Patrice Lumumba and the independence fight in the Congo

Vol. 86/No. 26 - July 18, 2022
Independence leader and former prime minister of Congo, Patrice Lumumba, right, with aides after their arrest in late 1960. He was executed Jan. 17, 1961, by U.S.-backed Congolese forces.

Sixty-one years after African anti-imperialist independence fighter Patrice Lumumba was assassinated, a gold-crowned tooth, the only part of his body that exists, was buried in a state funeral in the Democratic Republic of the Congo June 30. The date marked…


Quarry workers in Illinois strike against boss attacks

Vol. 86/No. 26 - July 18, 2022
Members of International Union of Operating Engineers Local 150, on picket line June 14, struck after Chicago-area quarry bosses imposed changes to work rules and conditions.

McCOOK, Ill. — Some 300 members of International Union of Operating Engineers Local 150 went on strike June 7 against three Chicago-area quarry companies — Lehigh Hanson, Vulcan Materials and Lafarge Holcim — over unfair labor practices. The local has…


United Auto Workers on strike in Iowa, Wisconsin win solidarity

Vol. 86/No. 26 - July 18, 2022

STURTEVANT, Wis. — “I’m confident that the members of this local will continue to strike as long as the company keeps making ridiculous offers,” Yasin Mahdi, president of United Auto Workers Local 180, told the Militant June 17. “We’re going…


Chicago-area drivers fight for safety at Breakthru Beverage

Vol. 86/No. 26 - July 18, 2022

CICERO, Ill. — More than 100 delivery drivers for alcohol wholesaler Breakthru Beverage, members of Teamsters Local 710, walked out June 13. The central issues were “safety on the job, increasing load sizes, the inability of members to use their…


25, 50, and 75 years ago

Vol. 86/No. 26 - July 18, 2022

July 28, 1997 CORDOBA, Argentina — Since September, the Fiat plant in this city has been the scene of one of the most important labor battles in Argentina in a number of years. The workers are fighting for recognition of…


‘Woman’s equality is part of working-class struggle for power’

Vol. 86/No. 26 - July 18, 2022
V.I. Lenin, leader of Bolshevik Revolution, with Clara Zetkin, center, and his wife, Nadezhda Krupskaya. Lenin and Zetkin worked together on resolution for Communist International.

The special feature this week is excerpts from an interview Clara Zetkin did with V.I. Lenin in 1920, part of preparations for her drafting a resolution for communist work among women for the Third Congress of the Communist International a…


The working class needs to carry out its own foreign policy

Vol. 86/No. 26 - July 18, 2022

The following statement was released July 6 by Chris Hoeppner, Socialist Workers Party candidate for U.S. Congress from Pennsylvania.  The working class needs its own foreign policy — in sharp counterposition to that of the profit-driven imperialist U.S. rulers —…




Rail workers resist gov’t, boss attacks on safety, pay

US rail workers fight for right to strike, new contract
Vol. 86/No. 25 - July 11, 2022
Freight train derails June 23 in Texas. Four days later Amtrak train hit truck, derailed in Missouri, killing four, injuring 150. Bosses’ profit drive endangers workers, nearby communities.

After working for nearly three years under an expired contract on the nation’s Class 1 freight rail lines, 23,000 engineers received strike ballots from their union, the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen. But this doesn’t mean a strike is…