Pilsenprole guide to May Day 2010… As promised on today’s episode of Labor Express Radio, I will try to provide here the most complete list of May Day related events in the Chicago area as I can… Saturday, May 1st May Day March for Immigrant Rights Gather at Union Park (Ashland and Washington, Chicago) at 1:00 P.M. March will leave the park for Daley Plaza at 3:00 P.M. http://icirr.org/en/node/4622 Saturday, May 1st May Day Commemoration at Haymarket Square (Corner of DesPlaines and Randolph) Join nearly 70 trade unionists from Zenroren in dedicating a new plaque to the Haymarket Square Monument. Event will begin at 10:00 A.M. http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=44064534074#!/event.php?eid=109992122357582&index=1 Thursday, April 29th – Sunday, May 2nd A Century+ of May Days: Labor and Social Struggles International Conference Organized by the Institute of Working Class History Hosted by International Studies Program at DePaul University Most Sessions held at DePaul University, 23...

Yesterday it was confirmed. The last four missing miners at the Upper Big Branch mine in Montcoal West Virginia were found dead. That puts the death toll of this most recent mining tragedy at 29, the worst mining disaster in the United States in over 25 years. But this tragedy could have been predicated and should have been prevented. The history of the Upper Big Branch mine, Massey Energy and company CEO Don Blankenship reads like an early 20th century muckraking novel about the evils of capitalism. Here is just a taste of the story... Since 1995 there have been more than 3,000 safety violations at Upper Big Branch. Of the $1.5 million in penalties Massey has racked up since 2007, the company has actually paid less than $300,000 in fines. Last year, the mine faced $900,000 in fines for more than 450 violations. Just in 2010, the company had been charged with another $190,000 in fines. In 2008 Massey Energy was fined $20 million dollars by the EPA for violations of the clean wa...

Here is the statement from the union... STRIKE BY UIC GRADUATE STUDENTS AVERTED Late last evening, after a marathon 13 hours in mediation, the UIC Graduate Employees Organization and the UIC administration reached an agreement regarding the GEO’s contract. The GEO's first agreement expired in August 2009, and GEO members have been negotiating a new contract since April 2009. After the university declined to guarantee the tuition waivers all Graduate Assistants and Teaching Assistants already receive, GEO members approved a vote to go on strike if Monday’s mediation session did not secure the future of tuition waivers and give graduate employees input on controversial “Tuition Differential Fees,” which force some graduate students to pay up to $11,000 per year in fees, despite the fact that most GEO members make less than $15,000 per year. GEO members were joined by faculty, undergraduates, and community members to rally at the site of the mediation session early Monday mornin...

New "health care reform" legislation - boon for the insurance industry, bad medicine for the American working class: Tomorrow's episode of Labor Express Radio will focus on analysis of the health care insurance industry bailout, masquerading as health care reform that was signed into law by President Obama last week. Here on Pilsenprole I will provide links to further analysis and ways to get involved in the struggle for universal, single-payer, non-profit health care. La lucha continua! The leading national organization of activists fighting for single-payer health care is Healthcare Now! (not to be confused with Health Care for America Now an organization which shills for Obamacare) .. http://www.healthcare-now.org/ The leading organization of Doctors pushing for single payer health care, and a leading source of research on the topic is Physicians for National Health Program (PNHP)… http://www.pnhp.org/ No union has been more in the forefront of the strugg...

I wish I could join in with all my co-workers and acquaintances that were celebrating yesterday’s vote on the health insurance industry bailout bill. Better yet, I wish I really could make them understand why I am instead very depressed. They all repeat the same mantras – “This is the first step”, “we can improve on this in the future”, “we are moving in the right direction”. What they don’t understand is, as Jon Walker argues below… “It‘s Not That the Health Care Bill Does Too Little Good, It’s That It Does Too Much Harm.” The fact is that this health care bill is about stamping our bankrupt private health insurance system with a seal of approval and ensuring that its replacement with an effective, universal, cost saving public system is off the table for the foreseeable future. This bill basically accepts as a permanent condition, what is at the root of the problem – a for profit health care system dominated by an industry whose reason to exist is to charge more for reduced...

Well, in the end, the lone voice of truth could not hold out. Today Kucinich announced, principal be damned, he is caving into the pressure and voting yes on the health insurance industry bailout bill. What is particularly sad is that Kucinich got nothing, not the slightest concession, for his flip-flop. Things have actually gotten worse since March 8th as the public option now looks completely, finally, absolutely, thoroughly off the table. The man who roared like a lion two weeks ago turned out to be something even less than a paper tiger. But really the ultimate bad guy here isn’t Kucinich, it is the Democratic Party which has once-and-for-all proved its utter bankruptcy. To all of you out there who were inclined to harbor illusions about the Democrats in 2008, welcome to reality. The Democratic Party is a whole owned subsidiary of Corporate America Inc. Can we all now agree please that there is zero hope for this country without the building of a serious left-wing third party...

As a member of the Green Party (albeit a lukewarm and increasingly disenchanted one) and a strong believer in the absolute necessity of a left-wing third party in the United States, I rarely find myself praising a Democrat, but Dennis Kucinich earned that praise today. At least there is one Representative in the Congress that is not bought and paid for by the health care insurance industry. Check out the following video clip in which Kucinich vows to vote against the current "health care reform" legislation, perhaps the only Democrat on the left to do so... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MfuFVm6QdPU If Kucinich's vote is blamed for the failure of this insurance industry bailout bill masquerading as health care reform, he will need to hear from us thanking him for his vote. Lord knows the Democratic Party will demonize him as bad as they did Nader in 2000.