March 20, 2000
PITTSBURGH — The first Steelworkers union International Women’s Conference here was marked by women who are part of the struggles of working people across North America. Total participation was nearly 800.
“USWA Women in Action — Solidarity and Leadership” was the official theme. When locked-out workers from Kaiser Aluminum, AK Steel and Scottsboro Aluminum were introduced, they received an ovation.
These women brought a fighting spirit and a real air of enthusiasm to the conference. Many workers involved in struggles against company lockouts spoke up.
“The lock-out woke me up,” Jody Wiesocki, from Kaiser in Spokane, told the meeting. “It has been the best education of a lifetime. I’m having the best time of my whole life.”
March 21, 1975
Year after year, administration after administration, lie after lie, the U.S. government has pursued its savage onslaught against the people of Indochina. And if President Gerald Ford has anything to say about it, the killing will go on. Four million casualties and 10 million refugees may not be too much for Kissinger and Ford, but the American people have had enough.
While capitalist politicians talked about saving the Indochinese from “terror and repression,” U.S. troops carried out massacres and the Saigon dictatorship imprisoned and tortured hundreds of thousands.
The revulsion of the American people at the ruthless slaughter on behalf of the most corrupt and dictatorial regimes eventually forced Nixon to withdraw the U.S. combat forces. The continued power of the antiwar sentiment in the U.S. has put the imperialists in a bind.
March 20, 1950
BERKELEY, Cal., March 8 — A storm of opposition has broken out on the campus here against the ultimatum issued by the Regents of the University of California to 11,000 employees to sign a special “non-communist” oath of “loyalty” or face dismissal.
Yesterday 900 professors met here and voted unanimously to refuse to sign the oath even if it cost them their jobs. A group of non-tenure faculty members voted 300 to 1 to strike if any member of the group is fired for refusal to take the oath. Their lack of tenure means they can be fired any time.
Anti-oath sentiment had been seething for months but the explosion did not take place until the regents voted that any employee who does not take the oath “will be deemed to have severed his connection with the university.” They took this action after 1,400 had failed to sign the oath affidavit.