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Vol. 71/No. 18      May 7, 2007

 
25, 50 and 75 years ago
 
May 7, 1982
The Reagan administration is moving to restore aid to the military rulers of Guatemala, a country that Alexander Haig calls "strategically the most important Central American republic because of its size, population and raw materials, oil included."

Administration officials cited in the April 25 New York Times said Washington "planned to approve the sale of $4 million worth of spare parts for American-made helicopters being used by the Guatemalan Army against leftist rebels." Also in the works is a total of $300,000 for military training during the next two years.

If aid is now restored, it will represent a further escalation of Washington's war against the revolutionary upsurge of workers and peasants that is sweeping Central America.  
 
May 6, 1957
The United States Government in its first use of the Eisenhower Doctrine has enabled a reactionary, feudal king to overthrow the democratically elected government of Jordan and establish a bloody dictatorship in its place. The doctrine has been invoked in Jordan as part of the plan of the U.S. government to beat back the rising Arab national independence movement and to consolidate U.S. domination of the Mideast through using the feudal monarchies of Iraq, Saudi Arabia, and Jordan as its main props.

The government openly proclaimed support for King Hussein, when he labeled his opposition "communist."

All political leaders who opposed Hussein's coup, including the majority of the elected 40-member parliament, have been arrested or forced into hiding or exile.  
 
May 7, 1932
Between 30,000 and 40,000 New York building trades workers went on strike May 1st because of a failure to arrive at a wage scale agreement. The building trades employers association had previously, arbitrarily posted notice of wage cuts ranging from 25% to 30%. However, the immediate cause of the strike was the fact that the elevator manufacturers broke ranks and made a verbal promise to the elevator constructors' union of a day scale of $11.20 instead of the $10 announced in notices posted.

On Monday May the 2nd three unions still remained at work, the elevator constructors, the electricians and the iron and steel workers. But the following day the employers decided to make the shut-down complete and dispense with the service of these three unions also.  
 
 
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