Amtrak, gov’t seek to cover up bosses’ role in  Wash. derailment

Vol. 82/No. 2 - January 15, 2018
Amtrak train on first trip on new tracks spills onto highway in DuPont, Washington, after derailment Dec. 18. Bosses rushed to put crews on new bypass without adequate training.

After Amtrak Cascades train 501 derailed and crashed Dec. 18 as it traveled over the just completed Point Defiance Bypass on its way from Seattle to Portland, government officials and railroad bosses began to try to blame the engineer. Three…


‘In Cuba there is no discrimination against Chinese’

Vol. 82/No. 2 - January 15, 2018

NAGASAKI, Japan — The differing class origins and perspectives of the millions of people who made up the Chinese “diaspora” over the last 200 years, and how these differences affected their struggles against discrimination, were discussed and debated at an…


North, South Korea discuss talks as US sanctions squeeze Pyongyang

Vol. 82/No. 2 - January 15, 2018

In his annual New Year’s speech, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said his government would like to discuss with its South Korean counterparts participating in the Winter Olympics in South Korea next month. “The Winter Games will be a…


Nagasaki: A fitting setting for meeting on overseas Chinese

Vol. 82/No. 2 - January 15, 2018

With a long history of Chinese settlement and trade, Nagasaki provided a fitting setting for this year’s ISSCO conference. The port city of Nagasaki was established on the northwest coast of Kyushu Island in 1571 for trade with Portugal and…


To rule, the working class must master all past culture

Vol. 82/No. 2 - January 15, 2018

Below is an excerpt from “Culture and Socialism,” an essay in Art and Revolution by Leon Trotsky, one of Pathfinder’s Books of the Month for January. Trotsky was one of the central leaders of the 1917 Russian Revolution. The essay is based…


Chinese immigrants are not ‘passive victims of discrimination’

Conference in Nagasaki, Japan, discusses experience of Chinese workers, peasants and merchants who emigrated around the world
Vol. 82/No. 2 - January 15, 2018

NAGASAKI, Japan — The experiences of Chinese workers, peasants and merchants who have emigrated in their millions to Southeast Asia and beyond, becoming part of the class struggle and political lives of working people in many nations, was a focus…


Senate probe of Green Party is threat to workers’ rights

Vol. 82/No. 2 - January 15, 2018

The Senate Intelligence Committee announced Dec. 18 that it’s opening an investigation into the campaign of Jill Stein, who ran as Green Party candidate for U.S. president in 2016, claiming the move is part of its witch hunt into whether…


Protests in Puerto Rico: 1 million plus still without power

Vol. 82/No. 2 - January 15, 2018
Protests in Puerto Rico: 1 million plus still without power

Anger is rising in the U.S. colony of Puerto Rico over the slow pace of government efforts to restore electricity and other basic necessities more than three months after hurricanes Maria and Irma. The Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority admitted…


Send bosses ‘blood money’ to SWP

Vol. 82/No. 2 - January 15, 2018

When Corsair Components in Hayward, California, laid off its workforce, but needed the workers it had just fired to stay on for several weeks to clear the warehouse shelves, the company offered them each $2,000 in addition to their wages.…


Fla. rail worker fights firing after speaking out on safety

Vol. 82/No. 2 - January 15, 2018

Louis Billingsley, a freight rail conductor with 12 years experience, is fighting his firing after speaking out against unsafe practices and conditions at the CSX railroad in a televised interview on CBS Action News Jax in Jacksonville, Florida. Jacksonville is…