The Militant(logo) 
    Vol.60/No.10           March 11, 1996 
 
 
25 And 50 Years Ago  

March 12, 1971
MARCH 1 - On February 15, the Polish bureaucracy announced that the price rises that sparked a massive workers' uprising in December were being rescinded. This is the most significant concession that Communist Party Chief Eduard Gierek has been forced to make since he took power after Wladyslaw Gomulka was ousted in December.

This latest and most far-reaching retreat was the direct result of a textile strike in Lodz, Poland's second largest city. Eighty percent of the workers in 31 textile plants in and around Lodz are women, and the majority of the 10,000 strikers were women.

The workers in the cotton mills where the strikes took place are among the lowest paid in Poland. Added to this are inadequate child-care centers, insufficient maternity leaves, and the low number of women managers.

On Feb. 14, a four-man Politburo delegation headed by Premier Jaroszewics spent 18 hours in Lodz trying to convince the striking women that their demands for a 15 percent wage hike were "unrealistic." These officials flew back to Warsaw, and the next day the regime surrendered, withdrawing an average 17 percent increase in food prices made on Dec. 12.

The working women of Lodz had won for every worker in Poland effective wage increases comparable to what they were demanding for themselves.

March 9 1946
HOUSTON, Texas, Feb. 26 - A magnificent demonstration of ten to twenty thousand workers, both AFL and CIO, this morning forced city officials to back down on their strikebreaking threats and agree to deal with representatives of 700 city employees, members of AFL City-County Employees Union, on strike for the past six days.

This action climaxed months of negotiations between the City County Union and City Manager Edy (subsequently succeeded by Acting City Manager Nagle) for wage increases `needed to bring up the incomes of city employees to meet the skyrocketing cost of living. The City Managers brazenly backed down on their promises to grant increases wages "if an increase in the tax rate is granted by the voters." The tax bill was passed but the promises were not fulfilled.

Immediately the Mayor, the City Manager and City Council raised the slogan: "You Can't Strike Against the Government." Mayor Otis Massey called upon Texas' reactionary Governor Coke Stevenson to supply Texas Ranger units, battalions of the State Guard and other armed forces to "protect" the city. In Austin, Governor Stevenson immediately promised "anything you need" while fascist-minded Lieutenant Governor John Lee Smith announced: "This is nothing more no less than rebellion!" He demanded legislation to "deal with strikes."

 
 
 
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