25, 50 and 75 Years Ago

August 24, 2020

August 28, 1995

HAVANA, Cuba — “Capitalism and social development have been, are, and will be eternally irreconcilable,” said Cuban president Fidel Castro here August 6 at the closing session of the “Cuba Lives” International Youth Festival.

The capitalist world of the 21st century “offers no future” for youth and working people, Castro told the delegates.

“There have been struggles in the United States itself,” Castro said, “which, it must be said, have resulted in a series of social gains: the struggle of the Black population for their rights, a historic battle; the struggles of national minorities; the struggles of the unemployed; the struggles of the poor; women’s struggle.”

Delegates stayed in the homes of Cuban families, participated in discussions and debates, and joined half a million people in a march August 5 in support of the Cuban revolution.

September 4, 1970

Aug. 29 will be warmly saluted by all opponents of the war in Vietnam and all fighters against imperialism everywhere in the world. The National Chicano Moratorium, and the local Moratoriums in Chicano communities across the country leading up to it, make the Chicanos the first of the oppressed minorities in the heartland of U.S. imperialism to organize a significant independent mass movement against the Vietnam war.

The Moratorium will greatly aid the development of other forms of mass, independent political action.

The Chicano Moratorium will be a concrete demonstration of solidarity between an oppressed national minority in the imperialist heartland and the oppressed peoples of Southeast Asia who are fighting the same system of racist oppression. Nothing can be more threatening to the rulers of the United States.

August 25, 1945

The bandits of American imperialism, drunk with power at the successful conclusion of their “war for democracy,” now seek to take the place of the Japanese imperialists as the exploiters and oppressors of the Chinese people.

After eight years of bitter struggle for the independence of their country, the Chinese people are ready to take their fate into their own hands. The bloody Kuomintang dictatorship of Chiang Kai-shek faces destruction.

China was the greatest single stake in the Pacific war. Wall Street is intent upon subjugating this great country and enslaving its people. That is the purpose of American intervention.

The American workers must proclaim their solidarity with the Chinese workers and peasants. From the ranks of organized labor a thunderous demand must go up: Hands off China! Down with imperialist intervention!