

Workers, denounce the genocide and the repression of demonstrations! Send us your statement by by filling out the form below. All submissions will remain anonymous.

Workers across the United States are denouncing the Gaza genocide and police attacks on students by both pro-war parties.

Calls for industrial action to end the war are growing. On Monday, May 13, 48,000 California graduate students began voting to strike following the violent police crackdown at UCLA, where officers also stood by while right-wing Zionists attacked the protest encampment. .

Yesterday, socialist auto worker Will Lehman released a statement calling on industry workers to support students. “If they succeed in banning protests against the genocide, they will then send riot police against the pickets,” he warned.

The only way to stop the war and defend our rights is to take charge as the working class, which creates all the wealth in society.

That’s why I’m calling on my fellow UAW members to demand an immediate strike by all 400,000 members.

We must start fighting for this now. Hold mass meetings at your workplace to discuss actions.

Faced with inevitable opposition from the UAW bureaucracy, organize rank-and-file strike committees to enforce your democratic will.

THE World Socialist Website publishes below a number of worker statements from recent days. To submit your statement, complete the form at the bottom of this article.

Industrial workers

GM Flint Assembly workers walk off their jobs on November 7, 2023

An auto parts worker from Dana said: “Wars only serve the rich. The protesters were clean and tidy, but they also exercised their constitutional rights in an orderly and fair manner. Then the government intervened as usual.

“We must first question the government’s intentions and then what happened next. I don’t think most of the protesters left behind the mess and graffiti! We have seen these falsifications before.

“As workers, we must defend our rights as human beings, not to mention our constitutional rights! » he concluded. “But if we come together, we can make an inevitable difference and change!” »

A railway worker warned of the role of the union bureaucracy in the face of protests: “Union bureaucrats will only defend their comfortable jobs. They will not defend workers.

“In 2022, we were pushing for a national strike. In response to the rank-and-file railroad workers’ committee, Tony Cardwell, president of the BMWED, sent a letter warning railroad workers that we would be fired and face legal action in the event of a wildcat strike and that the Teamsters would not do so. support us. This was immediately after selling out the workers to the demands of the railroad companies and the capitalist state. Today, the UAW is demonstrating its allegiance to the state by helping police disperse worker and student protesters at UCLA.

A General Motors employee from Flint, Michigan, pointed out a pro-war pamphlet published by the United Auto Workers: “The Truck News is a publication jointly produced by the UAW 598 and General Motors and distributed to workers. This question promotes war, brags about how we once made military planes and vehicles, inspires workers to be proud of those past contributions, but fails to explain that war kills and has horrible effects on the working class with no benefit to us.

“The UAW promotes sweatshirts with warplanes on them, which inspires us to be proud of the upcoming participation in the war we will fight, foreshadowing the possible future. (UAW President) Shawn Fain promotes war, which literally kills the working class and incites the working class to support it. It’s absurd.

“The working class must seize production and join the fight with students and the rest of the world to end the bloodshed, genocide and potential nuclear war. The fact that students have recently gathered in large numbers to protest on campuses in almost every city, it helps us to develop a collective conscience, to agree and to stand up for what is morally correct.

“It is the turn of the working class to end the status quo and demand change. What stops us is the fear of losing our jobs, which we rely on to survive and make money, but the power of change lies in us all standing up together at the same time.

“History repeats itself (like the) Kent State massacre. If the Flint sit-down strike took place today, it would be denounced as terrorist because it shut down production. This new principle is terrorist in itself and we must regain power by stopping production and showing who is really in charge.”

Educators

Ann Arbor educators rally ahead of school board meeting

Teachers across the country have spoken out in defense of students.

In Ann Arbor, Michiganwhere a particularly brutal crackdown took place at the University of Michigan, public school teachers are fighting massive budget cuts.

Educators who spoke to the WSWS linked the fight against austerity to war. “I have taught all my life, at a high cost, not only financial but also personal, because being an educator and doing it well means asking a lot of sacrifices from your family,” said a teacher. “Failing to support teachers hurts everyone, especially children. It’s such a shame that we spend money killing people…instead of helping the living.

When asked what he thought about the arrest of more than 2,500 students for protesting the massacre of Palestinians, he replied: “What they are doing quietly, or maybe not so quietly, it is repressing the most progressive spirit of our country. You saw it in Vietnam. You saw it during the so-called Persian Gulf War. I participated in these protests, and you do not silence these voices. I would like to see workers in solidarity with students.

Another teacher, when asked about the nearly trillion-dollar military budget and the recent $95 billion bipartisan military funding package, responded, “Why do we have to hear that?” We have money available for war, but we don’t have money to invest in our schools to help pay for school materials and to give our teachers the salaries they deserve. She concluded by defending the protesting students, saying: “They should not be persecuted. … Everyone should be able to freely express their opinion.

During a demonstration against school cuts this week in Los Angeles, California, teachers Cindy and John spoke to WSWS. John said: “Are students going to receive financial aid? It’s already hard. And we work for schools that are primarily low-income Hispanic schools and serve first-generation students. We need our school counselors. So fund our school counselors! Fund all of our students’ needs!

Currently there is such a shortage. Cindy explained, “We have one counselor for every 750 students. Anything below that we have to pay for. So we pay extra. And we lose one. Our students need every resource.

When asked by this reporter what he thought of the working class coming to the defense of students protesting the Israeli genocide, John replied: “I personally support a ceasefire. I support the lives of those living in Gaza.

A Eastern Ohio music teacher told the WSWS: “I oppose the assault on Gaza because Gaza and its citizens are only guilty of being Palestinian. They are not guilty of Hamas’ attack on Israel, any more than the Israeli people are guilty of the Israeli government’s attack on Gaza.

“The so-called “self-defense” is a sham. You don’t bomb and starve children to defend yourself.

“Democrats, and Biden is no exception, have supported imperialist war and war against the international working class for generations. Instead of truly being the party of peace and workers, Democrats are capitalist idiots who prove their allegiance with every lie they tell and every piece of legislation they pass. The Democrats are absolutely not a viable alternative to the Republicans.”

Accusations that the protests are “anti-Semitic,” he said, are “ridiculous.” Biden, Pelosi and all their ilk have spread this lie. And university presidents, in order to protect their lucrative role in the capitalist bureaucracy, are following suit by spouting the same lies toward protesters.”

The attacks on protesters are “disgusting,” he said. “While more than 40,000 Palestinians have been murdered, students on campuses across the country have been beaten, trampled and deprived of their constitutional right to freedom of expression. Adding insult to injury, college presidents tout their love of the First Amendment while praising campus protesters for exercising the rights guaranteed by that amendment.

He concluded: “The international working class is the only organization capable of launching and carrying out such a call (to end the war). We have already seen so-called “peace” treaties in the Middle East. These were just capitalist lies. The only true peace will come when workers around the world take control of the means of production and overthrow the nation-state capitalist system.

“The rank-and-file committees covering all industries are the legitimate organ of the international working class. These organizations therefore constitute the only legitimate collective through which such a task can be accomplished.

“The union bureaucrats, corrupt to the core, will not do this because they serve the interests of capitalism. The Democrats, the so-called party of the people, will not do this because they too serve these same capitalist interests. What remains are the people themselves who, collectively, within grassroots committees, can exercise their power to put an end to all class society.”