Vol. 74/No. 7      February 22, 2010

The general strike capped two weeks of protests following the January 23 announcement by Pres. Salvador Jorge Blanco that the price of gasoline would be hiked 34 percent.

The new measures came on top of last April’s hikes of up to 100 percent in the price of food, cooking oil, and other essential items. Last year’s price increases sparked a massive rebellion in which government troops killed at least 60 people, wounded some 200, and arrested more than 4,000.

The Dominican government owes $2.7 billion to imperialist banks. This year it must pay $1.4 billion to be current.

The protests demand a break with the IMF, a cancellation of the Dominican Republic’s debt repayment, and the lowering of prices.  
 
February 22, 1960
A tide of youthful militancy in the struggle against Jim Crow is flooding the South. Begun by Negro college students in Greensboro, North Carolina, on Feb. 1, it has been surging on Southern campuses for three weeks and is now involving large numbers of Negro high school students.

The Greensboro action was planned by four freshmen at the Agricultural and Technical College, a state-supported Negro institution in that city. These four pioneers chose a nearby five-and-ten-cent store (F.W. Woolworth) heavily patronized by the 3,000-member student body as the first place to bring some justice.

The four student leaders entered the store and sat down at the lunch counter, which is “for whites only.” When they were refused service, they continued to sit quietly at the counter till the store closed at 5:30 p.m. Next day they returned and were joined by 27 more students from A. and T. and from Bennett, a college for Negro women.  
 
March 2, 1935
The strike of Drivers Local 173, Fargo, N.D., which has been on since Jan. 22, is still going strong despite the most diabolical legal trickery on the part of the bosses’ “law and order” machinery.

Local 173 has developed some rather unusual weapons in the latest fight. On Monday every highway leading into Fargo was picketed with immense signs reading: “16 Fargo Strikers have been sentenced to 44 months. Don’t trade in a scab town!”

To raise funds to continue its fight, Local 173 is sending a troupe of Union boxers and wrestlers to nearby communities, where performances will be given several nights this week.

The Special Strike Bulletin continues to appear on Fargo’s streets despite Judge Paulson’s whines that “Statements published in the strike bulletin … were in defiance of the court.”

Militant members of the Farmers Union and Farmers Holiday Association are not only with the strike—they have assisted in spiriting strike leaders away from the police.  
 
 
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