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Vol. 73/No. 14      April 13, 2009

 
25, 50 and 75 years ago
 
April 13, 1984
In a further escalation of U.S intervention in North Africa, Washington has rushed new military aid to the Sudanese government of Pres. Gaafar al-Nimeiry.

It has done so to bolster Nimeiry’s proimperialist regime against domestic opposition forces—including a resurgence of rebel actions in the south—as well as to threaten the government of Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi in neighboring Libya.

This stepped-up imperialist involvement in the Sudan fits in with a broader pattern of U.S. threats, provocations, and direct acts of aggression against Libya. The Sudan plays a strategic role in Washington’s interventionist plans in North Africa and the Middle East. The Nimeiry regime played a key role in backing the CIA-financed army in Chad and has made threats against Ethiopia.  
 
April 13, 1959
A top executive of a Maryland engineering company was fired from his job after Navy officials ruled him a “security risk.” The evidence officially cited against him included the secret testimony of an unnamed friend.

The justices of the Supreme Court reportedly smiled when they heard that this kind of “evidence” from faceless informers is used by government boards to screen workers out of their jobs. Under the federal security program, however, it can happen to any of three million workers in private plants holding government contracts.

The security program permits government bureaucrats to fire anyone they think might be associated with an organization arbitrarily branded as “subversive” by the Attorney General.  
 
April 14, 1934
On Saturday, April 7, the streets of Brownsville and East New York resounded to the march of 500 indignant unemployed workers. Most of them having been recently fired as a result of the discontinuation of the CWA [Civil Works Administration] dole agency. The demonstrators, enraged against the “New Deal” government and its hunger program, marched through the streets, shouting militantly for adequate relief, an anti-eviction law and unemployment insurance.

The demonstration having reached Loew’s Square, it halted and held an open air meeting, which was addressed by the delegates who were elected to visit the assemblymen and aldermen of the community. This demonstration was only the beginning of an extensive organizational campaign inaugurated by the Workers Unemployed Union.  
 
 
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