The Militant (logo)  

Vol. 77/No. 29      August 12, 2013

 
25, 50, and 75 Years Ago  

August 12, 1988

MIAMI — More than 300 Haitians, many of them undocumented farm workers, marched under a searing sun to the offices of the Immigration and Naturalization Service here July 23.

Chanting “Justice for Haitians” and carrying placards that read “Green cards for farm workers,” the marchers demanded residence status for the tens of thousands of undocumented immigrants who have been working for many years on U.S. farms and qualify for amnesty under the new immigration laws.

This was the latest of several rallies held here by Haitian farm workers in support of a class-action suit filed on behalf of all migrant farm workers nationwide. The legal action is seeking to change INS policy under which tens of thousands of migrant workers have been denied temporary residence work permits.

August 5, 1963

NEW YORK — Support to the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom was voted by the delegates to the 20th National Convention of the Socialist Workers Party held here in July.

“In addition to the vital problem of discrimination, the March is intended to dramatize the problem of unemployment which weights most heavily on Negro workers. A giant march by those who suffer from these evils will strike fear into their enemies on Capitol Hill. The sponsors of the March have pointed out that the struggle for decent jobs for Negroes is ‘inextricably linked with the struggle for decent jobs for all Americans,’ and have called for a federal ‘massive works program to train and employ all Americans at decent wages and at meaningful and dignified labor.’

“Every unemployed worker, every militant unionist should be in Washington August 28.”

August 13, 1938

The breaking of the strike against the Maytag Company of Newton, Iowa, by the National Guard should convince every American worker that to rely on the National Guard, called out by a “friendly” governor, to win a strike is utter folly.

Governor Kraschel called out the guards ostensibly to prevent violence. He ordered the plant closed, and this maneuver fooled some workers who had an idea that the Governor would win the strike for them.

The same thing happened in the Little Steel Strike of last year when the governors of Ohio and Indiana called out the troops and at first ordered the mills closed. At that time the leaders of the C.I.O. were jubilant at the action of the governors. But they reckoned without their host. Not long after the Guard came on the scene, the steel mills were opened and scabs worked under the protection of bayonets.  
 
 
Front page (for this issue) | Home | Text-version home