There’s a mood of pride and confidence among textile workers in this small North Carolina company town. On October 20, they forced the giant J.P. Stevens Company to do what it swore for seventeen years it would never do—sign a union contract with the Amalgamated Clothing and Textile Workers Union (ACTWU).

The two and a half year contract covers 3,000 workers in the seven Stevens mills at Roanoke Rapids. Workers will receive an immediate 19.3 percent wage and incentive pay increase.

“We have more rights now,” said a young Black man who had been working for $3.60 an hour in Stevens’s warehouse. “That’s what I really like about it.”  
 
November 21, 1955
On the night of Sept. 15, George Martinez, a 16-year-old Puerto Rican youth, was killed in East Harlem by one of New York’s trigger-happy cops. The boy was shot in the back after he and five other youths fled when approached by detective Philip Dennehy. Dennehy fired once in the air and then shot to kill.

According to the Sept. 16 New York Times, “a woman whose name was withheld had alleged that he (George) had attacked her.” The same report stated that the boy was also “wanted for questioning about other rape cases.”

None of the capitalist papers seriously questioned the possibility that George was an innocent victim. Didn’t he run when he saw a cop?

The truth is that the Puerto Rican people, particularly the youth, live in terror of the police who resort to the most brutal methods in the minority communities.  
 
November 1, 1930
This announcement is not intended for a certain type of “practical people.” We mean the kind who always excuse the fact that they do not read and study the problems of the working class movement with the argument that they are “too busy doing practical work.” Now, practical work is the life’s blood of the revolutionary movement. But unless it proceeds from a clear understanding of fundamental principles, unless it is motivated by correct theories, it is just so much barrel thumping: lots of noise but no content.

In our files we have assembled a pile of material by comrade Trotsky—articles, documents, pamphlets and books— as tall as your leg. We could get small groups of comrades to sponsor these publications. The “sponsorship plan” enables us to sell it at 25 cents a copy, and at 18 cents if you take a bundle of 5 or more. Our editions are limited in number, and you’d better order quickly.  
 
 
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