https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NHKqljjdTzY
Sunday, April 18, 2021
Saturday, April 17, 2021
UNION MEMBERS EXPEL NATIONAL GUARD FROM ST PAUL MINNESOTA LABOR CENTER
By We Do The Work, Popular Resistance.
April 15, 2021
https://popularresistance.org/union-members-expel-national-guard-from-st-paul-minnesota-labor-center/
St. Paul, MN – Following several union meetings on Wednesday night, I was made aware that a National Guard unit was occupying the St. Paul Labor Center in downtown St. Paul, Minnesota. Other union members and I were sharply aware of the National Guard’s role in repressing protests during the trial of Derek Chauvin and the recent killing of Daunte Wright, and we concluded immediately that our union hall had no place in those militarized efforts against the Black community, activists, and working class people.
Rank and file union members, community activists, and various union staff members assembled at the Labor Center Wednesday night and found more than 15 armored vehicles, and 50 National Guard troops had been given the keys to the central union facility. Workers from CWA, MNA, UBC and other locals informed the soldiers that union members support the communities harmed by police violence and racism and that the Labor Center was off limits to armed forces participating in repressing protests across the Twin Cities.
Minnesota political circles had already militarized the metropolitan area as the trial of former Minneapolis police officer Dereck Chauvin reached its second week. Across Minneapolis and St. Paul, police agencies and the National Guard held street corners and strategic intersections in preparation for renewed civil unrest. The police presence increased further after the murder of Daunte Wright in Brooklyn Center, a town located immediately outside of Minneapolis.
Breaking the imposed curfew, union members assembled at the hall Wednesday night and demanded the immediate exit of the troops. Initial conversations with the National Guard and police revealed that a member of the Labor Federation had given them the key to the hall. After union members made a series of phone calls to the individual, he arrived at the scene and entered into conversation with the troops stationed inside the union hall.
Workers spoke with Guard members, expressing understanding of the soldiers’ working class background and orders, but imploring them to break ranks and join the anti-racist movement sparked by the murders of Black people by the police.
Within a short time, all members of the National Guard began packing their belongings and exiting the building, with the labor podcast “We Do The Work” streaming live video from the action on its Facebook page. Within one hour, the armored vehicles were loaded with all of the soldiers and exited the ground of the Labor Center. The collective effort and demands of union members compelled the exit of the National Guard.
The action of union members against the National Guard’s repression of the Black Lives Matter movement demonstrates that organized labor is a critical and powerful force and must side with working class people rising up against systemic racism, not on the side of police repression. The united force of working class people, organized and acting on our power, can not only turn the tide in specific protests; it could transform our world. That power has to be reclaimed and wielded by rank and file union members today. Once we do that, no politician, CEO or military in the world will be able to stop us.
AFTER ELECTION, ISRAEL TURNS ATTENTION TO DE-ARABIZATION OF THE ZIONIST STATE
By Miko Peled, Mintpress News.
April 15, 2021
https://popularresistance.org/after-election-israel-turns-attention-back-to-de-arabization-of-the-zionist-state/
The Zionists Openly Say That They Will Allow Palestinians To Choose Whether They Remain In “Israel” As Residents Without Rights, Leave, Or Fight And Be Killed By The Israeli Forces.
These same forces that have been killing them for more than seventy years.
Jerusalem – As these words are being typed, The Holy Month of Ramadan is about to begin and I want to begin by wishing my Muslim brothers and sisters, friends, and all Muslims around the world Ramadan Karim. I was born and raised in Jerusalem, which has been an Arab and Muslim city for over 1,500 years. The sight of this beautiful ancient city during Ramadan is unforgettable. The lights and decorations, the festivities, and the families enjoying all of this are heartwarming.
Sadly, since the Zionist invasion of Palestine 73 years ago, and particularly since the savage conquest of the Old City 54 years ago, this city has been under attack. The very essence of the city, its monuments and holy places, are constantly threatened by Zionist fanatics who want to see Al-Aqsa Mosque destroyed and replaced by what they refer to as a “Jewish Temple.” They make no secret of their intentions, as the entire world saw when the U.S. ambassador to Tel-Aviv, David Friedman, received as a gift a poster-size photo of the Haram El-Sharif in which Al-Aqsa and the Dome of the Rock were replaced by another structure.
Israel Votes To Plough Ahead
After holding four elections in two years, it is clear that for the foreseeable future Benjamin Netanyahu will continue to be Israel’s prime minister. He has won an overwhelming number of seats in the Israeli parliament, the Knesset, and it is obvious that, by and large, Israeli voters are happy to see him lead the Zionist State. His strategy of divide and rule has been very successful at fragmenting any opposition he may have had, and now we will see those who ran against him coming to him asking for a piece of the pie.
All of the religious parties and the religious-Zionist parties, as well as the parties associated with the right in general, are already in Netanyahu’s pocket. It is not unlikely that some of the “center” and “center left” parties that ran against Netanyahu will end up sitting in his coalition as well, and that gives him a comfortable majority.
All the reports that there is a logjam and that Netanyahu’s Likud Party may not be able to reach a majority coalition are mere reflections of negotiating positions. Most if not all of these positions will soften or disappear and a coalition government with Netanyau as prime minister will emerge.
Kahanists Are Here
When Israelis want to talk about extreme neo-fascist racists within Israeli politics they bring up the infamous racist Meir Kahana, who prescribed a fanatic Zionist-religious ideology and had a sizeable following among Israelis who settled in the West Bank. He was the founder of the notoriously violent, supremacist Jewish Defense League, or JDL.
Among the known members of the JDL are Keith Fuchs and Andy Green, who are implicated in the 1988 assassination of Palestinian Alex Odeh in California. Another known follower of the JDL and Kahana was Baruch Goldestein, who committed the massacre at the Ibrahimi Mosque in the Old City of Hebron in 1994.
There are several members of the Knesset who are ideologically aligned with the Kahana brand of Jewish supremacy and in this last election at least one new one was added, attorney Itamar Ben-Gvir. Ben-Gvir is loud and proud of his reputation as a Kahana follower but ideologically he is really no different from other, less provocative Israeli politicians.
One of the names that comes to mind is Ben-Gvir’s political ally Bezalel Smotrich, who was a member of a previous Netanyahu government and a member of the inner security cabinet. Others include Rafi Peretz, who is the minister for Jerusalem affairs; Naftali Benet, who served as minister of education and even as minister of defense for a short while. However, the more worrisome issue is that Benjamin Netanyahu himself is aligned with the same racist, supremacist ideology that sees the elimination of Palestinians from Palestine as a goal.
The Joint List
Another accomplishment of Netanyahu’s fragmentation strategy is the demise of the Joint Arab List. The United Arab List, which is an Islamic party, left the Joint List and ran on its own, managing, contrary to most expectations, to get four seats in the Knesset. The Joint List, which had 15 seats in the previous election, got only six his time. The Islamic Party warmed up to Netanyahu and is apparently expecting some sort of political reward for leaving the Joint List.
It is hard to imagine that any Zionist politician would work with an Arab political party and any expectation that Netanyahu would reward them is plain ludicrous. One of the more ridiculous claims that has risen since the elections is that Mansour Abbas, who leads the Islamic United Arab Party, will somehow be part of a future coalition and even become “kingmaker.”
This claim shows a lack of understanding of Zionism in general and particularly of Israeli politics. The racist Zionist ideology runs like a thread through all of Israel’s Zionist political parties and it is thus impossible for any Palestinian to be part of an Israeli government.
The Vision Ahead
People very often ask what the Zionists see as the “end game.” What do Zionists envision as the future? Well, as James Baldwin might say, what they think or imagine we may never know, but we can certainly see what they do and how they act. We are also able to view their plans and hear what they say. Based on all of that, we know that the Zionist State intends to continue to destroy Palestine as we know it. They fully intend on de-Arabizing the country and erasing any remnants of its glorious Islamic history.
There are several declared members of the Knesset and even of the government who are openly in favor of the destruction of Al-Aqsa and the building of what they call a “Third Temple.” One can safely assume that most if not all members of the Israeli political spectrum would view the destruction of Al-Aqsa favorably. The difference would be how far would they go in actually acting on it. Regardless, there is an imminent danger to Jerusalem, to Palestine, and certainly to Palestinian people.
The Zionists openly say that they will allow Palestinians to choose whether they remain in “Israel” as residents without rights, leave, or fight and be killed by the Israeli forces — these same forces that have been killing them for more than seventy years.
CEOs Fight For Their Tax Cuts Despite Pledge To ‘Serve All Americans’
This report was written by Andrew Perez.
Two years ago, a lobbying group representing the CEOs of the world’s largest companies declared that corporate America must change its ways and commit to building “an economy that serves all Americans.”
Less than two years later, after CEO pay skyrocketed during the pandemic, the same group has launched a multimillion-dollar ad campaign to protect tax cuts that tend to disproportionately benefit CEOs, according to new academic research.
Specifically, the Business Roundtable is aiming to block the popular, modest corporate tax increases in Joe Biden’s American Rescue Plan that would fund public infrastructure investments across the country. The group — which includes companies that paid no federal taxes at all last year — is already running radio ads in the D.C. area pushing back on Biden’s proposal to raise the corporate tax rate from 21 percent to 28 percent.
The new campaign from the Business Roundtable, a Washington-based trade association that “exclusively represents” corporate CEOs, comes even as one of the group’s most powerful members is saying that the corporate tax rate should be raised.
“Investing In Our Employees”
The Business Roundtable’s roughly 200 members include chief executives at Wall Street giants, big banks, tech firms, telecom companies, health insurers, drugmakers, oil and gas companies, electric utilities, manufacturers, and national retailers. Notable members include Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, JPMorgan Chase’s Jamie Dimon and Apple’s Tim Cook.
The group raised nearly $47 million in 2018, according to its most recently available tax return. It spent roughly $17 million on federal lobbying efforts last year.
The Business Roundtable’s president and CEO, Joshua Bolten — who was paid more than $3 million by the organization in 2018 — recently cautioned that “tax increases on job creators would slow America’s recovery and hurt workers.” One of their new ad buy filings warns bluntly: “A tax increase will hurt American workers.”
Of course, the Business Roundtable is not a lobbying group for workers, but for their bosses.
The group has pledged to do more for workers, and generated favorable headlines in 2019 when it announced that it was moving to redefine the purpose of a corporation to promote "an economy that serves all Americans," and not just company shareholders.
The statement said its members were committed to “investing in our employees. This starts with compensating them fairly and providing important benefits.”
So far, however, the organization does not seem to be prioritizing workers’ well-being. Last year, the organization lobbied Congress to shield businesses from liability if their workers catch COVID-19. More recently, the group pressed Democrats not to include a $15 minimum wage measure in Biden’s first COVID relief bill.
Valuing Tax Cuts Over Jobs And Communities
The new Business Roundtable ad defends the GOP’s 2017 tax law, which slashed the corporate tax rate from 35 percent to 21 percent. The ad says the law “created record low unemployment, higher wages and brought business back to America,” according to Bloomberg News, which obtained a copy of the ad script.
In truth, the tax law signed by Donald Trump did not generate any real economic impact, as economic growth quickly declined. While some Business Roundtable corporate members gave employees small raises or one-time bonuses, companies largely plunged the savings into share buybacks to drive up their stock prices.
The legislation was particularly lucrative for corporate CEOs, according to a recent study by Grinnell College economist Eric Ohrn. “For every dollar the tax breaks generate for a firm, compensation awarded to the highest-paid executives at the firm increases by between 15 and 19 cents,” Ohrn found.
Biden is pushing now to increase the corporate tax rate from 21 percent to 28 percent — which would still be significantly lower than what the rate was before Trump — in order to fund his $2 trillion infrastructure investment plan.
At least one top Business Roundtable member, Amazon CEO Bezos, has loosely backed Biden’s efforts, saying in a company statement that “we’re supportive of a rise in the corporate tax rate.”
But the vast majority of Business Roundtable members apparently oppose the idea.
The organization recently surveyed its CEO members about the proposed tax hike, and reported that “98 percent of CEOs said that an increase in the corporate tax rate from 21 percent to 28 percent would have a ‘moderately’ to ‘very’ significant adverse effect on their company’s competitiveness.”
Meanwhile, at least 12 corporate members of the Business Roundtable paid nothing in federal taxes last year, according to the advocacy group Patriotic Millionaires’ review of data compiled by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy.
Those companies include shipping giant FedEx, apparel company Nike, and tech firm SalesForce.
“Back in 2019, the Business Roundtable redefined the ‘purpose of a corporation’ to focus on investments in workers and communities,” said Patriotic Millionaires policy director Dylan Dusseault. “The president’s infrastructure package is a great opportunity for them to make good on that promise. But, big surprise, they don’t seem eager to put their money where their mouth is.”
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)