Havana — The LGBTQ+ delegation included multicultural, multi-generational, gay men, lesbians, bisexual, trans, and gender-nonconforming representatives from all over the U.S. We visited so many organizations, but among the most inspiring for this writer was the visit to the Federation of Cuban Women. 

It was inspiring because it provided a beacon of hope as to what is possible for women and gender-nonconforming people in a socialist society. The FCW has been the seat of power for Cuban women and their families for over 60 years.

The structure begins from the base in each neighborhood, municipality, and province. Most members are volunteers, but there are some paid positions, particularly in the municipalities. The FCW is the organization that takes care of all concerns women in Cuba may have. 

There is a national mandate for the advancement of women, and the FCW carries this program into action. 

The FCW was founded by Vilma Espín, who is honored as the eternal president. But also in the national leadership are the First and Second General Secretaries. The Congress of the Federation of Cuban Women meets every five years and will be held next year in 2024.

Health is a priority

The health of Cuban women and their families is a priority for the FCW and the Cuban government. Health activities are handled by the Hygiene Brigade, which works with the local doctors and nurses living in the communities they serve. 

“We must erect a monument to the women in the Hygiene Brigade during the COVID-19 pandemic,” said the First Secretary of the FCW.

Regarding domestic violence, each ministry has created a program to address the victim and the aggressor. After the COVID-19 pandemic, a national leadership was organized to begin addressing and ending gender-based violence, another priority for FCW.

The national leadership develops penal codes and new laws related to gender-based violence.

Violence against women and other oppressed genders is harshly punished. Someone who kills their current or former female partner receives life in prison automatically. Depending on other extenuating circumstances, they may also receive mental health or substance use services while incarcerated. But some rights afforded to other prisoners may not be granted, i.e., overnight stays in the community.

The principal violence against Cuban women and other gender-oppressed people continues to be the U.S. blockade. This has been made worse by including Cuba on the list of State Sponsors of Terrorism.

The gall of the worst state sponsor of terrorism in the history of the world, the United States of

Amerikkka, calling this small island a terrorist because they want to live in peace, without interference from any imperialist state. They want to care for their people, educate their children, provide health care from birth to old age, provide housing for all, and share with the rest of the world. 

“We don’t give our leftovers we give what we have,” said the First Secretary of the FCW.

Hace par de semanas comenté en este espacio sobre casos de represión por el estado de tres líderes ocurridos el 1ro de mayo, y las decenas de acusaciones sin fundamento contra una legisladora por ese mismo estado fallido. 

Pues esta semana se vieron ambos casos y en el mismo día en el Centro Judicial de San Juan. 

En el caso del 1ro de Mayo contra Eva Ayala, expresidenta del sindicato magisterial EDUCAMOS; Jocelyn Velázquez, líder de la militante organización Jornada se Acabaron las Promesas, y el presidente de la Unión de Trabajadores de la Industria Eléctrica y Riego, Josué Mitjá, el Tribunal concluyó que no había causa para arrestos por haber saltado una valla en medio de una calle. Precisamente, lo que estos líderes habían afirmado una y otra vez: Que las calles son del pueblo. Esta determinación es un precedente muy importante porque se espera un verano intenso de protestas ante la crisis tan aguda que vive el país. 

El caso de la legisladora Mariana Nogales es un poco más complicado, porque implica una agencia estatal que ha estado marcada por malos manejos desde su inicio, la Oficina del Fiscal Especial Independiente, que supuestamente investiga actos de corrupción en el gobierno. Sin embargo, y como ilustró el caso de Mariana, es un ente usado por corruptos dentro del gobierno estadista para actuar en contra de sus opositores. A Mariana no solamente la acusaron, sino que incluyeron a su madre quien no trabaja en el gobierno. A ambas le imputaron un total de 51 acusaciones de evasión contributiva que resultaron ser falsas. 

Pero la verdadera culpabilidad debe recaer en la misma oficina del FEI, que ha malgastado por un año, más de un millón de dólares del dinero del pueblo que tanto se necesita aquí.

Para Radio Clarín de Colombia, les habló Berta Joubert-Ceci

A sea of red, black, and green Liberation flags flew on Harlem’s 125th Street on May 19 as hundreds marched to honor Malcolm X on his 98th birth anniversary. Behind a giant photo of Malcolm X, the marchers enforced a 3-hour “commercial moment of silence” in honor of the martyred Pan-Africanist leader. Whole Foods, PC Richards, Old Navy, Krispy Kreme, and other corporate-owned stores that profit off the Harlem community closed their doors from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. The annual tribute, a 34-year-old tradition, is organized and led by the December 12th Movement and the Malcolm X New Millennium Committee. 

PRIDE MONTH WEBINAR – REPORT BACK FROM CUBA
Thurs., June 15, 8 pm Eastern; 7 pm Central; 6 pm Mountain; 5 pm Pacific

Register here: https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_-CSxIdBoTxWHZPZk0Xd_vw#/registration

Just 90 miles from Ron DeSantis’s Florida, socialist Cuba is making huge advances in LGBTQ+ rights with its new Families Code.
How did Cuba achieve the ‘most advanced policy in the world? Why isn’t the U.S. media reporting it? Why does Biden maintain Trump’s punishing blockade measures and keep Cuba on the state sponsors of terrorism list?

Hear from LGBTQ+ activists from across the U.S. who went to Cuba to see for themselves. Learn how queer rights are being prioritized from the grassroots to the National Assembly. Why U.S. queers should work to end the U.S. blockade of Cuba, and how you can join next year’s delegation.

Hear panelists:
*Lizz Toledo Women in Struggle-Mujeres en Lucha • Atlanta
*Serena Sojic-Bourne Real Name Campaign & FRSO • New Orleans
*Jordan David Lavender Guard • Los Angeles
*Deirdre Deans Women in Struggle • Atlanta
*Gregory Esteven Socialist Unity Party • New Orleans
*Kiana Fok Peoples Power Assembly & Friends of Latin America • Baltimore
*Melinda Butterfield Women in Struggle • New York

HOSTED BY
Women in Struggle / Mujeres en Lucha
An affiliate of the Women’s International Democratic Federation

Get PDF here

• MARCH ON FLORIDA: Resist the ban on trans lives!
• Media slanders Jordan Neely & raises millions for his killer
• Solidarity fuels Writers Guild strike
• Ebenezer Scrooge is alive and well in Congress
• San Diego celebrates Malcolm X Day
• Nkosi Mandela speaks on apartheid and the Nakba
• What’s the matter with Montana? Deindustrialization and political reaction
• ‘Cuban health assistance could make a huge difference in South Central and East LA’
• The People vs. LA Sheriffs: Justice for Andres Guardado!
• U.S. LGBTQ+ delegation travels to Cuba to learn about new Families Code
• Cuba’s Conga celebrates advances in LGBTQ+ rights
• A drag show in Havana
• Amazon Labor Union: End the U.S. Blockade of Cuba!
• Cuban socialism advances biotechnology
• In Cuba, National Assembly of People’s Power truly represents the people
• U.S. judicial system’s bias against workers
• Nakba was a crime! Palestine will win!
• U.S. drops ‘One China’ policy, uses Philippines for war drive over Taiwan
• Biden attacks migrants, sends troops to border
• En Cuba, la Asamblea Nacional del Poder Popular representa verdaderamente al pueblo

U.S. SOUTHCOM is strengthening ties with Peru’s coup government by training that country’s military and police force.

National Strike, Day 140

Amid continuing social upheaval five months after the parliamentary coup against Pedro Castillo, the Peruvian Congress, controlled by the hard right, has approved the entrance of U.S. troops into national territory to train the Peruvian military and National Police beginning June 1st through the end of the year. This comes after the Supreme Court ruled that protest is not a protected right under the 1993 Fujimori dictatorship-era constitution. This also comes after a visit from the U.N. Special Rapporteur on the Rights to Peaceful Assembly and Association Clément Nyaletsossi Voule stated that there was no evidence of terrorism from protesters and called for accountability and political reform to end the crisis. As multiple reports from human rights observers have confirmed, the armed forces carried out extrajudicial killings and massacres during the first few months of the popular uprising following the overthrow of President Pedro Castillo. The Peruvian masses have stated that this was a clear U.S.-backed coup from the beginning and are now getting concrete evidence that the right-wing coup regime works hand in hand with the North American hegemonic power to train armed forces in so-called “conflict zones”, particularly in the south of the country where the strike and blockades have been the strongest.

With 70 votes in favor, 33 against, and 4 abstentions, the Peruvian Congress approved the military training of Armed Forces by US troops, who already occupy multiple bases through US SOUTHCOM (Southern Command) since the 1990s during the Fujimori dictatorship. The “conflict zones” where US troops will be training Peruvian Armed Forces include Lima, Callao, Loreto, San Martín, Huánuco, Ucayali, Pasco, Junín, Huancavelica, Cusco, Ayacucho, Iquitos, Pucusana and Apurímac, regions which saw incredible violence on the part of the coup regime during protests the past five months. Some of these regions are also active protest areas against extractive mining corporations, like the Las Bambas copper mine in Apurímac, where there are active blockades and protests by communities affected by extractive mining that has poisoned their waters and lands.

With only a 6% approval rating, Congress has rammed through some of the most authoritarian laws in recent Peruvian history, rivaling that of the dictatorship of the 1990s, including a raise of the retirement age to 75 and approving projects that continue deforestation of the Peruvian Amazon. Of course, it should be noted that this Congress is dominated by the Fujimori-controlled Fuerza Popular political party and its various satellite parties. This is why the people on the ground have for years demanded the closure of the coup Congress, which they see as being the institutional continuation of the Fujimori dictatorship, along with the 1993 constitution inherited from Washington, D.C. It is precisely this document that privatizes the country’s natural resources, which the mostly indigenous campesino populations of those regions rich in resources see as theft and a violation of their sovereignty for the profits of transnational corporations. Perhaps the most important demand of this current uprising is exactly that, the self-determination and sovereignty of the peoples of Perú.

Since the start of the coup, US interference and Western interests were evident, from the nakedly imperialist remarks by SOUTHCOM Commander General Laura Richardson to the U.S. Ambassador Lisa Kenna meeting with the Minister of Defense Gustavo Bobbias the day before the coup against Pedro Castillo. As Richardson has previously stated on numerous occasions, “US Southern Command is our neighborhood ” that is “off the charts in natural resources and rare earth elements… but the PRC (People’s Republic of China) in a lot of our countries in this region is the number one trade partner.” This modern-day Monroe Doctrine declaration was picked up by former CIA aide to Mike Pompeo Lisa Kenna, as she quickly met with key figures in the coup regime and declared her approval of the Boluarte regime. The very day Castillo was ousted.

Now with the explicit participation of US military personnel in the training of the Peruvian armed forces that have already been investigated by human rights organizations and found to have committed acts of extrajudicial killings, massacres, and brutal political repression, the struggle for a country governed by the people at the service of the people intensifies. The ex-president of Bolivia, Evo Morales, aptly stated in a tweet on Sunday, “Peru is governed from Washington. With this authorization from the Peruvian right, we warn that the criminalization of the protest and the occupation of US military forces is consolidating a repressive state that will affect sovereignty and regional peace in Latin America.” As Congress continues to block commissions to investigate the killings, the masses of Peruvian people continue to organize and plan for the Third Takeover of Lima for July 19th while also organizing regional strikes and continuing the blockades in the south of the country. This new decree by the widely unpopular Congress will not deter the popular will of the Peruvian peoples eager for their sovereignty and self-determination.

**En Español**

La aprobación de tropas estadounidenses para entrenar a las Fuerzas Armadas Peruanas prueba que Estados Unidos está detrás del golpe

Paro Nacional, Día 140

En medio de la continua crisis social, cinco meses después del golpe parlamentario contra Pedro Castillo, el Congreso peruano, controlado por la extrema derecha, ha aprobado el ingreso de tropas estadounidenses en territorio nacional para entrenar a las Fuerzas Armadas y la Policía Nacional a partir del 1 de junio y hasta finales de año. Esto ocurre después de que la Corte Suprema declarara que la protesta no es un derecho protegido bajo la Constitución del 1993 de la era dictatorial de Fujimori. También ocurre después de la visita del Relator Especial de las Naciones Unidas sobre el derecho de reunión pacífica y de asociación, Clément Nyaletsossi Voule, quien afirmó que no había pruebas de terrorismo por parte de los manifestantes y llamó a la rendición de cuentas y a la reforma política para poner fin a la crisis. Según múltiples informes de observadores de derechos humanos, las fuerzas armadas llevaron a cabo ejecuciones extrajudiciales y masacres durante los primeros meses del levantamiento popular tras la destitución del presidente Pedro Castillo. Las masas peruanas han afirmado que este fue un claro golpe respaldado por Estados Unidos desde el principio y ahora están obteniendo pruebas concretas de que el régimen golpista de derecha trabaja de la mano con la potencia hegemónica norteamericana para entrenar a las fuerzas armadas en supuestas “zonas de conflicto”, especialmente en el sur del país, donde las huelgas y los bloqueos han sido más fuertes.

Con 70 votos a favor, 33 en contra y 4 abstenciones, el Congreso peruano aprobó el entrenamiento militar de las Fuerzas Armadas y Policía Nacional por parte de tropas estadounidenses, quienes ya ocupan múltiples bases a través del Comando Sur de Estados Unidos (SOUTHCOM) desde la década de 1990 durante la dictadura de Fujimori. Las “zonas de conflicto” donde las tropas estadounidenses entrenarán a las Fuerzas Armadas peruanas incluyen Lima, Callao, Loreto, San Martín, Huánuco, Ucayali, Pasco, Junín, Huancavelica, Cusco, Ayacucho, Iquitos, Pucusana y Apurímac, regiones que vieron una violencia increíble por parte del régimen golpista durante las protestas de los últimos cinco meses. Algunas de estas regiones también son áreas de protesta activa contra corporaciones mineras extractivas, como la mina de cobre Las Bambas en Apurímac, donde hay bloqueos y protestas activas por parte de comunidades afectadas por la minería extractiva que ha envenenado sus aguas y tierras.

Con solo 6% de aprobación , el Congreso ha impuesto algunas de las leyes más autoritarias en la historia reciente del Perú, rivalizando con la dictadura de la década de 1990. Estas leyes incluyen el aumento de la edad de jubilación a los 75 años y la aprobación de proyectos que continúan con la deforestación de la Amazonía peruana . Cabe destacar que este Congreso está dominado por el partido político Fuerza Popular, controlado por los Fujimoristas y sus diversos partidos satélites. Por esta razón, la población ha exigido durante años el cierre del Congreso golpista, al cual consideran como la continuación institucional de la dictadura de Fujimori, junto con la constitución de 1993 heredada de Washington, D.C . Es precisamente este documento el que privatiza los recursos naturales del país, lo que las poblaciones mayoritariamente indígenas campesinas de aquellas regiones ricas en recursos ven como un robo y una violación de su soberanía en beneficio de las empresas transnacionales. Quizás la demanda más importante de esta coyuntura actual sea precisamente la autodeterminación y soberanía de los pueblos de Perú.

Desde el inicio del golpe, la injerencia estadounidense y los intereses occidentales fueron evidentes, desde los comentarios abiertamente imperialistas de la comandante general del Comando Sur Laura Richardson hasta la reunión de la embajadora estadounidense Lisa Kenna con el ministro de Defensa Gustavo Bobbias el día anterior al golpe contra Pedro Castillo. Como Richardson ha dicho anteriormente en numerosas ocasiones, “el Comando Sur de EE. UU. es nuestro vecindario ” que está “repleto de recursos naturales y elementos de tierras raras… pero la República Popular China (RPC) en muchos de nuestros países en esta región es el socio comercial número uno”. Esta declaración de la Doctrina Monroe moderna fue recogida por la ex asistente de la CIA de Mike Pompeo, Lisa Kenna, cuando se reunió rápidamente con figuras clave en el régimen golpista y declaró su aprobación del régimen de Boluarte el mismo día que Castillo fue derrocado.

Ahora con la participación explícita de militares estadounidenses en el entrenamiento de las fuerzas armadas peruanas que ya han sido investigados por organismos de derechos humanos y que han cometido actos de ejecuciones extrajudiciales, masacres y brutal represión política, la lucha por un país gobernado por el pueblo al servicio del pueblo se intensifica. El expresidente de Bolivia Evo Morales afirmó acertadamente en un tweet el domingo: “Perú se gobierna desde Washington. Con esta autorización de la derecha peruana, advertimos que la criminalización de la protesta y la ocupación de fuerzas militares estadounidenses se viene la consolidación de un Estado represor que afectará la soberanía y paz regional en América Latina”. Mientras el Congreso continúa bloqueando las comisiones para investigar los asesinatos, el pueblo peruano continúa organizando y planificando la Tercera Toma de Lima para el 19 de julio, al mismo tiempo que organizan huelgas regionales y continúan los bloqueos en el sur del país. Este nuevo decreto del muy impopular Congreso no detendrá la voluntad popular de los pueblos peruanos quienes desean su soberanía y autodeterminación.

Clau O’Brien Moscoso is an organizer with the Black Alliance for Peace in the Haiti/Americas Team. Originally from Barrios Altos, Lima, she grew up in New Jersey and now lives between both countries.

Source: Black Agenda Report

MONDAY, JUNE 12, 2023
WVSM Forum: The People VS Jeff Landry
The Domino

Register here: https://bit.ly/WVSMForum

In 2002, Rep. Steve Scalise compared himself to David Duke “without the baggage” (no Klan hood). This is a good way to describe Attorney General Jeff Landry, who is running for governor. As top cop, Landry has illegally used his office to push every racist, anti-woman, anti-LGBT, anti-union, anti-worker, anti-immigrant, anti-environment, and anti-voting policy he could.

But who is Landry really working for besides his own profit-making corporations? Workers Voice has compiled the facts that every worker and political activist should know. Learn and discuss what’s behind the drive of the right-wing and what’s necessary to defeat them all.

A speaker will also address the Federal budget crisis and the dictatorship of the banks over our lives.

#WorkersUnite #FightTheRight #BailOutThePeopleNotTheBanks

Almost three years after the murder of Andres Guardado by a Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Deputy, the officers involved in his assassination have not been indicted. Guardado was an 18-year-old teenager who studied at LA Trade Technical College and worked as a security guard to help his family. 

His murder took place in the City of Gardena, a place that, like its neighbors Compton and South Central, has a history of police brutality.

The killing of the Salvadoran-American teenager occurred weeks after the murder of George Floyd in May 2020. Floyd was a Black man whose killing by a white cop in Minnesota sparked some of the biggest mass demonstrations against police brutality in U.S. history.

If it wasn’t for the demonstrations, Floyd’s killer Derek Chauvin and the other officers who watched him slowly murder his victim would not have been sent to prison. The protests were not only a way to demand justice for another Black victim of the police; they were also a call for justice and a denouncement of racism and other kinds of violence that poor Black and Brown communities regularly suffer in the U.S.

Though not as big as the protests for George Floyd, demonstrations were also held to demand justice for Andres Guardado and show solidarity with his family and loved ones. A march and rally called by Unión Del Barrio and the Harriet Tubman Center for Social Justice and supported by other organizations was held in Compton and Gardena, near the spot where Andres was killed. 

Protesters denounced the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department, the cops involved in the murder, and demanded the imprisonment of Deputy Miguel Vega – who shot Guardado five times in the back – and his partner, Deputy Christopher Hernandez.

A pattern of brutality

Vegas and Hernandez no longer work for the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department. On April 13, 2023, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California released a note stating that the former deputies were scheduled to be arraigned that day on federal charges that they violated the civil rights of another young man at a skate park by falsely imprisoning him, then obstructing justice to cover up the illegal detention.

A May 19 Los Angeles Times article reports the difficulties encountered by county watchdogs investigating the participation of LACSD deputies in gangs, among other things. They have found that nothing has been done despite new Sheriff Robert Luna ordering the deputies to cooperate with the ongoing investigation on law enforcement gangs led by LA County Inspector General Max Huntsmen. 

Among the alleged gangs being investigated are the Banditos, to which the former deputies involved in the murder of Andre Guardado allegedly belonged, and the Executioners, a gang that recruits potential members based on their history of violence against the people in their area and does not accept Black people or women.

At the time of Andres Guardado’s murder, Miguel Vega was said to be an “ink chaser” – someone trying to be admitted to one of the police gangs. Admission would allow him to have the gang’s tattoo. After someone is killed by a member of their gang, the deputies celebrate by going out to drink.

Maybe Andres Guardado was murdered just because a deputy wanted to prove to a police gang that he was capable of killing and was a good candidate for membership. 

The deaths caused by police actions since the murder of Andres are a sign that police officers don’t need to be ink chasers or form their own gangs to terrorize and kill poor people and people of color. They already have the support of the institutions set up to oppress their victims and the working class as a whole. 

Police departments are gangs that operate to protect the interests of the capitalist class. Therefore, investigations – even on the rare occasions when they result in punishment for individual killer cops – won’t do much to stop police terror in poor communities or bring justice to their victims. 

Ultimately, justice for Andres Guardado and all the victims of police terror can only be achieved with the abolition of the police and capitalism.

May 25 – The Writers Guild of America (WGA) strike is in its 24th day, holding strong and gaining support from other unionized workers and allies, not only in the entertainment industry but even among others who have much in common with their members. 

The billionaires that own the studios and streaming companies haven’t budged in negotiations, but the strike is energetic and determined. The picket lines are dense and loud, and film locations are dropping like flies because of the strikers’ guerrilla-style tactics. Shows are getting canceled one after another.

The growth of streaming has had a huge impact on writers’ compensation and is one of the most important issues for strikers. Netflix, Apple, Amazon Prime, Hulu, Max and other big entertainment companies have shifted the way that entertainment is delivered. This strike is popularly called the “Netflix strike.” 

Companies have used the growth of streaming – amplified by the COVID-19 pandemic – to cheat writers out of millions of dollars in pay. A shorter number of series episodes has become the new normal – miniseries. 

The writing for miniseries content has been relegated to what are called “mini-rooms,” where a smaller number of writers work on a series that will go direct to streaming, bypassing the normal process of writing a pilot. Those writers are paid only scale instead of the higher pay for longer, traditional television series. If the miniseries isn’t picked up for a second season, they get no residuals.

Shut down production

The guerrilla-tactic picket lines of WGA strikers as they’ve disrupted film shoots on location are exciting and impressive. Production locations are normally kept quiet, but strikers are getting tipped off and have shut down production. 

They’ve hit studio filming too. Early in the strike, Apple’s series “Loot” was put on hold indefinitely. By week two of the strike, “Power Book II: Ghost,” “Pretty Little Liars: Summer School,” “Billions,” and “Daredevil: Born Again” all lost days of filming. 

In mid-May, WGA picketers showed up before the film crew at Harlem and Bronx, New York,  shooting locations for “The Penguin” and stopped filming. “FBI: Most Wanted” filming was shut down. When picket lines hit studios, Teamster trucks delivering equipment do a U-turn and head back to the warehouse.

Militant actions aren’t limited to disrupting film shoots. Variety reported that 200 trans writers and allies held a “Trans Takeover” picket on May 18 at the Netflix building in Los Angeles. Writer Jacob Tobia, a writer for the Showtime pilot “Sissy,” said, “Strikes are moments where you redefine who is at the table, and we want to be sure that we’re sending a really strong message to the world that we’re at the table now and we want to stay at the table.”

There has also been great solidarity by the Directors Guild of America, the IATSE stagehands’ union, and the California Gig Workers Union, organizers of Californians who work gig jobs like Uber, Lyft, DoorDash, Instacart, and others.

A number of famed actors have joined the picket lines. Actor Drew Carey has pledged to pay for picketers’ meals until the end of the strike. Sean Penn and Mandy Patinkin both made the news with strong statements of support. 

Looming on the horizon is the possibility of a Screen Actors Guild – American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) strike. Contract negotiations for 160,000 actors are set to begin ahead of the June 30 contract expiration. A strike authorization vote is already being planned. 

A companion strike by actors could shut down everything for the industry.

CEO booed off stage

When Warner Bros. CEO David Zaslav showed up at Boston University to deliver the commencement speech, he was booed off the stage by students in solidarity with the strike. 

College campuses have seen a lot of strikes in recent months. Student researchers, teachers’ assistants, cafeteria workers, and shuttle bus drivers have all won good contracts or union recognition.

The U.S. media and entertainment industry is worth $717 billion, larger than the Gross Domestic Product of 162 countries. These profiteers could easily afford to pay what the writers are demanding. 

The WGA’s website displays a list with information about the eight biggest companies where the union represents workers. The total revenue of these eight alone is more than $1.3 trillion! The total cost of meeting the workers’ demands would be less than one-tenth of a percent of their revenue, at $343 million.

But it isn’t only the super-rich studios that have been gorging on profits. Real-estate capitalists make a fortune from entertainment. According to Bisnow.com, “Blackstone, TPG Real Estate Partners, Bain Capital Partners and Square Mile Capital Management have spent billions combined buying and developing new studio space across the U.S.” These are some of the biggest real estate investors in the world.

To be sure, the WGA strike is up against powerful interests. Like every strike, it is essentially a war of workers with the mega-corporations and banks that make up the U.S. capitalist ruling class – a war with Wall Street. 

WGA’s website has a list of locations and times for picket lines that even includes a list of parking spots. New Yorkers and Angelinos should visit the lines at every opportunity. Film and TV writers are fighting for all of us!