Author Archives: Mark Gruenberg

Free elections come under attack Dec. 7 at the Supreme Court

WASHINGTON—On Dec. 7, 1941, “a date which will live in infamy,” as FDR put it, the Empire of Japan attacked the United States at Pearl Harbor. On Dec. 7, 2022, the empire of the right-wing attacks the United States election system—at the Supreme Court. Continue reading

Republican presidential wannabe Pompeo uses teachers, Weingarten as punching bag

WASHINGTON—How do you know the presidential campaign season is upon us? When a right-wing presidential hopeful, Mike Pompeo, uses U.S. teachers, in general, and Teachers (AFT) President Randi Weingarten, in particular, as a punching bag to harvest votes. Continue reading

Rail unions protest Biden’s move to have Congress impose new pact

WASHINGTON, D.C.—Several rail union leaders, plus a top rank-and-file group, are protesting Democratic President Joe Biden’s request to Congress to impose a new contract on the nation’s 115,000 freight rail workers. Continue reading

GOP cool to Trump but not MAGA extremism as he announces third run for presidency

WASHINGTON—Former Oval Office Republican occupant Donald Trump has announced yet another run for the White House, even as many Republicans expressed unhappiness with their master, not because they reject his politics, but because they think it is his style that caused mass rejection of his endorsed midterm candidates by the voters. Continue reading

Election 2022: Early voting skyrockets, Democrats in the lead

WASHINGTON–Despite the voter suppression efforts of former Oval Office occupant Donald Trump and his anti-voting fanatics, Americans from coast to coast are apparently turning out in record numbers for early voting. The big leads Democratic voters have in the numbers of those turning out show that, contrary to what Republican pollsters would have us believe, a victory of the forces of progress, depending upon turnout, is quite possible next week. Continue reading

Top labor leader Sara Nelson links abortion rights to fight against fascism

Association of Flight Attendants-CWA President Sara Nelson says abortion rights are critical in a necessary fight against fascism and a key economic issue that is facing voters on November 8. Continue reading

Election 2022: Republican takeover blueprint endangers Social Security, Medicare

WASHINGTON—Remember Newt Gingrich’s “Contract With America,” the Republican blueprint for what they’d do if they took over the U.S. House in 1995—which they did? Well, with Gingrich standing by his side in late September, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., unveiled his modernized 122-page version. Continue reading

There is a sure-fire way to make Roe the law of the land again

Biden promises that if Dems keep the House and gain two Senate seats Roe will once again become the law of the land.

WASHINGTON—If Democrats keep control of the House and gain just two seats in the Senate, something well within reach two weeks from now, there will be a clear path to making Roe the law of the land again and halting the GOP drive to take away a host of other constitutional rights. Continue reading

Election 2022: Workers battle hordes of corporate campaign cash

WASHINGTON—Even as workers and their allies hit the political hustings, campaigning door-to-door, explaining issues, phone banking and more, they face one big problem on the campaign trail: Hordes of corporate campaign cash fueling the drives of anti-worker—and anti-democracy—politicians. Continue reading

Tuesday primary elections’ results have Republicans shaking in their shoes

KINGSTON, N.Y.—The constitutional right to abortion and democracy itself took center stage and gave Democratic Ulster County, N.Y., Executive Pat Ryan a win in a special congressional election in a swing U.S. House seat in New York’s Hudson Valley. Continue reading

Rail union leaders warn: Corporate greed will delay your holiday gifts, again

WASHINGTON (PAI)—Crunch. And a shortage of everything. That’s the warning rail union leaders are sending to consumers as the nation approaches the holiday season. Continue reading

Republican plan: Take away Social Security, restart Mexican Wall, build Keystone

WASHINGTON—Congressional Republicans haven’t officially unveiled their legislative agenda should they sweep to power in November, but they gave an ugly preview—including putting Social Security payments at risk—this week on the campaign trail and at a key House committee work session. Continue reading

Letter Carriers’ Rolando says democracy is on the ballot this fall

WASHINGTON —Letter Carriers President Fredric Rolando has added his voice to those of other union leaders warning about the right-wing threat to democracy. Continue reading

FBI’s Mar-a-Lago raid shows law is closing in on Trump

PALM BEACH, Fla.—The law is moving ever closer to Donald Trump for his crimes before, during, and after his tenure in the Oval Office. Continue reading

Sanders, Jayapal slam Manchin’s ‘sabotage’ of progressive agenda

WASHINGTON—Sen. Bernie Sanders, Ind-Vt., and Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., have finally had it with West Virginia Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin’s “sabotage”—Sanders’ word—of the party’s progressive agenda on Capitol Hill. Continue reading

Teachers: We will defend nation’s schools against right-wing authoritarianism

CHICAGO —Becky Pringle and Kim Anderson have sharp messages for the nation’s right-wingers who despise public school teachers, their students and everyone who doesn’t genuflect to the rightists’ mantras: We, the teachers, will defend our students and our schools against your threats and authoritarianism—and come after you at the ballot box. Continue reading

Pressure grows as evidence mounts for Trump criminal indictment

The former president defrauded the U.S., blocked the functions of the government and knowingly sent armed mobs to attack the Capitol.

WASHINGTON—Pressure is growing for a criminal indictment of former Republican Oval Office occupant Donald Trump for inciting the Jan. 6, 2021 coup d’état attempt, invasion of and insurrection by Trumpites at the U.S. Capitol, among other offenses. Continue reading

Trumpite Postmaster General DeJoy sued over huge gas guzzler buy

NEW YORK—Postmaster General Louis DeJoy, who has caught flak ever since former Republican Oval Office occupant Donald Trump forced the U.S. Postal Service to accept the GOP big giver into its top job, has put his foot in it again. Continue reading

Witness: Trump’s pressure on Pence to steal election part of ‘war against democracy’

WASHINGTON—In gritty detail, witnesses, including the former chief lawyer for Donald Trump’s vice president, Mike Pence, and evidence told lawmakers and the public how Trump and his team schemed to have Pence steal the 2020 election for him on Jan. 6, 2021. Continue reading

Court’s draft ruling a part of a bigger right-wing strategy

WASHINGTON—A draft U.S. Supreme Court majority opinion eliminating abortion rights angered women and pro-choice advocates and sparked a political war on both sides of what anti-abortionists have made their cultural issue keystone for 49 years. Continue reading

Trump puppets seek control of 2024 election by winning key posts

Victories by them this year could position the extreme right to select the next president, regardless of what the electoral college or the popular vote says.

LAS VEGAS—Several months ago, Jim Marchant, a Nevada businessman and Trumpite conspiracy theorist, spilled the beans about how that wing of the Republican Party plans to control all U.S. elections in the future. Continue reading

Amazon Bessemer warehouse reflects danger on the job nationwide

BESSEMER, Ala.—Shoving merchandise around Amazon’s giant warehouse in Bessemer, Ala., isn’t easy, Isaiah Thomas says. It also isn’t safe. Continue reading

Climate activists to Biden: Stop stalling, attack climate change

WASHINGTON—Unionists and climate activists are sending a blunt message to Democratic President Joe Biden and the Democratic-run Congress: Stop stalling and attack climate change, now. Continue reading

Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson is backed by NEA, nation’s largest union

WASHINGTON—The nation’s largest union, the three-million-member National Education Association, has strongly endorsed Democratic President Joe Biden’s nomination of federal Appellate Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to the U.S. Supreme Court. Continue reading

Donald Trump’s fourth link to the Supreme Court: Ginni Thomas

WASHINGTON—During his four years in the Oval Office, Donald Trump catered to his right-wing supporters and used the Federalist Society, a right-wing judicial advocacy group, to name three justices to the U.S. Supreme Court—Brett Kavanaugh, Neil Gorsuch, and Amy Coney Barrett. They cemented the rightist majority on the nation’s highest bench. Continue reading

GOP-run Florida legislature okays “Don’t Say Gay’ bill

TALLAHASSEE, Fla.—Over teacher and student opposition and a bitter State Senate debate, the GOP-run Florida legislature approved a “Don’t Say Gay’ bill, and sent it to sponsoring right-wing Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis to sign. Continue reading

GOP-named Supreme Court majority cements its role as a pro-corporate fiefdom

WASHINGTON—Recalling the 1930s, when the “Nine Old Men” scrapped key New Deal legislation, the GOP-named U.S. Supreme Court majority may again show its implementation of the right-wing pro-corporate agenda, this time by nullifying OSHA’s anti-coronavirus Emergency Temporary Standard. Continue reading

Exposed documents from Meadows show Trump involvement in coup attempt

WASHINGTON—Documents and e-mails which Mark Meadows, Donald Trump’s former chief of staff, provided to the House panel probing the January 6th insurrection and invasion of the U.S. Capitol—an invasion to produce a pro-Trump coup—show Trump’s involvement in planning the strategy to try to overturn his 2020 defeat and keep himself in the Oval Office, if not planning the insurrection itself. Continue reading

Starbucks Workers United scores first-ever union win at big coffee chain

BUFFALO, N.Y.—Starbucks Workers United broke a significant barrier on December 9 with the first-ever worker win at the big retail coffee chain. Workers at the Elmwood store in Buffalo voted 19-8 to unionize with Starbucks Workers United, the National Labor Relations Board officer announced. The union also won 15-9 at a second store, but there are seven challenged ballots, and the NLRB will have to decide whether and how many of them to count. Continue reading

Postal Workers tell Congress to deliver postal reform before year’s end

WASHINGTON—The Postal Workers are pushing Congress to approve comprehensive postal reform before the end of this year, but it appears that even the Democratic-run House isn’t listening. Continue reading

First Amazon, now Starbucks: Workers demanding unions at low-paying firms

BUFFALO —First it was—and still is—Amazon in Alabama. Now it’s Starbucks in Buffalo. Continue reading

Fight over public-supported Build Back Better plan heats up

WASHINGTON—As Congress returned to D.C. the week of Nov. 15, the continuing war over President Biden’s Build Back Better agenda—an agenda that would enact the large expansion of the social safety net the U.S. has needed for years—heated up. Continue reading