US military quits Afghanistan in haste and defeat

Vol. 85/No. 28 - July 19, 2021

An Afghan soldier on guard after U.S. departure from giant Bagram air base July 2. It had been the hub of Washington’s military operations in its 20-year-long war in Afghanistan. Most forces flew out overnight, turning off power and water…


‘In US prison system, just going to trial earns you respect’

Vol. 85/No. 27 - July 12, 2021

  One of Pathfinder’s Books of the Month for July is the French edition of  Voices from Prison: The Cuban Five. Fernando González, René González, Antonio Guerrero, Gerardo Hernández and Ramón Labañino were arrested on frame-up conspiracy charges by the…


Capital rules through its two parties: Democrats and Republicans

Vol. 85/No. 26 - July 5, 2021
Laura Gray cartoon in Militant, July 29, 1944, of bosses cracking whip over Republicans, Democrats, as they rush to do bidding of capitalist rulers.

One of Pathfinder’s Books of the Month for July is Letters from Prison by James P. Cannon, a founding leader of the Socialist Workers Party. He and 17 other leaders of the SWP and the Minneapolis Teamsters union were framed…


As revolution advanced, Cuban peasants’ lives were transformed

Vol. 85/No. 25 - June 28, 2021
Working people and Rebel Army fighters line up at field hospital in Sierra Maestra, Cuba, 1958. Revolutionary forces’ policy was to treat peasants, combatants, wounded enemy soldiers without distinction.

The Spanish edition of   Women in Cuba: The Making of a Revolution Within the Revolution  by Vilma Espín, Asela de los Santos and Yolanda Ferrer, three leaders of the Federation of Cuban Women, is one of Pathfinder’s Books of the…


Scientific socialism grew with the working-class movement

Vol. 85/No. 24 - June 21, 2021
Karl Marx, holding Neue Rheinische Zeitung with Frederick Engels in 1848 German revolution, helped build Communist League, first modern working-class party. Engels wrote, “Com-munism is not a doctrine but a movement; it proceeds not from principles but from facts.”

The excerpt below is from one of Pathfinder’s Books of the Month for June, Socialism: Utopian and Scientific by Frederick Engels. Engels helped found the modern communist movement alongside Karl Marx. In this book, written by Engels with the collaboration…


Mighty rise of unions in 1930s posed need for a labor party

Vol. 85/No. 23 - June 14, 2021
Sit-down strike by autoworkers in 1937 at General Motors in Flint, Michigan, was part of strike wave during 1930s Depression that built Congress of Industrial Organizations and posed need, and potential, for a party of labor to advance the class struggle onto the political plane.

One of Pathfinder’s Books of the Month for June is Teamster Politics by Farrell Dobbs. It tells how Teamsters Local 574 members in Minneapolis in 1934 during the Great Depression learned to wield their union power to win strikes. With…


Protest: ‘Charge cops who shot Andrew Brown’

Vol. 85/No. 22 - June 7, 2021

GREENSBORO, N.C. — Protesters took to the streets in Elizabeth City May 18, just hours after Pasquotank County District Attorney Andrew Womble announced he had ruled that the shooting death of Andrew Brown Jr. by sheriff’s deputies there was “tragic,…


For recognition of Palestinian state, Israel

Vol. 85/No. 22 - June 7, 2021

The following is based on excerpts from a December 2017 statement by Jack Barnes, Socialist Workers Party national secretary. Pressing for the Israeli and Arab governments and leaderships of Palestinian organizations to begin immediate talks to recognize both Israel and…


First US general strike in 1877 showed power of labor

Vol. 85/No. 20 - May 24, 2021
Rail strikers blockade engines at Martinsburg, West Virginia, in 1877. Karl Marx called their strike “the first uprising against the oligarchy of capital which had developed since the Civil War.” The working class together with oppressed toilers who are Black and exploited farmers would be the class forces of revolution in the U.S., he said.

The “Great Strike” of 1877, sparked by starvation wages and brutal working conditions, started among rail workers and then drew in more than half a million others. It alarmed the capitalist rulers. Federal, state and city governments unleashed troops, cops…


SWP condemns attack on Minnesota mosque

Vol. 85/No. 19 - May 17, 2021

MOORHEAD, Minn. — Hundreds gathered at the Moorhead-Fargo Islamic Community Center and mosque here April 26 carrying paintbrushes and cleaning chemicals. They had come to remove vulgar, anti-Muslim graffiti spray-painted there the day before, including “Death to Islam,” “Women can’t…