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>According to local media reports, the dangerous fire forced evacuations in the surrounding neighborhood as explosions were heard inside the building, and one firefighter was injured in the blaze. People with respiratory illnesses were especially warned to take caution. > >The fire was not completely put out until Sept. 7. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, water was contaminated in a nearby creek that runs into Long Lake. EPA representatives claim they would continue to monitor the area. […] > >Akron is a small, Midwestern city near Cleveland that was once known for being a large manufacturer of rubber tires. Like most “rust belt” towns, workers suffered tremendously when jobs were destroyed as a result of capitalist greed, automation and offshoring. > >Many of the displaced residents did not have a place to go when the fire began in their neighborhood. City officials were not prepared to assist anyone in the community, and instead only offered “advice.” > >In contrast to the capitalist U.S., [people’s republics] can conduct mass evacuations when disaster unexpectedly strikes. For example, revolutionary Cuba has been able to carry out successful evacuations to avoid hurricanes and floods. > >In 2008, [the Republic of] Cuba safely helped a quarter of a million people to leave their homes to avoid Hurricane Gustav. As NBC News admitted: “When Hurricane Gustav roared across western Cuba as a Category-4 hurricane on Aug. 30, it damaged 100,000 homes and caused billions of dollars in damage. Nobody died. The storm then moved onto Louisiana, which launched a massive evacuation and saw 26 people die.” (Sept. 10, 2008) > >Capitalism cannot deliver or meet people’s needs. So long as workers and oppressed people suffer under the yoke of capital, dire disasters will be hard to escape. Socialism is the only proven solution to helping the masses when faced with unforeseen catastrophes.
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>Workers at the other 24 hotels conducted their walkouts for one to three days as limited duration strikes. Unfortunately, no contract was signed, and the union asserts the labor dispute is ongoing. Strikes could still be called in cities where they’ve been authorized, but have not yet occurred, such as New Haven, Connecticut; Oakland, California; and Providence, Rhode Island. > >The work stoppages are a result of unresolved contract negotiations. Hotel workers are demanding higher wages, fairer staffing levels and the ability to provide daily cleaning services. The latter issue inconveniences guests and it requires more work to clean rooms which have gone for days without being serviced. > >Gwen Mills, international president of UNITE HERE said in a statement: “The hotel industry is making record profits while workers and guests are left behind. Too many hotels still haven’t restored standard services that guests deserve, like automatic daily housekeeping and room service. Workers aren’t making enough to support their families. Many can no longer afford to live in the cities that they welcome guests to.” (travelweekly.com, Sept. 5)
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>One of the many victims was Ayşenur Ezgi Ergi, a U.S. and Turkish citizen who was murdered by [neocolonial] soldiers the day before the march, Sept. 6. Ezgi was protesting the genocidal destruction of Palestinian neighborhoods in the West Bank. She was a graduate of Seattle Public Schools and the University of Washington in Seattle. > >Ezgi was in the forefront of the Free Palestine movement in Seattle, helping establish the Palestine solidarity encampment at the University of Washington in May. > >The movement has lost a wonderful person who is now being honored for her ultimate sacrifice. Aria Fani, one of her professors, told the Seattle Times: “She would say right now if she were alive, ‘The only reason I’m in the headlines is because I have [U.S.] citizenship.’” (Sept. 6)
"Ryan Wesley Routh, the 58-year-old man who was arrested on Sunday in connection with what the F.B.I. described as an attempted assassination on former President Donald J. Trump, had expressed the desire to fight and die in Ukraine."
Apparently, he didn't get that close before he was caught in the bushes at Trump's Mar-a-Lago golf course. Shots were fired, but it might have just been shots between Secret Service and him. The shooter was caught after a camera picked up his license plate after somebody took a picture of his car as he was fleeing.
Turns out the shooter was covered by NYT earlier > [With Legion growth stalling, Ryan Routh, a former construction worker from Greensboro, N.C., is seeking recruits from among Afghan soldiers who fled the Taliban. Mr. Routh, who spent several months in Ukraine last year, said he planned to move them, in some cases illegally, from Pakistan and Iran to Ukraine. He said dozens had expressed interest.](https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/25/world/europe/volunteers-us-ukraine-lies.html)
tankie.tube
The Pentagon says the modelling must "include former Eastern Block [sic] countries" and "regions beyond eastern Europe and western Russia".
www.workers.org
>The following are the “overt acts” listed in the indictment: > >* In 2015, Chairman Yeshitela attended a conference hosted by a nongovernmental organization, the Anti-Globalization Movement of Russia, entitled “The Dialogue of Nations.” Hundreds of delegates from around the world, including members of other U.S. anti-war organizations attended this conference, held in Moscow. >* Publishing a petition charging the U.S. with genocide. >* Speaking and organizing at United Nations hearings for reparations to African people in the U.S. Publishing an article opposing a ban on Russian athletes in the Olympics. >* Running for public office on a reparations platform. Speaking out against the U.S./NATO proxy war on Russia. (Burning Spear, Sept. 3) > >The U.S. government’s “proof” includes images of public events, such as marches and protest rallies for reparations and against police violence, educational webinars and other community activities. > >Some 30 federal agents have had over two years to build their case since the July 23, 2022, early morning raid on the Uhuru House in St. Petersburg, Florida, the home of Chairman Yeshitela and the office of the Solidarity Committee in St. Louis. During the raid, agents seized computers, electronics, boxes of documents, photos, books and papers, while damaging doors, walls and furniture. > >And what have they found? A history of more than 50 years of defending Black people against police murder and harassment, consistent organizing for poor people’s needs for housing, healthcare and education; solidarity with oppressed peoples everywhere and opposition to [neo]imperialist war. > >That history is what has brought scores of progressive and revolutionary organizations to attend the trial and offer their solidarity through written messages. > >Among the many people traveling to Tampa-St. Petersburg to attend the trial are well-known activists, including Pam Africa of the MOVE Family and with International Concerned Friends and Family of Mumia Abu-Jamal; esteemed Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) veteran Efia Nwangaza; Jihad Abdulmumit, National Jericho Movement; Jill Stein, Green Party presidential candidate; Benjamin Prado of Union del Barrio and Cheryl LaBash, Co-Chair of the National Network on Cuba. > >The courtroom has been packed with up to 100 supporters, plus others in an overfill room.
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>Santiago, an immigrant from Colombia and former detainee at Moshannon, said at the press conference: “The truth is, Moshannon is a place where they don’t treat you like an immigrant, but as if you were a criminal,” Santiago, who used an assumed name to protect himself, said he was “treated like an animal” there and that officers were “very racist.” He was put in solitary confinement for two months just for having “a small verbal argument” with a fellow detainee. Santiago described how guards assaulted him and how they use solitary confinement to punish detainees for minor infractions. > >Each year, ICE holds hundreds of thousands of people in detention facilities while they await their immigration court hearings. Being sent to Moshannon or another ICE facility is not supposed to be a punishment. The U.S. Constitution does not allow those in civil detention to be subject to punishment or conditions that amount to punishment. > >No one at Moshannon is there to serve time after being convicted of a crime. On the contrary, they are asylum seekers who are forced into detention to ensure their appearance in court. Some are long-time permanent residents — including primary breadwinners or parents of U.S.-born children — detained and taken away from their communities based on old allegations, no matter how trivial. > >[…] > >Because private prisons are notorious for violence, abuse and unjustified deaths, President Joe Biden was forced by community pressure to sign Executive Order 14006 on Jan. 26, 2021, directing the Department of Justice to cease the renewal of federal contracts with private prisons. However, the order does not apply to Homeland Security and ICE facilities. The notorious GEO Group, Inc., a private company with $2.4 billion in revenue in 2023, operates Moshannon and more than a dozen other ICE detention centers in the U.S. > >Through a “fixed-rate contract,” ICE pays GEO Group to maintain a certain number of beds at detention centers regardless of whether or not they are being used. Thus, detention centers that are under fixed-rate contracts, like Moshannon, may house significantly fewer people than what the contract requires, which encourages ICE to fill rather than let the surplus beds go unused. As a result, money drives immigration detention, not actual need. > >[…] > >Of the 77 immigrants interviewed, 50% reported instances of general mistreatment by facility staff, 58% expressed medical and mental health care issues, 31% were subject to racial or derogatory slurs, 6% were the victims of physical force and 10% were threatened with being transferred to an out-of state facility, even further away from their families and supporters. > >People detained at Moshannon reported staff have physically abused them using excessive force, including chokeholds. Non-English speakers in detention recounted how staff treated them worse. > >Women reported they were given less access to resources such as recreation time, the law library and even the cafeteria when compared to men. > >People complained that accessing counsel for their immigration proceedings was made difficult and that their complaints were ignored or resulted in retaliation and abuse by staff. Without adequate legal representation, people have a hard time asserting their rights in immigration court.
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>The clear majority of march participants were young Asians, many who have grown up watching their parents and grandparents engage in these earlier struggles against efforts to destroy Chinatown. > >A contingent of young speakers from Students for the Preservation of Chinatown opened up the second rally at the Friendship Arch following the march. Speaking collectively, these young activists asked why the billions of dollars that the city is considering for the arena should not go instead for air conditioning and libraries in public schools and playgrounds in the many city neighborhoods that have none. > >Speakers at the closing rally included a medical student who addressed concerns that the arena would impact traffic to and from the nearby Jefferson hospital complex. Residents of Washington Square West and the Gayborhood, a historic LGBTQIA2S+ area, which would also be impacted, condemned the arena proposal. A speaker from the immigrant/migrants’ rights group Juntos compared this proposed gentrification to the globalization that has forced millions of South and Central American and Caribbean people to leave their countries.
www.presstv.ir
Surveillance video shows a man setting himself on fire outside the Israeli consulate in the US city of Boston, purportedly in protest of the regime’s genocidal war against the Palestinian people in Gaza. The incident happened around 8:15 p.m. Wednesday, outside the Israeli consulate which is across from the Four Seasons hotel in downtown Boston. There was a large police presence as investigators collected evidence and searched cars in the area on Thursday. Witnesses described the scene as deeply upsetting. The person was taken to a local hospital for severe burns, but his current condition is unknown. The person’s identity, motives, and condition are currently unknown. But his action is reminiscent of Aaron Bushnell, who self-immolated in front of the Israeli Embassy in Washington, DC in February 2024 to protest the ongoing genocide in Gaza.
www.techspot.com
I have some thoughts on this I'll post as a comment. But basically the predictions of their re-shoring being a total bust were nonsense. It doesn't matter at the end of the day if their efficiency is only 80% of that of their fabs on the island, if it's enough to be part of what supplies the entire west with all they need for laptops and smartphones and gaming consoles then it's enough to no longer need that occupied part of China or care what their actions taken against China result in as far as consequences.
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>While DNC speakers were less reactionary than RNC speakers, especially regarding domestic issues, there was a right-wing turn among the Democrats regarding immigration that even the corporate media noticed. > >An Aug. 21 Newsweek article was entitled, “Democrats Show Rightward Shift on Immigration at the DNC.” The Los Angeles Times article that same day had this headline: “On Immigration, Democrats shift message to combat GOP attacks.” > >The DNC featured several anti-migrant speakers who bragged about working with Congressional Republicans on a strict bipartisan “border security bill,” and they all blamed Trump for its failure to pass. At times, some DNC speakers sounded more like racist vigilantes and border agents than liberals rallying for an election victory. > >One such speaker was Javier Salazar, the presiding sheriff of Bexar County, Texas. Dressed in his uniform and brandishing a badge on his chest, Salazer promised the DNC crowd that a Kamala Harris administration would be “tougher” on migration than another Trump administration. Salazar told the crowd, “Harris has been fighting border crime for years.” (San Antonio Report, Aug. 21) > >One DNC keynote speaker who evoked anti-immigrant rhetoric was New York Congress Member Tom Souzzi. In fact, Souzzi flipped many Republican voters in his historically conservative Long Island district by campaigning against “sanctuary cities” and demonizing migrant families. He told the DNC delegates: “The border is broken. But this year, when Democrats and Republicans worked together to finally write new border laws, we were blocked.” (CBS News, Aug. 21) > >Connecticut Senator Chris Murphy was another presenter who echoed similar statements as Salazar and Souzzi, blaming Trump for “killing” their “bipartisan border bill. Murphy said, “It would have had unanimous support if it weren’t for Donald Trump.” (Forbes, Aug. 23) > >[…] > >The ruling capitalist class knows it needs the labor of undocumented workers and is happy to superexploit them. But it is more important to the capitalists’ overall class interests to maintain divisions within the working class. The bosses rely on the strategy of divide and conquer, which means supporting propaganda that keeps workers pitted against one another — and especially on keeping workers who are citizens believing that the enemy is the migrant worker and not the boss. > >Both U.S. capitalist political parties are fanning the flames of anti-immigrant frenzy to divide working-class voters and pander to backward segments of the electorate. The RNC platform explicitly dehumanizes migrants and has very little to say about permitting “legal” migration. While slightly less vile in their attacks on migrants, the DNC program sent a clear message that they are campaigning on a much more restrictive approach towards immigration than they did just four years ago.
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>A solidarity rally was held in St. Petersburg on Aug. 31, bringing forth solidarity statements from 28 organizations. Supporters intend to pack the court starting on Sept. 3 and have a strong legal team opposing the federal government’s forces of repression. > >Two years ago, the police and FBI raided the APSP and the Uhuru Movement homes and living quarters in St. Louis, Missouri, and St. Petersburg, Florida. APSP Chairman Omali Yeshiteli and his partner were handcuffed by the cops. They were both charged with “spreading Russian propaganda” because of their opposition to the U.S.-backed war against Russia by a pro-NATO regime in the Ukraine. > >And the Uhuru Movement’s support for Palestine against the U.S.-backed […] genocidal war in Gaza and its support for massive reparations for African peoples have certainly fueled the wrath of the ruling class. > >The African People’s Socialist Party and the Uhuru Movement and its many supporters, including Workers World Party, point to the most basic right to freedom of speech for the working class in its defense against the absurd government charges. Drop the charges against the Uhuru 3! Defend the right to freedom of speech!
www.workers.org
>In New York, protesters marched from the offices at 26 Federal Plaza, where hedge fund vultures negotiate their methods to displace Puerto Ricans, to the courthouse at 500 Pearl St., to denounce Judge Taylor Swain, who enabled La Junta to carry out its austerity measures. > >We must continue to apply pressure to our oppressors as it is the only way we will free ourselves from the shackles of colonialism! We must continue to demand a free Puerto Rico and mobilize our communities to take action! > >The actions were organized by Juventud Unida por la Independencia, Diaspora Pa’lante Collective, Comité del PIP Nueva York, ProLibertad Freedom Campaign and A Call to Action on Puerto Rico.
www.workers.org
>The official theme, “United in solidarity, defending democracy,” gave voice to the current wave of labor militancy. On the other hand, it was an implicit call to get out the vote for the Democratic Party presidential ticket, suggesting that Vice President Kamala Harris will uphold democracy while former President Donald Trump will undermine it. > >In fact, neither Trump nor Harris represents real democratic rights for workers. United Auto Workers members, who have rallied and may strike Stellantis if it delays reopening the Belvidere, Illinois, assembly plant, will have to fight for their jobs no matter who wins the election. Unfortunately, UAW President Shawn Fain, who gave a militant talk following the parade and emphasized global working-class solidarity, concluded with an appeal to elect Harris. > >Of course, neither candidate supports democracy for the people of Palestine. Both are allied with the genocidal apartheid state [occupying Palestine]. It was important that a pro-Palestine group gathered with signs and chanted during the march.
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>The call for increased support to end the vicious blockade was well-received by all in attendance, but especially by the many youth. > >Jimmy Hill, whose son was killed by the police, had an opportunity to present some information to the ambassador about his fight to win justice for his family and so many other victims of police violence. > >Organizations represented at the meeting included Black Alliance for Peace, Community Movement Builders, Malcolm X Grassroots Movement, Jewish Voice for Peace, Workers World Party, Freedom Road Socialist Organization, ANSWER Coalition, members of the Teamsters and Painters unions and the Coalition of Black Trade Unionists, housing and “Stop Cop City” activists, Palestinian students, Amazon workers and others. > >The meeting closed with a vigorous chant of “Cuba Si, Bloqueo NO!”