Last week, Greece was again brought to a standstill by the collective action of the organized working class. Workers joined the third general strike in three weeks against the government’s draconian austerity package, hitting 90% of public sector workplaces and also up to 90% of large private sector concerns. It was a further display of the enormous power of the working class when it is organized and acts in a united fashion.

The nation-wide protests of students and education workers against budget cuts to schools on March 4 was the most significant day of resistance to the economic downturn since the crisis erupted in 2008. It is an important harbinger of bigger struggles to come.

On Martin Luther King Day, January 18, in Chicago, over 200 people came to a march initiated by Public Workers Unite! to protest against cuts to public services, demanding “Not on our backs! Fund public services, not the wars! Tax the rich, not working people! Money for jobs, not bankers!”

On January 23, over 100 United Auto Workers (UAW) activists and union oppositionists gathered in Detroit to discuss how to build on the momentum produced by the national contract rejection by Ford workers last November. This was the first time in history that UAW members in the Big Three automakers have voted against a contract endorsed by the UAW leadership.

In 2009, Democratic Governor Christine Gregoire and the Democrat super-majority in the state legislature wrung out a $9 billion deficit through an all-cuts budget, hacking away at everything in sight from education and health care to services for children, the poor, and the elderly. Big business and the rich, by contrast, escaped unscathed – the state’s regressive tax system remained horrendously skewed in favor of corporations like Boeing, Microsoft, Weyerhauser, Amazon, and the rich who own them.

You wouldn’t know it, but a study found that Massachusetts provides the least amount of support for higher education in the entire U.S., (Illinois State University’s Center for the Study of Education Policy in cooperation with the State Higher Education Executive Officers). Usually regarded as one of the top states for quality public education, funding has been slashed for the last five years. Astonishingly, funding has been cut by 37% over the last two years.

For the U.S. corporate elite, “education reform” – which means privatizing as much as possible of the school system and attacking the collective power of teachers – is a strategic task. To these people, New York City mayor Mike Bloomberg and his henchman, Schools Chancellor Joel Klein, are heroes.

Thousands of janitors in the Twin Cities are preparing to strike, if necessary, for decent wage increases, affordable health care, paid sick days, and in defense of full-time jobs.

Trade union activists expect class bias in the courts and employment tribunals. But rarely has a tribunal delivered such a blatantly biased judgment based on class interest. The employment tribunal judge declared open season for the persecution of Trotskyists, whom he considers "unworthy of protection" in a democratic society.

In New York City, insurgent slates in Transport Workers Union Local 100 and Teamsters Local 804 recently won hard-fought union elections, and pledged a rank-and-file focus.

NEW YORK CITY—On January 26, around 2,000 teachers, students and parents attended a rally called by the United Federation of Teachers (UFT) and then entered a mass hearing of the Panel for Education Policy (PEP) at Brooklyn Tech High School. The overwhelming majority, if not the entirety of those that attended were there to speak out against mayor Bloomberg’s proposal to close 19 public schools, which would be voted on by the PEP at the end of the hearing.

In late October, in a historic show of rank-and-file opposition, Ford’s 41,000 hourly workers voted down proposed contract modifications endorsed by the company and the international leadership of the United Auto Workers (UAW). The modifications would have removed limits on hiring low-wage entry-level workers and frozen their wages for six years, while also limiting the right to strike. This was the first national Ford contract to be voted down by UAW members since 1976 (Detroit Free Press, 10/31/09).

On October 31, 65 activists met at a Chicago union hall to discuss the crisis facing public sector workers and the services we provide.

The passing of the Tax the Rich resolution in mid-October by members at the Illinois state convention of the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) shows that workers are waking up to the reality of the class war being waged by big business a lot faster than our union leaders.

In a historic show of rank-and-file opposition, 41,000 hourly workers at Ford have voted down proposed contract modifications endorsed by the company and the International leadership of the United Auto Workers (UAW).