August 25, 1997
HAVANA — Tens of thousands of young people filled the Panamerican stadium here August 5 for the closing ceremony of the 14th World Festival of Youth and Students. Among them were most of the 12,335 delegates from 132 countries who participated in the international youth gathering.
The final declaration of the festival called on young people to support all struggles against colonialism, demand the cancellation of the foreign debt of third world countries, and campaign “for the lifting of the U.S. blockade against Cuba.”
The largest participation outside the Cuban delegation came from the United States followed by Argentina and Mexico. Sizable delegations came from most countries in Western Europe. Participation was lighter from Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Republics. Among the largest delegations from the African continent was South Africa.
August 11, 1972
At 8:15 a.m. on Aug. 6, 1945, the United States ushered in the age of atomic power by dropping the first atomic bomb on the 344,000 people of Hiroshima. According to the Japanese government, the bomb killed approximately a quarter-million people.
Three days after the destruction of Hiroshima, the U.S. dropped the second bomb. This time Nagasaki was hit. “Results were good,” said the general in charge. Seventy-three thousand died. U.S. officials were well aware that Japan’s surrender was at most a matter of months away, regardless of any invasion.
The bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki represented the opening salvo of the cold war. Today, 27 years after the bombing, U.S. imperialism is adding untold thousands of Vietnamese, Laotians, and Cambodians to the list of those who have died as a result of its drive to dominate Asia.
August 25, 1947
CLINTON , Mich. — This town of 1,200 people was awakened Aug. 13 by the battle between capital and labor. The powerful might of United Automobile Workers fell with telling weight on the strikebreaking attempts of the Clinton Machine Company.
About 1,000 union flying squadron members and pickets from Detroit and Toledo rushed to the aid of Clinton strikers after the company president mobilized a mob of strikebreakers last Monday and violently smashed through a picket line. Today’s mass demonstration of labor solidarity by experienced militants stopped dead the attempted herding of scabs into the plant.
The 900 strikers are battling for a 15-cent hourly raise and contract protection against the Taft-Hartley Slave Labor Law. The union men held the picket line firm against the attempts of company stooges to break through by violence.