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   Vol. 70/No. 40           October 23, 2006  
 
 
25, 50 and 75 years ago
 
October 23, 1981
WASHINGTON—A major debate has opened up in the National Organization for Women (NOW) over the program, strategy, and future of the women’s liberation movement. The main lines of the debate emerged here at NOW’s national conference, where top NOW leaders, over the angry objections of may delegates, projected deeper involvement in the Democratic and Republican parties and increased support for the imperialist foreign policy of the United States.

The October 9-12 conference drew some 2,000 women. Convinced that as things now stand the ERA will be defeated, many delegates came looking for a major discussion on what is happening to the ERA and other women’s rights issues, what is happening in this country as a whole, and what can be done to reverse the reactionary attacks by the government.  
 
October 22, 1956
Tallahassee’s mass trial on Oct. 17 marks the climax of desperate attempts by city officials to smash the heroic bus boycott by 14,400 freedom fighters. This massive struggle was touched off when two Negro co-eds of Florida A&M University were arrested for sitting in the “white” section of a bus on May 26.

Among the 22 who will face the bar of white-supremacist “justice” will be the entire leadership of the Inter-Civic Council set up to direct the protest, as well as operators of service stations and drivers working with the car pool. The leaders were arrested Oct. 4 for operating “an illegal transportation system.” The Council was also indicted on this count. At the same time, records of service stations said to be supplying the car pool have been subpoenaed. Officers of the Council were ordered to bring all records dealing with their organization to court.  
 
October 31, 1931
After four months of public hearings and the presentation of bales of evidence by railroad men, shippers, and bankers, the application of the railroads for a general 15% rate increase has been denied, and instead an increase in certain lines permitted, averaging 3 to 4% but subject to the condition that the financially strong roads turn over the profits from the rate increase to the financially weak ones (cries of “Socialism!” from the Right).

The Railroad Age says to this, “However confusing it may be in other respects, one thing that the decision of the Interstate Commerce Commission in the 15% rate advance case has made clear and certain is that railway wages must be reduced as soon as practicable. The Commission could not have made this more inevitable if it had been deciding a wage case instead of a rate case.”  
 
 
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