(Sources: Peace Buttons, War Resisters League, and the Peace Center.)
July 5
1894
During a strike against the Pullman Palace Car Company for having laid off about a quarter of its employees and drastically reduced wages, the 1892 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago’s Jackson Park was set ablaze, and seven buildings were reduced to ashes. The Pullman workers’ cause had been taken up by Eugene V. Debs, the leader of the American Railway Union helped organize a nationwide boycott of any train that included a Pullman car.
Pullman Street Strikers Statement
1935
The National Labor Relations Act became law, recognizing workers’ rights to organize and bargain collectively. The bill was signed into law by President Franklin D. Roosevelt on this day.
1989
Former National Security Council aide Oliver North received a $150,000 fine and a suspended prison term for his part in the Iran-Contra scandal. That was a secret arrangement directed from the Reagan White House that provided funds to the Nicaraguan contra rebels (in contravention of specific congressional prohibition) from profits gained by selling arms to Iran (at war with Iraq at the time) in hopes of their releasing hostages, despite Pres. Reagan’s claim that he wouldn’t trade arms for hostages.
The convictions were later overturned because evidence revealed in the congressional Iran-Contra hearings had compromised his right to a fair trial.
Deanna Dee-Dee Taylor 