‘We need our own party, a labor party’

Vol. 84/No. 10 - March 16, 2020
Retiree Ernest Williams, left, in North Long Beach Feb. 27, tells SWP candidate for vice president Malcolm Jarrett, right, and campaigner Bernie Senter that half his pension goes for medical expenses. SWP calls for government-guaranteed cradle-to-grave health care, Jarrett said.

LOS ANGELES — The Socialist Workers Party candidates for president and vice president, Alyson Kennedy and Malcolm Jarrett, campaigned among workers at the Farmer John pork processing plant here Feb. 28 during shift change. “It’s good you’re here in the…


Indigenous people debate building Canada pipeline

Vol. 84/No. 10 - March 16, 2020
Construction of Coastal GasLink pipeline to transport natural gas to port in British Columbia. Most Indigenous people on the route support project to take jobs that it will create.

MONTREAL — A Feb. 24 raid by dozens of armed Ontario Provincial police on a 18-day-long Tyendinaga Mohawk First Nation camp blocking the Canadian National Railway line near Belleville, between Montreal and Toronto, resulted in a new round of demonstrations…


For-profit US ‘health care’ will increase virus threat

Revolutionary Cuba points the road forward
Vol. 84/No. 10 - March 16, 2020
Clinic in Camagüey, Cuba, in March. Through its neighborhood doctors, nurses and special programs put in place since outbreak of coronavirus, Cuba has mobilized to confront new disease. Unlike the for-profit system in capitalist countries, in Cuba no one is left on their own.

The coronavirus contagion is now spreading faster outside China, where it first appeared in December, than inside. The Chinese regime’s extremely aggressive lockdown of hundreds of millions slowed the advance of the disease for now, but by March 2 the…


As capitalist crisis deepens, workers need control of production

Vol. 84/No. 10 - March 16, 2020
As part of carrying out their revolution, Cuban workers took control of production in the factories and on the land. Above, workers at Havana dairy factory meet in 1994, joining the national debate over how to reorganize production to address shortages in Cuban economy.

The Changing Face of U.S. Politics: Working Class Politics and the Trade Unions by Jack Barnes is one of Pathfinder’s Books of the Month for March. Since the mid-1970s, Barnes, national secretary of the Socialist Workers Party, has led the…


‘Only working class can protect humanity’

Vol. 84/No. 10 - March 16, 2020

No capitalist government on earth, including Washington, has made the preparations necessary to deal effectively with the spread of coronavirus. The capitalist class — and the parties and governments that protect their class rule and their “right” to wrest profits…


Asarco copper strikers face a serious fight and deserve solidarity

Vol. 84/No. 10 - March 16, 2020

With their strike against Asarco now into its fifth month, copper workers continue to put up their picket lines 24/7 and to win solidarity in the face of the company’s blatant union busting and refusal to negotiate. “They’re fighting for…


Correction

Vol. 84/No. 10 - March 16, 2020

In Militant no. 9 the front page photo caption should have identified Lamont Anthony as being seated behind podium. The caption on page 9 should have said Didye Ruiz went to Equatorial Guinea as part of Cuban health care team.


‘A US working-class party that is serious about socialist revolution’

At book fair, union events, Cuban workers discuss Socialist Workers Party political course, US class struggle
Vol. 84/No. 10 - March 16, 2020
Meeting at Central Organization of Cuban Workers (CTC), Feb. 20. From left: Pathfinder editor Martín Koppel; Socialist Workers Party leader Mary-Alice Waters; Pathfinder editor Róger Calero; Silvio Jova, CTC magazine editorial board; and Caridad Cabrera, CTC’s Americas Department. Inset, Ismael Drullet, CTC international relations secretary. “In the most powerful capitalist country in the world, there are people explaining the need for a socialist revolution,” said Jova.

HAVANA — “These books are important for understanding that in the most powerful capitalist country in the world, there are people explaining the need for a socialist revolution, a radical change in the system,” said Silvio Jova, representing the Central…


25, 50 and 75 Years Ago

Vol. 84/No. 10 - March 16, 2020

March 20, 1995 MINNEAPOLIS — “Socialism is directly connected to the survival of our country,” said Cuban youth leader Rogelio Polanco to 40 students at the University of Minnesota here March 7. Polanco, along with Kenia Serrano, had arrived to…


Syrian, Turkish forces clash in Idlib as 9-year civil war widens

Vol. 84/No. 10 - March 16, 2020

The Syrian and Turkish governments are intensifying airstrikes on each other’s forces as they fight over control of Syria’s Idlib province, a region held by armed groups opposed to the Bashar al-Assad regime. Alongside the two fighting forces, Moscow, Tehran…