By JEFF MACKLER The April 12, 1999, issue of Work in Progress-the national AFL-CIO publication for organizers, staff, officials, and activists-carried an article headlined, "ILWU: Free Abu-Jamal." The article, indicative of the growing support for Abu-Jamal among working people in the United States, reads: "Members of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union will hold regular … Continue reading Growing Support for Mumia Riles Philadelphia Police and Media
Month: June 1999
Wildcat Protest Against Employer-Union Partnership
By ROLAND SHEPPARD SAN FRANCISCO-On Thursday, May 20, hundreds of carpenters shut down construction at San Francisco International Airport and other sites throughout the Bay Area. This two-day "wildcat strike" was in protest of a new working agreement negotiated on May 15 by the Northern California Carpenters Regional Council. For the past 15 years, carpenters … Continue reading Wildcat Protest Against Employer-Union Partnership
Commentary: New York’s ‘Blue Wall of Silence’ Totters
By MARILYN VOGT-DOWNEY The trial that began on May 4 of four New York policemen in connection with the August 1997 brutalization of Haitian immigrant Abner Louima has taken two surprising turns. Beginning in the second week of the trial, three NYPD policemen actually took the stand to support the prosecution's charges that one of the … Continue reading Commentary: New York’s ‘Blue Wall of Silence’ Totters
Israeli Vote Shows Fragmentation of Zionism
By GERRY FOLEY The results of the May 17 Israeli elections were hailed by U.S. officials, as well as Arab rulers and politicians, as signaling a new lease on life for the "peace process." Actually, they do not show a victory for supporters of a peaceful settlement with the Palestinians but do reveal a continuing … Continue reading Israeli Vote Shows Fragmentation of Zionism
Youth in Action: Cuba, Cuba, Cuba!
Cuba, Cuba, Cuba! Youth for Socialist Action is organizing a youth delegation to Cuba this December. The trip will be co-sponsored by the Cuban Union of Communist Youth, and will be an opportunity for YSAers to learn first hand about the Cuban Revolution, and the ongoing struggle of the Cuban people against the U.S. blockade. … Continue reading Youth in Action: Cuba, Cuba, Cuba!
Youth in Action
UC Berkeley Students Occupy Campus Building By ADAM RITSCHER On April 14, students at UC Berkeley responded to ominous moves against the Ethnic Studies program on the campus by occupying Barrows Hall. After a 10-hour occupation, during which banners were hung from the balconies and a crowd of students gathered in front of the building … Continue reading Youth in Action
Who Authorized the U.S. to assume the Role of Prosecutor Against Cuba?: Cuba’s Message on Human Rights
By CARLOS LAGE DAVILA Dr. Carlos Lage Davila, vice-president of the Republic of Cuba, addressed a session of the United Nations Human Rights Commission in Geneva on March 24. The commission chairwoman drastically cut the time limit that Dr. Lage was allowed for his speech-and at one point interrupted his presentation and instructed him to quickly … Continue reading Who Authorized the U.S. to assume the Role of Prosecutor Against Cuba?: Cuba’s Message on Human Rights
Stalinist Campaign to Impeach Yeltsin-Just Hot Air
By GERRY FOLEY Russian public opinion polls had given the Russian president Boris Yeltsin only a 2 percent approval rating, surely a record for electoral politics. The main successor organization of the old ruling party, the Communist Party of the Russian Federation (CPRF), denounced him for betraying the Slavic peoples by not coming to the … Continue reading Stalinist Campaign to Impeach Yeltsin-Just Hot Air
Kidnapped Kurdish Leader on Trial in Turkey
By GERRY FOLEY The trial of Abdullah Ocalan, leader of the main Kurdish organization in Turkey, the Kurdish Workers Party (PKK), is scheduled to begin at the start of June. It is expected to last about a month and a half. Diyarbakir, in Kurdish region of Turkey. After gov't kidnapped Ocalan in February, protesters called … Continue reading Kidnapped Kurdish Leader on Trial in Turkey
Teamsters Notebook: Can Hoffa Jr. Carry Out His Promises?
By CHARLES WALKER "If you don't think I'm going to do a great job, you're crazy." -Junior Hoffa, Crain's Detroit Business Labor's Haymarket May Day martyrs were executed over 100 years ago, yet recently they had good reason to roll over in their graves. For in a bit of caustic irony, the Teamster bureaucracy chose … Continue reading Teamsters Notebook: Can Hoffa Jr. Carry Out His Promises?
Socialists Played a Key Role in Mobilizing Against the Vietnam War: Lessons of a Winning Antiwar Movement
By CAROLE SELIGMAN The U.S. war against the people of Vietnam lasted 15 years. By its end in 1975, the Vietnamese had won a victory against the mightiest nation of all time. But it came at the cost of over 4 million dead, millions wounded, the countryside poisoned, and the economy destroyed. The United States … Continue reading Socialists Played a Key Role in Mobilizing Against the Vietnam War: Lessons of a Winning Antiwar Movement
NATO War Pollutes Huge Region of Europe
By GERRY FOLEY As NATO has stepped up its bombing of Yugoslavia and more and more shifted the focus to economic and social targets, antiwar sentiment has been growing in the neighboring countries. These countries-Italy, Greece, Hungary, and Rumania-would inevitably be directly affected by any land assault on Yugoslavia. But they are already feeling the … Continue reading NATO War Pollutes Huge Region of Europe
Police Beat Antiwar Activist
SANTACRUZ, Calif.-On May 22, during a protest by the Santa Cruz Coalition to Stop the Bombing, anti-war activist Steve Argue was brutally beaten by Santa Cruz police and arrested. The anti-war protest had been called to protest a black-tie fundraiser for U.S. Rep. Sam Farr, who has voted for war appropriations. Police attacked several of … Continue reading Police Beat Antiwar Activist
Dogs of War: A View from the British Left
By TARIQ ALI Outside NATOland, the situation about the war is extremely serious. The Ukraine was the only country in the world to renounce nuclear weapons and unilaterally disarm. A few weeks ago its parliament voted unanimously to revert to its former nuclear status. The deputies claimed that they had foolishly believed the United States … Continue reading Dogs of War: A View from the British Left
U.S. Imperialism Targets China
By NAT WEINSTEIN The most important single event that crashed onto the center stage of world politics last month was the bombing of the Chinese embassy in Belgrade. How does that bizarre incident-which the U.S. bipartisan capitalist government is finding so hard to explain-fit into the total picture of the U.S.-NATO war on Yugoslavia? U.S. … Continue reading U.S. Imperialism Targets China
‘Letter to Albanian Friends’ from Non-Governmental Organizations in Belgrade
Belgrade - April 30, 1999 Dear friends, We are writing to you in these difficult moments of our shared suffering. Convoys of Albanians and other citizens of Kosovo, among whom [are] many of you, were forced to leave their homes. The killings and expulsions, homes destroyed and burnt, bridges, roads, and industrial buildings demolished … Continue reading ‘Letter to Albanian Friends’ from Non-Governmental Organizations in Belgrade
The Yugoslav War in its Global Context
By NAT WEINSTEIN There can be little doubt that the British capitalist class had long ago lined itself up with its American cousins in what appears to be a steadily mounting conflict of economic and political interests among the world's major imperialist powers. Britain's main economic competitors in Europe are Germany and France, the two … Continue reading The Yugoslav War in its Global Context
New York City Schools Hold Mumia Teach-In
By MARILYN VOGT-DOWNEY NEW YORK-On Tuesday, May 11, 1999, more than 23 high schools participated in a teach-in on Mumia Abu-Jamal organized by faculty, students, and staff in the New York public schools. Inspired by the January 1999 teach-in organized by the Oakland Education Association in Oakland, Calif., schools, this teach-in included both school-day programs … Continue reading New York City Schools Hold Mumia Teach-In
Ossie Davis Meets Mumia and Calls for New Trial
PITTSBURGH-After spending almost two hours with Mumia Abu-Jamal on death row at State Correctional Institution Greene in Waynesburg, Pa., on May 12, Ossie Davis called for a new trial for Mr. Jamal and released the following statement: "It was an extraordinary visit because I was dealing with, I think, an extraordinary man. There was a … Continue reading Ossie Davis Meets Mumia and Calls for New Trial
Three Strikes: The Legacy of Opportunism
By MICHAEL SCHREIBER "The Legacy: Murder and Media, Politics and Prison." A film by Michael J. Moore. To be broadcast on the Public Broadcasting System beginning June 1. Modern readers of the novel "Moll Flanders" are properly horrified when the heroine is condemned to the gallows for merely stealing a bolt of cloth. But "Moll … Continue reading Three Strikes: The Legacy of Opportunism
Commentary by Mumia Abu Jamal: A Nations’ Gratitude
Many governments have been founded on principles of subordination and serfdom of certain classes of the same race. ... [Such] were, and are, in violation of the laws of nature. Our system commits no such violation of nature's laws. With us, all the white race, however high or low, rich or poor, are equal in … Continue reading Commentary by Mumia Abu Jamal: A Nations’ Gratitude
As European Elections Approach: French Revolutionaries Run Joint Slate
PARIS-As we go to press, with two weeks to go to the June 13 European elections, the joint campaign waged by the Revolutionary Communist League (LCR) and Workers Struggle (LO) is in full swing. This is being marked by a large attendance at rallies in the various cities outside Paris. The campaign was kicked off … Continue reading As European Elections Approach: French Revolutionaries Run Joint Slate
FIGHTBACK: Just Call 1-800-NATO
By SYLVIA WEINSTEIN Sir, are you an imperialist in need of help? Is there a country which is closing its borders to private investment opportunities, to private ownership of its nationalized banks, to nationalized capital-flow, indulging in "financial repression"? Just call 1-800-NATO, and we can solve your problems. We have the bombs, planes, and capital … Continue reading FIGHTBACK: Just Call 1-800-NATO
Clinton and NATO Wage Campaign of Terror Against People of Yugoslavia
By NAT WEINSTEIN The current U.S.-led imperialist assault on Yugoslavia, ostensibly aimed to save Kosovo and Kosovars from Milosevic's oppression, is nothing of the sort. The demolition of ethnic Albanian cities in Kosovo by American missiles and bombs is in itself proof that the goals of U.S.-dominated NATO forces serve other than humanitarian ends. Moreover, … Continue reading Clinton and NATO Wage Campaign of Terror Against People of Yugoslavia