Police officials who took a count from helicopters that hovered overhead, said 7,500 people joined in the funeral march behind the coffin of Nagi Daifullah, a 24-year-old immigrant Arab worker from Yemen who died Aug. 15 of compound skull fractures. Other reporters estimated there were 10,000 in the funeral march.
Because of the union-busting activity of local authorities, the UFW has demanded federal intervention. They are insisting that the Justice Department act in the killing of the two strikers and that the FBI take action to halt the violence and other infringement of civil rights. Jerry Cohen, chief counsel to the UFW, told reporters that he would demand a federal investigation into "the pattern of conduct by the sheriffs' departments in Kern, Tulare, and Fresno" counties. He said the local police were acting like "a private army of the growers."
August 23, 1948
Colonial revolts continue to sweep the Far East. Guerrilla
bands roam throughout Malaya, disrupting communications and
endangering British imperialist holdings.
On Aug. 15, the United Press reported that four Chinese and one Malayan were hung without trial, under the government's emergency decree, for carrying arms. At the same time British difficulties are mounting in Burma. The present ruling coalition, known as the Anti-Fascist People's Freedom League, is breaking up under the pressure of conflicting social groups and the premier, Thakin Nu, has resigned. The London Economist takes a dim view of the whole situation. "The political future of Burma is now overloaded with threats of further violent upheaval."
In Indo-China, the native Vietnam is winning the war to drive out the French imperialists. The fight is costing France 200 million dollars a year and pulling the French empire apart. The authoritative U.S. News and World Report sums up the situation in the Far East as follows: "Western powers, on their part, seem unable to get things right side up in Asia. All of them - Dutch, French, British, Americans - are in trouble."