Ukrainian rail workers rally for higher wages, better conditions

Vol. 83/No. 16 - April 22, 2019
Members of Free Trade Union of Railway Workers of Ukraine and union supporters march in Kiev March 19 for wage increase, pensions, medical care and protection against layoffs.

Some 500 rail workers, members of the Free Trade Union of Railway Workers of Ukraine (VPZU), and trade unionists from across the country picketed the central office of Ukrainian Railways in Kiev March 19. The union is demanding a wage…


Ongoing mass protests in Algeria force president to resign

Vol. 83/No. 16 - April 22, 2019
Protesters in Algiers April 9 demand removal of entire government after Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika was replaced by Abdelkader Bensalah. Placard reads, “Bensalah, not fit.”

In response to ongoing protests by hundreds of thousands of people over the past six weeks, Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika resigned April 2. He had ruled the country for the past 20 years. The protests began when Bouteflika, 82, who…


25, 50 and 75 Years Ago

Vol. 83/No. 16 - April 22, 2019

April 25, 1994 For the first time since World War II, Washington is carrying out direct military intervention in a war in Europe. The bombing of sites near Gorazde, Bosnia, came just weeks after U.S. planes shot down four jets…


Protests in Sudan, London demand fall of Omar al-Bashir government

Vol. 83/No. 16 - April 22, 2019
Several thousand protesters in London April 6 demonstrate in solidarity with massive wave of protests across Sudan calling for ouster of regime of President Omar al-Bashir.

LONDON —“The reason we’re all here in the U.K. is because of the regime of President Omar al-Bashir in Sudan. Everyone here has a similar story,” Ahmed Mustapha, a physician working for the National Health Service, told the Militant as…


Jim Spaul: 30 years building the communist movement

Vol. 83/No. 16 - April 22, 2019
Jim Spaul campaigning for the Communist League in Dalston during the 2015 general elections. March 31 meeting in London celebrated Spaul’s political life as a party leader and member of the National Union of Mineworkers. Spaul was “a party man,” speakers said.

LONDON — “Jim Spaul came to recognize more is needed to emancipate the working class than militant trade unionism, as important as that is,” Communist League Central Committee member Jonathan Silberman told a March 31 meeting here to celebrate 76-year-old…


US rulers exploit crisis in Venezuela as pretext to push attacks on Cuba

Vol. 83/No. 16 - April 22, 2019

Washington is using the ongoing economic crisis facing working people in Venezuela to further its main goal in the region — weakening the Cuban Revolution. The U.S. Treasury Department’s latest round of sanctions target two maritime companies and an oil…



Outcry hits attempt to gut Florida voting rights victory

Vol. 83/No. 15 - April 15, 2019

Working people and other supporters of democratic rights are standing up to attempts to undermine a popular victory for the voting rights of ex-prisoners in Florida. Amendment 4 to the state Constitution, which passed by 64.6 percent last November, restores…


Woodfox shines light on prison abuse, solitary confinement

Albert Woodfox, one of the Angola 3, on speaking tour after nearly 44 years in solitary
Vol. 83/No. 15 - April 15, 2019
From left, Ismael Nazario, who was thrown in solitary as a teenager at Rikers Island prison; Albert Woodfox; and David Rothenberg, founder of the Fortune Society, speaking March 28.

NEW YORK — Albert Woodfox spent nearly 44 years in solitary confinement in a 6-by-9 foot cell in Louisiana’s notorious Angola prison. He and fellow prisoners Herman Wallace and Robert King came into the sights of authorities there after organizing…


Iraq protests win firing of governor in ferry disaster

Vol. 83/No. 15 - April 15, 2019
Angry relatives of over 100 killed in sinking of ferry blocked road chanting “no to corruption” when Mosul’s governor arrived March 22. Victims had been celebrating New Year’s holiday.

Thousands took to the streets in the Iraqi city of Mosul March 22, the day after an overcrowded ferry capsized in the Tigris River, killing more than 100 people. “Our demand is the governor’s resignation,” a protester told Kurdistan 24…