Vol. 81/No. 20      May 22, 2017

 

25, 50 and 75 Years Ago

 

May 22, 1992

MONTREAL — The second jury trial stemming from the 1990 confrontation between the Mohawk Indian people and the Quebec and Canadian governments will begin here May 11.

Joe Deom, a defendant from the Mohawk territory of Kahnawake, told reporters, “We expect the trial to be political. They are charging us as criminals, but we have only done what our conscience made us do.”

On July 11, 1990, the Quebec provincial police stormed a barricade that Mohawks had established at Kanesatake, Quebec, to prevent the extension of a local golf course on land claimed by them.

The police raid provoked an armed standoff at Kanesatake and Kahnawake, also near Montreal, that lasted 11 weeks. Three weeks into the standoff, the Canadian army was sent in.

A demonstration in solidarity has been called for the first day of the trial.

May 22, 1967

An enthusiastic and youthful crowd of 2,500 turned out to hear Muhammad Ali speak at an anti-war rally at the University of Chicago fieldhouse May 10. Ali told them that, “My intention is to box and win a clean fight — but in war the intention is to kill, kill, kill and continue killing innocent people.”

He said, “They say a prize fighter’s main goal is violence. There is a helluva lot of difference between fighting in the ring and going to war in Vietnam. Boxing is nothing like going to war with machine guns, bazookas, hand grenades and bomber airplanes.

“Right now, at this very moment, in Louisville, Ky.,” Ali said, “My people are being clobbered and stoned! Women beat up, kicked! For what? Just simply demanding the right to live in the neighborhood which they choose!

“And they turn around and send us to war!”

May 23, 1942

One recent day a Norwegian freighter entered the port of New Orleans. As the vessel was coming alongside, a group of Pinkerton guards appeared on the wharf. Their job was to see that no member of the 37-man Chinese crew left the ship. This has long been the practice whenever a ship with an Oriental crew enters a port of the United States.

The practice stems from the policy of American imperialism in its dealings with Oriental peoples. It is legalized in the Immigration Act of 1924 which barred Orientals from entering this country.

The fact that Washington, despite its tireless eulogies of the “brave Chinese nation,” continues to treat Chinese and other Orientals as coolies, is an indication of what is in store for the Asiatic people if, failing to win and hold their independence, they fall under the heel of dollar imperialism.  
 
 
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