Portside

Reader Comments: Worker Strike Wave, John Deere; Dismantle Missile Systems; Democratic Primary Winner India Walton Sabotaged by Dems; Socialists and 50s Civil Rights Movement; CUNY’s Alleged Wrong Doings; Black and Puerto Rican History In Action;

If you watch television, or films, you should think about who is making them and under what conditions. Eighteen-hour workdays, no lunch breaks. Car accidents caused by sleep deprivation. A crew member who returned to set the day after a miscarriage.

Well-planned strikes are not only a union's most potent weapon, but also the public's best chance of forcing substantive policy changes to improve working conditions, living conditions, and the health of the planet.

As corporations fail to meet worker demands, they are increasingly encountering a labor force that isn’t going to take it. They are striking; they are picketing; they are demanding fair contracts. They are forming new unions. It's a beautiful thing.

In 1926, New Jersey textile workers went on a massive strike, organized and supported by the Communist Party. The strike ultimately failed, but it showed the central role Communists could play in American class struggle.