New book on Ebola launched at Cuban tropical medicine school

Vol. 84/No. 9 - March 9, 2020
Top, Dr. Manuel Romero, director of Pedro Kourí Institute of Tropical Medicine, welcomes speakers, Feb. 18. Seated from left, Enrique Ubieta, author of Red Zone; Martín Koppel, Pathfinder editor; and Mary-Alice Waters, president of Pathfinder. Bottom, Koppel talks to Didye Ruiz, part of Cuban health care team to Equatorial Guinea during 2014-15 Ebola epidemic. Damayanti Matos, center, discusses books with Philippe Tessier and Malcolm Jarrett, right, Socialist Workers Party candidate for U.S. vice president.

HAVANA — Red Zone: Cuba and the Battle Against Ebola in West Africa, by Cuban writer Enrique Ubieta, published by Pathfinder Press in both English and Spanish, was presented Feb. 18 at the Pedro Kourí Institute of Tropical Medicine here.…


Back Socialist Workers Party 2020 campaign Contribute to $25,000 fund!

Vol. 84/No. 9 - March 9, 2020

Socialist Workers Party candidates Alyson Kennedy and Malcolm Jarrett are on the campaign trail, speaking at public meetings; talking to working people door to door in cities and towns, small and large; joining social protests; walking picket lines with workers…


‘Communism is not a doctrine but a movement’

Vol. 84/No. 9 - March 9, 2020
Meatpackers march June 12, 2000, from United Food and Commercial Workers union hall in St. Paul, Minnesota, to Dakota Premium plant gate in fight that won union recognition. Communists “have no interests separate and apart from those of the proletariat as a whole,” wrote Karl Marx and Frederick Engels in the Communist Manifesto. “They do not set up any sectarian principles of their own, by which to shape and mold the proletarian movement.”

Below is a chapter from The Turn to Industry: Forging a Proletarian Party by Socialist Workers Party National Secretary Jack Barnes. It is entitled, “Communism Is Not a Doctrine but a Movement.” Copyright © 2019 by Pathfinder Press. Reprinted by…


Bosses step up spying on workers — on and off the job

Vol. 84/No. 9 - March 9, 2020

Bosses across the country are seeking greater control over workers’ lives, both on and off the job. This includes more sophisticated surveillance of employees at work and new rules to force workers to change their health and personal habits, and…


Join 2020 May Day international brigade to Cuba!

Vol. 84/No. 9 - March 9, 2020

“I have been wanting to go to Cuba ever since I heard about the May Day brigade. I think it is a great opportunity to exchange culture and check out the political differences between Cuba and the U.S.,” Brian Wickman,…


‘Second-class status of women arose with class society’

Vol. 84/No. 9 - March 9, 2020
Women garment workers in Dhaka fighting for union rights, better wages and conditions, October 2014. Bangladeshi “fashion” industry workforce of 4 million is 80% female. Women in these factories have joined union struggles, advancing their confidence and status.

The Spanish-language edition of Cosmetics, Fashions, and the Exploitation of Women by Joseph Hansen, Evelyn Reed and Mary-Alice Waters is one of Pathfinder’s Books of the Month for March. This Marxist classic on women’s liberation began as a 1954 debate…


Letters

Vol. 84/No. 8 - March 2, 2020

Sinister precedent The article about Maya Forstater’s legally upheld firing for “offensive speech,” which the U.K. tribunal decreed a violation of mandated language (Feb. 17 Militant ), accurately highlights the corrosive effects of such actions on freedom of speech and…


Assad regime offensive in Syria brings devastation

Vol. 84/No. 8 - March 2, 2020

The offensive against rebel forces and civilians in Syria’s Idlib province carried out by the Bashar al-Assad regime and its backers in Moscow and Tehran has intensified since December. The assaults have forced 800,000 people to flee their homes, the…


Crisis deepens in Democratic party in fight over nominee

Vol. 84/No. 8 - March 2, 2020

The crisis wracking the Democratic Party is escalating amid debate over selecting a candidate capable of preventing what the party considers “unthinkable” — President Donald Trump winning reelection in November. And their debate over what kind of ideology to run…


SWP campaign: Back workers’ fights for better wages, working conditions

Vol. 84/No. 8 - March 2, 2020
Dennis Richter, Socialist Workers Party candidate for U.S. Congress in California, discusses party’s working-class program with dental assistant Mayra Mejía in Lathrop Feb. 16.

LATHROP, Calif. — Socialist Workers Party candidates campaigning for the party’s national ticket headed by Alyson Kennedy for U.S. president and Malcolm Jarrett for vice president are talking with workers about the party’s platform to confront the economic, social and…