October 13, 1970
An attempted coup by a right-wing general in Bolivia touched off a vast mobilization of the Bolivian people last week. Workers and students poured into the streets to block a take-over by rightist officers led by General Rogelio Miranda.

According to the Oct. 8 issue of Le Monde, students built barricades in the streets of the capital to prevent troop movements by the rightists. The article went on to say that the Bolivian Workers Federation had issued a call for a general strike throughout the country.

The regime of former president Alfredo Ovando Candia, who came to power a year ago claiming to be a left nationalist, had moved progressively to the right. In July, he began firing members of his government who were to the left of him, including a retired general, Juan José Torres. Massive student and worker demonstrations began Sept. 21 against Ovando, and specifically against his deportation of five radical clerics.

On Oct. 4, the head of the armed forces, General Miranda, took over in a coup. In the face of massive popular protests, the new government lasted only a couple of days. General Torres declared his opposition to the right-wing junta, and was able to win enough support from the workers and students to take over as president of Bolivia on Oct. 7. His government, he said, would rest on four pillars - the peasants, the workers, the students and the armed forces.

October 20, 1945
In their biggest strike since 1926, British dock workers from London to Glasgow have hung up their cargo hooks. Approximately 45,000 are out. Principal demands of the strikers are a basic wage of 25 shillings ($5) a day and a 44-hour guaranteed work week. But t  
 
 
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