January 31, 1994
Washington’s and London’s callous and calculated cover-up of the causes behind the bleeding gums, diarrhea, and depression suffered by thousands of veterans of the U.S.-led war against Iraq shows the brutal disregard of capitalist politicians for the lives and well-being of working people.
The latest snow job by the White House is part and parcel of the monstrous slaughter Washington and its allies carried out against the Iraqi people in 1991. At least 150,000 Iraqis were killed during the so-called Desert Storm. Tens of thousands more have died since as a result of a brutal embargo.
Now Washington tries to blame Baghdad for the scandal. But the fact that thousands of Gulf War vets were exposed to toxic substances without their knowledge and then lied to and denied medical care for almost three years cannot be laid at the feet of the Iraqi regime.
January 31, 1969
WASHINGTON, D.C. — When Derrick Alexander was wounded in Vietnam last November, he made up his mind to do whatever he could to end the war when he got back to the States, but he didn’t know just what to do.
A month later Alexander was shipped to Walter Reade Hospital in Washington. Listening to the news one night last week, he heard about the weekend antiwar mobilization. He decided to get out of his hospital bed to attend it.
His presence expressed the developing unity of GI and civilian antiwar activists, which was strongly reflected at the “counterinaugural” weekend.
Alexander took part in the GI workshop at the mobilization conference and spoke briefly at the rally preceding the “counterinaugural” march Jan. 19. Along with other active-duty GIs, Alexander led that march of 12,000 down Pennsylvania Ave. to the Capitol area.
January 29, 1944
Anti-Semitic attacks are on the increase. From New York, Boston, Baltimore and elsewhere come reports of beatings and knifings of Jews by Christian Fronters and other hoodlums. Instead of protecting the victims of these assaults, the police shield their attackers or remain indifferent to them.
The Los Angeles labor movement has provided an example of working class action against anti-Semitism, which is worth more than a thousand appeals to capitalist politicians. When a Jew-baiting gang in Douglas Aircraft Co’s Santa Monica plant circulated a filthy anti-Semitic leaflet, the UAW-CIO local immediately set to work to stop this poisonous propaganda. It drew up and distributed among its members a counter petition pointing out the evils of racial hatred and calling for unity of all union members against anti-Jewish and anti-Negro attacks.