Banners and placards proclaimed support for the 61 indicted Attica Brothers in their struggle against government frame-ups. "Jail Nixon, Free the Attica Brothers," and "Freedom for the 61 — Drop the Charges," were among the many signs. Anger at President Ford's recent pardon of Richard Nixon ran high.
Legal defense coordinator Haywood Burns told the enthusiastic crowd, "We are here to indict the real criminals," those responsible for the massacre in D Yard. Thirty-two prisoners were killed in the cop assault. He demanded that Nelson Rockefeller and Russell Oswald be indicted for the deaths at Attica.
At the time of the Attica revolt Rockefeller was governor of New York and Oswald was the state corrections commissioner.
"If they can talk in Washington about pardon for Richard Milhous Nixon," he declared, "they better be talking about amnesty for the Attica Brothers."
Following the rally, which raised more than $1,100 for the defense effort, demonstrators staged a militant and vocal march through downtown Buffalo. They passed the Erie County Courthouse, site of the upcoming trials, and the Erie County jail, where several of the Attica Brothers are now imprisoned, chanting, "Jail Nixon, Jail Ford, Free the Attica Brothers."
Once again the country's 480,000 militant coal miners have taken the lead in defense of the standard of living and rights of American labor. With the slogan, "No Welfare, No Work!" the miners on Sept. 19 shut down the pits. They are demanding a new improved contract and the payment of all royalties due the miners' welfare fund from defaulting Southern operators.
The determined fighting action of the United Mine Workers comes at a most crucial moment for America's industrial workers, whose drive for "fourth round" wage increases and adequate health and pension funds has been dealt a treacherous and crippling blow by the report of Truman's steel and "fact-finding" board.
With the example of the miners before them, the workers in steel, auto, rubber and other basic industries are bound to take heart in their own struggles to win some form of security during illness and old age. Since the miners walked out there has been a marked stiffening of morale among the workers and other industries. This is evidenced, in part, by the beginning of "wildcat" strikes in Pittsburgh steel plants against the demoralizing stalling by CIO Steel Workers leaders, the Truman administration and the steel corporations.
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