Rents, mortgages soar, tighten squeeze on workers’ families

Vol. 87/No. 6 - February 13, 2023

With housing costs rising faster than workers’ wages, those renting apartments or homes are paying on the average 30% of their income for rent, an all-time high. Mortgage rates have doubled in the past year. Underneath these figures is the…


Manchester rail workers join nurses pickets, bring support

Vol. 87/No. 5 - February 6, 2023
Maggie Heaton, left, Royal College of Nurses union representative for North West England, discusses strike for pay raise and improved working conditions Jan. 18 with rail workers Ólof Andra Proppé and Gary Boyle, who brought solidarity from Manchester Piccadilly Station.

MANCHESTER, England — “Representatives from the RMT and ASLEF rail worker unions came and showed their solidarity with the nurses. They handed around a sheet with 130 messages of support from workers from Piccadilly Station,” reported the Manchester Evening News…


Workers in France strike over attempt to raise retirement age

Vol. 87/No. 5 - February 6, 2023

PARIS — Striking workers led over a million people at some 220 demonstrations across the country Jan. 19 to protest President Emmanuel Macron’s attempt to raise the retirement age. Protests were accompanied by strikes of gas, electrical and rail workers,…


Striking bus workers get hearing at Virginia King Day parade

Vol. 87/No. 5 - February 6, 2023

LEESBURG, Va. — Striking Loudoun County bus operators, mechanics and other members of Amalgamated Transit Union Local 689 marched in the annual Martin Luther King parade here Jan. 16. They formed part of a labor contingent that included the Northern…


Chicago university faculty strike for six days, win student support

Vol. 87/No. 5 - February 6, 2023

CHICAGO — Nearly 900 faculty at the University of Illinois at Chicago struck Jan. 17, demanding pay raises to keep up with inflation, job security and expanded mental health support for students. They are members of UIC United Faculty, an…


Paul Ehrlich is still peddling ‘population bomb’ hysteria

Vol. 87/No. 5 - February 6, 2023

If you tuned into “60 Minutes” on Jan. 1 you heard Paul Ehrlich, a Stanford University biologist, tell the audience, “I and the vast majority of my colleagues think we’ve had it; that the next few decades will be the…


Ingredion workers win contract after six-month strike

Vol. 87/No. 5 - February 6, 2023

CHICAGO — “I’m glad we stayed strong because we ended up with a lot better contract,” bakery worker Elaine Sweiger told the Cedar Rapids Gazette. Sweiger was one of 122 members of Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers Local…


Atlanta cop attack, antifa riot lead to ‘terrorism’ charges

Vol. 87/No. 5 - February 6, 2023

ATLANTA — Georgia State Patrol cops shot and killed Manuel Teran as they cleared out an encampment in Intrenchment Creek Park in Dekalb County Jan. 18. Teran was part of a group of middle-class radicals and anarchists attempting to block…


Drought crisis is result of profit system

Vol. 87/No. 5 - February 6, 2023

Statement issued Jan. 25 by Ellie García, Socialist Workers Party candidate for U.S. Senate from California in 2022. Working farmers are victims of conditions over which they have no control. But these are not primarily natural disasters such as the…


25, 50, and 75 Years Ago

Vol. 87/No. 5 - February 6, 2023

February 9, 1998 The conduct of Cuban president Fidel Castro and of hundreds of thousands of Cuban people during the Pope’s visit provided a joyous glimpse of what it means for the proletariat to be in power with a firm,…