50th anniversary of strike
In 1945/46, the end of World War II signaled an immense outbreak of long pent up militancy on the part of the working class here. The long hard period of the "no strike pledge" enforced by the labor leadership, burst apart at the seams, reaching a point in 1946 when upwards of 4.4 million workers were on strike. The high point of that strike wave was the Oakland, California General Strike in December of 1946, fifty years ago, when 125,000 workers affiliated with the AFL Alameda Central Labor Council launched a general strike demanding that the Oakland Police Department depart from its long time habit of beating up pickets seeking to organize unions. The event that triggered this upheaval was the attempts by the Retail Clerks' Union to gain a union contract for women salespersons employed by two downtown department stores. Many of the women there had been laid off from their defense industry job and forced back to traditional "women's work." In the course of this struggle, the Oakland Police Department followed its usual practice of scabherding.

The strike provided an awesome view of working class power. The police disappeared from sight and the town was shut down tight. You could not buy a newspaper, ride a bus, eat at a restaurant, get gas, listen to the radio, etc....

The strike was successful: the cops were forced to halt their scabherding and the retail clerks achieved recognition of their union.

In the aftermath of the strike, under the slogan, "why fight city hall; let's take it over," the Oakland Voters League ran labor candidates, won the election and took over control of the city.

All in all, it was a mighty demonstration of the power of working people then, offering today's new young fighters an example of labors' power and lessons for the future.

Paul Montauk

Oakland, California Essential information
The Militant is an essential source of information for working-class fighters and social activists. Continue to remain an example of journalistic integrity.

W.C.

Freehold, New Jersey A good source for workers
I like your articles. The Militant is one of a few sources which reports actions of workers and immigrants for me. Good job.

H.F.

New York, New York U.S. Navy in Puerto Rico
After a year of silence, the U.S. navy waited until after the election to revive its proposal to build in this U.S. colony, an over the horizon radar that can monitor air traffic over the northern half of South America, as far south as Bolivia. The Navy says that the proposed radar is needed to detect aircraft that are smuggling illegal drugs. In 1995, tens of thousands in Puerto Rico protested the radar.

The Navy wants to build the transmitter on the island of Vieques and the receiver in the town of Juana Díaz on the main island. A year ago, the Navy touched off massive protests in a number of cities in Puerto Rico with its proposal to build the radar on Vieques and Lajas (see Militant November 20, 1995). The Lajas end would have been on land that is currently used for agriculture and while the Navy already controls two-thirds of Vieques and could put the radar on land currently occupied by the military. Many of the protesters focused on the loss of farm land to the military so the Navy revised its proposal and hopes to defuse protests by putting both ends on existing military bases.

The Juana Díaz end will be at Fort Allen, a Navy facility that is used by the Puerto Rico National Guard for training. The Navy currently operates two of these radars in Chesapeake, Virginia, near the border with North Carolina and in Kingsville, Texas, in the northeast part of that state. These radars were developed to be installed in Alaska to detect Soviet Backfire bombers taking off from airfields in Siberia. With the end of the Soviet Union they were diverted to cover Latin America and the Caribbean. The Navy says that the sole function of the radar is to look for drug traffickers and denies that they will be used for military purposes.

"I have no military task whatsoever," Robert Hillery, Commanding Officer of the Fleet Surveillance Support Command, told a group of journalists and law enforcement officers visiting the over the horizon radar in Chesapeake, Virginia. The Navy had paid the expenses of the group to travel from Puerto Rico to see the operating radar. When a reporter pressed him if the system has the potential to be used for military purposes he responded, "Why? Can a jeep be used for military purposes? I defer the question."

Although no new protests have yet been announced, a number of groups have promised to protest the new version of the radar.

Ron Richards

San Juan, Puerto Rico

The letters column is an open forum for all viewpoints on subjects of general interest to our readers. Please keep your letters brief. Where necessary they will be abridged. Please indicate if you prefer that your initials be used rather than your full name.  
 
 
Front page (for this issue) | Home | Text-version home