This followed the Mexican government’s refusal November 29 to readmit the deposed tyrant, whose proven record of murder, torture, and theft have made him hated by working people around the world.

The granting of sanctuary is a step toward granting this criminal permanent asylum in the United States.

While pretending to seek the release of the hostages, Carter keeps the crisis boiling by refusing to return the ex-shah to Iran for trial. That simple act would produce instant freedom for the fifty Americans in the embassy.

Instead, administration officials are fabricating war propaganda about the treatment of the hostages. On December 4 the administration charged—without presenting a shred of evidence—that hostages “have been threatened with execution if they fail to cooperate.”

Students occupying the embassy angrily denied the slander.

Twenty-one U.S. warships, including two aircraft carriers, have been sent to the Arabian Sea in preparation for an attack on Iran,

But Carter’s push toward war is making little headway among American working people. Government-inspired rightist demonstrations that monopolized the headlines at the start of the crisis have been increasingly overshadowed by antiwar rallies, teach-ins, and polls showing overwhelming opposition to U.S. military action.  
 
December 13, 1954
The Sixteenth Convention of the Socialist Workers Party, held in Chicago Dec. 3-5, concentrated its main attention on an analysis of the immediate political situation in the United States and the effects of world developments on this situation.

Three days of intensive discussion revolved around important recent changes in the world and domestic political scene. The determination of the tasks and tactical line of the party in light of the political situation was the second primary question considered.

The main reports to the convention were given by Farrell Dobbs, National Secretary of the SWP, James P. Cannon, National Chairman, Murry Weiss and Joseph Hansen, members of the National Committee.

The convention adopted, after extensive discussion, two main resolutions: The Political Situation in the U.S. and the Resolution on the American Labor Movement. The convention also decided to launch a $15,000 fund to promote propaganda for the class struggle socialist program.

The reporter on the Political Resolution cited as the three main factors of the new political situation in the U.S. “the slow-down of Wall Street’s drive towards World War III, the important set-back suffered by the McCarthyites, and the renewal of a trend toward a labor-Democratic Party coalition government as the dominant political perspective for 1956.”  
 
 
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