November 27, 2000
HAVANA — The Second World Conference of Friendship and Solidarity with Cuba opened Nov. 10 with more than 4,000 in attendance from 117 countries. Hundreds of organizations are represented, including solidarity organizations, trade unions, peasant organizations and religious groups that have been working to end the 40-year U.S. policy aimed at overturning the revolution.
Ricardo Alarcón, president of the National Assembly of People’s Power, outlined for conference participants the economic, political and military aggression waged by the U.S. government against the revolution.
Alarcón stressed that the revolution itself is the target: “Most important is that a revolutionary power is in place, in the hands of a fighting proletariat. The ones who can force the U.S. government to change things are the people of the United States.”
November 28, 1975
On Nov. 10, the last Portuguese troops in Angola boarded ships bound for Lisbon. After 490 years of direct colonial rule, the Portuguese flag no longer flies over that African country.
The winning of independence is a victory for the tenacious struggle of the people of Angola against the long years of brutal war waged by the oldest imperialist power in the world. It is also a tribute to the revolutionary upsurge of the workers and peasants in Portugal, and the rank-and-file soldiers who rebelled against fighting any longer for their imperialist masters.
On Nov. 10, Secretary of State Henry Kissinger threatened increased U.S. intervention in Angola. Washington will not tolerate Soviet “hegemonial aspirations,” Kissinger hypocritically proclaimed. The demand must be raised in every imperialist capital: “Hands off Angola!”
November 27, 1950
As the result of the defeat of many union-backed capitalist party candidates in the recent election, the organized workers are being flooded with advice like “get out of politics” and “politics is no place for the labor movement.”
What the setback suffered really shows is that if the union leaders offer nothing better than the corrupt, war-mongering, pro-capitalist Democratic Party politicians, then many workers will turn in disgust and desperation to the corrupt, war-mongering, pro-capitalist Republican Party, or not vote at all.
But if labor cannot “win” with the Democrats does that mean it must leave politics entirely in the hands of a few big capitalist newspapers, the corporations and their hired political agents? That would simply mean unconditional surrender to the politics of Big Business and abdication of all political rights.