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Mass Walkout as 'Global Pariah' Netanyahu Addresses UN General Assembly
The public rebuke of the Israeli prime minister, said one observer, "demonstrates the international community's rejection of genocide."
Sep 27, 2024
A large number of diplomats and other officials walked out of the United Nations General Assembly in New York City on Friday as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu prepared to defend his nation's slaughter of more than 41,000 people in the Gaza Strip during the past year and over 700 in Lebanon this week.
Journalists and critics of the "global pariah" shared photos and videos of people filing out of the hall before Netanyahu's address—which came just a day after 25 anti-genocide protesters were arrested for blocking his motorcade in Manhattan.
While there was some audience applause from the sparsely populated room on Friday, Al Jazeera Arabic's Rami Ayari explained that "the people you hear cheering the PM during the speech are in the gallery who he brought for that purpose."
Council on American-Islamic Relations national executive director Nihad Awad said in a statement that "as the far-right, openly racist Israeli government continues its genocide in Gaza and expands its campaign of state terrorism to civilians in Lebanon, this mass walkout during war criminal Benjamin Netanyahu's U.N. speech demonstrates the international community's rejection of genocide."
Awad added that U.S. President Joe Biden "should take note of our government's growing isolation on the international stage, change his policy, and support human rights and international law, without an exception for the Palestinian people."
Since Israeli forces launched their assault on Gaza in retaliation for the Hamas-led October 7 attack, the United States government has stood by Israel, sending billions of dollars in weapons and opposing U.N. resolutions, while claiming to be pushing for a cease-fire. Addressing the General Assembly earlier this week, Biden called for "security for Israel, and Gaza free of Hamas' grip."
In response to diplomats' Friday walkout, Trita Parsi, executive vice president of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, said that "the impunity Biden has offered Israel has been used by Netanyahu to make Israel an international pariah. Neither good for the U.S. nor for Israel."
Parsi also highlighted a clip of Slovenian Prime Minister Robert Golob's speech to the U.N., in which he urged Netanyahu to "stop this war now!"
Netanyahu began his Friday address by taking aim at the world leaders who throughtout the week have condemned the recent escalation against Hezbollah in Lebanon as well as the past year of Israeli forces bombing and starving Palestinians in Gaza.
"I didn't intend to come here this year. My country is at war fighting for its life," Netanyahu said. "But, after I heard the lies and slanders leveled at my country by many of the speakers standing at this podium, I decided to come here and set the record straight."
Armed with more of his infamous maps of the Middle East, the right-wing leader went on to claim that "Israel seeks peace," while also pledging to wage war on Hamas-governed Gaza until "total victory" and telling "the tyrants of Tehran" that "if you strike us, we will strike you."
Noting that Netanyahu also spoke of "savage enemies who seek to destroy our common civilization," James Zogby, co-founder and president of the Arab American Institute, said: "Words spoken by the man who has been charged with genocide and crimes against humanity. This is a disgrace. Abusing the General Assembly platform to lie and incite."
Israel faces a South Africa-led genocide case at the International Court of Justice, and the International Criminal Court prosecutor has sought arrest warrants for Netanyahu, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, and three Hamas leaders—one of whom Israel recently assassinated in Iran. Israel also claims to have killed a second Hamas leader, which the group has denied.
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AFL-CIO Warns House GOP Not to Interfere With Longshoremen's Labor Battle
"Instead of calling for government intervention, a far more productive tact would be to press the companies to meet the workers' very reasonable demands," the AFL-CIO president said.
Sep 27, 2024
The president of the AFL-CIO sent a letter to House Republicans on Thursday asking them not to intervene in contract negotiations between the International Longshoremen's Association and the U.S. Maritime Alliance, which could lead to the first East Coast port strike since 1977 if a deal is not struck by October 1.
The letter came in response to another letter sent by Republican lawmakers to U.S. President Joe Biden on September 19, urging him to "find a reasonable resolution to these contract disputes" and to "utilize every authority at its disposal to ensure the continuing flow of goods" if a strike does occur.
"Averting a strike is the responsibility of the employers who refuse to offer ILA members a contract that reflects the dignity and value of their labor," AFL-CIO president Elizabeth H. Shuler wrote in response to the GOP representatives. "The fight for a fair contract for longshoremen is the entire labor movement's fight."
"The public strongly supports these front-line workers and their just demand for economic security."
A potential strike would see between 25,000 and 50,000 workers walk off the job on Tuesday at 36 locations along 14 East and Gulf Coast port authorities, including 10 of the busiest in North America.
The union wants substantial raises to cover the cost of inflation. While West Coast port workers make a base wage of $54.85, their East and Gulf Coast counterparts make only $39.
The ILA is also demanding better healthcare, and a promise not to install automated or semi-automated terminals at the ports. However, negotiations between the union and the U.S. Maritime Alliance (USMX) broke down in June when the ILA said that USMX had begun using an automated gate to allow trucks into ports, in violation of the current contract.
The union has since contacted USMX to discuss wage increases, but the company has not upped its offer.
"My ILA members are not going to accept these insulting offers that are a joke considering the work my ILA longshore workers perform, and the billion-dollar profits the companies make off the backs of their labor," ILA president and lead negotiator Harold J. Daggett said in a statement on Monday.
"The blame for a coast wide strike in a week that will shut down all ports on the Atlantic and Gulf Coasts falls squarely on the shoulders of USMX," Daggett continued.
In their letter, the Republican representatives warned about how the strike "would result in delays and dire impacts to our supply chains, our economy, and the American consumer." They evoked the "supply-chain crisis" during the Covid-19 pandemic that was a major driver of inflation, saying that a one-week strike would cause a one-and-a-half month backlog.
However, Shuler said that the GOP letter made a strike—and its economic consequences—more likely, not less. That's because the leaning on Biden to use his authority to "ensure the continuing flow of goods," suggested Shuler, could reasonably be interpreted as a request for him to file a judicial injunction under the Taft-Hartely Act to stop a strike from taking place.
"History tells us that when companies can count on an injunction against a strike, they do not negotiate in good faith to reach an agreement. By even suggesting a possible injunction, your letter makes a deal less likely and a strike all the more likely," Shuler said.
This is especially the case because the Biden administration toldReuters earlier this month that it had "never invoked Taft-Hartley to break a strike and are not considering doing so now."
"Yet," Shuler told the representatives, "your letter tries to suggest otherwise, giving the companies reason to dig in their heels. Instead of calling for government intervention, a far more productive tact would be to press the companies to meet the workers' very reasonable demands."
Shuler defended the workers' rights to wages that keep pace with living costs as well as job security in a changing technological landscape.
"Like workers in many other industries—from hospitality to healthcare to film and television—they need fair contract provisions that protect their jobs from being eliminated by automation," Shuler said.
She also noted that the port workers had made significant sacrifices to keep the ports moving during the early years of Covid-19.
"Throughout the pandemic, longshore workers never took a day off, risking their health and lives to make sure shelves were stocked and the supply chain remained strong," Shuler wrote. "The public strongly supports these front-line workers and their just demand for economic security."
She continued: "It adds insult to injury to encourage USMX to provoke a strike rather than agree to a fair contract for the workers who kept food on the table and our economy running through the darkest days of the Covid-19 crisis."
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Harris Rips Trump as 'One of the Biggest Losers of Manufacturing in American History'
"As president, he cut taxes for corporations, encouraged outsourcing, and lost nearly 200,000 manufacturing jobs, including auto jobs," said Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris.
Sep 27, 2024
Democratic nominee Kamala Harris hammered former President Donald Trump's manufacturing record ahead of his visit to the battleground state of Michigan on Friday, pointing out that offshoring of U.S. jobs increased during the Republican nominee's first White House term despite his grand promises to revitalize the nation's industrial base.
"Donald Trump is one of the biggest losers of manufacturing in American history," Harris, who outlined her own domestic manufacturing priorities earlier this week, said in a statement Thursday. "He makes empty promise after empty promise to American workers, but never delivers. As president, he cut taxes for corporations, encouraged outsourcing, and lost nearly 200,000 manufacturing jobs, including auto jobs. He has joked about firing workers, supported state anti-union laws, and suggested companies move jobs out of Michigan."
"Yet it was Trump's trade deal that made it far too easy for a major auto company like Stellantis to break their word to workers by outsourcing American jobs," Harris continued, pointing to the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA). "As one of only 10 senators to vote against USMCA, I knew it was not sufficient to protect our country and its workers. Many who voted for this deal conditioned their support on a review process, which as president I will use."
"On his watch, a Warren car plant closed and the auto industry bled thousands of jobs."
Trump has two campaign events scheduled in Michigan on Friday as recent polling shows him narrowly behind Harris in the key state, which President Joe Biden won in 2020.
Despite his starkly anti-worker record, Trump has sought to appeal to members of the United Auto Workers (UAW)—which has endorsed Harris—and other unions in Michigan and elsewhere during his bid for another term, issuing sweeping promises and dire warnings about the future of U.S. manufacturing if he loses in November.
If he doesn't prevail, Trump said during a town hall in Flint, Michigan last week, "there will be zero car jobs, manufacturing jobs."
"It will all be out of here," he added.
Democrats have countered such claims by pointing to the fact that offshoring accelerated under Trump, particularly due to the passage of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act—a law that delivered massive tax breaks to the rich and incentivized corporate offshoring.
A Public Citizen analysis published in the final months of Trump's presidency found that the Republican nominee's administration "awarded more than $425 billion in federal contracts to corporations listed among those responsible for offshoring 200,000 American jobs" during his first term.
The Economic Policy Institute separately found that roughly 1,800 U.S. factories shuttered during Trump's first term.
One of those factories was a General Motors plant in Warren, Michigan—a closure that the Democratic National Committee (DNC) highlighted with a billboard display in the city ahead of Trump's visit Friday.
“Donald Trump broke his promises to Michigan's working families," said Stephanie Justice, a DNC spokesperson. "On his watch, a Warren car plant closed and the auto industry bled thousands of jobs."
In a video released earlier this week as part of its 2024 election efforts, UAW president Shawn Fain called Trump a "con man" who is merely posturing as an ally of the working class while pushing policy changes that would primarily benefit those of his own class, the ultra-wealthy.
"We can't get fooled or distracted by a con man like Donald Trump. That's why I'm voting for Kamala Harris," said Fain. "That's why our union has endorsed Kamala Harris, and that's why our country needs Kamala Harris as our next president."
Throughout the 2024 campaign, Trump has proposed aggressive tariffs to help protect and restore U.S. manufacturing. Earlier this week, the former president singled out John Deere, a federal contractor that has announced plans to lay off roughly 2,000 workers and shift some of its production to Mexico.
"I am just notifying John Deere right now that if you do that, we are putting a 200% tariff on everything that you want to sell into the United States," Trump said during a campaign event in Pennsylvania earlier this week.
In an op-ed for Common Dreams on Thursday, Labor Institute executive director Les Leopold implored the Harris campaign and the Democratic Party more broadly to do more to counter Trump's messaging, specifically by calling out and moving to penalize companies that carry out mass layoffs while rewarding their rich investors with stock buybacks and dividends.
"Because Trump has difficulty focusing on a coherent message, the field is still open for the Democrats to put forth a new policy that directly affects the jobs of millions of workers," wrote Leopold. "Harris should give a primetime talk and focus on the $700 billion in taxpayer money that now goes to private corporations for goods, services, and subsidies."
"Here's the line she should stress: No taxpayer money shall go to corporations that lay off taxpayers or conduct stock buybacks," he continued. "The Democrats must decide, and soon, whether they really are the party of the working class. If they are, then they must fight hard to save worker jobs from unabated corporate greed."
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