December 20, 1999
The struggle to get the U.S. Navy out of the island of Vieques has given a powerful boost to the fight to end Puerto Rico’s colonial subjugation to Washington — the root of the problem. The massive desire among workers, farmers, fishermen, and young people for the Navy to leave Vieques is a part of the growing anti-colonial sentiment.
The struggle for Puerto Rico’s sovereignty strengthens resistance to U.S. imperialism. The common enemy of the Puerto Rican people and workers and farmers in the U.S. is Washington. Those fighting to get the Navy out of Vieques should oppose U.S. military and other imperialist interventions around the world.
The independence movement has taken the moral high ground, playing a leading role in this struggle and gaining in attractiveness. Not one more bomb! U.S. Navy out of Vieques! Independence for Puerto Rico!
December 20, 1974
LONDON — Lord Widgery, “Lord Chief Justice,” turned down appeals brought by two building workers, Des Warren and Eric Tomlinson, against jail sentences meted out by a court in Shrewsbury last year. Widgery’s judgment put the Shrewsbury Two back in jail for the “crime” of picketing during the 1972 building workers’ strike.
The strike had provoked the ruling class’s ire because of the militant methods of struggle employed by the strikers. Flying pickets travelled from one building site to another, spreading the strike all over the country. The determination of the rank and file won a 20 percent wage rise. The victories prompted the government to try to clamp down on strike picketing.
Thousands of Liverpool building workers shut down building sites after Widgery’s ruling. In London thirty sites stopped work. One-day strikes were held in Scotland.
December 19, 1949
The “loyalty” purge and “subversive” blacklist have become a major threat to the job security of workers in private industry. This menace has reached the point where employers have begun to demand clauses in union contracts permitting them to fire unionists on political grounds.
An ominous example of this development came to light last week when 2,800 unionists at a meeting of CIO United Auto Workers Local 669, which represents some 5,000 workers at the Wright Aeronautical Corporation plant near Paterson, N.J., indignantly and unanimously rejected a contract in which the company had inserted a clause giving management the right to fire any workers it accused of belonging to a “subversive” organization whose alleged aim is violent overthrow of the government.
Stop the witch hunt inside the unions!