Today in Labor History—November 20

Zumbi dos Palmares bust, Brasilia (image by Elza Fiúza/Agencia Brasil, creative commons)

November 20, 1695 – Zumbí, head of the Quilombo de Palmares, was assassinated on this date. Palmares was the largest and longest lasting Quilombo (community of freed slaves) in Brazil. Estimates range from 11,000 to more than 20,000 inhabitants living in Palmares during its height. The community lasted for more than 100 years. Members of Palmares routinely raided plantations, freeing slaves and brutally slaughtering their masters. Palmares was portrayed in the 1984 film, Quilombo, directed by Carlos Diegues.

Capoiera, or the Dance of War, by Johann Moritz Rugendas (1835)

November 20, 1896 – Rose Pesotta, anarchist labor activist and the only woman on the General Executive Board of the International Ladies' Garment Workers (ILGWU), from 1933-1944, was born on this date. (From the Daily Bleed)

Ricardo Flores Magon, portrait

 November 20, 1922 – Ricardo Flores Magón died on this date in Leavenworth, prison. Maginm with his brother Enrique, founded and edited the anarchist paper Regeneracion, founded the Partido Liberal de Mexico, organized with the IWW, and launched a short-lived revolution in Baja California, in which IWW members from the U.S. participated. (From the Daily Bleed)

November 20, 1936 -- Buenaventura Durutti, anarchist militant, was shot in the lung yesterday, and died this morning. Durutti's body was buried in Barcelona, in a ceremony attended by somewhere between 200,000 and 500,000 people. (From the Daily Bleed)

November 20, 1946 – Bituminous coal workers went on strike directly against the US government, which had seized all the bituminous coal mines on May 21. The government secured an injunction against the strike, resulting in $3.5 million fine against the UMW. (From the Daily Bleed)

November 20, 1968 - The Consolidated Coal Company’s No. 9 mine in Farmington, West Virginia, exploded, killing 78 miners. (From Workday Minnesota)