By Gerry Foley The defeat in the July 2 general elections of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), the quasi-state party that has ruled Mexico for 70 years, is an indication of the radicalization going on in the country, even if the victorious National Action Party (PAN) is no different politically and in fact represents a … Continue reading Election Upset in Mexico
Month: May 2000
Elian is Reunited With His Father but Must Wait to Go Home
By GILBERTO FIRMAT ATLANTA-Almost five months after he was found adrift on the high seas near Florida, six-year-old Elian Gonzalez has been reunited with his father, Juan Miguel Gonzalez, at a resort near Washington, D.C. But he is not yet home in Cuba. In what is surely one of the most bizarre … Continue reading Elian is Reunited With His Father but Must Wait to Go Home
U.S. Unions Rail Against China Trade
By CHARLES WALKER Despite the current economic expansion, American workers have every right to fear the loss of their jobs. If the lingering memories of the wrenching deprivations of the catastrophic Great Depression no longer incite that fear, the mass layoffs of the past two decades in one industry after another are more than enough … Continue reading U.S. Unions Rail Against China Trade
Youth in Action
Students March with Striking Janitors By MICHAEL SCHWARTZ LOS ANGELES-In April, approximately 10,000 janitors in LA county were on strike. Youth for Socialist Action (YSA) has been as active as possible supporting the strike. YSA members marched with the janitors on several occasions. There were some amazing marches. It's so beautiful to watch workers realize … Continue reading Youth in Action
Teamsters Notebook
Hoffa Sues Carey for $9 Million For three years Teamsters President James P. Hoffa has proclaimed that he is going to sue his predecessor, Ron Carey, and return to the membership the money that Hoffa claims Carey stole from the union. On April 17, the union filed a civil lawsuit in a New York federal … Continue reading Teamsters Notebook
Labor Briefing by Charles Walker
Janitors Mount Nationwide Fight A janitors' strike may soon be coming to your city. Five years ago, the Service Employees Union (SEIU) leadership adopted a strategy of negotiating contracts around the country that would expire within a few months of each other. Now the time has come to test that strategy with, if necessary, nationally … Continue reading Labor Briefing by Charles Walker
French Teachers, Parents, and Students in Schools Struggle
By JAN BIRCH PARIS-In France since the beginning of this year there have been a series of teachers strikes in primary, secondary, high schools, and vocational schools. The strikes have been marked by a number of unusual things. Unlike many teachers strikes that pit teachers against students and parents, these strikes, in many cases, have … Continue reading French Teachers, Parents, and Students in Schools Struggle
The Destruction, Resurrection, and Eclipse of Japan
By PAUL SIEGEL John W. Dower's "Embracing Defeat" won the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award for 1999 non-fiction. These prizes were richly deserved. "Embracing Defeat" explains much about what has made present-day Japan what it is-and indeed, although Dower does not explicitly draw such conclusions, about what has made the contemporary world what … Continue reading The Destruction, Resurrection, and Eclipse of Japan
Russian Labor Activists Protest New Labor Code
The Russian trade-union action group Zashchita has called a day of action on May 17 to protest the Putin government's attacks on labor rights and union activists. Immediately after his election in a no-contest vote in March, Vladimir Putin launched an assault against the remaining formal rights of Russian workers. Putin is trying to get … Continue reading Russian Labor Activists Protest New Labor Code
Apartheid is Still Alive in South Africa
By CHARLIE VAN GELDEREN When the South African freedom fighters were still battling against apartheid, a dispute arose inside the Fourth International. Jack Barnes and the hijacked Socialist Workers Party in the United States argued that the ANC's Freedom Charter was the program which would lead to the end of apartheid. It is useful to … Continue reading Apartheid is Still Alive in South Africa
Fidel Castro Speaks: Globalization!
This is the complete text of President Castro's speech at the opening session of the South Summit on April 12, 2000, in Havana. Excellencies, Distinguished delegates and guests: Never before did mankind have such formidable scientific and technological potential-such extraordinary capacity to produce riches and well-being-but never before were disparity and inequity so profound in … Continue reading Fidel Castro Speaks: Globalization!
A Bad Week on Wall Street
By NAT WEINSTEIN On April 15, the day after Wall Street suffered one of its worst weeks since 1987, the editors of The New York Times felt the need to reassure investors that the sky was not falling. Knowing that treating the sharp decline in stocks as insignificant would not be taken seriously, The Times … Continue reading A Bad Week on Wall Street
Bolivian Protests Reflect Growing Discontent all Over Latin America
By GERRY FOLEY The international capitalist offensive has begun to run into explosions in a number of Latin American countries. The outstanding example so far was Ecuador in January, where the army broke in the face of a mass upsurge protesting IMF-dictated price rises, and a radical junta was put in power for a few … Continue reading Bolivian Protests Reflect Growing Discontent all Over Latin America
Why Mexico Needs a Socialist President!
In the following article, Manuel Aguilar Mora, the candidate of the Socialist Coalition for president of Mexico, explains the decision of the Mexican revolutionary socialists to offer a political alternative in the July 2 presidential election. The Socialist Coalition includes the Partido Obrero Socialista-the Mexican section of the International Workers League, founded by Nahuel Moreno-and … Continue reading Why Mexico Needs a Socialist President!
Commentary by Mumia Abu-Jamal: THE DEATH MACHINE
Everything in the world has a rhythm to it, a wave frequency, so to speak, that shows its ebb and flow. The same could be said of the American Death Machine, that scattered and fractured political tool of extinction that is so distinctly American, yet so continues to fascinate and disturb her European cousins, in … Continue reading Commentary by Mumia Abu-Jamal: THE DEATH MACHINE
‘Giuliani Wanted to Criminalize the Community’
By Leo Schwartz Socialist Action reporter Leo Schwartz interviewed New York Haitian activist Daniel Simidor on April 24. Socialist Action: The New York Haitian community was enraged by the racist 1998 attack on Abner Louima by four white New York City cops, in which Louima was beaten and sodomized with a plunger handle. Then Guinea immigrant … Continue reading ‘Giuliani Wanted to Criminalize the Community’
N.Y. Haitians and Supporters
By Leo Schwartz NEW YORK-On April 20 thousands of marchers chanting, "Giuliani must go!" gathered at City Hall in lower Manhattan to protest the cop murder of an unarmed Haitian immigrant, Patrick Dorismond, on March 16. The spirited march, organized by the Haitian Coalition for Justice, started at Grand Army Plaza in Brooklyn and crossed … Continue reading N.Y. Haitians and Supporters
Why the World Bank and IMF Must Go!
By LEO SCHWARTZ During the protests in Washington, World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) spokespersons put a happy face on their brutal policies. But an objective look at these institutions shows they are morally bankrupt. When conceived at an economic summit in 1944 between England and the United States at Bretton Woods in New … Continue reading Why the World Bank and IMF Must Go!
Thousands in D.C. Protest IMF & World Bank
By Jennifer Stentiford WASHINGTON-Thousands of people from all walks of life converged on The Ellipse in this city to protest World Bank and International Monetary Fund meetings that look place on April 16 and 17. April 16 saw the largest crowds of the week-long protests. Organizers estimate between 10,000 and 30,000 people participated in the … Continue reading Thousands in D.C. Protest IMF & World Bank
Fightback: We are Born Naked & Hungry; Then it Gets Worse!
by Sylvia Weinstein In the good ol' USA it can certainly get worse. Seventy-three young men who are too young in age to vote, smoke, or drink are on death row awaiting execution. Three young men who had committed crimes before they were 18 years old have already been executed. The United States is the … Continue reading Fightback: We are Born Naked & Hungry; Then it Gets Worse!
All out May 7 and May 13!
BY JEFF MACKLER Organizers across the country and worldwide will mobilize on May 13 for the largest demonstrations in support of a U.S. political prisoner in perhaps the past half century. They will focus on two central demands: "Stop the execution of Mumia Abu-Jamal!" and "For a new trial now!" In the United States, major … Continue reading All out May 7 and May 13!