The power of solidarity
Last week at the monthly meeting of the Electrical Workers Minority Caucus here in the Chicago area, our union local vice president mentioned that the Laborers’ strike had been settled “very favorably” thanks in large part to the great solidarity shown by the other construction locals.
WORLDNOTES
Venezuela: Indigenous voices for peace Japan: Support for peace constitution Mexico: Police attack striking teachers Burundi: Accord signed to end civil war
Mexico presidential race reaches boiling point
MEXICO CITY — Buildings and walls across the city are splashed with election billboards and graffiti as passions boil over in one of Mexico’s most heated presidential election campaigns ever. Mexicans go to the polls July 2 to decide whether their country will join the “pink tide” of center-left governments that is churning up the political landscape across Latin America.
UN panel urges self-determination for Puerto Rico, once again
UNITED NATIONS — The UN Special Committee on Decolonization reaffirmed Puerto Rico’s right to self-determination and independence last week, calling on the United States to “expedite a process that will allow” the Caribbean nation to exercise its inalienable right to choose its own destiny. The June 13 action was but the latest in a decades-long series of similar appeals.
SACP salutes student heroes
The South African Communist Party, in a June 15 statement on the 30th anniversary of the 1976 student uprisings, saluted “those heroes and heroines, both departed and living, for their historic contribution toward the liberation of our country.”
South Africans mark Soweto uprising
SOWETO, South Africa (AP) — President Thabo Mbeki led hundreds of South Africans on a June 16 march in the footsteps of children whose bloody uprising 30 years ago reshaped the struggle to end apartheid.
New YCL-USA leader gets to work
Erica Smiley is looking forward to her new job as national coordinator of the Young Communist League USA. Smiley, 26, was elected at the YCL’s national convention Memorial Day weekend, succeeding outgoing coordinator Jessica Marshall, who was cheered by the delegates for her outstanding work.
NATIONALCLIPS
45 states: Hundreds of thousands honor Juneteenth WASHINGTON: Congress enacts mine safety law COLUMBUS, Ohio: Woman to lead 2.3 million Episcopalians
Anti-Cuba excess reaches new heights in Florida
Florida Gov. Jeb Bush on May 30 signed legislation prohibiting state-supported schools from using public or private funds for research trips to five nations designated by Washington as sponsors of terrorism. Cuba, of course, is one of them.
Ask the Communists
Q: I can’t seem to really understand Marx’s ideas on communism and what it is. To me it sounds like he is trying to say the working class should overthrow the factory owners (“bourgeoisie”), and rule nations themselves. But that would be utter chaos. So what do his ideas suggest?
