Vol. 80/No. 30      August 15, 2016

 

25, 50, and 75 Years Ago

 

August 16, 1991

On June 24 the U.S. Supreme Court issued a ruling pushing back the ability of coal miners disabled by black lung disease to benefit from a federal compensation program.

The 7-1 ruling upheld new, more restrictive Labor Department regulations designed to make it harder for coal miners to qualify for black lung benefits. Previous regulations said benefits could only be denied with proof a miner is capable of working in the mines or doing comparable work.

The latest ruling shifted the burden of proof onto the miner to disprove company claims that the disability had other causes.

In 1969 the black lung provisions of the Coal Mine Health and Safety Act were a major victory for the labor movement. The provisions were won as a result of a virtual uprising of coal mines centered in the West Virginia coalfields.

August 22, 1966

Nearly 400 antiwar activists were on hand to protest the opening of hearings by the House Un-American Activities Committee. HUAC is using the hearings in an attempt to smear the antiwar movement and to gain support for a bill by Texas Representative Pool.

The Pool bill, in the words of the New York Fifth Avenue Peace Parade Committee, “attempts to penalize any opposition to the war with penalties up to $20,000 fine, 20 years in prison, or both.”

At a press conference, Judy White, Socialist Workers Party candidate for governor of New York, read a statement. “The SWP urges all who oppose the war in Vietnam to protest government attempts to stifle antiwar sentiment, and we demand that the administration grant the antiwar movement its full democratic rights to present the facts about the war to the American people.”

August 16, 1941

MINNEAPOLIS, August 11 — Tonight, eleven hours after leaders of Local 544-CIO were arraigned on the charge of “conspiracy to overthrow the government,” the unholy alliance of Tobin-Roosevelt-bosses got a plain answer from the truck drivers of Minneapolis to the government’s attempt to intimidate them by hounding their leaders. The answer was the regular monthly membership meeting of the union.

The union hall was packed with over 1,000 members. After sixty days of Blitzkrieg by government and Tobin’s thugs, despite all the enormous pressure put on them, these men came out and showed where they stood.

The Tobin AFL “union” was also meeting. All the noses you could count in Tobin’s hall amounted to 56. Count them: 1,000 for the CIO against 56 for the AFL. There’s the answer to Tobin and the Department of Justice!  
 
 
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