‘Building a new society is the work of creative human beings’

Vol. 85/No. 5 - February 8, 2021

One of Pathfinder’s Books of the Month for January is In Defense of Socialism: Four Speeches on the 30th Anniversary of the Cuban Revolution by Fidel Castro, its central leader. The triumph of the Cuban people on Jan. 1, 1959,…


Cuban Five ‘defended revolution against colossal injustice’

Vol. 85/No. 4 - February 1, 2021
Above right, “The Jury’s Verdict” by Antonio Guerrero depicts fellow prisoners loudly applauding Cuban Five on their return after they were convicted, which he called “the first act of solidarity with our cause.” Above left, Cubans in Holguín celebrate release of remaining members of the Five. Below, from left, Fernando González, Ramón Labañino, Gerardo Hernández, Antonio Guerrero and René González reunited in Havana, Dec. 17, 2014.

 One of Pathfinder’s Books of the Month for January is Absolved by Solidarity: 16 Watercolors for 16 Years of Unjust Imprisonment of the Cuban Five, a bilingual edition in English and Spanish, by Antonio Guerrero. The Cuban revolutionaries had been…


Why did workers state in Yugoslavia come apart in 1990?

Vol. 85/No. 3 - January 25, 2021
People in Zagreb, Croatia, greet liberation by Yugoslav partisans in 1945. Yugoslav Revolution forged unity of workers, peasants across ethnic and religious lines, defeating Nazi German occupation. This marked the initial years of the united workers state forged in Yugoslavia.

The Truth About Yugoslavia: Why Working People Should Oppose Intervention by George Fyson, Argiris Malapanis and Jonathan Silberman is one of Pathfinder’s Books of the Month for January. The contents first appeared as articles in the Militantbetween April and October…


How the Teamsters union organized their 1934 strike to win

Vol. 85/No. 2 - January 18, 2021
Teamsters Local 574 Women’s Auxiliary volunteers serve meals during 1934 Minneapolis strike. They also treated wounded picketers in strike hospital, spoke widely in region to win support.

Teamster Rebellion by Farrell Dobbs, a Pathfinder Book of the Month in Spanish for January, is the story of the 1934 Teamster organizing drive in Minneapolis. Through hard-fought strikes, rank-and-file workers defeated strikebreaking efforts by the trucking bosses and the…


The crisis of the capitalist rulers is visited on working people

Vol. 85/No. 1 - January 4, 2021

The Spanish edition of  Capitalism’s World Disorder: Working Class Politics at the Millennium by Jack Barnes, national secretary of the Socialist Workers Party, is one of Pathfinder’s Books of the Month for December. The book explains the economic and political…


Teamsters show ‘with proper leadership, workers can overcome’

Vol. 84/No. 51 - December 28, 2020
In May 1934 Minneapolis Teamsters rout cops, special deputies from bosses’ Citizens Alliance that were sent to break their strike. Class-conscious leaders organized workers defense to win.

Teamster Bureaucracy, by Farrell Dobbs, is one of Pathfinder’s Books of the Month for December. It is the last in a four-volume series on how a class-struggle union was forged in Minneapolis and across the Midwest trucking industry in the…


‘Decisive battles for future of humanity will be fought in the US’

Vol. 84/No. 50 - December 21, 2020

The Struggle for Socialism in the “American Century”: Writings and Speeches, 1945-47 by James P. Cannon is one of Pathfinder’s Books of the Month for December. In the face of the U.S. rulers’ swaggering claim to global domination following their…


‘Cuban Revolution is sustained in power by working people’

Vol. 84/No. 49 - December 14, 2020
Fidel Castro presents Second Declaration of Havana to million-strong assembly, Feb. 4, 1962. Cuban working people transformed themselves through the fight to take political power, making first socialist revolution in the Americas and defending it from U.S. aggression ever since.

Fidel Castro: Nothing Can Stop the Course of History, one of Pathfinder’s Books of the Month for December, is a wide-ranging interview given by the central leader of the Cuban Revolution in 1985. His interviewers were Jeffrey M. Elliot, a…


How US combat troops turned against the Vietnam War

Vol. 84/No. 48 - December 7, 2020
Over 500 active-duty GIs joined San Francisco protest against Washington’s war in Vietnam, Oct. 12, 1968. GI opposition to the war, disintegrating morale was a key factor in U.S. defeat.

Out Now by Fred Halstead is one of Pathfinder’s Books of the Month for November. Halstead, an active participant in and leader of the international movement against the U.S. war in Vietnam, visited and talked with GIs at a U.S.…


Workers need fighting program for jobs, protection from inflation

Vol. 84/No. 47 - November 30, 2020
1937 sit-down strike at GM in Flint, Michigan, won union recognition and pay raise. The 1930s labor upsurge posed fight against twin scourges of unemployment and high prices. “The right to employment is the only serious right left to the worker in a society based on exploitation.”

The Transitional Program for Socialist Revolution by Leon Trotsky is one of Pathfinder’s Books of the Month for November. The excerpt below is from the document “The Death Agony of Capitalism and the Tasks of the Fourth International.” In drafting…