Miners mark 100 years since union battle at Blair Mountain

Vol. 85/No. 35 - September 27, 2021
Above, West Virginia coal miners after 1921 battle at Blair Mountain. Fierce struggle by miners laid groundwork for growth of United Mine Workers union. Inset, West Virginia teachers in 2018 strike wore red bandanas in tribute to those miners.

Over Labor Day weekend in West Virginia, dozens of commemorations, including rallies, presentations, and re-enactments, marked the 100th anniversary of the Battle of Blair Mountain. This was one of the biggest armed conflicts ever fought between unionists and the bosses’…


SWP: ‘US forces out of Korea! Lift economic sanctions!’

Vol. 85/No. 35 - September 27, 2021

“We stand in solidarity with the Korean people’s struggle to reunify the country and restore Korea’s national sovereignty,” Steve Clark wrote for the Socialist Workers Party in a Sept. 9 letter to the North Korean government on the 73rd anniversary…


Longshore union in LA: ‘End US embargo of Cuba!’

Vol. 85/No. 35 - September 27, 2021
Longshore union in LA: ‘End US embargo of Cuba!’

LOS ANGELES — Floyd Bryan, president of the Southern California District Council of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union, reads the resolution passed by the union at its June convention demanding an end to the U.S. government’s embargo against Cuba.…


New York rally protests Texas anti-abortion law

Vol. 85/No. 35 - September 27, 2021
New York rally protests Texas anti-abortion law

NEW YORK — More than 125 supporters of women’s rights joined a protest called by the National Organization for Women, and Planned Parenthood, at Brooklyn Borough Hall Sept. 9 opposing an anti-abortion Texas law that went into effect Sept. 1.…


In Defense of Land and Labor

Vol. 85/No. 35 - September 27, 2021

The following excerpt is from the opening section of “The Stewardship of Nature Also Falls to the Working Class: In Defense of Land and Labor,” a Socialist Workers Party resolution published in New International no. 14. Copyright © 2008 by…


Indian sanitation workers strike for equal pay, permanent jobs

Vol. 85/No. 35 - September 27, 2021

Over 400 sanitation workers staged a sit-in outside the Patna Municipal Corporation’s headquarters in Patna, India, Sept. 12, part of a strike by sanitation and some maintenance workers that began Sept. 6. The strike is the latest in a series…


Fair Play for Cuba Committee built defense for socialist revolution

Vol. 85/No. 35 - September 27, 2021
Fair Play for Cuba Committee published, distributed inexpensive pamphlets of speeches by leaders of Cuba’s socialist revolution, eyewitness accounts of steps forward by working people.

On Sept. 7 President Joseph Biden signed off on extending the U.S. embargo of Cuba for another year under the capitalist rulers’ Trading With the Enemy Act. This is no surprise since every president — Democrat and Republican alike —…


US military exits Afghanistan, Taliban forms gov’t

Vol. 85/No. 34 - September 20, 2021
US military exits Afghanistan, Taliban forms gov’t

The last U.S. troops and planes flew out of Afghanistan Aug. 30, leaving the Taliban in control of the country. Two decades of war by the U.S. rulers and their allies left hundreds of thousands of Afghans killed or injured…


Quebec ferry workers strike for pay, jobs, time off

Vol. 85/No. 34 - September 20, 2021

SOREL, Quebec — Hundreds of ferry workers went on strike at five Saint Lawrence River crossings in Quebec on the Labour Day weekend. From here, northeast of Montreal, to Matane near the Atlantic coast, members of the United Steelworkers and …


Cuba’s socialist revolution: ‘No one is left on their own’

Vol. 85/No. 34 - September 20, 2021
Cuba’s socialist revolution: ‘No one is left on their own’

No one died in Cuba when Hurricane Ida tore over the island, compared to more than 71 in the United States. That’s not because the storm increased in destructive force before landfall in Louisiana. It’s because in Cuba — unlike…