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Informed Sources

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Parent Issue
Day
20
Month
December
Year
1974
OCR Text

36 United Nations members endorse declaration on women's rights. The declaration was presented by Princess Ashraf Pahlavi of Iran and noted that progress towards equality between thasexes had been extremely slow...meanwhile the budgetary committee approved a resolution calling for a balance between men and women working at the UN Secretariat. Presently there is only one woman working , Helvi Sipila of Finland, in Secretary -General Kurt Waldheim's Cabinet.

Rhodesia announces cease-fire with rebels. The Prime Minister of Rhodesia, Ian Smith, announced that his aparthied government has signed a cease fire, with the armed popular forces in that country. One of the provisions of the cease fire was the release of all African political prisoners as a prelude to a constitutional conference. The constitutional conference is a major threat to the minority government of Smith.

Reports from France indicate that the fashion center of the world is experiencing the greatest waves of strikes since the historic 1968 student/worker general strike. Oct. 18, 100,000 telecommunications and postal workers walked off the job. Thousands of electric and gas workers, rail employees, printers, veterinarians, sanitation workers and Paris bus drivers have followed suit. 100,000 gas station attendants struck on Nov. 4. 70% of the coal miners of the coal rich Loraine region walked off their jobs for 2 days. The strikes--being led by Franee's two major unions, the Communist led CCT and the socialist CFDT-continued to deepen, culminating November 19 in a nation-wide 24 hour shut down, during the general strike 300,000 marched in Paris to express their opposition to the present administrations economie policy.

The Attica Brothers Legal Defense finaneially rests solely with supporters. The defense committee applied to the state for some $88,000 to cover pre-trial motions and investigations. It was denied on a technicality by Judge Carmen F. Ball. The money requested was part of $75O,OOO promised by the state legislature for defense work. Judge Ball ruled that only courtappointed New York State Lawyers could receive appropriation, only one of the more man w legal workers on the aetense team rit tlns category. The prosecution on the other hand, has already been allocated $6 million.

Modern electronics may mean the virtual end of major metropolitan newspapers and the rebirth of smaller independently owned dailies. So spoke William Heine, editor of the London, Ont., Free Press to a conference of journalists attending an international convention on freedom of the press. Heine's said that electronic equipment is replacing workers in the print media who will sell their skills to smaller independent papers, many with political lines to push. Some journalists feel that this trend will make established papers take a more progressive stand, while enhancing the market for the independent rags.

Stephen Bingham, the last attorney to see Black revolutionary, George Jackson alive has surfaced, temporarily in Canada, to give an interview. Bingham is accused of smuggling a gun to George on Aug. 21, 1971 , the day Jackson was killed by prison guards in wliat authorities claim was an attempted escape. Bingham would not talk specifically about the incident for fear of jeopardizing the trial of the San Quentin 6, who are accused of murdering three guards and two inmates during the alleged escape. Bingham did say, however, that the trial of the S.Q. 6 was a "smokescreen to cover up the assassination of George Jackson", Bingham added, "I knew him (Jackson) well enough--he was too strong, too disciplined as a revolutionary to have done things in the way that was suggested--to throw his life away in a reckless suicide..."

Women's right to abortion is threatened again, this time from a Health, Education and Welfare bill that would revise the 1973 Supreme Court decision sanctioning abortions. The bill with the hated Bartlett amendment, is presently in a Senate-House conference committee. It would cut off Medicaid funding for abortions except when needed to save the life of the mother. A HEW memorandum on the possible impact of the Bartlett amendment shows that Medicaid now pays for 25% of all legal abortions or more than 220,000 yearly. Anti-abortion forces are intensifying a letter writing campaign to Congress, to counter the anti-abortion pressure on Congress, people are urged to write to their congresspeople advocating a "woman's right to choose."