Vol. 76/No. 22 June 4, 2012
June 5, 1987
As the Australian government makes extravagant preparations to celebrate 200 years of white settlement next year, leaders of the Aboriginal people—the continent’s original inhabitants—are focusing public attention on some of the realities of life in Australia today, in particular the growing number of Aborigines dying in the country’s jails.Since September 1983, some 21 young Aboriginal men have suffered violent deaths in police custody, including 12 in the past year alone. This is the equivalent of 100 white Australians per month dying in such circumstances.
In most cases, those who have died have been the victims of brutal beatings at the hands of police and jailers. In all cases, however, these deaths have been officially declared the result of “suicide,” “natural causes,” or “misadventure”—often against a massive weight of evidence to the contrary.
June 4, 1962
AFL-CIO president George Meany’s statement May 25 that the labor federation’s executive board would discuss a “national campaign” to cut the standard work week from 40 to 35 hours with no reduction in pay—as a measure against unemployment—is a symptom of the mounting pressure which union tops are feeling from the ranks.The problem facing the AFL-CIO tops is that they are committed to support of [President] Kennedy, but the administration cannot solve the unemployment problem on its terms short of war. As the problem is more acutely felt by the rank and file of labor, the AFL-CIO leaders meet this contradiction by raising the shorter-work-week demand in words—to satisfy the ranks—but retreat when it comes to actual bargaining with the corporations—to satisfy Kennedy.
May 1, 1937
Vincent R. Dunne, State Organizer of the Socialist Party of Minnesota, and prominent in the Minneapolis labor movement as a leader of the Truck Drivers’ Union, Local 544, filed for Mayor of Minneapolis. Dunne declared that the main issue of the campaign is the fullest extension of working class democracy.Campaigning as a Socialist, Dunne pledged that he will continue to aid the workers in every possible way for the attainment of a workers’ state. The candidacy of Dunne is expected to receive the support of all class-conscious workers who understand the necessity of the revolutionary workers independent political action for the attainment of their program.
The Socialists will wage an intensive campaign giving the workers of Minneapolis the full message of Socialism, their only hope for extrication from the morass in which capitalism binds them.
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