Judge orders release of ‘Newburgh 4,’ framed by FBI

Vol. 87/No. 31 - August 21, 2023

NEW YORK — After being arrested in 2009, convicted a year later for a “conspiracy” that didn’t exist, and imprisoned for the last 14 years, three men who are part of a group known as the “Newburgh Four” were granted…


New Jersey nurses strike over work conditions

Vol. 87/No. 31 - August 21, 2023

NEW BRUNSWICK, N.J. — Seventeen hundred nurses, members of United Steelworkers Local 4-200, went on strike at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital here Aug. 4 after three months of negotiations produced no new contract. “This is not a step we…


Hotel workers strike against Sheraton Vancouver Airport

Vol. 87/No. 31 - August 21, 2023

RICHMOND, British Columbia — “We are staying strong in our fight for a living wage. Solidarity from other unions is very important,” Ana Wong, a housekeeper for over 30 years at the Sheraton Vancouver Airport and member of UNITE HERE…


3,700 Toronto-area workers strike Metro grocery stores

Vol. 87/No. 31 - August 21, 2023

TORONTO — Workers at 27 Metro grocery stores in the Greater Toronto Area walked off the job July 29 after voting down a proposed contract. The strike includes 3,700 clerks, cashiers, department managers, and pharmacy and Starbucks staff. They are…


Imprisoned for opposing US war drive, Debs ran for president

Vol. 87/No. 31 - August 21, 2023
At rally in Canton, Ohio, June 16, 1918, Eugene V. Debs speaks against first imperialist war and in support of Russian Revolution. U.S. rulers tossed aside Constitution’s protection of free speech for him and others, put him in prison. Debs was leader of rail workers, Socialist Party.

The selection below is from Eugene V. Debs Speaks, one of Pathfinder’s Books of the Month for August. Debs, a railroad union fighter and pioneer socialist agitator, supported the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia. The excerpt is from his speech to…


Cuba shows road to end threat of nuclear war

Vol. 87/No. 31 - August 21, 2023
Cuban President Fidel Castro places wreath for victims of atom bomb at memorial in Hiroshima, Japan, March 3, 2003.

“We have never considered the idea of fabricating nuclear weapons, because we don’t need them,” former Cuban President Fidel Castro said in 2005, recorded in the book My Life. “What’s the purpose of producing a nuclear weapon when your enemy…


LA hotel, city workers strike, join fights by actors, writers

Common actions build working-class solidarity
Vol. 87/No. 31 - August 21, 2023
Over 11,000 Los Angeles city workers, including sanitation and airport workers, mechanics, gardeners and lifeguards, held 24-hour strike Aug. 8, protesting understaffing and overwork.

LOS ANGELES — Hotel workers held their fourth round of rolling strikes here Aug. 3-7. Thousands of UNITE HERE Local 11 members struck at 26 of the 60 area hotels where union contracts had expired June 30. Area hotels are…


25, 50 and 75 Years Ago

Vol. 87/No. 31 - August 21, 2023

August 24, 1998 The U.S. government’s interference in the Teamsters union has just taken one further, egregious step with the expulsion of the elected president, Ronald Carey, from the union by a court-appointed “Independent Review Board.” This attack is a…


Defend free speech for all! Drop charges against Trump

Vol. 87/No. 31 - August 21, 2023
Left, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs law expanding FBI powers in 1934, opening door for agency to become U.S. rulers’ political police. Above, July 19, 1941, Militant reports government’s indictment of Socialist Workers Party, Teamster leaders, under thought-control Smith Act, dealing serious blow to constitutional protection of free speech.

  Defending constitutionally protected free speech is at the heart of fighting the latest assault on political rights by President Joseph Biden’s Justice Department. Special counsel Jack Smith’s second indictment of former President Donald Trump would gut the First Amendment…


SWP campaign offers program working people can use to fight

Vol. 87/No. 31 - August 21, 2023
Joanne Kuniansky, right, SWP candidate for New Jersey State Senate, joined in solidarity with striking nurses, members of USW Local 4-200, at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital in New Brunswick, Aug. 6. From left, picket captain Nancy Lipschutz and nurse Patrick Miller.

Socialist Workers Party candidates and campaign supporters are presenting a political program and demands that point a road forward to defend the interests of working people, and advancing the need for solidarity with unionists fighting attacks by the bosses —…