LINCOLN, Neb. â It has become increasingly clear to a growing layer of working people over the last year that the fight of the rail workers and their unions against the profit-driven rail bosses and their government allies in Washington is a class against class struggle. All 12 rail unions agreed to strike Dec. 9. âAcross each Class 1 railroad system…
Striking members of United Auto Workers Local 180 and their supporters are building a âSolidarity Dayâ for Dec. 17 to press their contract fight against the bosses at Case New Holland. âItâs being broadcast in a lot of places,â Yasin Mahdi, president of Local 180, told the Militant Nov. 23. âPeople will be bringing presents for strikersâ…
Despite the death of more than 400 protesters and the arrests of thousands, the bourgeois clerical regime in Iran has not been able to stop working people and youth from joining protests and strikes that have swept the country since the death of Mahsa Amini Sept. 16. The young Kurdish woman died three days after she was detained by the âmoralityâ…
SAN FRANCISCO â Conditions facing Chinese in the United States and around the world coping with the fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic and the sharpening conflicts between Washington and Beijing was the theme of this yearâs conference of the International Society for the Study of Chinese Overseas, held here Nov. 11-12. The event was attended by…
Over the last two years there have been at least 170 attacks on Catholic churches across the U.S. In 38 states and the District of Columbia, week after week churches have had services disrupted, windows broken out, bullets shot through doors, or have been spray-painted or set afire. In October alone four churches were damaged, including by a fire set…
The Ukrainian people are waging a determined fight to push Moscowâs invading forces out of their country and restore their sovereignty over all Ukraine. The Kremlinâs incessant airstrikes that have targeted vital infrastructure and left 6 million without power have just intensified their resolve. Russian President Vladimir Putin faces rising opposition…
CHICAGO â The Socialist Workers Party announced Nov. 29 that it is running Ilona Gersh, a lifelong fighter for the interests of the working class, for mayor of Chicago. Gersh is a bakery worker and member of Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers union Local 1. She is challenging a crowded field of varied capitalist candidates in…
Fifty Years of Covert Operations in the US: Washingtonâs Political Police and the American Working Class by Larry Seigle, Farrell Dobbs and Steve Clark is one of Pathfinderâs Books of the Month for December. It marks the capitalist rulersâ decision to turn the FBI into their political police and the historic victory in defense of constitutional…
SAN FRANCISCO â At a Nov. 12 program during the conference of the International Society for the Study of Chinese Overseas here (see accompanying article), three Chinese scientists, all naturalized U.S. citizens, gave powerful accounts of how they stood up to FBI attempts to frame them on espionage and other charges, won support and prevailed. Sherry…
Working people have every interest in backing the struggle of rail workers against the attacks of the bosses and opposing government intervention aimed at crippling their use of union power. Both President Joseph Biden and Speaker Nancy Pelosi seek to turn workers and farmers against rail workers, undermine solidarity with their struggle and weaken…
Shafaq NewsShafaq News SULAYMANIYAH â While browsing at the Pathfinder booth at the book fair, student Nwa Abdullah described a Sept. 28 demonstration here, above, in solidarity with protests in Iran, shortly after the killing of Jina Amini. The demonstration was attacked by riot police using tear gas, as was a demonstration in Erbil. âAttacking…
NEW YORK â âNo matter how many times the right wing defaces this mural, we will restore it,â Marina Ortiz told a couple dozen people at a speak-out in front of the âDos Alasâ (two wings) mural here in the heart of East Harlem Nov. 19. The mural, which depicts Puerto Rican Nationalist leader Pedro Albizu Campos and Argentine-born Ernesto Che…
Howls of impending doom and gloom spread through the liberal capitalist media after the United Nations announced the world population hit 8 billion in November. Many self-appointed population âexpertsâ have determined this means the planet has reached its maximum âcarrying capacity.â Any further growth will spread mounting hunger as the numbers…
LIVERPOOL, England â Some 700 workers at Jacobâs Cream Crackers plant here walked out on an indefinite strike Nov. 14 in a fight for higher wages. The factory is one of several in the country owned by Pladis, which its website says is âone of the worldâs leading snacking companies.â GMB union members began striking one shift per week in September…
LOS ANGELES â Chanting âWhatâs disgusting? Union busting! Whatâs outrageous? Poverty wages,â hundreds of striking University of California at Los Angeles teaching assistants and other workers and their supporters picketed across the campus here Nov. 17. Nearly 48,000 University of California researchers, teaching assistants, graders and others…
LINCOLN, Neb. â A class showdown looms today on the railroads. The largest rail union â the Sheet Metal, Air, Rail and Transportation Workers union, or SMART-TD â which organizes over 30,000 conductors, brakemen, yardmen and some of the locomotive engineers â voted to reject the rail bossesâ latest contract offer. The result of the vote was…
AMHERST, Ohio â Members of International Association of Machinists Local 1802 went on strike here against Nordson Industrial Coatings Systems Nov. 14 after soundly rejecting the companyâs âlast, best and finalâ offer. Their previous contract expired the day before. Over 130 workers are on strike. For the majority itâs the first time theyâve…
âEnclosed is a check for $700 for the Militant. We appreciate the invitation made in the paper to contribute California Gov. Gavin Newsomâs contemptuous bribe aimed at corralling some votes for the Democrats in the 2022 election.â This note came from Jim Altenberg and Carole Lesnick in Oakland. âNo one can possibly believe that the meager check…
Red Zone: Cuba and the Battle Against Ebola in West Africa by Enrique Ubieta is one of Pathfinderâs Books of the Month for November. Ubieta has written about the work of Cubaâs internationalist doctors and nurses in some of the remote areas of Central and Latin America. Here he tells how Cubaâs revolutionary government responded to the call for…
RICHMOND, Calif. â âWhy are workers here angry? Itâs the lack of respect, the arrogance of the company,â striker Frank Aguirre told this Militant worker-correspondent March 27 as I joined him picketing outside the Chevron oil refinery here. The workers went on strike six days earlier, fighting over onerous work schedules, safety and wages. Aguirre…
Moscowâs invasion of Ukraine has been stalled in a number of areas by fierce Ukrainian armed opposition, along with spirited protests in occupied cities. After raining destruction on civilian populations to try to hammer them into submission, Moscow is stepping up efforts to expand and consolidate its hold on territory it has seized in eastern Ukraine…
Moscowâs deadly war against working people in Ukraine was the backdrop for a gathering of imperialist rulers in Brussels March 24. President Joseph Biden and government heads from Germany, Britain, France and 26 other capitalist countries announced decisions to boost NATO deployments across Eastern Europe and impose harsher sanctions against Russia…
AUCKLAND, New Zealand â Students in the Indian state of Karnataka have mounted protests after the stateâs high court March 15 upheld a government ban on young women wearing headscarves in schools and colleges. Muslim students from several parts of the state took to the streets the following day. Shopkeepers in Bhatkal shut their stores in solidarity…
The South Carolina Department of Corrections announced March 18 that it will now organize executions by firing squad, which was legalized last year after a decadelong halt in carrying out any death sentences. The law, adopted last May, makes South Carolinaâs 109-year-old electric chair the stateâs primary means of execution, while granting inmates…
Some 40 people rallied in Miami, above, and then caravanned in 20 cars through the streets of Little Havana to City Hall March 27, part of an international day of action demanding an end to Washingtonâs over 60-year economic war against Cuba. âWe will continue the caravans on the last Sunday of every month until the blockade is lifted,â Roberto…
