https://themilitant.com/2019/09/28/support-gm-strikers-ky-coal-miners/
Support GM strikers, Ky. coal miners!
??Editorial
Vol. 83/No. 36
October 7, 2019
At the heart of the strike by United Auto Workers at General Motors is
workers??? determination to push back the concessions the bosses have
imposed on workers with ???two tiers??? of wages and on growing numbers of
temp workers with even lower pay, all of whom are doing the same jobs.
GM???s two-tier wage system means every worker hired since 2007 starts on
half the pay of more senior workers and takes eight years to reach near
the same pay levels; while ???temporary??? workers stay in that position for
years and years. The strikers are demanding, ???No more tiers!???
GM bosses continue to shutter plants ??? like those in Lordstown and
Baltimore ??? forcing workers to transfer far from home for other GM jobs
or to quit.
Worldwide, bosses and the governments that serve them do everything they
can to deepen divisions among workers. This is the way for the
capitalist class ??? a tiny minority ??? to impose its will on the vast
majority, working people, whose labor, along with nature, is the source
of all the world???s wealth, in the factories and on the land. This is the
only way they can boost their profits on our backs.
And they seek to intensify competition among workers ??? unemployed
against employed, native- against foreign-born, Black against Caucasian,
men against women. They want us to see each other as the problem, not as
fellow workers with common interests. Especially not to see ourselves as
fellow fighters capable of uniting to resist their assaults on our
wages, social rights and working and living conditions.
In fact they count on the corroding effects of this competition their
system breeds to instill their dog-eat-dog values. They and their
meritocratic enablers ??? from the editorial boardrooms to college
administrations to the innumerable nongovernment organizations and other
social-engineering outfits ??? work overtime to spread the lie that
workers are stupid, reactionary and need to be corralled. They say
workers are racist and hate immigrants.
They are surprised when workers with very different wage rates, benefits
and conditions stand side by side on union picket lines.
The way to counter their continual efforts to pit workers against each
other is on the basis that an injury to one is an injury to all. Make
the struggle by UAW members your own! Join their picket lines!
Solidarity in struggle is the first step along the path to unifying
working people and building class consciousness.
Today millions of workers are looking for ways to organize together to
fight what has been done to us by the bosses. There is an uptick in
workers organizing, helped by greater employment. Every step to organize
workers and to back their struggles is an advance.
The Socialist Workers Party and its candidates present a fighting
program aimed at strengthening the consciousness, self-confidence and
unity workers need.
If we think of every social and political question ??? from the
environment, to amnesty for immigrant workers, to the fight against cop
brutality, to the UAW strike ??? as a class question, we???ll get on the
right track. That???s the road toward construction of a powerful
independent working-class political movement fighting to replace the
profit-driven capitalist system with workers power.
Join in! Support the UAW strike! Back the Blackjewel coal miners in
Kentucky!
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BALTIMORE ??? ???The Baltimore Symphony Orchestra produced this entire
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told 2,000 people at a free public concert at New Shiloh Baptist Church
Sept. 14. The turnout showed the widespread support Local 40-543???
Thousands of nurses strike 1-day over workload, patients??? safety
HIALEAH, Fla. ??? Some 6,500 members of National Nurses United conducted a
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Support GM strikers, Blackjewel coal miners!
ROANOKE, Ind. ??? ???I???ve been a temporary worker for three and a half years
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told the Militant on the General Motors strike picket line here as he
joined???
Blackjewel miners keep up camp, say ???No pay, we stay!
CUMBERLAND, Ky. ??? Coal miners have been camped out for eight weeks just
outside this town of 2,000 in Harlan County blocking Blackjewel bosses
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NY construction workers protest deaths, nonunion sites
NEW YORK ??? More than 200 construction workers, most coming straight from
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In This Issue
Front Page Articles ???Support GM strikers, Blackjewel coal miners!
???Blackjewel miners keep up camp, say ???No pay, we stay!
???Imperialism is the arsonist in Brazil???s rainforest
???SWP national tour: Workers struggles point road forward
??????Cancel Puerto Rico debt,??? say protesters in NY, Philadelphia
???US rulers step up sanctions, tell Tehran to pull back in Mideast
Feature Articles ???Climate hysteria is obstacle to defense of land and labor
Also In This Issue ???Lac-M??gantic: Profits before people???s safety ??? once
again
???Washington tightens squeeze on Cuba???s revolution
???NY construction workers protest deaths, nonunion sites
Editorials ???Support GM strikers, Ky. coal miners!
On the Picket Line ???Baltimore Symphony kept playing music throughout lockout
???Thousands of nurses strike 1-day over workload, patients??? safety
Books of the Month ??????FBI disruption violates constitutional rights of SWP???
25, 50 and 75 years ago
Letters
?? Copyright 2019 The Militant?? -?? 306 W. 37th Street, 13th floor -?? New
York, NY 10018?? -?? themilitant@xxxxxxx
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Clarence Darrow
??? I have always felt that doubt was the beginning of wisdom, and the fear of
God was the end of wisdom. ???
??? Clarence Darrow,
