November 6, 2000
A major disaster has been unleashed in Eastern Kentucky as a result of the reckless profit drive of the coal mining barons. A 72-acre mine sludge pond broke Oct. 11 sending 250 million gallons of water and 155,000 cubic yards of coal wastes down two mine shafts and from there into two watersheds.
Workers plugged the hole after four and a half hours, preventing a larger catastrophe. In addition to coal dust, the slurry contains clay; heavy metals such as arsenic, mercury, lead, copper, and chromium; and other chemicals used in the preparation process.
There are 653 containment ponds like this in the U.S. The billionaires who own the coal companies should be held liable and foot the bill for cleaning up the mess and for doing whatever it takes to end the danger posed to coal miners, mining towns, as well as farmers and workers downstream.
November 7, 1975
NEW YORK — Retirement means loneliness, sickness and even hunger for many of New York’s elderly. In recent years they have found some comfort in the more than 150 senior citizens’ centers, which provide hot meals, courses, crafts and a place to meet friends. With the announcement of a $37 million cut in social services most or all of the centers are under threat of being shut down.
On Oct. 22 an estimated 10,000 to 15,000 older people rallied near city hall to protest the cuts. Affected centers sent busloads of participants to the noon rally, which was called on only three days’ notice.
Retirees face attacks on their living standards and dignity from other quarters. Just two days before the rally by New York’s elderly, the Ford administration introduced a bill in Congress to gut the food stamp program altogether.
November 6, 1950
The attempted assassination of President Truman by Puerto Rican nationalists on Nov. 1 focused worldwide attention on the biggest uprising in Puerto Rico since the U.S. grabbed it from Spain some fifty years ago.
American monopolists have a stranglehold on the island’s economy where all but a tiny minority there live in grinding poverty. It is the inalienable right of the Puerto Ricans to be free and independent.
The nationalist revolt is an uprising among an oppressed colonial people. Puerto Rico is a typical colony. After more than fifty years of American rule, the movement for independence has gained steady among the Puerto Ricans. The American imperialists have no right whatever to dictate their fate and keep them in subjection. Let the Puerto Ricans themselves decide.