Hundreds attend Kshama Sawant victory rally

Victory rally in Seattle sets the tone for struggles ahead and more historic opportunities for the socialist left - From Socialistworld.net

Up to 300 people attended a victory rally in Seattle to celebrate the first socialist elected to Seattle’s City Council for decades. Kshama’s call to take Boeing -the biggest private employer of the region, which is threatening to move jobs out of the state - into public ownership was welcomed with a standing ovation. Sawant commented: “The machines are here, the workers are here. Let us take this entire productive activity into democratic public ownership and retool the machines to produce mass transit."

Photos of the rally below.

Click on this link to see a short video of the rally by a Seattle-based TV station.

World in crisis: US recovery strangled and European debt crisis deepening

As discussed at the CWI Summer School, capitalism is a blind system, tobogganing towards disaster. There has been no more than a weak recovery from the last crisis in most countries and now, as predicted, a new calamity is unfolding. We carry here extracts from an article carried today on the website of Rättvisepartiet Socialisterna, CWI Sweden.

Article by Per Olsson (CWI Sweden) 
http://www.socialistworld.net/doc/5215

Thursday, 4 August was a black day on world stock exchanges. In New York, the Dow Jones index fell by 4.3 per cent and the Nasdaq index closed down 5.3 per cent "and all the gains that have occurred since year end were deleted to zero" (as the financial website E24 said, 5 August). "It was an outright massacre," said John Richard, head of strategy at RBS Global Banking & Markets, to the Wall Street Journal about yesterday’s events.Also, European stock markets fell during Thursday: the main British stock index plummeted by 3.2 per cent while the German Dax index fell by 3.5 per cent. The collapse continued on Friday in Asia. By the time Asian markets closed, the Tokyo Stock Exchange’s Nikkei 225 index had fallen by 3.7 per cent and Hong Kong’s Stock Exchange by 4.6 per cent.
The collapse in stock markets represents clouds piling up in the global economy’s sky. Firstly, the U.S. economy is stagnating and the huge cuts that are following the deal between the Democrats and Republicans in Congress to raise the debt ceiling threaten to strangle an already weak recovery.
"What was unthinkable six months ago, the U.S. running the risk of falling into recession in 2012, is a thought that more and more now consider. It is this insight that makes the entire ground shake," Businessweek wrote on 5 August.
Secondly, the debt crisis is deepening. The EU leaders had hoped that the crisis settlement in July - new loans to Greece, reduced interest rates on emergency loans and longer maturities, and some debt relief for Greece - would give some respite. But these measures have not calmed the financial markets.
On the contrary, the so-called market has become even more convinced that the debtor countries are approaching national bankruptcy and default. Meanwhile, the debt crisis has become more acute in Italy and Spain. In parallel is the Cypriot economy collapsing due to its banking exposure to Greek debts, the demand for cuts from big business and the aftershocks of the devastating explosion (11 July) which destroyed a weapons depot and took out the country’s energy supply. This in turn has led to the country’s government resigning.
The whole euro project is in turmoil. Even Swedish economics professor Lars Calmfors, who as recently as spring 2010 pleaded for Sweden to join the European Monetary Union and switch to the euro, now believes that "the crisis-affected countries need to make large debt reductions or go to national bankruptcy" (Dagens Nyheter, Stockholm 5 August).
"European countries’ recent grand agreement on a ’solution’ to the Greek crisis, which also was supposed to prevent the continued spread [of contagion] within the system, is not two weeks old before the cracks in the building are being felt. And now it’s the supporting structures that have ended up on the slide. It’s all about the monetary union’s third and fourth largest economies, Italy and Spain, whose debt is so large that the decided support funds, the already in place and reinforced temporary EFSF, (European Financial Stability Fund) and the permanent (to be introduced from 2013) ESM (European Stability Mechanism), in total 700 billion euro, can’t handle them," as E24 wrote on 2 August.
Thirdly, a new banking crisis is beginning. Several large European banks have reported losses and banks will not lend to each other. Credit has tightened and the world’s central banks are again forced to pump billions of dollars to sustain its lending activities, reminiscent of the situation in 2008-09.
Fourthly, there is the growing concern that China is about to slow down after an unbridled expansion of credit built up a huge debt mountain, creating unstoppable bubbles and overheating inflation.
Add to that, global industrial production seems to have passed its zenith while the contradictions of the capitalist powers have been strengthened and all are trying to save their own house first, resulting in currency wars and attempts to let competitors pay for problems at home. Most signs point toward a new serious global crisis.
New crisis summits are to be expected this weekend to try to stitch together some kind of package before stock markets open again on Monday. Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel has interrupted her vacation for a telephone summit today with French President Nicolas Sarkozy.
Governments and central banks could be forced to implement new incentives and provide new emergency loans. However, all arrangements are temporary and followed by new crises. And, governments have fewer reserves than they did in 2008-2009. Today’s debt crisis follows in spite of measures that governments had to take then to avoid, if possible, total economic collapse and a new depression.
Not even the central banks’ intervention including, for the first time since March, the European Central Bank joining in and buying government securities could halt Thursday’s slide. This in itself reflects the whole week. "The world economy has taken a nasty turn" said the Independent, London, 4 August.
It may well be that the summer of 2011 marks a new serious turning point downward in the global capitalist development curve. How fast and how deep a new downturn cannot be predicted. But it is clear that what has already happened has helped to sharpen the political and social crises and the weakening of the capitalist establishment.
"Confidence in government finance and support packages is crumbling. Then, when the people’s confidence in banks and the financial system is lost, the situation is really, really serious,” warned E24’s Per Lindvall on 5 August. The last few days of stock market unrest and accelerating crisis illustrate capitalism’s chronic instability.

US forces kill Osama Bin Laden

By Tony Saunois, International Secretariat of the CWI

The US government has announced a successful military assault on a large mansion in Abbottabad, near Islamabad, which has resulted in the killing of Osama Bin Laden.
Significantly, the complex where the killings took place was very close to the Pakistani Military Academy in an extremely wealthy area largely populated by retired military officers. This points to the fact that sections of the Pakistani state machine around the secret services, ISI, and especially retired military officers have colluded with Al-Qa’ida and Bin Laden and the Taliban.

This operation represents a further development in US imperialism’s foreign policy of targeted assassinations of its opponents. This strategy is enthusiastically backed by the former commander of US troops in Afghanistan and current CIA chief, General Patreus, dubbed a policy of “hot pursuit”. It follows recent attempts to assassinate Gaddaffi in Libya. They imagine that by the removal of one man they will resolve the problem.

While Bin Laden opposed both Mubarak and Ben Ali in Egypt and Tunisia the mass uprisings in those countries have clearly demonstrated that it is mass movement and not the methods of terrorism which show a way forward. The use of terrorist methods arise from a defeat rather than show a way forward to struggle against brutal regimes or imperialism.

Marxists and socialists lend no support to Bin Laden or Al-Qa’ida, either ideologically or the vicious terrorist methods they have used. Yet US imperialism in confronting a struggle against a Frankenstein monster which it created itself particularly through its support for such forces in Afghanistan in the 1980’s. Later Bin Laden and other forces were boosted by imperialism’s support for rotten corrupt regimes in some Muslim countries.

Bin Laden employed the use of terrorist methods, including mass terrorist methods which caused devastating slaughter and misery for ordinary working people. Yet US imperialism and other imperialist powers by employing these methods are also pursuing a policy of state terror and are adopting a policy which is a mirror image of what they denounce Bin Laden for. The use of the lethal drones in Afghanistan and other places has caused the slaughter innocent civilians. These events show an endless cycle of violence and slaughter in which it is the ordinary working people and poor who pay the price.

US imperialism has attempted a policy of assassination in the past. Such methods were used against Castro in Cuba following the revolution. Now however, it is being increasingly justified by US imperialism as it faces a relative decline as a world power although it still remains the most powerful imperialist country. While US imperialism’s propaganda machine will attempt to portray such killings as an indication of success and a demonstration of the power of US imperialism in reality such a policy is a reflection of the weakening of the power of US imperialism. It is reduced to “quick fix” solutions to remove “rouge” leaders or opponents but is unable to resolve the underlying crisis which exist.

Obama and US imperialism have undertaken this operation in the wake of the revolutionary movements which have swept the Arab world in an attempt to reassert its influence and demonstrate its power. In the USA itself this will undoubtedly be used to strengthen Obama and divert attention away from the deepening social, economic and political crisis which exist.

The Pakistani government has claimed that it was not involved in the military operation militarily but stated that it shared intelligence and information with the US. But it is clear that sections of the military and ISI have financed and colluded with Bin Laden and the Taliban.

Rather than strengthen US imperialism in Pakistan and the neo-colonial world, in many countries, including Pakistan, it is likely to increase anti-US sentiment there and in some of the Muslim world. In particular it will strengthen opposition to the war in Afghanistan which was justified on the basis of capturing Bin Laden. The Indian government has also used this attack to try a gain some advantage for itself arguing that it shows that Pakistan is offering safe haven to terrorist forces and urging further such operations be carried out.

At the same time it is unlikely that the killing of Bin Laden will give a boost to Al-Qa’ida forces in Pakistan. This has sharply declined in recent years. Following the attacks on 9/11 Bin Laden had 40-50% approval ratings in Pakistan. However, the attacks by his forces and those of the Taliban in the urban areas and indiscriminate killings of ordinary people in bombings and shooting has led to a sharp decline. Bin Laden’s and Taliban approval ratings have fallen to 4-5% in recent polls. However, it cannot be excluded that some Al-Qa’ida forces may get a certain boost from this operation in some countries.

Many in Pakistan, including the Taliban and Al-Qa’ida at this stage are refusing to accept that Bin Laden has been killed. If confirmed it will result in a shock effect on their forces for a period.

The killing of Bin Laden will represent an important symbolic set back for its forces although it is unlikely to affect the military effectiveness of it’s forces. It is likely to result in a shock in the short term but they will undoubtedly attempt an attack at some stage.

The killing of Bin Laden will be used domestically in the US and internationally as a propaganda weapon it will not resolve any of the underlying social conditions which have resulted in the emergence of forces such as Al-Qa’ida and the Taliban. In Pakistan and parts of the Muslim world it will further undermine the position of US imperialism. The continuation of imperialist domination and of landlordism and capitalism will result in organisations like Al-Qa’ida continuing to exist as a Frankenstein’s monster for imperialism. The horrors that capitalism and the reactionary forces of Al-Qa’ida and the Taliban mean for the mass of the population can only be ended by the working class and poor struggling for a socialist alternative and the only solution to the carnage which has developed.

May Day message from the CWI: Revolution in the Middle East and Mahgreb – workers’ struggle around the globe

Fighting to end capitalism and its crisis, the Committee for a Workers’ International (CWI) sends warm May Day greetings to workers, youth and the oppressed around the globe. Here is the CWI statement:

May Day, the traditional day for celebrating the international struggle of the workers’ movement, this year takes place against the background of the revolutionary wave in the Middle East and Maghreb countries. This has shown the mighty strength of the working class starting to put its stamp on these developments. But also other countries, the US with the tremendous developments in Wisconsin and the mass movements for example in Greece and Portugal, show that the new wave of cutbacks is being met with growing resistance.

The revolution in the Maghreb and the Middle East is still spreading from one country to another. The uprising against the regime in Syria continues. The regime there desperately clings to power using bloody repression, shooting demonstrators and jailing opposition activists. But the unrest in the region over state repression and social misery has dramatically changed both the area and international relations – and continues to do so. Demonstrators in Egypt have started a second wave of protest to achieve the objectives of their struggle: democracy and fundamental social change.

Even the regime in China – in many ways less affected by the global crisis – is trembling in fear of the Tunisian contagion. Dictators from Sri Lanka to Kazakhstan fear the effects of these revolutionary upheavals.

Defend the revolution! No to imperialist intervention!

Trying to use the international support for the Libyan people, the US, accompanied by European imperialist powers, started their armed intervention in Libya. Their objectives in the war, in which they are getting more and more involved, are to try to regain control over developments, to regain a grip on the whole region and for regime change in their interests.

They have no qualms about backing the brutal regime in Saudi Arabia and its intervention against the movement in Bahrain. The interests of the imperialist powers are not the interests of the working masses and the fighters for democracy and social change in Libya.

The solidarity of working people around the globe is needed on the side of those struggling against the brutal regime of Gaddafi but also against the imperialist intervention and war.

Stop the destruction of the planet!

On this May Day, our solidarity is also with all those workers in Japan fighting against a nuclear catastrophe and with all the people affected by the earthquake, tsunami and the following nuclear disaster. The Fukushima reactor crisis makes clear again that capitalist governments put profits before the need for even a minimum of security for the mass of the population. The earnings of companies like Tepco, the owner of the Fukushima reactors, General Electric (GE), Toshiba, Hitachi – the latter three all involved in the construction and design of this nuclear power station – were more important than the interests of hundreds of thousands or more people now affected by the ongoing nuclear accident.

Given the record of lies and the inability of the energy companies to guarantee anything other than profits for a few, the whole industry should be nationalised under democratic control and management by working people. The immediate need to organise an end of nuclear energy generation cannot be used as an excuse for not meeting the targets for ending carbon emissions to halt global warming. A socialist energy plan is needed, based on international cooperation, to bring to an end the age of nuclear power and fossil fuels.

Without a mass struggle this will not be achievable. Only a socialist transformation can ensure an end to the constant destruction of the vital components of our very existence.

Ongoing crisis

With the events in North Africa and the Middle East, this May Day sees the first wave of revolutions in the aftermath of the economic crisis that started in 2008. As it unfolded, it revealed the inability of capitalism to offer jobs, security and a decent life for the working masses.

In many countries, the answer of the capitalist governments to the deepest crisis since the 1930s is now an intensification of their policy of austerity and privatisation. Even in those countries with some kind of recovery, the accepted practice is to put the burden of the bailout for the bankers on the shoulders of the working masses in as short a time as possible.

However, the rebellion against this new wave of attacks has seen an impressive first round of battle in the USA. A mass movement sprang into action in Madison, Wisconsin to defend trade union rights and the conditions of public-sector workers. As Michael Moore put it, the Tea Party Republican Governor Scott declared “class war” and “aroused a sleeping giant”, the working people. In this small state of less than 6 million inhabitants, demonstrations of up to 200,000 showed the anger and determination that exists to defend trade union rights.

Unfortunately, the trade union leadership was more interested in rotten compromises than concretely defending working-class people. There was widespread support, both inside and outside the trade unions, for the call for a one-day general strike. Socialist Alternative, the CWI section in the USA, advocated concrete measures to make that next step a reality.

We have seen this in a lot of countries where many trade union leaders make verbal protests and, sometimes, organise mass protests and strikes simply as a way of letting off steam, not as mobilising measures for a serious struggle. The CWI fights for democratic and fighting trade unions. Wherever necessary, we have to re-build the unions to defend working-class people.

Stop the cuts - defend the public sector

Cushioned by the economic effects of China’s boom, some countries in Latin America and Africa hope to avoid being dragged into the European and North American quagmire. But the price they are already paying is the re-colonisation of their economies, returning them to the age of dependency on the export of raw materials.

The economic basis has therefore been prepared for future eruptions and new waves of resistance.

Most acute at present is the situation in Europe. Instead of fundamentally solving the crisis, the hopes of the capitalists and their governments are now concentrated on plans to avoid, or even just to cope with, a default on the part of Greece or Portugal. Their only objective is to avoid further contagion – but this is becoming less successful. The banking crisis is not solved and the sovereign debt crisis is increasing.

However, the policies of cuts have provoked a response in the form of mass resistance. In Greece, the regime of austerity has been met by eight general strikes. A general strike with ten million on the streets brought Spain to a halt. Hundreds of thousands protested in Portugal. In Britain where the trade union leadership postponed the protest against cuts for months, the final result was a show of accumulated anger with 700,000 marching on 26 March in London.

No government in Europe is stable or immune to the growing discontent. While much confusion in the consciousness of working people is still inherited from the past decades of neo-liberal offensive, the growing attacks of the capitalists and their states are forcing workers into action and into a new and developing debate about an alternative to the profit driven system.

So far these protests have not yet fundamentally blocked the attacks on living standards. Therefore, a clear plan of action to stop the immediate assault and to argue for an alternative to the crisis-ridden capitalist system is needed. This is why we argue for the nationalisation of all banks and the commanding heights of industry under workers’ control and management.

As Joe Higgins, together with Clare Daly recently elected to the Dáil (Irish Parliament) for the Socialist Party (CWI Ireland), put it: “There is a huge vacuum on the left. There is a need for a new movement to represent the working class in its widest sense”.

In many ways the workers’ movement has to be re-built to defend working class people, to fight capitalism and to struggle for an international socialist transformation of society.

The CWI in Pakistan - Socialist Movement Pakistan - was in the forefront of building a new independent trade union confederation. On this May Day, the SMP and the Progressive Workers’ Federation Pakistan are involved in the organisation of May Day celebrations all across the country.

In Kazakhstan the CWI helped to form a new trade union federation. As May Day is also the day to remember the martyrs of the workers’ movement, we have to honour all those fighters for democracy and socialism who – for example in Kazakhstan – have been imprisoned and, in many cases, tortured.

The ruling capitalist party in Sri Lanka is trying to hijack May Day by calling for demonstrations against the recent UN report which accuses them of war crimes on a mass scale. The United Socialist Party (CWI Sri Lanka) defends May Day as the day of the workers’ movement and links it to the struggle against Rajapakse’s dictatorship.

In many countries the CWI is involved in new political formations to build new mass parties of working class people.

In rebuilding the workers’ movement the CWI seeks to help to develop the best way to fight back, to organise resistance and to spread Marxist ideas within these new formations – the ideas of the CWI to end capitalism and the dictatorship of the markets.

Fighting for socialism

The struggle in North Africa and the Middle East poses the question of how to achieve a government in the interests of the working class and the poor, breaking with the framework of cuts and austerity, nationalising the banks and major multinationals which dominate the economy. Based on mass movements, such governments could open the way to democracy and socialism on an international level. This has nothing to do with the dictatorship of a privileged bureaucratic elite as was seen in the Stalinist former USSR and Eastern Europe.

In 1871, 140 years ago, when the people of Paris took power in the Commune, the working class showed its potential to lead a social struggle to change society. The workers of Paris established a model of workers’ democracy, based on elected representatives subject to recall and on a workers’ wage. It abolished the armed forces of the capitalist state and replaced them with the armed working class. The whole bureaucracy of the old state was superseded by democratic structures at all levels. “It was essentially a working-class government, the product of the struggle of the producing against the appropriating class, the political form at last discovered under which to work out the economical emancipation of labour.” (Karl Marx, The Civil War in France)

Given the inability of capitalism to develop the productive forces to satisfy the needs of the majority, the imperialists are relying again and again on rotten dictatorships and puppet regimes to control the masses. In the struggle for democracy and social improvement, the revolution in the Maghreb and the Middle East is pushed further towards the spontaneous conclusions of the Commune.

But the task is – as it would have been 140 years ago in Paris – to completely fulfil the revolutionary tasks by the taking of power into the hands of the working class.

In 1871, a mass socialist party was missing to give the militant fighters a lead in this struggle. Our task today is still to build such a force able to offer a way of transforming society on a world scale. This is the task the CWI has set as its objective to help to develop on an international level. With its members and sections in over 40 countries around the globe, the CWI invites all those interested in socialist ideas to take part in the struggle to overcome capitalism, imperialism, war and poverty.

The capitalist crisis since 2008 has pushed working people into a new era of sharpened attacks from above. However, it is also a new era of mass movements which are increasingly challenging the ruling classes and capitalism itself. Let us build on these forces to achieve a socialist society.

http://www.socialistworld.net/doc/5028

50 Years since The Bay of Pigs invasion.

Cubans resist US backed invasion



50 years ago, on April 19th 1961, the workers and peasants of Cuba mobilised to defeat an invasion against their revolution, orchestrated and planned by the US adminstrations of Dwight D. Eisenhower and John F. Kennedy.



(Picture: Cuban militias during Bay of Pigs Invasion)





Approximately 1,300 Cuban exiles- the sons of former landlords, big bankers and the privileged classes- landed at The Bay of Pigs on the southern coast of Cuba. Armed and trained by the US military and Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), the invasion plan was premised on the belief that the Cuban people would rise in support of the expeditionary force and overthrow the revolutionary government.



Instead of being greeted by the Cuban masses, the invaders were surprised by the determination and commitment of Cubans to take up arms to defeat them. Despite taking heavy losses in the face of US air supremacy, over the course of three days the mercenary army was pushed back by a force of militias- workers and farmers who, the first time in their lives, were fighting for the new rights and social gains won during the course of the revolution. These militias were joined by members of Cuba's Rebel Army- a veteran force forged in the fight to overthrow the repressive regime of ousted Cuban dictator, Fulgencio Batista.


After The Bay of Pigs victory, the Cuban government moved to take steps to extend the gains of the revolution by nationalizing wider sectors of the economy through expropriating capitalist holdings in Cuba. This was the exact opposite of what the US capitalist class wanted, and is testimony to the determination of Cuban workers and peasants to retain their newly won economic and social gains. They proved, in action, that US Imperialism was not an unbeatable force, and could be resisted!


As the Cuban Communist Party holds in 6th Congress to discuss measures that could have a profound impact on the future of the Cuban revolution, many workers and farmers in Cuba will remember the events of 1961 and will remain determined to defend their revolutionary gains in the face of the ongoing world economic capitalist crisis and its undoubted impact inside Cuba.


Martyn Ahmet (TUSC candidate, Brislington East)

Wisconsin: Will the Recall be Enough?

From Socialist Alternative (CWI in the USA) - http://www.socialistalternative.org/news/article10.php?id=1566


The movement to recall Walker and his Republican goons is gaining momentum. Hundreds of thousands of workers and young people are looking towards the recall to strike back and teach corporate politicians a well-deserved lesson. But does the recall strategy measure up to the challenge we face? 
Unfortunately, we have to say it will not be enough to stop Walker and his corporate offensive. A recall will take months, a year or more (nor is there any guarantee of victory). But that won't stop the immediate impact of this disastrous bill as public sector unions now face the danger of being dismantled in the coming weeks. Nor can we simply depend on a legal challenge. 
Now is the time – with March 12 seeing a massive 200,000 protesting and many more determined to fight – to rebuild a mass movement which is capable of reversing this bill and stopping the cuts. It’s crucial we build for mass demonstrations, workplace meetings, job actions, and student walkouts on the day the bill goes into effect and on April 4, along with the recall effort. 
Of course, Walker has shown he won’t be stopped by protests alone. That is why Socialist Alternative has raised from the beginning of this struggle that in order to win we will need to mobilize our full power as workers, including by organizing strike action to shut down the state through a one-day public sector general strike. 
General Strike
After the bill passed there was a groundswell of support for the idea of striking, with chants, signs and even local union leaders calling for a general strike. The situation was pregnant with the possibility of mass strike action. However, the top union officials did everything they could to stop a strike from happening. Through maneuvers at union meetings to scare tactics, they clamped down on the mood of their own membership for bigger and bolder action and instead have channeled the movement into focusing solely on the recall effort. 
The union leaders and Democratic Party officials emphasized that a strike was too risky, illegal, and would lead to mass layoffs. But far greater are the risks of not striking and allowing this bill to destroy our rights, jobs, benefits and even some unions themselves. And we can't win if we don't fight. 
Nor should the threat of termination automatically stop us. If the whole state was shut down – aside from necessary emergency services – by a one-day public sector strike they couldn't fire all the teachers, nurses, and state and city workers. To be effective, any strike must base itself on the basic principle of solidarity, with the whole movement rallying to the defense of any individual workers victimized for going on strike. 
Class Struggle
We must also remember that the union and civil rights movements were built by those prepared to defy unjust laws. Walker disregarded the law himself, and furthermore anti-labor laws like Taft-Hartley have been passed by Corporate politicians and are against the interests of working people. As Martin Luther King Jr. said, “there are two types of laws: just and unjust...One has not only a legal but a moral responsibility to obey just laws. Conversely, one has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws.” 
A general strike could have been called and organized in the days after the bill was passed if the rank-and-file were organized and prepared to systematically take up the arguments of the union leadership and win a solid majority of their fellow members over to a clear plan for strike action. 
The lesson is that we need to organize the movement from below and transform our unions into fighting, democratic organizations. The top officials claimed that a strike could turn the broad public support against the unions. In fact, wide support for a strike could be maintained if the demands were not limited to defending public-sector union rights, but instead said that no worker should pay for the crisis of Wall Street and Big Business. Unions must fight for an increase in the minimum wage, jobs or decent benefits for the unemployed, and against cuts. 
Michael Moore correctly stated that this was a “class war.” The top union leaders, without asking their members, offered to accept almost all of Walker’s economic demands because they are trained in the methods of class compromise and partnership with corporate politicians in the Democratic Party, not the methods of class struggle. 
As part of building a mass movement in the streets we also should support the recall of Walker and the Republicans. But who should replace them? The Democrats are also backed by big business and, despite the “Fab 14” opposition to the attacks on bargaining rights, have said they agree with Walker’s attacks on workers’ healthcare, pensions, and budget cuts. 
It is therefore necessary that the interests of the movement are independently represented in the elections. Working people should run their own independent candidates as a step towards forming a mass party of workers and young people that can be a real voice to fight for and defend their interests. 
WE CALL FOR 

• Rebuild a mass movement against the bill which is capable of reversing it. For mass demonstrations, workplace meetings, job actions, and student walkouts on the day the bill goes into effect and on April 4.
• Emergency mass union meetings to democratically develop an immediate plan for stepping up the struggle. Build a rank and file movement to transform our unions into democratic organizations fighting for the interests of all working people.
• Wall Street is to blame not working people or their unions! Tax the super-rich and big corporations!
• No concessions! No Cuts! Reverse the whole bill!
• The full right to strike for all workers; the right to unionize and have decent jobs, benefits and pensions for all.
• Recall Walker and the Republicans and run independent working-class candidates.
• An end to the corporate domination of politics and our lives. Working people of Wisconsin and the U.S. unite and fight for a working people’s party and a democratic socialist society!