December 13, 1999
MIAMI — A political debate is taking place here around the future of a five-year-old Cuban boy, Elián González, who survived a boat smuggling tragedy. U.S. officials have given him residency over the objections of his father in Cuba.
González is one of three survivors of the 13 people who left Cuba on Nov. 21. His mother died at sea. Since he was discovered off the Florida coastline, the press and the Cuban rightist organizations have used the boy to try to slur Cuba and its socialist revolution.
The boy’s father, Juan Miguel González, has demanded that his child be returned to Cuba. He told the press he “has been kidnapped. Here, he has health care and education free. He does not lack anything.” González works at a hotel in Varadero. His son lived with him five days of the week. All four of the child’s grandparents have called for his return.
December 13, 1974
Valentyn Moroz, a 38-year-old Ukrainian historian, is on the verge of death.
Sentenced to nine years of imprisonment and five years of exile on charges of “anti-Soviet agitation and propaganda” in November 1970, Moroz began a hunger strike on July 1 of this year. He had been subjected to savage beatings by inmates egged on by guards and administered mind-destroying drugs.
This vicious treatment has been handed out to Moroz because he wrote four essays detailing the repression in the Soviet Union and the Stalinist policies aimed at the destruction of Ukrainian culture and domination of Ukraine by the Great Russian nationality.
The Stalinist parties around the globe, like the Communist Party USA, have remained silent on the Moroz case or, even worse, supported such outrages. They share in the responsibility.
Free Valentyn Moroz!
December 12, 1949
The U.S. Supreme Court last week ducked the issue of the constitutionality of “loyalty” oaths — the most widespread form of civil rights violations in the witch-hunt now sweeping the country. The high tribunal refused to rule whether the Los Angeles County “employee-loyalty” test is a violation of the Bill of Rights.
The Supreme Court also postponed a ruling on two appeals against the constitutionality of the “non-Communist” oath of the Taft-Hartley Law. These appeals by CIO unions have been pending many months.
The Supreme Court’s action again demonstrates that this highest capitalist judicial body cannot be relied on to enforce constitutional liberties. Not the courts of the American Big Business ruling class which fosters the witch-hunt, but the mass organization and action of the people can effectively defend democratic rights.