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Vol. 74/No. 25      June 28, 2010

 
25, 50 and 75 years ago
 
July 5, 1985
PRICE, Utah—From June 21 to 23 women miners held one of their largest national conferences since they began meeting seven years ago. The event, held here at the College of Eastern Utah, was sponsored by the Coal Employment Project and the Coal Mining Women's Support Teams.

Registered at the conference were 192 people, and 250 in all attended at least some part of it. The majority of miners were coal miners and members of the United Mine Workers of America.

A conference resolution extended sympathy to the families of those killed in the Wilberg mine fire and pledged that everyone would work with renewed determination to "defend our right to a safe workplace… . Another Wilberg, caused by the greed of the coal barons, must not happen."  
 
July 4, 1960
Answering a question at a socialist street corner election rally, June 21, the speaker, a Negro, said: "I'm speaking here because I believe everyone should be free, regardless of the color of his skin. My brothers in the South aren't free, and neither am I here in New York."

The accuracy of the statement was verified an hour and a half later when the speaker, Robert Franklin, his brother John Clarence Franklin, and Cornelius Suares Jr., were arrested a few blocks from where the rally was held in Greenwich Village on a trumped-up charge of "disorderly conduct."

The three campaigners for the Socialist Workers party presidential ticket were accused of "using loud and boisterous language, collecting a crowd and refusing to move."  
 
July 6, 1935
As soon as Senator Wagner can get to Washington to participate personally in the ballyhoo connected with the attachment of Roosevelt's signature, the much touted Wagner Labor Disputes Bill will have become law.

Under this bill a National Labor Relations Board is to be set up to "enforce" collective bargaining, etc. Thus the way is paved for eventual greater control of government over the unions.

Under a capitalist government the basic concern of these government agencies is never that of enforcing the rights of the workers, but that of maintaining "industrial peace," in other words, preventing strikes or if they break out somehow, "settling" them, getting the workers back to work as quickly as possible.  
 
 
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