US rulers turn FBI into anti-labor political police operation

Vol. 88/No. 43 - November 18, 2024
FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover, second from left, watches President Franklin Roosevelt sign 1934 bill expanding federal bureau’s powers. As U.S. rulers prepared to enter imperialist competition for markets and power in World War II, they used FBI to frame up union fighters and SWP.

50 Years of Covert Operations in the US: Washington’s Political Police and the American Working Class by Larry Seigle, Farrell Dobbs and Steve Clark is one of Pathfinder’s Books of the Month for November. It traces the U.S. capitalist rulers’…


Norms of beauty and fashion are inseparable from the class struggle

Vol. 88/No. 42 - November 11, 2024
Political offensive after World War II promoted the “feminine mystique.” Aimed at women being replaced in factory jobs by returning soldiers, it told them they were first of all “homemakers” not workers — a trend that was soon reversed as hiring again picked up. Above, 1950s ad for “upside-down refrigerator.” Right, “See Red” 1955 lipstick advertisement.

Below are the first two chapters of the new 2024 edition of Cosmetics, Fashion, and the Exploitation of Women by Mary-Alice Waters, Evelyn Reed and Joseph Hansen, available in December. Waters is a longtime leader of the Socialist Workers Party and…


Democrat, Republican campaigns have no answers for working people

Vol. 88/No. 42 - November 11, 2024

For eight years Democrats have hammered away on one central point — telling the world that Donald Trump is “dangerous” and has to be stopped at all costs. Lacking any positive program to deal with the crisis conditions working people…


SWP leaders explain deepening showdown in the Middle East

Vol. 88/No. 42 - November 11, 2024
Hamas thugs in Khan Younis, Gaza, with woman brutally taken hostage from Israel Oct. 7, 2023. Anti-Jewish pogrom by Tehran-backed terror group launched war across Middle East.

NEW YORK — “One year after the Oct. 7 pogrom in Israel, there is no change in the decadeslong reactionary aims of the regime in Tehran and the organizations it leads, Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis and others,” said Dave Prince,…


UN votes to condemn US economic war against Cuba

Vol. 88/No. 42 - November 11, 2024
Cuban Minister of Foreign Affairs Bruno Rodríguez, center, addresses supporters Oct. 30 at U.N. where resolution against U.S. embargo on Cuba passed 187-2 with one abstention.

In a special two-day session, the United Nations General Assembly met Oct. 29-30, debated and voted overwhelmingly in favor of a resolution submitted by Cuba calling for an end to Washington’s punishing 65-year economic war against the island’s people and…


Boeing workers vote to continue their strike, win broad support

Vol. 88/No. 42 - November 11, 2024
Huelguistas del sindicato IAM en planta de Boeing en Renton, Washington, 21 de octubre, antes de rechazar firmemente oferta de contrato de la empresa el 23 de octubre. La propuesta no incluía un plan de pensiones. “Más trabajadores están organizando sindicatos y los están utilizando”, dijo Rachele Fruit, candidata del PST para presidente de Estados Unidos.

SEATTLE — Members of the International Association of Machinists District 751 and W24 decisively voted down Boeing’s latest contract offer — by 64% — Oct. 23. Some 33,000 workers at the aerospace manufacturer from here in Washington to Southern California…


Join us in expanding the reach of SWP, ‘Militant’

Vol. 88/No. 42 - November 11, 2024
Rachele Fruit, right, SWP candidate for president, talks with Isabel Beteta at BeLoved Asheville aid center Oct. 18. She is one of hundreds of volunteers who came to aid hurricane victims in North Carolina.

Vote for Rachele Fruit and Dennis Richter, the Socialist Workers Party candidates for president and vice president, and the party’s candidates for Congress and Senate around the country Nov. 5! And join party members in the days and weeks ahead…



BRICS meets in Russia, tries to cement anti-US bloc

Vol. 88/No. 42 - November 11, 2024

The BRICS alliance, led by Beijing and Moscow to counter Washington, held its annual summit Oct. 22-24, hosted by Russian President Vladimir Putin. Behind its veneer of unanimity, the conference highlighted the divergent interests within the bloc, tensions over Moscow’s…


Join last 3 weeks in ‘Militant,’ books and SWP fund drive!

Vol. 88/No. 42 - November 11, 2024

FORT WORTH, Texas — Marthen Goo, a member of the United Liberation Movement for West Papua, met Socialist Workers Party members George Chalmers and myself in Enid, Oklahoma, Oct. 20. Goo recently moved there and was encouraged by other members…