{"id":21577,"date":"2018-06-16T23:52:38","date_gmt":"2018-06-17T07:52:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.richgibson.com\/blog\/?p=21577"},"modified":"2018-06-16T23:52:38","modified_gmt":"2018-06-17T07:52:38","slug":"rouge-forum-dispatch-sowing-seeds-for-the-distant-harvest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.richgibson.com\/blog\/rouge-forum-dispatch-sowing-seeds-for-the-distant-harvest\/","title":{"rendered":"Rouge Forum Dispatch: Sowing Seeds for the Distant Harvest."},"content":{"rendered":"

We Say Fight Back!<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

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Now on sale for 5 dollars at Monthly Review<\/p>\n

After months of strikes, France’s Macron looks to break rail unions<\/h1>\n

\"French<\/h1>\n

PARIS (Reuters) – In early April, thousands of French rail workers filled a square outside one of Paris\u2019s largest stations at the start of a strike against President Emmanuel Macron\u2019s reforms.<\/p>\n

Letting off smoke flares and blowing whistles, they chanted slogans against the president\u2019s plans to shake up the heavily subsidized and indebted state-run SNCF rail company.<\/p>\n

More than two months later, on day 27 of a rolling strike meant to cripple rail traffic on 36 days over three months, not a single striker could be seen when Reuters went to the same square in front of the Gare de l\u2019Est.<\/p>\n

The strike is still going on: about half of all national and regional rail services were again halted for two days last week. Gare de l\u2019Est was so empty that birdsong could be heard in the main concourse.<\/p>\n

But Macron, who said from the beginning that he would not back down, has all but won the war over the SNCF, delivering a powerful blow in his campaign to modernize France\u2019s labor force and end a long economic malaise.<\/p>\n

Public support for the strike has fallen, according to opinion polls, and nearly two-thirds of the public back Macron\u2019s proposals to remove some of the SNCF employees\u2019 benefits and cut the company\u2019s debt, a poll by research group Elabe showed.<\/p>\n

Commuters have found ways around the strike, using car-sharing apps, working from home or cycling to work when stoppages hit for two days every five. Fewer train drivers, signal workers and conductors are now taking part in the strike.\u00a0 www.reuters.com\/article\/us-france-unions-macron\/after-months-of-strikes-frances-macron-looks-to-break-rail-unions-idUSKBN1J717F<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Image<\/p>\n

12,000 United Teachers of LA rallied. They have been without a contract for a year.<\/em><\/p>\n

America, the UnBeautiful: Otay Mesa Protest, Border Patrol Harassment, & Children in Cages<\/h1>\n

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In what is likely the first in a series of immigration-related protests, several hundred people came to a rally outside the Otay Mesa Detention Center on Sunday demanding the release of asylum seekers fleeing gang violence and state repression.<\/p>\n

They were taking up the cause of asylum seekers who \u2013for the most part\u2013have voluntarily turned themselves at the border. Little did the protesters know their own participation in the event would lead to harassment by border authorities.<\/p>\n

Protests are spreading nationwide in the wake of horrific reports of abuse and mistreatment by immigration agencies. People are speaking out against a President who refers to immigrants as \u2018animals\u2019 and implements policies inflicting punishment on people whose rights to due process are rapidly vanishing.<\/p>\n

Conditions in the Otay Mesa private prison were addressed on Sunday<\/strong> as letters were read from the four dozen or so people held in the prison since arriving in Tijuana six weeks ago as part of a caravan from Central America.<\/p>\n

From the Union-Tribune<\/i><\/a> coverage:<\/p>\n

\u201cThey force us to work for six hours (a day) for a payment of a $1.60,\u201d said David Obud, with immigrants\u2019 rights group Pueblo Sin Fronteras, translating one of the letters. \u201cThey threaten to report us to judges when we don\u2019t want to work. They threaten \u2026 to damage our cases.<\/i><\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we ask for medical attention, they do not treat us, and many of us have pains and wounds,\u201d he added.<\/i>\u00a0 sandiegofreepress.org\/2018\/06\/america-the-unbeautiful-otay-mesa-protest-border-patrol-harassment-children-in-cages\/<\/a><\/p>\n

Defiant French rail union to continue strike action into summer<\/h1>\n

\"Defiant<\/p>\n

Laurent Brun, the head of CGT rail workers said: “We will continue through the month of July. For how long? We will see. It’s not a question of just stopping at a certain date, so long as the government is trying to force its way through,” he said.<\/p>\n

Those reforms were adopted by parliament this week.<\/p>\n

The rolling rail strikes which have been held by the CGT and three other unions since early April were due to end on June 28th.<\/p>\n

It is unclear as of yet whether the other trade unions will also decide to continue their industrial action. Brun added that his union would try to find a way of alleviating the cost of lost pay for strikers, after 30 separate days of disruption.<\/p>\n

While the two days strikes, held every five days, have been gradually weakening over the weeks, they have still been causing disruption to rail services, especially regional TER and Intercit\u00e9 trains.\u00a0 www.thelocal.fr\/20180615\/breaking-french-rail-union-to-continue-strike-action-into-july<\/a><\/p>\n

The Records of the State Workers Organizing Committee, the fighting group of workers who founded principled unionism in state government now on file here<\/h1>\n

\"Image<\/p>\n

reuther.wayne.edu\/files\/LR001948.pdf<\/a><\/p>\n

.<\/p>\n

www.facebook.com\/laterceracom\/videos\/10155746399008583\/?t=26<\/a><\/p>\n

American Rage<\/a><\/h1>\n

by<\/span> William Hawes<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

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There is a certain sense of smallness, as well as meanness at the heart of American life. It typically gets projected onto the villain of the day, and for the last two years, it has happened to be Donald Trump. The president\u2019s vile beliefs and behavior are not in question, but what is more interesting to me is just how much Trump has become a convenient scapegoat. There are millions of Trumps in this country, as seen by his approval ratings hovering around 40% through his entire presidency.<\/p>\n

The undercurrents of seething rage, anger, racism and sexism are not exclusively a Republican or conservative trait. Millions turned out for Clinton either in spite of, or ignorance of, her bellicosity towards Iran, Russia, and Syria. Clinton\u2019s resentment of the \u201cbasket of deplorables\u201d is nothing new, either. Obama admitted as much when referring to voters clinging to their guns and religion. Thus, the polarization of US politics and culture continues, framed as a binary between coastal liberals and heartland conservatives.<\/p>\n

This narrative, set by mainstream media, is very convenient for capital. Wealth has skyrocketed for elites yet most people\u2019s economic status has become increasingly precarious. The restructuring of the economy towards the service sector, the internet, and finance, insurance, and real estate corporations has hollowed out the middle classes. Urban cores have gentrified and the rich see or hear little of ordinary people\u2019s problems. As real estate prices rise the working class must commute longer and longer from the suburbs to downtown, increasing traffic, stress, and reliance on cars.<\/p>\n

Therefore the petit-bourgeois and white working class have seen either a stagnation or loss in their salaries and wages. Relatively speaking many are well-off (the average Trump voter was above the median income) but many deluded citizens see their conditions as deteriorating and react hysterically.\u00a0 www.counterpunch.org\/2018\/06\/12\/american-rage\/<\/a><\/p>\n

The Little Red Schoolhouse<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

School is out!<\/h1>\n