Vol. 80/No. 15      April 18, 2016

 

25, 50, and 75 Years Ago

 

April 19, 1991

As many as a million Kurds, fleeing intense air and surface bombardment by the Iraqi military, were made refugees the first week of April.

President Saddam Hussein announced April 7 that the rebellion by the Kurdish people had been defeated.

Facing a fierce onslaught that included napalm attacks by the Iraqi regime’s forces, Kurds headed for Turkey and Iran at the end of March and beginning of April. In sub-zero temperatures and cold rain, the refugees traveled aboard huge trucks, by mule-back, or squatting on blankets on top of a gasoline truck.

Thousands without gas for vehicles set out on foot, moving down hillsides in the first stages of a 100-mile trek. One crossing alone on the Iranian border was said to have a 45-mile-long column of refugees.

April 18, 1966

The striking grape pickers of Delano, Calif., won an important victory on April 5 when Schenley Industries Inc. issued a statement recognizing the National Farm Workers Association (NFWA) as the representative of the workers in the Schenley vineyards. They agreed that the contract negotiations will be held within 30 days.

Cesar Chavez, director of the NFWA, emphasized the importance of the victory, pointing out that this is the first time in the history of the U.S., outside of Hawaii, that union organization of farm labor has been recognized.

The agreement does not terminate the strike, however, for Schenley employs only about 500 of the 4,500 striking agricultural workers.

April 19, 1941

One thing about the neutrality pact that Stalin signed with Japan on April 13 is as clear as daylight: Stalin, by means of the pact, has dealt a severe blow to the struggle of the Chinese people against Japanese imperialism.

Stalin’s mouthpiece in the United States, the Daily Worker, can shamelessly assert that “out of the present Soviet-Japanese pact the Chinese people will gain.” But the unalterable fact remains that in the midst of a life-and-death struggle on the part of the Chinese people to expel the Japanese invader, Stalin signs a pact with that same invader.

The Daily Worker does not attempt to explain just how the Chinese people will gain out of the pact. It makes that mere assertion and wants everybody to be satisfied with it. But not even dupes of Stalin can swallow that.  
 
 
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