The Militant(logo) 
    Vol.62/No.14           April 13, 1998 
 
 
25 And 50 Years Ago  
April 13, 1973
On March 27 White House spokesman Ronald Ziegler announced President [Richard] Nixon intends to continue U.S. bombing of Cambodia until the rebel forces stop their military operations against the government in Phnom Penh.

According to the March 28 New York Times, "the consensus of Cambodian and foreign military experts is that without heavy daily bombing, rocketing and strafing of insurgent forces by United States aircraft, the Cambodian Army would collapse."

This implication that the Cambodian civil war is basically a case of aggression by North Vietnam was flatly contradicted by New York Times correspondent Henry Kamm in a March 23 dispatch from Phnom Penh. Kamm wrote that "reliable American sources report that hardly any North Vietnamese or Vietcong forces are still fighting against the Cambodian Army."

Kamm continues: "Military experts who have visited areas near Phnom Penh after American tactical air strikes report that nothing was left standing above ground in a section one- kilometer square."

But support for the rebel side is growing so quickly that even the saturation bombing by U.S. B-52s has not succeeded in crushing its advance. After the Lon Nol regime's recent crackdown against the nationwide Cambodian teachers' strike "many of the students and intellectuals have either gone underground or slipped away to join the rebels," reported the March 26 Washington Post. The strike involves 45,000 teachers and students in areas controlled by the Vientiane government.

April 12, 1948
SOUTH ST. PAUL, April 7 - Two leaders of striking CIO packinghouse workers in south St. Paul have been arrested and two others cited for contempt of court. Milton Siegel, union field representative, was the first to be taken into custody. He was arrested for refusing to let police and office workers through picket lines at the Swift plant after a temporary restraining order had been issued. He was released on $1,000 bail.

Meanwhile, union representatives are appearing in Dakota County district court to show cause why an injunction should not be granted to Swift and Armour to prevent mass picketing at plant gates. Obtained under the Stassen-inspired Minnesota Slave Labor Act, the injunction proceedings represent a test of this law. The union is basing the legal part of its case against the injunction on the fact that the Big Four packers (Armour, Swift, Cudahy and Wilson) did not bargain in good faith and therefore are not entitled to the benefits of the Minnesota law.  
 
 
Front page (for this issue) | Home | Text-version home