In early 2011, the eyes of the world were focused on two very different places: hot and arid Egypt, and cold and snowy Wisconsin. What was it that linked these two places? Nothing more and nothing less than the class struggle which, like the capitalist crisis, is worldwide in nature.

Public sector workers in New York State and City continue to be attacked by Governor Cuomo and Mayor “1%” Bloomberg. These attacks are part of a nationwide effort, in fact, as part of an international strategy, to make the workers both in the public and private sector pay for the continuing crisis of capitalism. The working class can stop these attacks and go on to the offensive, but for this to happen we need a different policy from the labor leaders.

We wear the mask that grins and lies,
It hides our cheeks and shades our eyes,
This debt we pay to human guile;
With torn and bleeding hearts we smile,
And mouth with myriad subtleties.

Paul Laurence Dunbar, We Wear the Mask

Here we go again. Four more years have passed since the last presidential election cycle, and once again, organized labor finds itself with no real options. It is clear that if he were elected president, Mitt Romney would unleash an all-out “Scott Walker on steroids” assault on the working class. But does that mean workers have no option but to vote for the Democrats? Are “political and economic death by hanging” or “political and economic death by drowning” really the only options?

We’ve come a long way since the Workers International League was founded 10 years ago. From our humble beginnings in Fargo, North Dakota, to a dozen modest but growing branches around the country, we have worked hard to begin establishing roots in our unions, workplaces, schools, and communities. These have been tumultuous years of war, revolution, and counter-revolution, and Socialist Appeal has consistently provided news, theory, and analysis from a working class and Marxist perspective.

Well before the current crisis of capitalism shook the entire country, Michigan gave us a glimpse into the future. Michigan was once the seat of the American automotive industry, particularly in Detroit and Flint. Beginning in the late 70s and throughout the 80s, the “Big Three” (GM, Ford, Chrysler) began downsizing their production in Michigan. Seeking lower production costs, they demanded givebacks from auto workers in the form of speed-ups, wage cuts, and layoffs. They also moved production to other countries and to states with low unionization rates.

For the past twelve months, the spirit of revolt and revolution has swept the planet. One Arab dictator after another has fallen. The world has watched as hundreds of thousands “fought like an Egyptian” in Wisconsin. The European masses have protested by the millions against the most vicious austerity in decades. The Occupy movement channelled the frustration of a generation and sparked the imagination of millions.

On February 10, the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) Local 21 and the Export Grain Terminal (EGT) conglomerate announced that the company had finally agreed to recognize the union’s right to represent workers at the company’s new grain port in Longview, Washington. The announcement followed a concerted struggle by longshore workers in this normally quiet corner of the Pacific Northwest, who were accompanied by mass solidarity pickets organized by the Occupy movement.

In their relentless quest for profits, big business must continue to drive down workers' wages, benefits, and conditions—and unions are in their way! Recently, the Indiana state legislature and governor made it the first industrial state in the Northeast/Midwest to adopt so-called "right to work" legislation. This law is intended to weaken and destroy the unions. This is a warning to the labor movement!

Controversy has erupted over the Obama Administration’s directive that all employers, including religious employers, include birth control coverage in their insurance benefits. This once again reminds us that the hard-fought struggles for reproductive freedom and women’s rights in America is far from over.

We recommend a viewing of this 30 minute documentary on poverty in the USA by the BBC’s Panorama team. Millions unemployed. Millions hungry. Millions homeless. Millions without access to health care. These are the facts of life in America at a time when corporate profits, worker productivity, and income inequality are at record highs.

It’s official; with Obama’s State of the Union address, the 2012 election race is underway. But does this really mean that "the era of the 1% is over," as AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka has asserted?

We all observed dramatic battles by organized labor in 2011. There were the broad militant struggles in Wisconsin by public workers responding to the vicious attacks from right-wing Republican Governor Walker. During the summer, CWA & IBEW members went on strike against Verizon. They battled against the demand for givebacks from the very profitable Verizon company. In Ohio, the labor movement mobilized its forces to repeal anti-labor laws by referendum and won a terrific victory, gaining 61% of the vote.

We republish here a graph that was originally published in the New York Times, based on figures from “The State of Working America” by the Economic Policy Institute. It covers the period from 1913 to the present, with a focus on the period after 1947. This is significant because 1947 can be considered the starting point of the post-Word War II economic boom, a period during which the capitalists were extracting so much profit from the workers that they were able to throw them a few extra crumbs. The mass workers’ movements in the 1930s and the strengthening of the unions after the war had taught them a few lessons about how to try to maintain relative class peace.

“Marx was right!” For Marxists, this is not a particularly profound revelation. We have long known that the German revolutionary's analysis of capitalism was as fundamentally sound as the capitalist system itself is fundamentally unsound. But let's face it: for decades, we've been in a small minority, fighting against the stream and against the odds. After spending a long time in the “wilderness,” that is beginning to change. The fact that the more serious capitalist economists are forced to admit the correctness of ideas they once ridiculed is an important symptom of a transformation in public consciousness./(Editorial for Socialist Appeal USA Issue 65/)