August 19, 1996
SANTIAGO DE CUBA — “We will continue fighting each time with more efficiency, more consciousness, more responsibility,” said Cuban president Fidel Castro in his speech on July 26 in Holguín, on the 43rd anniversary of the assault on the Moncada barracks, which initiated the revolutionary war to overthrow the U.S.-backed tyranny of Fulgencio Batista.
“The capitalist system is creating a world where there is increasing poverty,” Castro stated. “It’s a world with growing illiteracy, where people have less security, a world with more drugs and more violence…. This is the world the U.S. empire is offering us.”
Despite an escalating economic war by Washington, the Cuban people are succeeding to reverse the country’s economic decline. “The country is recovering slowly,” Castro said. “I say we are on a good path…. I say we can resist.”
September 3, 1971
The following statement was made by Linda Jenness, Socialist Workers Party candidate for president, in New York on Aug. 24.
President Nixon’s imposition of a freeze on wages for at least a 90-day period, coupled with his attempt to abrogate the right to strike, is a direct assault on the rights and living standards of working people. To answer this attack, the labor movement needs to call its own congress of labor to draft a program of action to fight the wage freeze.
The wage freeze means that workers covered by escalator clauses and due cost-of-living increases will be denied them. Contracts already signed giving workers needed pay raises during the wage freeze have likewise been overruled by the capitalist government.
A 24-hour general strike during the next 90 days would demonstrate the power of organized labor.
August 24, 1946
[President] Truman told the press August 16 that he “might” ask “Congress” to admit a “designated number” of European displaced persons, “including Jews.” What does this weasel-worded statement mean?
The Militant has long advocated the immediate opening of the gates of America to the refugees in Europe. The lives of the remnants of the Jewish people who survived the Nazi terror are in danger. That is why they want to get out.
Emergency measures must be taken to save them. Truman’s declaration, however, shows that Washington is giving nothing but hypocritical lip service to the entry of these hounded refugees. Only tremendous pressure from the American people can hope to force a concession from the administration.
Put the heat on Washington! Save the survivors of Hitler’s terror from the living hell of Allied concentration camps!