Vol. 70/No. 7           February 20, 2006  
 
 
25, 50 and 75 years ago
 
February 20, 1981
Residents of New York City woke up to an unusual news story last December 31. Officials of the New York Civil Liberties Union were quoted as lauding Police Commissioner Robert McGuire for his policy on political spying by the New York cops. What McGuire did was to agree with the Civil Liberties Union on an out-of-court settlement of a nine-year-old lawsuit against the Red Squad. The suit is a class-action one, brought on behalf of all victims of police spying, harassment, and disruption activities. Does the settlement ban future spying? Hardly. According to the Times, the cops “will continue to keep ‘generic information’ about some political activities.”  
 
February 20, 1956
Demonstrations by French settlers in Algeria against concessions to the Algerian population stole the headlines last week. But though the fascist-led rabble scared French Premier Mollet into backtracking on his promises of “reforms,” nothing it did could halt the steady progress of the national independence revolution of nine million Arabs and Berbers. Since Nov. 1, 1954, when the Algerian liberation war began until now, the French government has increased its U.S.-equipped armed forces from 10,000 to 200,000. In addition, the colons (French settlers) numbering about one million, organized vigilante committees. In combination, the repressive forces slaughtered, tortured, murdered, and burned out the Arab and Berber militants. Tens of thousands of these heroic people have been herded into concentration camps.  
 
February 15, 1931
It took altogether extraordinary conditions like czarism, illegality, prisons and deportations, long years of struggle against the Mensheviks and especially the experiences of the three revolutions to produce militants like Kote Zinzadze. His life was bound up entirely with the history of the revolutionary movement for a period of more than a quarter of a century. He passed through all the stages of proletarian uprising, beginning with the very first propaganda circles to the barricades and the seizure of power. For long years he conducted menial labors of illegal organization and at the time when the revolutionists were tied up in the net of the police he devoted himself to untying them.  
 
 
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