Vol. 72/No. 40      October 13, 2008

The fight between Lorenzo and the unionized employees is shaping up to be the biggest test of strength between employers and labor in the airlines industry since the strike by the Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization (PATCO) was broken by the government in 1981.

The pilots’ and attendants’ unions are also considering a nationwide flight stoppage on all unionized carriers to show solidarity with the Continental strike in the face of threats by other carriers, particularly Eastern, to repeat Continental’s bankruptcy ploy.  
 
October 13, 1958
China was originally opened to trade with the West by violence. Warships of the Western powers battered down the walls of Chinese cities and wrested concessions, territories and economic privileges at gun point.

Because it was the latest predatory power on the scene and the richest, the United States was able to pursue its economic objectives in China while appearing to oppose the more crass imperialist tactics of the European countries and of Japan.

In the Opium Wars the U.S. piously condemned the drug business, since this was a minor part of American merchants’ trade with China. But this highly moral stand did not prevent American envoys from joining Great Britain in signing treaties with China legalizing opium imports.  
 
October 14, 1933
The recent flare-up of the army rank and file against the officers barricaded in the National Hotel in Havana weakened the government and strengthened the soldiers.

The sniping from roof tops and windows and the innumerable miniature street battles which followed the battle of the National Hotel sharply emphasized the fact that large numbers of the population are armed.

The sending of armed detachments against the workers and the forcible suppression of the Communist Party in Havana and other cities marks the end of the Martin government’s development to the left on the basis of the struggle against imperialism, and its evolution to the right out of fear of the workers and the pressure of the Cuban bourgeoisie and the American imperialists.  
 
 
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