August 7, 1995
The decision by President Jacques Chirac in France to resume nuclear weapons testing on Moruroa, one of its colonial possessions in the Pacific, should be roundly condemned by working people throughout the world.
Some 50,000 people in Fiji have already signed a petition to the French government, declaring: “The Pacific and its people have been the testing ground for nuclear powers since 1945. Fifty years after the bombing of Hiroshima it is time to stop.”
Imperialist rulers in Australia and New Zealand have seized on opposition to nuclear testing as an opportunity to mount a nationalist campaign against their rivals in Paris.
Workers, farmers and youth should join together in protesting the resumption of French nuclear testing; at the same time we must vigorously oppose every attempt by capitalist rulers to whip up national chauvinism.
July 31, 1970
Black municipal workers in Jackson, Miss., voted to return to work July 21, ending a tumultuous three-week strike. The nearly 800 sanitation and maintenance workers, about one-third of Jackson’s city employees, did not win their central demand, union recognition. However, the city agreed to begin negotiations.
In addition to union recognition and a wage increase, the Black workers had been demanding an anti-discrimination clause, a health plan, a seniority system. The strike is the first of municipal employees in the history of Jackson, and the first time all Black workers have walked off the job in the Deep South demanding union recognition.
The Black municipal employees of Jackson point to the future forces and issues which will emerge in the battles to transform their unions into revolutionary instruments struggling for fundamental changes in society.
July 28, 1945
LOS ANGELES — More than 14,000 persons answered the call of the anti-fascist united front, organized to demonstrate against Gerald L.K. Smith and his fascist movement by attending a meeting at the Olympic auditorium.
A leaflet distributed by the Socialist Workers Party outside the protest meeting called for the formation of anti-fascist committees in every shop, which would enable labor’s forces to be mobilized rapidly for defense against fascist actions.
Additionally, the program urged continuance of the united front which prepared the demonstration and the broadening of the united front by the inclusion of representatives from every local union, organization of mass picket demonstrations against any further meetings Smith may attempt, and the building of an independent labor party.