Vol. 72/No. 7      February 18, 2008

At his February 4 news conference, President Reagan accused the strikers of “murder” and said he had directed the FBI to work with local cops “to put an end to this violence.” Offering absolutely no proof of his charges against the strikers, Reagan defended once again the tax increase the truckers are protesting. Drivers say it will force many of them to pay as much as $5,000 more in taxes.

Meanwhile, Ohio cops arrested 17 striking drivers on riot charges.

While the extent of the shutdown remains difficult to estimate, due to the anti-strike bias of the big-business media, organizing committees and rallies by drivers continue to spread. Gatherings were held in Phoenix, Arizona; Pittsburgh and New Stanton, Pennsylvania; Bordentown, New Jersey; Hamilton, Ohio; and elsewhere.  
 
February 10, 1958
Feb. 5—A bread line in Memphis, Tenn., touched the heart of Sen. Albert Gore, Democrat of that state, and brought him to the point of proposing a national public works program to create jobs. He watched long lines of unemployed moving slowly to receive free food taken from government surplus stock.

“I am surprised and disturbed to find approximately ten percent of the people in Shelby County standing in lines for distress distribution of food,” the Senator said. City officials in Memphis stated that 10,352 families had registered for aid. Many were farm laborers seeking off-season work in Tennessee, according to Memphis officials.

Whatever the case might be—farm laborers in Tennessee, miners in depressed metal industries, auto workers in Detroit, steel workers in Ohio and Pittsburgh—reports of growing layoffs and rising applications for relief continue.  
 
February 17, 1933
Open warfare has at last broken between Peru and Colombia for control of the small Amazon port of Leticia. It is possible that this conflict together with that between Paraguay and Bolivia for possession of the Gran Chaco, may develop into a continent-wide war, with British and American imperialism supporting the opposing sides.

The official Communist party press in its estimation of the situation assumes that there are already two clearly defined blocs of Latin American lackey governments servile to the interests of British and American imperialism respectively. It is however pure lightmindedness to jump at conclusions after the fashion of the Daily Worker experts who analyze every Latin American problem regardless of its complexity, according to the magic formula wherein British imperialism unconditionally supports one side while Wall Street has all its stakes on the other.  
 
 
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