April 19, 1999
NEWPORT NEWS, Virginia — Nearly 9,000 workers, most of them members of United Steelworkers of America Local 8888, went on strike against the largest U.S. military shipyard here April 5. Night shift workers who came out of the gates at 12:01 a.m. were greeted by hundreds of cheering co-workers, chanting, “88, Close the Gate!” and “What do we want? A contract!”
The strike deadline passed with the company refusing to budge. The last raise workers got was in 1993. In 1995 the union took a concession contract, with a wage freeze, giving up holidays and vacation days.
In 1979 workers conducted a strike to win a first contract, after gaining recognition of the USWA and ousting a company union. Many strikers point to the unity forged among Black and white workers during that strike. Brian Ribblett, a welder, carried his picket sign from the 1979 strike.
April 19, 1974
The House of Representatives voted April 1 against cutting off appropriations to the House Internal Security Committee (HISC). This red-baiting committee, the successor to the notorious House Un-American Activities Committee, is attempting to justify its violations of civil liberties with the charge of terrorism.
Groups charged with not meeting standards of political purity included the Communist Party, the Socialist Workers Party, the Black Panther Party, the United Prisoners Union, the National Emergency Civil Liberties Committee, Students for a Democratic Society, Vietnam Veterans Against the War, the National Committee Against Repressive Legislation, and others.
HISC maintains files on more than 750,000 people. It was freely admitted that these files are used by both government agencies and private corporations for screening job applicants.
April 18, 1949
The “democratic” governments of the United States, Britain and France have finally told their collaborators in Western Germany what sort of “democratic federal republic” they must set up. The supreme power is to be wielded by three civilian Allied High Commissioners. The occupying forces are to remain, with the sanction of the “new constitution.”
Western Germany will have no say over either foreign policy or foreign trade. In brief, Western Germany will not be accorded even the status of a puppet state.
The German people can find their road to salvation only if they are left free to decide for themselves what kind of government and social order they wish to set up. The precondition for this is the removal of all foreign troops—not only the occupation troops in the joint U.S.-British zone and French zone, but also the Kremlin’s armies in Eastern Germany.