By Paul Krehbiel No Justice, No Peace: Confronting the crisis of capitalism and democracy was the theme of the Left Forum, held May 29-31 in NYC at John Jay College of Criminal Justice. The venue and title were appropriate for the 5,000 who attended, as many panels and plenaries focused on the uprisings in Ferguson, Baltimore and elsewhere to protest wanton murders of Black youth by police and the criminal justice system [...]
By Paul Krehbiel People of all ages will gather in Los Angeles and scores of other cities across the country on July 30, 2015 to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Medicare and demand that it be protected, improved and expanded for everyone. Medicare is the popular government-run health care program that serves 50 million Americans, primarily those over 65 and people with disabilities. It’s the largest and most successful health insurance program [...]
By Paul Krehbiel Oxfam's recent report documenting increasing world-wide inequality and calling on world leaders to reverse this inequality is extremely important. Oxfam's seven point plan is very good and deserves widespread publicity and support. Unfortunately, a significant number of world leaders that Oxfam is appealing to are very wealthy individuals with ties to the giant corporations and financial institutions of global capitalism -- the economic forces that have caused and fueled [...]
By Paul Krehbiel One thousand refinery workers, their families, and community supporters protested at Tesoro Oil Company on 225th St. in Carson, CA on Sat. Feb. 7 demanding a safe workplace and community. The members of United Steelworkers (USW) Local 675 say unsafe practices involving explosive and toxic material inside the refinery threaten thousands in the area. It was one of scores of protests at refineries across the US as part of [...]
The AFL-CIO must now break all ties with the Democratic Party! By Jeremy Wells The historic low voter turnout in November dramatically confirmed what the low popularity poll numbers for Obama and Congressional politicians of both parties, have indicated. Neither corporate corrupted Democratic nor reactionary Republican parties, Democratic and Republican millionaire politicians, ever represent or fight for the economic interests of the working class majority of voters. The AFL-CIO-supported Democratic Party candidate [...]
By Paul Krehbiel Thousands of fast food workers in 190 cities walked off their jobs from coast to coast Thursday, December 4, 2014 in the largest strike of fast food workers in US history. Workers are demanding a minimum wage of $15 an hour and the right to form a union without interference from management. In Los Angeles workers and community supporters gathered in front of a McDonald's restaurant in the downtown [...]
By Paul Krehbiel Over 40 young Vietnamese-Americans and six US labor activists met at the UCLA Downtown Labor Center Oct. 25 to discuss relationships between workers in the US and Vietnam, under the auspices of the Vietnam Solidarity Network, in alliance with the Asian-Pacific American Labor Alliance (APALA) and the So. Cal. Viet Gathering (SCVG). Natalie Newton, a Vietnamese-American with SEIU-721, and a leader of Los Angeles APALA and SCVG, chaired. Kent [...]
By Paul Krehbiel Over 300 health care reform leaders and activists from across the U.S. met in Oakland in August at a National Strategy Conference to develop plans to bring high quality, affordable health care to all residents. Three national single-payer organizations, Healthcare-NOW!, Labor Campaign for Single-Payer Healthcare, and One Payer States (a 26-state network focusing on achieving single-payer healthcare in states) met together for the first time in a joint conference. [...]
By Paul Krehbiel Over 200 labor and community activists met at Holman United Methodist Church in central Los Angeles October 2 to fight for a $15 an hour minimum wage for over 800,000 low paid workers in Los Angeles. The majority are people of color. Experts say at least $15 an hour is needed to get out of poverty. The Los Angeles City Council recently passed a law mandating the larger LA [...]
By Paul Krehbiel "The capitalist class is in a serious crisis without solution," said David Schweikart at the Moving Beyond Capitalism conference in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, organized by the Center for Global Justice (July 30-Aug. 5, 2014). "But there is a solution," he said, "economic democracy, democratic socialism." Over 200 people from 15 countries discussed how to make this happen. Chronic high unemployment, depressed wages and benefits, cuts in social [...]
By Paul Krehbiel Workers in Southern California and across the country are fighting to defend their wages, standard of living and rights against the three-decade-long corporate assault on working people and our unions. The giant corporations are unrelenting, but we're fighting back. Technical and professional workers at Boeing in southern California have just won a 14-year fight to recover lost wages and benefits, totaling $47 million. They are members of the Society [...]
By Paul Krehbiel John Johnson, publisher and editor of Change-Links newspaper, passed away April 13, 2014 while preparing the May issue of a newspaper loved and relied upon by thousands of progressive political activists in Los Angeles and southern California. He would have turned 70 on July 4, 2014. John was in his 21st year with Change-Links, most as publisher. Founded as a result of the Winds of Change conference held in Los [...]
