25, 50 and 75 Years Ago

May 21, 2018

May 24, 1993

PENSACOLA, Florida — Chanting “We won’t back down” and “Choice Now,” more than 2,000 people marched through Pensacola May 8 to support abortion rights and protest the murder of Dr. David Gunn, who was killed outside a clinic in this city March 10. Joining the large number of Pensacola residents and people from small towns in the surrounding area, were marchers from Tallahassee, Tampa, and Gainesville, Florida and Atlanta, and Birmingham.

Signs of the march, called by the National Organization for Women, said “Pensacola is pro-choice.” “Abortion is legal, shooting doctors is not.”

Among those speaking at the rally was Gunn’s daughter, Wendy, a high school senior. “The government has put women’s rights on a blacklist,” she said. “But we won’t go back.”

May 24, 1968

The giant demonstration of 1,000,000 workers, students and teachers in Paris May 13 has touched off a political crisis in France that may well spell the beginning of the end for the de Gaulle regime.

The sudden turn in the political situation in France has incalculable consequences not only for that country but for all of Europe, including the East European countries and the Soviet Union. By rallying to the side of the beleaguered students and advancing their own demands, the French workers have given new impetus to the student movement throughout the world. It has been shown in life how it is possible to bring into action the mightiest of all social forces, the working class — and despite the restraining influence of an ossified labor bureaucracy.

May 22, 1943

The growing gap between the great mass of the CIO workers and their top officials has been demonstrated in their contrasting attitudes toward the miners’ fight.

The workers are for the miners. The attitude was shown in the two big conferences of the United Auto Workers — the May 1-2 conference in Detroit of 1,000 delegates representing 350,000 Michigan members, and the May 6 conference in New York of 1,000 delegates representing all the eastern locals. Both by overwhelming majorities — only a handful of Stalinists in each case were the main opposition from the floor — adopted resolutions for all-out support of the miners’ fight. Moreover, this was voted against the opposition of the entire UAW executive board!