THE FRENCH GOVERNMENT HAS LAUNCHED A LIGHTENING WAR AGAINST THE RAILWAYMEN

Dear friends,

The French government launched a lightning war against the railwaymen.

It decided to pass by order (without debate or vote in parliament) a PRIVATIZATION project of the SNCF (the national railway company) and to remove the railway status, conquered by the workers' struggles of the past.

The privatization of SNCF, the last 100% public company in France and one of the last 100% public railway company in Europe with the Portuguese CP, would be a disaster for railway workers and the French population.

This is part of the requirements of the "4th railway package" of the European Union which obliges the states of the Union to privatize to deliver the public service to the financial monopolies.

After a day of strikes and demonstrations in Paris, where more than 30000 railway workers marched (photos in PJ), the railway workers will respond with a massive counteroffensive, with 36 days of strikes and demonstrations throughout the country, from April 03 until the month of June! See the calendar attached.


It is a long and hard movement that is coming, a movement in which the CGT Syndicate of the Railroad Workers of Versailles will fully engage and which can become the catalyst for a more global movement against the Macron government's policy of social breakage. !


To organize international solidarity, we propose to popularize our struggle:

- By inviting delegations from the WFTU Secretariat and the unions affiliated to the WFTU, that we will receive and host in Versailles, to meet the railway workers and to participate in our picket lines, our actions and our events.

- By sending solidarity motions and supporting photos with the French railway workers against privatization, which we will popularize with strikers.

- By passing our Internet link for the solidarity fund with the strikers: Le pot commun.fr: CGT solidarity fund of the railway workers of Versailles

Thank you for your support,
Matthieu Bolle-Reddat,                    General Secretary of the Union

WFTU President Mike Makwayiba in Los Angeles

Trudeau government signed Canada onto the Comprehensive and Progressive Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP).

 

You may have heard the news. Just hours ago, the Trudeau government signed Canada onto the Comprehensive and Progressive Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP). 

This is the same terrible TPP deal the Harper government negotiated. The words “comprehensive” and “progressive” have just been added to make it easier for Canada and the other 10 Pacific Rim countries to sell it to us.

I bet you’re as outraged as I am.

From the outset, Prime Minister Trudeau promised “real change” on how Canada approached international trade and the kinds of agreements we would signed. He promised to consult with Canadians and Indigenous peoples, listen to our concerns and take action accordingly. He promised to do trade differently than Harper.

But he hasn’t followed through on his promises. Instead, he signed Canada onto the same deal Harper negotiated. The dangerous provisions in the original TPP were only suspended, not deleted or removed. This was done in order to lure the United States back to the table. 

As for those “progressive” changes? Provisions on gender equity, cultural identity and Indigenous rights are all non-binding. Meanwhile, what are binding are the unprecedented rights granted to transnational corporations and the serious risks the deal holds for Canadians, including:

• Further entrenchment of Investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS): This provision gives transnational corporations the power to sue Canada over public policies and environmental protections that threaten profits.
   
• Job losses: A January 2016 study found that the original TPP would cost Canada 58,000 jobs and increase income inequality.
   
• Minimal economic gain: According to the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, Canada’s economy stands to make only tiny gains from the CPTPP (for example, a 0.082 per cent increase in Canadian GDP by 2035), which are minuscule compared to risks involved with signing up to the agreement.

These and many other troubling provisions still make the CPTPP a bad deal for Canada.

Now the good news.

The CPTPP still needs to be ratified in all countries – and Canada is pushing to do so before the end of this year.

This means we still have time to mount the level of public pressure and political will needed to reject the CPTPP in favour of a truly progressive trade deal that puts people and the planet before corporate profits.

But we must act now!

Please add your voice to our new national petition calling on Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Minister of Foreign Affairs Chrystia Freeland to scrap the CPTPP once and for all.

Krista Antis: Teachers set an example, showed their concern for students

In the last month, West Virginians slowly turned their eyes to our Legislature in Charleston and then watched as the nation and the world turned their eyes as well. First, we talked about striking; then, several counties held walk-out days while others held walk-ins; then, as a united body, three education unions voted to strike.

In the first eight days of the strike, many of us traveled to the Capitol to protest. We knocked on doors and spoke to legislators. We held up signs along Kanawha Boulevard. We chanted at the top of our lungs in the rotunda, and we sat quietly in the galleries and watched our legislative process unfold.

When the process got overwhelming, we sat down to rest on the floors of the hallowed halls of our Capitol building because there aren’t enough benches to hold us all. However, when we had our rest, we got back up and we took up our signs and continued chanting so someone else could take their rest.

Others volunteered their time and money to make sure students were fed even while we weren’t in school. They stood on picket lines with their signs all over the state in rain and snow, in warm weather and cold. When they didn’t have child care, they helped their children create signs and brought them to the picket lines to protest, too. If they weren’t able to protest or picket, they delivered donuts or pizza to those of us on the picket lines.

Our legislators watched and tried to sow division among us by saying our strike hurt our students. I say to them, you hurt our students by refusing to hear us. We cannot fill over 700 vacancies with qualified teachers in the state of West Virginia because our pay is so low and our health insurance so poor.

Sen. Craig Blair, R-Berkeley, said, “If you’re able to buy food for the packed lunches for our students because of the strike, then you don’t need any money.”

No, we did that because we genuinely care about our students. Many teachers will go without themselves to make sure their students don’t have to. They buy food and clothing for students. They pay fees for sports and buy athletic supplies for kids whose families can’t afford it. They spend their own money to create a warm and inviting atmosphere for students to learn in because, frankly, $200 a year doesn’t buy much when you have school supplies to provide and bulletin boards to decorate.

Our legislators also attempted to sow division between the education and public employees by trying to convince education employees to accept a 4 percent raise so public employees could get 4 percent as well. I didn’t meet anyone who wouldn’t agree to those terms, but we didn’t believe the Legislature would have followed through. Especially the Senate.

We did not go into education to become rich; we went into it to make a difference. Two weeks ago, that meant discussing our culture of beauty and analyzing how that affects the novel I’m reading with my eighth-graders. Last week, it meant standing at the Capitol with my protest sign, setting an example for my eighth-graders on standing up for what is right.

We are not quiet and meek. We have teacher voices, and we have used them; we will continue to use them until we see the change we deserve.

We know how to research and communicate with stubborn audiences. (Have you ever tried to convince a 13-year-old boy to read a book?) We know how to deal with bullies, and we will stand up for those who cannot stand up for themselves.

We also have long memories. Our legislators don’t seem to realize this. We will indeed remember in November. First, though, we’ll remember in May.

There are 20,000 of us, and we are united. We are here to demand what we know to be right for us and our families, but also for the great state of West Virginia.

Krista Antis is an eighth-grade English teacher at Hayes Middle School in Kanawha County.

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Pray for the dead and fight like hell for the living.

The union is the

school.  It's

where you learn

to know and

love each other

and learn to

work with each

other and bear

each others'

burdens, each

others' sorrows, 

and each others'

joys.

WFTU Statement on International Women's Day: March 8, 2018