Support Shaw's Workers on Strike!

On March 7, 2010, by a vote of 228 to 8, the workers of the Shaw's Supermarkets' Methuen Distribution Center, represented by UFCW Local 791, voted overwhelmingly to reject a final contract offer by Shaw's Supermarkets and voted to strike following the expiration of the current contract at midnight on March 6, 2010. Local 791 had been negotiating with Shaws for three months on a new collective bargaining agreement.

These workers perform physically exhausting work to supply every Shaw's Supermarket in New England with perishable products of the freshest, safest and highest quality possible. Shaw's substandard wage offer coupled with its proposal for increases in employee health care contributions will result in a net loss of money for the workers during the term of the proposed contract.

We need your help- you can join these workers on the picket lines- they are asking for support at the warehouse and at select Shaw's Supermarkets

Please join Local 791 members on the picket line at the following locations from 7:00 AM to 7:00 PM as they seek a fair and equitable agreement that preserves full-time jobs, work rules and contains good wages and benefits.

Shaw's Perishable Distribution Center - 100 Danton Drive, Methuen, MA 01844

Shaw's Supermarket - 14 McGrath Highway, Somerville, MA 02143

Shaw's Supermarket - Prudential Center, 52 Huntington Ave., Boston, MA 02199

Star Market - 795 Providence Highway, Dedham, MA 02026

Shaw's Supermarket - 45 Morrisey Boulevard, Dorchester, MA 02124

Shaw's Supermarket - 400 Lynn Fells Parkway, Saugus, MA 01906

For more information & updates:
http://www.massjwj.net
http://www.ufcw791.org/

Obama's War and the Antiwar Movement

Thurs, March 11, 7pm

Haymarket People's Fund
42 Seaverns Ave
Jamaica Plain, MA

Join the Boston branch of the International Socialist Organization in a discussion of the states of the U.S. occupation of Afghanistan and the national anti-war movement. While Obama was elected on a mandate to end the war in Iraq, he has escalated the U.S. imperial projects abroad, from the surge in Afghanistan to continued U.S. occupation of Iraq to an increase in predator drones devastating Pakistan. 

This week we will discuss Afghanistan: Sinking Deeper, an article in the International Socialist Review by David Whitehouse, which brilliantly lays out the U.S.' imperial goals in the Middle East and Central Asia, while arguing that the U.S. military is faced with problems that it cannot overcome. 

In the second section, we will discuss the anti-war movement here in the U.S. and the difficulties that it is currently facing. We will discuss the ways in which we will relate to the existing antiwar forces and how we plan to be part of building a politically stronger antiwar movement.

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Required reading for the first section:

"Afghanistan: Sinking Deeper," by David Whitehouse
http://www.isreview.org/issues/69/feat-afghanistan.shtml

Education Rights Day of Action at UMass Boston

http://socialistworker.org/2010/03/04/live-from-the-day-of-action

 LOCAL REPORT   | Julie Keefe

Despite the snow, about 100 students, faculty and staff took part in an outdoor rally and speak-out at noon at UMass Boston as part of a national day of action to defend education.

Speakers voiced anger at student fee increases--a $1,500 fee increase was passed last year--and budget cuts to education--Massachusetts decreased funding to higher education by 37 percent between 2008 and 2010.

One speaker questioned the priorities of UMass, which granted President Jack Wilson a $73,000 raise this year. Meanwhile, UMass teachers are asked to do more and more work for less pay. And every student knows several others who couldn't return to campus this semester due to costs.

For 40 percent of Massachusetts families, the cost of one year at a four-year public university is equal to more the 50 percent of yearly family income. It's no wonder that over one-third of UMass Boston students report stress due to lack of money for personal and family essentials, such as food and rent.

We chanted "Education is a right, not just for the rich and white!" After hearing several speakers, the speak-out transformed into an impromptu march through campus. We were able to march through each building on campus before police blocked the entrance to the Campus Center and threatened arrest.

Popular chants were "Real pain, real action!" in solidarity with the anti-racist struggle at UCSD and "What's disgusting? Union busting! What's outrageous? Tuition raises!"

Tune into SocialistWorker.org on March 4th

March 4 will be a day of action for public education in California and elsewhere. SocialistWorker.org is planning to blog live throughout the day on the protests taking place in California and around the country. So on March 4, go to SocialistWorker.org home page (http://SocialistWorker.org) to follow our coverage.

And beginning at 5 p.m. (PST, 8 p.m. EST and 7 p.m. CST), we’ll broadcast a live video stream of the regional rally in San Francisco.

Check out SocialistWorker.org's recent coverage of the struggle for public education

Editorial
BUILDING BLOCKS OF A NEW MOVEMENT
The protests against California's budget cuts planned for March 4 are an important milestone. The next question is how to build on that resistance.
http://socialistworker.org/2010/03/04/building-blocks-new-movement

Analysis: James Illingworth
THE BATTLE FOR CALIFORNIA'S FUTURE
California is the epicenter of a crisis that is shaking every state in the country--but the fall of the budget ax has sparked a growing resistance.
http://socialistworker.org/2010/02/26/battle-for-californias-future

Roundtable
WHY WE'RE PROTESTING, PART ONE
Students, teachers and campus workers across California explain why they're organizing for the March 4 Day of Action to defend public education.
http://socialistworker.org/2010/03/01/march-4-roundtable-one

Roundtable
WHY WE'RE PROTESTING, PART TWO
Students, teachers and campus workers across California explain why they're organizing for the March 4 Day of Action to defend public education.
http://socialistworker.org/2010/03/02/march-4-roundtable-two

MARCH 4 EVENTS IN CALIFORNIA
A tentative list of protests, pickets and strikes taking place in California on March 4.
http://socialistworker.org/2010/03/01/march-4-in-california

Editorial
STATES OF EMERGENCY
State and local governments are ramming through massive budget cuts that are wrecking lives--and the federal government is doing nothing.
http://socialistworker.org/2010/01/12/states-emergency

"State and Revolution" study series

The Boston branch of the International Socialist Organization will be holding a series of study groups on the book, State and Revolution, by V.I. Lenin (being held  on March 13, 15, 17, 30 and 31).

In the preface to this work, Lenin writes,

The question of the state is now acquiring particular importance both in theory and in practical politics. The imperialist war has immensely accelerated and intensified the process of transformation of monopoly capitalism into state-monopoly capitalism. The monstrous oppression of the working people by the state, which is merging more and more with the all-powerful capitalist associations, is becoming increasingly unbearable.

With the U.S. government currently lavishing trillions of dollars on Wall Street and spreading its military forces over ever more of the Earth's surface, the question of the 'State' continues to have "particular importance." What is the state?  Who controls it?  Where did it come from?  Must we always have it?  What would replace it?

Join us in discussing this important socialist work.

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To participate in these discussions, email us at contact@bostonsocialism.org or come to one of our weekly branch meetings, 7pm on Thursdays, at 42 Seaverns Ave, Jamaica Plain (see Branch Calendar). 

State and Revolution is available online at Marxists.org or can be purchased at Haymarket Books. You can also read a short synopsis of State and Revolution published at SocialistWorker.org.

Download study questions for discussion here.

Clockwise from top left: Students protesting school budget cuts clash with police in California this past winter; workers at the Republic Windows & Doors factory occupied their workplace last year and demanded help from the banks that had received government bailout money; workers and soldiers in Russia formed their own councils, or soviets, (here in session) during the revolution in 1917 to contest for state power; Lenin, here addressing a workers' rally, was one of the key leaders in the revolution that would introduce the world's first workers' state.

March 24: Rally to Protest Budget Cuts - Boston Teachers Union

Tues, March 2: Haiti Forum Organizing Meeting

The crisis in Haiti is overwhelming, following the massive earthquake and dozens of aftershocks that have flattened Haiti’s capital, Port au Prince. Officials are now estimating that over 200,000 people have been killed, but the death toll will mount as a result of severe deprivation of water and food.

We have already seen that the food, water and medical aid that has been flooding in to Haiti, due to the empathy and horror that ordinary people around the world have felt towards the people of Haiti, has been sitting undistributed in the airport because the UN occupying troops and US marines have preoccupied themselves with “security needs”. The argument coming from the US is that the Haitian people will inevitably loot, riot and descend into violence and chaos in crisis situations. This distorted argument has been used to justify asserting the power of the U.S. military instead of distributing aid to the suffering people.

The dominant story in the media has been that Haiti, its government and people are somehow prone to natural disasters of this sort. The reality is that US imperialism created social conditions that have transformed earthquakes and hurricanes into mass killers. What was the role of the US in creating this crisis,and what are the goals of their intervention? What grassroots humanitarian work is being done for Hatians by Hatians? What demands should we make to rebuild Haiti, debt-free and independent of international corporate interests?

Join us in organizing a forum on Haiti with a new perspective.

Tuesday, March 2, 7PM

Doyle's Cafe

3484 Washington Street

Jamaica Plain, MA

contact@bostonsocialism.org