The wholesale arrests were ordered October 24 by Associate Circuit Judge Richard Goldenhersh, who signed warrants for 123 teachers who continued to picket Cahokia's thirteen schools despite his back-to-work order.

The Cahokia school district is a largely white rural area on the outskirts of East St. Louis.

On October 25, teachers marched en masse to surrender themselves at the county jail in Belleville, where they were arraigned and released on $1,000 bond each.

That night 500 union members and supporters rallied outside the jail to protest the arrests. Support came from the East St. Louis Central Trades and Labor Council, meatcutters, steelworkers, ironworkers, and postal workers.

Already under arrest and held without bail--as though they were dangerous criminals--are the four top leaders of Cahokia Federation of Teachers Local 1272.

At the same time Judge Goldenhersh hit the union with a fine of $4,000 plus $1,000 per day for each day the strike continues.

Cahokia's 375 teachers and 5 nurses also represented by Local 1272, have been on strike since October 2. They are seeking wage increases of 6 and 9 percent in a two-year contract, along with improvements in pension and medical plans.

The harsh strikebreaking measures seem to have had little effect on the teachers, determination to hold out.

 
 
November 6, 1950
The attempted assassination of President Truman by Puerto Rican nationalists on Nov. 1 focused worldwide attention on the biggest uprising in the unhappy island of Puerto Rico since the United States grabbed it from Spain some fifty years ago.

Such acts of individual terrorism, of course, are futile and harmful methods of struggle against oppression. We Marxists have always opposed the substitution of violence against individuals by a few isolated conspirators for the organized action of the people.

Nevertheless, terrorists acts of this type are politically symptomatic. They are bred by desperate conditions which inspire desperate acts of resistance and protest. The case of the Puerto Rican nationalists is no exception.

The nationalist revolt in Puerto Rico is another uprising among the oppressed colonial people like those that have been sweeping Asia especially in the past five years. This time the revolt is in the U.S. State Department's own backyard.

The dailies are minimizing what has happened. But thousands of National Guard troops have been mobilized, planes, tanks, and artillery have been employed against the "strongholds" of the insurgents, and admittedly not less than 10 centers on the island are involved. From these indications alone it is the largest outbreak in Puerto Rico in all the years of U.S. rule.

Customarily the press carries little about Puerto Rico except items and advertisements depicting it as a "tourist's paradise." Actually Puerto Rico is a typical colony, differing little from the old European colonial hell holes of Asia and Africa.