by the SPUSA Labor Commission
When the irreverent early 20th century comedian W.C. Fields was once caught reading the bible he explained that he was “looking for some loopholes.” On Monday November 5th, 12,000 members of the Writers Guild of America (WGA) took a bold strike action to sew up some of the loopholes which have allowed the entertainment industry to make exorbitant profits from their labor. The Socialist Party USA (SP-USA) stands with the WGA and calls upon the Association of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) to concede to the WGA’s demands for a just contract.
Unlike the often inebriated actor Fields, the AMPTP has found many profitable loopholes. While screenwriters are paid industry rates for work aired in traditional media venues such as television and movies, they receive only a small fraction of the profits generated in the “new” media outlets of DVD sales and internet based programming. Writers currently receive only 5 cents per unit for the sale of a DVD. For entertainment delivered via internet streaming video WGA members receive only 1.2% of gross revenue. There is also currently no language in the contract regarding the producer’s right to insert product placements into WGA member created scripts.
Such practices amount to a patently unfair pattern of labor exploitation. Read the rest of this entry »
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Wednesday November 21, 2007
Contacts:
Central PA : Hawa Lassanah (717) 380-6085
Western PA : Kenneth Miller
(412) 241-1339
For updates: http://www.starbucksunion.org
Labor Union Education at PA Turnpike Rest Areas will Kick-off this Holiday “Working” Season: ACLU Steps-in to Assure Citizens that Rest Areas are Public Space for First Amendment Activities
Tens of thousands of workers across Pennsylvania have taken “extra” jobs this holiday season in the retail and food service industries. The Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) wants them to bring the union to work with them. That’s the message union members will be delivering to the patrons of PA Turnpike rest areas across Pennsylvania on “Black Friday,” the traditional start of Holiday Shopping Season, or “Working Season.” Read the rest of this entry »
Dan Jakopovich
THERE IS A CONSENSUS among democratic socialists today that the struggle for deep social change has to somehow reflect the kind of society we want to build, but this remains inseparable from the questions of power, political strength and effectiveness because prefiguration goes beyond the “pure” ethical sphere to include wider issues of ideological/cultural, political and socio-economic hegemony. The revolutionary syndicalist answer to the problem of integral prefiguration represents a specific and important historical (and contemporary) synthesis. Revolutionary unionism, in the ideologically broader and more modern sense, could be defined as a movement and strategy more closely resembling traditional revolutionary syndicalism on the ethical and organizational “micro-level,” without adhering to the relatively rigid “grand narrative” which the traditional syndicalists attempted to provide.
I will try to identify not only the main lines of syndicalist development, but also some weak links of syndicalist strategy, which manifest its inability to produce a sufficiently dialectical strategic solution to the puzzle of social change. Read the rest of this entry »
Socialist Party USA, Labor Commission
September 24th, 2007
Posted by Matthew Andrews
On Saturday September 24th over 73,000 UAW workers across the country walked out in the first nationwide GM strike in 37 years. The Socialist Party USA calls upon its members and allies to demand a decisive victory for striking UAW workers and upon the entire labor movement to mobilize in solidarity.
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By Steven Argue
As an advocate for social justice and someone with no healthcare, I am strongly in favor of national healthcare like in Cuba, and short of that a single payer system would be a significant step forward.
National healthcare does work. It is working very well in Cuba. It is interesting that tiny poor Cuba under a U.S. economic blockade is able to provide good healthcare for everyone. Cuba, unlike the United States, does not let people die in the emergency rooms without treatment or turn sick people away from receiving healthcare because they lack insurance. Cuba has taken the profit out of illness and injury and provide healthcare as a human right.
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Saturday, August 4th
6-11pm
Encuentro 5 (33 Harrison Ave. 5th Floor, Chinatown)
Suggested Donation: $10
Film, Live music, Food, Speakers, Spirits
Flyer (post one in your neighborhood):
http://www.wbumpus.com/files/iww.jpg
Immigrant workers at food distribution warehouses in New York City have been organizing against brutal employers who have failed to respect basic wage and hour laws. Workers have already organized in five warehouses and won significant gains. Some however have been illegally fired for their union activity. Many other area warehouses remain unorganized. The IWW Industrial Union 460 has gone into debt supporting these workers and pursuing their legal rights.
Read the rest of this entry »
Sunday, May 20 At 3pm
We Demand Living Wages at Camden Yards!
An end to Next Day Staffing Human Rights Violations:
- illegally charging a transportation fee
- illegally paying below the minimum wage
- illegally refusing to pay for wait times
- harassing workers for demanding better conditions
Read the rest of this entry »
Texas State Employees’ Union Lobby Day
On April 17th, TSEU will be holding its biannual lobby day mobilization in Austin, Texas demanding that the State legislature cancel its plans to privatize important State services and to demand that these State agencies are properly funded including paying their employees a fair salary. TSEU members will be out in force and ask for solidarity from the Labor community. State services and jobs perform an important function in our communities and help those in need. Privatization of these services is a disgrace and can not be tolerated. Corporations have no right to administer social services, its the governments’ social contract with the people to care for their well being. Support State workers and the people that they provide services to!
Solidarity
The Labor Commission encourages Socialist Party USA locals and other groups to adopt the language in this letter and send contributions in solidarity with the foodstuff warehouse workers organizing with the Industrial Workers of the World in New York City. Checks payable to the NYC IWW can be sent to PO Box 7430, JAF Station, NY 10116. You can also contribute electronically by making a payment to iww-nyc@iww.org at www.paypal.com/. For more info see www.wobblycity.org.
Dear IU 460 Workers of New York City,
The Socialist Party of Boston is watching your struggle against Amersino, the Handyfat Trading Co., the Sunrise Plus Corp. and other food warehouse companies with great concern. We are appalled by the dismal working conditions and anti-union hostility that our fellow workers are facing. We join with others in the labor movement to demand that Lester Wen of the Sunrise Plus Corp. (formerly EZ-Supply Corp.), rehire the thirteen workers who were fired for union activity, and bargain in good faith with the Industrial Workers of the World, IU 460. Furthermore, we demand that Sunrise Plus Corp. treat all workers with equal respect, regardless of their immigration status. Read the rest of this entry »
Monday, February 12, 2007
March for IWW Warehouse Workers in NYC
IWW And Make The Road By Walking Keep On Marching To End Slave Wages And Defend Workers’ Right To Organize!
The SPUSA is working with the Labor Commission and the NYC Local to organize a contingent at this event. If you are interested in attending, please e-mail us at natsec@sp-usa.org
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