May 28, 2001
A demonstration of 100 in Salinas, California, May 13 grew in size as it marched there. Workers drove to the action from Fresno, Palo Alto, and San Mateo. Members of the Indigenous Oaxacan Front of Mexico participated in the action.
Signs in the rally demanded, “Amnesty for all,” “No taxation without legalization,” and said, “Braceros no, Amnistía sí,” referring to proposals by the U.S. and Mexican governments to set up an expanded “guest worker” program, similar to the Bracero program that ended in the 1960s. The program is aimed at providing the capitalist class with a massive, low-paid, and temporary workforce of mainly Mexican immigrants who would have no option to stay in the United States.
The march was sponsored by The Citizen Project, an organization founded by members of Teamsters Local 890.
May 28, 1976
The Socialist Workers Party and the Young Socialist Alliance have expanded their suit against the government. The amended complaint charges that the conspiracy to disrupt and persecute the SWP goes back to 1938.
These measures were taken at a time when the U.S. ruling class was preparing for intervention into the impending world war. To accomplish these ends President Roosevelt took steps to move the FBI more directly into the role of a political police force. One of the first assignments handed to the bureau was to launch an attack on the Teamsters union in the North-Central states.
Among the leaders of this union effort was Farrell Dobbs, a member of the SWP. These attacks culminated in the 1941 conviction of Dobbs and 17 other members and leaders of the SWP and the Teamsters under the notorious Smith “Gag” Act. The revised suit adds Dobbs as a plaintiff in the case.
May 28, 1951
The lies which the American people are being fed in connection with the Iranian crisis are as fraudulent as those connected with the Korean atrocity. The British are claiming that their oil supply is in danger of being cut off. The British can get all the oil they have bought previously and are in addition granted priority in the event of any surplus.
Rather than yield their lush profits, they are ready to ravage Iran and incur the risk of precipitating general war in the Near East. And in all this they are receiving the support of the Truman administration.
The natural resources of Iran belong to the Iranian people. It is the duty of their government to take back the oil fields which the British have expropriated from the rightful owners. The British have no more right to exploit Iran today than they had to dominate America before 1776.