November 30, 1998
PITTSBURGH — The return of UN “inspectors” to Baghdad — under the guise of “hunting for weapons of mass destruction” — sets the stage for more provocations, which Washington will use as a pretext to launch a military assault.
Their “aggressive” inspections have nothing to do with searching for chemical or biological weapons.
The presence of these provocateurs in Iraq serves the U.S. rulers’ propaganda for pressing their dominance in the Arab-Persian Gulf, trampling on the sovereignty of Iraq, and paving the way for bombing raids.
Working people around the world, especially in the U.S., need to demand these “inspectors” get out of Iraq, that the criminal embargo strangling Iraq be lifted, and that Washington get all its troops out of the Middle East.
November 30, 1973
In New York City workers in 48 hospitals and nursing homes walked out on Nov. 5. They had been waiting four months for the Cost of Living Council in Washington to approve a pay raise recommended by a state arbitration panel.
A federal judge in New York ordered the strikers back to work, fined the union a half million dollars plus $25,000 for every day the strike continued, and laid heavy fines on the officials. Thus the strikers, under a barrage of propaganda about their “disregard for the lives of patients,” were forced back to work for wages not far above the poverty level.
The use of government machinery to penalize the poor presents a problem that cannot be overcome by any union or by the entire union movement so long as it limits its defense to the strike weapon and fails to tackle the capitalist political structure.
November 29, 1948
Have you seen the articles sprouting like weeds in the newspapers lately solemnly declaring that there are “too many people” in the world?
Fifty million lives lost in the war: hundreds of thousands more wiped out by three years of “peace” with its hunger, cold and disease; and the list still grows in the cities of Europe. Yet the stooges of capitalism dare to raise that old scare-story: “There isn’t room for us all!”
Every woman must have the right to decide how many children she will bear. But this decision should be based on her own wishes, not the frantic hue-and-cry of capitalist propagandists. The capitalists are not interested in helping mothers shape their own lives. Their real purpose in reviving the old scare-story is simple and cynical.
The problem isn’t “too many people.” It’s “too many capitalists.”