#DemocracyNow: “What About the Capitalists?”: Autoworkers in U.S., Mexico Call for Solidarity, Not Divisive Tariffs

Story April 08, 2025

"As workers brace for uncertainty and fallout from #Trump’s #tariffs, we hear from two #autoworkers, one in #Mexico and one in the United States. Israel Cervantes, founder of the National Independent Union for Workers in the Automotive Industry in Mexico, calls for unions across #NorthAmerica to unite against the tariffs, which have already led to layoffs from auto manufacturers. In the U.S., autoworker and UAW member Sean Crawford joins Democracy Now! on his work break to respond to the rhetoric and impact of the tariffs. 'They are always harping on foreigners, foreigners, foreigners. But what about the #capitalists? says Crawford, who urges international solidarity against #corporations’ attempts to sow division among #exploited #workers. “This nationalistic viewpoint has not been working for us and has resulted in a lot of these layoffs,' he says. 'I want to see us grow together as a #WorkingClass.'"

Listen / watch / read transcript:
https://www.democracynow.org/2025/4/8/uaw_tariffs_autoworkers_union#transcript
#ViewerSupportedNews #TrumpTariffs #Workers

https://www.reuters.com/technology/artificial-intelligence/musks-doge-using-ai-snoop-us-federal-workers-sources-say-2025-04-08/

Exclusive: Musk's DOGE using AI to snoop on U.S. federal workers, sources say

People's Union USA, with founder John Schwarz, is initiating a nationwide boycott against Walmart that starts today.

"Schwarz has cited federal income tax opposition, equality issues, high prices, and a bid to help smaller local businesses as factors behind the blackout."

Are you going to participate? #union #boycott #protest #workers #socialism #capitalism #communism https://www.newsweek.com/walmart-boycott-customer-protest-2056133#:~:text=What%20To%20Know,as%20factors%20behind%20the%20blackout.

French lunch money row: Should restaurant coupons become supermarket ones? https://www.diningandcooking.com/2001150/french-lunch-money-row-should-restaurant-coupons-become-supermarket-ones/ #coupon #francais #france #French #FrenchLunch #lunch #meal #restaurant #workers

If the Labour Govt. was serious about helping disabled people get work (rather than a bad faith rationalisation for disabled benefits cuts), what they should be doing is helping ensure that hybrid working (and extensive working from home) is protected & indeed, promoted (and not just for the disabled).

The Work Foundation has found hybrid working plays a major role in allowing people with a range of health conditions to manage them.

#HybridWorking #workers #disability
https://www.lancaster.ac.uk/work-foundation/publications/beyond-the-office

ON SUNDAY, dozens of #migrant #workers in #Taipei gathered at the city’s central train station
to protest gender violence against migrant women
as well as raise awareness about the plight of Palestinian women and children through a flash mob performance.
This was in celebration of
“One Billion Rising”,
an annual campaign against rape and #gender #violence held in 60 countries worldwide.
The name comes from a statistic that within their lifetime,
at least one in three women across the world will have encountered gender violence, which totals to around one billion people.
https://newbloommag.net/2025/04/02/one-billion-rising-2025/

“The story of automation in the US is that it has mostly impacted on manual workers in manufacturing. For example, factory employees — such as carmakers — performing routine tasks have lost their jobs to robots — or lower-cost Asian competitors.

#IndustrialAutomation has tended to affect lower-skilled, #BlueCollar jobs in the “#rustbelt” heartlands and small-town, less-educated communities in the south and midwest.

But a recent study from the #BrookingsInstitution suggests that the communities most exposed to AI-driven job dislocation will be #WhiteCollar information workers. The researchers studied the usage of #OpenAI’s #GenerativeAI tools across more than 1,000 occupations and mapped this against where those jobs were most commonly located.

Their analysis suggests that many #coders, #lawyers, #FinancialAnalysts and #bureaucrats in cities such as San Jose, San Francisco, Durham, New York and Washington DC might want to rethink their futures. But #NonOffice-bound #workers in places such as Las Vegas, Toledo, Ohio and Fort Wayne, Indiana may be less exposed to AI disruption.”

My observation since 2022 when #ChristopherHohn an influential shareholder decided to *speak out* about “reducing its head count and paying (hi-tech) workers less”. [1]

This is the decade where extreme (cost) pressure will be forced on White collar workers by the introduction of AI.

<https://archive.md/YqF03> / <https://www.ft.com/content/04343a69-8204-493c-b8c6-edfbd4057199> (paywall)

[1] <https://www.forbes.com/sites/jonathanponciano/2022/11/15/billionaire-hedge-fund-investor-urges-alphabet-to-cut-costs-no-justification-for-salaries-that-are-too-high/>

Bet the #UAW isn’t so happy with #Trump’s #tariffs now…

#Stellantis says it will temporarily lay off 900 US #workers following tariff announcement

What did they expect?

#economy #jobs #labor #inflation #recession #Trumpcession
https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/stellantis-says-will-temporarily-lay-off-900-us-workers-following-tariff-2025-04-03/

Delighted to see a new book review on ‘The urban life of workers in post-Soviet Russia’ by Dr Mitja Stefancic just out in the 50th Anniversary issue of Network, the magazine of the British Sociological Association. Link to the full issue https://www.britsoc.co.uk/publications/network/network-current-issue/

@bookstodon
@sociology
@anthropology

Infectious disease doctor Jade Pagkas-Bather of University of Chicago responds to the Trump administration's mass firing of workers in the CDC and HHS:

“We’re going to have patients die. Unnecessary, preventable death.”

#Musk #Trump #DOGE #RFKJr #HHS #CDC #healthcare #medicine #research #science #firings #workers
/1

https://www.wired.com/story/cdc-gutted-rif/

STAND UP FIGHT BACK

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/GwTT7WYJ-yI

In Boston hundreds of students and workers demanded the release of detained student Rumeysa Ozturk.

They are not serious people.

#Indiana Sen. Jim Bank calls a fired HHS worker a clown when the voter asks him a question.

Poor constituent service reflects Bank's allegiance to the oligarchs and not ordinary people.

https://www.reddit.com/r/DeptHHS/s/pRVqHp8bt2

The last and final part of Chapter 2 (The Metaphysics of Political Economy) of Karl Marx's "The Poverty of Philosophy": Strikes and Combinations of Workers
#socialism #communism #capitalism #marxism #strikes #workers
https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1847/poverty-philosophy/ch02e.htm