Vol. 80/No. 29      August 8, 2016

 

25, 50, and 75 Years Ago

 

August 2, 1991

HAVANA, Cuba — With growing inter-imperialist competition and increasing economic and social devastation in Latin America threatening explosive struggles by workers and peasants throughout the region, the heads of state of Latin America’s Spanish- and Portugese-speaking countries held the “First Ibero-American Summit” in Guadalajara, Mexico.

The July 17-19 event included 23 heads of state or government from 19 Latin American countries, plus Spain and Portugal. Everyone from Cuban President Fidel Castro to King Juan Carlos I of Spain was present.

The unprecedented character of the meeting was noted by Castro in his remarks to the gathering. “For the first time,” he pointed out, “we Latin Americans are meeting without having been called together by someone else.”

August 8, 1966

MINNEAPOLIS — An antiwar rally here was broken up by city cops July 16, on the charge that speakers were not displaying the American flag. The meeting, sponsored by the Minnesota Committee to End the War in Vietnam, was the first protest rally of the summer here.

For about 15 minutes, the rally was proceeding in an orderly fashion. Just as the fourth speaker was mounting the ladder, however, a plainclothesman, later identified as the chief of police, grabbed the sound equipment and informed the chairman, Larry Seigel, that he was under arrest.

The young woman who was about to speak was dragged into the street by three cops and the speakers’ ladder was confiscated as “evidence.” Six committee members were arrested including Joseph Johnson, the Socialist Workers Party candidate for U.S. Senator from Minnesota.

August 2, 1941

Every advanced worker in New York City remembers the anti-fascist demonstration organized by the Socialist Workers Party against the Nazi Bund at Madison Square Garden on February 20, 1939. Fifty thousand workers joined our demonstration. Hundreds of thousands of others gave us their moral backing and were glad that there was a workers’ party that knew how to deal a blow against the fascists.

We organized that famous demonstration around the slogan: “Build Workers’ Defense Guards to answer the fascist menace.”

Today our anti-fascist demonstrations constitute one of the main points in the indictment drawn up by the United States Department of Justice against 29 members of Local 544-CIO and the Socialist Workers Party.  
 
 
Front page (for this issue) | Home | Text-version home