Vol. 81/No. 24      June 19, 2017

 

25, 50 and 75 Years Ago

June 19, 1992
SYDNEY, Australia — Picket line confrontations took place June 4 at the Associated Pulp and Paper Mills (APPM) plant in Burnie, Tasmania. About 30 cops attempting to break through the line were pushed back by pickets. Later in the day 80 cops forced their way through strikers to escort 18 scabs into the plant.

The following day, in the face of 300 determined strikers supported by 400 sympathetic “onlookers” from the town, the company suspended its attempt to bring on the scabs.

Workers have effectively halted production with a 24-hour picket line since May 12.

APPM unilaterally cancelled local agreements on wages and conditions and began employing security guards to enforce company rules in the plant.

The miners’ union has announced a 24-hour strike in support.

June 19, 1967
PHILADELPHIA — A two-year battle by antiwar activists culminated in victory when the University of Pennsylvania board of trustees was forced to accede to demands that Penn get out of the germ warfare business.

Penn was one of dozens of institutions exposed for complicity in the Vietnam War and their development of Pentagon blueprints for crushing the colonial revolution.

Some have been working with the CIA to run puppet dictatorships and to develop “contingency plans” for the war in Vietnam. Others have helped developed the weapons necessary to starve and kill the peasants of colonial countries that become “trouble spots.”

Every top university is part of government plans to the extent that the universities are needed to train the brains to run the capitalist system. Many of these brains remain on university campuses.

June 20, 1942
NEW YORK — In the middle of the second war “to make the world safe for democracy,” 25,000 militant Negro men and women jammed Madison Square Garden last night to demand democracy at home for 13,000,000 black Americans. Such a demonstration has never before had its like in peace-time or war-time America.

These Negro people weren’t asking the white ruling class for their rights. They were telling the white bosses that they’d better not kick the Negro around anymore. They weren’t begging, they were demanding.

The keynote of the meeting was protest — against discrimination in industry, in government, in the armed forces, in every walk of life. Of major significance is the very fact of the meeting itself, the fighting spirit of the audience. They warmed to every word that gave the hint of action.  
 
 
 
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