January 12, 1998
The recent actions by immigration authorities seizing hundreds of workers at factories in Georgia for deportations deserve condemnation. These arrests are aimed at dividing working people and intimidating undocumented workers who try to resist the bosses’ attacks on their rights and working conditions. The big-business media made a big fuss about the breakup of an “alien-smuggling hiring ring” that brought Mexican workers to garment shops in Georgia and Alabama.
The denial of rights to a layer of the working class dubbed “illegal” helps the bosses to superexploit those workers in particular and hold down wages for all.
Working people should demand equal rights for all immigrants, the release of those detained, and no deportations. The labor movement should fight for solidarity with those from other countries, not scapegoating immigrants.
January 12, 1973
SAN DIEGO, Jan. 2 — The first court martial of a Black sailor from the USS Kitty Hawk on charges stemming from an incident last October ended today. Hiram Davis, 20, was convicted on the charge of unlawful apprehension.
Davis’ conviction is consistent with the Navy’s racist practices. At a press conference called by the Black Serviceman’s Caucus, a group organized to combat racism in the Navy, three of the sailors charged with riot and assault gave some examples of what Blacks have to live with within the Navy. Black sailors are usually assigned to work in “the hole.” Blacks are never allowed to congregate in groups of more than two or three.
“You get more hardship in the Navy than on the streets. You’re called ‘boy’ and ‘dog.’ We stand up and voice our opinion. It’s time for the world to know what all brothers and sisters want.”
January 12, 1948
The Truman administration has dragged this country to the verge of undeclared war against the Greek people. U.S. Fleet marines are being dispatched to the Mediterranean area to reinforce American armed forces already in Greek waters and threatening direct intervention in the Greek civil war. Since last March the U.S. government has been pouring military supplies and arms into Greece.
Premier Sophoulis — whose regime has suppressed all opposition parties and papers, thrown tens of thousands of rebellious workers and soldiers into prison horror camps and imposed a death penalty for strikers — hailed the latest move of Washington as “encouraging.”
The implication is clear. Wall Street is using warships, planes and marines to intimidate all opposition to the reactionary regimes it maintains in Europe with the taxes of the American people.