Today in Labor History—June 4

1850 – During June of 1850,  Mikhail Bakunin's death sentence in Germany was commuted to life imprisonment. (From the Daily Bleed)

1861 – During June of 1861 Mikhail Bakunin escaped from Siberia via the Amur River, and arrived in Nikolavsk in July, where he boarded an American merchant ship, Vickery, to Hakodate, Japan. (From the Daily Bleed)

June 4, 1904 – Members of the International Brotherhood of Paper Makers struck Wisconsin paper mills in. (From the Daily Bleed)

June 4, 1906—Francisco Ferrer (founder of the first Modern Schools) was arrested and imprisoned for participating in Mateo Morral’s assassination attempt against Spanish monarch Alfonso XIII. Ferrer was later released due to lack of evidence. Morral worked in Modern School’s publishing house and was a friend of Ferrer’s.

Nestor Makhno during the Ukranian Free Territory, 1919-1921

June 4, 1919 – The 4th (Ukrainian) Congress of Free Soviets, was banned by Leon Trotsky, Bolshevist troops were sent to destroy the Rosa Luxemburg Commune near Provkovski, and the Ukrainian anarchist insurgent Nestor Makhno was declared an outlaw. (From the Daily Bleed)

March in support of the Chilean socialist republic, 1932

June 4, 1932 -- Chilean politicians and the military carried out a coup d'etat, installing Marmaduke Grove, who declared Chile a "socialist republic." However, workers and were given no means to participate. Twelve days later, the military ended the "workers republic." (From the Daily Bleed)

Zoot Suits, 1942 (Library of Congress)

June 4, 1943 – The Zoot Suit riots began on this date in Los Angeles, with white soldiers attacking blacks & Hispanics. (From the Daily Bleed)

June 4, 1963 – Jimmy Hoffa and seven other members of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, were indicted on charges of fraudulently obtaining $20 million in loans from a Teamsters Union Pension Fund. (From the Daily Bleed)

June 4, 1979 – The Sandinistas called for an "insurrectional general strike." (From the Daily Bleed)

June 4, 1989 – The Chinese army massacred at least 2,000 peacefully protesting students and workers in Beijing's Tiananmen Square. (From the Daily Bleed)

Labor History Timeline--The 1960s and 70s

1962    Federal Workers Granted Right to Unionize. (Sources:UHWO)

1964    Civil Rights Act Bans Workplace Discrimination. (Sources:UHWO)

1965    Delano Grape Strike: The predominantly Filipino Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee launched the strike, but it was soon joined by Cesar Chavez and Dolores Huerta’s Mexican-American National Farmworkers Association. The two groups eventually united to form the United Farmworkers (UFW). The union also initiated a nationwide grape boycott that lasted five years and ended with the first union contract for U.S. farm workers outside of Hawaii. (Sources: UHWO, Workday Minnesota)

1968    78 Miners Killed at Consolidated Coal Mines, West Virginia. (Sources: UHWO)

1968    Martin Luther King Assassinated while supporting the AFSCME Sanitation Strike, Memphis. (Sources: UHWO,Wikipedia)

1970    Postal Strike:  The first mass postal strike in U.S. history began when carriers in Manhattan and Brooklyn walked off the job, but quickly spread to 210,000 of the nation’s 750,000 mail carriers. (Sources: UHWO, AFGE)

Trailer for “Harlan County, USA”

1972    Bloody Coal Strike (Again) in Harlan County: Miners struck the Duke Power Company in Harlan County, Kentucky, the sight of numerous bloody strikes in the past (including the Battle of Evarts, 1931). (Sources: UHWO, Wikipedia, The Atlantic)

1974    Karen Silkwood Killed: Oil, Chemical and Atomic Workers union activist Karen Silkwood was assassinated during her investigation of a Kerr-McGee nuclear plant in Oklahoma. Her car was run off the road while she attempted to deliver documents to a New York Times reporter. (Sources: UHWO,Workday Minnesota)

1975    Jimmy Hoffa Disappears: (Sources: UHWO)        

Today in Labor History—July 30

July 30, 1863 - Automobile tycoon Henry Ford was born on this date in Dearborn, Michigan. His introduction of the assembly line and other mass production techniques revolutionized profit-making not only by dramatically increasing worker productivity, and therefore reducing labor costs, but also by deskilling the workforce and weakening the power of the workers. (From Workday Minnesota)

July 30, 1866 – Police shoot into a group of black workers outside the Mechanics Institute in New Orleans. A crowd of whites then stormed the hall. By the time federal troops restored order, 38 were dead and 136 wounded — almost all of them black. (From the Daily Bleed)

July 30, 1912 – A General Strike began in Belgium. (From the Daily Bleed)

July 30, 1975 - Former Teamsters President Jimmy Hoffa disappeared on this date. (From Workday Minnesota)

Today in Labor History—June 4

1850 – During June of 1850,  Mikhail Bakunin's death sentence in Germany was commuted to life imprisonment. (From the Daily Bleed)

1861 – During June of 1861 Mikhail Bakunin escaped from Siberia via the Amur River, and arrived in Nikolavsk in July, where he boarded an American merchant ship, Vickery, to Hakodate, Japan. (From the Daily Bleed)

June 4, 1904 – Members of the International Brotherhood of Paper Makers struck Wisconsin paper mills in. (From the Daily Bleed)

June 4, 1906—Francisco Ferrer (founder of the first Modern Schools) was arrested and imprisoned for participating in Mateo Morral’s assassination attempt against Spanish monarch Alfonso XIII. Ferrer was later released due to lack of evidence. Morral worked in Modern School’s publishing house and was a friend of Ferrer’s.

Nestor Makhno during the Ukranian Free Territory, 1919-1921

June 4, 1919 – The 4th (Ukrainian) Congress of Free Soviets, was banned by Leon Trotsky, Bolshevist troops were sent to destroy the Rosa Luxemburg Commune near Provkovski, and the Ukrainian anarchist insurgent Nestor Makhno was declared an outlaw. (From the Daily Bleed)

March in support of the Chilean socialist republic, 1932

June 4, 1932 -- Chilean politicians and the military carried out a coup d'etat, installing Marmaduke Grove, who declared Chile a "socialist republic." However, workers and were given no means to participate. Twelve days later, the military ended the "workers republic." (From the Daily Bleed)

Zoot Suits, 1942 (Library of Congress)

June 4, 1943 – The Zoot Suit riots began on this date in Los Angeles, with white soldiers attacking blacks & Hispanics. (From the Daily Bleed)

June 4, 1963 – Jimmy Hoffa and seven other members of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, were indicted on charges of fraudulently obtaining $20 million in loans from a Teamsters Union Pension Fund. (From the Daily Bleed)

June 4, 1979 – The Sandinistas called for an "insurrectional general strike." (From the Daily Bleed)

June 4, 1989 – The Chinese army massacred at least 2,000 peacefully protesting students and workers in Beijing's Tiananmen Square. (From the Daily Bleed)

Today in Labor History—June 4

1850 – During June of 1850,  Mikhail Bakunin's death sentence in Germany was commuted to life imprisonment. (From the Daily Bleed)

1861 – During June of 1861 Mikhail Bakunin escaped from Siberia via the Amur River, and arrived in Nikolavsk in July, where he boarded an American merchant ship, Vickery, to Hakodate, Japan. (From the Daily Bleed)

June 4, 1904 – Members of the International Brotherhood of Paper Makers struck Wisconsin paper mills in. (From the Daily Bleed)

Nestor Makhno during the Ukranian Free Territory, 1919-1921

June 4, 1919 – The 4th (Ukrainian) Congress of Free Soviets, was banned by Leon Trotsky, Bolshevist troops were sent to destroy the Rosa Luxemburg Commune near Provkovski, and the Ukrainian anarchist insurgent Nestor Makhno was declared an outlaw. (From the Daily Bleed)

March in support of the Chilean socialist republic, 1932

June 4, 1932 -- Chilean politicians and the military carried out a coup d'etat, installing Marmaduke Grove, who declared Chile a "socialist republic." However, workers and were given no means to participate. Twelve days later, the military ended the "workers republic." (From the Daily Bleed)

Zoot Suits, 1942 (Library of Congress)

June 4, 1943 – The Zoot Suit riots began on this date in Los Angeles, with white soldiers attacking blacks & Hispanics. (From the Daily Bleed)

June 4, 1963 – Jimmy Hoffa and seven other members of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, were indicted on charges of fraudulently obtaining $20 million in loans from a Teamsters Union Pension Fund. (From the Daily Bleed)

June 4, 1979 – The Sandinistas called for an "insurrectional general strike." (From the Daily Bleed)

June 4, 1989 – The Chinese army massacred at least 2,000 peacefully protesting students and workers in Beijing's Tiananmen Square. (From the Daily Bleed)