news shroobinator • 12 months ago • 100%

www.theglobeandmail.com

"Mr. Savaryn was a leading Progressive Conservative in Alberta and prominent member of Edmonton’s Ukrainian community who championed multiculturalism and played a key role in establishing schools with Ukrainian-language instruction. He also set up the Edmonton branch of the Ukrainian scout group Plast, whose participants included Chrystia Freeland, now Deputy Prime Minister. In a 2013 interview with the newspaper Ukrainian Weekly, Ms. Freeland recalled attending the youth group there. “Plast was a very important part of my life growing up,” she said. “I grew up in a Ukrainian community and was active in Plast.”" More damning connections to Chrystia "SS" Freeland

Canada shroobinator • 12 months ago • 100%

www.theglobeandmail.com

It just doesn't stop, does it? "Mr. Savaryn was a leading Progressive Conservative in Alberta and prominent member of Edmonton’s Ukrainian community who championed multiculturalism and played a key role in establishing schools with Ukrainian-language instruction. He also set up the Edmonton branch of the Ukrainian scout group Plast, whose participants included Chrystia Freeland, now Deputy Prime Minister. In a 2013 interview with the newspaper Ukrainian Weekly, Ms. Freeland recalled attending the youth group there. “Plast was a very important part of my life growing up,” she said. “I grew up in a Ukrainian community and was active in Plast.”" One more damning connection of Freeland to her family's Nazi past.

World News shroobinator • 1 year ago • 100%

www.workers.org

Near the town of Wahiawā on the occupied Hawaiian island of O’ahu, the U.S. army is gearing up for war with China at the Lightning Academy, the 25th Infantry Division’s training camp near Schofield Barracks. Here, the Jungle Operations Training Course (JOTC) takes place over the span of a few weeks, where soldiers from all U.S. military branches as well as foreign military allies take part in special jungle warfare training. At the top of the list for training are soldiers based in the United States Indo-Pacific Command region, an area claimed by the U.S. for military operations that makes up more than half of Earth’s surface and contains half the world’s population in 36 different countries. Many U.S. soldiers are either already based in this command area or will be sent there upon completion of the JOTC. Soldiers that complete the JOTC usually take part in joint military exercises with foreign governments, including Thailand, Japan, Indonesia and especially the Philippines. These exercises, along with recent U.S. military base expansion into the Philippines, are part of a decisive shift of U.S. military focus towards Asia in recent years. China the number one target Over the last decade, with China playing a more prominent role in world politics and as an economic powerhouse surpassing the United States in many metrics, U.S. military attention has moved from the Middle East towards a more direct confrontation with China. Jungle warfare training is conducted in occupied Hawai’i due to the lack of jungle environments on the U.S. mainland and its strategic positioning in the Pacific. Jungle training took place in Panama until 1999, when the Middle East became the primary theater of U.S. imperialist war and desert training was prioritized. But in 2013 the jungle training was reopened in Hawai’i, under the President Barack Obama administration’s “Pivot to Asia.” U.S. military wreaks havoc in the Pacific Although the war against China for which the U.S. ruling class is preparing hasn’t actually started, the presence of U.S. soldiers already takes its toll. While Hawai’i has faced resource shortages recently, including a lack of drinking water, Schofield Barracks maintains a population of about 15,000, which is a huge drain on the islands’ resources. In addition, fuel stored near the U.S. bases has contaminated the aquifer supplying water both to the civilian population and to the troops and their families in base housing. (workers.org/2022/01/61110/) There are decades of violent acts U.S. soldiers have perpetrated, such as murders and rapes, around military bases in Hawai’i, Japan, and the Philippines. But the violence isn’t limited to acts of violence by individual soldiers. U.S. joint military training is not only aimed at pressuring China, but also combatting revolutionary and progressive forces inside the countries that cooperate with the U.S. Recently, ten members, including leading cadre of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) were kidnapped, tortured, and killed. The Philippine government claimed they were killed in a “boating explosion,” but the truth is that these and the many others killed by the armed forces of the Philippines were victims of the U.S.-led counter insurgency efforts. The same jungle warfare tactics, developed by the U.S. military and taught to Filipino soldiers to assist in war on People’s China, are also used to crush domestic revolutionary movements – as are the U.S. armed contra forces in Latin America and across the world. These tactics are used against the New People’s Army, which is currently waging an armed people’s war against the U.S.-backed regime of Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. Anti-imperialism must be decolonial The existence of this jungle warfare training camp in Hawai’i illustrates the need for a unwavering stance against imperialism, in opposing both the external U.S. military adventurism overseas, as well as the ongoing process of settler colonialism and genocide of Indigenous peoples within the occupied territories of the U.S. empire. A principled anti-imperialism must be consistent in both. Opposing U.S. wars overseas while denying Indigenous sovereignty over their land at home is not anti-imperialism, but reactionary isolationism. Genuine anti-imperialism builds solidarity between the people in China, the Philippines, and Indigenous people in Hawai’i and the U.S. mainland, as well as the masses of non-native workers who foot the bill for the tremendously expensive Pentagon war machine. A war with China would be catastrophic for workers and oppressed people around the globe. It would only benefit a small number of people who hide in the executive offices of weapons manufacturers and other U.S. corporations, getting rich with every bomb that drops. One must notice the incredible hypocrisy of U.S. accusations of Chinese “military aggression” towards China’s own island of Taiwan – used as a justification for war – while the U.S. simultaneously occupies and imposes statehood on the islands of Hawai’i and uses them to train for that war.

To preface this, I was born to a Russian (Soviet) immigrant mother and an English speaking father in Canada. So I was raised always exposed to Russian culture and the language to the point that I spoke Russian exclusively while I was getting the first grips of language as an infant. For most of my life, I've only been able to use basic phrases and find it very difficult to hold a conversation, but I can get the gist of what the other person is talking about and I would often have to resort to responding in English. I have a very good grasp at the alphabet, but have some difficulties pronouncing new words with many consonants in sequence. This is a really long winded way to say that I feel overwhelmed with the amount of improvement that I need to make, and that I'm looking to be pointed in the right direction to start making progress. Спасибо товарищ! 🫡

World News shroobinator • 1 year ago • 100%

www.liberationnews.org

On June 22, 1,400 workers at Wabtec, unionized with United Electrical Radio and Machine Workers (UE) Locals 506 and 618 in Erie, Pennsylvania voted to reject their company’s final contract offer and authorize a strike. Within 15 minutes, the 4 million square ft locomotive plant where they work was completely empty. Picket lines were set up shortly thereafter. Workers voted to authorize a strike after four weeks of negotiations with Wabtec in which the corporation failed to concede to some of the union’s most important demands including the right to strike over grievances, wage increases, an end to a two-tier pay system, and more. UE 506 workers at the Wabtec facility manufacture locomotives, the powered train cars that pull the rest of the train. The Erie Wabtec facility is an important part of the company’s global operations and the locomotives these workers manufacture are used for transportation all over the world. UE 506 workers are highly-skilled welders, electricians, mechanics, maintenance workers and more. Many of the long-term employees were hired at the facility when the hiring requirement was seven to ten years of manufacturing experience. UE 618 workers are the administrative workers at the Wabtec facility helping it to run efficiently. Members of Locals 506 and 618 have been getting strike-ready for about one year, anticipating that Wabtec would not meet their needs at the bargaining table after four years of poor treatment under their previous contract. The Executive Boards of Locals 506 and 618 made a recommendation to the members to reject the final offer from Wabtec and the overwhelming majority of workers did so by ballot on June 22. In the past few weeks Wabtec has employed union-busting tactics including hiring scabs to work in the factory with union workers, sending mailers to each union member’s home explaining how to end their union membership, and threatening to subcontract 275 jobs on the last day of negotiations in attempts to weaken the union before the strike was called. Since the strike was called, buses of scabs have crossed the picket lines after being stalled for hours by union members. Workers demand respect, better working conditions, green jobs Local 506 workers on the picket lines had specific demands for their next contract including the ability to strike for grievances, better pay, an end to the two-tier pay system, and bringing green locomotive jobs to the plant. Since losing their right to strike over grievances in their previous contract, the number of grievances has grown drastically with Wabtec forcing many grievances to arbitration, which is costly for the union. Plus, in one instance, after the union won a grievance fight in arbitration, Wabtec took them to federal court to challenge it, demonstrating their unwillingness to follow the grievance clause in the contract. Workers believe that they need the right to strike over grievances to get respect from Wabtec and to address the company’s contract violations in a timely fashion. Long-term workers at the plant have not had a meaningful raise in ten years, effectively taking a pay cut considering inflation and increasing costs of living. New workers are also hired at a lower wage for their first ten years in a two-tiered progression system, which long-term workers think is unfair given they are doing the same work. In addition, they see this as a tactic to divide workers, and for the company to increase turnover as well as fire workers before they reach that ten year mark. Finally, the union is asking that Wabtec work with them on supporting higher Environmental Protection Agency standards for locomotives and bringing green locomotive jobs to Erie because such a strategy would address climate change and other environmental issues while helping their communities. Research funded by the union estimates that shifting to green locomotive production would bring thousands of jobs to the city and county. Historic union locals The strike at 506 and 618 is nationally significant because these historic locals have survived vicious attacks during McCarthyism and the decimation of labor unions in the U.S. They have also survived the heyday of neoliberalism and the loss of domestic jobs, while all throughout representing success in building working-class unity and power. At its peak, the locomotive manufacturing facility had around 30,000 employees in a town of about 138,000 residents. At that time, when domestic industry was still in full swing, Erie had many manufacturing facilities where people from all over Erie County would work. Even after the catastrophic loss of jobs due to outsourcing of manufacturing from the U.S. to other countries where corporations can more easily exploit workers for higher profits, the locomotive plant in Erie plays an important economic role. One in 11 people in the County are affected by the locals’ negotiations with Wabtec because one of their family members works there and Wabtec is the second largest employer in the county. During the Red Scare, UE 506 faced attacks against its union leadership in a broader strategy of the U.S. government and its corporate allies to weaken working-class power by targeting unions. Their union president, John Nelson, was accused of communist activity, interrogated and harassed, and was the first union leader fired by General Electric, which then owned the plant. After being fired, he continued to work at the union hall until his death. He died prematurely six years later at the age of 42 and many workers at 506 believe this was due to the stress of having his life destroyed by McCarthyism. Now, members of UE 506’s executive board are paid to do full-time organizing to protect themselves from company retaliation and pressure. UE 506 has a long record of militant organizing, unity among its members, and widespread community support. Local 506 has only gone on strike two other times in its history; once in 1969 for 109 days when General Electric owned the plant and once in 2019 for nine days in the frigid February cold right after Wabtec took over the plant. The importance of unity and solidarity Many workers on the picket lines said that they could mobilize people to clear the plant right after the strike votes were counted because there is a strong sense of unity amongst members that has been fortified over decades. The local is full of members who have worked at the plant for 20-40 years. Members believe that this strike will further unite the members of 506, especially the newer hires who are just learning about this historic union. For example, one newly-hired worker voted against striking but still showed up for picket duty with the other workers in his building because he respected the majority decision to reject the company’s final offer and go on strike. Another example of unity at UE 506 is when workers went out to the picket lines in freezing weather after they voted to strike in February 2019. Workers were confident their fellow union members were not going to work as scabs during the strike or revoke their union membership like the company hoped they would by mailing each of them instructions on how to resign days before the strike. Local 506 has developed strong connections with working people in their community and beyond. All day at the picket lines car drivers honked and waved in support of the striking workers. Union leadership said once they go on strike, their phones are ringing off the hook with offers of community support such as food and donations to the strike fund. Local 506 members credit the strong support of their community to the time they have put into supporting other working people such as donation drives for charities, community events, showing up to other unions’ picket lines and more. Local 506 is so successful at organizing that they help train other UE locals across the country including the MIT Graduate Student Union. On the back wall of the 506 and 618 union hall is a powerful mural by Juana Alicia through the Cruzando Fronteras/Crossing Borders mural project depicting women from across the world fighting for labor rights, gender equity and civil rights titled “A Woman’s Place: A Warrior in the Struggle for International Solidarity/El lugar de una mujer: una guerrillera en la lucha para la solidaridad internacional.” The fight ahead Union leadership is meeting with Wabtec and a federal mediator on July 6th. Wabtec has clearly shown that it will use dirty tactics to undermine UE 506 and 618 at every chance it gets during the strike and future negotiations, but these union locals are united and have been forged through a history of struggle. Local 506 and 618 members demonstrate the importance of workers joining together to fight for respect and better working conditions, to build community and solidarity, and ultimately, to build working-class power. Thank you to all the workers who I spoke to on the picket lines. Please donate to the strike fund for UE 506 and 618 here. (Photos and hyperlinks available in article link)