Monday, October 17, 2022

Will Lehman

theladiesofthepew

 


Isaiah's latest THE WORLD TODAY JUST NUTS "The Ladies Of THE PEW."


Usman Khan (WSWS) reports:


An autoworker at the Stellantis Sterling Heights Assembly Plant (SHAP) in the metro Detroit area recently spoke to the World Socialist Web Site about his support for Will Lehman’s campaign for president of the United Auto Workers. Lehman is a Mack Trucks worker and a socialist, and is calling for a rank-and-file rebellion to abolish the UAW bureaucracy and bring power to workers on the shop floor.

Mail ballots for the UAW go out this week in the historic election, the first direct-rank and-file election of officers in the history of the union.

Speaking about the significance of the campaign, the worker said, “I feel like this campaign is not just for me it’s for all of the people who come after me. Right now, we have TPTs [temporary part time workers] at my plant who have been temps for over a year and a half, and that’s not fair. I was a TPT for two years before I got rolled over. Whatever changes that people want to see happen in our plant or in the UAW as a whole, then we need to vote for change. And this is the face of change.

“The people just need to read and know about Will and how important this election is. I want to see change, I want to see corruption cease, I want to see us get our fair due diligence. Because we’re not asking for much and the success of the company comes from the sweat off our backs.

“The UAW is now coming in with what they call this ‘historic election’ but I heard that he [incumbent UAW President Ray Curry] didn’t even want there to be direct elections. He didn’t get elected, he got appointed. How can you be up for re-election when you were appointed?

“They’re not telling us about any of the candidates, they’re not saying anything about it. If it wasn’t for me getting the emails from the WSWS Autoworker Newsletter and coming out of work and running into y’all at the turnstile I wouldn’t know about the candidates or Will. There’s one poster on the front door when we come in and it’s not even a candidate for president.


And now here's a statement from Will:

Written By Will Lehman, candidate for UAW president

As candidate for UAW president, I am outraged by Stellantis’ decision to eliminate the third shift at the Warren Truck Assembly Plant. This is an act of corporate terrorism which every worker must oppose.

I campaigned at Warren Truck in August, and spoke to midnight shift workers whose jobs are under threat. Many are single mothers who are now losing their incomes as the winter approaches and as the cost of heat, electricity and other expenses continues to surge. Others quit full-time jobs with vacation time and other benefits because company, city, and UAW officials claimed their jobs were secure.

Lehman speaking to Warren Truck workers in August 2022

In response to the job cuts, UAW Local 140 President Eric Graham declared, “No one is being laid off.” This is a lie, and he knows it. In a letter to the state of Michigan, copied to Graham, the plant manager says, the move “may result in a job loss” which “are considered to be permanent.” It continues, “Affected employees who are represented by UAW Local 140 will not have bumping rights…”

Hundreds of supplemental and temporary workers may lose their jobs on the third shift or be bumped off from other shifts. The UAW bureaucrats may consider SEs as “nobodies” who can be tossed out like garbage, but these are our brothers and sisters, and we must defend them.

Last week, the company sent its top manufacturing executive from Europe, Arnaud Deboeuf, to threaten workers at the factory. If they did not bow to management’s demands for higher productivity, he said, the entire factory could be shut down. Far from opposing this blackmail, the UAW officials functioned as the message boys for the auto bosses. Now the company has carried out the first phase of its attack.

My campaign for UAW president is aimed at building a mass movement of the rank and file to stop this type of corporate terrorism. I am the only candidate for UAW president who is advancing a workers’ agenda and a socialist agenda. I am not concerned with the privatized profits of the corporations and the payouts to the corporate executives, shareholders and UAW bureaucrats. My only concern is with the welfare of workers—SEs, second-tier, legacy and retirees.

This is not only an attack on Warren Truck workers. It is a message to workers at JNAP, SHAP, Mack, Toledo, Belvidere, and all the other plants, including at GM and Ford. With the contract coming up next year, the companies are going to use the threat of mass unemployment, and the collusion of the UAW apparatus, to demand new concessions from workers.

There is a basic principle for the workers’ movement, which the UAW bureaucrats have long defiled: “An injury to one, is an injury to all!” It is the responsibility for all workers to come to the defense of the Warren Truck workers and to prepare collective action to defend every single job.

If the companies say they need fewer workers to build cars, trucks and electric vehicles, what they really mean is they require fewer hours of labor. If that’s the case, then the rational solution is to reduce the number of hours we work, from 40 to 30 hours, with no loss of pay, rather than cutting jobs. The company has pocketed more than enough from our labor to secure the jobs and living standards of the workers who build these vehicles.

Stellantis made a net profit of $7.98 billion in the first half of 2022, up 34 percent compared to the first half of 2021. It paid its CEO, Carlos Tavares, $20.5 million, more than 300 times the average worker, plus a stock and long-term compensation package of nearly $60 million. It was the workers, including the workers at Warren Truck, who produced the wealth, not Tavares, Deboeuf and the other corporate executives.

To stop the competition between workers to see who is going to work for the worst pay and conditions, and to protect all jobs, we must build rank-and-file committees to transfer power from the corrupt UAW apparatus to workers on the shop floor. It is time the autoworkers in Detroit and other cities to draw a hard line: No to corporate terrorism. Yes, to the right of every worker to a secure and good paying job! To help carry forward this fight, support my campaign for UAW president.



This is C.I.'s "Iraq snapshot" for Monday:


Monday, October 17, 2022.  Barham Salih has another public hissy fit, $2.5 billion disappears from the Iraqi government, the western press struggles with anogognosia psychosis, and much more.


Let's start off with the press' anosognosia psychosis.


Last week, US President Joe Biden yet again wrongly stated that his son Beau Biden died in Iraq and the press has been itself into pretzels trying to insist that the emperor had clothes on.  No, he didn't.  He has a break with reality and needs to be removed from office.


Beau did not die in Iraq and the more you humor Joe, the more of a whore you look like.  Even if you want to argue that the cancer Beau died of resulted from exposure to burn pits in Iraq, Beau still didn't die in Iraq.  He left Iraq in 2009 and he died in 2016.

 


He came back to the US and won another term as attorney general in Iowa. It was that second term that enraged many when he let a predator walk.  From WIKIPEDIA on Dupont heir Robert H. Richards IV:


In 2009, he entered a guilty plea and was convicted of raping his 3-year-old daughter,[1][5][6][7][8][9] after the girl reported the abuse to her grandmother.[4] Instead of serving out his eight-year prison sentence, the sentencing order signed by Delaware Superior Court Judge Jan R. Jurden said that the "defendant will not fare well" in prison and thus the eight-year sentence was suspended.[5][7][9][10] Delaware Public Defender Brendan J. O'Neill expressed surprise that Jurden would use such a rationale to avoid sending Richards to prison.[5][7]

In 2010, allegations were made that Richards had also molested his son beginning in December 2005 and continuing for two years.[1][6][4] Police and prosecutors investigated but did not find sufficient evidence to pursue charges.[6] Delaware Attorney General Beau Biden later defended the sentencing of Richards to probation, claiming there was a strong chance of the prosecution losing at trial making a plea bargain necessary.[11] Although Richards was ordered by Jurden to go through in-patient treatment at a Massachusetts facility, he has failed to do so.[12][11]

In 2014, Richards' former wife, Tracy Richards, filed a lawsuit seeking damages for the abuse of his daughter.[1][5][8][9][10] The lawsuit also claims that the polygraph tests Richards took in April 2010 during his probation supported allegations that he had molested his son.[1][6][4][8][9] These reports were provided to Jurden.[11] In April 2014, Superior Court Judge Richard F. Stokes denied Richards' request to seal the court files, stating that the proceedings were open to the public and this was a First Amendment issue.[12] By the end of June 2014, it was reported that a sealed confidential settlement had been reached on the lawsuit.[13]

Critics questioned if Richards's wealth and prominence led to unfair preference in the legal system.[7][14] The case was compared to Ethan Couch, whose "affluenza" defense infamously earned him probation for killing four people while driving intoxicated.[14]


That's nothing to be proud of.  Wonder where Beau learned that it was okay to let a predator off scott free?  


We're not done with the psychosis of the press.

What can we do with Clemence Michallon?  Not shoot her with a camera -- have you seen that nose and chin/  Like many a looks-challenged person, she sought out print media and now she writes garbage for England's INDEPENDENT newspaper.  It's not really independent.  For all the whoring in the early '00s about that paper, the reality is they weren't calling out the Iraq War. In fact, their leading columnist -- a Tony Blair obsessed writer -- was calling for the war.  Clemence isn't that damaging -- but almost.  Her latest garbage -- and remember, this is a British paper -- includes this:



It remains unclear what part of that call Fox News thought was so richly deserving of a call-out. Was it the very human fact that Hunter Biden, like tens of thousands of Americans, found himself struggling with substance abuse – a fact he and his family have addressed openly multiple times, including when Hunter detailed his road to sobriety in his 2021 memoir? Or was it that Joe Biden – the US president, the commander-in-chief – dared speak to his son with genuine love and sentiment? Or was it a bit of both?
[. . .]

It’s a well known fact in the world of substance abuse advocacy that substance abuse is a disease, not a moral failing – not that you would know it watching Fox News. We’re all vulnerable to it. Almost 92,000 people died of drug overdoses in the US in 2020, and they are now the leading cause of accidental deaths in the country. How could anyone think that a president responding with open love and compassion to his son’s struggles is in any way shameful? If anything, I hope it might make others feel less alone, and possibly provide them with a template to communicate their own support to their own loved ones.


For those of you who feel you can't enjoy it because it's the awful INDEPENDENT (they have a war with the online world -- the US-based DATALOUNGE is only one of many sites fighting back), please note the link goes to YAHOO's re-posting of their bad article.

What do you say to someone as stupid as they are ugly?


'This is mocking people with addiction issues!'

Actually, you stupid idiot, it's not.  First off, accountability.  Rigorous honesty.  Don't write another damn word about substance abuse advocacy until you know something about recovery.
  
Hunter's never gotten honest.  And the press didn't demand that he do so.  I'm not even talking about the laptop and about how he sold access to his father -- which is illegal -- and how Joe knew about it all along (they had shared accounts, buy a damn clue if you're still in denial).  I'm talking about his behaviors.  I'm talking about prostitutes.  I'm talking about illegal activities.  

And not only is Hunter not practicing rigorous accountability, when these issues pop up, trash like dog-face Clemence show up to insist that discussing these details, raising them, is awful and hideous.  I pointed out here how wrong this was years ago and it's still going on and it's still wrong.  

He has nothing to do with his child.  His parents (Joe and Jill) have nothing to do with his child.

It's not Navy Joan's fault that she was conceived during one of Hunter's never-ending benders.  

If Clemence wants to act concerned, how about showing concern for a true innocent.  Navy Joan is a Biden.  She gets nothing from that family.  They refuse to invite her to activities.  Her grandfather is the president of the United States and this family is getting away with slighting her on the world stage.  It's outrageous.  Even with that big nose on her face, Celemence should be able to see that.

But instead she wants to pretend she understands addiction when she doesn't understand a damn thing.  It's outrageous when people like her try to speak to this issue without knowing anything.  See Ruth's "Jill Biden is a lousy grandmother" for more on the topic of Navy Joan but start asking yourself what type of person you really are if you're choosing to pretend that it's normal for this little girl to be rejected by the Biden family?  If you really think that it is, you're sicker than Celemence. 



And, buy a clue, Hunter is still active in his disease.  Any counselor would have made clear to him that he shouldn't get married until he had significant sobriety under his belt.



He is not going to meetings and he's relapsing as we speak.


AFP reports:


Iraqi authorities are investigating the "theft" of $2.5 billion from the tax authority, officials said Sunday, in the latest corruption case to hit the country. 

State news agency INA reported Saturday that an internal probe by the finance ministry found the money had been withdrawn from the agency's account at a state-owned bank.


Iraq has one of the most corrupt governments in the world -- as ranked by Transparency International.  The Iraqi people suffer and the government rips everyone off.  Over and over.  REUTERS notes:

Local media have published a document from the tax authority showing the money had been withdrawn between September 2021 and August 2022.

It had been transferred to the accounts of five companies using 247 cheques, and immediately withdrawn from those accounts.

 “Who are the real owners of these companies?” asked Iraqi political analyst Sajad Jiyad on Twitter. “Who authorised these cheques to be given to the companies? How did it go undetected for a year, and which politicians are complicit?”

Ihsan Ismail, the recently discharged acting finance minister, pointed to a ‘specific group’ in a statement, without elaborating.



Ismaeel Naar and Sinan Mahmoud (THE NATIONAL) report:

Iraq’s prime minister-designate Mohammed Shia Al Sudani vowed on Sunday to act against corruption after authorities announced nearly $2.5 billion was embezzled from the account of a government agency.

The Iraqi Integrity Commission announced it was opening an investigation into the theft of 3.7 trillion dinars, while confirming that the case is currently before the judiciary.

The amount was stolen from the General Tax Authority's trust account held by a branch of the Rafidain Bank, according to the Iraqi finance ministry.


He's going to act against corruption?  They've been saying that since Nouri al-Maliki in 2006.  So far, it's just been words.  Maybe that won't be the case with Mohammed Shia al-Sudani?  Time will tell.



Mustafa remains the 'caretaker' prime minister at present and he is in charge, it happened on his watch.  But, again, it's happened on everyone's watch. 












Dropping back to Friday's snapshot:

It took a year and three days after the election, but Ira finally announced a new president yesterday.  The moment was not without drama.  ALJAZEERA reports, "Rashid replaced fellow Iraqi Kurd Barham Saleh as head of state after the two-round vote in parliament on Thursday, winning more than 160 votes against 99 for Saleh, an assembly official said. Saleh reportedly walked out of the parliament building as the votes were tallied."  Saleh finally leaves.  He wasn't content to be president of Iraq, he tried to ignore the Constitution during his tenure and elevate the position of president to that of prime minister.  A complicit foreign media helped him out -- in part to make it appear Iraq was more stable than it actually was.  

Saleh's hissy fit might make some believe that Abdul is from a different political party.  Nope.  PUK. 

Barham Saleh continued his public hissy fit after the announcement.   KURDISTAN 24 reports:

President Latif Rasheed officially assumed his duties in Baghdad on Monday in the absence of his predecessor Barham Salih.

In a formal ceremony held in Peace Palace in Baghdad’s Jadiriyah neighborhood, the 78-year-old president was inaugurated as the 10th president of the country.

The national anthem was played as President Rasheed inspected the Guards of Honor. First Lady Shanaz Ibrahim Ahmed took part in the presidential inauguration as well.


THE NATIONAL also notes Salih's hissy fit, "Mr Salih, who received 99 votes in both rounds, did not attend the handover ceremony."



Isaiah's THE WORLD TODAY JUST NUTS "House Reject, House Mess and House Dunce" went up Friday, "Take A Moment To Enjoy The PEW" went up Saturday and "Enjoy THE PEW" went up Sunday.  The following sites updated:


Posted by at