August 5, 1977
CHICAGO--Hundreds of white racists went on the rampage in the Marquette Park area of this city July 24. They attacked Black passersby, threw rocks and beer cans at Black motorists, and overturned cars.

The racists gathered near a park to wait for an open-housing demonstration called by the Martin Luther King Movement Coalition. The demonstration, which began about a mile-and-a-half from where the racists assembled, was broken up by police after it had proceeded only six blocks.

Although the forty Black demonstrators were orderly and peaceful, police arrested three marchers, claiming the march was "disorderly."

Meanwhile, mobs of racists near the park began random attacks on Blacks. Nineteen people were treated in nearby hospitals, most of them hurt by flying rocks and bottles. Ten cars and a city bus were damaged.

One Black couple driving through the area crashed into an oncoming car while trying to flee the racists. Police pulled them out of their car and took them away. Later, racist youths turned over the car.

Several Black youths fled into a nearby home after they were attacked. Their car was demolished.

The Marquette Park area has been the scene of violent attacks on Blacks for the past several years. Homes of Black families have been bombed and burned by racists. Black bus drivers, passersby, and motorists have been attacked. Marchers demonstrating a year ago for open housing were assaulted by racist mobs while police stood by.  
 
August 4, 1952
The following is the full text of a speech delivered by Farrell Dobbs, Socialist Workers Party candidate for President of the United States, over NBC-TV, July 27, 1952. Candidate Dobbs was introduced by George Clarke, SWP Campaign Manager:

In introducing me Mr. Clarke referred to my background as a union organizer. You may be interested to know why I left union work to enter politics. It’s a simple story.

Time and again I participated in union organization campaigns and walked picket lines with my fellow workers to win improved wages and working conditions. Time and again I saw these gains undermined at a single stroke by the Democratic and Republican political agents of the employers in government.

We built strong unions with the power to win improved wages and then the capitalists politicians in Washington slapped a wage freeze on the workers. We built strong unions that had the power to represent the members on the job and the capitalists politicians slapped on the Taft-Hartley Act, restricting the right to strike and legalizing outside intervention in the unions.

I became convinced that the workers needed their own representatives in government and their own Independent Labor Party to elect them. I looked around for an honest party of the working people and found it in the Socialist Workers Party. I joined the SWP to help work for independent labor political action and I have proudly accepted nomination as the presidential candidate of the Socialist Workers Party to urge that policy be adopted by all the American working people.  
 
 
Front page (for this issue) | Home | Text-version home