October 22, 2001
PAUL, Minn. — Picket lines remain strong as more than 22,000 state workers remain on strike in Minnesota. Members of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees and the Minnesota Association of Professional Employees are fighting over pay and health coverage.
Gov. Jesse Ventura is the hot topic on the picket line. He has threatened layoffs if state workers win pay hikes. “I can tell you personally, I would be going to work,” said Ventura in a radio interview. “We’re going to war. In a war, everyone has to bite the bullet.”
But every striker spoken to by reporters for the Militant was united on the need to fight now for living wages and against higher heath-care costs proposed by the state. A New York Firefighters Union member sent a message, referring to the World Trade Center disaster: “We will mourn our dead. You fight like hell for the living.”
October 22, 1976
NEW ORLEANS — In a little more than a week, SWP vice presidential candidate Willie Mae Reid has swept through six cities in five states. From Wisconsin she swung south to Maryland, Virginia, Texas, and Louisiana.
Each of the stops on this leg of Reid’s tour is an area where the socialist movement has expanded since the beginning of the presidential campaign, where new socialist campaign headquarters are opening. Reid met activists in the labor, women’s and Black movements everywhere she visited.
Reid addressed a New Orleans city-wide rally, along with Juanita Tyler, mother of Gary Tyler, who is in jail at St. James Parish now facing a possible death sentence. Tyler was convicted of a murder he did not commit. Mrs. Tyler said, “He’s just not my son now.” For those who believe in justice, “he is everyone’s son and we must all defend him.”
October 22, 1951
Seizing the Egyptian city of Ismailia, the British imperialists turned machine guns at pointblank range upon thousands of demonstrating workers and students who had gathered to demand that these foreign occupiers get out of their country. The news of this massacre touched off mass demonstrations at Port Said, the Suez canal and in Alexandria.
The British who already have some 60,000 troops stationed in the Suez area, are rushing more troops, planes and battleships to the area. The demand that the British get out has the support of the overwhelming majority of the population.
The cause of the Egyptians is a just one. They fully merit the support of the American people, all the more so because Washington is “strongly backing” the attempt of the British to drown in blood the Egyptian struggle for freedom and independence. HANDS OFF EGYPT!