In face of government bullets and tear gas, tens of thousands of young Black militants poured out into the streets of Soweto and other Black townships to express their hatred for the apartheid regime and to demand the release of all political prisoners.

There were students boycotts and sporadic protests throughout the period after the June rebellions. The unrest took a sharp turn upward on August 4 when about 20,000 Blacks in Soweto tried to march from that Black city to the center of nearby Johannesburg. They planned to rally outside the central police headquarters to press their demand for the release of the arrested student leaders.

The protesters carried signs reading, "Release our brothers" and, "We are born free but everywhere we are in chains."

Before they reached the police barricades that had been erected on the outskirts of Soweto, however, the demonstrators were fired on by the police.

In the days that followed, the enraged residents of Soweto again attacked symbols of white authority as they had in June. But unlike the June rebellions, which were spontaneous explosions of pent-up anger and frustration, the new protests in Soweto displayed signs of rudimentary organization.

The attempted marches to Johannesburg followed mass meetings of students, where the actions were discussed and planned. Students set up coordinated pickets and barricades on the edges of Soweto in order to urge Black workers to stay away from their jobs as a sign of protest.  
 
August 20, 1951
While Truman bemoans and tries to blame his Republican opponents, in particular McCarthy, for the spreading reign of terror in America, more repressions are being prepared in Congress to extend the witch-hunt deeper and deeper.

Senator McCarran (Dem.) has introduced a bill, which, if passed, will spread the purge into every shop in the country. This bill, which is a logical conclusion to the loyalty purge which Truman launched, will give unlimited powers to the corporations to fire any militant they choose.

McCarran proposes to empower employers to fire "without liability" workers whose names appear on any Federal or state list of "subversives," or who are charged with belonging to such groups.

In addition to this the Senator proposes other open union-busting amendments to his notorious McCarran Act.

These will make it unlawful for any member of a communist or "front" group to hold office in a union. Furthermore , it decertifies as bargaining agent any union having an officer who is either a member of a Communist or a "front" group.

Still another deadly weapon placed in the hands of the employers is the authorization to fire any worker who refuses to tell "a duly constituted legislative committee" whether he belongs or has belonged to any organization on the Attorney General's subversive list.

Something new has also been added to the drive to destroy freedom of the press in America. The justice department in its indictment of the West Coast Communists, recently arrested, has included in the list of so-called crimes the writing of articles for the Communist press.

This widening of the attack on the labor unions and our democratic rights is still another warning to all sincere defenders of civil rights:

Stop the witch-hunt now!  
 
 
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