First published by the World Socialist Web Site on the US oil workers strike that began on February 1, 2015, these articles are vital reading for all wishing to gain a deeper understanding of this significant movement of the working class in the heart of world capitalism. After decades in which the unions have attempted to suppress the class struggle, the development of the oil workers strike is a symptom of immense social tensions in the US and the deep resentment felt by working people over declining living standards under conditions where the stock market and corporate profits are at record levels.
Placing the strike in its broader political, historical and international context, these essays examine the role of the United Steelworkers, which has sabotaged the struggle, limiting the walkout to a fraction of the oil workers it organizes and politically subordinating it to the Democratic Party and the Obama administration.
From the beginning of the strike, the Socialist Equality Party insisted on the need for a new political strategy to break the isolation of the oil refinery workers by mobilizing the working class in the US and globally as part of a conscious fight directed against the capitalist profit system.
