March 12, 2001
Washington’s recent cluster bombing of Iraq on the outskirts of Baghdad is a continuation of the brutal character of the U.S. rulers’ 10-year assault against the Iraqi people. This policy has included the killing of as many as 150,000 human beings in the Gulf War in 1991 through a six-week bombardment and one-hundred-hour invasion of the country; sanctions imposed by Washington under the auspices of the United Nations since 1990; and the imposition of “no-fly” zones over northern and southern Iraq patrolled by U.S. warplanes that regularly bomb the country.
The 28 cluster bombs, each weighing 1,000 pounds, put the lie to Secretary of State Colin Powell’s claim that Washington is “not after the Iraqi people.” Cluster bombs are designed to kill and maim people. The ongoing bombing drive against the Iraqi people shows the true face of U.S. imperialism.
March 12, 1976
LOS ANGELES — The Supreme Court dealt Mexicanos and Chicanos a cruel blow when it upheld a reactionary California law making it an offense for employers to “knowingly” hire so-called illegal aliens. The law is designed to increase the victimization and exploitation of workers without citizenship papers, not to provide additional jobs for U.S. workers as its backers claim.
The law is simply one more regulator to better control the flow across the border and increase even further the vulnerability of workers without citizenship papers.
The high court action was assailed by Omari Musa, the SWP candidate for U.S. Senate from California. Musa branded the decision “an attack on all working people.” He said he will press for a halt to all deportations and for a defense of the rights of undocumented workers by all of organized labor.
March 12, 1951
The walkout of the labor representatives from all government war agencies has ushered in a new stage in the crisis of American capitalism. The labor bureaucracy did not want this crisis. Only the most compelling pressure of working-class discontent forced them to challenge the exclusive domination of Big Business in the war mobilization setup.
American capitalism must have the entire globe as its sphere of exploitation, or perish. It came out of the Second World War as the victor ruthlessly determined to achieve the goal of world mastery.
The old equilibrium of U.S. capitalism is receiving the first of a series of violent shocks. The political equilibrium of capitalist rule has rested upon the alliance of the labor bureaucracy with the capitalist state. The historical signpost reads: “Sharper Class Struggles Ahead in America.”