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    Vol.59/No.23           June 12, 1995 
 
 
25 And 50 Years Ago  
SAN FRANCISCO, May 30 - The first Chicano Moratorium in Northern California was held here today. It was the largest demonstration of Chicanos and Latinos ever held in San Francisco. Starting in Garfield Park, about 1,500 marched to the Mission Dolores Park. The march visibly grew as it passed through the Chicano and Latino community in the San Francisco Mission District.

Banners from various organizations called for "Self- determination in Vietnam and at Home," "U.S. Fuera de Indochina," and "Bring the Carnales [Brothers] Home Now!"

The spirited and predominantly Chicano and Latino demonstrators repeatedly chanted "Raza Sí"! Guerra No!" They were received by the onlookers with interest and signs of solidarity. The call leaflet for the Chicano Moratorium stated that, "Over 8,000 brothers of La Raza have fallen in Indochina. Ya Basta! We must protest the squandering of our people's lives. Our struggle for equality and justice is at home."

June 9, 1945

PITTSBURGH, Pa., June 4 - William Patterson, 40-year old union coal digger from tiny company-owned Daisytown, 50 miles south of here, is the first American worker to be imprisoned under the infamous Smith-Connally anti-strike law.

Last Saturday this loyal union man, who has spent the past 17 years toiling down in the dark and deadly dangers of Vesta No. 4, world's largest soft coal mine owned by Jones and Laughlin Steel Corp., was thrust into the county prison at Uniontown, Pa. Snatched without warning from his wife and two children, he was condemned to six months behind bars.

Patterson was railroaded to prison last week on the technical charge of violating his probation, after the original conviction and suspended sentence imposed on him and 26 other union miners of this area in the August 1943 trial for alleged violation of the Smith-Connally Act.

They participated in the general mine strike that summer which was used as the pretext for pushing through the anti- strike law. On the advice of their legal counsel, they had been persuaded not to contest the charge. The government secured a conviction and, above all, a precedent.

 
 
 
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