The Militant (logo)  
   Vol. 70/No. 49           December 25, 2006  
 
 
25, 50 and 75 years ago
 
December 25, 1981
On December 13, the Polish government—in an unprecedented and ruthless move designed to break the independent union, Solidarity, and roll back the gains made by the working class in the last sixteen months—imposed martial law on the country.

Prime Minister and Communist Party chief General Wojciech Jaruzelski appointed a Military Council for National Salvation, composed of twenty-one top-ranking officers, to administer the government and industry until the “crisis” is over and “discipline” reestablished.

Under military regulations, all strikes and political gatherings are banned. An evening curfew is in effect, and troops and security police are patrolling the streets. All individuals must carry identity papers. Gasoline sales for private use are prohibited. Distribution of leaflets and unauthorized newspapers is forbidden.  
 
December 24, 1956
Last week we reported the Drew Pearson television interview with a Klansman which revealed that the Ku Klux Klan is arming and organizing to maintain segregation in the South by violence and intimidation, and that they are infiltrating local law enforcement agencies and utilizing churches for their purposes.

Within the past month in Clinton, Tenn., Paul Turner, a young white minister was beaten up for escorting Negro children to school, and six miles away the Negro section of Oliver Springs was rocked by an explosive reportedly thrown from a moving car. In Montgomery, Ala., a Negro cab driver was clubbed to death by police for allegedly “resisting arrest” and another Negro was shot by a policeman who said the man “advanced” on him carrying a loaded shotgun.  
 
December 26, 1931
Today we are witnessing in Germany a regime barely short of Fascism, comparable only to the most desperate wartime administration among the bourgeois governments. By official decree, the wages of the workers are cut ten percent, prices are submitted to regulation by a dictator appointed to this office, interest rates are reduced, etc., etc. Needless to say only the wage-cut decree actually remains effective. There is no tool so pliant in carrying out the orders of the Bruening Government as the reformist betrayers in the Trade Unions.

Police force and war ministry are united in the hands of one of Germany’s “strong men,” the Hohenzollern General Groener. Street meetings are prohibited. Indoor political meetings can only take place in the presence of an “officer of the Law.”  
 
 
Front page (for this issue) | Home | Text-version home