25 years ago:  US Supreme Court stops ballot counting in Florida 

On December 12, 2000, the Supreme Court of the United States, dominated by arch-reactionaries Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas, halted the manual recount of ballots in Florida, effectively handing the presidency to George W. Bush. This notoriously anti-democratic ruling marked a watershed moment in the collapse of American democracy, paving the way for a continued erosion of democratic rights and the gutting of the constitutional framework.

The presidential election between Bush and Al Gore, the Democratic candidate, was  extraordinarily close, hinging entirely on the outcome in Florida. Four days before, on December 8, the Florida Supreme Court had ordered that 61,000 “undervote” ballots be recounted. These ballots, where voting machines had failed to detect a clear vote because the voter intentionally or unintentionally selected fewer candidates than appeared on the ballot, were concentrated largely in Democratic-leaning counties and minority neighborhoods. The recount threatened to overturn Bush’s narrow lead and deliver Florida’s decisive electoral votes to Al Gore.

The Bush campaign, backed by the Republican Party and a compliant corporate-controlled media, quickly moved to block the recount, asking the court to stay Florida's Supreme Court decision. On December 9, Justice Scalia provided the pseudo-legal justification for this effort to suspend vote counting, arguing that it would cause “irreparable harm” to Bush and cast “a needless and unjustified cloud” over the election and his potential presidency. After a quick turnaround and oral arguments, only three days later, the conservative majority—Scalia, Thomas, Rehnquist, O’Connor, and Kennedy—voted to overturn the Florida Supreme Court’s decision, while the four liberal justices—Stevens, Souter, Ginsburg, and Breyer—dissented.

The decision had immense significance for democracy. The nation’s highest court, consisting of individuals appointed for life, not voters or even the archaic, anti‑democratic Electoral College, effectively selected the president. More than a merely procedural ruling, the Court’s intervention rested on the reactionary premise—voiced most bluntly by Justice Scalia—that there is no constitutional right of suffrage to a presidential vote and that state legislatures (not ballots) may ultimately determine electors; in effect, the Court declared that the people do not possess an unqualified right to choose the president. The outcome was further tainted by obvious conflicts of interest in Florida’s administration, where Governor Jeb Bush, the Republican candidate’s brother, and Republican election officials played central roles in blocking counts that disproportionately affected minority and working‑class precincts.

Gore and the Democratic Party refused to challenge this judicial coup, despite opposition mounting from working-class people in the United States. Indeed, the Democrats feared rousing popular opposition far more than they did losing the White House. 

50 years ago: Ford approves austerity loans to New York City

On December 9, 1975, President Gerald Ford signed the New York City Seasonal Financing Act (H.R. 10481), authorizing federal loans of up to $2.3 billion for the bankrupt city. This act came just weeks after Ford’s notorious declaration that he would veto any aid measures aimed at bailing out New York.

In those earlier remarks, famously dubbed the “Drop Dead' speech by the New York Daily News, Ford had made clear that the only acceptable way to pay off the city’s debt was to eliminate public jobs and services that benefited the working class. On the chopping block was funding to hospitals, free tuition to the City University of New York, and tens of thousands of city jobs. Teachers, firemen, sanitation workers, and many others were served notices that they may be fired at a moment's notice. Those who remained would have their wages, retirement, and vacation time slashed. 

The bankruptcy was not the fault of the working class, despite claims to the contrary by capitalist politicians from both major parties. New York City was hit hard by the global economic crisis of the 1970s, which brought a sharp decline in the industries that had sustained a moderate standard of living for millions of workers as well as tax bases for cities and states. 

At the same time, the city’s debt crisis was a manufactured one: for years, city and state governments had relied on massive loans from Wall Street banks such as Citibank and Chase Manhattan to finance expenditures, rather than levy taxes on capital. Now the banks were refusing to extend new credit or refinance existing debt. If the city failed to meet its payment obligations, it risked triggering a broader collapse in the municipal bond market, potentially deepening the national economic crisis.

It was recognition of this danger that Ford decided to approve the loans. It was certainly not a “change of heart” by the president, but rather a measure designed to ensure the banks were paid on time at the expense of New York’s working class. As Ford put it at a press conference announcing his support for the loan, Ford said that he approved it because “New York has bailed itself out.” 

The federal loan was explicitly structured not to restore city jobs and services, but to guarantee repayment to the banks that had seized control of New York’s finances through the Municipal Assistance Corporation (MAC) and used that control to impose austerity. The loans were strictly short-term, with repayment scheduled on a seasonal basis. They carried a punitive interest rate one percentage point above the federal government’s own borrowing costs, ensuring that the federal treasury profited while workers surrendered gains won over decades of struggle.

75 years ago: US military evacuation from Hungnam, North Korea

On December 11, 1950, the US military led the beginning of the evacuation of troops from North Korea by sea via the port of Hungnam, located in the eastern North Korean province of Hamhung. 

For more than two weeks prior, forces of the Chinese People’s Volunteer Army (PVA) had rapidly advanced southward during their “Second Phase Offensive,” decisively altering the course of the Korean War. After entering the conflict in late October, Chinese forces—fighting alongside units of the Korean People’s Army (KPA)—won major victories over US-led United Nations troops at the Ch’ongch’on River in western North Korea and the Chosin Reservoir in the east. These defeats effectively shattered the imperialist plans to reunify the peninsula under a single, US-backed puppet regime. 

The withdrawal from Hungnam followed the military evacuation of Pyongyang one week earlier, underscoring the speed and scale of the US retreat. As Chinese and North Korean forces pressed their attack, outnumbering UN troops by roughly six to one, US and allied units abandoned approximately 59,000 square kilometres of captured North Korean territory and retreated to the coast. Hungnam—previously used as a logistical hub for the northward US advance in the prior months—was rapidly transformed into the focal point of a major evacuation effort.

Over the next two weeks, US naval vessels evacuated around 105,000 troops from Hungnam to South Korea. The operation also removed approximately 17,500 vehicles and more than 350,000 tons of equipment, ammunition, and supplies. In addition, more than 86,000 Korean civilians were evacuated south, with many fleeing the devastation and instability left in the wake of months of fighting.

Before departing Hungnam, US forces systematically destroyed port facilities and infrastructure to prevent their use by Chinese and North Korean troops. Large quantities of materiel were left behind and destroyed, including ammunition, explosives, aerial bombs, and fuel.

While the advance of the PVA and KPA necessitated the retreat from North Korea, the US-led imperialist war in Korea was far from over. China’s entry into the conflict preceded a major escalation in both rhetoric and military action by Washington, setting the stage for a prolonged and devastating war that would continue for more than two years.

100 years: New York governor pardons communist leader

On December 11, 1925, New York Democratic Governor Al Smith pardoned Benjamin Gitlow, a leading communist who had been convicted under the Criminal Anarchy act. Smith’s pardon did not admit that Gitlow had been victimized by the state but only that he had been “sufficiently punished for a political crime.”

Gitlow had initially been arrested during coordinated raids in November 1919, the infamous Palmer Raids led by the young J. Edgar Hoover, for publishing the “Left Wing Manifesto,” a founding document of the American communist movement, in the Socialist Party’s organ, The Revolutionary Age. The state contended that the manifesto constituted illegal action because the law made it a crime to encourage the violent overthrow of the government.

Despite his defense’s argument that the manifesto was an historical analysis rather than practical advocacy, Gitlow was convicted on February 11, 1920, and sentenced to 5 to 10 years.

He served over two years at Sing Sing before being released on bail. The ensuing case, Gitlow v. New York (1925), reached the US Supreme Court, which upheld his conviction by a 7 to 2 vote on June 8, 1925. The decision, confirming that the publication was a punishable act, is historically significant for balancing free-speech claims against perceived threats to order. The Criminal Anarchy act was later overturned by other court decisions. Gitlow, however, was forced to return to Sing Sing to serve out his sentence.

Born in New York to Jewish immigrant parents, Gitlow was radicalized around the turn of the century amid socialist and anarchist ferment, leading to his active involvement in the Socialist Party for which he was elected to the New York state assembly.

He was a leading participant in the 1919 left-wing split in the Socialist Party—inspired by the Russian Revolution of 1917—that created the American Communist movement, becoming a founding leader of one of the organizations that later formed the Communist Party USA, and served as an editor and organizer throughout the 1920s.

Gitlow eventually became a die-hard anticommunist and wrote confessionals that became key works for the McCarthyite witch-hunters in the 1950s.

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