------------------------- Via Workers World News Service Reprinted from the Jan. 23, 2003 issue of Workers World newspaper -------------------------
EDITORIAL: ANOTHER WAR FRONT A General Electric worker has been killed on a Lynn, Tenn., picket line, run over by a cop just hours after she joined 20,000 of her fellow unionists in a two-day strike. To paraphrase War Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, this shows that the U.S. billionaires and bankers can wage class war on two fronts. Rumsfeld, of course, wasn't talking openly about the war at home. He meant Iraq and Korea. The Bush administration wants to keep it a secret that the U.S. ruling class plans to wage war on the workers here as well. The GE strike struggle has crystallized the main issues facing the working class today. On one side is a major U.S. transnational monopoly, GE, a charter member of the military-industrial complex and a giant force in the control of the mass media with its ownership of NBC. While posting record profits, GE has insisted its workers increase payments for health insurance. In 2002 that issue--who should pay for health insurance--was a major issue in many strikes. With healthcare costs soaring, along with the profits of the medical-industrial complex, companies like GE want future increases to fall on the workers' backs. Members of Local 201 of the International Union of Electrical Workers- Communications Workers of America are on the other side of that class war. They carried signs reading "Jobs, not greed'' and ''I'm ready to strike to save our healthcare.'' The union says the increased healthcare contributions will cost workers $300-$400 per year, and that's just to start. They reacted in anger to the death of their sister unionist, Kjeston ''Michelle'' Rodgers, who was hit by a police car while carrying a picket sign at about 5 a.m. on Jan. 13. So far no one, with the exception of the cop driving the car that struck Rodgers, knows exactly what happened. But as GE assembler and striker Alex Brown put it, "To me, it's outrageous that any cars would be going fast anywhere near a picket line." It's outrageous, but it's all too much in line with cops shooting young people of color in U.S. cities, with missiles slaughtering Iraqis, with cuts in taxes on the rich and services to the poor. It is class war and under the Bush administration it is coming home with a vengeance. Bush's gang is betting that the working class at home won't fight back. The GE workers are already showing that's a bet the administration is going to lose. - END - (Copyright Workers World Service: Everyone is permitted to copy and distribute verbatim copies of this document, but changing it is not allowed. For more information contact Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011; via e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe wwnews- [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe [EMAIL PROTECTED] Support the voice of resistance http://www.workers.org/orders/donate.php) ------------------ This message is sent to you by Workers World News Service. To subscribe, E-mail to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To unsubscribe, E-mail to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To switch to the DIGEST mode, E-mail to <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Send administrative queries to <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
