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Vol. 74/No. 8      March 1, 2010

 
25, 50 and 75 years ago
 
March 1, 1985
The South African government has launched yet another brutal wave of repression against that country’s Blacks and other opponents of apartheid rule. On February 19, South African cops arrested six leaders of the United Democratic Front (UDF) and carried out predawn raids in Johannesburg, Cape Town, and Durban. In addition to raiding UDF offices, they ransacked offices of trade unions, and church and community groups.

The apartheid regime is trying to crush all opposition to its rule. For many months there have been growing anti-apartheid mobilizations within South Africa, including a massive general strike last November organized by member organizations of the UDF.  
 
February 29, 1960
Sit-down demonstrations by Southern Negro students against lily-white lunch counters are continuing despite increased racist violence and the “get tough” policy of state officials.

The courageous young fighters against Jim Crow are devising effective countermeasures to meet the officially recommended tactic of arresting demonstrators for “trespassing” in the stores. Moreover, the students are taking the initial steps to coordinate the demonstrations which in a month have spread into five southeastern states.

Through the pattern of increasing violence by white teenagers run indications of adult incitement along with a secret (and sometimes not so secret) toleration or encouragement by police and other officials.  
 
March 2, 1935
It is easier to understand the Roosevelt legislative program of 1935 than it was to understand the programs of 1933 and 1934. The New Deal is intellectually bankrupt.

The proposed Work Relief bill represents the scrapping of the high wage, mass purchasing power pretense of the NRA [National Recovery Administration]. The government, under the guise of carrying forward public works, intends to drive building trades wages down to the level of $50 a month. It does so in the conviction that what holds back revival in the capital goods industries is high labor costs. The answer: deflate wages upon the pretense of giving work (which is a moral “tonic”) rather than the dole (which is a moral “dope”) to the unemployed.  
 
 
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