December 28, 1998
We urge all working people to join in campaigning against the murderous, imperial assault Washington has unleashed against the people of Iraq, demanding, “Stop the bombing now! Hands off Iraq! All U.S. troops and inspectors out of the Mideast!”
The Clinton administration’s professed concern over Baghdad’s supposed “weapons of mass destruction” is pure hypocrisy. Washington is the only power ever to use nuclear weapons, killing hundreds of thousands in the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The U.S. rulers have used chemical and biological weapons against the peoples of Korea, Vietnam, Cuba and other countries.
On top of the 150,000 Iraqis slaughtered in the Gulf war, Washington is responsible for the deaths of more than 1 million more, as a result of the unrelenting sanctions the U.S. government has spearheaded in the years since.
December 28, 1973
The Militant receives many letters from prisoners all over the country. This week we’re turning the entire letters column over to our prisoner readers. A growing numbers subscribe. Many cannot afford to pay. In such cases we send complimentary subscriptions.
The prisoners are by far the most exploited workers in America. By today’s standards the prisoners have become the new “slaves” of America. Low wages, medium working conditions, poor housing, and inadequate medical care.
Nowhere in America is the pay scale so low and the profit so high. The men are required to work a full 40 hours per week. Hourly wages are from 21 cents to 51 cents — yet each man produces in goods and services $12,000 per year.
We must have a hand in shaping our destiny. They have tried and failed. We are only asking to be treated as humans.
A prisoner,
Georgia
December 27, 1948
The Truman Administration is drafting a bill to “tighten” the Espionage Act of 1917. It was under the Espionage Act that thousands of anti-war socialists and labor leaders, including Eugene V. Debs, were railroaded to prison in World War I.
The chief revision would eliminate that section which now requires “proof of intention and motive.” This provision is especially designed to regularize and legalize the methods of Truman’s “loyalty” purge and “subversive” blacklist, under which individuals and organizations are accused and victimized without a fair and open hearing, the right to confront and cross examine their accusers or to examine the “evidence” against them.
The Truman Administration also proposes to drastically limit the statute of limitations which now bars prosecution for alleged illegal acts three years after their commission.