On this day, 5 March 1965 the “March Uprising” erupted in Bahrain, in protest at the dismissal of hundreds of workers from the UK-owned Bahrain Petroleum Company “Bapco”, with protesters raising the slogan “Down, down with colonialism!” The intifada was ignited by the decision to dismiss more than 400 Bahraini workers, with the eventual intention of sacking 1,500 workers, under the pretext of replacing them with modern machines capable of increasing productivity. The uprising began with a walkout of Manama High School students. Their demonstration was suppressed, and the protests spread to the rest of the cities and towns, where rebels took control of the city of Muharraq for several days, and clashed with the Bahraini and British forces.
The labor movement (namely the Bahrain Workers Union), the student movement and women formed the backbone of the uprising. The forces of the political uprising varied between leftist and nationalist movements such as the Popular Front for the Liberation of Bahrain, the National Liberation Front and the Arab Nationalist Movement. These forces defined their demands with: restoring Bapco workers to their jobs, the right to establish trade unions, ending emergency laws, ending the service of British troops in the country, and releasing political prisoners. The uprising led to Bahrain achieving independence from Britain in 1971.
British Royal Police officer Ian Henderson led the suppression of protesters and torture by managing the General Directorate of State Security Investigations in Bahrain between 1966 and 1998, which earned him the title “Butcher of Bahrain”.
More information, sources and map: https://stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/7962/bahrain-march-intifadahttps://www.facebook.com/workingclasshistory/photos/a.296224173896073/2223825557802582/?type=3
Food stamp benefits are being reduced across the board on March 1, with 42 million seeing cuts ranging from $82 to $328 a month per household. Seniors could see reductions from $281 to as little as $23 per month.
At a Feb. 27 protest of the food stamp cuts in Baltimore, the Peoples Power Assembly, the Matthew Henson Neighborhood Association, the Unemployed Workers Union, and others demanded that the cuts be reversed immediately and that the food stamp program be expanded due to the continuing inflation crisis.
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