Vol. 80/No. 33      September 5, 2016

 

25, 50, and 75 Years Ago

 

September 6, 1991

ISTANBUL, Turkey — Tens of thousands of Kurds took to the streets in the city of Diyarbakir July 10 to protest police killings and state of emergency measures imposed by the Turkish government in the country’s eastern region. An estimated 40,000 Kurds participated in a funeral in Diyarbakir for Vedat Aydin, leader of the People’s Labour Party (HEP). Aydin was found dead three days after being taken from his home by the police.

As the funeral march proceeded the police began shooting into the crowd, throwing tear gas and savagely beating people.

The events in Diyarbakir mark a turning point of the struggle of the Kurdish people in Turkey for their national rights. This struggle has been given impetus by the fight of the Iraqi Kurds for autonomy in the wake of the imperialist war against that country.

September 5, 1966

A Sept. 6 court-martial has been set for the Fort Hood Three, the GIs jailed by the Army after they initiated a court challenge against the legality of the Vietnam war.

Pfc. James Johnson, Pvt. Dennis Mora and Pvt. David Samas had filed an application for an injunction in federal court June 30 against being sent to Vietnam on the grounds that the war there was “illegal, immoral and unjust.”

On July 7 they were illegally arrested by New York City and military police, minutes before they were scheduled to address a public meeting on their action.

They were confined at Fort Dix, New Jersey, until July 14 when they were ordered to board a plane for Vietnam. On refusing, the three soldiers were placed in solitary confinement. The Fort Hood Three Defense Committee has won support from a broad cross-section of the anti-war, civil rights communities.

September 6, 1941

ST. PAUL, Minn. — Nearly 400 militant colored men and women from the Twin Cities met in the Hallie Q. Brown settlement house in St. Paul last week to “have it out with the governor” on the matter of discrimination against Negroes in the Minnesota Home Defense Guard. But Republican Governor Harold Stassen, ambitious anti-labor politician who wants to be the next president of the United States, failed miserably in an attempt to explain his refusal to order the acceptance of Negroes into the state military forces by passing the buck to army officials and citing a non-existent military “code.”

Called by the Minnesota Negro Defense Committee, this meeting climaxed eight months of protest by Negroes in the state against the gross inequality and discrimination against colored men and women in the home defense forces and defense industries.  
 
 
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