Vol. 81/No. 29      August 7, 2017

 

25, 50 and 75 Years Ago

 

July 31, 1992

RAVENSWOOD, West Virginia — The 20-month-long lockout by Ravenswood Aluminum Corp. of 1,700 members of United Steelworkers of America (USWA) Local 5668 ended June 29. The company spent millions of dollars in its unsuccessful effort to bust the union.

By going back with the union intact, Local 5668, the Women’s Support Group, and their supporters won a significant victory. The workers won by remaining united — less than 20 unionists crossed the picketline — and reaching out to working people around the world.

They leafleted from Wall Street to the Metal Exchange in London. The United Mine Workers organized bucket collections at mine bath houses and in mining communities.

August 7, 1967

The Detroit rebellion exerted a power over the workings of the city which has not been matched by any previous ghetto revolts. Due to the character of Detroit’s living conditions, it wasn’t just a tightly contained black ghetto that blew up. The whole city went.

Businesses and banks were closed, transportation and communication disrupted, mail halted, schools and universities shut down, downtown was a ghost town. Communities were put under the state of emergency provisions. In order to subdue the ghetto guerrillas, 20,000 police and soldiers had to occupy the whole city. It was like Vietnam with an occupation army trying to pacify the population.

August 8, 1942

The Executive Committee of the All-India Congress Party will meet to act on the resolution adopted July 14. This resolution demands that “British rule in India must end immediately” and it proposes to achieve independence through another campaign of “civil disobedience.”

The passage of this resolution might well lead to an immediate showdown in India. London has promised to crush in blood all manifestations of struggle for Indian independence.

In the grave crisis of British imperialism, the Indian masses sense and see an unprecedented opportunity to gain their freedom. They want to seize this opportunity to realize their aspirations and dreams of the past two centuries.  
 
 
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