The rally was held amidst reports that the coal miners were voting overwhelmingly against the companies’ proposed settlement and that President Carter was preparing federal action to force the miners back to work.

"We’ve been asked how 160,000 coal miners can hold the country hostage," Charles Parker, a striking miner from Harlan, Kentucky, told the crowd. "It’s not us that’s holding the country hostage. It’s the companies."

Held at Steelworkers Hall...the meeting was chaired by Dave Wilson, president of USWA Local 2610 at Bethlehem Steel’s giant Sparrows Point plant.

This show of solidarity initiated by the Steelworkers union was a powerful repudiation of attempts by steel companies here to blame layoffs on the coal miners. Bethlehem Steel laid off 500 workers from Sparrows Point in February, giving the miners’ strike as the reason.

Kenneth Yablonski, an attorney and son of slain UMWA reform leader Joseph Yablonski, appealed for funds for the strikers and their families.

"It’s a serious problem for you, too," Yablonski said. "If they do it to the mine workers, don’t think the steel workers or auto workers are too big."  
 
March 16, 1953
The funeral speeches of Malenkov, Beria and Molotov over Stalin’s coffin March 9 were pledges to continue in his footsteps. They had three audiences in mind: (1) the privileged bureaucratic caste in the Soviet Union, which they represent, and its extension and allies in the Soviet bloc and Communist parties abroad; (2) the workers and peasants of the Soviet bloc and other lands; (3) the imperialist foe headed by Wall Street.

To the caste they assured continuation of the course, personified by Stalin; that is, defense of the privileges and power of the bureaucracy against threats from all quarters whether foreign or "internal"--the "internal" meaning the threat of workers revolution. They indicated they had no intention of trying to extend the Soviet sphere of influence abroad but would instead continue the "cautious" foreign policy which Stalin has followed since he usurped power. Above all, they tried to allay whatever "panic" the caste feels at the incalculable forces that might be released by Stalin’s death. In brief, the triumvirate attempted to carry out a smooth transition of power from the dead hands of Stalin while tightening ranks against any threats to their reign whether from abroad or from within.  
 
 
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