Build fighting unions! Pensions for all!

Vol. 82/No. 28 - July 30, 2018

With 1.3 million workers holding pension plans that are heading toward insolvency and millions more dependent on Social Security payments you can’t live on, there is a pressing need for labor to lead a fight for government-guaranteed pensions at union…


Great 1877 Strike showed class-struggle road for US workers

Vol. 82/No. 28 - July 30, 2018
Blockade of engines at Martinsburg, West Virginia, during 1877 rail strike. "The first eruption against the oligarchy of capital which had developed since the Civil War," wrote Karl Marx, showed one key component of the class forces - the working class, oppressed toilers who are Black and exploited farmers - that would come together to lead the revolution in the U.S.

The “Great Strike” of 1877 started among rail workers and then drew in more than half a million overall. Karl Marx wrote that the strike “could very well be the point of origin for the creation of a serious workers’…


‘Revolutionary war began liberation of women in Cuba’

Vol. 82/No. 28 - July 30, 2018
Above, participants in International May Day Brigade to Cuba hear from combatants in Cuba's revolutionary war. Inset, Teté Puebla, left, and Pérsida Chibás Ponce joined Rebel Army in their teens, were transformed in revolutionary struggle.

  HAVANA — One of the high points for participants in the International May Day Brigade to Cuba this spring was having the opportunity to hear from some of the combatants who took part in the revolutionary war there. Led…


New Zealand retail store workers fight bosses’ attacks

Vol. 82/No. 27 - July 23, 2018

AUCKLAND, New Zealand — Hundreds of Farmers department store workers across New Zealand, members of the First Union, went on strike for up to five hours July 5 to press demands for better wages and conditions. “‘Performance pay’ is the…


Correction

Vol. 82/No. 27 - July 23, 2018

The article “Rail Bosses Press for Longer Freight Trains, Less Workers,” in Militant issue no. 25 incorrectly said 72 people died in the Lac-Mégantic disaster. It was 47.


25, 50 and 75 Years Ago

Vol. 82/No. 27 - July 23, 2018

July 26, 1993 Working people should demand Congress reverse its June 30 vote upholding the Hyde amendment, which bans federal funds for abortions. It denies millions of women — mainly working-class women — their right to decide when and whether…


Vermont nurses call strike for wages, staffing

Vol. 82/No. 27 - July 23, 2018

BURLINGTON, Vt. — Nurses at the University of Vermont Medical Center are holding a two-day work stoppage July 12-13 to demand a 24 percent wage increase, fuller staffing to assure patients’ health and safety and a $15 minimum wage for…


Pittsburgh protests continue in fight to convict cop who shot Antwon Rose

Vol. 82/No. 27 - July 23, 2018

Protests against the killing of 17-year-old African-American high school student Antwon Rose by East Pittsburgh cop Michael Rosfeld have continued since he was shot in the back June 19. Rosfeld was arrested and charged with criminal homicide, which could result…


Washington, Moscow seek new Mideast arrangement

Vol. 82/No. 27 - July 23, 2018

Washington seeks to use the July 16 summit in Helsinki, Finland, between President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin to open deeper collaboration with Moscow on future alignments in the Middle East. The U.S. rulers’ goal is to get…


‘We need to tell the truth’ about US colonial rule in Puerto Rico

Vol. 82/No. 27 - July 23, 2018
San Juan protest Jan. 20. Sign carried by man in middle says, “Energize our town Torrecillas. Without light since Irma.” Sign at left says, “We can’t take any more abuses against the poor.”

On July 3 the government-owned electric company of Puerto Rico claimed electricity had been restored to 99.9 percent of its customers. That was little consolation to the over 2,000 mostly rural households still without power nearly 10 months after Hurricane…