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    Vol.61/No.10           March 10, 1997 
 
 
25 And 50 Years Ago  
March 10, 1972
Over a hundred Iranian students attending various European universities gathered at the University of Paris campus to begin a hunger strike on February 14, according to a report received on February 19 by Intercontinental Press.

A group of twenty students conducted a simultaneous hunger strike in Washington, D.C.; a forty-eight-hour vigil was held in San Francisco; and a protest meeting was held in Chicago.

These actions are part of a world-wide campaign organized by the Confederation of Iranian Students to protest the harsh sentences rapidly being meted out to opponents of the military regime in Iran. The confederation is demanding that the death sentences be rescinded and that the Iranian government permit lawyers and physicians from other countries to visit the prisoners.

The Iranian students in Washington disclosed that a military court has sentenced the following persons to death: Naser Sadeg, Mohammad Bazergani, Masoud Rajavi, and Ali Mihandoust.

The four are part of a group of eleven prisoners whose trial started on February 14 in Teheran. According to the February 15 air edition of the semiofficial Teheran daily Ettelaat, charges against them include hijacking an airplane, attempting to kidnap the shah's nephew and killing workers who had come to his aid, producing explosives, and establishing contacts with the Confederation of Iranian Students and the Iraqi regime.

A trial involving 143 persons is under way, according to the Paris daily Le Monde of February 8. There has been no mention of this in the Iranian press.

March 8, 1947
BUFFALO, N.Y., March 3 - The biggest teachers strike in American history ended today when the Buffalo Teachers Federation (independent) accepted Mayor Dowd's proposal for salary increases of $300 to $625 annually to start this July 1. Eighty per cent of the teachers will get the top increases. Minimum salaries will be $2,200 for elementary teachers and $2,500 for high school teachers, with maximums of $3,200 and $3,600.

This settlement represents a compromise on the original demands of the Buffalo teachers for a general raise of $1,025 a year with a $2,400 salary minimum. However, under Governor Dewey's proposed teachers salary schedule, wage increases would not begin until July 1948. Buffalo teachers will get raises a year sooner.

The Buffalo Teachers Federation, representing the majority of teachers here began its scheduled strike on February 24, a week ago. Prior to and during the strike they were subjected to a constant barrage of intimidation from the Board of Education and reactionary press.

The AFL Teachers Union, with some representation among the teachers at first opposed calling a strike after William Green had stated his opposition. It was forced by the strong sentiment of the teachers to reverse its stand the day before the strike and to give it full support. The CIO Teachers Union supported the strike from the beginning.

The whole working class of Buffalo an open-shop town ten years ago, backed the strike. AFL truckdrivers refused to deliver coal to the schools.  
 
 
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