The largest action on May 13 occurred in Minnesota, where more than 15,000 people march 11 miles, from the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis to the capitol in St. Paul.

According to Militant reporter David Riehle, the march on May 13 was preceded by several days of massive student actions, particularly at the University of Minnesota. Rallies of several thousand occurred there on both May 9 and May 10.

In New York on May 13 more than 6,000 people marched from Times Square to the Central Park band shell. A rally held there was attended by almost 10,000. All of the speakers urged a big turnout at the May 21 march in Washington.

A similar demonstration of 8,000 to 10,000 was held in Chicago May 13.

May 24, 1947
SAN FRANCISCO, May 16 - The high point of the five-day convention of the National Union of Marine Cooks and Stewards, CIO, which concluded its sessions here last Friday was passage of a resolution calling for a "new political party based on the trade union movement and composed of farmers, white collar workers, professional people, veterans and minority groups."

The resolution was a committee compromise between two Stalinist-submitted resolutions calling for a coalition of all "progressive forces" including "liberal" capitalists -and a resolution submitted by Dave Bers, calling for a "labor party and labor candidates." The contradictory character of the resolution was pointed out by David Bers and Harry Press, union militants.

Bers based his support of the resolution on such clauses as one stipulating that the new party should move forward "under a new political banner and electoral apparatus with its roots in the trade union movement, its program and policy stemming from labor and its allies."

Harry Press stressed the need of having the proposed new party's name correspond to its class character. The resolution called for "A People's Party," Press advocated the name "Labor Party."  
 
 
Front page (for this issue) | Home | Text-version home