Today in Labor History—May 6

May 6, 1794 – Toussaint L'Ouverture launched the Haitian revolution for independence against

France. (From the Daily Bleed) For a fantastic history of the Haitian Revolution, read “The Black Jacobins,” by C.L.R.James.

May 6, 1877 – Chief Crazy Horse surrendered to US troops, who murdered him on September 5^th. Dakota Sioux Chief Sitting Bull led 5,000 of his followers into Canada seeking protection from the Queen and petitioned for land for a reserve after defeating Gen. Custer and the U.S. 7th Cavalry at the Little Big Horn. The Canadian government refused. (From the Daily Bleed)

May 6, 1882 – Congress passed the first Chinese Exclusion Act, barring Chinese laborers from entering the U.S. for the next 10 years and denying naturalized citizenship to the Chinese already here. Chinese immigration was effectively shut off for the next 60 years, as the act was extended in both 1902 and again in 1904. (From the Daily Bleed)

May 6, 1935 – The country was deep into the Great Depression. President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 7034 and appropriated $4.8 billion for the Works Progress Administration, which put millions to work building bridges and painting murals, among other things. (From Workday Minnesota)

May 6, 1940 – John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath won the Pulitzer Prize for the most distinguished novel of 1939. He ultimately won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1962. (From the Daily Bleed)

May 6, 1960 – In Birmingham, Alabama, 1000 children and adults were arrested, bringing the total to 2500. Arrestees included Ella Baker, Dave Dellinger, James Forman, Dick Gregory and Joan Baez. Eisenhower ordered the Alabama National Guard to be placed under Federal control. (From the Daily Bleed)

May 6, 1968 – The Paris uprising was now in full swing. Parisian Universities were shut down and demonstrations were breaking out with violent confrontations with the police. On this day, the 'Nanterre 8' passed through a police cordon singing the 'Internationale,' on their way to appear before the University Discipline Committee. Students returning from the discipline hearing were savagely attacked by the police. Students started to rip up paving stones and flip over cars to form barricades. The police flipped out and brutally attacked. The Boulevard St. Germain becomes a bloody battleground, with over 900 wounded and 422 arrested. (From the Daily Bleed)

May 6, 1970-May 20, 1970— Student strikes involving at least one million students (and possibly as many as 4 million) disrupted 448 U.S. colleges during this period. There were as many as 1,200 demonstrations against sending troops to Cambodia. 75 campuses remained closed for the rest of the school year. (From the Daily Bleed)

FBI Car, Wounded Knee, 1973

May 6, 1973 – The FBI attacked Native Americans at Wounded Knee. The town of Wounded Knee had been surrounded and cordoned off by the FBI and marshals since February 27. Members of the American Indian Movement had gone to Wounded Knee for a meeting, but were immediately locked in by FBI. Members who tried to leave were arrested. They were opposing the autocratic and corrupt rule of Oglala Tribal Chairman Dick Wilson. Throughout the 3 months of occupation, gunfire was traded between the two sides. (From the Daily Bleed and Wikipedia)

Today in Labor History--April 10

April 10, 1919--Mexican troops assassinated Emiliano Zapata. (From the Daily Bleed)

A Hooverville near Portland, OR

April 10, 1941--Seattle's Hooverville was burnt to the ground. Set up by people impoverished in the Great Depression to protest the policies of President Hoover, Seattle's Hooverville encompassed 25 city blocks by 1941. (From the Daily Bleed)

April 10, 1947--FBI agents visited Ronald Reagan (then president of the Screen Actors Guild) and his wife Jane Wyman, accusing them of belonging to a communist front group. To prove his loyalty, Reagan agreed to become a secret informer and went on to have a long and illustrious career as an anti-communist. (From the Daily Bleed)

Today in Labor History—March 8

Political Satire by Windsor McCay, 1899 (from Wikipedia)

March 8, 1906 – U. S. occupation troops massacred an "unruly" band of hill Moros in the Philippines, mowing them down with a combination of artillery fire and infantry assaults. (From the Daily Bleed)

March 8, 1908 – Thousands of workers in the New York needle trades (mostly women) demonstrated and launched a strike for higher wages, shorter workday and an end to child labor. Their struggle became the basis for International Women's Day. (From the Daily Bleed)

1914 German International Women's Day Poster (from Wikipedia)

March 8, 1911 – The first International Women's Day was celebrated, in Austria, Denmark, Switzerland, Germany & the U.S. (From the Daily Bleed)

March 8, 1920 – In Sienne, Italy, fascists and police attacked union offices, which were defended by a hundred anarchist and socialist militants. Many workers were wounded in the confrontation, with Regoli Giuseppe dying from his wounds. A General Strike in followed. (From the Daily Bleed)

March 8, 1921 – The Bolsheviks began an air raid on the peaceful population of Kronstadt. The Provisional Revolutionary Committee of Kronstadt appealed by telegram to workers around the world to publicize their plight. (From the Daily Bleed)

March 8, 1926 - Members of the Fur and Leather Workers Union, mostly women, went on strike in New York. Despite beatings by police, the strikers fought on, winning a 10% raise and five-day work week. (From Workday Minnesota)

March 8, 1971 – 1,000 documents were stolen from the FBI office at Media, Pa., by the "Citizens Committee to Investigate the F.B.I." The documents were later distributed to newspapers revealing the existence of the F.B.I.'s criminal COINTELPRO program, harassing domestic political dissidents. (From the Daily Bleed)

Today in Labor History—March 2

Whipping an Enslaved Male, Serro Frio, Brazil, ca. 1770s

March 2, 1807 - Congress abolished the African slave trade. The first American slave ship, Desire, sailed from Marblehead, Massachussetts, in 1637. Since then, nearly 15 million blacks had been transported as slaves to the Americas. Overall, the African continent had lost 50 million people to slavery and the deaths associated with it. Another 250,000 slaves were continued to be imported illegally up to the Civil War. (From Workday Minnesota and the Daily Bleed)

March 2, 1937 - John L. Lewis, president of the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) and U.S. Steel President Myron Taylor signed an agreement recognizing the Steel Workers Organizing Committee as the sole representative for its workforce. The contract also included a 40-hour work week and pay for overtime. (From Workday Minnesota)

Judi Bari Portrait from the Lucha Continua mural, 3260 23rd St., Mission District, San Francisco (Image by Gary Soup)

March 2, 1997 – Earth First! activist and IWW organizer Judi Bari (b.1949) died on this date from cancer. Bari and her comrade Darryl Cherney survived a terrorist bomb in Oakland, CA, in 1990. The police and FBI immediately blamed her for the bombing, claiming that she was the terrorist and that the bomb was intended for the logging companies. She was arrested and handcuffed to her hospital bed. Bari and Cherney were eventually exonerated and won a hefty settlement for the FBI’s role in violating their civil liberties. (From the Daily Bleed)

Today in Labor History—May 6

May 6, 1794 – Toussaint L'Ouverture launched the Haitian revolution for independence against France. (From the Daily Bleed) For a fantastic history of the Haitian Revolution, read “The Black Jacobins,” by C.L.R.James.

May 6, 1877 – Chief Crazy Horse surrendered to US troops, who murdered him on September 5^th. Dakota Sioux Chief Sitting Bull led 5,000 of his followers into Canada seeking protection from the Queen and petitioned for land for a reserve after defeating Gen. Custer and the U.S. 7th Cavalry at the Little Big Horn. The Canadian government refused. (From the Daily Bleed)

May 6, 1882 – Congress passed the first Chinese Exclusion Act, barring Chinese laborers from entering the U.S. for the next 10 years and denying naturalized citizenship to the Chinese already here. Chinese immigration was effectively shut off for the next 60 years, as the act was extended in both 1902 and again in 1904. (From the Daily Bleed)

May 6, 1935 – The country was deep into the Great Depression. President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 7034 and appropriated $4.8 billion for the Works Progress Administration, which put millions to work building bridges and painting murals, among other things. (From Workday Minnesota)

May 6, 1940 – John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath won the Pulitzer Prize for the most distinguished novel of 1939. He ultimately won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1962. (From the Daily Bleed)

May 6, 1960 – In Birmingham, Alabama, 1000 children and adults were arrested, bringing the total to 2500. Arrestees included Ella Baker, Dave Dellinger, James Forman, Dick Gregory and Joan Baez. Eisenhower ordered the Alabama National Guard to be placed under Federal control. (From the Daily Bleed)

May 6, 1968 – The Paris uprising was now in full swing. Parisian Universities were shut down and demonstrations were breaking out with violent confrontations with the police. On this day, the 'Nanterre 8' passed through a police cordon singing the 'Internationale,' on their way to appear before the University Discipline Committee. Students returning from the discipline hearing were savagely attacked by the police. Students started to rip up paving stones and flip over cars to form barricades. The police flipped out and brutally attacked. The Boulevard St. Germain becomes a bloody battleground, with over 900 wounded and 422 arrested. (From the Daily Bleed)

May 6, 1970-May 20, 1970— Student strikes involving at least one million students (and possibly as many as 4 million) disrupted 448 U.S. colleges during this period. There were as many as 1,200 demonstrations against sending troops to Cambodia. 75 campuses remained closed for the rest of the school year. (From the Daily Bleed)

FBI Car, Wounded Knee, 1973

May 6, 1973 – The FBI attacked Native Americans at Wounded Knee. The town of Wounded Knee had been surrounded and cordoned off by the FBI and marshals since February 27. Members of the American Indian Movement had gone to Wounded Knee for a meeting, but were immediately locked in by FBI. Members who tried to leave were arrested. They were opposing the autocratic and corrupt rule of Oglala Tribal Chairman Dick Wilson. Throughout the 3 months of occupation, gunfire was traded between the two sides. (From the Daily Bleed and Wikipedia)

Today in Labor History—March 8

Political Satire by Windsor McCay, 1899 (from Wikipedia)

March 8, 1906 – U. S. occupation troops massacred an "unruly" band of hill Moros in the Philippines, mowing them down with a combination of artillery fire and infantry assaults. (From the Daily Bleed)

March 8, 1908 – Thousands of workers in the New York needle trades (mostly women) demonstrated and launched a strike for higher wages, shorter workday and an end to child labor. Their struggle became the basis for International Women's Day. (From the Daily Bleed)

1914 German International Women's Day Poster (from Wikipedia)

March 8, 1911 – The first International Women's Day was celebrated, in Austria, Denmark, Switzerland, Germany & the U.S. (From the Daily Bleed)

March 8, 1920 – In Sienne, Italy, fascists and police attacked union offices, which were defended by a hundred anarchist and socialist militants. Many workers were wounded in the confrontation, with Regoli Giuseppe dying from his wounds. A General Strike in followed. (From the Daily Bleed)

March 8, 1921 – The Bolsheviks began an air raid on the peaceful population of Kronstadt. The Provisional Revolutionary Committee of Kronstadt appealed by telegram to workers around the world to publicize their plight. (From the Daily Bleed)

March 8, 1926 - Members of the Fur and Leather Workers Union, mostly women, went on strike in New York. Despite beatings by police, the strikers fought on, winning a 10% raise and five-day work week. (From Workday Minnesota)

March 8, 1971 – 1,000 documents were stolen from the FBI office at Media, Pa., by the "Citizens Committee to Investigate the F.B.I." The documents were later distributed to newspapers revealing the existence of the F.B.I.'s criminal COINTELPRO program, harassing domestic political dissidents. (From the Daily Bleed)

Today in Labor History—March 2

Whipping an Enslaved Male, Serro Frio, Brazil, ca. 1770s

March 2, 1807 - Congress abolished the African slave trade. The first American slave ship, Desire, sailed from Marblehead, Massachussetts, in 1637. Since then, nearly 15 million blacks had been transported as slaves to the Americas. Overall, the African continent had lost 50 million people to slavery and the deaths associated with it. Another 250,000 slaves were continued to be imported illegally up to the Civil War. (From Workday Minnesota and the Daily Bleed)

March 2, 1937 - John L. Lewis, president of the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) and U.S. Steel President Myron Taylor signed an agreement recognizing the Steel Workers Organizing Committee as the sole representative for its workforce. The contract also included a 40-hour work week and pay for overtime. (From Workday Minnesota)

Judi Bari Portrait from the Lucha Continua mural, 3260 23rd St., Mission District, San Francisco (Image by Gary Soup)

March 2, 1997 – Earth First! activist and IWW organizer Judi Bari (b.1949) died on this date from cancer. Bari and her comrade Darryl Cherney survived a terrorist bomb in Oakland, CA, in 1990. The police and FBI immediately blamed her for the bombing, claiming that she was the terrorist and that the bomb was intended for the logging companies. She was arrested and handcuffed to her hospital bed. Bari and Cherney were eventually exonerated and won a hefty settlement for the FBI’s role in violating their civil liberties. (From the Daily Bleed)

Today in Labor History—May 6

Toussaint L'Ouverture

May 6, 1794 – Toussaint L'Ouverture launched the Haitian revolution for independence against France. (From the Daily Bleed) For a fantastic history of the Haitian Revolution, read “The Black Jacobins,” by C.L.R.James.

May 6, 1877 – Chief Crazy Horse surrendered to US troops, who murdered him on September 5^th. Dakota Sioux Chief Sitting Bull led 5,000 of his followers into Canada seeking protection from the Queen and petitioned for land for a reserve after defeating Gen. Custer and the U.S. 7th Cavalry at the Little Big Horn. The Canadian government refused. (From the Daily Bleed)

May 6, 1882 – Congress passed the first Chinese Exclusion Act, barring Chinese laborers from entering the U.S. for the next 10 years and denying naturalized citizenship to the Chinese already here. Chinese immigration was effectively shut off for the next 60 years, as the act was extended in both 1902 and again in 1904. (From the Daily Bleed)

May 6, 1935 – The country was deep into the Great Depression. President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 7034 and appropriated $4.8 billion for the Works Progress Administration, which put millions to work building bridges and painting murals, among other things. (From Workday Minnesota)

May 6, 1940 – John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath won the Pulitzer Prize for the most distinguished novel of 1939. He ultimately won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1962. (From the Daily Bleed)

May 6, 1960 – In Birmingham, Alabama, 1000 children and adults were arrested, bringing the total to 2500. Arrestees included Ella Baker, Dave Dellinger, James Forman, Dick Gregory and Joan Baez. Eisenhower ordered the Alabama National Guard to be placed under Federal control. (From the Daily Bleed)

May 6, 1968 – The Paris uprising was now in full swing. Parisian Universities were shut down and demonstrations were breaking out with violent confrontations with the police. On this day, the 'Nanterre 8' passed through a police cordon singing the 'Internationale,' on their way to appear before the University Discipline Committee. Students returning from the discipline hearing were savagely attacked by the police. Students started to rip up paving stones and flip over cars to form barricades. The police flipped out and brutally attacked. The Boulevard St. Germain becomes a bloody battleground, with over 900 wounded and 422 arrested. (From the Daily Bleed)

May 6, 1970-May 20, 1970— Student strikes involving at least one million students (and possibly as many as 4 million) disrupted 448 U.S. colleges during this period. There were as many as 1,200 demonstrations against sending troops to Cambodia. 75 campuses remained closed for the rest of the school year. (From the Daily Bleed)

FBI Car, Wounded Knee, 1973

May 6, 1973 – The FBI attacked Native Americans at Wounded Knee. The town of Wounded Knee had been surrounded and cordoned off by the FBI and marshals since February 27. Members of the American Indian Movement had gone to Wounded Knee for a meeting, but were immediately locked in by FBI. Members who tried to leave were arrested. They were opposing the autocratic and corrupt rule of Oglala Tribal Chairman Dick Wilson. Throughout the 3 months of occupation, gunfire was traded between the two sides. (From the Daily Bleed and Wikipedia)