Did The Militant and the U.S. SWP publish anti­OWS screeds? A look at the documentary record Prepared by Jay Rothermel 04/03/2012 In his article “No One Knows Where! OWS and the Role of Communists” Caleb W. Maupin states that

the approach to OWS currently being utilized by myself and Workers World Party, and criticized so harshly by Jay Rothermel’s Marxist Update, The Militant, Worker's Vanguard, and other Marxist publications, is correct.

He also has this to say:

These endless screeds, most of them harshly attacking OWS, and criticizing it in an extremely condescending manner, have no impact on the OWSers. They go in one ear and out the other, with speed to equal to the Limbaugh fans who scream "get a job!" from their taxi cab windows. They all read the same, no matter whether the Spartacist League, International Bolshevik Tendency, Socialist Workers Party, or whoever printed them.

In an effort to verify the existence of SWP­ or The Militant­composed anti­OWS screeds as part of preparing a larger response to Caleb T. Maupin’s article, I reviewed the online archives of The Militant newspaper. No screeds exist there against OWS. I have, compiled a list of all mentions of OWS and various Occupy groups and events that were mentioned in The Militant since OWS began. I have also provided links to all the articles, date of publication, and pertinent excerpts. In several cases, I have provided the entire article or editorial. I cannot comment about the attitude or approach of any other group or Marxist newspaper related to OWS, and have no desire to defend their dubious honor against Caleb T. Maupin. Jay Rothermel 3 April 2012

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http://www.themilitant.com/2011/7537/753706.html 10/17/2011 ....As we go to press thousands of young people, workers, and unionists are marching through Lower Manhattan’s financial district targeting Wall Street and protesting against the impact of the capitalist economic crisis, government demands on public workers for contract concessions, anti­immigrant laws, and other social problems. Similar actions were called in a number of others cities across the country. This latest protest comes in the third week of ongoing actions under the banner of “Occupy Wall Street.” New York cops arrested more than 700 protesters who were attempting to cross the Brooklyn Bridge October 1. The police action failed to dampen spirits of demonstrators and attracted wider public support. So far four subscriptions and 93 copies of the Militant have been sold at the action. ­­

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http://www.themilitant.com/2011/7538/753803.html 10/24/11 ....At a rally in Fargo, N.D., organized by members of the sugar workers’ union and a group of young people putting together an “Occupy Wall Street” movement in the area, socialist workers sold a subscription to a young unemployed worker who told them, “I only have $500 in the bank and if I don’t get a job soon, I’ll be evicted from my apartment. But I would rather starve than take a job as a strikebreaker at Crystal.” ....Young people and workers at Occupy Wall Street actions in New York and similar demonstrations across the country are snatching up the Militant along with books on revolutionary working­class politics. “Our literature table was busy from the moment we set up to well after the event was over,” said Willie Cotton about one such event on the lawn of the Iowa state capitol in Des Moines October 9. “Many were looking for answers to the capitalist crisis and 14 subscriptions were sold that day and at similar events in neighboring towns over the weekend.” In New York City, 38 subscriptions and 223 single copies have so far been sold at Occupy Wall Street events near Zucotti Park in Lower Manhattan, along with a number of Pathfinder books. ....seven participants in a Chicago demonstration against Washington’s war in Afghanistan bought subscriptions. More than 1,000 people joined the action, including a large contingent of youth and workers from the ongoing Occupy Chicago protest at the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago. ­­

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http://www.themilitant.com/2011/7538/753850.html 10/24/2011 ‘Occupy Wall St.’ actions spread to cities across US Draw thousands affected by capitalist crisis (feature article) BY SETH GALINSKY AND RUTH ROBINETT NEW YORK—Thousands of young people, students, middle­class layers, and workers—both employed and jobless—have joined Occupy Wall Street protests here over the last several weeks. Zuccotti Park, a few block’s from the Wall Street financial district, has become a magnet for those who are being battered by the capitalist economic crisis and are looking to do something about it. Some come just for a few hours, others have been camped out in the square for days or weeks. One university student from Virginia skipped classes and hitchhiked to New York to take part. Forty students from the University of Kentucky raised thousands of dollars to join the action for a few days. United in opposition to Wall Street as a symbol of capitalist greed, participants represent a wide spectrum of political views. Handmade signs abound, often colorfully reflecting its wielder’s personal experience: “College degree=Unemployment. Thanks Wall Street,” “I am a social worker student who owes $60,000 in loans. I am the 99%,” and “F*** your unpaid internship.” A smattering of conspiracy theorists and a fringe of rightists are also present promoting their nostrums. Inspired by the protest, similar actions have spread to cities and towns throughout the United States, tapping into a growing sentiment that something is wrong and needs to change. Under the Occupy Wall Street banner, many have joined in labor protests: from demonstrations in support of laid­off school aides, postal workers, and building workers in New York to rallies backing locked­out sugar workers in the Upper Midwest. “I used to think the government had my best interests in mind, but now I know that’s not true,” Fashion Institute of Technology student Steven Robinson told the Militant. “We need more jobs, cheaper tuition for college, higher wages,” said Marcio Martinez, a recent high school graduate. Stacey Taylor and her husband are truck drivers who came from southern Indiana to join the protests. “We pay our share of taxes and the top 1 percent doesn’t,” she said. Occupy Wall Street began September 17 as an open­ended protest in response to a call by Adbusters, an anarchist collective in Canada. Adbusters states it is a “global network of artists, activists, writers, pranksters, students, educators and entrepreneurs” whose aim is to “topple existing power structures and forge a major shift in the way” we live. The first day of protest attracted about 2,000 people. When New York police wouldn’t allow the demonstrators to protest on Wall Street, they set up camp instead a few blocks away at Zuccotti Park, where hundreds slept overnight. The protest gained momentum after cops arrested 80 demonstrators during a September 24 march and were videotaped attacking several women with pepper spray.

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The arrests and police brutality, instead of intimidating the protesters, gave them a boost and won broad sympathy. More started streaming in from all over the country. In the largest action so far, some 10,000 people joined an October 5 march organized by unions in solidarity with Occupy Wall Street. Among others, the protest was actively built by groups forming part of the Democratic Party’s left wing, including the Working Families Party and MoveOn.org. The second issue of The Occupied Wall Street Journal, a four­color broadsheet, responded to criticism that the organizers had raised what they are against, but not any clear demands of what they are for. “No list of demands” was the headline of the editorial note. Arguing that the occupation itself is the goal, the paper said, “We are speaking to each other, and listening. This occupation is first about participation.” ‘Millionaires March’ On October 11, Occupy Wall Street organized a “Millionaires March” up 5th and Park avenues outside the homes of the owners and CEOs of several banks and large corporations. Referring to a 2 percent New York tax on millionaires that will expire in December, Occupy Wall Street organizer Doug Forand told the press, “This is fiscally, economically, and morally wrong.” “The American people understand that not everybody has been following the rules; that Wall Street is an example of that,” President Barack Obama said of the protests. Obama and other Democratic Party figures have been demagogically arguing that the problem is Republican opposition to “sharing” the burdens of the economic crisis. “So far the Wall Street Occupiers have helped the Democratic Party,” said Robert Reich, former labor secretary in the William Clinton administration. “Their inchoate demand that the rich pay their fair share is tailor­made for the Democrats’ new plan for a 5.6 percent tax on millionaires.” To get the Democrats to fight for the plan “pressure from the left is critically important,” he said. Some conservative politicians and papers have attacked the protests, others have taken a more careful, muted stance. According to the Wall Street Journal, Republican presidential candidates Ron Paul and Rick Santorum “empathize with the protesters’ frustration but they don’t agree with all of their goals.” But not Republican candidate Herman Cain. “If you don’t have a job and you’re not rich, blame yourself,” he said. Many of those participating in Occupy Wall Street actions around the country are open to working­class politics and are attracted to unfolding struggles by workers. Socialist Workers Party members have sold dozens of subscriptions to the Militant, hundreds of single copies of the paper, as well as literature from Pathfinder Press, at rallies and encampments in New York and around the country. These activities have become fertile ground for discussing the need for working people to resist the mounting attacks by the bosses and their government, and to organize a movement that can wrest political power from the exploiters and reconstruct society on foundations of human solidarity, not profit for a few. ­­

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http://www.themilitant.com/2011/7539/753903.html 10/31/11 "Several workers wanted to talk about the Occupy Wall Street protests. We sold 27 single copies of the paper and 8 subscriptions—every paper we had—and kick ourselves for not bringing more.” ....In the last week 21 subscriptions were sold at Occupy Wall Street protests in New York. Nineteen signed up for subscriptions at similar actions in Iowa, 16 in London, and 5 in Sydney, Australia, during the course of the week. ­­

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http://www.themilitant.com/2011/7539/753932.html 10/31/2011 ....Building cleaners rally in NYC ahead of contract expirations NEW YORK—About 400 office cleaners organized by Service Employees International Union Local 32BJ and supporters rallied in the Financial District here October 12 to support tens of thousands of building cleaners in contract negotiations in the region. Contracts for thousands of cleaners in the Washington, D.C., area and Philadelphia expired October 16. D.C. area workers are voting on a tentative pact. In New York, New Jersey, Connecticut and Miami contracts expire December 31. Speakers included Hector Figueroa, secretary treasurer of Local 32BJ; Lucien Clarke, a locked­out building worker at Flatbush Gardens apartments in Brooklyn; Teamster­organized auction workers locked out by Sotheby’s; a young woman representing Occupy Wall Street; and a member of Communications Workers of America Local 1109, representing Verizon workers recently on strike who are still negotiating a new contract. “They want to take away some of our sick days and make us pay hundreds of dollars to access the emergency room,” Rosa Delgado, a cleaner for 11 years, told the Militant. “Where am I going to get the money?” Following the rally, demonstrators marched again to join Occupy Wall Street protesters in Zuccotti Park where they got a warm welcome. ­­

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http://www.themilitant.com/2011/7542/754254.html November 21, 2011 ....the Twin Cities they had about five contributions from meeting people selling door to door and at the Occupy Wall Street actions in Minneapolis. “These people, who for one reason or another didn’t get a subscription to the Militant, asked if they could donate money to our work because they like what we are doing,” Morrison said. ­­

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http://www.themilitant.com/2011/7543/754305.html 11/28/2011 In the early morning of November 14, hundreds of cops in riot gear descended on the Occupy Oakland campers, destroying their tents and removing them from the park in front of City Hall where many have been for over a month. Unlike an earlier raid on October 25, no injuries were reported. Cops have moved to shut down Occupy encampments in a number of cities, including New York; Portland, Ore.; Salt Lake City and Denver. Similar moves are being pursued in more than a dozen other cities, including London. In all of these places, city officials have used issues like crime, cleanliness and safety as a pretext for the removals. In Los Angeles, police spokespeople warned they will shut down the camp on City Hall grounds because “they’ve destroyed the lawn” and are “becoming detrimental to the trees.” Over the past few weeks, mayors and other officials from dozens of cities have conferred on how to move against Occupy encampments in national conference calls organized by the U.S. Conference of Mayors and the Police Executive Research Forum. Three days before the Oakland raid, the city’s Police Officers Association issued an open letter to participants in Occupy Oakland, urging them to leave the camp for their own health and safety, citing a fatal shooting near the camp that the occupiers have explained they had nothing to do with. After the predawn raid on the camp October 25, when protesters attempted to reoccupy the area, police fired tear gas, bean bag rounds and flash­bang grenades, critically wounding Scott Olsen, a Marine veteran of the Iraq war and member of Iraq Veterans Against the War. Outrage spread when video footage was released showing the cops tossing a projectile directly at those who came to the aid of Olsen. Under pressure of the widespread opposition to the attack, Oakland Mayor Jean Quan withdrew the heavy police presence from the immediate area of the camp and the tents were allowed to return. Then on November 9 cops at the University of California, Berkeley campus attacked students with clubs as they tried to defend the tents they had set up as part of “Occupy Cal.” Videos showing the cops advancing on a peaceful line of students with arms linked led to condemnation of the cops, including by the student government. “A lot of the students had never seen anything like that before,” Jessica Vott, a Latin American studies major who witnessed the beatings, told the Militant. “They saw what can happen if you question society.” The cop attack came the same day as a demonstration of hundreds on campus protesting a threatened increase in tuition. A “Strike and Day of Action” has been called for college and university students on November 15 to continue the fight against the rising cost of education and cutbacks, as well as to protest police brutality. In Oakland, in response to the October 25 attack, many thousands turned out for a day of protest November 2. Dubbed a “general strike” by the organizers, the protest attracted youth, workers and middle class people hard hit by the economic crisis from throughout the Bay Area and beyond.

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Rallies were organized throughout the day, as well as marches on downtown banks. More than 10,000 marched at nightfall on the Port of Oakland, shutting it down. Among the largely young crowd that marched to the port was Jacob Davis, 24, a veteran of the Iraq war. He told the Militant he opposed the war and was marching “because of what happened to Scott Olsen.” Many longshore workers did not show up for work. Others left when they saw the marchers. The Militant spoke with port drivers whose trucks were surrounded by the demonstration. Most of the drivers supported the action. After nightfall on November 2, a small grouping of individuals built fires in the street, broke windows and spray painted stores in the downtown area near the Occupy Oakland camp. The next day participants in Occupy Oakland decided to dissociate their movement from the vandalism, with some pitching in to help in the cleanup. During one of the protests, demonstrators physically forced other marchers to stop trashing a Whole Foods store. Andrina Huxey, who was present October 25 when the cops attacked, told the Militant that before seeing the police brutality she had been thinking of using her eight years in the Navy as experience to help her get a job as a cop. “Now I know I don’t want to be part of that,” she said. Socialist Workers Party members and supporters joined the discussions during the day of protest, stressing the need for working people to organize independently of the two parties that represent the propertied rulers, whose government is organizing assaults on working people to make them pay for the crisis of the capitalist system. Articles in the Militant sparked discussion of how the cops are used by the bosses against workers in union struggles, as has been the case with longshore workers fighting union­busting in the port of Longview, Washington. Annie, an unemployed construction worker who did not want to give her last name, was one of those who turned out November 13, the night before the raid, to show support for the camp. When learning that the Militant builds solidarity with union struggles, she bought a copy and said, “Union busting has to stop! That’s a quote to put in the paper.” The November 15 move by New York police to clear our Zuccotti Park, the site of Occupy Wall Street, was described by the New York Times as a “minutely planned, almost military­style operation.” Practice runs were conducted, based on “disorder training” and counterterrorism plans, and honed over weeks. The raid began at 1 a.m., when the fewest people were present. Arrests were made with a minimum of violence, unlike earlier assaults on protests with pepper spray and physical attacks, showing cop violence can be turned on and off when needed. Complaints of abuse came from reporters, who were systematically barred from the park. “I’m press,” Rosie Gray, a writer for the Village Voice, told a cop who blocked her from covering the operation. He responded, “not tonight,” she said. Adbusters, the Canadian anarchist magazine that originally proposed the encampments, said November 14 that protesters should “declare victory” and head indoors. Others said they were considering supporting “like­minded” political candidates. Eric Simpson contributed to this article.

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http://www.themilitant.com/2011/7543/754320.html 11/28/2011 The dictatorship of capital (editorial) This week, city officials and their cops in dozens of cities across the country moved to evict campers at Occupy Wall Street actions. The Militant, like millions of working people, defends the rights of these protesters, demands freedom of speech and assembly, and condemns police brutality. The propertied capitalists rulers—owners of the factories, mines, mills, all means of production, as well as masters of finance capital, one and the same—hold the reins of the U.S. imperialist state. The Democratic and Republican parties are their parties, a two­party system of capitalist rule. The owners of American Crystal Sugar, who have locked out 1,300 workers in the Upper Midwest, know they can count on support from politicians of both parties. In North Dakota they adopted company­backed laws to deny unemployment compensation to workers, a cold­blooded move to starve them into submission and, they hope, foster divisions among those who don’t receive benefits and those who get them in Minnesota. And the bosses are assured of continued backing from the cops and courts, for injunctions and strict enforcement to limit picketing, allowing scabs to work. The dictatorship of capital and the worldwide unsolvable crisis of that system is what working people confront. This is the source of unfolding social crises, rising unemployment, attacks on unions and wages, lockouts from the Upper Midwest to New Zealand, austerity measures and layoffs from Alabama’s Jefferson County to Greece, cop brutality, intensifying interstate conflicts and spreading war. The problem is not “greedy” bankers or “fat cats.” It cannot be touched by raising taxes on the wealthy, revenue extracted from the capitalists’ surplus to be used by their government to balance their budgets, pay the bondholders—including themselves—fight their wars, and whatever else they decide. Pointing blame at greedy banks with demagogic appeals to “tax the rich” serves to obfuscate the real problem and the class enemy. It is advanced today by supporters of the Democratic Party, aimed at bringing into office the very same politicians who are advancing an assault on working people on a scale not seen for many decades. We are only at the opening stages of the crisis that in coming decades will look much more like the Great Depression of the 1930s when shacks built in parks and other locations became shelter for hundreds of thousands of desperate workers forced onto the streets. These makeshift communities, called Hoovervilles, were brutally attacked by cops and the U.S. military. The only force that can stay this catastrophe will grow out of working­class resistance. Combatants in these struggles come to see more clearly that what they face is not just one ruthless boss, some “bad apple” cops, a few corrupt politicians, but the rule of a conscious social class, intent on using all its resources to hang on to its profits and power. Above all, this is what the Socialist Workers Party explains as it participates in these fights. This is what is decisive for workers to be able to size up the relationship of class forces and chart the road forward.

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http://www.themilitant.com/2011/7544/754456.html 12/5/11 ....From Lincoln, Neb., Joe Swanson writes that during a community festival and pot luck dinner organized by Occupy Lincoln activists on November 20, he was approached by a teacher at the University of Nebraska who had recently renewed his Militant subscription. Swanson says, “he told me he noticed Lincoln was on the Party­Building Fund scoreboard in the Militant and handed me a check for $50 and said to ‘Keep up the good work.’ I thought this was a notable example of how many subscribers regularly read the paper from cover to cover.” From New York, Nancy Boyasko writes that $60 was received in contributions to the Party­Building Fund at the November 17 demonstration organized by labor unions and Occupy Wall Street and another $80 at the party’s tables at the Occupy camp at Zuccotti Park, as well as $21 from other street tables. A co­worker at an electronics factory where party members work also made a contribution, according to Boyasko. ­­

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http://www.themilitant.com/2012/7601/760156.html 01/02/2012 ....In the context of the union’s fight against the bosses, backed up by their courts, cops, and government—all looking for a pretext to tighten the screws and deal blows to the union—ILWU international president Robert McEllrath wrote a letter from the union’s Coast Committee dissociating the union from port shutdown actions organized by “Occupy” protest groups. The call for Dec. 12 port shutdowns was voted on by the Occupy Oakland general assembly on Nov. 18 in response to cop attacks on occupy encampments and in support of the Longview ILWU fight and the right of port truckers to organize. A New York Times article quotes Boots Riley, rap musician and spokesperson for Occupy Oakland, arrogantly dismissing any value in having official ILWU support. “The organizers of this movement are the working class, and these are issues that belong to the working class. No one has a copyright on working­class struggles.” The character of the protests along the coast varied. In Oakland, several thousand, including many young people, participated in pickets that closed the port during two shifts. A Dec. 15 press release by Occupy Oakland hailed the protest as a success “despite concerted efforts . . . by Mayor Jean Quan, the ILWU International leadership (which mounted an international media campaign) and the Port itself.” Occupy Longview organized a port picket line of some 125. “If EGT succeeds in busting up the ILWU, who is next and where does it stop?” Occupy Longview press spokesperson Paul Nipper told the Militant. “We absolutely considered and organized our actions so as not to make legal problems for our neighbors.” Although no one was blocked from entering the port, the Port of Longview decided to close for the day and no ILWU members worked. In Seattle, supporting ILWU workers in Longview was one of six issues raised by some 500 protesters who blocked the port. Among the leading participants were anarchists with explicitly reactionary, anti­working­class views. “Now the working class exists most predominately as the underbelly of its former self, as the excluded class,” said one such statement handed out at the action. “It no longer holds the same power as it once did to shut down the economy from the workplace. Some of our potential comrades still work in the old world of production: longshoremen, port truck drivers, and others. The rest of us exist outside that world. . . . When we blockade the ports and staunch the flow of capital, we do it from the outside, as displaced people, no longer as workers.”

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http://www.themilitant.com/2012/7602/760201.html 01/16/2012 ....Occupy Longview has put out a national call for other Occupy groups to join the protest in solidarity. On Dec. 12 Occupy Longview organized a protest at the port of Longview in support of the union’s struggle. At the same time, anarchists, many of whom are motivated by interests counter to those of the union battle and the working class in general, are planning to be at the port protest. An anonymous post to Anarchistnews.org, for example, called on anarchists to “bring black flags and storm the gates,” adding that they did not need to be “weighed down by Occupy’s moral stances on tactics.” “We need to fight EGT. If they break the ILWU, who’s next?” Occupy Longview Spokesperson Paul Nipper told the Militant. “An injury to one is an injury to all. As the host Occupy group we are asking people to come here and participate in a peaceful protest exactly as our Dec. 12 protest was held. We want no arrests, no injuries, no confrontation other than the presence of our bodies and our voices.” ­­

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http://www.themilitant.com/2012/7604/760420.html 01/30/2012 ....Anarchists and ultraleft sectarian forces associated with some “occupy” groups on the West Coast have been planning a provocative action when the scab ship arrives that, if carried out, would give the bosses’ government a handle to deepen its assault on the ILWU. Couched in solidarity with the union’s fight, these forces seek to further their own political agendas, without regard for the consequences for the longshore workers and the ILWU. If you support this labor struggle, then follow the lead of the workers’ union leadership and do no harm. “Please take extreme caution when dealing with supporters of non­ILWU sanctioned calls to action relative to EGT,” Robert McEllrath, ILWU international president wrote Jan. 3. “Everything is at stake for the community of Longview and our members.” Indeed, a lot is at stake, not just for tens of thousands of longshore workers, but for the broader working class. Spread the word widely about the longshore workers’ battle. Discuss it with your coworkers and all who are repelled by the assaults of capital today. Organize solidarity, build the coming protest, raise financial contributions, gather messages of solidarity. Prepare now, on what is likely to be short notice, to join the ILWU in Longview, to march alongside them and to help make the coming protest as disciplined—and effective—as possible. ­­

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http://www.themilitant.com/2012/7603/760303.html 01/23/2012 ....[Obama] reached out to the “people who’ve been occupying the streets of New York and other cities,” and their protests against the banks and the greedy “1 percent.” The classless populist themes that characterize the Occupy groups, the fact they turn their fire on “the rich” and the banks, not the capitalist class and its government, offers fertile soil for Obama’s election strategy with a more populist image. Obama calls for bigger government The moral of this story, according to Obama, is the need for the guiding hand of ever bigger government by the wise and “enlightened,” regulating out­of­control speculators and bank executives, and expanding programs that force you to help yourself, like taxes on soda pop to reduce obesity. He calls for higher taxes on the 1 percent to finance his plans. Obama pointed out that Roosevelt “believed then what we know is true today, that the free market is the greatest force for economic progress in human history,” quoting Roosevelt’s speech in Osawatomie 101 years earlier calling for an “economic system under which each man shall be guaranteed the opportunity to show the best that there is in him.” Obama notes that for the 1910 speech Roosevelt “was called a socialist.” The White House transcript says that the crowd laughed, knowing that Obama has been called a European­style Social Democrat. Roosevelt is painted in history textbooks as a great progressive, a “trust buster,” and friend of the little man. Roosevelt touted “progressive” pronouncements, especially after the onset of economic depression in 1907, while championing the advance of U.S. imperialism, which included the seizure of the Philippines, Cuba, Hawaii, and Puerto Rico and deeper intervention in China. He spoke against “bad trusts,” while defending and aiding the U.S. Steel Trust of J.P. Morgan, with which he was closely aligned. Roosevelt was a strong partisan of U.S. intervention in the First World War, in order to advance its imperialist interests against all its competitors. Roosevelt’s populist rhetoric His populism, including support for the right of women to vote and promulgation of regulations against child labor, served as cover for his advancement of a strong, federal regime, and powerful military, using its weight to defend and advance imperialist interests against its competitors and against the working class. In his 1910 speech in Kansas, Roosevelt used the occasion to attack the Appeal to Reason, the socialist paper with the widest circulation in the country at the time, noting that it “habitually denounces me as the tool of Wall Street.” In fact, even before Roosevelt launched his Progressive Party run in 1912, U.S. Steel officials and other “Wall Street men” donated $2.5 million to his campaign war chest. Obama’s speech was long on populist rhetoric devoid of concrete proposals that could improve conditions for “the working people.” He calls for increased government investment in education, so

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people can learn skills to replace “disappearing” manufacturing jobs. He urges more “diversity,” drawing Blacks, women and others into the meritocratic federal bureaucracy, dictating endless rules and regulations. And he calls for unleashing “daring entrepreneurs” to advance U.S. capitalism. Obama’s pro­“working man” rhetoric conflicts with the record of his administration. He has presided over a deepening bipartisan assault against Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security. He has greatly expanded the use of drones, special forces and targeted assassinations to defend U.S. imperialist interests. He has blocked any significant public works program to provide jobs for those thrown on the street by capitalism’s crisis. And he continues to press for more government, to regulate, spy, police and imprison those who challenge his “enlightened” vision of capitalist rule. ­­

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http://www.themilitant.com/2012/7604/760459.html 01/30/2012 ....During the last week of the strike, dozens organized by the Alameda Labor Council and by “occupy” activists joined the pickets. In response to dozens of supporters blocking plant entrances, cops and guards mobilized to escort trucks and vans with scabs in and out of the plant. ­­

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http://www.themilitant.com/2012/7604/760455.html 01/30/2012 The millworkers also gained support from the wider community. Activists from Occupy Bloomington regularly visited the picket line and organized a Christmas Toy Benefit in Bloomington that raised $1,775. A rally of some 140 people in nearby Bedford Dec. 17 boosted the strikers’ spirits. Indiana Limestone “didn’t think we would get public support,” said Spreen. “But I guess they underestimated us.” ­­

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http://www.themilitant.com/2012/7607/760701.html 02/20/2012 ....The ILWU also agreed to request that all outside groups, including other labor unions and forces from the Occupy movement, refrain from picketing at EGT. Some West Coast Occupy forces, who had been planning to caravan to Longview to block the loading of EGT’s first grain ship, have said they will wait and see if the agreement is “satisfactory to the Local 21 rank and file” to decide their next move. The union had opposed such actions, pointing out they could lead to unnecessary victimizations. No protest was held Feb. 7 when the grain ship docked. ­­

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http://www.themilitant.com/2012/7607/760703.html 2/20/2012 ....“I like reading about actions by people, not just ideas,” said Michael Peterson, a philosophy graduate from the University of Alberta currently working at a music store in Montreal. He bought his first subscription to the Militant at Occupy Montreal in October and recently renewed. “I like the coverage on labor struggles and strikes that I don’t find anywhere else,” he added. “I also enjoy the articles on the different books each week,” a reference to the “Books of the Month” column that features excerpts from books by Pathfinder Press offered at reduced prices. Peterson also purchased a copy of The Making of a Revolution Within the Revolution. ­­

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http://www.themilitant.com/2012/7610/761050.html 3/12/2012 ....The economic crisis that exploded with such violence in 2008 has had far­reaching consequences for the working class in the United States. A slight upturn in production is occurring now, part of the normal cyclical course of capitalism—up or down. But the impact of high levels of long­term unemployment, the millions of families who have lost their homes, medical coverage, pensions, and hopes for the future—all this has been devastating. For millions of workers who have eventually found employment again, it is often at wages that are a fraction of what they earned before. Others, also numbering in the millions, have simply stopped looking for a job and are no longer even counted by the government as unemployed. The brutal speedup and intensification of labor, along with the slashing of wages, especially for new hires, have given employers a taste of blood. In factory after factory, owners are demanding new concessions on wages and working conditions and then locking out workers who refuse to accept the new contract terms. This doesn’t reflect a choice by the U.S. capitalists. It’s the course along which they must make progress if they are to recover from the crisis their system—not the workers—produced. Pauperization, a large reserve army of unemployed workers, broken trade unions, large­scale incarceration of angry workers—especially among African Americans: all these are necessary preconditions for a capitalist recovery. You have heard a lot about the activities that have taken place under the name of “Occupy Wall Street” or “Occupy” whatever else. But unless you are a reader of the Militant, you are probably unaware of the broad scope of labor battles in the United States. The Cuban Five is not the only thing the bourgeois press refuses to write about, and their silence is not a conspiracy. They don’t have to conspire. No one has to tell them it is not in their interests for workers to be able to learn from the example of others. But what is happening in the course of these labor battles is far more important than the expressions of discontent registered by the Occupy phenomenon. Above all, it is important because vanguard workers are learning of each other and extending the hand of solidarity across industries, regions, and national borders. From the sugar workers along the Canadian border in northern Minnesota and North Dakota, to tire workers in Ohio, to workers protesting anti­immigrant laws in Alabama, to longshoremen in the state of Washington on the West Coast, the labor battles have an intensity and sharpness that has not been seen in the United States for some time.3 In a confrontation with the port workers in Longview, Washington, the Obama administration had ordered the Coast Guard to escort the incoming ship and protect it as it was being loaded by scab labor. At the last minute, a settlement was won restoring union protection for longshoremen at a major company on those docks. More than 200 port workers were arrested in the course of this standoff, however, and charged with various felonies for which some of them still face costly court battles and the possibility of lengthy prison sentences if convicted. These are the kinds of battlefronts to which we take The Cuban Five, and where dozens of workers with subscriptions to the Militant are reading about the case week after week. As they go through their own

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battles, they rapidly learn from their own experiences how the cops and courts are stacked against those who fight, who resist, who refuse to accept the conditions capitalism imposes on us. And above all, how the cops are used against those who refuse to break. These militants come to admire the five Cuban combatants and will come to emulate their determination and courage. At the same time the West Coast longshore battle was intensifying, a showing of Antonio’s paintings was organized by the teachers union and some students at one of the colleges in nearby Seattle. One of the port workers, a woman, who had been arrested during an action organized by the union and was facing trumped­up felony charges, saw a postcard for the Seattle art showing, a card that reproduced Antonio’s painting of his prison shirt. Her response, with a touch of pride, was, “One day my prison shirt too will be hanging on a peg.” It took a decade of bloody civil war and then revolutionary struggle in the United States for working people to win the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution affirming the right to “equal protection under the law.” It will take another revolution in the United States, led by the working class and its allies, to make that constitutional right a reality for working people. From the longshore workers to the sugar workers and beyond, these are the men and women who in growing numbers will belong to what Gerardo has accurately referred to as the “jury of millions” that will liberate them. It is along this class­struggle road, where battles are intensifying because of the workings of the capitalist system itself, that their freedom will be won. That is what gives those like us fighting inside the United States such confidence today. And this is why the publication of The Cuban Five, and how it will be used, is important. ­­

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http://www.themilitant.com/2012/7609/760901.html 03/05/2012 ....Central protest organizer David Herrera, fired after working at Pacific Steel for 12 years, thanked groups and individuals who supported the action. This included Occupy Oakland and Berkeley Councilmember Jesse Arreguín, who called on the Obama administration to stop the audits. Other speakers included prominent clergy. “Keep speaking up, raise your voices,” José Sandoval of the Voluntarios de la Comunidad in San Jose told the rally. Gerardo Sanchez of the Socialist Workers Party also spoke, calling for the immediate legalization of all immigrants as part of the fight to unite working people to take on all the attacks by the capitalists and their government. ­­

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http://www.themilitant.com/2012/7610/761051.html 3/12/2012 ....“Some of those who renew,” adds Davies, “are taking the paper to work to pass on to coworkers. Several readers who bought subscriptions at Occupy London and other political events last year have also renewed.” ­­

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http://www.themilitant.com/2012/7610/761032.html 03/12/2012 ....Staff and workers from the Steelworkers, United Food and Commercial Workers, Teamsters, Longshore and Warehouse union, and other unions participated along with a contingent from nearby St. Mary’s College and activists from Occupy Oakland. ­­

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http://www.themilitant.com/2012/7611/761154.html 03/19/2012 ....More than 120 people packed the Malcolm X and Betty Shabazz Memorial and Educational Center to take part in an exchange with five representatives of the Federation of Cuban Women, in celebration of International Women’s Day. They talked about the massive gains for women and other social advances made possible by the 1959 revolution in which Cuba’s workers and peasants overthrew the U.S.­backed tyranny and wrested political power from the capitalist exploiters. Among participants in the March 2 program were students from Brooklyn College, Boricua College, the State University of New York at New Paltz, and Columbia University. The program was sponsored by Casa de las Americas, the July 26th Coalition, and Occupy Harlem. Shown from left are Federation of Cuban Women representatives Maritzel González, Ana Milagros Martínez, Yanira Kuper, Yamila González, and Teresa Hinojosa. The five were in the U.S. to take part in meetings of the UN Commission on the Status of Women. Participants bought eight copies of the new book Women in Cuba: The Making of a Revolution Within the Revolution from Pathfinder Press, as well as five subscriptions to the Militant. ­­

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