Contributor: Julia Wong

2012 has been a year of wars. There’s the War on Women – an intense legislative assault on women’s access to reproductive health care – and the War on Workers – be they public sector workers trying to hold on to their right to bargain collectively or private sector workers staving off subcontracting, outsourcing, and union-busting. The battleground in the War on Immigrants has shifted from Arizona to Alabama and, finally, to the US Supreme Court. The War on Moms was an attempt by Republicans to brand Democrats as hostile to stay-at-home mothers, and the Real War on Moms was an attempt by Democrats to refocus the debate on the disastrous effect that right-wing economic, immigration, and health care policies have on poor and working-class women and their families.

On September 8, 2011, 3000 Hyatt hotel workers across the nation walked off the job and traded in their mops and brooms for picket signs and bullhorns. The strikers, including 700 San Francisco workers at the Grand Hyatt and Hyatt Regency hotels, are demanding the right to help themselves and other Hyatt workers across the United States contend with an abusive employer, intent on destroying decent jobs. Specifically, Hyatt workers are demanding the right to picket, strike, and boycott in support of other Hyatt workers to organize, get contracts, or protest abuses, wherever they may occur.