Vol. 80/No. 43      November 14, 2016

 

25, 50, and 75 Years Ago

 

November 15, 1991

HAMLET, North Carolina — More than 500 people marched and rallied here October 18 to protest working conditions that caused 25 deaths in a fire at Imperial Food Products
September 3.

Participants were mostly Black workers from the area. Several union officials from the recently adjourned state AFL-CIO convention in Charlotte and other activists attended.

The rally was sponsored by a coalition of local groups together with NAACP, the United Food and Commercial Workers, the National Rainbow Coalition, and the Charlotte Labor Council.

The rally showed the potential for organizing working people to fight for safe working conditions. Nevertheless in the two months since the fire at the poultry plant politicians and union officials continue to orient toward relying on government officials and employer benevolence.

November 14, 1966

NOV. 8 — Lt. General William Train, commanding officer of the U.S. First Army, affirmed the convictions and sentences of the Fort Hood Three. Pfc. James Johnson and Pvt. David Samas will serve five years at hard labor. Pvt. Dennis Mora will serve three years. Stanley Faulkner, attorney for the GIs, said there will be “a vigorous appeal.”

The three servicemen had been illegally arrested by the Army after they told a news conference last June that they would seek a court injunction against being sent to fight in “an illegal, immoral and unjust war” being waged by the U.S. in Vietnam.

While their civil-court action was pending, they were ordered aboard a special plane for Vietnam. When they refused they were immediately arrested. The Pentagon was determined to make an example for the many other servicemen who want no part of this war.

November 15, 1941

The bureaucratic AFL tops are experiencing increasing difficulty in their attempts to impose a “no strike” policy on the AFL rank-and-file. AFL workers in virtually every trade and craft continue to go out on strike in defiance of the strikebreaking edicts of the top leadership.

A succession of strikes involving thousands of AFL workers employed on government war projects are demonstrating that the AFL workers, like their brothers of the CIO, do not intend to submit without a struggle to the program of speed-up, rising living costs, etc., which the war bosses have drafted for them.

In San Diego, building trades workers employed on three navy construction projects have courageously faced the opposition of the government and the Navy Department’s threats of armed violence in a strike for increased wages.  
 
 
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