Vol. 80/No. 47      December 19, 2016

 

25, 50 and 75 years ago

 

December 20, 1991

More than 2,400 foreign troops are stationed on a major military base in Cuba. The base has an additional 7,000 military and civilian personnel and family members.

Large-scale naval, amphibious, and air maneuvers involving thousands of troops are periodically carried out on and around this military facility, which is strategically located in the Caribbean.

It is the U.S. naval base at Guantánamo, which occupies Cuban territory against the will of the people of Cuba. In the latest provocative move, U.S. authorities are now using the base as a concentration camp for thousands of Haitians fleeing military terror in Haiti.

On October 26 Cuba denounced several recent violations of its national territory “by U.S. combat aircraft from the territory occupied by the Guantánamo Naval Base.”

December 19, 1966

Labor-baiters will no doubt derive satisfaction from the Supreme Court decision upholding the jury-tampering conviction of Teamster Union President James Hoffa.

The Supreme Court affirmed the charge despite a plea by the American Civil Liberties Union to set it aside. The conviction had been obtained on the basis of testimony by a government informer.

In addition to the use of a planted, tainted stool pigeon, the government has used wire-tapping and electronic bugs in its anti-Hoffa drive.

Washington’s claim that it is merely trying to protect the union ranks from “crooks” is just bull. More than one crooked union bureaucrat hustles votes for the Democrats and dines at the White House. The government’s target is the Teamsters union itself, an initial target in a drive it intends to widen.

December 20, 1941

With the Smith Slave Labor Bill hanging over them threateningly, AFL and CIO leaders were called this week to Washington to commit the trade unions to a War Labor Board similar to that of World War I.

Like its 1918 predecessor, the new board has as its main function the task of depriving organized labor of its right to strike “for the duration.”

The AFL and CIO representatives are being called upon to agree “voluntarily” to the essential sections of the Smith Bill, with the broad hint that any balking by the unions will result in the enactment of the bill, which has already been passed in the House Representatives.

With the War Labor Board of 1918, the workers suffered a terrific slice in real wages, primarily because of their inability to employ their most potent bargaining weapon, the strike.  
 
 
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