November 10, 1997
HOUSTON — Over 200 people gathered Oct. 5 at the University of Houston for the Che Guevara Commemoration Conference. The keynote speaker was Angela Davis, currently a professor in feminist and African American studies at the University of California. She called for people to embrace Che Guevara by fighting for the freedom of political prisoners throughout the world.
Steve Clark, managing editor of New International, emphasized the relevance of Che’s ideas and example. “What Che, who is inseparable from the Cuban revolution and its leadership, teaches us is that revolution is possible,” not only in the Third World but in the United States and other imperialist centers.
“To be a revolutionary today is to be like Che — to be part of the great army of working people that represents the way forward for humanity.”
November 10, 1972
NEW YORK — When schools opened on Sept. 11, local school officials barred 90 Black students from the Tilden Houses, a public housing project in Brooklyn’s Brownsville ghetto, from registering at Meyer Levin Junior High School. The officials of District 18 claimed that the admission of these 90 students would cause overcrowding in the school and “tip its racial balance,” which is now 50 percent Black.
Instead, they proposed that the children should be sent to Arthur S. Somers Junior High School. This school is 90 percent Black and Puerto Rican. The Tilden parents refused to accept this proposal. They rented a bus, and showed up at JHS 285 every morning, demanding that their children be admitted. Finally, on Oct. 13 the Tilden parents were allowed to register their children in integrated schools in District 18.
November 10, 1947
Nov. 5 — The powerful AFL Building Trades Council of Greater New York, representing several hundred thousand workers in 38 crafts, has unanimously restated its demand for a cost-of-living escalator wage clause in contracts now under negotiations with the Building Trades Employers Association. At their last meeting, it was disclosed yesterday, the Council delegates also unanimously rejected the employers’ counter-proposals for a 2-1/2-year wage freeze and imposition of a drastic speedup.
Union negotiators had proposed the cost-of-living escalator clause to stabilize real wages by providing automatic wage increases when living costs rise.
On Oct. 17, the employers rejected the union proposal. They refused any wage increases for a majority of the 38 trades and agreed to only small increases for 15 crafts.