Today in Labor History—November 5

Debs leaving the White House after being released from prison, 1921

November 5, 1855 - Labor leader and socialist presidential candidate Eugene V. Debs was born in Terre Haute, Indiana.  (From Workday Minnesota)

November 5, 1911—A Francisco Ferrer statue was erected at the Place de Sainte-Catherine, Brussels, in honor of the radical educator executed by the Spanish government in 1909. The statue was destroyed by the Germans in 1915, but re-erected in 1926.

Hugo Gerlot, killed in the Everett Massacre

 November 5, 1916 -- The Everett Massacre occurred in Everett, Washington. The Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) labor activists were killed by the Everett police. On October 30, in the midst of a depression, forty IWW members arrived by boat in Everett to help support the shingle workers strike, but before they could land they were clubbed and jailed by local deputies. Later that night they were beaten. On Nov. 5, 250 more IWW supporters arrived to fight for free speech and support their jailed comrades, but gunfire broke out as soon as they arrived. Between 5 and 12 Wobblies were killed, and another 31 were injured. Both Big Bill Haywood and Samuel Gompers called on the federal government to protect the rights of working-class citizens in Everett, but no action was taken. (From the Daily Bleed)

November 5, 1918 – For the first time ever, the Farmer Labor Party appeared on the ballot in Minnesota. David Evans, a hardware merchant from Tracy, ran for governor and Tom Davis, a prominent Minneapolis labor attorney, campaigned for the office of attorney general. (From Workday Minnesota)

November 5, 1928 –5,000 banana workers struck against United Fruit Company in Columbia, 1,000 of them were killed. (From the Daily Bleed)

November 5, 1968 – Shirley Chisholm became the first black woman elected to Congress. (From the Daily Bleed)

November 5, 2001 – At least four hunger strikers who were protesting Turkish prison conditions died in a police raid. Their deaths brought the total to 45 deaths in the last year. Hundreds of jailed left-wing militants had joined the death fast to protest being kept in isolation cells in “F-type” high security prisons, subjected to torture, beatings and abuse. (From the Daily Bleed)