The birthright citizenship clause is closely tied to the due process and equal protection clauses, which protect basic democratic principles. Together, they ensure that citizenship status and fundamental democratic rights are both universal and protected against encroachment by both the federal and state governments.
The impact of the coronavirus pandemic on public health has been greatly worsened by subordinating life to profit. This not only includes the premature ending of measures to stop the spread of disease and the promotion of junk science, but massive levels of indebtedness by the industry’s corporate owners, who are imposing the costs on the backs of the working class. Last year, more than 51,000 job were cut in the US healthcare industry, and more than 58,000 were cut the year before that.
“I’d be proud to have the United States have it, take it, make it a freedom zone,” Trump said, referring to Gaza. He added, “It’s not like you’re trying to save something. There’s no buildings.” Trump did not mention the fact that this destruction had been wrought using US-provided weapons.
A GM worker:
Ronnie’s death was a big story at first, and we talked about it in our safety meeting. But since then, nothing. There are a lot more workers who die in these plants— we just never hear about it. The companies have a motto: "Nobody ever dies in these plants." A guy could have his brains on the wall, and they’ll still say he had a heartbeat and was DOA at the hospital. That’s because they have to pay out more in a legal case if the worker dies in the plant.
5. Australian Labor state government charging protesters over anti-Zionist slogan
The latest arrests occurred on April 29 outside the Magistrate’s Court in the state capital Melbourne. According to reports, about 60 protesters had gathered at the court to oppose the prosecution of pro-Palestinian activist Hash Tayeh. He has been hit with criminal charges for completely legitimate political speech in which he stated that “all Zionists are terrorists.”
6. Philippines: President Marcos continues the “war on drugs”
Many workers are forced to turn to drugs to stay awake through their shifts just to make ends meet. A cheap and easily obtained methamphetamine, known as shabu, proliferates in slums where unemployment and starvation wages prevail, conditions produced by decades of austerity and capitalist plunder by both national and international companies.
Rather than address these social crises, Duterte and then Marcos declared war on the poor, scapegoating them to divert anger away from the ruling class.
7. Dockworker unions back trade war amid collapse of traffic on US docks
US President Donald Trump’s protectionist tariffs has led to a sharp decline in shipping volumes at American ports. But the responsibility does not lie with Trump alone. The union bureaucracies, including the United Auto Workers (UAW), the Teamsters and others, have lined up behind the “America First” trade war agenda.
NYU’s decision to withhold Logan Rozos’ diploma is a vindictive attack on the democratic rights of students and workers everywhere. If students are barred from condemning war crimes and ethnic cleansing on university campuses—institutions that claim to uphold free speech and academic freedom—what is to stop the US government and private corporations from enforcing similar restrictions across all areas of public and private life?
Whatever factors and pressures ultimately influenced Manfred to make the decision to terminate all lifetime bans from baseball upon a player’s death, and thereby make Pete Rose eligible for the Hall of Fame, it does express the complexities and contradictions that result when sports intersect with business as well as politics.
11. A restored 1972 concert film is a record of artistic transition in a tumultuous world
The restored and remastered concert film, Pink Floyd at Pompeii— MCMLXXII, captures the acclaimed English rock band at a critical moment of transformation, which bridges the psychedelic experimentation of their early years to the conceptual, progressive rock that would soon make them global icons.
In Nymoen’s work, one searches in vain for a concrete analysis of the Ukraine war, the Gaza conflict or other wars of our time. He operates with empty abstractions— ”war,”“state,” “power”— as if every war were the same. He manages to write an anti-war book without taking a political stance on a single current war. He does not mention the genocide of the Palestinians in Gaza at all.
13. Part One: A pseudo-left attack on science in Flint, Michigan
There is no innocent explanation for the poisoning of Flint’s water system. It was a product of the drive by powerful financial interests and their political mouthpieces in both the Democratic and Republican parties to exploit the collapse of the economic base of de-industrialized cities like Flint. Once the largest single center of auto production, Flint was the site of the 1937 sit-down strikes which challenged the iron-fisted rule of General Motors over its workforce and established the right to organize into unions.
18. ONLINE MEETING SUNDAY: How USPS workers can organize to fight
The United States Postal Workers Rank-and-File Committee is holding a meeting this Sunday to prepare a campaign against the privatization of the United States Postal Service.
Workers fighting for their basic right have instead been diverted down the path of Unite’s usual “leverage campaign”— lobbying the company headquarters, shareholders and business partners of Veolia including Sheffield City Council. It made an application for union recognition with the government body, the Central Arbitration Committee, which was rejected on April 3 in favor of Veolia maintaining the status quo with the GMB.
Whether it is the GMB defending grubby sweetheart deals or Unite stepping in, bitter experience shows that a genuine and united fight against the employers is only possible if the working class is able to mobilize independently of the pro-corporate union apparatus.
20. Workers Struggles: Europe, Middle East & Africa:
Belgium:
A wildcat strike over safety issues brings the metro system of the capital region to a standstill
Euskadi, or the Basque Autonomous Community in Spain:
Basque teachers continue indefinite strike against layoffs
France:
A public sector strike causes major disruption at airports
Workers at 1,600 Lidl supermarkets in France begin indefinite rolling strike
French rail service mobilizes strike-breakers against conductors’ strike
Germany:
Ford workers in Cologne strike against job cuts
A warning strike is called at German private insurance companies
Berlin teachers, social workers and educators begin a three-day strike over health protections and class sizes
21. Free Ukrainian socialist and anti-war activist, Bogdan Syrotiuk!
Bogdan
Syrotiuk
