August 27, 2001
The following statement was released by Frank Forrestal, a union coal miner and Socialist Workers candidate for mayor of Pittsburgh.
“The federal court decision rejecting the coal industry’s challenge to new regulations on black lung disease is an important victory for the United Mine Workers, the National Black Lung Association, and the entire labor movement.
“The decisive factor in defending these benefits has been the struggle that miners and their union have waged for decades — a struggle that sets an example for all working people in the fight for lifetime health insurance.
“That black lung is still the main killer of coal miners is simply one glaring example of a system that puts profit-making above the health and safety of working people. This is why the SWP campaign points to the need to fight for a government of workers and farmers.”
September 3, 1976
On June 24 a meeting was held in New York City to demand the release of Mustafa Dzhemilev from a Soviet prison. Dzhemilev was incarcerated for his activities in defense of the Crimean Tatar people.
The Crimean Tatars, forcibly deported to Central Asia in 1944, are demanding the right to return to their homeland. The more than 100 persons who attended the meeting heard a wide range of speakers, among them exiled Soviet dissident Pavel Litvinov, who said: “Crimean Tatars were not alone. Other nationalities —Kalmucks, Greeks, Chechens, Bulgars, earlier it was Germans. Fourteen nationalities had the same fate; they were all accused of being traitors.
“Dzhemilev sympathized not only with the cause of the Crimean Tatars but with the whole problem of human rights, with the rights of minority groups, of nationalities like the Ukrainians, and many others.”
September 3, 1951
Amid worldwide protest, the U.S. is preparing to compel Asia to accept a Japanese peace treaty which arranges affairs there in the best interests of American imperialism. The treaty conference will open on Sept. 4. Britain and France fear that a revivified Japanese imperialism, in cahoots with American imperialism, will push out all other commercial and industrial interests.
The Japanese people, who continue to suffer under foreign occupation, are not happy about it. A poll showed a strong majority opposed. The pact is being railroaded despite bitter opposition from almost every important force in Asia, both popular and government. The biggest powers, India and China, will either boycott the conference (India), or be excluded (China).
Imperialist U.S. has arrogantly announced that the treaty is to be signed either intact or not at all. “Take it or leave it,” the world is being told.