Nurses strike in Massachusetts over dangerous understaffing

Vol. 85/No. 12 - March 29, 2021
Hundreds of members of Massachusetts Nurses Association picket St. Vincent Hospital in Worcester March 8 as strike began over understaffing and unsafe working conditions.

WORCESTER, Mass. — Eight hundred union nurses at St. Vincent Hospital here went on strike March 8 over dangerous understaffing and unsafe working conditions. The workers, members of the Massachusetts Nurses Association, have been in contract negotiations with Tenet Healthcare…


New Zealand home-care workers picket in fight for union contract

Vol. 85/No. 12 - March 29, 2021

AUCKLAND, New Zealand — Home-care workers and their supporters were on the picket line again March 12 in their ongoing fight for a union contract. “We’re doing this for the next lot of workers coming up, not just for those…


Biden hypes ‘Rescue’ bill, but workers need jobs now

Vol. 85/No. 12 - March 29, 2021

When President Joseph Biden went on television to deliver his first presidential address March 11, it was to tout the Democratic Party-controlled Congress passing his $1.9 trillion “American Rescue Plan.” He claims it puts “working people in this nation first.”…


Oregon medical techs end strike, set March 31 contract deadline

Vol. 85/No. 12 - March 29, 2021

The Oregon Federation of Nurses and Health Professionals, which organizes the 150 medical technicians at the St. Charles Medical Center, agreed March 12 to end their nine-day strike. The union said in a joint press release with the hospital that…


Ky. SWP launches campaign, ‘Workers need their own voice’

Vol. 85/No. 12 - March 29, 2021
Maggie Trowe, with campaign supporters, speaks at March 12 press conference in front of City Hall to announce her campaign as Socialist Workers Party candidate for mayor of Louisville.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — “Working people need a voice and a movement,” Margaret Trowe told Rebekah Dow of WLKY-TV as she interviewed the Socialist Workers Party candidate for mayor at a press conference outside City Hall March 12. “Like the 18…


Bus drivers strike wins solidarity in UK

Vol. 85/No. 12 - March 29, 2021

MANCHESTER, England — Workers in Manchester and beyond have joined the picket line of Go North West bus drivers here, to bring solidarity to the striking Unite union members. The drivers walked out Feb. 28 to fight a company move…


SWP ballot drive in New Jersey gains ground

Vol. 85/No. 12 - March 29, 2021

UNION CITY, N.J. — Supporters of the campaign of Joanne Kuniansky and Candace Wagner, the Socialist Workers Party candidates for governor and lieutenant governor of New Jersey, made steady progress during the second weekend of a six-week effort to put…


Protest: ‘Indict the police who killed Breonna Taylor now!’

Vol. 85/No. 12 - March 29, 2021
Tamika Palmer, center, marches behind banner with portrait of her daughter Breonna Taylor, in Louisville March 13 on first anniversary of fatal shooting by police. Hundreds who took part demanded the cops responsible face criminal charges over her killing.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — On the March 13 anniversary of the midnight police raid that took Breonna Taylor’s life last year, hundreds of people marched through downtown Louisville to demand the police responsible be held accountable. Demands to prosecute the police…


1965 Selma-Montgomery mobilizations won voting rights victory

How Black-led civil rights fight that overthrew Jim Crow strengthened the fighting capacities of the working class
Vol. 85/No. 12 - March 29, 2021
Demonstrators cross Edmund Pettus Bridge out of Selma, March 21, 1965, after victory in fight to march to state capital in Montgomery. Inset, days earlier, sheriff’s deputies attack protesters in Montgomery. Second from right is John Studer, who came to join the historic protests from Ohio. Stu-der is now editor of the Militant.

This month marks the 56th anniversary of the historic voting rights march from Selma, Alabama, to the state’s capital, Montgomery. Together with the 1956 Montgomery bus boycott and 1963 Battle of Birmingham, these actions were high points in the proletarian-led…


Puerto Rico fighters celebrate life of Rafael Cancel Miranda

Vol. 85/No. 12 - March 29, 2021
Feb. 28 meeting in San Juan honors political life of Puerto Rico independence fighter Rafael Cancel Miranda a year after his death. María de los Ángeles Vázquez, Miranda’s wife, speaks.

Several events were held in Puerto Rico from Feb. 28 to March 7 to honor the life of revolutionary leader and independence fighter Rafael Cancel Miranda, who died March 2 last year. They also marked the anniversary of the 1954…