In defense of the US working class

SWP leader at Havana event answers question: ‘Can working people in US make a socialist revolution?’
Vol. 82/No. 23 - June 11, 2018
Striking teachers at West Virginia Capitol in Charleston, Feb. 26, 2018, as one of most significant labor battles in U.S. in decades exploded. Teachers and other school workers went on strike statewide, winning support from students, parents, churches and other unions. Strikes and protests spread to Oklahoma, Kentucky, Arizona, Colorado, and North Carolina. “What happened there is a living refutation of the portrait of working-class bigotry and ‘backwardness’ painted by middle class liberals and much of the radical left,” says Socialist Workers Party leader Mary-Alice Waters.

The following is the talk by Mary-Alice Waters to a conference organized by the Cuban Institute of History and the Central Organization of Cuban Workers (CTC) in Havana, Cuba. Waters is a member of the National Committee of the Socialist…


Los Angeles teachers rally for contract, win support

Vol. 82/No. 23 - June 11, 2018
Thousands of teachers and their supporters rallied in Los Angeles May 24. Members of United Teachers Los Angeles have worked without a contract for a year. Their demand for increased funding mirrors that of other school workers’ actions around the country.

LOS ANGELES — “Arm me with a fair contract!” read placards held by several thousand members of United Teachers Los Angeles and their supporters in a union-organized rally of 4,000 here May 24. The L.A. teachers fight for a contract…


Widespread support for 2-day U.K. hospital workers strike

Vol. 82/No. 23 - June 11, 2018

WIGAN, England — “I am proud of what we have done. They thought we were the small people. They thought they could get away with this outsourcing, but we’ve showed them we are not minions,” Amanda Grimes, a cleaner and…


Ukraine rail workers work-to-rule, refuse unsafe equipment

Vol. 82/No. 23 - June 11, 2018

Members of the Free Trade Union of Railway Workers of Ukraine (VPZU) employed at the state-owned rail company have been working strictly to company rules since May 14, refusing to operate dangerous equipment. The actions started at six depots and…


Teamsters strike Dr Pepper bottler, get solidarity

Vol. 82/No. 23 - June 11, 2018
Chicago Teamsters on strike against American Bottling Company on picket line in Northlake, Illinois, May 22, joined by Walmart and other workers, bringing solidarity with union fight.

Some 140 truck drivers, members of Teamsters Local 727, struck the American Bottling Company May 22, setting up lively picket lines at the Northlake and Harvey facilities outside Chicago, where some 800 workers are employed. Drivers at the company, which…



How US working people have fought back

Vol. 82/No. 23 - June 11, 2018

“From Clinton to Trump: How US working people are responding to the antilabor offensive of the bosses, their parties and their government” was the title of the second part of the program on the class struggle in the US at…


25, 50 and 75 Years Ago

Vol. 82/No. 17 - April 30, 2018

May 3, 1993 President Bill Clinton and Attorney General Janet Reno are responsible for the cold-blooded murder of 86 people, including 17 children, outside Waco, Texas. Tens of millions of people watched in horror on TV the inferno that culminated…


Correction

Vol. 82/No. 17 - April 30, 2018

In issue no. 16, the photo caption on page 4 should have said the teachers’ rally took place in Tucson, Arizona, April 4, not Phoenix on March 28.