Trial begins in York, Pa.
Thirty-three years after Lillie Belle Allen was shot down in cold blood in York, Pa., three men will go on trial for her murder – former mayor Charles H. Robertson, Robert Messersmith and Gregory Neff. Seven others, who admitted shooting at the car Allen was in, pled guilty to lesser charges in return for their testimony against the three defendants.
Labor benefit funds & national health
Recently, a major new constituency may have enlisted in the struggle for national health legislation. This group is a large, powerful group that is supposed to be totally cynical and ready to fight against, not for, national health legislation that might infringe on its turf. Add to these ingredients the fact that this constituency would not exist without the labor movement.
Fightback sparked by Latino profiling in Pa.
CHICAGO – On Aug. 14, a vanload of Latino immigrants from Chicago were traveling on the Pennsylvania turnpike, near Pittsburgh. The nine travelers, mostly Mexican nationals, were on their way to a conference of day laborers when the van blew a tire. To their relief, a Pennsylvania state trooper pulled his car over to offer help, they assumed.
Latinos and the recession
George Bush is trying to attract Hispanic voters by speaking Spanish and nominating a reactionary Latino lawyer as a federal judge. But the National Hispanic Leadership Agenda has examined congressional voting records. They have found that the right-wing Republicans have voted against Hispanic interests almost every time.
Sad day in Cincinnati
Worker’s correspondence Sept. 20, 2002, was a tragic day for the working people of Cincinnati, Ohio. The local leadership of the AFL-CIO labor council held its Committee on Political Education dinner in a unionized hotel located inside the area of downtown businesses being boycotted by civil rights organizations to protest injustices that touched off recent rioting here.
Steelworkers gear for 2004 negotiations
PITTSBURGH – On Sept. 20, two-and-a-half years before contracts covering hundreds of thousands of active and retired steelworkers expire, local union officers who are members of the United Steelworkers of America (USWA) Basic Steel Industry Conference (BSIC) met and produced a position paper in which they outlined an innovative approach to the 35 steel companies that have filed for bankruptcy protection in recent years.
International notes
Iraq: CP calls for solidarity / Australia: Unions vs. war / Colombia: Gov’t attacks vs. protesters denounced / China: U.S. ship troubles the waters / Canada: Union aids family of slain Colombian
Grito de Lares celebrated
Hundreds of visitors came out to the village of Lares, Puerto Rico, to celebrate the anniversary of the revolutionary uprising of September 23, 1868, an attempt to liberate Puerto Rico from Spanish colonialism.
Indo-Pak tensions grow after terrorist attack
NEW DELHI – On Sept. 24, terrorists attacked a well-known Hindu temple, Akshar Dham, in Gujarat, one of India’s most communally polarized states. Two “fidayeen” (suicide squads) opened fire and hurled hand grenades indiscriminately; 37 died, with another 100 severely injured.
An interview with William McNary
No matter the issue, if it affects working people, William McNary, president of USAction, is there, fighting the good fight for social and health security, quality public schools and against the right-wing agenda.
