Today in Labor History—May 27

Communards in their Coffins

May 27, 1871 –Today marks the end of the Paris Commune and the Bloody Week that destroyed it. Communards were lined up and shot against the wall, now known as "mur des fédérés," to honor their memory. (From the Daily Bleed)

May 27, 1947 –The U.S. Fishermen and Allied Workers union merged with Harry Bridges' ILWU. (From the Daily Bleed)

May 27, 1958 – Ernest Green became the first African-American to graduate from Little Rock Central High School, Arkansas. (From the Daily Bleed)

May 27, 1968 –A grand jury indicted the "L.A. 13" for conspiracy to disturb the peace for their role in the Chicano school walkouts: Sal Castro, Eliezar Risco, Patricio Sanchez, Moctezuma Esparza, David Sánchez, Carlos Montes, Ralph Ramirez, Fred Lopes, Richard Vigil, Gilberto Olmeda, Joe Razo, Henry Gomez, & Carlos Muñoz, Jr. (From the Daily Bleed)

May 27, 1968 – University and high school students went on strike in Dakar, Senegal. (From the Daily Bleed)

May 27, 1980 – 3,000 unarmed civilians were slaughtered by the South Korean military during the Kwangju Uprising, which lasted from May 18 through May 27. The victims had been protesting military rule and demanding democracy. A similar uprising and massacre occurred in 1950 in Cheju-do. However, the Cheju-do Massacre, which resulted in 60,000 civilian deaths, was backed, and then covered up, by the U.S. government. (From the Daily Bleed)

Today in Labor History—May 26

Mandrin, France's "Robin Hood"

May 26, 1755 – Louis Mandrin, the French version of Robin Hood, was caught and executed. (From the Daily Bleed)

May 26, 1791 – King Louis XVI of France was forced by the revolutionary French Assembly to relinquish his crown and state assets. (From the Daily Bleed)

May 26, 1851 – Stevedores and Longshoreman struck in San Francisco. (From the Daily Bleed)

May 26, 1871 – The “Bloody Week” of repression and violence against the Paris Commune continued, with battles at the Bastille and Villette. Communards were defeated on this date at Belleville and Père Lachaise. The Versailles forces assassinated injured communards in their ambulances, inspiring an angry crowd to execute 50 hostages in revenge. (From the Daily Bleed)

May 26, 1894 –The Western Federation of Miners (WFM) struck for an eight-hour day in Cripple Creek, Colorado. (From the Daily Bleed)

May 26, 1920 –The Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) Marine Transport Workers struck in Philadelphia. (From the Daily Bleed)

Walter Reuther, UAW

May 26, 1937 - Henry Ford unleashed his company goons on United Auto Workers organizers at the “Battle of the Overpass” near the River Rouge plant. General Motors and Chrysler signed collective bargaining agreements with the UAW in 1937, but Ford held out until 1942. (From Workday Minnesota)

May 26, 1937 --The "Little Steel" strike began in Ohio. Over 600 workers picketed at Republic’s mill in Cleveland, while virtually every one of its 6500 workers abandoned the mill. The National Guard was used to crush the strike, first in Youngstown, and then in Canton, Massillon, Warren and finally Cleveland, completely busting the strike by mid-July. (From the Daily Bleed)

May 26, 1944 –The French resistance called General Strike against the Nazis in Marseille, while a U.S. bombing raid on Marseille killed 6,000 in the workers' districts. (From the Daily Bleed)

May 26, 1968 – The May Days uprisings were continuing in France. A General Strike had paralyzed the government which was on the verge of collapse. (From the Daily Bleed)

Today in Labor History—May 23

May 23, 1827 –The first American nursery school was established in New York City as a way to “relieve parents of the laboring classes” and offer their children “protection from idleness” and other evils that typically infected the rabble. (From the Daily Bleed)

Statue of Sam Sharpe, Montego Bay (Image by Pozole, wikipedia)

May 23, 1832 – Jamaican national hero Samuel Sharpe was executed. He was an instigator of the 1831 Slave Rebellion which was largely instrumental in bringing about an end to slavery. (From the Daily Bleed)

May 23, 1838 – The second "Trail of Tears" began, resulting in the deaths of over 4,000 relocated Cherokee. (From the Daily Bleed)

May 23, 1871 – The "Bloody Week" (Semaine Sanglante) entered its third day, as the citizens of the The Paris Commune were slaughtered by government troops. (From the Daily Bleed)

May 23, 1903 – Thousands of children went on strike in the textile mills of Philadelphia. (From the Daily Bleed)

May 23, 1933 - The "Battle of Toledo" erupted when sheriffs' arrested picket leaders at the Auto-Lite plant in Toledo, Ohio, and beat an old man. 10,000 strikers blockaded the plant for seven hours, preventing strikebreakers from leaving. Ultimately, the crowd was broken up with tear gas and water cannons. The National Guard was called in the following day. The strikers held their ground against the troops, who shot and killed two of their members and wounding 15 others, winning union recognition and a 5% raise after two weeks on the picket line. (From Workday Minnesota and the Daily Bleed)

May 23, 1963 – Congress passed the first law to ensure women equal pay for equal work. The legislation was originally submitted in 1947. (From the Daily Bleed)

May 23, 2006 – Angry garment workers in Bangladesh set fire to seven textile factories in and around the capital in the wake of the police killing of a worker during recent protests for better pay and working conditions. (From the Daily Bleed)

Utah Phillips at Haymarket Martyrs Memorial on 100th Anniversary, 1986

May 23, 2008 –Labor folk singer and IWW member U. Utah Phillips (1935-2008) died. (From the Daily Bleed)

 

 

Today in Labor History—May 22

Versaille generals being shot during the Paris Commune

May 22, 1871 –The "Bloody Week" continued in France for the second day, as government forces brutally suppressed the Paris Commune. (From the Daily Bleed)

May 22, 1895 – Eugene Debs was thrown in prison for his role in the Pullman Railway Strike (also known as the "Debs Rebellion"). (From the Daily Bleed)

May 22, 1930 – Harvey Milk, gay rights activist and San Francisco city Supervisor, was born. He was assassinated by a former supervisor (and current lunatic) Dan White, who only got a couple years in jail using the famous Twinkie defense., resulting in rioting in San Francisco. (From the Daily Bleed)

May 22, 1968 –New York police busted through the barricades at Columbia University, busting the student occupations there, resulting in 998 arrested, over 200 injuries. They were demanding a black studies program and an end to military recruitment and ROTC on campus. (From the Daily Bleed)

May 22, 1969 –The first strike by Chicago teachers began on this day and lasted for three days. (From the Daily Bleed)

Today in Labor History—May 21

May 21, 1856 – The first eight hour working day was achieved by stonemasons in Victoria, Australia. (From the Daily Bleed)

Barricade, Édouard Manet, 1871

 May 21, 1871 – The Bloody Week, a savage orgy of repression and violence, was launched against the Paris Commune. The French government’s massacres and summary executions resulted in 20,000 to 35,000 civilian deaths. (From the Daily Bleed)

May 21, 1934 – The Minneapolis General Strike by Teamsters Union on May 21, 1934, with a pitched battle between striking teamsters and business goons. (From the Daily Bleed)

Street battle between striking teamsters and cops, Minneapolis, 1934

May 21, 1945 – The "Little Wagner Act" was signed in Hawaii (still an American colony), guaranteeing collective bargaining rights for pineapple and sugar workers. (From the Daily Bleed)

May 21, 1946 – The U.S. government seized control of the nation’s coal mines in order to maintain production during a nationwide coal strike. Despite the government’s actions, miners continued to strike, forcing the government to concede to many of their demands, concessions that even the mine owners refused to grant. Miners struck again in November, in violation of a federal injunction, resulting in a $3.5 million fine. (From Workday Minnesota and the Daily Bleed)

Rioters outside City Hall, S.F. (Image by Daniel Nicoletta)

May 21, 1965 – Clashes between striking mine workers in Bolivia and federal troops resulted in 48 deaths. (From the Daily Bleed)

May 21, 1979 – White Night riots occurred in San Francisco, California, in protest of the hand slap given to former city supervisor, Dan White, for murdering the city’s first openly gay supervisor, Harvey Milk, and mayor George Moscone. White was determined to be temporarily insane from having eaten too much junk food. A similar defense has failed repeatedly to get students excused from exams or school detentions. (From the Daily Bleed)

Today in Labor History—January 16

January 16, 1919 – Semaine Sanglante ("Bloody Week") ended on this date in Buenos Aires. The General Strike was crushed, with as many as 700 dead and 2000 wounded. The militant Argentinean anarchist movement is decimated by the repression which follows & trade union reformists gain control of the workers' movement. (From the Daily Bleed)

January 16, 1991 – U.S. invaded Kuwait and Iraq. By the end, an estimated 1,000,000 Iraqis died from bombings and the effects of the following five years of U.S.-led global economic embargo. (From the Daily Bleed)

January 16, 1992 – The government of El Salvador and the FMLN rebels signed a peace accord, formally ending a 12-year-old civil war that killed 75,000, mostly civilians. (From the Daily Bleed)

Today in Labor History—January 7

Semana Tragica

January 7, 1919 – This date marked the beginning of Argentina’s "Bloody Week" (AKA Tragic Week) in Buenos Aires. Workers (led by Italian anarchists) were demonstrating for the 8-hour work day and were fired upon by the authorities, leaving four dead and nearly 30 wounded. Clashes with the authorities on the day of the funerals left another 50 dead. A General Strike was called and strikers were attacked by trade union reformists and paramilitary groups collaborating with the police. By January 16 the strike was crushed, with as many as 700 dead and 2000 wounded, many of whom were Jewish-Russian immigrants targeted by racists and anti-Bolshevik hysteria.(From the Daily Bleed and Wikipedia)

January 7, 1939 – Tom Mooney, a labor activist wrongly convicted of murder in the San Francisco Preparedness Day bombing in July 1916, was freed after 22 ½ years in jail, granted an unconditional pardon by Governor Culbert Olson.(From the Daily Bleed)

Today in Labor History—May 27

Communards in their Coffins

May 27, 1871 –Today marks the end of the Paris Commune and the Bloody Week that destroyed it. Communards were lined up and shot against the wall, now known as "mur des fédérés," to honor their memory. (From the Daily Bleed)

May 27, 1947 –The U.S. Fishermen and Allied Workers union merged with Harry Bridges' ILWU. (From the Daily Bleed)

May 27, 1958 – Ernest Green became the first African-American to graduate from Little Rock Central High School, Arkansas. (From the Daily Bleed)

May 27, 1968 –A grand jury indicted the "L.A. 13" for conspiracy to disturb the peace for their role in the Chicano school walkouts: Sal Castro, Eliezar Risco, Patricio Sanchez, Moctezuma Esparza, David Sánchez, Carlos Montes, Ralph Ramirez, Fred Lopes, Richard Vigil, Gilberto Olmeda, Joe Razo, Henry Gomez, & Carlos Muñoz, Jr. (From the Daily Bleed)

May 27, 1968 – University and high school students went on strike in Dakar, Senegal. (From the Daily Bleed)

May 27, 1980 – 3,000 unarmed civilians were slaughtered by the South Korean military during the Kwangju Uprising, which lasted from May 18 through May 27. The victims had been protesting military rule and demanding democracy. A similar uprising and massacre occurred in 1950 in Cheju-do. However, the Cheju-do Massacre, which resulted in 60,000 civilian deaths, was backed, and then covered up, by the U.S. government. (From the Daily Bleed)

Today in Labor History—May 26

Mandrin, France's "Robin Hood"

May 26, 1755 – Louis Mandrin, the French version of Robin Hood, was caught and executed. (From the Daily Bleed)

May 26, 1791 – King Louis XVI of France was forced by the revolutionary French Assembly to relinquish his crown and state assets. (From the Daily Bleed)

May 26, 1851 – Stevedores and Longshoreman struck in San Francisco. (From the Daily Bleed)

May 26, 1871 – The “Bloody Week” of repression and violence against the Paris Commune continued, with battles at the Bastille and Villette. Communards were defeated on this date at Belleville and Père Lachaise. The Versailles forces assassinated injured communards in their ambulances, inspiring an angry crowd to execute 50 hostages in revenge. (From the Daily Bleed)

May 26, 1894 –The Western Federation of Miners (WFM) struck for an eight-hour day in Cripple Creek, Colorado. (From the Daily Bleed)

May 26, 1920 –The Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) Marine Transport Workers struck in Philadelphia. (From the Daily Bleed)

Walter Reuther, UAW

May 26, 1937 - Henry Ford unleashed his company goons on United Auto Workers organizers at the “Battle of the Overpass” near the River Rouge plant. General Motors and Chrysler signed collective bargaining agreements with the UAW in 1937, but Ford held out until 1942. (From Workday Minnesota)

May 26, 1937 --The "Little Steel" strike began in Ohio. Over 600 workers picketed at Republic’s mill in Cleveland, while virtually every one of its 6500 workers abandoned the mill. The National Guard was used to crush the strike, first in Youngstown, and then in Canton, Massillon, Warren and finally Cleveland, completely busting the strike by mid-July. (From the Daily Bleed)

May 26, 1944 –The French resistance called General Strike against the Nazis in Marseille, while a U.S. bombing raid on Marseille killed 6,000 in the workers' districts. (From the Daily Bleed)

May 26, 1968 – The May Days uprisings were continuing in France. A General Strike had paralyzed the government which was on the verge of collapse. (From the Daily Bleed)

Today in Labor History—May 23

May 23, 1827 –The first American nursery school was established in New York City as a way to “relieve parents of the laboring classes” and offer their children “protection from idleness” and other evils that typically infected the rabble. (From the Daily Bleed)

Statue of Sam Sharpe, Montego Bay (Image by Pozole, wikipedia)

May 23, 1832 – Jamaican national hero Samuel Sharpe was executed. He was an instigator of the 1831 Slave Rebellion which was largely instrumental in bringing about an end to slavery. (From the Daily Bleed)

May 23, 1838 – The second "Trail of Tears" began, resulting in the deaths of over 4,000 relocated Cherokee. (From the Daily Bleed)

May 23, 1871 – The "Bloody Week" (Semaine Sanglante) entered its third day, as the citizens of the The Paris Commune were slaughtered by government troops. (From the Daily Bleed)

May 23, 1903 – Thousands of children went on strike in the textile mills of Philadelphia. (From the Daily Bleed)

May 23, 1933 - The "Battle of Toledo" erupted when sheriffs' arrested picket leaders at the Auto-Lite plant in Toledo, Ohio, and beat an old man. 10,000 strikers blockaded the plant for seven hours, preventing strikebreakers from leaving. Ultimately, the crowd was broken up with tear gas and water cannons. The National Guard was called in the following day. The strikers held their ground against the troops, who shot and killed two of their members and wounding 15 others, winning union recognition and a 5% raise after two weeks on the picket line. (From Workday Minnesota and the Daily Bleed)

May 23, 1963 – Congress passed the first law to ensure women equal pay for equal work. The legislation was originally submitted in 1947. (From the Daily Bleed)

May 23, 2006 – Angry garment workers in Bangladesh set fire to seven textile factories in and around the capital in the wake of the police killing of a worker during recent protests for better pay and working conditions. (From the Daily Bleed)

Utah Phillips at Haymarket Martyrs Memorial on 100th Anniversary, 1986

May 23, 2008 –Labor folk singer and IWW member U. Utah Phillips (1935-2008) died. (From the Daily Bleed)

 

Today in Labor History—May 22

Versaille generals being shot during the Paris Commune

May 22, 1871 –The "Bloody Week" continued in France for the second day, as government forces brutally suppressed the Paris Commune. (From the Daily Bleed)

May 22, 1895 – Eugene Debs was thrown in prison for his role in the Pullman Railway Strike (also known as the "Debs Rebellion"). (From the Daily Bleed)

May 22, 1930 – Harvey Milk, gay rights activist and San Francisco city Supervisor, was born. He was assassinated by a former supervisor (and current lunatic) Dan White, who only got a couple years in jail using the famous Twinkie defense., resulting in rioting in San Francisco. (From the Daily Bleed)

May 22, 1968 –New York police busted through the barricades at Columbia University, busting the student occupations there, resulting in 998 arrested, over 200 injuries. They were demanding a black studies program and an end to military recruitment and ROTC on campus. (From the Daily Bleed)

May 22, 1969 –The first strike by Chicago teachers began on this day and lasted for three days. (From the Daily Bleed)

Today in Labor History—May 21

May 21, 1856 – The first eight hour working day was achieved by stonemasons in Victoria, Australia. (From the Daily Bleed)

Barricade, Édouard Manet, 1871

 May 21, 1871 – The Bloody Week, a savage orgy of repression and violence, was launched against the Paris Commune. The French government’s massacres and summary executions resulted in 20,000 to 35,000 civilian deaths. (From the Daily Bleed)

May 21, 1934 – The Minneapolis General Strike by Teamsters Union on May 21, 1934, with a pitched battle between striking teamsters and business goons. (From the Daily Bleed)

Street battle between striking teamsters and cops, Minneapolis, 1934

May 21, 1945 – The "Little Wagner Act" was signed in Hawaii (still an American colony), guaranteeing collective bargaining rights for pineapple and sugar workers. (From the Daily Bleed)

May 21, 1946 – The U.S. government seized control of the nation’s coal mines in order to maintain production during a nationwide coal strike. Despite the government’s actions, miners continued to strike, forcing the government to concede to many of their demands, concessions that even the mine owners refused to grant. Miners struck again in November, in violation of a federal injunction, resulting in a $3.5 million fine. (From Workday Minnesota and the Daily Bleed)

Rioters outside City Hall, S.F. (Image by Daniel Nicoletta)

May 21, 1965 – Clashes between striking mine workers in Bolivia and federal troops resulted in 48 deaths. (From the Daily Bleed)

May 21, 1979 – White Night riots occurred in San Francisco, California, in protest of the hand slap given to former city supervisor, Dan White, for murdering the city’s first openly gay supervisor, Harvey Milk, and mayor George Moscone. White was determined to be temporarily insane from having eaten too much junk food. A similar defense has failed repeatedly to get students excused from exams or school detentions. (From the Daily Bleed)

Today in Labor History—January 16

January 16, 1919 – Semaine Sanglante ("Bloody Week") ended on this date in Buenos Aires. The General Strike was crushed, with as many as 700 dead and 2000 wounded. The militant Argentinean anarchist movement is decimated by the repression which follows & trade union reformists gain control of the workers' movement. (From the Daily Bleed)

January 16, 1991 – U.S. invaded Kuwait and Iraq. By the end, an estimated 1,000,000 Iraqis died from bombings and the effects of the following five years of U.S.-led global economic embargo. (From the Daily Bleed)

January 16, 1992 – The government of El Salvador and the FMLN rebels signed a peace accord, formally ending a 12-year-old civil war that killed 75,000, mostly civilians. (From the Daily Bleed)

Today in Labor History—January 7

Semana Tragica

January 7, 1919 – This date marked the beginning of Argentina’s "Bloody Week" (AKA Tragic Week) in Buenos Aires. Workers (led by Italian anarchists) were demonstrating for the 8-hour work day and were fired upon by the authorities, leaving four dead and nearly 30 wounded. Clashes with the authorities on the day of the funerals left another 50 dead. A General Strike was called and strikers were attacked by trade union reformists and paramilitary groups collaborating with the police. By January 16 the strike was crushed, with as many as 700 dead and 2000 wounded, many of whom were Jewish-Russian immigrants targeted by racists and anti-Bolshevik hysteria. (From the Daily Bleed and Wikipedia)

January 7, 1939 – Tom Mooney, a labor activist wrongly convicted of murder in the San Francisco Preparedness Day bombing in July 1916, was freed after 22 ½ years in jail, granted an unconditional pardon by Governor Culbert Olson. (From the Daily Bleed)

Today in Labor History—May 23

May 23, 1827 –The first American nursery school was established in New York City as a way to “relieve parents of the laboring classes” and offer their children “protection from idleness” and other evils that typically infected the rabble. (From the Daily Bleed)

Statue of Sam Sharpe, Montego Bay (Image by Pozole, wikipedia)

May 23, 1832 – Jamaican national hero Samuel Sharpe was executed. He was an instigator of the 1831 Slave Rebellion which was largely instrumental in bringing about an end to slavery. (From the Daily Bleed)

May 23, 1838 – The second "Trail of Tears" began, resulting in the deaths of over 4,000 relocated Cherokee. (From the Daily Bleed)

May 23, 1871 – The "Bloody Week" (Semaine Sanglante) entered its third day, as the citizens of the The Paris Commune were slaughtered by government troops. (From the Daily Bleed)

May 23, 1903 – Thousands of children went on strike in the textile mills of Philadelphia. (From the Daily Bleed)

May 23, 1933 - The "Battle of Toledo" erupted when sheriffs' arrested picket leaders at the Auto-Lite plant in Toledo, Ohio, and beat an old man. 10,000 strikers blockaded the plant for seven hours, preventing strikebreakers from leaving. Ultimately, the crowd was broken up with tear gas and water cannons. The National Guard was called in the following day. The strikers held their ground against the troops, who shot and killed two of their members and wounding 15 others, winning union recognition and a 5% raise after two weeks on the picket line. (From Workday Minnesota and the Daily Bleed)

May 23, 1963 – Congress passed the first law to ensure women equal pay for equal work. The legislation was originally submitted in 1947. (From the Daily Bleed)

May 23, 2006 – Angry garment workers in Bangladesh set fire to seven textile factories in and around the capital in the wake of the police killing of a worker during recent protests for better pay and working conditions. (From the Daily Bleed)

Utah Phillips at Haymarket Martyrs Memorial on 100th Anniversary, 1986

May 23, 2008 –Labor folk singer and IWW member U. Utah Phillips (1935-2008) died. (From the Daily Bleed)