June 11, 1976
When some steelworkers in Local 65 decided it was time for the membership to start running their union, they knew they were in for a fight.
Local 65 covers U.S. Steel’s giant South Works in South Chicago. It’s Ed Sadlowski’s home local. Many of these workers had campaigned for Sadlowski when he challenged Sam Evett, hand-picked candidate of the national union bureaucracy, for district director in 1972-73.
Now they and others like them were fielding slates in local elections throughout the district. John Chico, Sadlowski’s former campaign manager, would run for Local 65 president against incumbent Frank Mirocha, a machine stalwart.
Chico charged Mirocha with "iron fist" control over the local and with failure to stand up for the members.
Chico explained, "the company appears to be embarking on a program under which it can discipline a man on the job almost indiscriminately."
This wasn’t so unusual, he said. What was unusual was for the union to "look the other way when the company openly and repeatedly violates the contract."
When Chico was nominated for president, Mirocha started yelling "Are you a Communist or a member of any totalitarian organization."
Mirocha’s heavy-handed conduct backfired, steelworkers said afterwards. "I’ve never seen such an outraged membership in all the years I ‘ve attended meetings." said Don Jordan. "I don’t know what Mirocha expects to gain by pulling such stunts, but I’m sure he lost a lot of votes right there."
June 11, 1951
The Stalinists themselves share blame for the heavy blow struck at the rights of the American people by the Supreme Court decision in the case of the 11 Communist Party leaders convicted under the Smith "Gag" Act.
They hailed the prosecution, conviction and imprisonment of 18 leaders of the Socialist Workers Party and Minneapolis CIO truck drivers under the very Smith Act of 1940 that the Stalinists later--and correctly--charged was a violation of the Bill of Rights when applied to themselves.
They aggressively opposed and tried actively to sabotage the campaign of the Civil Rights Defense Committee that won the support of unions representing five million members to the defense of the 18 Trotskyists imprisoned in 1944 under the Smith Act.
NEW YORK--James P. Cannon, National Secretary of the Socialist Workers Party, one of the first working-class leaders imprisoned under the Smith "Gag" Act in 1941, today issued the following statement:
"The Supreme Court decision upholding the Smith "Gag" Act in the conviction of the 11 CP leaders is a deadly blow at the heart of the civil liberties of the American people. The Socialist Workers Party opposed the undemocratic law from the first and sought to alert and mobilize public opinion against it....
"There is only one way to combat reactionary attacks upon the rights of the American people. That is by united resistance to unjust laws, regardless of political differences. We intend to continue our 10-year campaign to remove this instrument of oppression from the statute books."