Today in Labor History--March 12

Striking textile workers face off against MA militiamen during Lawrence Strike

March 12, 1912 - The IWW (Industrial Workers of the World) won their textile strike in Lawrence, MA.The Lawrence strike was also known as the Bread and Roses Strike because the women were demanding not only a living wage, so they could feed their families, but a better quality of life, too). This IWW-led strike was the first known strike to implement the moving picket line, so as to avoid arrests for loitering. The strike was also unique in that the workers spoke 22 different languages and came from 24 different nationalities, prompting the IWW to give each language group a delegate on the strike committee and complete autonomy. (Sources: The Lucy Parsons Project; Libcom.org; Bread and Roses Centenial; Rense.com)

March 12, 1912 - Shingle workers went on strike in Raymond, WA. (From the Daily Bleed)

March 12, 1996 - Rioting erupted in Timika, Irian Jaya (Indonesia), disrupting Freeport mine operations.Over 1,000 Irianese rampaged through town hijacking cars and damaging buildings. Rioting against the Freeport mine spread to other neighboring towns, as well. (From the Daily Bleed)

Today in Labor History—February 24

Children of Lawrence, MA strikers sent to live with sympathizers in New York City during the work stoppage

February 24, 1912 - Women and children were beaten by police during the Bread and Roses textile strike in Lawrence, Massachusetts. (From Workday Minnesota and the Daily Bleed)

Arrest and escorting plainclothes policemen. Petrograd. 1917

 February 24, 1917 – A Petrograd bread riot turned into revolution when soldiers refused to fire on demonstrators turned on their officers, stormed the arsenal and liberated 20,000 automatic pistols, torched the police stations and emptied the prisons. (From the Daily Bleed)

February 24, 1919 – A new Federal Child Labor law passed and was declared unconstitutional in 1924. A similar law passed two years earlier was declared unconstitutional in 1918. (From the Daily Bleed)

February 24, 1923 – A U.S. Labor Party convention repudiated Communism. (From the Daily Bleed)

February 24, 1939 – The Supreme Court ruled that sit-down strikes were illegal. (From the Daily Bleed)

February 24, 1965 – District 1199 Health Care Workers became the first U.S. labor union to oppose the war in Vietnam. (From the Daily Bleed)

Today in Labor History—February 19, 2012

February 19, 1855 – Bread riots occurred in Liverpool. (From the Daily Bleed)

Bread and Roses, sung by Joan Baez

 

February 19, 1912—During the Bread & Roses Strike in Lawrence, MA, 200 police drew their clubs and went after 100 women picketers, knocking them to the ground and beating them. Big Bill Haywood from the IWW urged women not to picket. An Italian woman suggests responded: “All man, boy stay home, sleep. Only woman, girl on picket line tomorrow morning. Soldier & policeman no beat woman, girl. You see, I got big belly, she too got big belly. Policeman no beat us." However, the next morning, the women were beaten so badly that the Italian woman quoted above and another pregnant striker lost their babies & almost died. (From the Daily Bleed)

February 19, 1927 – A General Strike occurred in Shanghai. (From the Daily Bleed)

Joseph Caruso, Joseph J. Ettor (center), and Arturo Giovannitti, in handcuffs, awaiting trial for Lawrence Strike, Wikipedia

 February 19, 1948 – Joe Ettor died on this date. Ettor was an IWW union organizer, who helped spearhead the Lawrence Bread & Roses Strike of 1912. "If the workers of the world want to win, all they have to do is recognize their own solidarity. They have nothing to do but fold their arms and the world will stop. The workers are more powerful with their hands in their pockets than all the property of the capitalists. As long as the workers keep their hands in their pockets, the capitalists cannot put theirs there. With passive resistance, with the workers absolutely refusing to move, lying absolutely silent, they are more powerful than all the weapons and instruments that the other side has for attack." (From the Daily Bleed)

February 19, 1972 – The longest ILWU strike  ended on this date. (From the Daily Bleed)

February 19, 1986 – The Farm Labor Organizing Committee signed an agreement with Campbell Soup, ending a seven-year-old boycott. (From the Daily Bleed)

February 19, 1990 - After a 10-month strike, rank-and-file miners at the Pittston Coal Co. ratified a new contract. Ninety-eight miners and a minister occupied a Pittston Coal plant in Carbo, Virginia, inaugurating the year-long strike. While a one month Soviet coal strike dominated the U.S. media, the year-long Pittston strike received almost no media coverage. (From Workday Minnesota and the Daily Bleed)

February 19, 1997 – 1,200 rallied in support of the striking musicians union, forcing the cancellation of the opening night Disney production of "Beauty & the Beast" at 5th Ave. Theater in Seattle, Washington. (From the Daily Bleed)

Today in Labor History—February 3

February 3, 1908 – The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that union boycotts violate the Sherman Antitrust Act. (From the Daily Bleed)

February 3, 1910 – Mary Harris "Mother" Jones addressed Milwaukee brewery workers during a two-month stint working alongside women bottle-washers while on leave from the United Mine Workers:

"Condemned to slave daily in the wash-room in wet shoes and wet clothes, surrounded with foul-mouthed, brutal foremen . . . the poor girls work in the vile smell of sour beer, lifting cases of empty and full bottles weighing from 100 to 150 pounds, in their wet shoes and rags, for they cannot buy clothes on the pittance doled out to them. . . . Rheumatism is one of the chronic ailments and is closely followed by consumption . . . An illustration of what these girls must submit to, one about to become a mother told me with tears in her eyes that every other day a depraved specimen of mankind took delight in measuring her girth & passing comments." (From the Daily Bleed)

Flyer distributed in Lawrence, September 1912, Wikipedia

 February 3, 1912 – 32,000 textile mill workers were actively involved in the "Bread & Roses" strike in Lawrence, Massachusetts. The strike began last month and continued for over nine weeks. Several strikers were killed by cops and goons. Annie Welzenbach and her two teenage sisters were dragged from their beds in the middle of the night. 200 police attacked striking women with their clubs. (From the Daily Bleed)

February 3, 1964 – 464,000 students (45% of all students) boycotted New York City schools to protest segregation. (From the Daily Bleed)

February 3, 1965 – 3,200 were arrested, including many school children, in week-long voter registration demonstrations in Selma, Alabama. (From the Daily Bleed)

February 3, 1981 – Striking Telecommunications Workers occupied the offices of a telephone company in Nanaimo, British Columbia and renamed it "Co-Op Tel." (From the Daily Bleed)

February 3, 1994 -- A General Strike of 500,000 workers was declared in Equador. (From the Daily Bleed)

Today in Labor History—February 24

Children of Lawrence, MA strikers sent to live with sympathizers in New York City during the work stoppage

February 24, 1912 - Women and children were beaten by police during the Bread and Roses textile strike in Lawrence, Massachusetts. (From Workday Minnesota and the Daily Bleed)

Arrest and escorting plainclothes policemen. Petrograd. 1917

 February 24, 1917 – A Petrograd bread riot turned into revolution when soldiers refused to fire on demonstrators turned on their officers, stormed the arsenal and liberated 20,000 automatic pistols, torched the police stations and emptied the prisons. (From the Daily Bleed)

February 24, 1919 – A new Federal Child Labor law passed and was declared unconstitutional in 1924. A similar law passed two years earlier was declared unconstitutional in 1918. (From the Daily Bleed)

February 24, 1923 – A U.S. Labor Party convention repudiated Communism. (From the Daily Bleed)

February 24, 1939 – The Supreme Court ruled that sit-down strikes were illegal. (From the Daily Bleed)

February 24, 1965 – District 1199 Health Care Workers became the first U.S. labor union to oppose the war in Vietnam. (From the Daily Bleed)

Today in Labor History—February 19, 2012

February 19, 1855 – Bread riots occurred in Liverpool. (From the Daily Bleed)

Bread and Roses, sung by Joan Baez

 

February 19, 1912—During the Bread & Roses Strike in Lawrence, MA, 200 police drew their clubs and went after 100 women picketers, knocking them to the ground and beating them. Big Bill Haywood from the IWW urged women not to picket. An Italian woman suggests responded: “All man, boy stay home, sleep. Only woman, girl on picket line tomorrow morning. Soldier & policeman no beat woman, girl. You see, I got big belly, she too got big belly. Policeman no beat us." However, the next morning, the women were beaten so badly that the Italian woman quoted above and another pregnant striker lost their babies & almost died. (From the Daily Bleed)

February 19, 1927 – A General Strike occurred in Shanghai. (From the Daily Bleed)

Joseph Caruso, Joseph J. Ettor (center), and Arturo Giovannitti, in handcuffs, awaiting trial for Lawrence Strike, Wikipedia

 February 19, 1948 – Joe Ettor died on this date. Ettor was an IWW union organizer, who helped spearhead the Lawrence Bread & Roses Strike of 1912. "If the workers of the world want to win, all they have to do is recognize their own solidarity. They have nothing to do but fold their arms and the world will stop. The workers are more powerful with their hands in their pockets than all the property of the capitalists. As long as the workers keep their hands in their pockets, the capitalists cannot put theirs there. With passive resistance, with the workers absolutely refusing to move, lying absolutely silent, they are more powerful than all the weapons and instruments that the other side has for attack." (From the Daily Bleed)

February 19, 1972 – The longest ILWU strike  ended on this date. (From the Daily Bleed)

February 19, 1986 – The Farm Labor Organizing Committee signed an agreement with Campbell Soup, ending a seven-year-old boycott. (From the Daily Bleed)

February 19, 1990 - After a 10-month strike, rank-and-file miners at the Pittston Coal Co. ratified a new contract. Ninety-eight miners and a minister occupied a Pittston Coal plant in Carbo, Virginia, inaugurating the year-long strike. While a one month Soviet coal strike dominated the U.S. media, the year-long Pittston strike received almost no media coverage. (From Workday Minnesota and the Daily Bleed)

February 19, 1997 – 1,200 rallied in support of the striking musicians union, forcing the cancellation of the opening night Disney production of "Beauty & the Beast" at 5th Ave. Theater in Seattle, Washington. (From the Daily Bleed)

Today in Labor History—February 3

February 3, 1908 – The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that union boycotts violate the Sherman Antitrust Act. (From the Daily Bleed)

February 3, 1910 – Mary Harris "Mother" Jones addressed Milwaukee brewery workers during a two-month stint working alongside women bottle-washers while on leave from the United Mine Workers:

"Condemned to slave daily in the wash-room in wet shoes and wet clothes, surrounded with foul-mouthed, brutal foremen . . . the poor girls work in the vile smell of sour beer, lifting cases of empty and full bottles weighing from 100 to 150 pounds, in their wet shoes and rags, for they cannot buy clothes on the pittance doled out to them. . . . Rheumatism is one of the chronic ailments and is closely followed by consumption . . . An illustration of what these girls must submit to, one about to become a mother told me with tears in her eyes that every other day a depraved specimen of mankind took delight in measuring her girth & passing comments." (From the Daily Bleed)

Flyer distributed in Lawrence, September 1912, Wikipedia

 February 3, 1912 – 32,000 textile mill workers were actively involved in the "Bread & Roses" strike in Lawrence, Massachusetts. The strike began last month and continued for over nine weeks. Several strikers were killed by cops and goons. Annie Welzenbach and her two teenage sisters were dragged from their beds in the middle of the night. 200 police attacked striking women with their clubs. (From the Daily Bleed)

February 3, 1964 – 464,000 students (45% of all students) boycotted New York City schools to protest segregation. (From the Daily Bleed)

February 3, 1965 – 3,200 were arrested, including many school children, in week-long voter registration demonstrations in Selma, Alabama. (From the Daily Bleed)

February 3, 1981 – Striking Telecommunications Workers occupied the offices of a telephone company in Nanaimo, British Columbia and renamed it "Co-Op Tel." (From the Daily Bleed)

February 3, 1994 -- A General Strike of 500,000 workers was declared in Equador. (From the Daily Bleed)