Hours before execution, Julius Jones sentence commuted

Vol. 85/No. 45 - December 6, 2021

Supporters of Oklahoma death row prisoner Julius Darius Jones cheered as Gov. Kevin Stitt canceled Jones’ execution just four hours before it was due at the state prison in McAlester Nov. 18. Stitt commuted Jones’ death sentence to life without…


‘Capitalism contaminates land, sea and air for profit’

Vol. 85/No. 45 - December 6, 2021

Below are excerpts from the Socialist Workers Party 2007 resolution “The Stewardship of Nature Also Falls to the Working Class: In Defense of Land and Labor.” It is available in issue no. 14 of New International, a magazine of Marxist…


Black rights fighter Homer Plessy wins a pardon after 129 years

Vol. 85/No. 45 - December 6, 2021
Phoebe Ferguson and Keith Plessy, descendants of Louisiana judge and Black rights fighter involved in 1896 Plessy v. Ferguson case, where Supreme Court legalized Jim Crow segregation.

On Nov. 12, the Louisiana Board of Pardons recommended a pardon for Homer Plessy, 129 years after he was arrested for challenging that state’s new Separate Car Act by boarding a “whites only” rail car on June 7, 1892. Four…



Pathfinder titles a big hit at Oregon book festival

Vol. 85/No. 44 - November 29, 2021

PORTLAND, Ore. — Hundreds of people attended the Portland Book Festival here Nov. 13, where publishers and booksellers set up showcases of their featured titles. After almost two years of pandemic-justified government lockdowns, many were eager to get out to…


Defense rebuked in move to ban Black pastors at trial in Georgia

Vol. 85/No. 44 - November 29, 2021
Protesters march May 16, 2020, in Brunswick, Georgia, demanding justice for Ahmaud Arbery.

ATLANTA — “He was trapped like a rat,” Gregory McMichael, one of three defendants on trial for the vigilante-style killing of Ahmaud Arbery, told investigators just hours after the Black youth had been cornered and shot dead on Feb. 23,…


John Deere strikers vote on third contract offer

Vol. 85/No. 44 - November 29, 2021

Over 10,000 striking members of the United Auto Workers union at John Deere are voting Nov. 17 on a third company contract offer recommended by union officials. Workers struck the company’s 12 plants Oct. 14, rejecting a contract that expanded…


After woman’s death abortion rights fight heats up in Poland

Vol. 85/No. 44 - November 29, 2021

Tens of thousands took to the streets in Poland Nov. 5 to protest the government’s extreme restrictions on the right to abortion. The actions in Warsaw, the capital, and other cities came after it became public that a 30-year-old pregnant…


Moderna fights US gov’t over patent and profits

Vol. 85/No. 44 - November 29, 2021

Profit-driven bosses at Moderna have iced out of the main patent for its COVID-19 vaccine the scientists from the federal government’s National Institutes of Health, which helped pay for and develop it. The fight over this patent exposes the dog-eat-dog…