May 22, 2000
U.S. Navy warplanes resumed bombing practice on Vieques May 8, in a demonstrative show of force to try to intimidate those who have been fighting to get the U.S. military out of that Puerto Rican island. This action followed the U.S. government raid of Vieques four days earlier by 300 U.S. Marshals and FBI agents, backed up by 1,200 Marines, who detained and evicted more than 200 protesters encamped on Puerto Rican land used by the U.S. Navy as a bombing range.
The raid and the renewed war training, however, sparked a wave of protest actions throughout Puerto Rico and demonstrations in numerous U.S. cities.
Thousands of people have engaged in demonstrations, picket lines, speakouts, and other protests around Puerto Rico. Nearly 5,000 members of the electrical workers union, UTIER, held a four-hour strike to protest the crackdown.
May 23, 1975
NEW YORK — One thousand spirited demonstrators turned out in New York City May 10 in an enthusiastic show of support for the embattled United Farm Workers. The march was supported by the New York-area AFL-CIO and most of its affiliated unions. One speaker after another stressed the importance of redoubling the efforts to spread the boycott of all non-UFW grapes and lettuce and Gallo wines.
This protest was one of several recently held across the country in support of the UFW boycott of scab lettuce, grapes, and wines.
SAN FRANCISCO — Close to a thousand people heard Cesar Chavez speak at California State University at San Francisco on May 2. His speech was the culmination of “Boycott Gallo Week” on the campus. The week had been kicked off with an April 29 rally of 350 people, followed on subsequent days by films and seminars.
May 22, 1950
DETROIT — The Sojourner Truth housing project of 200 family units is marked as the next victim of the professional Negro haters. The Seven Mile-Fenelon Improvement Association — landlords, real estate sharks, KKK and other fascistic elements — is the same gang that organized and led the mass riots and violence against admittance of Negro tenants to the newly-built housing project in 1942.
But the Negro people broke through the iron curtain of government conspiracy in 1942. They won that fight by their policy of militant mass action — demonstrating their determination to win.
They then attracted the support of all labor and liberal organizations and forced federal and local government agencies to reverse their Jim Crow policies. The same militant tactics can beat back this latest threat.