Vol. 73/No. 36      September 21, 2009

Tate was one of nearly 200 Vietnam vets and their families attending a regional public hearing in Atlanta, August 20-21. The suit was filed by 15,000 Vietnam veterans and their families who are victims of Agent Orange.

During the Vietnam War, the U.S. government sprayed 12 million gallons of Agent Orange on Vietnam, causing untold damage and misery to that country and its people. U.S. GIs were also victims, with their exposure to the toxic substance resulting in serious illnesses among them and their families, including birth defects in their children.  
 
September 21, 1959
The steel corporations remain adamant that the steel workers shall gain no pay increases, shall give up the cost-of-living bonus clause, and shall work under new rules dictated by management. This is the reason why the steel strike continues.

From the beginning, the steel barons were backed in their arrogant stand by all other sections of big business. The steel bosses were urged by the American capitalist class to spearhead a drive to beat down wages. Steel still holds the line for all employers.

The September 14 Wall Street Journal reports that though many other industries have granted some wage increases during past weeks, “Both management and labor do agree on one thing: The steel stand is acting as a brake on even larger labor gains.”  
 
September 22, 1934
President Roosevelt has personally intervened in the textile strike with pressure for a settlement—but not until the list of martyrs had mounted to thirteen; not until 11,000 troops shot, bayoneted, and gassed strikers in a half a dozen states; not until concentration camps in Fascist style were set up in Georgia; not until one of the most drastic anti-labor injunctions was handed down in Paterson [New Jersey].

He has let all that go by without batting an eyelash, hopeful that it would smash the strike and save him the trouble of directly having to give the strikers the “raw deal.”

Unfortunately for Mr. Roosevelt … not all the thugs in the country, not all the troops in the garrisons have been able to dam up the river of militancy that has been overflowing this Labor Day.  
 
 
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