Rail workers speak out against job cuts, threats to safety

Vol. 83/No. 44 - December 2, 2019
Members of rail union SMART Transportation Division Local 1409 picket in downtown Kansas City, Missouri, Nov. 5, protesting rail bosses’ layoffs that threaten workers’ safety.

LINCOLN, Neb. — Members of International Association of Sheet Metal, Air, Rail, and Transportation Workers — known as SMART — Transportation Division Local 1409 organized an informational picket Nov. 5 in downtown Kansas City, Missouri, to tell people about how…


Washington paraeducators gain teachers support, wage raise

Vol. 83/No. 44 - December 2, 2019

SUMNER, Wash — Paraeducators, who work alongside teachers in the classroom, won a pay raise after a strike Oct. 25-28 against the Sumner-Bonney Lake School District here. The 200 workers, members of Paraeducators Associated, were joined by members of the…


Meatpackers in Quebec strike for higher wages

Vol. 83/No. 44 - December 2, 2019

PRINCEVILLE, Quebec — Some 350 meatpackers at Olymel’s pork kill and cut plant here have been on strike since Oct. 29, demanding higher wages like at other Olymel plants in Quebec. The workers are members of the Confederation of National…


Hundreds protest in London, demand ‘No more Grenfells!’

Vol. 83/No. 44 - December 2, 2019
Demonstrators protest Nov. 14 in London in one of monthly “silent marches” marking 2017 fire in Grenfell Tower where 72 people died after flammable cladding on building ignited.

LONDON — Hundreds joined a Nov. 14 protest marking the 2017 Grenfell Tower fire in which 72 people lost their lives. The monthly “silent marches” are called by Grenfell United, an organization of residents, their family members and others to…


Bakery owner who won victory against college dies

Vol. 83/No. 44 - December 2, 2019

David Gibson, a co-owner of Gibson’s Bakery in Oberlin, Ohio, died at his home Nov. 16. He was 65 years old and had been battling pancreatic cancer. Gibson was a plaintiff in the family’s lawsuit earlier this year when the…


Working farmers face bankruptcy, record debt

Vol. 83/No. 44 - December 2, 2019

Because of the nature of farming under the lash of capitalist competition, almost all working farmers are forced to take out loans to keep farming. As prices for farm produce are falling today, farmers face greater difficulty getting loans as…


Hong Kong workers back students against police attacks

Vol. 83/No. 44 - December 2, 2019

While international media attention has focused on clashes between students and riot police, thousands of office and other workers flooded the streets in downtown Hong Kong in daily lunchtime actions. These demonstrations in support of the protest movement, like the…


Contribute to the 2019 Socialist Workers Party fund

Vol. 83/No. 44 - December 2, 2019

In addition to winning 1,100 people to subscribe to the Militant and get out 1,250 books by revolutionary leaders, Socialist Workers Party members are raising $100,000 to help finance the party’s political work. With area quotas slightly short of the…