September 3, 1971
San Francisco - La Marcha de la Reconquista, the march of the reconquest, organized around five demands of the Chicano movement, ended an 800-mile-long march from Calexico in southern California to the state capitol in Sacramento Aug. 7.

The end of police occupation and brutalization of the barrio, an end to the use of La Raza youth as cannon fodder for the gringo war in Southeast Asia, and an end to the forced deportation of La Raza were three of the demands of La Marcha.

Two demands were directed toward the state's welfare and Economic Opportunity programs, which have suffered sharp cutbacks recently. La Marcha demanded that Governor Reagan cease his cuts of funding of Chicano studies programs and student organizations, and that the welfare cuts to Chicano and Latino families be stopped.

Rosalio Muņoz of the Chicano Moratorium pointed to the need to mobilize La Raza in independent action against the war when he spoke at the rally. La Marcha, the rally, and the activities which were held in the following week are an example for Raza activists who are building the Sept. 16 Mexican Independence Day of action. August 24, 1946
In the South African gold mines fabulous fortunes are amassed by the British absentee bondholders. The rapacious British ruling class squeezes enormous wealth out of the enslavement and exploitation of the native mine workers, who produce more than half the world's gold. But for the mine toilers themselves, there is nothing but filth, disease, and barbarous living conditions, comparable only to a concentration camp.

Inside the mines, the natives labor 14 hours a day thousands of feet below the surface, in unhealthy and unsanitary conditions.

Native mine workers are indentured servants. They are forced to sign contracts to work in the mine from 18 months to two years. They sleep 50 in a room on concrete bunks. The food is usually unfit for human consumption.

For the period of their contract, they are cooped up in these prisons. South African "Pass Laws" govern and restrict the daily lives and freedom of all natives.

Under these conditions the average native miner manages to live only about five years in the mines.

It was against these conditions that the 50,000 miners struck for union recognition and a $2 daily wage.  
 
 
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