July 12, 2023 - No. 36
BC Port Workers' Strike
Port Workers Hold Powerful Rally
Bloated Fortunes of World's Richest
• The Rich Get Richer So the Poor Get Poorer
BC Port Workers' Strike
Port Workers Hold Powerful Rally
Striking Vancouver port workers along with allies and supporters gathered downtown on July 9 to voice their determination to defend their rights and claims on the value they produce. Port workers from the U.S. west coast, Australia and New Zealand came to express their support in the fight against price inflation, contracting out and out-of-control automation of the ports.
Speakers at the rally denounced business and government leaders who are calling for legislation to end the strike. They said this encouraged the port employers to refuse to negotiate and simply wait for legislation to be imposed. If certain business and government officials were serious about ending the dispute they would tell port employers to negotiate a just settlement with their striking workers. Port workers are facing very real problems of price inflation, contracting out and automation that need to be resolved through negotiating a just collective agreement not dictate.
Port workers from Australia and New Zealand
bring their support to the rally, July 9, 2023
To reach a just settlement of their demands in the face of the intransigence on the part of port employers, port workers say they have no choice but to fight with industrial action. If you don't fight, you can't win, a speaker said to cheers from the port workers and their supporters. Chants rang out for employers to negotiate don't legislate, and if you don't fight you can't win.
To prolonged applause, union representatives of U.S. west coast port workers told the rally that U.S. dock workers have pledged not to unload Canadian-bound cargo in firm solidarity with striking workers in Canada. Other participants from across Canada and around the world also expressed their support and solidarity with the striking BC port workers. They pointed out that everywhere in the current anti-social offensive people are facing difficult working and social conditions that need to be met and resolved with a firm united response.
Canadians are rallying behind BC port workers and demand port employers meet the concerns of those who do the work. Intransigence on the part of employers and hiding behind the police power of governments will not resolve the problems workers face and in fact will create conditions for even worse ongoing disruptions.
(Photos: ILWU, MUA, Liuna, S. Skidmore)
Bloated Fortunes of World's Richest
The Rich Get Richer So the Poor Get Poorer
Latest reports indicate that more than 820 million people are now going hungry world wide. Of these, at least 339 million are in dire straits, in need of emergency food rations, clean water and shelter.
This
is the result of an economic system which permits filthy rich
oligarchs
to control all of the human and material resources of the world.
The
Bloomberg Billionaires Index reports that in the first half of
2023,
each of the 2,640 billionaires in the world made an average of
over $14
million
per day. To achieve this, they force 47 per cent of the world's
population to survive on $6.25 a day.
Elon Musk, who owns Tesla, SpaceX and Twitter, is the world's wealthiest person who got $96 billion richer in the first six months of 2023. Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Facebook parent company Meta Platforms, who comes in at Number 10 on Bloomberg's list of the richest 500 billionaires, saw the second highest jump in his fortune, up $58.9 billion in the first six months of 2023, to $99.2 billion.
Amazon founder Jeff Bezos is the third richest with a fortune of $154 billion, up $47.4 billion over the first six months of this year.
Microsoft founder Bill Gates has a fortune of $134 billion, up $24.4 billion. Warren Buffett who owns BNSF railroad, along with Berkshire Hathaway, the investment group that owns Geico, Clayton Homes and Dairy Queen, and has stakes in Coca-Cola and American Express, has wealth valued at $113 billion, up $5.6 billion in the last six months.
Reports inform that the richest one per cent of the world's oligarchs have grabbed nearly two-thirds of the $42 trillion of wealth newly-created since 2020. This is nearly twice as much money as all other human beings combined during the same period. During the past decade, the number and wealth of the billionaires has doubled, with the richest absconding with about half of all new global wealth.
(To access articles individually click on the black headline.)
Website: www.cpcml.ca Email: editor@cpcml.ca