Party for Socialism and Liberation - Bay Area

TONIGHT: June 28 at 5PM the PSL will hold a public webinar on What’s Next in The Struggle For Abortion Rights?

Pre-registration is required!

Register here: PSLweb.org/webinar

We stand with who are fighting for a living wage, affordable health care, better working conditions & the right to unionize!

These workers are frequently injured in the job due to repetitive motions trying to make unreasonable quotas. (Like rolling 10 burritos a minute!)
has been fined more than $100k in OSHA violations!

They are demanding nothing less than the respect and dignity that ALL workers deserve.

Spread the word & stand with Amy's Kitchen workers!

SUPREME COURT OVERTURNS ROE V WADE:
TIME TO TAKE TO THE STREETS!

EMERGENCY ACTION TODAY @ 5PM
Powell + Market, SF

Join us today at 5pm
at Powell and Market in SF to protest the Supreme Court decision to
overturn Roe -- it is time to take to the
streets!

The Supreme Court has overturned Roe v Wade
thus putting a final nail in the coffin of legal abortion rights on
the national level. The only reason abortion rights were achieved was
because of the struggle of tens of millions of women demanding justice
in the 1960’s and early 1970’s. The people’s struggle will be the path
to win and secure abortion rights and all other rights once again.

Nine unelected judges, appointed for lifetime terms, should not have the discretion to eviscerate the rights of hundreds of millions of people in the United States. This institution makes a mockery out of the notion of a democratic society.

The Supreme court has declared war against women and our basic rights to control our own bodies. Now is the time to fight back. Millions of people going into the streets would make it clear that without justice there can be no peace. Neither the church nor the state has the right to tell women what we can do with our own bodies.

The Supreme Court should be abolished. The Supreme Court has demonstrated throughout history that it is an enemy of democracy and an enemy of people’s rights. It upheld slavery as a legal institution until the Civil War ended it. It made apartheid and segregation the law of the land in 1896 and today it is attempting to end abortion rights that were the consequence of the mass movement of millions of women and their allies in the 1960s and early 1970s. The Supreme Court today is also taking back voting rights for Black Americans, human rights for immigrants, and union rights for workers. Until the mass movement of the LGBTQ community forced the Supreme Court to change, it denied marriage equality and other basic rights.

Now is the time to fight back. Only a mass movement of the people can save abortion rights. Take to the streets throughout the United States.

Help us spread the word and join us today at 5pm at Powell and Market!

Stop the Supreme Court's War on Women!
Abortion is a right! Take to the streets!

Saturday, May 7 @ 12pm
Powell + Market, SF

On Tuesday, May 3, over a thousand people hit the streets of San Francisco for emergency rallies and marches in response to the leaked Supreme Court plan to end federal abortion rights and reverse the Roe v. Wade and earlier Casey decision.

Protesters spoke to the fact that it has always been the mass people’s movements that have won our rights through organizing, not the Democrat and Republican politicians who treat our rights as bargaining chips for their next election campaign.

Now is the time to fight back and take it to the streets, to make it clear that without justice there can be no peace!

Join us on Saturday, May 7 at 12pm at Powell + Market Street in San Francisco to defend Roe v. Wade and continue pushing the demand to legalize abortion once and for all!

Sponsored by the Party for Socialism and Liberation - Bay Area. If your organization would like to endorse the action please email [email protected] or call 415-821-6171

TONIGHT

Supreme Court declares war on women and abortion rights — Take to the streets!

https://www.liberationnews.org/supreme-court-declares-war-on-women-and-abortion-rights-take-to-the-streets/

Sit-in underway at San Francisco school district HQ over new pay system debacle

Photo: UESF members began their sit-in on the third floor of SFUSD’s Central Office on the evening of March 14th. Liberation photo

“Pay us now!” demanded United Educators of San Francisco members at a press event held March 14. The delegation that followed the close of the press conference has now become a sit-in.

Over 100 educators and other union members gathered at the steps of San Francisco Unified School District’s central office starting at 4:00 p.m. Following a short press conference featuring community members, educators and UESF president Cassondra Curiel, a delegation of almost 20 people trailed by print and TV media went up to the offices of district management responsible for a debacle over pay. They intended to deliver a set of letters and negotiate a solution to the crisis.

Educators noted that SFUSD transitioned to a new payroll system, Empower, that has left almost a thousand educators unpaid and resulted in a myriad of other issues affecting pay, benefits, sick days and more. Some haven’t been paid properly for two months! Union members spoke to the impacts this had on educators who are already facing an incredibly difficult year. At the press event, union lawyers announced that they would be filing a lawsuit for pay with interest.

As the delegation reached the third floor, a spirited picket line started outside chanting, “Cut the checks now!” Educators and supporters inside and outside the building demanded that the district pay their educators and fix the broken pay system. A key demand was for accountability — as the people in charge of the payroll changes have not had to face any accountability.

District management at first refused to meet with the educators’ delegation but within an hour Superintendent Vincent Matthews arrived at the building. He offered platitudes but no real solutions and refused to meet the demands. The educators have since decided to continue the sit-in until the demands have been met and have called for a People’s Board Meeting at 5:00 p.m. at 555 Franklin St. on Tuesday, March 15.

https://www.liberationnews.org/sit-in-underway-at-san-francisco-school-district-hq-over-new-pay-system-debacle/

Why we should oppose a ‘no-fly zone’ over Ukraine (downloadable brochure for mass distribution)

A few weeks ago, public opinion polls showed that most people in the United States were opposed to any direct involvement in a war in Ukraine. But now, as a consequence of the non-stop warmongering by the corporate media, many people support a “no-fly zone.” But this is a recipe for an even bigger catastrophe. If the United States were to declare a no-fly zone, that means that U.S. aircraft would shoot down Russian aircraft — open armed conflict between the two largest nuclear powers!

The Party for Socialism and Liberation is distributing the following brochure across the country to combat the pro-war frenzy being promoted by the media and ruling class politicians. We want peace — not World War III!

https://www.liberationnews.org/why-we-should-oppose-a-no-fly-zone-over-ukraine-downloadable-pamphlet/

The Working Class Must Reject the New Cold War: 5 Points of Unity

The war in Ukraine is ushering in a new period of heightened danger in world politics and the threat of a global conflict that would devastate humanity. Socialists and people who want peace need to recognize that the entire U.S. foreign policy and military establishment is now organized around “great power conflict” against Russia and China as the defining strategy for decades to come. It is essential to recognize that Russia, China and other countries are not being targeted fundamentally because of human rights, or this or that military action, but because they no longer accept the U.S.-dominated world order.

We must stand in opposition to this new Cold War-style period of confrontation. This major power conflict is not in the interests of the great mass of people, in the United States or worldwide. The logic of it will only produce severe economic pain, climate disaster and ultimately catastrophic war. The working class has no interest in being dragged into such a conflict in the name of preserving the dominance of Wall Street and the Pentagon.

In the run-up to the Russian invasion of Ukraine and ever since, the corporate media in the United States has been working overtime to spread misinformation and confusion. They hope that inundating people with non-stop anti-Russian content will manufacture the consent necessary not just for a short-term military escalation in Eastern Europe, but so as to sign people up for a whole new Cold War. Against this, the Party for Socialism and Liberation is advancing five basic points that can serve to unite those who oppose U.S. imperialism and support peace.

1. NATO provoked the war between Russia and Ukraine

The U.S. government has been intentionally escalating tensions between Russia and Ukraine for years. From continuing NATO’s eastward expansion, despite promises not to, to supporting the pro-Western coup in Ukraine in 2014, to heavily arming the Ukrainian government, NATO’s aggressive actions set the stage for the war. The U.S. was determined to bring Ukraine into a Western sphere of influence, and so refused to acknowledge Russia’s legitimate security concerns about NATO expansion and advanced missiles being placed on its borders. Russia’s “red lines” were well known for decades and NATO did all of this knowing it could potentially lead to intervention. In some respects, it appears NATO set a deliberate trap that Russia fell into.

2. The solution to the crisis is to dissolve NATO

NATO’s drive to turn Europe into a staging ground for its military threats against Russia means that not only is Ukraine militarized, but that all of Europe is. Currently, the principal obstacle to establishing a peaceful Europe is the polarization of the continent around NATO as a de facto anti-Russian alliance. NATO is a relic of the Cold War, and needs to be dissolved; its only purpose is to maintain U.S. military hegemony. The only way to have discussions about the many issues causing conflict between European nations (borders, languages, economic relations, etc.) without raising the possibility of war is through the dissolution of NATO, the demilitarization of Europe, and the removal of U.S. troops, missiles, and nuclear weapons. Russia should follow suit with their own demilitarization, step by step.

3. Defend the sovereignty of nations as expressed in the United Nations Charter

The UN Charter of 1945 was written, and agreed to, to protect against a “might makes right” world order where stronger, more powerful countries can do whatever they want while smaller, less powerful nations have no guaranteed rights. This sovereignty-based international system has never been fully realized, and in many ways has masked the imperialist reality and deep power imbalances of the global order. The UN Security Council, the only body empowered to authorize sanctions and military action against another country, functions in a completely undemocratic way by concentrating power into the hands of just five permanent members that can veto any resolutions. The Security Council should be abolished. What should be defended, however, is that the UN Charter creates a legal and political baseline to counteract abuses of power perpetrated by more powerful nations against lesser powers — and insists on the sovereignty and independence of formerly colonized nations in particular.

While the whole world is crying out for an end to the U.S.-dominated unipolar world order, “multipolarity” would not be progressive if it means becoming simply a competition of “unilateral” initiatives. Many left-wing and anti-imperialist governments believe that adherence to the UN Charter is an instrument to defend what is positive about “multi-polarity” – the space for counter-hegemonic projects to grow.

While Russia has legitimate security concerns about NATO expansion, we do not support the decision to invade Ukraine and violate its sovereignty, which tragically makes the peoples of former sister republics into enemies of war, catalyzes far-right forces across Europe under the banner of “patriotism” and strengthens the projection of NATO power in Europe. It also undermines Russia’s long-standing defense of independent countries from unilateral U.S. measures.

4. Fight anti-communism, fight fascism

For decades politicians and the corporate media, liberal and conservative alike, have pushed a false equivalency between fascists and communists. At the end of the day, this anti-communist slander is also a sleight of hand that lets fascists in through the back door. In Ukraine, where the Communist Party is banned, the rapid and dangerous normalization of N**i Germany and its collaborators has taken place. Ukraine has integrated outright N**is and N**i-adjacent forces into the armed services and police. Now the U.S. media, which just a few years ago noted the neo-N**i presence in Ukraine, assists in their rebranding as “patriots.”

The mainstream equation of communists to fascists is also pervasive in the United States. This idea must be confronted head-on and vigorously combated. Humanity is calling out for an alternative to capitalism, and we cannot allow the idea of socialism — of working-class power and international unity — to be taken off the table. Doing so just strengthens the appeal of far-right “alternatives” of extreme nationalism, chauvinism, racism and sexism.

Putin has also defamed socialism as the cause of current antagonisms between Ukraine and Russia — a familiar position of the right-wing in Russia. We defend the legacy of the Soviet Union, for all its imperfections and problems, as a heroic attempt to build a system that would be people-centered rather than profit-centered, with an intense focus on multi-national unity.

5. Socialism is the ultimate and only answer

The underlying cause of this conflict, beyond NATO, is that we still live in a world that is divided into states run by capitalist elites who prioritize their own wealth and power above all else. The only way to build a world that allows for global cooperation and peace between all peoples, the elimination of poverty, the abolition of nuclear weapons, and the implementation of real democracy that puts the power in the hands of the people, is through socialism.

https://www.liberationnews.org/the-working-class-must-reject-the-new-cold-war-5-points-of-unity/?fbclid=IwAR1joQzGMYsouoR8eLDrXH339zeLQ0jatlGeKG8un_v_k5Nq82Fv5-3WrUQ #.Yiuw7X49zMU.facebook

Join us in-person at 2969 Mission St. on Saturday, March 12th at 4:30pm for a movie screening of Norma Rae to celebrate International Working Women's Day! 🌹

Based on a true story, “Norma Rae” is a 1979 movie about a southern textile worker struggling to unionize her factory amid intolerable working conditions and union-busting retaliation from management ✊

We will have childcare available!

We will also be following COVID precautions (ventilation, social distancing, masks).”

Ukraine War: Who’s to Blame and What’s the Solution? A Socialist View Intense bombing and fighting continues throughout Ukraine as Russia’s war enters its second week. Western countries have imposed a sanctions regime on Russia...