October 30, 2000
BENTON, Illinois — Nearly 500 people, mostly retired members of the United Mine Workers of America and their wives, attended a meeting here Oct. 13 to demand the government keep its promise to coal miners to provide cradle-to-grave health care benefits.
A big banner declared “Keep the Promise, Save the Coal Act.” Since passage of the 1992 legislation, there have been more than 60 challenges to it in court by the coal companies. The gathering here was one of a number held in the coalfields.
When coal miners went on strike in 1946 President Truman took over all the coal mines in the country. To settle the strike Truman guaranteed miners pensions and health care benefits for life. Coal miners, who had a higher rate of death than soldiers fighting in World War II, had neither health benefits nor federal mine safety regulations at the time.
October 31, 1975
More than twenty years after the end of the Korean War, the stakes for American imperialism have not diminished. The Pentagon is determined, particularly after its defeat in Vietnam, to maintain the pro-imperialist dictatorship in South Korea as a bulwark against the Asian revolution.
The defeat of the Imperial Japanese Army left a political vacuum in Korea and opened the way for a resurgence of the nationalist movement. American forces landed in southern Korea in September 1945, the same month as the formation of the nationalist government.
Washington waged a war against the various committees that exercised control in parts of the country. Strikes were banned and the former Japanese-owned factories were placed under military control. The American authorities’ repression was met by a series of revolts, strikes and insurrections from 1946 to 1950.
October 30, 1950
The capitalist politicians have big schemes for tightening the screws on American labor, slashing living standards, hiking taxes, boosting the arms budget, regimenting the nation. Only one thing gives them pause. They are fearful how the people will take it. They are watching this election for a sign of the people’s reaction, particularly to the Korean “police action.”
There is no mass anti-capitalist and anti-war party through which the people can express opposition. But the ballot is not closed to them. In a number of states throughout the country they can make their voices heard by voting the ticket of the SWP.
Such a vote would be more than a protest against existing evils. It would be a vote for a Workers and Farmers Government which will end the political rule of the monopolists and carry out the socialist program of the people.