2022-02-25: News Headlines

WSWS (2022-02-25). "We can't let nuclear war break out": US workers respond to conflict in Ukraine. wsws.org Workers across the United States are responding with anxiety and apprehension to the outbreak of war in Ukraine, while voicing skepticism about the hysterical war propaganda being stoked by the Biden administration and the corporate media.

Chris Hedges (2022-02-25). Chris Hedges: Russia, Ukraine and the Chronicle of a War Foretold. mintpressnews.com After the fall of the Soviet Union, there was a near-universal understanding among political leaders that NATO expansion would be a foolish provocation against Russia. How naive we were to think the military-industrial complex would allow such sanity to prevail.

Workers World Party (2022-02-25). NO WAR! NO SANCTIONS! NO NATO! workers.org February 24 Workers World Party joins with the many antiwar and anti-imperialist organizations, here and around the world, in raising the unifying slogans: "NO WAR! NO SANCTIONS! NO NATO!" We call for international emergency mobilizations for actions March 1-7 around this program. U.S. Out of Russia demonstration, Portland, Oregon, Feb. . . . |

WSWS (2022-02-25). Oppose the Putin government's invasion of Ukraine and US-NATO warmongering! For the unity of Russian and Ukrainian workers! wsws.org That the US and NATO are prepared to take the world to the brink of nuclear war, with all its horrific consequences, testifies to the staggering level of recklessness and aggressiveness that now prevails in all the centers of world imperialism.

TASS (2022-02-25). Events around Ukraine are restoration of balance lost with Soviet Union's breakup — Assad. tass.com According to the Syrian president, Moscow has every right to stand against NATO's expansion plans…

Dante Strobino (2022-02-25). North Carolina workers organize emergency rallies for safety. workers.org This lightly edited article was published as a Feb. 16 report at southernworker.org, Statements are testimony given to the writer by participants in the Southern Workers Assembly Day of Action.Durham, North Carolina Gloria Lee, a former Amazon worker, spent her Feb. 16 afternoon leading chants and talking to Amazon workers . . . |

Pangcha Vang (2022-02-25). Merced joins statewide UC actions to demand housing justice. liberationnews.org UC students and workers across the state held similar rallies as part of a California-wide movement at UC campuses demanding housing justice.

A Guest Author (2022-02-25). Who gains from a war in Europe? U.S. targets supply of Russian gas to Europe. workers.org By Manuel Raposo Raposo is editor of the Portuguese website jornalmudardevida.net, which published this article on Feb. 20. Translation by John Catalinotto. At this moment, the events in Ukraine are shrouded in the cloud of smoke that characterizes war propaganda. Official positions, rather than clarifying facts and reporting the progress . . . |

WSWS (2022-02-25). Workers at Iowa defense contractor enter second week on strike. wsws.org The workers, members of International Association of Machinists, voted by a near-unanimous 98 percent to reject a tentative agreement between the company and the union on February 17.

WSWS (2022-02-25). Ten-month lockout at ExxonMobil refinery ends in union betrayal. wsws.org With the national contract up for 30,000 refinery workers, the Beaumont struggle was becoming a major thorn in the sides of the oil industry and USW union, which called a snap vote to ram through a previously rejected contract with minor adjustments.

PAI (2022-02-25). Striketober carries through February: Eaton forces Iowa plant workers to walk. peoplesworld.org DAVENPORT, Iowa (PAI)—The wave of worker activism the AFL-CIO nicknamed "Striketober," then "Strikesgiving," is continuing well past the holidays and into late February, as some 365 Machinists members at Eaton's factory in Davenport, Iowa, were forced to walk at midnight February 18. Members of IAM Lodge 388 and Local 1191 at the plant, where they …

Dianne Mathiowetz (2022-02-25). Federal jury finds: Ahmaud Arbery's killers 'guilty of hate crimes'. workers.org March to celebrate Ahmed Arbery in Savannah, Georgia. Atlanta February 23: Today is Ahmaud Arbery Day, as declared by the Georgia General Assembly earlier this month. In their resolution, the legislators noted that the enslavement-era "citizens arrest" law was repealed and hate crimes legislation was passed, in response to . . . |

WSWS (2022-02-25). Workers Struggles: Europe, Middle East & Africa. wsws.org Greek healthcare workers in three national strikes in last two weeks over pay and job insecurity; Hungarian teachers protest following government's attack on right to strike after 20,000 joined two-hour warning strike; UK High Court attack on right to picket continues at London's Great Ormond Street Hospital strike by security staff; food workers' strike to defend jobs and pay continues at Clover, South Africa despite workers facing hardship and attacks from management thugs…

WSWS (2022-02-25). Build the Oil Workers Rank-and-File Committee! For a national strike to protect oil workers' lives and livelihoods! wsws.org "We don't want any more contract extensions. We want to show what power we have as workers by stopping the operations of Marathon, Chevron, Shell, BP—and ExxonMobil—until we win our just demands."

WSWS (2022-02-25). Australian Education Union promotes misinformation over Victorian teachers' agreement. wsws.org The union is concerned not only to prevent an informed examination of its sell-out agreement but also to block a discussion in which educators connect the question of their working conditions with the ongoing COVID crisis, against the AEU's insistence that these are entirely separate issues.

WSWS (2022-02-25). Major League Baseball spring training delayed as lockout continues. wsws.org The owners, who have vastly increased their revenue share as a result of the last collective bargaining agreement (CBA), intend to maintain their beneficial wealth distribution by offering small, incremental changes in a new CBA.

WSWS (2022-02-25). North Carolina prison inmates initiate hunger strike against inhumane treatment and grossly inadequate pandemic response. wsws.org The strike came to light nearly two weeks ago after family members of one of the inmates contacted the non-profit law firm, North Carolina Prisoner Legal Services.

Staff (2022-02-25). Headlines for February 25, 2022. democracynow.org Russian Forces Close In on Kyiv in Apparent Bid to Topple Ukraine's Government, U.N. Says Over 100,000 Ukrainians Have Already Been Displaced by Russia's Invasion, Some 1,800 Russians Arrested at Protests Against Invasion of Ukraine, "America Stands Up to Bullies": Biden Announces New Sanctions on Russia, Pentagon Says It Attacked al-Shabab in First U.S. Airstrike on Somalia Since August, Missiles Hit Near Damascus in 4th Israeli Airstrike on Syria This Month, Biden Nominates Ketanji Brown Jackson as First Black Woman SCOTUS Justice , CDC to Relax Indoor Mask Guidance, 3 Ex-Minneapolis Cop…

sputniknews (2022-02-25). Russian Paratroopers Take Control of Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, MoD Says. sputniknews.com Earlier this week, Moscow launched a special military operation in Ukraine, striving to demilitarise and de-Nazify the country amid Kiev's attacks against Donbass. Precision weapons were used to strike Ukrainian military infrastructure, including airfields and air defences.

Binoy Kampmark (2022-02-25). Antarctica: Where Realpolitik and Science Meet. dissidentvoice.org A frozen continent. Another potential frontier for conflict and competition. Antarctica is a part of the world were realpolitician meets scientist; the desire for finding exploitable resources meets environmental expectations and fears. Countries have vied for their little slice of ice, sometimes citing reasons of scientific collaboration, and often national self-interest. Much of this culminated …

teleSUR, jaa, SH (2022-02-25). Exsenadora colombiana Piedad Córdoba pide acogerse a la JEP. telesurtv.net Piedad Córdoba señaló que en su labor como activista humanitaria tuvo la posibilidad de escuchar testimonios que podrían contribuir en el Caso 001.

Graham Peebles (2022-02-25). The Keep Africa Poor and Dependent Project. dissidentvoice.org Exploited and abused for generations by white colonial powers and manipulative economic structures, there is a growing feeling of solidarity within parts of the African continent, as exemplified by the #NoMore movement. Covid vaccine inequality and environmental injustice, together with recent events in Ethiopia, have galvanized people. Ideas of African unity and rage against former …

Jason Ditz (2022-02-24). Israeli Airstrikes, Missiles Target Syria's Damascus, Kill 3 Soldiers. news.antiwar.com For the second straight day Israel carried out strikes against Syria, following up Tuesday's attack on Quneitra with Syria reported air defenses were active and intercepted most of the missiles. Some damage was reported and Israel hasn't commented on these recent attacks directly, but did drop leaflets overnight warning Syrians against supporting Hezbollah. Israel officially does not co…

Internationalist 360 ∞ (2022-02-24). How the Truckers Split Indigenous Canada. libya360.wordpress.com Ashley Frawley We are fed up with being viewed as virtuous victims Canadians aren't known for the depth of their political feeling. If anything, our easy-going passivity is often a point of pride and distinction against our overzealous neighbours to the south. Yet if the recent Freedom Convoy revealed anything, it was that deep rifts…

_____ (2022-02-24). NATO And Africa: Colonial Violence And Structural White Supremacy. popularresistance.org Considering the public media attention and concern about possible expansion of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), it is worth reminding people about NATO's bloody history in Africa. NATO was founded in 1949 after WWII at a time when African countries were still under the yoke of colonialism. In fact most of the original founders of NATO had been Africa's principal colonizers such as UK, France, Portugal, Belgium, Italy and the USA as lead NATO organizer and dominant partner. The organization was established as a collective defense against the Soviet Union with the requirement (Article 5) that any atta…

Partido por el Socialismo y la Liberación (2022-02-24). Declaración del Partido por el Socialismo y la Liberación: Detener la expansión de la OTAN para garantizar la paz en Ucrania. liberationnews.org La abolición de la OTAN resolvería las tensiones explosivas en Europa del Este y representaría un paso histórico hacia la paz mundial.

_____ (2022-02-24). US, UK, France Promised USSR Not To Expand NATO East Of Germany. popularresistance.org A newly discovered document provides more evidence that Western governments broke their promise not to expand NATO eastward after German reunification. | Notes from a 1991 meeting between top US, British, French, and German officials confirm that there was a "general agreement that membership of NATO and security guarantees [are] unacceptable" for Central and Eastern Europe. | Germany's diplomatic representative emphasized that the Soviet Union was promised in 1990 that "we would not extend NATO beyond the Elbe" river, in eastern Germany. | The document, which was formerly classified as secret, comes from the Bri…

Staff (2022-02-24). Yanis Varoufakis: Europe Must Stand with Ukraine, Condemn Putin & Roll Back NATO to Restore Peace. democracynow.org What does the Russian invasion of Ukraine mean for the rest of Europe? We speak with Yanis Varoufakis, former Greek finance minister, about the failure of international bodies like the European Union and United Nations in preventing war. U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres implored Russia to withdraw all troops in a speech immediately following Thursday's attack, and the U.S. and allies are moving swiftly to impose sanctions as retaliation against the aggression. Varoufakis warns these threats are "like a pea shooter trying to stop a tank." The only hope for a peaceful resolution is for NATO…

Moderator (2022-02-24). Hedges: Chronicle of a War Foretold. scheerpost.com Svyatoslav, 6, plays with his tablet in a public basement used as a bomb shelter in Kyiv, Ukraine, Thursday, Feb. 24, 2022. Russia has launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine, unleashing airstrikes on cities and military bases and sending troops and tanks from multiple directions in a move that could rewrite the world's geopolitical landscape. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti) |
| By Chris Hedges / Original to ScheerPost | I was in Eastern Europe in 1989, reporting on the revolutions that overthrew the ossified communist dictatorships that led to the collapse of the Soviet Union. It was a time of hope. NATO,…

WSWS (2022-02-24). Judge upholds strike injunction at BNSF: US capitalism disciplines the working class while preparing for war. wsws.org Faced with a resurgence of the class struggle, the capitalist ruling class is reviving all the anti-democratic methods that it used to crush workers' resistance in previous generations.

Peoples Dispatch (2022-02-24). Dutch communists commemorate 81st anniversary of 1941 February Strike. peoplesdispatch.org Under the call of the Communist Party of Netherlands (CPN), the Dutch working class organized a heroic strike on February 25 and 26, 1941 against the persecution of Jews in the country under Nazi Germany occupation…

_____ (2022-02-24). Amazon Union Organizers Arrested After Bringing Food To Workers. popularresistance.org The Biden administration has recently made proposals to strengthen unions—one suggestion includes limiting "barriers to union organizers being able to talk with employees on federal property about the benefits of organizing a union." However, there's the issue of what can happen on private property. Amazon has taken a firm anti-union stance and continues that streak with a new development. According to Business Insider, the NYPD arrested three union organizers at Amazon's JFK8 warehouse on Staten Island. | This is not the first time police have been called on this particular warehouse. Insider also reported…

_____ (2022-02-24). Starbucks Tries To Slow Union Elections But Misses Legal Deadline. popularresistance.org As more baristas around the country seek to unionize, Starbucks has used a massive legal team to slow the pace of union elections. But the coffee chain suffered a tough legal setback on Friday, all thanks to some late emails. | Workers at several stores in upstate New York recently petitioned for union elections, just like the two stores in the Buffalo area that successfully unionized last year. But Starbucks, through its lawyers from the firm Littler Mendelson, has asked the National Labor Relations Board not to move ahead with the votes, arguing that elections for individual stores aren't appropriate. The compa…

WSWS (2022-02-24). How Amazon workers can fight to defend their interests. wsws.org Whatever the outcome of the RWDSU re-vote, workers face the urgent necessity of establishing independent, rank-and-file organizations to fight for their interests.

Peoples Dispatch (2022-02-24). Journalist killed in firing at garment workers' protest in Haiti and other stories. peoplesdispatch.org Today we look at the violent repression of garment workers' protests in Haiti, a report on Israel's illegal practice of withholding bodies of Palestinians, and more…

WSWS (2022-02-24). Spain's UGT union holds sham vote at Ford-Valencia to ram through cuts. wsws.org Workers must demand to see the full text of the concessions the Spanish union bureaucracy is telling Ford management that it will accept in Valencia.

David Trujillo (2022-02-24). Jon Donaire bakery strike is over: Workers vote yes on a contract. peoplesworld.org SANTA FE SPRINGS, Calif. — The Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Mills (BCTGM) Local 37 in Santa Fe Springs has been settled. Management offered a tentative agreement on Tuesday after a four-month strike. The Union reviewed the proposals in the new contract and recommended that the membership ratify it. Wednesday afternoon the vote was …

Sharon Zhang (2022-02-24). Manchin Reportedly Backing Corporate-Friendly Michelle Childs for Supreme Court. truthout.org As President Joe Biden considers several top Supreme Court picks, Sen. Joe Manchin (D-West Virginia) is reportedly telling colleagues in private that he prefers a GOP-backed candidate, who unions and pro-labor advocates have sounded the alarm about for her history of advocating for corporations against workers, According to Punchbowl, multiple anonymous sources have said that Manchin wants J. Michelle Childs in…

Sharon Zhang (2022-02-24). Sanders Hails Starbucks Organizers for Their "Courage" Against Union Busting. truthout.org In a town hall with organizing Starbucks workers on Wednesday night, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont) highlighted the corporation's greed and praised the workers for their "courage" in standing up to the company's union busting. | "We live in a country today where a lot of people are hurting, they feel powerless. And what you are doing is addressing that by bringing people together to stand up for justice,"

W. T. Whitney Jr. (2022-02-24). Puerto Rican union workers strike against austerity, point to U.S. responsibility. peoplesworld.org In Puerto Rico on Feb. 18, thousands of publicly-employed union workers, retired workers, and university students took part in a national strike and march that spread throughout the island. The largest contingent filled streets in San Juan. Demonstrators made noise and marched behind a long banner saying, "People before Debt — Salary Justice — Dignified …

JANET (2022-02-24). Fighting for voting rights and workers' rights. iacenter.org By Minnie Bruce Pratt February 23, 2022 Ella Baker, a leader of the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party, led a challenge to white segregationist Mississippi Democrats at the 1964 National Democratic Convention. In an act of blatant racism, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a 5-4 ruling Feb. 7 that halted a lower court's order to make Alabama redraw its gerrymandered Congressional districts and set up fair representation for the state's Black voters. A federal appeals panel — made up of one Clinton-appointed judge and two Trump appointees — had upheld the lower court decision. The SCOTUS decision paused t…

Mark Gruenberg (2022-02-24). Union tries to outlaw 'captive audience' meetings at Alabama Amazon. peoplesworld.org BESSEMER, Ala.—The Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union is using the rerun of the unionization vote at Amazon's big Bessemer, Ala., warehouse to try to outlaw one of the big tools in bosses' anti-union anti-worker toolbox, captive audience meetings. The challenge is in the form of one of three labor law-breaking—formally called unfair labor practices—charges …

Fight Back (2022-02-24). Uranium miner's daughter breaks the trail for victims of toxic aluminum dust 'treatment'. fightbacknews.org Toronto, Canada – A decade-long campaign led by the daughter of a deceased uranium miner has led to victory for workers struck by Parkinson's disease after being subjected to aluminum dust inhalation "treatments" in their jobs. | Supported by her union, the United Steelworkers (USW), and other worker advocacy organizations, Janice Martell waged a relentless campaign to compel Ontario's Workplace Safety and Insurance Board (WSIB) to recognize Parkinson's as an occupational disease linked to the use of so-called McIntyre Powder in mining and other industries. | McIntyre Powder was an aluminum-based inhalant used be…

Maxwell Schwarz (2022-02-24). In solidarity rally, Young Communists bring striking miners' fight to Blackrock HQ. peoplesworld.org CHICAGO—Members of the Young Communist League gathered in Chicago to demonstrate that solidarity crosses state lines. In front of the downtown Chicago headquarters of asset-management giant, BlackRock, demonstrators rallied in support of the mineworkers striking against Warrior Met Coal in Alabama. Miners in Alabama have been on strike for nearly a year, demanding their pay, …

WSWS (2022-02-24). University employers go on offensive with vote to slash pensions—Take the struggle out of the hands of the UCU! wsws.org Whatever the outcome of Friday's UCU meeting, university workers must draw the lessons of the last five years and take the dispute out of the hands of the union bureaucracy.

WSWS (2022-02-24). Strikers at the University of Manchester speak on working conditions. wsws.org World Socialist Web Site reporters spoke to striking lecturers on picket lines on Tuesday, just before brutal pension cuts were forced through by employers at a meeting of the Universities Superannuation Scheme's Joint Negotiating Committee.

IGD Worldwide (2022-02-24). Long Live the Gremlins: an Anonymous Rant Against Gentrification from Exarcheia. itsgoingdown.org The following was anonymously submitted by a frustrated resident of Exarcheia hoping to ignite further rage around the world regarding gentrification. "The city changes faster than a man's heart" -Charles Baudelaire, writing about the way that the government overhauled the city planning of Paris after the revolution of 1848. Exarcheia is under formal and informal…

Editor (2022-02-24). Engaging Federici on Marx, Capitalism, and Social Reproduction. mronline.org The discussion of Marx is embedded in Federici's signature critique of the social reproduction of labor power in capitalist societies.

isabella (2022-02-24). Building Back Unions With Executive Power. inequality.org

Brittani Banks (2022-02-24). France Withdraws From Mali, But Continues to Devastate Africa's Sahel. independentmediainstitute.org On February 17, 2022, French President Emmanuel Macron held a press conference in Paris just ahead of the sixth European Union-African Union summit in Brussels along with Senegal's President Macky Sall and Ghana's President Nana Akufo-Addo as well as European Council President Charles Michel. At the conference, Macron announced that the French forces would be …

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