May 14, 2001
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — The decision of the U.S. Navy to resume its military exercises and bombings on the Puerto Rican island of Vieques has touched off protests in Puerto Rico, in the United States, and as far away as Italy. Thousands of people rallied at the capitol here April 26. Since World War II, Washington has used the island as a training base until recent protests forced the government to make some concessions.
Following the protests, Martina Rodríguez from the University of Puerto Rico in San Juan told the New York Times, “This is the Vietnam of my generation. We want to stop the mayhem.”
Farrique Pesquera, who supports independence for Puerto Rico, added that people “have been brainwashed to think that they can’t survive without America, that all our air comes from the north. Struggles like this one will change that.”
May 14, 1976
WASHINGTON — Prompted by the NAACP’s support for Black rights in the navy, the FBI began a spying operation on the civil rights group in 1941 the government admits continued for twenty-five years. These details were made public by the Senate Intelligence Committee in its final report.
The report also summarized operations against numerous other groups, including the Socialist Workers party, the Business Executives Move for Peace, National Organization for Women, and the Communist party.
The FBI began choosing sides against the NAACP near the end of 1940. Europe was embroiled in World War II, and President Franklin Roosevelt was carefully preparing the United States’ entry. Begun ostensibly to determine if there was “Communist infiltration” of the group, it continued and escalated, even after informers attested to the “anti-communism” of the NAACP.
May 15, 1951
“The political climate has changed.” This observation by Grace Carlson, Vice-Presidential candidate of the Socialist Workers Party in the 1948 elections, is the first general conclusion from the current campaign to increase the circulation of The Militant.
During the height of the Truman witch-hunt, workers felt intimidated. Now things are changing. Workers are irritated by mounting prices and taxes, worried over the growing danger of atomic war and outraged at Truman’s insistence on continuing the slaughter in Korea. People are beginning to think that it’s time to do a little housecleaning in Washington. There’s increased willingness to listen to the program of socialism.
“It has been very easy indeed to obtain renewals to The Militant even from workers who declined to renew their subscriptions a few months ago,” Carlson said.