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Vol. 72/No. 48      December 8, 2008

 
25, 50 and 75 years ago
 
December 9, 1983
The recent congress of the National Black Independent Political Party (NBIPP) received scant attention from the news media, including most of the Black and left press. Yet for Blacks and for the working class as a whole it was a significant gathering and represented an advance in the consolidation and clarification of a revolutionary Black vanguard.

Many organizations in the Black community, as in the working class as a whole, have politically retreated. They have failed to lead a response to the racist, antilabor offensive of the government and employers. This has led to some setbacks, particularly for the trade unions, some demoralization, and increased polarization.

At the same time, anger in the Black community and among all working people is rising. The willingness to fight back exists. The problem is forging a leadership capable of leading that process.  
 
December 8, 1958
On Oct. 23, 1956, the Hungarian revolution began. Even after the Soviet troops crushed armed resistance to bureaucratic despotism, the workers persisted in their fight. Their heroic general strike lasted into the middle of December.

What were the aims of this great working class struggle? To open the door to capitalist restoration and U.S. imperialist control, say the Stalinist bureaucrats. “Liberation from Communism,” say the State Department propagandists. Both sides slander the revolution.

Nicolas Krasso’s article printed on this page is a reminder that the Hungarian masses fought above all for themselves. They wished to retain the established property forms, institute workers’ democracy, and end Red Army occupation. They wanted the right to determine their own fate as a nation.  
 
December 9, 1933
The Seventh Pan-American conference convened December 3 at Montevideo, Uruguay with twenty-one nations represented. The American delegation arrived prior to the conference to line up puppet delegates and to attempt to iron out and side-track some of the most difficult problems that are sure to upset the conference if they are thrown open for discussion on the floor.

It is convened at a time when the economic life of Latin America is almost at a standstill as a result of the crisis within the leading imperialist nations. The leading capitalist nations, such as the United States, have attempted to shift part of the crisis burden onto the lesser nations of Latin America.

At Montevideo, there will be a meeting of unequals. The conference is an American Imperialist set-up for the benefit of American imperialism.  
 
 
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