October 19, 1998
Beating the drums of American nationalism, the U.S. steel bosses have launched a reactionary campaign against steel imports. This campaign is a deadly trap for working people, designed to save steel bosses’ profits, while pitting working people internationally against each other.
In the 1980s, under the banner of an anti-imports campaign, the steel companies slashed hundreds of thousands of jobs and implemented some of the steepest concessions upon the Steelworkers union. We have no common interests with the employers. It’s their companies, their profits, and their government.
Unions need to extend solidarity to working people on the front lines of standing up to the bosses’ attacks. This includes the steelworkers on strike against Kaiser Aluminum plants, Titan Tire in Iowa and Mississippi, and Magnetic Specialties Inc. in Marietta, Ohio.
October 19, 1973
Last month immigrant workers in France took a major step forward in fighting back against mounting racist attacks. For the first time, immigrant workers called a general strike in Marseille, which spread to numerous cities, involving tens of thousands of Algerian, Moroccan, Tunisian and other immigrant workers.
The Mouvement des Travailleurs Arabes, which called the strike, appealed for support from all antiracists. The significance of the strike was discussed by a leader of the MTA in an interview in the Sept. 21 Rouge.
“In Marseille, Paris, and Toulouse we have just now waged a battle for the right to strike, for the right to be fully recognized as workers. That will enable the immigrant workers to look at themselves in a totally different light. It has created a relationship of forces so there can by unity with the French workers.”
October 18, 1948
Socialist Workers Party’s standard bearers in this election occupy top place on the revolutionary scroll of honor.
Farrell Dobbs covered the strike-bound waterfront in San Francisco. He spoke over a loudspeaker system to hundreds of striking longshoremen and seamen telling them that the SWP supported their struggle against the shipowners “unequivocally and without reservations and qualifications.”
The New York campaign workers marched in and took over the Grand Central station in a welcome reception for [Grace] Carlson. She was greeted by Farrell Dobbs, who arrived early that morning by plane. He presented Grace with a bouquet of red dahlias. Hundreds of onlookers had gathered around, and Grace and Farrell spoke briefly of the reception our socialist platform had met from coast to coast. The reception concluded with the singing of Solidarity.