[A red Vice-President? in 1983. Prison farm deaths in 1913. West
Bank atrocities film bombs in 1983. Whos not a percussionist? in 1953.
Dixiecrats kneecap civil rights bill in 1957. Legal liability
earthquake in 1973. Chile under the gun in 1973.]
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THIS WEEK IN PEOPLE’S HISTORY, SEPT. 5 – 11  
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_ A red Vice-President? in 1983. Prison farm deaths in 1913. West
Bank atrocities film bombs in 1983. Who's not a percussionist? in
1953. Dixiecrats kneecap civil rights bill in 1957. Legal liability
earthquake in 1973. Chile under the gun in 1973. _

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A RED VICE-PRESIDENT?
_SEPTEMBER 5, 1983 (40 YEARS AGO)._ In Nebraska, the state's largest
newspaper reports that the FBI had been spying on U.S. Vice President
Henry Wallace, and continued to do so when Wallace was a presidential
candidate in 1948. According to the FBI files released to the Des
Moines Register under the Freedom of Information Act, the
"investigation" of Wallace was conducted as part of FBI's program
concerning the detection and prevention of communist subversion. The
files showed that despite years of effort, which included illegal
telephone taps and mail openings, the feds never found anything to
indicate Wallace was breaking any laws, but the surveillance continued
until Wallace retired. You can see what the FBI  has released from
its file on Wallace here: [link removed]

Prison farm deaths.
_September 6, 1913 (110 years ago)._ On a Texas prison farm, twelve
Black men are forced into a tiny, virtually airless basement cell as
punishment for picking cotton too slowly. Eight of them die from
suffocation. The Texas attorney general later determines that, because
no laws had been violated,  no one would be held accountable. For a
more detailed (and ghastly) account, visit
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West Bank atrocities film bombs.
_September 7, 1983 (40 years ago)._ Casting a very cold eye on
Israel's illegal and oppressive occupation of the West Bank, "Hanna
K.", written and directed by Costa-Gavras and starring Jill Clayburgh
opens. It's not the greatest film ever, but it is effective and
shocking to anyone who knows little about life in the West Bank. I
think it bombed because of its political point of view. Well worth
watching here [link removed] 

Who's not a percussionist?
_September 8, 1953 (70 years ago). _In a Decca recording session, the
Boston Pops Orchestra performs the premiere of Leroy Anderson's
95-second musical composition, "The Typewriter," which is probably the
first and possibly the only work with a percussion solo by a typist.
When the recording was released, it became a part of Anderson's
unique, and largely unforgettable, catalog, which includes Bugler's
Holiday, Fiddle-Faddle, Jazz Pizzicato, Sleigh Ride, The Syncopated
Clock, A Trumpeter's Lullaby, and Plink, Plank, Plunk! Click here for
the original recording of The Typewriter.
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Dixiecrats kneecap civil rights bill.
_September 9, 1957._ The Civil Rights Act of 1957 is signed into law,
the first new federal civil rights law since 1875. Due to the
unyielding resistance of a powerful Congressional minority, including
the longest filibuster in U.S. history, the law is a shadow of the
original draft. It makes almost no improvement in the effort to
protect the civil rights that are routinely denied by Jim Crow laws
and customs. The best that can be said for the Act is that it brings
into being two institutions that eventually help to undermine the
racist status quo, the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights and the Civil
Rights Division of the Department of Justice.
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Legal liability earthquake.
_September 10, 1973 (50 years ago)._ Today, the ground shifts under
the feet of the makers of asbestos-containing products. Up until
today, the manufacturers may have been_ morally_ responsible for
countless cases of death and suffering, but their _legal_ (and
financial) responsibility has been minuscule. Thousands of people
(both men and women, thanks to the fact that during World War II women
were recruited in droves to perform "men's" work) have died horrible
deaths because they inhaled asbestos fibers and no one told them it
could be deadly to do so. Thousands more have been totally disabled
and can expect to never recover, because there is no cure for what
ails them. None of them has been adequately compensated for their
losses. Many have not been compensated at all.
    Until today, the victims have not been compensated because the
asbestos manufacturers had convinced the courts that, as a strictly
legal matter, their hands are clean. But on September 10, 1973, a
federal appeals court strips away the manufacturers' legal shield. The
court's decision in _Borel v. Fiberboard Paper Products Corp._, is
that the standard of Fiberboard's liability to asbestos-insulator
Clarence Borel (or rather his widow) is much more extensive than the
courts had previously acknowledged. 
    The appeals court finds that Fiberboard had a duty to warn Mr.
Borel of the hazard. A label stating that breathing asbestos fibers
was, or at least could be, deadly would have done the trick. In the
absence of such an explicit warning, Fiberboard (and every other
manufacturer of asbestos-containing products) was liable to pay for
all the consequences. 
    The precedent set by the Borel case permanently shifted the
ground upon which asbestos manufacturers stood.  Hundreds of
thousands of workers who were never told, prior to this decision, that
inhaling asbestos fibers was more likely than not to kill or disable
them were now able to hold the manufacturers financially responsible.
For anyone who had ever been sickened because they had worked with an
asbestos-containing product, it was morning in America.
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CHILE UNDER THE GUN.
_SEPTEMBER 11, 1973 (50 YEARS AGO)._ Chile's armed forces stage a
violent coup d'etat, overthrowing the democratically elected, leftist
government of Salvador Allende. By any measure, the military
government that takes over and remains in power until 1990, is a
disaster for workers, unions, the poor and progressive activists, many
hundreds of whom are murdered or imprisoned while thousands more flee
into exile. Not surprisingly, the U.S. government is deeply involved
in the plotting before the coup and supporting the military government
afterwards. For a vivid picture of what the coup destroyed, see
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For very recent news about newly declassified documentation of the
heavy U.S. involvement in the coup, visit
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