Vol. 79/No. 14 April 20, 2015
April 20, 1990
The “U.S. Hands Off Cuba” demonstration held in New York City April 7 was a historic victory for all those who oppose Washington’s decades-long policy of aggression against Cuba. The protest through the streets of midtown Manhattan was the largest such action in the United States in more than 25 years. It took place at a time when Cuba faces the most serious threats and attacks since the 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion and the 1962 “missile crisis,” during which Washington imposed a total blockade of Cuba and threatened nuclear war.The fact that the action took place as planned and that participants stood up to threats and intimidation and did not let themselves be provoked by right-wing forces was also a big victory.
April 19, 1965
APRIL 14 — Savage acts of Southern police brutality combined with Ku Klux Klan terrorism have increased rapidly since the conclusion of the Selma-Montgomery march and the hurried withdrawal of federal troops March 25. In Camden, Alabama, police continued to use smoke bombs and tear gas against civil-rights demonstrators through April 7.Both in Bogalusa and in Jonesboro, Louisiana, 160 miles to the northwest, Negroes have formed armed self-defense organizations called the Deacons of Defense and Justice. Charles R. Sims, president of the Bogalusa Deacons, told an AP correspondent: “We are the defensive team. If they come here to hit us, they will get hit back.”
April 20, 1940
AKRON Ohio April 14 — Two million pounds of crude rubber are jammed up in warehouses here as General Drivers Union, Local 348, AFL, refuses to go through the picket line of 1,400 CIO rubber workers on strike at General Tire and Rubber.This is the first important strike in Akron’s rubber factories since the militant strike struggles of two years ago. It was called in answer to the employers’ constant chiseling on pay rates, refusal to adjust grievances, in some cases for as long as eleven months, and attempt to introduce the 40 hour week (8-hour 5 day week) in place of the prevailing 36 hour week (6-hour 6 day week) at a time when almost half of Akron’s rubber workers are unemployed.