January 17, 1975

St. Louis - The fourteenth national convention of the Young Socialist Alliance, which met here Dec. 28-Jan. 1, signaled a major turning point for the YSA.

The delegates voted unanimously to throw the YSA's forces into a nationwide campaign against the racist attempts to block school desegregation in Boston.

A determined fight to defend the rights of Black youth to an equal education, YSA leaders asserted, has the potential to galvanize the student movement. It can initiate a dynamic new civil rights movement of the 1970s, whose logic will point toward challenging the very foundation of racism: the capitalist system itself.

Another element in the excitement and enthusiasm that pervaded the convention sessions was the YSA's confrontation with the FBI.

In the weeks before the convention, news media throughout the country and especially in St. Louis followed the YSA's court battle to bar FBI surveillance of the convention.

The FBI won an eleventh-hour delay in complying with a court order against its surveillance, pending a decision on the entire suit filed by the YSA and SWP against government harassment.

Nevertheless, convention participants felt the fight had done a lot to expose the illegal repressive actions of the government, and laid the basis for winning even broader support for civil liberties in the future.  
 

January 16, 1950

Probing for a vital spot in the mine owners' solid front, the coal miners on Jan. 9 began striking at the "captive" pits of the major steel companies which have been the main hold-outs in the seven-month battle of the United Mine Workers for a new and improved contract.

In spite of their magnificent solidarity and militancy, the miners so far have failed to make any significant breach in the operators line. They are now concentrating on the steel companies, which are operating at close to capacity, in hope they can force a settlement before their depleted resources reach exhaustion.

The long struggle appears headed for a showdown. The mine owners, backed by the whole capitalist class and government, are plainly seeking to impose a crushing defeat on the coal miners.

Time and again in the past decade the miners have pioneered far-reaching demands, like company-financed pensions, which have inspired the struggles of other sections of labor. Time and again their militant methods have won gains that have spurred the rest of labor to action. Above all the miners have relied on their own strength rather than on the government for their gains.  
 
 
Front page (for this issue) | Home | Text-version home