May Day, Spring 2024
California State Workers Caught in Austerity Drive Negotiated by the Ruling Parties and the Union
This could well presage similar attacks on state sector workers all over the US.
The State of California is undergoing yet another budget crisis. This time the governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger, is threatening huge concessions and job cuts. John Chiang, Democratic Party state controller, has refused to enact the pay cut. The SEIU Local 1000, which represents some 95,000 of the 200,000 state workers affected by this current budget crisis, is filing a law suit claiming that the cuts in pay aren’t legal. The unions are not opposing the job cuts, which have been decreased from the proposed 20,000 down to 10,000 workers cut. Ultimately, this budget standoff in California heralds much more severe attacks on workers among some of the largest and most important employers in the US - state governments. The SEIU members shown in the picture below have their blue and white signs. For the Schwarzenator and the California government this is a worst case scenario bargaining ploy designed to get workers to swallow wages, benefits and hiring concessions that while not being quite as severe in the end as slashing everyone’s wage down to the legal minimum ($6.55us), will be enacted with help from the union, which will support the concessions. If the governator’s gambit works, this could be a pattern by which state governments increasingly force concessions out of their workforce with the aid of the unions who will act as if the contracts they sign are great victories that have spared their workers the worst of the planned austerity measures.
Pantaloons
Start here...
- Navigating the Basics
- Platform
- For Communism
- Introduction to Our History
- CWO Social Media
- IWG Social Media
- Klasbatalo Social Media
- Italian Communist Left
- Russian Communist Left
The Internationalist Communist Tendency consists of (unsurprisingly!) not-for-profit organisations. We have no so-called “professional revolutionaries”, nor paid officials. Our sole funding comes from the subscriptions and donations of members and supporters. Anyone wishing to donate can now do so safely using the Paypal buttons below.
ICT publications are not copyrighted and we only ask that those who reproduce them acknowledge the original source (author and website leftcom.org). Purchasing any of the publications listed (see catalogue) can be done in two ways:
- By emailing us at uk@leftcom.org, us@leftcom.org or ca@leftcom.org and asking for our banking details
- By donating the cost of the publications required via Paypal using the “Donate” buttons
The CWO also offers subscriptions to Revolutionary Perspectives (3 issues) and Aurora (at least 4 issues):
- UK £15 (€18)
- Europe £20 (€24)
- World £25 (€30, $30)
Take out a supporter’s sub by adding £10 (€12) to each sum. This will give you priority mailings of Aurora and other free pamphlets as they are produced.
ICT sections
Adverts
NYC Public Meeting
THE ROLE OF WOMEN IN THE CLASS STRUGGLE
PUBLIC MEETING AND DISCUSSION
Discussion on women's liberation and the modern role women have played in the class struggle. Open to all!
When: Sunday, May 19th at 3:30 PM.
Where: 876 Riverside Dr. & 160th St. New York, NY.
Link to register: withfriends.co
Internationalist Workers' Group
Recent publications
May 2024
Aurora is the broadsheet of the ICT for the interventions amongst the working class. It is published and distributed in several countries and languages. So far it has been distributed in UK, France, Italy, Canada, USA, Colombia.
March 2024
Mutiny is the bulletin of Klasbatalo. Mutinerie est le bulletin de Klasbatalo.
Out now!
Journal of the Communist Workers’ Organisation -- Why not subscribe to get the articles whilst they are still current and help the struggle for a society free from exploitation, war and misery? Joint subscriptions to Revolutionary Perspectives (3 issues) and Aurora (our agitational bulletin - 4 issues) are £15 in the UK, €24 in Europe and $30 in the rest of the World.
Written by Jock Dominie. £12, 276pp.
The Russian Revolution remains a landmark event in history. For the bourgeois historians, the October Revolution is thought to be a tragedy that set back the achievements of the “democratic” February Revolution, and allowed the Bolsheviks to wreak havoc on their citizens and the world. For the Stalinists, the events of 1917 paved the way for the birth of the USSR, which they point to as a prototypical example of “socialism in one country”. In reality, the February and October Revolutions were both part of the same proletarian revolution.
The book can be ordered by emailing us at uk@leftcom.org and asking for our banking details, or by donating the cost of the publications required via Paypal using the “Donate” button. Postage charges should be added. If in the UK, and paying direct to our bank account, first class postage is free. If via Paypal add £2. For Europe cost of a copy with postage is €20 (EUR), for Australia it is $42 (AUD) and for the USA and anywhere else in the world it is $27 (USD).
User login
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.
*note
*note
There was a picture I had that went with this, it is nowhere to be found now. So please ignore that part about "the picture below". Namely it was a picture of a typical US labor union demo with canned slogans and the preprinted signs with approved slogans written on them. Given that most US states are bankrupt or on the edge of bankruptcy, it is likely that this sort of thing will be seen elsewhere in the US. California has a fiscal year that starts in July, in the middle of summer. Most states start their fiscal cycles at other times of year, like the winter and the spring. So the crisis spreads to state sector employment.
many thanks for your report,
many thanks for your report, Pantaloons.
get us informed by furthers developments.
Origins?
Origins?
Sorry not to have picked up on this crisis in the 16th biggest economy in the world (if I remember the figure correctly). Is the origin of this budget crisis the same as the general fiancail crisis in that the state of California has now issued so many bonds based on deficit financing that it cannot issue any more? Thus an outright attack on the living standards of those who do the work is essential. Have workers , on the basis of past experience seen through the SEIU (who will play Schwarzenegger's game and then claim some spurious victory for the defeat?
California could not only be a model for other US states but the vanguard of what will happen much further afield.
Thanks for the posting Pantaloons