Vol. 81/No. 1      January 2, 2017

 

25, 50, and 75 Years Ago

 

January 10, 1992

The Philippine government has told the United States to withdraw from the Subic Bay naval base by the end of 1992. The December 27 announcement comes after the breakdown of negotiations on a new treaty.

The administration of U.S. president George Bush expressed disappointment at the decision and said it was seeking alternative military sites in the Pacific.

Subic Bay is the largest U.S. naval base outside the United States. It is home to more than 7,000 GIs and civilian workers. The base is one of several established in the Philippines after the United States defeated Spain in the Spanish-American War in 1898.

The U.S. and Philippine governments reached a tentative agreement in mid-1991 that would have extended the lease to the bases for at least another decade. But this was met with strong opposition by the Filipino people.

January 2, 1967

Washington’s bombs did pour down on residential areas in Hanoi Dec. 13 and 14; Washington has bombed residential areas in Hanoi “for some time”; and Washington has bombed civilian populations in north Vietnamese cities consistently since at least as early as June 1965. These conclusions were reached by no less an authority in the capitalist press than New York Times assistant managing editor Harrison E. Salisbury, presently visiting Hanoi.

Not only have civilians been targets of U.S. rockets and bombs, according to Salisbury, but the dikes, protecting millions of north Vietnamese from floods, have been bombed in various raids.

Even more devastating [are] the effects of 18 months of bombings on Namdinh, a cotton-and-silk textile town containing nothing of military significance. Its other industries include a rice-processing plant.

January 3, 1942

Last spring the Youngstown Sheet and Tube Company tried to introduce the “incentive” system at its rod and wire plant in Struthers. This is a bonus system aimed at establishing more work for less pay. The workers, members of the Steel Workers Organizing Committee, CIO, figured that under this system they would receive as much as eight cents per hour less pay, so they turned it down.

After being forced to bide its time, the company used the beginning of the war, when general anti-strike sentiment rose, to put over its plan.

This was met by a strike, called originally by 200 workers in the electric weld conduit mill. These were joined by 1,600 other workers. The strike ended when the men voted to return to work at the orders of SWOC officials. This is a perfect example of how strikes are and will be provoked by the bosses.  
 
 
Front page (for this issue) | Home | Text-version home