Decertification means PATCO is not recognized as a union. The union is appealing the decertification.

PATCO is a member of the AFL-CIO. The decertification of the union and firing of 12,000 strikers is the biggest defeat in the twenty-six year history of the labor federation.

The air controllers union executive board announced October 28: “PATCO members have been locked out by their former employer and could not return to work even if so ordered. [When the Federal Aviation Administration ends the lockout] PATCO would immediately order all of its members to return to work.”

A union spokesperson explained that the decision was reached as “a show of good faith before the appeals court” to win back the union’s certification.

Reagan’s Transportation Secretary Drew Lewis applauded the FLRA ruling: “It reaffirms…that the citizens of this country cannot be allowed to pick and choose the laws they obey.”  
 
November 5, 1956
All the recent capitalist propaganda about Western imperialism and colonialism being a thing of the past, a phenomenon of the 19th Century, has gone down the drain with the invasion of Egypt. There is nothing in the last century’s long list of colonial wars and imperialist land-grabbing that is any cruder than the current British-French-Israeli war against Egypt.

The facts are plain: British and French imperialism in collusion with the Israeli government made plans for an armed attack on Egypt. British and French forces were concentrated on the nearby island of Cyprus which Britain holds only by a reign of terror. Israel began a total military mobilization. When everything was ready the Israeli army invaded Egypt, heading toward Suez…

The brutal aggression against Egypt and the slaughter that the imperialists have begun is motivated by imperialism’s desire not only to control the profitable Suez Canal but to smash the mounting national independence movement of the Arab people which has been inspired by the nationalization of Suez.  
 
November 7, 1931
The dramatic and gigantic convulsions of world capitalism are at present unfolding over a far vaster scene than that of Germany. All attention is converging on England. However, from the point of view of the revolution, the German field must not be lost sight of for a single moment. For the economic reserves of British imperialism are incomparably greater than those of Germany, which have been dilapidated and wiped out by the war….

Nevertheless, the internal situation in Germany is not devoid in important events these last few weeks. Above all, there is the reappearance of the National Socialists on the political arena, as expressed on the one hand, by their return to parliament and, on the other, by extra-parliamentary actions. Thus, on the Jewish New Year the National Socialists organized a veritable little pogrom, similar to their attack on the shop fronts last year. The measures taken against them are of no account, the ring leaders were not even summoned to court. We see therefore, that in view of threatening weather, the bourgeoisie is once more forced to utilize the National Socialists after discarding them for six months … it is obliged to consider once more seriously the prospect of Fascist arms.  
 
 
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