25, 50 and 75 Years Ago

Vol. 85/No. 35 - September 27, 2021

September 30, 1996 The “Defense of Marriage Act” advances the reactionary, antilabor goals of the U.S. rulers. The law bars federal recognition of marriages among gays and lesbians. The bill is part of the employers assault on the social wage…


Che Guevara: ‘Other nations summon my assistance’

Vol. 85/No. 35 - September 27, 2021
Delegates from revolutionary organizations in the Americas clap as Cuban President Fidel Castro addresses August 1967 conference of Organization of Latin American Solidarity in Havana. The slogan beside the image of Che is from the Second Declaration of Havana. It reads, “The duty of every revolutionary is to make the revolution.”

Below is an excerpt from The Bolivian Diary of Ernesto Che Guevara, one of Pathfinder’s Books of the Month for September. The diary recounts the political and military campaign Argentine-born Guevara, a leader of Cuba’s socialist revolution, led in 1966-67…


Fair Play for Cuba Committee built defense for socialist revolution

Vol. 85/No. 35 - September 27, 2021
Fair Play for Cuba Committee published, distributed inexpensive pamphlets of speeches by leaders of Cuba’s socialist revolution, eyewitness accounts of steps forward by working people.

On Sept. 7 President Joseph Biden signed off on extending the U.S. embargo of Cuba for another year under the capitalist rulers’ Trading With the Enemy Act. This is no surprise since every president — Democrat and Republican alike —…


Indian sanitation workers strike for equal pay, permanent jobs

Vol. 85/No. 35 - September 27, 2021

Over 400 sanitation workers staged a sit-in outside the Patna Municipal Corporation’s headquarters in Patna, India, Sept. 12, part of a strike by sanitation and some maintenance workers that began Sept. 6. The strike is the latest in a series…


In Defense of Land and Labor

Vol. 85/No. 35 - September 27, 2021

The following excerpt is from the opening section of “The Stewardship of Nature Also Falls to the Working Class: In Defense of Land and Labor,” a Socialist Workers Party resolution published in New International no. 14. Copyright © 2008 by…


New York rally protests Texas anti-abortion law

Vol. 85/No. 35 - September 27, 2021

NEW YORK — More than 125 supporters of women’s rights joined a protest called by the National Organization for Women, and Planned Parenthood, at Brooklyn Borough Hall Sept. 9 opposing an anti-abortion Texas law that went into effect Sept. 1.…


Back locked-out oil workers standing up to ExxonMobil

Bosses seek to bust union at Texas refinery
Vol. 85/No. 35 - September 27, 2021
Locked-out unionists from ExxonMobil refinery in Beaumont, Texas, picket in Houston Aug. 18, getting out facts on oil bosses’ demands for concessions that gut seniority, divide workers.

BEAUMONT, Texas — Over 650 oil workers, members of United Steelworkers Local 13-243, have been locked out at the ExxonMobil Refinery and Lubricant Blending and Packaging plant here since bosses marched them out of the facility four months ago. They…


Strikers in five states take on Nabisco, win broad support

Vol. 85/No. 35 - September 27, 2021

As we go to press … The BCTGM announced Sept. 15 it had reached a tentative agreement with Nabisco. Union members will read, discuss and vote on the proposals in the coming days. Picketing at the six strike locations continues…


‘No one had to die from the storm,’ SWP candidates say

Vol. 85/No. 35 - September 27, 2021
Róger Calero, SWP candidate for New York mayor, discusses disaster for workers from tropical storm flooding with Luis Rosas, retired maintenance worker in Woodside, Queens, Sept. 12.

QUEENS, N.Y. — Socialist Workers Party candidates Róger Calero for mayor of New York City and Willie Cotton for public advocate, and campaign supporters on Sept. 12 extended solidarity to residents affected by destructive floods caused by heavy rain from…


Using unions, building solidarity vital to defending working-class interests

Vol. 85/No. 35 - September 27, 2021
Fighting for safe staffing levels for themselves and patients, nurses picket St. Vincent Hospital in Worcester, Massachusetts, Aug. 16. Six-month strike is longest nurses strike in 15 years.

“Organizing to support unionists on strike to defend their wages and working conditions today is crucial for expanding and strengthening the labor movement,” Dennis Richter, Socialist Workers Party candidate for California governor, told the Militant. “Spread the word about struggles…