Today in Labor History—April 26

Levellers Declaration (public domain)

April 26, 1649 – Robert Lockier was sentenced to be shot for leading a revolt by the New Model Army in England.  The first Digger's Manifesto, “The True Levellers' Standard Advanced,” was published:

"For by their labours, [the poor] have lifted up Tyrants & Tyranny; & by denying to labour for hire, they shall pull them down again. He that works for another, either for Wages, or to pay him Rent, works unrighteously, & still lifts up the Curse."  (From the Daily Bleed) 

Apr 26, 1862 – The Anti-Coolie Act of April 26th, 1862 was passed. It was titled "An Act to Protect Free White Labor.” The law was one of a series of xenophobic laws enacted specifically to block the immigration of Chinese to the U.S., particularly to California. (From San Francisco Chinatown.com)

April 26, 1873 – Captain Thomas Wright and Captain Evan Thomas were beaten by Captain Jacks' band of Modocs in the "Thomas-Wright Massacre." U.S. troops lost twenty men & and four officers. 16 were wounded, while one-third of their troops were lost to desertion. The Modocs suffered no deaths. (From the Daily Bleed)

Chinese Laborers Building Transcontinental Railroad in Snow

April 26, 1902 –The U.S. Congress continued its xenophobic and racist practices by passing the second Chinese Exclusion Act, barring Chinese laborers from entering the U.S. for the next 10 years and denying citizenship to the Chinese already here. In 1904 the act was extended indefinitely. (From the Daily Bleed)

April 26, 1942 – The deadliest mining disaster ever occurred in Benxi, China, when an explosion killed between 1,549 and 1,572 miners at the Honkeiko mine. (From the Daily Bleed)

April 26, 1966 – Rodolfo "Corky" Gonzales started the Chicano activist group Crusade for Justice in Denver, Colorado. (From the Daily Bleed)

April 26, 1968 – As many as one million high school and college students across U.S. protested the war in Viet Nam, with 2,000 boycotting classes at University of Washington. (From the Daily Bleed)

April 26, 1975 – 60,000 people marched on Washington, D.C., demanding jobs for all Americans. Angry people rushed the stage, which included mainstream politicians like Hubert Humphrey, causing the rally to be shut down prematurely. (From Workday Minnesota)

Mutation Attributed to Chernobyl (Image by Vincent de Groot, wikipedia)

April 26, 1986 – The Chernobyl nuclear disaster occurred in Ukraine, U.S.S.R. (From the Daily Bleed)

Today in Labor History: April 24

April 24, 1920--A General Strike in Piedmont, which started on April 15, was put down on this date by the Italian authorities. (From the Daily Bleed).

 

April 24, 1954--Mumia Abu Jamal, death row activist, journalist and former Black Panther, was born on this date.(From the Daily Bleed).

 

April 24, 1999 - The International Longshoremen’s and Warehousemen’s Union brought shipping to a standstill on the West Coast of the United States in solidarity with Mumia Abu-Jamal. (From Workday Minnesota)

April 24, 1996 – Nineteen demonstrators were arrested in Kiev, during an illegal anti-nuclear protest marking 10th anniversary of the Chernobyl disaster. (From the Daily Bleed).

Today in Labor History—April 26

Levellers Declaration (public domain)

April 26, 1649 – Robert Lockier was sentenced to be shot for leading a revolt by the New Model Army in England.  The first Digger's Manifesto, “The True Levellers' Standard Advanced,” was published:

"For by their labours, [the poor] have lifted up Tyrants & Tyranny; & by denying to labour for hire, they shall pull them down again. He that works for another, either for Wages, or to pay him Rent, works unrighteously, & still lifts up the Curse."  (From the Daily Bleed) 

Apr 26, 1862 – The Anti-Coolie Act of April 26th, 1862 was passed. It was titled "An Act to Protect Free White Labor.” The law was one of a series of xenophobic laws enacted specifically to block the immigration of Chinese to the U.S., particularly to California. (From San Francisco Chinatown.com)

April 26, 1873 – Captain Thomas Wright and Captain Evan Thomas were beaten by Captain Jacks' band of Modocs in the "Thomas-Wright Massacre." U.S. troops lost twenty men & and four officers. 16 were wounded, while one-third of their troops were lost to desertion. The Modocs suffered no deaths. (From the Daily Bleed)

Chinese Laborers Building Transcontinental Railroad in Snow

April 26, 1902 –The U.S. Congress continued its xenophobic and racist practices by passing the second Chinese Exclusion Act, barring Chinese laborers from entering the U.S. for the next 10 years and denying citizenship to the Chinese already here. In 1904 the act was extended indefinitely. (From the Daily Bleed)

April 26, 1942 – The deadliest mining disaster ever occurred in Benxi, China, when an explosion killed between 1,549 and 1,572 miners at the Honkeiko mine. (From the Daily Bleed)

April 26, 1966 – Rodolfo "Corky" Gonzales started the Chicano activist group Crusade for Justice in Denver, Colorado. (From the Daily Bleed)

April 26, 1968 – As many as one million high school and college students across U.S. protested the war in Viet Nam, with 2,000 boycotting classes at University of Washington. (From the Daily Bleed)

April 26, 1975 – 60,000 people marched on Washington, D.C., demanding jobs for all Americans. Angry people rushed the stage, which included mainstream politicians like Hubert Humphrey, causing the rally to be shut down prematurely. (From Workday Minnesota)

Mutation Attributed to Chernobyl (Image by Vincent de Groot, wikipedia)

April 26, 1986 – The Chernobyl nuclear disaster occurred in Ukraine, U.S.S.R. (From the Daily Bleed)

Today in Labor History: April 24

April 24, 1920--A General Strike in Piedmont, which started on April 15, was put down on this date by the Italian authorities. (From the Daily Bleed).

 

April 24, 1954--Mumia Abu Jamal, death row activist, journalist and former Black Panther, was born on this date.(From the Daily Bleed).

 

April 24, 1999 - The International Longshoremen’s and Warehousemen’s Union brought shipping to a standstill on the West Coast of the United States in solidarity with Mumia Abu-Jamal. (From Workday Minnesota)

April 24, 1996 – Nineteen demonstrators were arrested in Kiev, during an illegal anti-nuclear protest marking 10th anniversary of the Chernobyl disaster. (From the Daily Bleed).

Today in Labor History—April 26

Levellers Declaration (public domain)

April 26, 1649 – Robert Lockier was sentenced to be shot for leading a revolt by the New Model Army in England.  The first Digger's Manifesto, “The True Levellers' Standard Advanced,” was published:

"For by their labours, [the poor] have lifted up Tyrants & Tyranny; & by denying to labour for hire, they shall pull them down again. He that works for another, either for Wages, or to pay him Rent, works unrighteously, & still lifts up the Curse."  (From the Daily Bleed) 

Apr 26, 1862 – The Anti-Coolie Act of April 26th, 1862 was passed. It was titled "An Act to Protect Free White Labor.” The law was one of a series of xenophobic laws enacted specifically to block the immigration of Chinese to the U.S., particularly to California. (From San Francisco Chinatown.com)

April 26, 1873 – Captain Thomas Wright and Captain Evan Thomas were beaten by Captain Jacks' band of Modocs in the "Thomas-Wright Massacre." U.S. troops lost twenty men & and four officers. 16 were wounded, while one-third of their troops were lost to desertion. The Modocs suffered no deaths. (From the Daily Bleed)

Chinese Laborers Building Transcontinental Railroad in Snow

April 26, 1902 –The U.S. Congress continued its xenophobic and racist practices by passing the second Chinese Exclusion Act, barring Chinese laborers from entering the U.S. for the next 10 years and denying citizenship to the Chinese already here. In 1904 the act was extended indefinitely. (From the Daily Bleed)

April 26, 1942 – The deadliest mining disaster ever occurred in Benxi, China, when an explosion killed between 1,549 and 1,572 miners at the Honkeiko mine. (From the Daily Bleed)

April 26, 1966 – Rodolfo "Corky" Gonzales started the Chicano activist group Crusade for Justice in Denver, Colorado. (From the Daily Bleed)

April 26, 1968 – As many as one million high school and college students across U.S. protested the war in Viet Nam, with 2,000 boycotting classes at University of Washington. (From the Daily Bleed)

April 26, 1975 – 60,000 people marched on Washington, D.C., demanding jobs for all Americans. Angry people rushed the stage, which included mainstream politicians like Hubert Humphrey, causing the rally to be shut down prematurely. (From Workday Minnesota)

Mutation Attributed to Chernobyl (Image by Vincent de Groot, wikipedia)

April 26, 1986 – The Chernobyl nuclear disaster occurred in Ukraine, U.S.S.R. (From the Daily Bleed)

Today in Labor History: April 24

April 24, 1999 - The International Longshoremen’s and Warehousemen’s Union brought shipping to a standstill on the West Coast of the United States in solidarity with Mumia Abu-Jamal. (From Workday Minnesota)

April 24, 1996 – Nineteen demonstrators were arrested in Kiev, during an illegal anti-nuclear protest marking 10th anniversary of the Chernobyl disaster. (From the Daily Bleed).

Meltdown California: The World’s First Nuclear Accident

My students have been asking me all week about the risks of fallout from Japan’s nuclear disaster. Californians have been emptying drug stores of iodine tablets in preparation for the impending assault on their thyroids. (Hopefully they haven’t already started consuming them, as the risk of iodine overdose is far more likely). Nevertheless, the disaster in Japan is horrifying, particularly for those in the middle of it. And it is not yet over. It will be some time before we know the true extent of the damage.

While Chernobyl was the worst nuclear accident to date, it was certainly not the first. Nor was the meltdown at Three Mile Island, which miraculously had relatively minimal affects on people. The first nuclear accident occurred at the Santa Susana Field Laboratory (SSFL), also known as RocketDyne, in Ventura Country, California, in 1959.

According to Kim Vincent, who wrote California's Historical Nuclear Meltdown, the SSFL accident released far more radiation than Three Mile Island. The SSFL was used as a testing site for rockets and had a sodium reactor used for nuclear research during the Cold War. As such, it was fairly secretive. The details of the SSFL meltdown were essentially kept hidden from the public until UCLA researchers and few reporters tracked down the details in the afterglow of Three Mile Island’s meltdown in 1979, twenty years after the fact. Scientists and workers at the site were sworn to secrecy, one of whom never told a soul until he saw himself on a documentary about the event.

SSFL was the first U.S. commercial nuclear power plant. It was not well tested and workers were not well versed in the possible problems that could happen. On July 13^th, 1959, the reactor started to act up. Workers tried to determine the nature of the problem, but failed, and turned the reactor back on and ran it for another two weeks before discovering that 13 of 43 fuel rods had partially melted. While much smaller than the Three Mile Island reactor, SSFL is believed to have released up to 240 times more radiation than the 1979 disaster. The reason for this is that it did not have a concrete containment structure.

In 1989, the Department of Energy said that the SSFL site was still contaminated. Researchers have found increased levels of bladder cancer in the area. UCLA did a follow up report that determined that cleanup workers had cancer death rates three times higher than the general population. In 2007, the EPA declared SSFL a Superfund site.

Many workers at the site were enlisted to help clean up, including many from the rocket division who did not have any expertise in radiation containment, according to the Venture Country Star. Many were told not to wear their film badges (used to measure exposure to radiation) so they could continue helping the cleanup effort even after surpassing their radiation limits and they often wore nothing more protective than coveralls. Cleaning materials were often just dumped. They also released radioactive gas over the San Fernando Valley and did not inform the public, while the company repeatedly downplayed the event and denied there was any danger to the public.