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Vol. 76/No. 47      December 24, 2012

 
25, 50 and 75 years ago
 

December 25, 1987

Responding to murderous repression by Israeli occupation forces, Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and West Bank are fighting back on an unprecedented scale.

In Gaza, the United Nations relief director described the situation as “a popular uprising.” He said every town and refugee camp in the area was affected by the mounting rebellion.

The current wave of demonstrations were touched off when an Israeli army semitrailer truck slammed into two vans carrying Palestinian laborers, killing four and injuring seven.

General strikes have gripped Gaza City and the main towns of the West Bank. Those who commute to jobs in Israel have stayed home.

The military rules the territories with an iron fist. Palestinians have virtually no rights. There is detention without trial and arbitrary deportations into exile. Palestinian land is subject to seizure, strikes and demonstrations are illegal.

December 24, 1962

An urgent campaign to free a young Negro, who was framed up and sent to the Mississippi State Penitentiary for attempting to enroll at lily-white Mississippi Southern University, has been launched by the Student Non-violent Coordinating Committee.

Clyde Kennard, 33, the frame-up victim, has already been in prison almost two years. His case occurred before James Meredith’s success in breaking the color bar at the University of Mississippi attracted world attention. After finishing three years at the University of Chicago, Kennard applied for admission to MSU. In the fall of 1959, upon returning to his auto after an interview with the MSU president and another state official, he was arrested for reckless driving. At the station a charge of illegal possession of liquor was added. Since he neither smokes nor drinks, the “finding” of liquor in his car was an obvious frame-up.

December 25, 1937

Complete victory on December 13 over the wholesale grocery bosses after a four-days strike has demonstrated the undiminished power of the Minneapolis Teamsters’ Unions. The bosses involved in this strike were the last die-hards to yield to unionization last year, after a bitterly-fought seven-week strike.

Union demands for sole bargaining power and a ten-cent increase of hourly wages were the chief issues of the strike. Although it involved only a few hundred men, the strike was conceded by both sides to be a test of strength which would determine who would hold the advantage when contracts expiring next May, covering most of the teamsters of this area, would come up for revision. The extraordinary speed with which they forced the bosses to capitulate indicate that the unions will have an easy time of it in the coming negotiations for the whole industry.  
 
 
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