Vol. 81/No. 25      July 10, 2017

 

25, 50 and 75 Years Ago

 

June 26, 1992

MORGANTOWN, West Virginia — Locked-out members of USWA Local 5668 have approved a three-year contract with Ravenswood Aluminum, ending a 19-month struggle to win their jobs back. The contract was approved by a vote of 1,287 to 181.

“We consider this a victory for unions everywhere,” said Johnny Lynch, a member of Local 5668 with 35 years experience at Ravenswood. “The company set out to bust this union and they did not succeed. We think this is a good contract except for the job combinations, but we can live with it. People are jubilant.”

After the announcement June 12, there was a celebration at the union hall, and picket shacks were dismantled. Gone also from the picket lines are the white vans with Vance security goons inside.

July 10, 1967

After spending two months talking with black GIs in Vietnam, Karl Purnell, former Pennsylvania state legislator, has concluded that “a new breed of impatient young men is going home, ready to provide shock troops for the civil rights movement.”

In an article in the July 3 Nation Purnell says that, “having been taught that it is possible to fight and even die for the cause of freedom, these veterans are coming home determined to receive fair and equal treatment.”

Purnell is critical of the many articles appearing in the press which claim that black GIs are critical of civil rights leaders who oppose the war. He says that “dissenters like Stokely Carmichael and Cassius Clay, who take such a verbal beating before the television cameras, are seen as heroes for their courage in fighting the white establishment.”

July 11, 1942

July 15, 1942, marks one year since the beginning of the Minneapolis case. On that date a Federal Grand Jury in St. Paul handed down an indictment against 29 leaders of the Socialist Workers Party and officials of Local 544-CIO, on charges of “seditious conspiracy” and violation of the Smith “Gag” Act.

Immediately after the indictment the Civil Rights Defense Committee was organized, and authorized to take charge of the defense in the case, publicize the important issues involved, and raise the funds necessary to defray the heavy court costs.

This week the CRDC announced that almost 150 central labor bodies and local unions representing over one million workers have in the last year rallied to the cause of the Minneapolis defendants by passing resolutions of support and sending financial aid.  
 
 
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