Mar 30, 2002

Racism has always been the strongest bulwark of class rule in the United States. Racism divides and weakens the working class and provides monopoly capital with super-exploited minorities from whom they can extract extra profits.

CHICAGO – The current economic crisis is having a devastating impact on state budgets across the country. States have an estimated collective deficit of $50 billion.

MILWAUKEE – Robert Miranda of the Greater Milwaukee Green Party calls it “a stealth attack on democracy” and a “potential right wing takeover.”

he following is the speech delivered by Dr. Fidel Castro, president of the Republic of Cuba, at the International Conference on Financing for Development, held in Monterrey, Mexico, March 18-22.

Legal Lynching: The Death Penalty and America’s Future, by the Reverend Jesse L. Jackson, Sr., Rep. Jesse L. Jackson, Jr., and Bruce Shapiro. New York: The New Press, 2001.

The United Steelworkers of America (USWA) and the International Labor Rights Fund (ILRF) have filed a federal lawsuit charging the U. S.-owned Drummond Company with complicity in the assassinations of Valmore Lacareno, Victor Orcasita and Gustavo Solar, leaders of the union representing workers at Drummond’s coal mining operations in Colombia. Lacareno and Orcasita were dragged off a company bus and shot by paramilitaries in March 2001. Solar suffered the same fate in October.

FORT WORTH, Tejas – El fin de semana antes de Pascua, los tejanos celebraron la memoria del organizador sindical César E. Chávez por todo el estado. Aquí en esta ciudad, una coalición de organizaciones laborales y comunitarias organizaron un desfile de una milla, terminando con una gran fiesta en la grama de la corte.

FORT WORTH – On the weekend before Easter, Texans celebrated the memory of union organizer César Chávez all over the state. Here, a coalition of labor and community organizations put on a mile-long parade through downtown, then ended with a grand fiesta on the courthouse lawn.

SAN FRANCISCO – Thousands of Bay Area workers, social activists and their families marched through the streets of San Francisco to the city’s Civic Center March 24 to mark the 75th birthday of César Chávez, co-founder of the United Farm Workers (UFW) and the first union leader and Mexican American to have a statewide holiday named after him.

NEW YORK – Members of the Young Communist League’s (YCL) National Council met here March 23-24. The meeting, also attended by YCL friends and allies, discussed the goals of the YCL in the period leading up to the National March for Peace in D.C. on April 20.