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The War Against Workers In Oakland & The War In Ukraine With ILWU Local 10 BA Aaron Wright

by Labor Video Project
Aaron Wright, a ILWU Local 10 business agent talks about the continuing struggle against the privatization of the Howard terminal in the Port Of Oakland by the billionaire owner of the A's and the GAP John Fisher. He reports that the Democratic politicians are not only supporting it but planning on giving him $800 million in tax dollars for he development project.
He also discusses the war in Ukraine and who was behind it.
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Aaron Wright, a business agent of ILWU Local 10 talks about the battle against privatization at the port of Oakland being pushed by the A's and GAP billionaire owner John Fisher. He discusses the role of the Democratic Party in pushing to give hundreds of dollars in tax funding for this billionaires development project in Howard's Terminal. Wright says this development will destroy the working port of Oakland.

He also discusses the war in Ukraine and the role of the United States in arming and moving to surround Russia with US NATO armed countries on the border of Russia. Wright also talks about the role of the US in training Nazis in Ukraine and the role of the US in supplying over $5 billion in overthrowing the Ukraine government in 2014 using the Nazi Anzov brigade which the US armed and trained.

This interview was done on 3/7/22.

Additional media:
The AFL-CIO, Privatization, Ukraine, NED & Imperialism
https://youtu.be/ctm4c_OnRYU

US Capitalism, The Ukraine & Imperialism With George Wright
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ilaiwLrziyM

US Privatization Of Ukraine, Puerto Rico, PG&E & The Natalie Jeresko Ana Montosantos Connections
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rvHNktE-kAA

CIA and American Labor: The Subversion of the AFL-CIO's Foreign Policy
https://archive.org/stream/CIAAndAmericanLabor/CIA%20and%20American%20Labor_djvu.txt

Victor Reuther Solidarity of Subversion AFL-CIO CIA
https://www.cia.gov/library/readingroom/docs/CIA-RDP88-01350R000200420037-8.pdf

“All-Ukrainian Strike” as the big fake of Euromaidan CIA AFL-CIO
Mikhail Volynets, KVPU President (The Confederation of Free Trade Unions of Ukraine)
https://www.criticatac.ro/lefteast/all-ukrainian-strike-as-the-big-fake-of-euromaidan/

To Build a Left-Wing Unionism, We Must Reckon With the AFL-CIO’s Imperialist Past
http://inthesetimes.com/working/entry/22245/left-wing-union-afl-cio-imperialism

From Socialism to Neoliberalism: A Story of Capture (Part 2 of 2)
https://deterritorialinvestigations.wordpress.com/2013/07/24/from-socialism-to-neoliberalism-a-story-of-capture-part-2-of-2/

WorkWeek
https://soundcloud.com/workweek-radio
workweeknow(at)gmail.com
Labor Video Project
http://www.labormedia.net
§Fisher Family Suing SFSUD To Grab Rooms At Malcom X Academy
by Labor Video Project
malcom_x_academy.jpg
A's Billionaire and GAP owner and his wife Laura and mother Doris run SF KIPP and are suing the San Francisco Unified School District to grab rooms in the Malcom X Academy public school. This privatization of public schools is going on in Oakland and throughout the country and is part of a land grab by these billionaires.
§Fisher's KIPP Board In San Francisco
by Labor Video Project
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The billionaire Fisher family with the support of Gavin Newsom and the Democratic party is helping to destroy public education for profiteers and hedge funds.
§GAP Responsible for Bangladesh Death Traps
by Labor Video Project
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Fisher's GAP is also supporting virtual slave labor in Bangladesh where their factories were death traps for the mostly women workers.
§Fisher Family Trying To Destroy Malcom X Academy
by Labor Video Project
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The Fisher family is trying to wreck and destroy the Malcom X Academy by grabbing rooms and destroy it's education programs and resources.
§US & Israel Trained and Armed Nazis in Ukraine
by Labor Video Project
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The US and Israel trained and armed Nazis in Ukraine who then were used to overthrow the government in 2014.

Rights Groups Demand Israel Stop Arming neo-Nazis in Ukraine
Human rights activists petition the court to cease Israeli arms exports to Ukraine since some of these weapons reach neo-Nazi elements in Ukraine’s security forces

https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/rights-groups-demand-israel-stop-arming-neo-nazis-in-the-ukraine-1.6248727
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Open gallery view
An Azov militiaman with a Tavor rifle
An Azov militiaman with a Tavor rifleCredit: Azov YouTube channel screenshot
John Brown
Jul. 9, 2018
A group of more than 40 human rights activists have filed a petition with the High Court of Justice, demanding the cessation of Israeli arms exports to Ukraine.

They argue that these weapons serve forces that openly espouse a neo-Nazi ideology and cite evidence that the right-wing Azov militia, whose members are part of Ukraine’s armed forces, and are supported by the country’s ministry of internal affairs, is using these weapons.

An earlier appeal to the Defense Ministry was met with no response.

The ministry’s considerations in granting export licenses for armaments are not disclosed to the public, but it appears that the appearance of Israeli weapons in the hands of avowed neo-Nazis should be a consideration used in opposing the granting of such a license.

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Nevertheless, this is not the first time in which the defense establishment is arming forces that embrace a national socialist ideology.

Fingerprinted, jailed and deported 'like criminals': Israel is turning away tourists from the former Soviet Union
Ukraine Holocaust monument vandalized with swastikas
Ukrainian nationalists strive to shake off allegations of anti-Semitism
In the past, Israel has armed anti-Semitic regimes, such as the generals’ regime in Argentina, which murdered thousands of Jews in camps while its soldiers stood in watchtowers guarding the abducted prisoners with their Uzi submachine guns.

According to a freedom of information petition to Israel's defense ministry from last January (Hebrew: read in full here), Israel also armed Bolivia's military regimes, knowing that Nazi war criminal Klaus Barbie was part of the regime. Legal documents used to convict the head of the junta also showed that Barbie's death squads used Israeli Uzis.

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In the case of Ukraine forces using Israeli weapons are openly stating their support for racist and anti-Semitic ideas, in various publications.

The Azov militia was established in Ukraine following the Russian invasion of the Crimean peninsula in 2014. The militia’s emblems are well-known national socialist ones. Its members use the Nazi salute and carry swastikas and SS insignias.

Moreover, some of them openly admit they have neo-Nazi sentiments and that they are Holocaust deniers. One militia member said in an interview that he was fighting Russia since Putin was a Jew. An Azov sergeant said that he was a national socialist, although he was not in favor of genocide, and as long as minorities in Ukraine did not demand special rights he would have no problem with them.

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Tweet by Ukrainian militia leader meeting with Israelis
The militia’s founder, Andriy Biletsky, who is now a member of Ukraine’s parliament, formerly headed a neo-Nazi group called Patriot of Ukraine, now defunct. Its members comprise the founding core of Azov.

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“Our nation’s historic mission at this critical juncture is to lead the final march of the white race towards its survival” Biletsky has said. “This is a march against sub-humans who are led by the Semite race.” According to reports by human rights groups militia members are suspected of war crimes, torture and sexual violence.

In tandem with the rising power of Azov, which has more than 3,000 members, there is a rise in anti-Semitic incidents and attacks against Ukraine’s minorities. Neo-Nazi groups have attacked Jews and Jewish memorial sites across Ukraine, as well as journalists, Roma and members of the LGBT community.

One member of parliament declared, in response to a question about the country’s “Jewish problem”, that “in the government there is non-Ukrainian bloodthis must be addressed.” Last May right-wing groups marched through Odessa, their leaders claiming that the city belongs to Ukrainians, not Jews, and that they would get rid of the latter.

All this is happening as the Ukrainian administration is trying to deny the country’s role in the Holocaust, just as is happening in Poland (now with the support of the Netanyahu government).

These attempts include rewriting the history of World War II and the glorification of Ukraine’s soldiers, using legislation and various publications, as well as concocting stories about Jews who were allies of national Ukrainian forces during the war, whereas in fact Jews had to hide their identity.

In 2015, the Holocaust Museum in Washington denounced Ukrainian legislation which was intended to prevent criticism of collaboration with the Nazis.

The Simon Wiesenthal Center and the World Jewish Congress condemned the decision to name central boulevards in Kiev after Nazi collaborators. If that weren’t enough, last April there was a march honoring Ukrainian Waffen SS units which massacred thousands of Jews during World War II. In June, Ukraine’s chief military prosecutor Anatoli Matios said in an interview that Jews want “to drown Slavs in blood.”

Since the spring of 2015 members of the Azov militia have been part of the regular security forces in Ukraine, a part of the National Guard which is under the country’s ministry of internal affairs. The militia encourages members and supporters to enlist in the army. However, the militia maintains itself as a separate organization.


In December of 2016 Ukraine’s internal affairs minister Arsen Avakov, considered Azov’s patron and a candidate for prime minister, met a Knesset delegation headed by MK David Amsalem, on an official visit to Ukraine.


Avakov has also met Arye Dery, the minister of interior. Avakov appointed Vadym Troyan, a senior Azov commander, as the head of Kiev’s police force. Another militia founder was given a different senior police post. These ties were formed when Avakov was a regional governor, cooperating with the neo-Nazi forces of the Patriot of Ukraine, the forerunner of Azov.


Last January the U.S. Congress prohibited any support for the Ukrainian militia. Since Israel’s defense ministry does not divulge any information on arms exports, particularly not to Ukraine, for fear of Russian wrath, it’s difficult to assess the extent of the ties with Kiev, but these are certainly in place.

The petition, submitted by attorney Itay Mack, contains abundant evidence showing the arming of the Ukrainian regime and its Azov forces.

Thus, for example, Ukrainian soldiers have been seen carrying Israeli-made Tavor rifles in military parades in Kiev. In February 2016 it was revealed that Elbit Systems will be part of a group investing in Ukraine’s defense establishment.

In April 2016 the chief of Ukraine’s air force met a representative of an Israeli defense company to discuss the upgrading of communications systems in that country’s warplanes and helicopters. The Ukrainian company “Fort” got Israel’s approval for making Tavor, Negev and Galil rifles.

In the city of Dnepropetrovsk in eastern Ukraine there is a military training school. Its website indicates that training there is provided former IDF officers and that its instructors were trained by Israelis.

The website has a photo of shooting practice with a Tavor rifle. It notes that the school trains units of the National Guard, whose members include Azov militiamen.

In May 2017 Ukraine’s Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman visited Israel and met with Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman to discuss the arming of Ukraine’s military forces.

In December of that year a man claiming to be a former IDF officer was interviewed by Ukrainian media, saying that he had taken part in battles in eastern Ukraine, where he was instructing soldiers. The Azov website also shows militia members using Tavor rifles.

All of this is unambiguous proof that Israel is exporting weapons to Ukraine, knowing that they reach right-wing militias, some members of which are avowed neo-Nazis who enjoy the support of the authorities.

The ministry of defense, as is its wont, refuses to address this issue, responding only in generalities without detailing the considerations underlying its decisions approving arms exports. It seems that in this case the public deserves a more detailed response, as do Ukrainian Jews the Israeli government supposedly claims to protect.

Even if these weapons are currently directed at Russians, one should take into account the reasonable possibility that in the future they will be used to achieve other goals, perhaps aimed at minority groups in the country. It will then be too late to halt the collaboration of the Israeli establishment with the murder of Jews and others. This will be one more chapter in the dismal history of using Israeli firearms in acts such as these.
§AFL-CIO "Solidarity Center" Supported Rightists & Ukraine Priivatization
by Labor Video Project
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The AFL-CIO "Solidarity Center" gets $75 million from the National Endowment For Democracy and was involved in funding trade unionists who were supporting corrupt oligarchs in Ukraine that wanted to privatize the economy.
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The Oakland Democratic Party controlled City Council is voting to support A's an GAP billionaire John Fisher's development project and give him hundreds of millions of dollars in tax funds. These Democratic Party politicians call themselves "progressives" yet are destroying the Port of Oakland and helping a privatizer and union buster.
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Doris Fisher of the Gap: A Billionaire Funding the Privatization of Public Education

By dianeravitch
September 28, 2016
This post is a profile of Doris Fisher, the California billionaire who wants to privatize public schools and open corporate-run charters with no ties to the local community.

“As co-founder of the Gap, San Francisco-based business leader and philanthropist Doris Fisher boasts a net worth of $2.6 billion, making her the country’s third richest self-made woman, according to Forbes. And she’s focused much of her wealth and resources on building charter schools. She and her late husband Donald donated more than $70 million to the Knowledge is Power Program (KIPP) and helped to personally build the operation into the largest network of charter schools in the country, with 200 schools serving 80,000 students in 20 states. Doris’ son John serves as the chairman of KIPP’s board of directors, and she sits on the board herself.

“Doris’ passion for charter schools also fuels her political donations. While not as well-known as other deep-pocketed charter school advocates like Eli Broad and the Walton family (heirs to the Walmart fortune), Fisher and her family have quietly become among the largest political funders of charter school efforts in the country. Having contributed $5.6 million to state political campaigns since 2013, Fisher was recently listed as the second largest political donor in California by the Sacramento Bee – and nearly all of her money now goes to promoting pro-charter school candidates and organizations. While often labelled a Republican, she gives to Democrats and Republicans alike, just as long as they’re supportive of the charter school movement. According to campaign finance reports, so far this election cycle she’s spent more than $3.3 million on the political action committees of charter school advocacy groups EdVoice and the California Charter Schools Association (CCSA), as well as pro-charter candidates. (Christopher Nelson, managing director of the Fishers’ philanthropic organization, sits on the board of CCSA, which, along with EdVoice, declined to comment for this article.)

“Fisher’s philanthropic and political efforts are not as straightforward as simply promoting education, however. Recent investigations have found that she’s used dark-money networks to funnel funds into California campaign initiatives that many say targeted teachers and undermined public education. It’s why many education activists worry about the impact her money is having on California politics – and on California schoolchildren.”

What is less well known than her passion for privatization is that spends millions in “dark money” to harm the state’s public schools.

“Even if some of the charter schools Fisher champions have been a success, she’s secretly supported efforts that critics regard as undermining the success of the public school system and teachers. A recent investigation by California Hedge Clippers, a coalition of community groups and unions, found that Fisher was one of a number of wealthy Californians who in 2012 used a dark money network involving out-of-state organizations linked to the conservative Koch brothers to shield their donations to controversial campaign efforts that year. The money was used to oppose Proposition 30, a tax on high-income Californians to fund public schools and public safety, and support Proposition 32, which, among other things, would have severely limited the ability of organized labor, including teachers unions, to raise money for state and local races.

“At the time of the campaign, none of these donations were public. In fact, fellow charter-school advocate Eli Broad publically endorsed Proposition 30 while secretly donating $500,000 to the dark money fund dedicated to defeating it. And Fisher herself had close ties to Governor Jerry Brown, a key proponent of Proposition 30. Brown’s wife Anne Gust Brown worked as chief administrative officer at the Gap until 2005 and is credited with helping to improve the company’s labor standards, and the Fishers were major financial supporters of Brown’s 2014 campaign to pass Proposition 1, the water bond, and Proposition 2, the “rainy day budget” stabilization act.

“I would imagine that it caused some domestic strife,” says Karen Wolfe, a California parent and founder of PSconnect, a community group that advocates for traditional public schools. “[Anne likely] thought she had the Fishers’ support on her husband’s crowning achievement, a tax to finally balance California’s budget and bring the state out of functional bankruptcy. This was absolutely his highest priority.”

“In total, according to the Hedge Clippers investigation, Fisher and her sons donated more than $18 million to the dark money group. It wasn’t the only time the Fisher family has worked with political organizations known for concealing their financial supporters. In 2006, current KIPP chairman John Fisher gave $85,000 to All Children Matter, a school-privatization political action group in Ohio that was slapped with a record-setting $5.2 million fine for illegally funneling contributions through out-of-state dark money networks. Instead of paying the fine, All Children Matter shut down and one of its conservative founders launched a new group: the Alliance for School Choice, which in 2011 listed John Fisher as its secretary. And last year, Doris Fisher contributed $750,000 to California Charter School Association Advocates, which funneled such donations to a local committee. The names of individual donors wouldn’t be disclosed until after the election.”

How sad that a woman worth more than $2 billion would secretly fund campaigns to block funding of the public schools that enroll 90% of children in California. What is she thinking?
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