Chicago, IL – The joint strike by the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) and SEIU Local 73 continued October 18 and through the weekend as the office of Mayor Lori Lightfoot continued to refuse to meet the strikers' demands.

Fight Back News Service is circulating the following Oct. 19 statement from the Communist Party of the Philippines.

Chicago, IL – Picket lines went up at hundreds of schools across Chicago at 6:30 a.m., October 17. The Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) walked out for their third strike since 2012. For the more than 7000 members of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 73, this is an historic first strike, and the first against the new mayor, Lori Lightfoot.

Tucson, AZ – It has become tradition in Arizona to wear red and take selfies on Wednesdays to support the #RedForEd movement to demand that the legislature fully fund schools. However, since there are currently 2000 workers on strike at the Asarco mines, educators took selfies with Steelworkers and Teamsters on their picket line on Wednesday, October 16.

Tucson, AZ – The United Steelworkers (USW) said, October 11, that about 2000 hourly workers at five ASARCO LLC, locations in Arizona and Texas voted overwhelmingly to strike against unfair labor practices rather than to accept the Grupo México subsidiary’s so-called “last, best and final” offer.

Aurora, CO – Freedom Road Socialist Organization (FRSO) members from Denver, Colorado joined the UAW picket line, October 13, at the General Motors (GM) distribution facility in Aurora. That facility is part of the national strike of General Motors where workers are seeking to improved pay, to maintain high quality health care and to provide a path for temporary workers to become permanent workers.

Milwaukee, WI – Milwaukee’s city council (called the Common Council) held a joint public meeting for the city’s 2020 budget, October 7. Residents came into city hall that evening, and a majority shared a similar message: put money into city services and divest from the Milwaukee Police Department.

Wyoming, MI – On day 20 of their strike, workers waved “UAW on strike!” signs as they walked back and forth, October 5. Six groups of determined United Auto Workers of Local 167 stood outside and blocked entrances at the enormous General Motors (GM) plant in Wyoming, a working-class Michigan town. A total of 46,000 union strikers are out 24 hours a day, seven days a week, across the United States. GM is losing millions of dollars while negotiations with the UAW continue.

Chicago, IL – Unions are on the march in defense of their members across the country, with the autoworker strike against GM and strike authorization votes by teachers and other city employees in Chicago. Unions are also defending their members when they leave work and find their lives in danger from the very people paid to protect them: the police.

Chicago, IL – The Chicago Teachers Union released totals of the September 24-26 strike authorization vote, on September 26. The CTU Rules and Election Committee reported that as of 9:30 p.m., the union passed the 75% threshold of members voting “yes.” 94% of teachers, clinicians, PSRPs, nurses and librarians voted to authorize a strike to win the schools Chicago’s students deserve.

Lansing, Michigan – The United Auto Workers (UAW) called a strike on Sunday, September 15. Fight Back! interviewed Jean “Johnny Bravo” Duchemin, an alternate committee member in UAW Local 1753 in Lansing, Michigan about the GM strike.

Demand fairness and respect

Minneapolis, MN – University of Minnesota AFSCME members confronted soon-to-be-inaugurated University of Minnesota President Joan Gabel at the September 13 Board of Regents meeting in the McNamara Alumni Center.

Macon, GA – Workers at the Kumho Tire factory in Macon, Georgia, voted to join the United Steelworkers (USW) union, September 7, nearly two years after the initial vote was marred by the company’s numerous violations of workers’ rights.

Caracas, Venezuela – August 31 marked the last day of the Meeting of International Workers in Solidarity with the Venezuelan People and Its Government. In the morning, hundreds of trade unionists assembled to hear closing remarks and review a final declaration. Freedom Road Socialist Organization (FRSO) joined with other delegations came from 25 countries, and all parts of Venezuela, and proudly shouted out their approval. The audience was lively and often broke out in chants.

September 5, 1882

The huge procession began with 400 members of Bricklayers Union No. 6, all dressed in white aprons. They were followed by a band and then the members of the Manufacturing Jewelers union. The jewelers marched four abreast, wearing derby hats and dark suits with buttonhole bouquets. They all carried canes resting on their shoulders (similar to the way infantry officers carry swords when on parade.)

Caracas, Venezuela – The Freedom Road Socialist Organization's trade union delegation arrived in Caracas, Venezuela for the “1st International Meeting of Workers in Solidarity with the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, its Government and Its People,” starting on August 29.

Washington, DC – Five instances of company discipline and unjust terminations of International Association of Machinists (IAM) members at Boeing’s 787 Dreamliner manufacturing facility in North Charleston, South Carolina have been found to be acts of unlawful retaliation against employees for their support of the union, a regional director for the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) informed the IAM, on August 19.

Minneapolis, MN – While the University of Minnesota top officials gathered for the opening of newly renovated Pioneer Hall, August 21, about 50 members of Teamsters Local 320 and other campus unions held an informational picket line to demand the year-round, full-time employment for workers in M Dining. The U of M has curtailed summer work opportunities for Teamsters and is trampling on seniority rights.

As the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) find itself locked in tough contract negotiations and faces the possibility of a strike, corporate and right-wing media like the Chicago Tribune, Breitbart and others have launched a bizarre attack that seems like it is straight out of the 1950s red scare. Rather than addressing the real problems impacting teachers and students in Chicago schools, these reactionary pundits have decided the rant and rave about – of all things – a delegation of teachers that traveled to Venezuela earlier this summer.

Chicago, IL – Venezuela is a country where the dreams of the conscious workers of the world are being made real. It is a nation of 30 million people where, every day, the working class is becoming more conscious of its historic role in building socialism and taking steps to achieve it in the not so distant future. And in the face of an imperialist offensive that threatens them with starvation, where the threat of military invasion hangs over their heads like a storm cloud, they continue their struggle undeterred.