Vol. 71/No. 25      June 25, 2007

In 1997, while pregnant with her first child, McAliskey was arrested on the same charges and held in Belmarsh maximum security prison. She gave birth to her daughter in Holloway women's prison hospital. Faced by an international solidarity campaign and the collapse of the prosecution case, Jack Straw, the British minister of justice, ended what he called an "unjust and oppressive" prosecution. In 2000, the British Public Prosecution Service ruled there was no credible evidence in the case and formally closed it.

After a hearing at Belfast Recorders' Court, McAliskey was freed on £2,500 bail (US$4,920), and a hearing was set for June 6.

Twelve years ago, an international campaign to free her helped stop the British frame-up machine in its tracks. Perhaps this will be needed again.

Roy Inglee
Elsmere, Delaware

Illinois coal miners' strike
I read an article on the Militant's web site about the strike at Freeman United Coal Mines in Illinois in the late 1990s. I was one of the replacement workers who came from West Virginia to work at Crown 2. When we came there we were told we would only maintain the mine so that it was ready to operate when the strike was over. We all know that was a lie. To this day I am sorry for what we did. We were wrong. In the 1930s my father was a union organizer in eastern Kentucky. I know he would not approve of what took place.

Doug Sparks
Findlay, Ohio

'Illegal' immigrants
G.W. Bush, his Republican clan, corporate greed, and their thirst for cheap labor are the real reason for the influx of illegal immigrants in the U.S. Why don't you gang up on G.W. and the corporations to try to make life better in say, Mexico, for starters?

Make these people realize (the illegals) it's up to them to improve their own country, not ride on our shirt tail. They have set back U.S. labor standards by at least 50 years with their cheap labor. An excellent motto should be, "Protest in your own country!"

I will not renew my subscription until the Militant has shown some compassion for the struggling American worker. I am a retired union member.

Ed Coleman
Shasta Lake, California
 
 
Related articles:
1,500 rally in Connecticut to protest immigration raid
'La migra' grabs 7 in New Jersey
Immigration bill stalled in Senate
Solidarity tour held in Los Angeles for Massachusetts workers arrested by ‘la migra’
Capitalists cut wages and take away jobs, not immigrants  
 
 
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