Tag: Page 8

‘First years of Communist Party heroic part of our continuity’

Vol. 82/No. 35 - September 24, 2018

Below is an excerpt from James P. Cannon’s The First Ten Years of American Communism, one of Pathfinder’s Books of the Month for September. Cannon was won to the example of the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution in Russia and became a…

The history of the belated, bloody birth of US imperialism

Vol. 82/No. 34 - September 17, 2018
In 1898 Washington seized Cuba, Puerto Rico, Philippines and Guam from Spanish rulers, becoming the victor in world’s first imperialist war. Above, U.S. invasion force with bayonets drawn are ready to defend their camp in Puerto Rico, which remains a U.S. colony to this day.

The excerpt below is taken from a 1935 essay by George Novack that appears in America’s Revolutionary Heritage, one of Pathfinder’s Books of the Month for September. Novack explains why U.S. financial capital came late to rule the roost in…

Fidel Castro: ‘Maurice Bishop was a true revolutionary’

Vol. 82/No. 33 - September 3, 2018
Maurice Bishop, left, and Fidel Castro at May Day rally in Cuba, 1980. “Grenada had become a true symbol of independence and progress in the Caribbean,” Fidel Castro said after Bishop was killed in counterrevolutionary coup. “No one could have foreseen the tragedy” to come.

Below is a speech by Fidel Castro given in Havana on Nov. 14, 1983, to more than 1 million people gathered to honor 24 Cuban volunteers who were killed during the U.S. invasion of Grenada. It’s included in Maurice Bishop…

‘A revolution is occurring among the women of our country!’

Vol. 82/No. 32 - August 27, 2018
Participation in Cuba's revolution transformed women. No longer restricted to the home, they became political actors and leaders. Left, militia women prepare to defend revolution against U.S. military threats during 1962 missile crisis. Right, revolution opened up traditionally male jobs for women.

Below is an excerpt from “The Revolution Within the Revolution,” a December 1966 speech by Fidel Castro presented to the Fifth National Plenary of the Federation of Cuban Women. It’s printed in Women and the Cuban Revolution, one of Pathfinder’s…

The fight to stop deportation of the ‘man who has no papers’

Vol. 82/No. 30 - August 13, 2018
Above, Carl Skoglund, at head of table, in leadership meeting of Teamsters Local 544, November 1937. “Skogie” was communist, revolutionary fighter and labor militant all his life. Inset, Skoglund, left, with SWP leader James P. Cannon, 1949.

Below is an excerpt from an April 1954 speech by James P. Cannon, a founding member of the communist movement and National Secretary of the Socialist Workers Party. He wrote it for presentation to a class of students at the…

1979 Nicaraguan Revolution posed road for workers power

Vol. 82/No. 29 - August 6, 2018
Establishment of workers and farmers government in 1979 gave impulse to struggles by the toilers. Above, 30,000 peasants and agricultural workers led by Association of Rural Workers rallied in Managua in February 1980, for radical land reform and improved conditions.

Below is an excerpt from a speech by Tomás Borge, one of the leaders of the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN), before a crowd of half a million people in Managua July 19, 1981, celebrating the second anniversary of the…

Great 1877 Strike showed class-struggle road for US workers

Vol. 82/No. 28 - July 30, 2018
Blockade of engines at Martinsburg, West Virginia, during 1877 rail strike. "The first eruption against the oligarchy of capital which had developed since the Civil War," wrote Karl Marx, showed one key component of the class forces - the working class, oppressed toilers who are Black and exploited farmers - that would come together to lead the revolution in the U.S.

The “Great Strike” of 1877 started among rail workers and then drew in more than half a million overall. Karl Marx wrote that the strike “could very well be the point of origin for the creation of a serious workers’…

Twin Cities rally: ‘File charges against killer cop’

Vol. 82/No. 27 - July 23, 2018

MINNEAPOLIS — Some 60 people turned out in front of the 4th Police Precinct July 1 together with Melinda Blevins, speaking, in demanding charges be filed against the two Minneapolis cops who shot her cousin, Thurman Blevins Jr., and that…

‘Cuba’s revolutionary armed forces are the people in uniform’

Vol. 82/No. 22 - June 4, 2018
José Ramón Fernández, center, field commander of Cuba’s Revolutionary Armed Forces, during counterattack that defeated U.S.-organized invasion at Bay of Pigs in 72 hours in April 1961.

Below is an excerpt from Making History: Interviews with Four Generals of Cuba’s Revolutionary Armed Forces, one of Pathfinder’s Books of the Month for May. “The Revolutionary Armed Forces are the people in uniform,” Cuban Brig. Gen. José Ramón Fernández said…

Unions lead fight against racism, for working-class unity

Vol. 82/No. 20 - May 21, 2018

Fighting Racism in World War II is one of Pathfinder’s Books of the Month for May. This selection — “CIO Committee Fights Jim Crow” from the Nov. 4, 1944, Militant — is by Charles Jackson, the pen name for Dr.…