On Oct. 1, all seaports on the East and West Coasts, and the port of Beaumont, Texas, on the Gulf were closed by dock workers, whose contract had expired.

When the 45,000 members of the International Longshoremen's Association (AFL-CIO) on the East Coast walked out, tightening the dock strike started three months earlier by the International Longshoremen's and Warehousemen's Union (independent) on the West Coast, it was the closest to a complete tie-up of all U.S. coastal ports since the solid 17- day national seamen's strike of 1946.

In the face of this massive shutdown of a vitally important industry, Nixon appointed a five-member board of inquiry Oct. 4 to recommend when and under what conditions longshoremen should be ordered back to work. According to the provisions of the Taft-Hartley Act, the president can force strikers back to work if he feels their strike imperils the national health and safety.

Mechanization has so increased productivity that 500,000 more tons of cargo are handled in the port of New York now than in 1966, with nearly 3,500 fewer longshoremen, a reduction of 10 million man-hours according to industry statistics.

October 12, 1946
AMSTERDAM, Sept. 27 - Widespread indignation against the Dutch government's suppression of the Indonesian struggle for independence led last week to organized protest movements of soldiers culminating in mass demonstrations last Saturday and a general strike in this city which began on Monday and lasted until Tuesday night.

During the second week in September, the soldiers at the Harderwijk camp near Amsterdam were informed that they were to embark for Indonesia. According to the Dutch constitution only volunteers may be shipped overseas for military duty. The soldiers, protesting the government order, which was issued under a wartime emergency decree, bluntly refused to go.

Street meetings were held throughout the city under the auspices of the soldiers' committee. Soldiers and workers responded with a mass sentiment of sympathy. In the course of demonstrations Saturday night, one soldier was killed in clashes with the military police.

The soldiers' committee grew constantly. Indignation spread with the brutal police attacks on the demonstrators. On Monday morning the tramwaymen of Amsterdam went on strike. Tuesday morning they were followed by the municipal workers, dock- workers and printing trades workers. By Tuesday afternoon the strike was general.  
 
 
Front page (for this issue) | Home | Text-version home