The Militant(logo) 
    Vol.60/No.24           June 17, 1996 
 
 
25 And 50 Years Ago  
June 18, 1971
LOS ANGELES - The brutality of the war in Vietnam , the quality of life in the armed forces, and the conditions in Veterans Administration hospitals were brought home to civilians at the West Coast Winter Soldier Investigation held here May 29- 30.

The inquiry was sponsored by the California Veterans Movement.

For some 18 hours more than 60 vets - enlisted personnel and officers - testified.

One told of seeing four Vietnamese prisoners being loaded into a U.S. helicopter. The chopper rose 400 feet above the ground, he said, and four bodies tumbled out. The pilot radioed down that the four were "trying to escape."

A Mylai-type massacre was described by combat veteran James Henry. He testified on Feb. 8, 1968, his unit received orders from battalion headquarters to "kill everything that moved" in a suspected guerrilla area. As a result of this order, 19 women and children were rounded up and shot.

Henry said there was no point in reporting this atrocity to military authorities in Vietnam since the colonel in charge already knew of it and was taking no action. He did take the matter up with military officials on his return to the states and was threatened that he would be in trouble if he spread such stories.

June 15, 1946
BUFFALO, N.Y., June 5 - In two meetings here, organized labor in Buffalo this week gave a fighting answer to the anti- union attacks of Truman and Congress. Last night the Buffalo CIO Council unanimously endorsed the CIO United Auto Workers call for a national united conference of all labor unions to combat the anti-labor barrage.

Tonight an emergency meeting of almost 600 CIO, AFL, IAM, and Railway Brotherhood members denounced Truman and Congress.

The CIO Council last night also adopted a resolution introduced by CIO United Steelworkers Local 2601 calling upon the unions to take joint "steps to set up a national labor party that shall be completely independent of the Democratic and Republican Parties and all other ties with Big Business."

SAN FRANCISCO, Cal., June 1 - The Santa Cruz AFL Central Labor Council initiated a campaign for the adoption by the forthcoming California State AFL convention of a resolution endorsing the formation of an independent national labor party and urging similar action by all AFL state bodies.

In his letter to the other AFL local bodies in the state, CLC Secretary [Thomas] Deane states: "Unless we have our own Labor Party we are simply continuing to up Labor's rights to the enemies of Labor - without a fight. Continuing to support capitalist candidates is really treason to Labor."

 
 
 
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