Toronto teachers, students protest education cuts

Vol. 83/No. 17 - April 29, 2019
Teachers rally outside Ontario Legislative Assembly to protest education cuts by provincial government that eliminate 3,475 teaching jobs and require students to take more courses online.

TORONTO — Thousands of teachers, students and supporters rallied at the Ontario Legislative Assembly here April 6 to protest education funding cuts proposed by the Progressive Conservative Party-led provincial government. Five unions representing education workers mobilized members from around Ontario,…


Autoworkers in Russia start ‘work to rule’ against layoffs

Vol. 83/No. 17 - April 29, 2019

The autoworkers union at the Ford Sollers plant in Vsevolozhsk, Russia, in the Leningrad region, launched a “work to rule” job action April 8. Some 900 workers are protesting their coming layoff and are demanding a two-year severance package after…


New battalions of working-class fighters in formation in China

Vol. 83/No. 17 - April 29, 2019
Workers block Hi-P company gates in Shanghai, 2011, after bosses announced layoffs. Rapid capitalist growth in China has created big industrial working class with great political potential.

The Book of the Month this week is Capitalism’s World Disorder: Working-Class Politics at the Millennium by Jack Barnes, national secretary of the Socialist Workers Party. The excerpt below, from “Youth and the Communist Movement,” foresaw much of the way…



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…


Cuban health workers deliver aid to cyclone-hit Mozambique

Vol. 83/No. 16 - April 22, 2019
Cuban doctor treats patient in Mozambique after Henry Reeve brigade of health workers arrived to provide care to those injured and ill from devastating Cyclone Idai that hit March 14.

A brigade of 40 Cuban health workers have been in the coastal city of Beira, Mozambique, providing aid to those injured and ill in the wake of a devastating hit there by Cyclone Idai March 14. The storm wreaked havoc…


SWP candidate for State Assembly speaks at community meeting in NJ

Vol. 83/No. 16 - April 22, 2019
Inset, Lea Sherman, Socialist Workers Party candidate for New Jersey State Assembly, and Seth Galinsky, SWP candidate for New York City public advocate, speak at April 1 meeting of Regional Alliance of Students and Professionals at La Luz del Mundo church in Jersey City, New Jersey. Above, Sherman shows meeting participants Militant and Pathfinder books on working-class struggle.

JERSEY CITY, N.J. — Fifty people attended the April 1 meeting of the Regional Alliance of Students and Professionals to hear Lea Sherman, Socialist Workers Party candidate for New Jersey State Assembly, speak about her campaign. The meeting here, part…


Workers protest gov’t raid at factory in Texas

Demonstrate against ICE arrest of 284 workers
Vol. 83/No. 16 - April 22, 2019
Protesters outside factory in Allen, Texas, during April 3 immigration raid. Immigration and local cops surrounded plant, detaining 284 workers, in largest factory raid in decade.

ALLEN, Texas — Two hundred Immigration and Customs Enforcement police and local cops surrounded the CVE Technology Group factory here April 3 and arrested 284 workers. They were accused of not being authorized to work in the U.S. It was…


Rail barons slash training, safety in move to boost profits

Vol. 83/No. 16 - April 22, 2019

Freight rail bosses across North America are cutting training time and standards — on top of reducing crew size and running much longer trains — to save money and boost profits, regardless of the risks to the safety of rail…


SWP moves out to expand political reach of the party

Vol. 83/No. 16 - April 22, 2019
“For years I’ve hated how capitalism pits everyone against each other,” nurse Mickale Hensley, left, in her front yard, told SWP member Maggie Trowe in Williamstown, Kentucky, April 5.

REEDLEY, Calif. — Socialist Workers Party members and supporters from the Bay Area and Los Angeles spent two days in California’s agricultural heartland, the Central Valley, April 6-7. They knocked on doors to meet and get to know fellow working…