1,400 workers on strike at Wabtec, fight wins broad union solidarity

Vol. 87/No. 25 - July 10, 2023
United Electrical Workers members on strike against Wabtec picket plant in Erie, Pennsylvania, June 27. Demands include wage raise, right to strike over grievances, improved health care.

ERIE, Pa. — Hundreds of strikers picketed at the gates of the Wabtec locomotive manufacturing plant here after 1,400 workers voted down the bosses’ takeback contract demands June 22. The workers are members of United Electrical Workers Local 506, which…


Socialist Workers Party leadership sets course ahead

Adopts course to build union solidarity • defend constitutional freedoms • fight for wages, hours, job conditions that prevent families in working class from being torn apart • defend Cuba’s socialist revolution and its example in the U.S. and world over
Vol. 87/No. 25 - July 10, 2023
International Educational Conference in Oberlin, Ohio, June 8-10, brought together over 330 people for reports, discussion on communist program, continuity and activities. Right, SWP literature table during conference.

OBERLIN, Ohio — “The sweeping indictment of Donald Trump under the Espionage Act by President Joseph Biden’s Justice Department is another step along the course the Democratic Party has been pressing for seven years of criminalizing political opposition and debate,”…


Back fight for Ukraine independence!

Vol. 87/No. 25 - July 10, 2023

The seizure of the Russian city of Rostov-on-Don by Yevgeny Prigozhin’s Wagner mercenaries and their aborted armed march on Moscow highlight the dangers for working people in Russia, Ukraine and worldwide in the crisis unfolding within Vladimir Putin’s secret-police-based capitalist…


‘A road forward to raise workers’ confidence in our own capacities’

Vol. 87/No. 25 - July 10, 2023
Laura Garza, Socialist Workers Party 2024 candidate for U.S. Senate from California, speaks at closing panel.

OBERLIN, Ohio — The political report by Socialist Workers Party National Secretary Jack Barnes adopted by the June 12 expanded leadership meeting to guide party work culminated several days of plenary talks, summary presentations, classes and discussions during the international…


25, 50 and 75 years ago

Vol. 87/No. 25 - July 10, 2023

July 6, 1998 The strike by 6,400 telephone workers in Puerto Rico against the sale of the state-owned Puerto Rico Telephone Company has become a lightning rod for working-class resistance and nationalist sentiment in this Caribbean nation, the largest U.S.…


Northstar workers strike over wages, insurance, disrespect

Vol. 87/No. 25 - July 10, 2023

BEDFORD PARK, Ill. — The 123 workers at Northstar Aerospace, members of the International Union of Electrical Workers-Communications Workers of America Local 14430, walked off the job June 5. The plant makes parts for Apache and Chinook military helicopters. “The…


Unions put stamp on East Palestine disaster hearing

Fight for workers control over safety is road forward
Vol. 87/No. 25 - July 10, 2023
Video of burning rail cars after Feb. 3 Norfolk Southern derailment, release of toxic pollution shown at National Transportation Safety Board hearing in East Palestine, Ohio, June 22. Among union leaders speaking was Jared Cassity, SMART-TD, inset, at Dec. 13 rally after Congress barred strike, imposed contract.

EAST PALESTINE, Ohio — Community residents and rail unions came prepared to have their say at the investigative hearing organized here by the National Transportation Safety Board looking for the causes of the Feb. 3 Norfolk Southern train derailment, which…


Owens-Illinois strikers in Quebec hit insulting pay offer

Vol. 87/No. 25 - July 10, 2023
March in Montreal June 16 by supporters, United Steelworkers members on strike against Owens-Illinois plant there. Strikers are demanding a wage raise that keeps up with inflation.

MONTREAL — “Enough of being walked over, now we shall walk to them,” Eric Dumas, president of United Steelworkers Local 206-G, told 150 strikers and supporters June 16 before they set out on a march through the neighborhood of Pointe-St-Charles…


Ukraine battle for sovereignty advances amid Moscow clash

Vol. 87/No. 25 - July 10, 2023

The aborted June 23-24 heavily armed convoy headed toward the Kremlin by Yevgeny Prigozhin, head of the Wagner mercenary army, has exposed the weaknesses of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s rule. Cracks inside his regime have been brought into the open…


Refuse workers in London win pay raise after strike

Vol. 87/No. 25 - July 10, 2023

WELWYN GARDEN CITY, England — Refuse workers here and in Hatfield, towns north of London, returned to work June 23 after striking for better pay four days earlier. Employed by the waste-collection outfit Urbaser, more than 90 members of the…