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   Vol. 69/No. 40           October 17, 2005  
 
 
25, 50 and 75 years ago
 
October 17, 1980
CLEVELAND—United Auto Workers Local 451 won an important victory on September 4 in Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court when it beat back Baker Material Handling Corporation's attempts to jail five militants on charges of violating a previous court injunction.

However, the court did find Local 451 guilty of contempt of court, fining it $500. The court also found Vice-president Jim Hardin, committeeman Jim McKee, and union member Leonard Edmiston guilty of contempt—fining them $500 each and giving them ten-day jail sentences.

The jail sentences and half the fines were suspended, provided that these strike activists stay away from the picket line until the end of the strike.  
 
October 17, 1955
Mass protest meetings in Negro communities throughout the country continued to demand federal action against the reign of terror in Mississippi which culminated in the unpunished lynching of 14-year-old Emmett Till. As these demands failed to stir either the Democratic Congressional leaders or the Republican administration into any kind of effective action, the speeches of Negro leaders became sharper and more threatening.

The text of an angry letter written by Roy Wilkins, Executive Secretary of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, to Democratic National Chairman Paul Butler warned that unless the Democratic Party does something about Democratic-run Mississippi it may lose the Negro vote.  
 
October 1, 1930
A couple of months ago, the Militant announced that during the summer period it would be compelled to go back to semimonthly publication, after which it would resume its weekly appearance. The summer months have drawn to a close and we are anxious to make every effort to publish the Militant as a weekly once more.

With its initial appearance, the Militant set itself the aim of reaching the workers with the truth. To tell the workers the truth about the capitalist system and the capitalist class is to liberate them from the mental slavery under which they live. To tell the truth about the situation in the revolutionary and labor movements is to liberate them from the illusions and deceptions practiced against them by false leaders.  
 
 
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