25, 50 and 75 Years Ago

September 28, 2020

October 2, 1995

Capitalist politicians continue to advance their assault on the social wage of working people with the recent vote of the U.S. Senate to end guarantees of aid for those who land on the welfare rolls. With an overwhelming bipartisan vote, Democrats and Republicans approved a bill September 19 that would impose a five-year time limit on welfare benefits, require most recipients to get jobs within two years of receiving benefits, and abolish the federal mandate of giving assistance to every family that meets eligibility requirements. The bill passed 87 to 12.

[President Bill] Clinton lauded the legislation as a way to “promote work and protect children.” Clinton, who pledged in his election campaign to “end welfare as we know it,” has made “reform” of entitlement programs a center of his domestic policy since coming into the White House.

October 2, 1970

Excerpt from Peter Camejo, Socialist Workers Party candidate for U.S. Senate, debating with incumbent Democrat Ted Kennedy at Boston University.

Last but not least, one thing this generation wants is a little bit of truth. The United States is an imperialist power, it is an aggressor against the Vietnamese and not one single Vietnamese fighting for the liberation of Vietnam is our enemy.

Those 15- and 16-year-old people who are giving their lives every day in Vietnam so their country can be run by Vietnamese for the first time since western imperialism arrived — these are not our enemies. These are our brothers and sisters. We don’t want to kill a single one of them. Not one.

Tell the truth. Who is the aggressor in Vietnam? It is the United States that is the aggressor in Vietnam.

September 29, 1945

DETROIT, Sept. 23 — Undaunted by the delaying policies of their International union leaders, members of the CIO United Automobile Workers are pushing ahead here to vote for strike action as a reinforcement of the union’s demand for a 30 percent wage increase.

A number of “unauthorized” strikes are holding firm despite terrific pressure not only from the auto barons and the government conciliators, but from the International as well. Any such strikes will interfere with the grand “strategy” of the UAW leadership to strike one company at a time, at some unspecified date in the future.

Detroit auto workers have received encouragement from the militant action of the CIO Oil Workers, who all over the country are remaining firm in their strike to obtain a 30 percent increase in spite of partial raises offered by the oil companies.