Portside

A bill recently introduced in the state legislature by the Illinois AFL-CIO could address some of the problems around reprisals. The Wrongful Discharge from Employment Act, supported by Raise the Floor Alliance and NESRI, would force employers to provide fired workers with a clear and legitimate reason for the discharge, essentially proving that it was not done in retaliation.

The late Marxist historian Eric Hobsbawm recounts the origins of International Workers' Day.

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For years our community has marched, voted, and gone through the courts. We've won some battles, but we're losing the war. Striking will show the public that this country cannot function without us and help us win protection, dignity and respect. Cosecha is organizing a series of strikes that will culminate in a week without immigrants. It all starts on May 1st. STRIKING REVEALS OUR TRUE POWER - MAY 1ST IS JUST THE BEGINNING.

More than 200 employees of Republic Windows and Doors staged a six-day sit-in December 2008 when the factory was abruptly closed, resulting in a settlement. The occupation received international attention and became a symbol of workers’ rights amid the economic recession.

Everywhere in the country where there are problems, there are people working to find solutions.

The renewed focus, particularly on the left, on precariousness constitutes a recognition of the harsh reality of capitalism, and particularly of today’s globalized monopoly-finance capital. More than a century of Marxian political-economic critique allows us to appreciate the extent to which the conditions that Marx described, focusing on a small corner of Europe in the mid-nineteenth century, are now global, and all the more perilous.

This interview discusses wages, the struggle for $15/hr, stagnating worker incomes, and TPP’s attack on wages in the US and develops into a much broader critique of the current system’s political economy, a way to fundamentally alter the way we produce, distribute, and consume. It is not enough to bargain with capitalists. We must instead look to how workers can take over the means of production and employ them for the benefit and wellbeing of all.