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Vol. 73/No. 25      June 29, 2009

 
25, 50 and 75 years ago
 
July 6, 1984
On June 22, 12,000 coal miners marched through the streets of Pontefract, Yorkshire, for the funeral of Joe Green, killed on picket duty by a truck delivering parts to a local power station. The striking miners are involved in a bloody war with the Conservative (Tory) government of British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. The National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) is striking against British government plans to close scores of mines and throw tens of thousands of miners permanently out of work.

The miners have been confronted with tens of thousands of police, drafted from all over the country. It is suspected that soldiers are being deployed in police uniforms.

The NUM recognizes the big stakes in its fight against mine closures. Its answer to British government strike-breaking is to appeal for the maximum solidarity from the rest of the union movement.  
 
July 6, 1959
Since the beginning of World War II in 1939 there has been an almost steady rise in prices. From the first, this rise has been blamed on the workers. Their struggle for higher wages to try to keep abreast of soaring living costs has been used as the whipping boy for the price gouging by the manufacturers, merchants and landlords. Whenever the steel workers, for instance, have managed to catch up a bit on rocketing living costs, the steel barons have used this as a pretext to hike their prices. For every additional dollar they have had to pay out in wages they have snatched three dollars more in price rises.

The monopolists have been telling us for decades that the rises in productivity and the improvements in mass production guarantee a decline in prices. Now we are informed that manufacturers have built-in guarantees of price increases regardless of improvements in productivity.  
 
July 7, 1934
Another general strike of truck drivers under the leadership of the indomitable Local 574 looms in Minneapolis.

After the crushing defeat they suffered at the hands of organized labor in the first drivers’ strike the bosses are now trying to recoup their losses in an effort to swindle the workers out of the wage increases which were taken for granted at the conclusion of the last strike.

The employers, violating the terms of the agreement, have refused to arbitrate the question of wages and working conditions with the representatives of the union. The open shop bosses have issued half page paid ads to the press, lying about the facts and charging the union with the responsibility for the impending strike.

But Local 574 will not be cheated out of the rightful gains they so victoriously won in the recent strike. They have accepted the challenge and hurled back the answer.

The answer is FIGHT!  
 
 
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