US News

https://x.com/DOGE/status/1857076831104434289

What a fun, whimsical timeline.

On the evening of Nov.6, a group of nine individuals — most of whom were wearing MAGA hats — went to the Global Gender and Sexuality Studies (GGSS) department in Clemens Hall on UB’s north campus. The GGSS department historically attracts many transgender scholars as well as other women.

These nine individuals went through the department, harassing students and staff, with a special focus on gender minorities. They trashed several classrooms by turning over bookshelves, upturning tables and throwing chairs around the room. The UB Police Department was quickly notified of these events, but all reports seem to indicate that the UBPD officers decided to stay in their office monitoring the camera feeds until the Trump supporters were gone.

The university president issued a statement the next day stating that students and staff should report these kinds of incidents to the UBPD and that the campus police are there to “protect and serve.” This empty public relations statement from the president was countered by another statement from the CSL, wherein the individuals who attacked the GGSS department were called out, the community was urged to report instances of fascist activities to progressive forces for the purpose of community solidarity and antifascist action, and the university was condemned for once again failing to protect women (cisgender, transgender and demigender) and other gender oppressed persons on campus from right-wing violence. (tinyurl.com/NovStmtCSL)

Build worker solidarity!

On Nov 7, many professors and graduate students in the humanities departments at UB were privately urged to work from behind closed and locked doors “as if you are under a modified lockdown,” to quote one professor who wishes to remain anonymous.

On the same day, many Black students at Buff State were receiving copies of a racist mass text which was sent out to students of color nationwide. Once again the administration, this time of Buff State, issued a message to the university community saying that the FCC and FBI are handling things and that the university community doesn’t need to worry. This event was also discussed and condemned in the CSL letter from Nov. 7 cited above.

Between the continued genocidal devastation of occupied Palestine and southern Lebanon, U.S. imperialism’s continued aggression against Russia and China and the U.S. fascist movement gaining the win of a second Trump presidency, it has become clear that united action of progressive forces is necessary to overcome the choke hold of fascist violence and decaying capitalism.

In Buffalo, as in many other cities, in the interests of community solidarity against capitalism, white supremacy and cis-hetero-patriarchy, as well as in solidarity with our oppressed siblings abroad, a variety of progressive forces — including the CSL and Workers World Party’s Buffalo branch — are working together to organize upcoming actions, educate members of the working class and empower our fellow working-class and oppressed folks to exercise our power together.

(Emphasis original.)

“The Peoplehood Parade joyfully lifts up PEOPLE, especially the everyday Philadelphians working toward collective liberation,” is how Spiral Q describes their yearly event. Coming just days after the election of ultraright former President Donald Trump as the next U.S. president, the spirited event proved that people are not taking a step back from organizing in their communities.

Participating organizations included activists fighting for an end to genocide in Palestine, fighting the building of a billionaires’ sports arena in Chinatown, fighting against the climate crisis and fighting the city’s use of police to clear drug users from the Kensington neighborhood — instead of investing more in drug treatment, health care and a host of other needs.

The Philadelphia Alliance Against Imperialism — which includes ANAKBAYAN, Black Alliance for Peace, Freedom Road Socialist Organization, Friends of Swazi Freedom, Korea Peace Now, Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom, and World World Party — marched as a contingent for the first time in Peoplehood.

Just so it's clear since it's The Onion reporting, this one is actually a real story.

クロスポスト: https://hexbear.net/post/3895468

really the only good place for it.

These actions suggest that we may be standing at the precipice of the largest financial bubble in history, which they seem to believe is about to burst imminently.

https://breakingthenews.net/Article/Amazon%27s-Bezos-sells-dollar1.25B-worth-of-shares/63056547

https://www.wsj.com/finance/investing/does-warren-buffett-know-something-that-we-dont-48fabc9d

https://www.forexlive.com/stock-market-update/buffetts-berkshire-hathaway-hoarding-cash-in-a-pattern-seen-before-the-financial-crisis-20241112/

The Guardian: FBI raids home and seizes phone of Polymarket founder

Pre-election Polymarket mentions by u/yogthos and u/muad_dibber.

While being denied their demand for a full guaranteed pension, workers won a $12,000 bonus and improvements to their 401k individual retirement funds. Nevertheless roughly 40% of the striking union members voted against the latest contract, with pensions likely being a major issue for them.

This Tyrannosaurus rex-style company produces a vast array of military and related technological equipment, including F-15 and F-18 jet bombers and the bombs they drop. These terror weapons are used in Palestine, elsewhere in West Asia, North Africa and the rest of the world to maintain [neo]imperialist rule.

Boeing is the number one military contractor involved in the U.S. genocide against Palestine. The company has used layoffs, outsourcing, threats and a partnership with the government to keep the union in a subservient position and deny workers needed compensation for the last 16 years.

[…]

The strike caused a $6.4 billion loss for Boeing in the third quarter, but Boeing was bailed out by Wall Street when the company was allowed to gain $20 billion with a huge sale of stock in November. This put Boeing in a position to hold out longer against the IAM strike and to refuse the workers’ demand for their full pension.

The strike was an uprising against the vicious attacks that monopoly capitalists imposed on the working class. The IAM was able to respond with a high level of organization and strength on the picket lines for over seven weeks. For weeks before the strike began on Sept. 12, workers marched through their plants daily to raise their demands and build support.

Strikers were encouraged by the growing upsurge of labor in recent years, such as the UAW strike against Ford, General Motors and Stellantis in 2023 and the Starbucks Workers United organizing drive.

The machinists gained strong support from the Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace (SPEEA), whose members refused to do the Machinists’ jobs during the strike. Striking members from UNITE HERE! (hotel workers) joined the strikers on the picket lines. Running parallel with the lies and false promises of the presidential election, the strike showed that fighting unions can win against the top capitalist monopolies like Boeing.

In total, voters supported legal abortions in 14 of the 17 states where referendums were on the ballot. And in 11 of those 14 states, the constitutions were amended to include the right to legal abortions. These victories, made possible by the organized movement of thousands of activists and voted on by millions of people, should be applauded. Even though it was through the ballot box, in several states reproductive-rights forces beat back the right-wing scheme to outlaw abortions.

But the fight isn’t over in Missouri, home to a conservative government. Planned Parenthood clinics are suing the state to eliminate the maze of rules and obstacles that abortion providers have to navigate to provide abortions, end the restrictions on dispensing medication abortion pills and eliminate criminal prosecutions for abortion providers. (Springfield News-Leader, Nov. 8)

And in Florida, where the state requires a 60% supermajority vote to change the constitution, the measure narrowly failed, gaining 57% of the required votes. Reactionary Gov. Ron DeSantis had vociferously denounced Proposition 4, which would have legalized abortion. So now, without abortion access in that state, a reproductive health care “desert” exists throughout the Southeast.

The demonstration rallied at the base of the Space Needle and marched downtown. It was called by the International League for Peoples Struggle, an internationalist organization with many Filipino members. The lead banner read, “Build the Peoples Movement — Fight Repression, War & Genocide!”

Other march banners read, “U.S. Out of Everywhere — Cut Ties with Boeing — Free Palestine” and “Immigrants Fight Back.” Large numbers of immigrant rights supporters were on the march, protesting Trump’s threat to deport thousands of immigrants with national guard troops.

Speakers included a spokesperson for SUPER (Students for Palestinian Equality & Return), a culinary worker speaking about organizing a union at the University of Washington, anti-police brutality activist Castile Hightower and a representative of the International Migrants Alliance. Several speakers denounced the two party system, saying that neither the Democrats nor Republicans are options.

Marchers chanted, “From Palestine to Mexico, border walls have got to go!” A spokesperson for ILPS said, “We are here to show just how connected our struggles are and what we have to do in order to win a new system to win our true liberation.”

The ballot stated, in part: “Funding to Israel costs $3.8 Billion,” and “Israel is recognized as an apartheid regime with a track record of human rights violations.”

“It was just an incredible effort of a diverse coalition committed to justice, peace and human rights. And it was, it was a united movement,” said Jessica Yasin, a member of Champaign-Urbana Muslim Action Committee.

“It was by not only CUMAC but Urbana-Champaign Jews For Ceasefire […] and countless individuals who believe our tax dollars [should] not fund a country accused of serious human rights abuses.” (ipmnewsroom.org, Nov. 6)

The recommendation has no binding effect on lawmakers, but the organizers hope it sends a message to policy makers that the war in Gaza should end.

Whether or not the proposal impacts legislation, it is a clear indication that there is powerful growing antipathy to the genocide in Gaza and to its cost and its inhumanity. More and more people of different backgrounds but similar passions are willing to struggle together for what they believe in.

Dan Shae, president of Portland Veterans for Peace, shown above, said: “We need to put maximum pressure on the Biden Administration in the next two months he has left to right his wrongs on Cuba and to close the Guantanamo Bay Industrial Prison Complex, among others.”

For some time, the 30 men still detained at Guantanamo have been approved for release by a high-level U.S. government review process. However, after the October 7 Hamas uprising, the President Joe Biden administration refused to release them. Of the 30 prisoners, 16 have been waiting two to four years to be released and three for nearly 15 years.

There is a protective order in place that prevents attorneys for the prisoners from talking about the injustices taking place. The gag order is a further indictment of the U.S. government for how it operates at Guantanamo.

From Palestine to Guantanamo, stop the U.S. War Machine!

The protests defended reproductive rights and protested Trump’s xenophobic immigration policies, such as his plan to order mass deportations and his ban on immigrants from Muslim countries. Also, they demanded the government cancel student debt, protect the environment, raise the minimum wage and affirm the rights to organize unions and to bargain collectively.

Besides the street protests, unions issued statements responding to the challenges of Trump 2.0. The AFL-CIO wrote, “Now we are faced with the reality of a second Donald Trump term. The Project 2025 agenda promises to dismantle labor unions.” The federation goes on to say that “labor’s task will be to defend working people.” (aflcio.org, Nov. 6)

The AFL-CIO statement explains, “It is clear that the economic struggle working-class people are facing is causing real pain, and neither party has sufficiently addressed it.”

The American Federation of Teachers said: “Our guiding principle will be to continue to do the work to improve people’s lives: to fight for our children’s future.” (aft.org, Nov. 6) Trump plans programs that put AFT members in the administration’s crosshairs twice — most are public employees, a particular target of the MAGA movement, and educators, another target.

The context of these statements is that most of the organized labor movement mobilized time and funds for the election of the Democrats, and this effort failed. For example, union members knocked on a million doors in Pennsylvania and lost the state. Labor spent $47 million, engaged in phone banks, canvassing operations, education and persuasion efforts with their members and outreach to nonunion working-class households to no avail. (opensecrets.org)

These statements analyze the current political situation from the labor movement’s perspective but contain no call to action.

Professional Staff Congress, NYC

Professional Staff Congress in anti-Trump march, New York City, Nov. 9, 2024. Photo: PSC/CUNY

AFT Local 2334, also known as the Professional Staff Congress (PSC), which represents 30,000 full-time and adjunct professors, librarians, laboratory assistants and some technical staff at the City University of New York, made an analysis of the dangers the victory of Donald Trump represents for the New York City working class.

Union President James Davis said in a message to PSC members: “It is a wake-up call for organized labor that Trump’s movement has effectively harnessed such broad support of working people and the poor. … [Trump] and his acolytes aim not only to discredit and defund educational institutions but also to undermine the values and principles on which the public education system is built.” (psc-cuny.org, Nov. 6)

The PSC not only issued a statement, it joined a march of 5,000 protesters on the Trump International Hotel with a coalition of community groups, including Make the Road (Se Hace Camino Nueva York), the Working Families Party, Jews for Justice, other unions and other groups. The protesters are part of “Protect Our Future,” a coalition in formation.

The PSC is also actively fighting for a contract with picket lines and civil disobedience at CUNY board meetings. The union’s old contract expired in early 2023.

(Emphasis original.)