25, 50 and 75 Years Ago

Vol. 84/No. 26 - July 6, 2020

July 3, 1995 NEWARK, New Jersey — Drawing the line on the inhuman conditions under which they were forced to live, hundreds of immigrant men and women, originating from more than 40 countries, seized and held for almost six hours…


Oberlin College appeal tries to turn criminal into the victim

Vol. 84/No. 26 - July 6, 2020
Allyn Gibson Sr. talking with children outside his Oberlin, Ohio, store. Appeal of court decision against Oberlin College officials deepens race-baiting smear campaign against Gibsons family.

Perpetuating their smear campaign against the Gibson family who own a small bakery, Oberlin College asked the Ohio Court of Appeals June 5 to overturn a 2019 jury verdict finding the college and Dean of Students Meredith Raimondo guilty of…


Alan Harris: 65-year leader of the communist movement

Vol. 84/No. 25 - June 29, 2020
Alan Harris and his wife Connie played a decisive role in the struggle to establish modern communist party in the U.K. Before moving there, Harris had been a leader of the communist movement in Canada. Above, Harris, front center, marches at 1987 miners’ gala in Mansfield. Right, Harris promotes Militant and Malcolm X, Black Liberation, and the Road to Workers Power at London 2010 protest against social welfare cuts.

LONDON — “Alan Harris was a proletarian party-builder,” said Jonathan Silberman, organizer of the Central Committee of the Communist League in the United Kingdom, welcoming people to a gathering here May 31 to celebrate Harris’ life and political contributions. “Alan…


Workers need to break from dead end of ‘lesser evil’ politics

Vol. 84/No. 25 - June 29, 2020
Nov. 12, 1938, Socialist Appeal, as the Militant was named then, explained how “New Deal demagogy” of President Franklin Roosevelt was “losing its mass hold.” This opened door for workers to build their own party, a labor party, to answer rulers’ attacks and drive to war.

The Lesser Evil? Debates on the Democratic Party and Independent Working-Class Politics by Jack Barnes and others is one of Pathfinder’s Books of the Month for June. The excerpt is from a 1965 debate between Barnes, now national secretary of…


25, 50 and 75 Years Ago

Vol. 84/No. 25 - June 29, 2020

July 3, 1995 Hundreds of thousands of workers joined marches across South Africa June 19 to demand passage of legislation, which will wipe out apartheid-era labor law, culminating a two-week mass action campaign. Apartheid labor law codified the superexploitation of…


Atlanta cop charged with felony murder

Rayshard Brooks killed with 2 shots in the back
Vol. 84/No. 25 - June 29, 2020
June 15 Atlanta march organized by NAACP. Protests continue across the U.S., worldwide.

ATLANTA — “When I heard the news about the killing last night, I decided it was time to stand up,” 18-year-old James Teasley told the Militant in Atlanta June 13, as he joined his first demonstration. Protests erupted throughout the…


Workers fight bosses, gov’t attacks as crisis unfolds

Vol. 84/No. 25 - June 29, 2020

Important vanguard struggles are taking place around the world by workers fighting against efforts by the bosses to expand production and profits on our backs. From strikes by fruit packers in the Yakima Valley in Washington state, to textile workers…


Young people grab ‘Militant,’ books as they join in protests

Vol. 84/No. 25 - June 29, 2020
SWP congressional candidate Willie Cotton, left, and SWP member Tamar Rosenfeld, wearing sign, talk with other participants at New York police brutality protest June 7. “There’s a thirst for books about Black struggle, women’s emancipation, revolutionary history,” Cotton said.

“I want that book,” the young man pointing to Women’s Liberation and the African Freedom Struggle told Socialist Workers Party campaigner Tamar Rosenfeld at the party’s literature table during one of the many protests against police brutality in New York…


What is the road to end police brutality once and for all

Vol. 84/No. 25 - June 29, 2020

Following the cop killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, a powerful wave of protests has swept across the world, penetrating into hundreds of small towns and rural areas across the U.S., drawing a whole new generation of youth into political…


Cuba’s revolution is an example for working people everywhere

Vol. 84/No. 25 - June 29, 2020
One million strong rally at Havana Presidential Palace, Jan. 21, 1959, demonstrates in support of revolution with Fidel Castro, facing camera on right. In course of revolution, workers and farmers in Cuba transformed themselves, taking control of their country and their destiny.

The Cuban Revolution — a historic victory won in struggle by the workers and farmers of Cuba in 1959 and defended for more than six decades — is a striking alternative to the dog-eat-dog, “look out for number one” morality…