Quebec: Thousands of child care workers begin series of strikes

Vol. 85/No. 37 - October 11, 2021

MONTREAL — Eleven thousand workers at 7,000 child care centers (CPEs) across Quebec carried out the first of 10 one-day strikes Sept. 24. They are demanding the Quebec government agree to a 20% wage increase over four years to bring…


Kaiser Operating Engineers strike 24 hospitals in California

Vol. 85/No. 37 - October 11, 2021
Sept. 22 picket at Kaiser hospital in Oakland, California, one of 24 where operating engineers are on strike. This fight “is bringing our crew together,” said striker Michael Salas.

SAN LEANDRO, Calif. — The 700 members of International Union of Operating Engineers Local 39 are on strike at 24 Kaiser hospitals across Northern California. “We have been on the front-lines in these hospitals throughout the pandemic,” striker Jose Banta…


Military barbers strike after bosses raise prices but not pay

Vol. 85/No. 37 - October 11, 2021

Since July 4, workers at four barbershops at Ft. Lee U.S. Army Garrison and Ft. Pickett Army National Guard Maneuver Training Center in central Virginia have been picketing outside Ft. Lee. The 20 barbers, members of Laborers International Union Local…


Kentucky distillery strike wins widespread support

Workers fight shifts that wreak havoc with family life
Vol. 85/No. 37 - October 11, 2021
Strikers and supporters picket Heaven Hill bourbon plant in Bardstown, Kentucky, Sept. 11.

BARDSTOWN, Ky. — Some 400 members of United Food and Commercial Workers Local 23D have been on strike fighting contract attacks by the bosses at bourbon maker Heaven Hill distillery here since Sept. 11. Strikers’ picket signs saying, “Family-owned not…


As US, Chinese rulers face off, rivalries among imperialists rise

Vol. 85/No. 37 - October 11, 2021
U.S. carrier leads Pacific Ocean naval exercises. Since victory in second imperialist world war, Washington has viewed Pacific as its prize. U.S. rulers are determined to meet Beijing threat.

The AUKUS military pact signed by the governments of the U.S., Australia and the U.K. has thrown into sharp relief conflicts with other imperialist powers, especially Paris. The deal is aimed at curbing Beijing’s growing economic clout and military ambitions…


‘The working class needs a class-struggle newspaper’

Vol. 85/No. 37 - October 11, 2021
Rachele Fruit, SWP candidate for Atlanta mayor, spoke to Anthony Gillis in Decatur Sept. 25. He got a subscription, said, “We are not being heard. Everyone needs this information.”

Branches of the Socialist Workers Party across the U.S. are stepping up campaigning among working people as they begin the fall seven-week drive to sell 1,300 subscriptions to the Militant, 1,300 books by SWP and other revolutionary leaders, and to…


How unions rose in the 1930s, why we need a movement like that today

Vol. 85/No. 37 - October 11, 2021
Teamsters Local 574 before May 1934 Minneapolis strike battle. Leaders forged union democracy, discipline and solidarity, won backing of unemployed, farmers to build union movement.

More workers are joining together, standing up to employer attacks and demands for concessions, and discovering what we are capable of when we use our unions to defend ourselves. Most strikes today are aimed at preventing bosses from destroying vital…



Cuba speaks at UN, demands: ‘End US economic, political war on our country’

Vol. 85/No. 37 - October 11, 2021

The COVID-19 pandemic has worsened the existing “global structural inequities and crisis,” Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel told the 76th session of the United Nations General Assembly Sept. 23. “The most vulnerable have been left unprotected,” while pharmaceutical companies have reaped…


25, 50 and 75 Years Ago

Vol. 85/No. 37 - October 11, 2021

October 14, 1996 Workers, farmers, youth, and all defenders of civil liberties need to protest moves by Washington to undermine the democratic rights of opponents of U.S. policy toward Cuba and defend those threatened with fines, imprisonment, or firings for…