Havana book fair highlights solidarity between Cuba, Vietnam

Vol. 84/No. 7 - February 24, 2020
Cubans browse books at Vietnamese pavilion at Havana Book Fair. Displays depict Cuba’s solidarity with Vietnam and its battle for independence and unification against Washington’s war.

HAVANA — The history of solidarity between revolutionary Cuba and Vietnam in the struggle against imperialist domination is a major theme of this year’s Havana International Book Fair, which opened here Feb. 6. Vietnam is the country of honor at…


UK: ‘Solidarity with protests by working people in Iran!’

Vol. 84/No. 7 - February 24, 2020
UK: ‘Solidarity with protests by working people in Iran!’

MANCHESTER, England — “Three times in two years, Iranian workers and students have taken to the streets to protest the government’s military intervention abroad and its attacks on living standards,” Pete Clifford, with megaphone, told passersby as he and Hugo…


Sinn Fein vote surge fueled by social crisis, calls for Irish unity

Vol. 84/No. 7 - February 24, 2020

LONDON — None of the capitalist parties contesting Ireland’s Feb. 8 parliamentary election came close to gaining a majority. Fianna Fail and Fine Gael, who have dominated Irish governments since a war for independence liberated a majority of the country…


French workers continue protest against Macron’s pension assault

Vol. 84/No. 7 - February 24, 2020
Sailors march in Marseille, France, Jan. 29 as part of a national day of protest against government plans to raise retirement age from 62 to 64 and to cut back workers’ pensions.

PARIS — Sizable union-led protests have continued against French President Emmanuel Macron’s attack on workers’ pensions, despite the end of a six-week national rail strike Jan. 29 called to oppose the assaults. The strike was joined by workers walking out…


East Bay transit workers fight bosses’ takebacks, seek support

Vol. 84/No. 7 - February 24, 2020

OAKLAND, Calif. — Bus drivers, mechanics and clerical workers employed by the AC Transit system in the East Bay held a midday rally outside the agency’s headquarters Feb. 5, seeking to win more support for their fight against the company’s…


‘Workers need our own party, a labor party’

Vol. 84/No. 7 - February 24, 2020
SWP presidential candidate Alyson Kennedy talks with auto mechanic Rogelio Rodriguez at his home in Dallas Jan. 24. Working people need to break with the capitalists’ parties, she said.

DALLAS — The two main capitalist parties, the Democrats and Republicans, are in crisis, Alyson Kennedy, Socialist Workers Party candidate for president, told participants in a campaign rally here Feb. 8. And, she said, more and more workers are concluding…


Miami car caravan protests US restrictions on travel to Cuba

Vol. 84/No. 7 - February 24, 2020
Andrés Gómez, right, leader of Alianza Martiana, speaks before 50-car caravan wound its way through Miami’s Little Havana Feb. 8, calling for end to new U.S. attacks on travel to Cuba.

MIAMI — Scores of people joined a car caravan led by the Alianza Martiana in the Little Havana neighborhood here Feb. 8 to protest new U.S. government restrictions on travel to Cuba. Washington passed new regulations in January barring all…


Coronavirus shows need for revolution in health care

Vol. 84/No. 7 - February 24, 2020

When the first cases of acute pneumonia caused by the new coronavirus were diagnosed last December in Wuhan, China, government authorities there downplayed the development. Now the capitalist rulers worldwide are scrambling about what to do with an epidemic that…


2020 election deepens crisis of Democrats, Republicans

Vol. 84/No. 7 - February 24, 2020
Dissatisfaction among working people over declining wages, conditions, impact of rulers’ wars fuels crisis in Democratic and Republican parties. Above, remains of GI killed in Afghanistan arrive at Dover Air Force Base, Delaware, July 2, 2019.

For decades working people in the U.S. have faced declining real wages and worsening working conditions as the bosses have gone after them in an effort to defend their profit rates, creating a broad social crisis. This, along with opposition…