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    Vol.60/No.38           October 28, 1996 
 
 
25 & 50 Years Ago  

October 29, 1971
LOS ANGELES, Oct 20 - Three Los Angeles City College students arrested as the result of a campus protest against the presence of marine recruiters were arraigned Oct. 19, and a trial date of Nov. 15 was set.

The three - Larry Mitchell, Richard Spear, and Marshall Givens - have been hit with trumped-up charges of "malicious mischief" and "resisting a peace officer."

Seven hundred Los Angeles City College students demonstrated Oct. 13 in defense of the three students.

The initial demonstration Oct. 4 was spearheaded by Black and Chicano students. The Black students were particularly incensed by the presence of Blacks among the recruiters. They clustered around them, angrily demanding to know to know why they permitted themselves to be used for such a purpose. One Black student requested a recruitment interview. Asked to give his name, he spelled it out: "U-N-C-L-E T-O-M."

Students surrounded the recruiters' table and helped themselves generously to the free Marine literature. They indicated their opinion of it by depositing it in nearby trash baskets.

One student, Larry Mitchell, was dragged off by campus police and taken to their office. After about an hour of angry student protest, they released him, explaining his apprehension had been "a mistake."

But two days later, city warrants were issued for him, Givens and Spear. The latter two were taken into custody by campus police and turned over to waiting city cops. When Mitchell learned that a warrant was out for him, he went to the police station with SMC [Student Mobilization Committee] members and, like the others, was bailed out.

An ad hoc defense committee for the three was established at a rally of several hundred students Oct. 7. The committee, initiated by the SMC, has won the support of other campus groups and of faculty members. October 26, 1946
NEW YORK, Oct. 17 - With the refusal of the Supreme Court to hear the case of 217 Indonesian seamen who are now incarcerated in a Texas detention camp, these men may be deported within 30 days, John Andu, president of the Indonesia League of America, stated today.

The Indonesian seamen were arrested almost a year ago, because they walked off Dutch ships in New York harbor. The ships were loading American-made arms and ammunition to be used by the Dutch despots against the Indonesian fighters for freedom. The seamen refused to transport arms designed to shoot down their own countrymen.

After six months' imprisonment in Ellis Island, the seamen were shipped to San Francisco, together with a score of Indonesian residents, rounded up by the U.S. government as reprisal against the seamen's courageous action.

Mounting protests from the labor movement and progressive groups forced the release of some of the residents, many of them married and with large families. Most of the residents have been in this country for a long time, some as long as 16 and 20 years.  
 
 
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