المقالات بلغتها الأصلية Originaux Originals Originales

01/01/2023

LA PLUMA/TLAXCALA
«Édition spéciale Bilan 2022»

 

« Là où est le danger, croît aussi ce qui sauve », écrivait le poète allemand Hölderlin en 1803, dans une Europe prise dans des bouleversements initiés par la Révolution française de 1789. Le monde de 2022 a été pris dans d’autres tempêtes, appelées changement climatique, guerre technologique, destruction de la Terre Mère et de ses plus humbles habitants, et, bien sûr, pandémie. Encore une année où les plus riches sont devenus encore plus riches et où ceux·celles d’en bas ont tenté de reprendre les pouvoirs qui leur ont été confisqués. 2022 avait commencé par une drôle de guerre en Ukraine et fini par le scandale des eurodéputés, acheté comme de vulgaires footballeurs par le roi du Maroc et l’émir du Qatar. L’année prochaine risque d’être un autre annus horribilis. En attendant, lisez le bilan de 2022 de nos auteurs, depuis divers coins de l’orange bleue.
París, 31 décembre 2022
La Pluma Agencia Pueblos en pie, France
Tlaxcala 
 le réseau de traducteurs pour la diversité linguistique

«Nous ne sommes pas des juges, nous sommes des témoins. Notre tâche est de permettre à l’humanité d’être témoin de ces crimes horribles et de la mettre du côté de la justice. »

Bertrand Russell

 LECTURES RECOMMANDÉES PAR LA PLUMA ET TLAXCALA

Qatargate/Moroccogate : on peut acheter des footballeurs, alors pourquoi pas des eurodéputés ? Fausto Giudice

Combien pour la planète ? La danse des millions... Luis Casado

De l'Argentine à l'Europe, un cri pour la justice: La lutte contre l'oubli Sergio Ferrari

Tâches pour la gauche Juan Diego García

2022  dans la Republica Bolivariana de Venezuela Jean Araud

Aprés plus d'un demi_siècle, le monde commence à renoncer à l'utilisation du Chlorpyrifos, un pesticide neurotóxique qui atacque nos enfants Lilliam Eugenia Gómez Álvarez & Alejandro Henao Salazar

2022, une année de grands succès pour la diplomatie bolivariene Sergio Rodríguez Gelfenstein

La lutte contre la dictature au Pérou ne passe pas par les urnes Carlos Aznárez

Le Chili 2022: L'année de la droitisation du parti au pouvoir Andrés Figueroa Cornejo

2022 dans la République Bolivarienne du Venezuela Jean Araud

Un bilan sur la patrie empoisonnée qu'est devenue la Colombie Oto Higuita

Réinventer le christianisme dans le Sud Oscar Soto

Bilan de l'année 2022 Félix Orlando Giraldo Giraldo

2022, l’année du réveil de la classe ouvrière aux USA
John Catalinotto

Versión Española

LA PLUMA/TLAXCALA
“Edición especial Balance 2022”

 

“Donde está el peligro, crece también lo que salva”, escribió el poeta alemán Hölderlin en 1803, en una Europa atrapada en una tormenta iniciada por la Revolución francesa de 1789. El mundo de 2022 ha sido atravesado por otras tormentas, que se llaman cambio climático, guerra tecnológica, destrucción de la Madre Tierra y de sus más humildes habitantes, y, por supuesto, pandemia. Otro año en que los más ricos se volvieron aún más ricos y las y los de abajo intentaron retomar los poderes que les quitaron. 2022 empezó con una guerra de broma en Ucrania y terminó con el escándalo de los eurodiputados, comprados como vulgares futbolistas por el rey de Marruecos y el emir de Qatar. El año que viene arriesga de ser otro annus horribilis. Entretanto, lean el balance de 2022 por nuestros autores, desde varios rincones de la naranja azul.

París, 31 de diciembre de 2022

La Pluma.net                                            Tlaxcala

Agencia Pueblos en pie, Francia               la red de traductores por la    diversidad lingüística

«No somos jueces somos testigos.
Nuestra tarea es hacer posible que la humanidad sea testigo de estos crímenes horrendos y ponerla del lado de la justicia..
»
Bertrand Russell

LECTURAS RECOMENDADAS POR LA PLUMA Y TLAXCALA

Qatargate/Moroccogate: si se pueden comprar futbolistas, ¿por qué no eurodiputados?
Fausto Giudice

De Argentina a Europa, un grito de justicia: La lucha contra el olvido
Sergio Ferrari

¿Cuánto por el planeta? La danza de los millones…
Luis Casado

Tareas para la izquierda
Juan Diego García

Después de más de medio siglo, el mundo comienza a renunciar al uso del Clorpirifós, un plaguicida neurotóxico que ataca nuestros niños
Lilliam Eugenia Gómez Álvarez & Alejandro Henao Salazar

2022, un año de grandes éxitos de la diplomacia bolivariana
Sergio Rodríguez Gelfenstein

El camino peruano contra la dictadura no pasa por las urnas
Carlos Aznárez

2022: Año de la derechización del oficialismo
Andrés Figueroa Cornejo

2022  en la Republica Bolivariana de Venezuela
Jean Araud

Un balance sobre la patria envenenada en que convirtieron a Colombia
Oto Higuita

Reinventar el cristianismo en el sur
Oscar Soto

Balance del año 2022
Félix Orlando Giraldo Giraldo

2022, el año en que se despertó la clase obrera en los USA
John Catalinotto

Version française

JOHN CATALINOTTO
2022, the year when the working class in the USA woke up

John Catalinotto, 31/12/2022

Español Français

The working class in the United States in 2022 burst into action. Warehouse workers at Amazon, baristas at Starbucks, prisoners, coal miners, nurses, teachers, graduate students organized. Some went on strike.

NYC nurses, december 2022

Will we in 2023 see ever sharper clashes between workers in the United States and the imperialist ruling class? Remember that these billionaire owners of U.S.-based monopolies and banks still dominate the dollar, the weapons and the word. Their politicians, bureaucrats and generals who serve them control the Treasury, the Pentagon and the police. Their media hacks and bought intellectuals wield the most effective propaganda machine in history.

That workers in the belly of the beast might wage class war seems impossible. Yet in 2022, class struggles took place that were unseen in decades. Public opinion grew more favorable toward unions than in the last half century. A mood for confrontation grew as people’s lives grew less stable.

A Gallup Poll in August showed that 71% of the population approved of labor unions. That’s up from 48% in 2008. It’s the highest since 1965, when over 30% of workers belonged to unions (now it’s about 10%). This happened despite constant anti-union propaganda over that same half century.

Youth, marginalized workers

On Jan. 1, 2022, there was only one unionized Starbucks coffeeshop — in Buffalo, New York. By Dec. 9 of 2022 there were close to 270 stores whose workers approved unions. Amazon Labor Union scored a historic victory by organizing the first Amazon warehouse ever in the U.S. on April 1 in Staten Island, New York. The ALU ran an impressive multilingual, multicultural, campaign that reached all the workers and won more than half to the union. In both anti-union monopolies young workers predominate, most never in unions before.

The massive U.S. prison population is even more marginalized. Yet in Alabama, 25,000 majority-Black, incarcerated people at 17 separate prisons withheld their labor in protest from Sept. 26 to Oct. 2. They condemned murderous conditions in the jails, where they are forced to work. In their letters from the inside, organizers signed themselves “Alabama’s slaves” and said that the strike is “in protest of the continued institution of neoslavery.” (tinyurl.com/2bk43x3a)

In the fall of 2022, more than 18,000 education workers fought either for a union or improved contracts. This included graduate students at the University of California, Boston University, Northwestern, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, University of Alaska and Yale. At the New School, a college in New York City, adjunct instructors  held a three-week strike and won a contract plus substantial back pay. Adjunct instructors have no job security or protection and, like graduate students, are the super-exploited workers at the big universities.

Over 3,000 members of the Boston University Graduate Workers Union (BUGWU) celebrated a 98.1% election victory for their union on Dec. 7. Some labor researchers have characterized the 1,414 to 28 vote as “the most lopsided NLRB election win **ever** by a bargaining unit [of] more than 1,000 people.” (In the U.S., to form a union, workers must win a vote managed by the National Labor Relations Board.)

Traditional unions

The mood of struggle spread from the unorganized to workers already in unions. One sector was the unionized nurses, members of the New York State Nurses Association. They were asked by their union leaders to authorize a strike against New York’s private hospitals. The vote pledges to go on strike if the existing contract expires before they reach an agreement with hospital management. This Dec. 22, about 14,000 of the 17,000 NYSNA nurses had already finished voting. Some 98.8 percent voted to authorize the strike. This near unanimous vote is unprecedented. But nurses have been particularly hard hit by the COVID-19 and other epidemics, hospitals have cut staffing to save on wages, and nurses have been forced to work hard for long hours, under conditions dangerous to them and to the patients. Now the nurses are angry, united, and believe they can win.

Railroad workers of all different crafts had been pushed to the wall by the railroad bosses, and their many unions went to the brink of a strike. This involves the freight trains, which carry enormous amounts of goods vast distances. The workers move the same freight as they did in 1990 with about a third the work force. This creates enormous profits for the owners. The freight trains consist of hundreds of wagons. Only two engineers co-pilot the megatrains. The bosses want to cut that number to one, a dangerous step. On top of this, the railroad workers get no sick days.

Railroad workers rarely strike. A federal law allows the government to intervene to stop strikes. It has done this in the past. Transportation of goods is essential to the national economy. This Nov. 30 the Joe Biden administration forced the unions to call off the strike. Biden and the Democratic Congress provided no additional sick leave. The Democrats pretend to be pro-labor. Biden’s anti-labor action exposed the role of the president and the Democratic Party as enemies of the working class, just as the Republicans are.

Moment of truth

The prospect for worker upsurge still confronts many obstacles. Corporations have already bitterly opposed the workers through brutal union busting. They harass workers, fire some, bring court cases against unions. Capitalist owners and investors are desperate to pile up more profits within a system in perpetual crisis. And workers face a government that is on a war drive, feeding arms to a proxy war against Russia in Ukraine and sending warships to the coast of China. Few weapons are more effective in combating worker solidarity than a patriotic propaganda campaign.

How workers in the U.S. will react as the economic and war crisis deepens is hard to predict. For those of us in the U.S. who despise war, imperialism and all capitalist exploitation, there is no choice but to encourage the new combativeness among workers and help build solidarity among the entire working class.