Teachers in Minnesota strike 3 days, demand more hiring

Vol. 84/No. 13 - April 6, 2020

ST. PAUL, Minn. — Teachers ended a three-day strike March 13 that shut down public schools here, the first such walkout since 1946. The St. Paul Federation of Educators, with 3,600 members, picketed schools each morning and held spirited rallies…


Algeria rulers use pretext of virus outbreak to bar protests

Vol. 84/No. 13 - April 6, 2020
Demonstrators at Feb. 28 anti-government protest in Algiers. Placard reads: “The authority and its supporters are deadlier than the coronavirus.” After year of massive protests, military-dominated regime used justification of virus crisis to ban demonstrations March 17.

The Algerian government has faced weekly street protests for political rights across the country for more than a year. It has unleashed repression, offered cosmetic concessions and tried to sow divisions among demonstrators. Nothing it has done has prevented working…


British gov’t debates impact of Huawei deal on US trade bloc

Vol. 84/No. 13 - April 6, 2020
Technician installs 5G network in South Korea. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has clashed with party members and Washington over decision to allow Huawei to put 5G in U.K.

LONDON — Prime Minister Boris Johnson has faced down a revolt by some Conservative Members of Parliament. They had opposed his January decision to approve involvement of the Chinese company Huawei in building the next generation of the U.K.’s 5G…


Workers donate Walmart ‘blood money’ to the SWP

Vol. 84/No. 13 - April 6, 2020

This week several Walmart workers in the Twin Cities in Minnesota sent $634.50 from bonuses — the bosses’ “blood money” bribes — they received to the Socialist Workers Party.  “In the wake of the coronavirus epidemic’s spread to the United…



Larry Quinn: 20-year cadre of the Socialist Workers Party

Vol. 84/No. 13 - April 6, 2020
Above, speakers at March 15 meeting celebrating life of Larry Quinn. From left, Samantha Hamlin, SWP candidate with Quinn last year; Paul Mailhot, member of SWP National Committee; chairperson Jacob Perasso, and Tony Lane, from Pittsburgh, who worked in coal mines with Quinn. Inset, crowd at the meeting.

ALBANY, N.Y. — More than 60 people attended a meeting at the Everly Cromwell Community Center here March 15 to celebrate the political life of Larry Quinn, a 20-year cadre of the Socialist Workers Party who died March 6.  …


Bosses track your ‘happiness’ by spying on your life

Vol. 84/No. 13 - April 6, 2020

Claiming they’re determined to bring “happiness” to their workers, bosses are increasingly intruding into their personal lives, supposedly to monitor how pleased they are with the company. The fact is, this is part of the bosses’ drive to speed up…


SWP candidate in Calif. backs nurses’ protests for safety gear

Vol. 84/No. 13 - April 6, 2020
March 24 protest at Richmond, California, Kaiser Permanente, demanding immediate action to get needed protective gear. Nurses protested at other Kaiser hospitals earlier in the week.

OAKLAND, Calif. — Holding signs reading, “PROTECT NURSES, PATIENTS, PUBLIC HEALTH,” nurses protested outside more than a half-dozen Kaiser Permanente-owned hospitals in northern California March 19. They demanded immediate action to end the scarcity of N95 masks and other gear…


Ohio, Texas use coronavirus to justify ban on abortion

Vol. 84/No. 13 - April 6, 2020

In decisions that deal blows to women’s rights and violate constitutional protections, the governments of Ohio and Texas have banned abortions, using the spread of the coronavirus as a pretext.  On March 17 Ohio’s Department of Health ordered all abortion…


Kurds honor those slain in Saddam’s Halabja massacre

Vol. 84/No. 13 - April 6, 2020
Mass Kurdish uprising in Duhok, northern Iraq, in 1991. Three years earlier, Iraqi regime of Saddam Hussein, with U.S. rulers’ help, used chemical weapons to massacre Kurds in Halabja.

Some 30 million Kurds across the Middle East have fought for their national rights and sovereignty, long denied them, by the rulers in Iran, Iraq, Syria and Turkey. Their fight has continued in the midst of the endless wars in…