Today In Labor History—June 29

Michael Schwab

June 29, 1898 – Michael Schwab, who was convicted for the Haymarket bombing, died from tuberculosis, having been pardoned and released from prison just a few months prior.

June 29, 1919 – Striking meat-workers in Townsville, Queensland, Australia clashed with police. Nine people were wounded in an exchange of gunshots.

June 29, 1936 – Jesus Pallares, founder of the 8,000-member coal miners union, Liga Obrera de Habla Esanola, was deported from the U.S. as an "undesirable alien." One hundred miners were arrested during the 1934 La Liga strike against the Gallup American Company in New Mexico.

June 29, 1941 – Stokely Carmichael (1941-1998), founder of the U.S. civil rights group the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) was born in Port of Spain, Trinidad. Emigrated to the United States.

June 29, 1983 – President Reagan said that one cause of the decline in public education was the effort to comply with court-ordered desegregation.

(All 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—February 25

The Death Ship book cover (from Libcom)

February 25, 1882 – Ret Marut, also known as B. Traven, author of such novels as The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, The Death Ship, The Rebellion of the Hanged, The White Rose, was born on this date. (From the Daily Bleed)

February 25, 1908 – The "Washington Post" proposed that ALL anarchists should be executed (whether or not they have been convicted of any crime or offense). (From the Daily Bleed)

Leaders of the Paterson silk strike: Patrick Quinlan, Carlo Tresca, Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, Adolph Lessig, and Bill Haywood

 February 25, 1913 – The Paterson, New Jersey silk strike began, with 25,000 immigrant textile workers walking out when mill owners doubled the size of the looms without increasing staffing or wages. The strike was organized by the Industrial Workers of the World, but collapsed when mill owners exploited divisions between skilled and unskilled workers, successfully getting the skilled workforce to agree to return to work. Five strikers were killed during the 208-day walkout.  (From Workday Minnesota and the Daily Bleed)

February 25, 1964 – 172,000 students boycotted Chicago schools to protest segregation. (From the Daily Bleed)

Today in Labor History—February 8

February 8, 1805 – Louis-Auguste Blanqui, French revolutionary and participant in the Paris Commune, was born on this date in Puget-Theniers, Alpes-Maritimes. (From the Daily Bleed)

February 8, 1864 - Labor leader Mary Kenney O'Sullivan was born on this date, becoming the American Federation of Labor’s first female general organizer. (From Workday Minnesota)

February 8, 1886 – “Black Monday" occurred on this date in England, when a meeting of 3-5000 unemployed workers in Trafalgar Square was attacked by 600 police officers, leading to a riot. (From the Daily Bleed)

February 8, 1912 – The IWW were engaged in a free speech fight in San Diego, California. Vigilantes routinely kidnapped and beat Industrial Workers of the World organizers. Some were tarred and feathered, forced to kiss the American flag, forced to run gauntlets and run out of town by the good citizens. (From the Daily Bleed)

February 8, 1919 -- A General Strike occurred in Butte, Montana, caused by dollar per day wage cut. A Workers & Soldiers Council was organized to conduct the strike. (From the Daily Bleed)

February 8, 1968 – The Orangeburg Massacre occurred in South Carolina, when highway patrolmen fired on black SC State students, killing four and wounding 33 as black students. These were the first student demonstrators killed by police in the '60s. (From the Daily Bleed)

Today in Labor History—February 4

February 4, 1869 - Labor leader and Industrial Workers of the World co-founder William D. "Big Bill" Haywood was born on this date. Haywood started mining at age nine. He became secretary-treasurer of the Western Federation of Miners in 1900 and co-founded the IWW in 1905. Charged in the bombing murder of former Idaho Governor Frank Steunenberg in 1907, he was acquitted with the counsel of Clarence Darrow. His radicalism led to his dismissal from the WFM in 1918. That same year he was convicted of violating alien and sedition acts, a victim of the Red Scare, and was sentenced to 20 years in prison. However, he jumped bail and fled to the Soviet Union, where he died in 1928. (From Workday Minnesota)

February 4, 1899 – A U.S. sentry shot Filipino soldiers, leading to a revolt against the U.S. occupation. Filipino historians like Agoncillo and Constantino estimated that over 300,000 Filipinos, mostly civilians, perished as a result of the U.S. genocide. The Manila correspondent for the Philadelphia Ledger wrote in 1901, “Our men have been relentless, have killed to exterminate men, women, children, prisoners and captives, active insurgents and suspected people from lads of ten up. . .” (From the Daily Bleed)

February 4, 1900 – Jacques Prévert was born on this date (1900-1977). Prevert was a poet, surrealist and libertarian who glorified the spirit of rebellion & revolt. (From the Daily Bleed)

February 4, 1900 -- Labor strikes in mining areas led to riots in Belgium and Germany. (From the Daily Bleed)

February 4, 1913 – Rosa Parks was born on this date in Tuskegee, Alabama. (From the Daily Bleed)

February 4, 1921 – A massacre at San Gregorio, Chile, left 565 nitrate miners dead. 1920 was a year of brutal repression of the workers movement — many locals were burnt down, many agitators murdered, workers sent to prison, etc. The Chilean IWW led a three month long strike protesting the export of grain during a food shortage. (From the Daily Bleed)

February 4, 1956 – White students rioted at the University of Alabama against court-ordered admission of first black student. (From the Daily Bleed)

February 4, 1979 – Six workers were killed in the massacre of Cromotex, Lima Peru. (From the Daily Bleed)

February 4, 1981 – 68 campesinos were killed in the massacre of Chimaltenango, Guatemala. (From the Daily Bleed)

Today in Labor History—February 2

"Battle of Churubusco--Fought near the city of Mexico 20th of August 1847 / J. Cameron." Hand tinted lithograph, Wikipedia

February 2, 1848 – The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo was signed, ending the U.S. war with Mexico. México was forced to cede over 1/3 of its land, including parts of California, Arizona, New Mexico, Nevada, Utah, Colorado and Texas to the US. 25,000 Mexicans and 12,000 Americans lost their lives in the war. (From the Daily bleed)

February 2, 1931 – U.S. citizens of Mexican heritage were "repatriated" to Mexico. During the decade's first four years, over 400,000 Mexican-Americans, many US citizens living here as long as 40 years, were deported. (From the Daily bleed)

February 2, 1938 -- Emma Tenayuca led a month-long strike at the Southern Pecan-Shelling company in San Antonio, Texas, against low wages. (From the Daily bleed)

February 2, 1956 -- Four black mothers were arrested after a sit-in at a Chicago elementary school protesting de facto segregation, double shifts and mobile classrooms. (From the Daily bleed)

Today in Labor History—December 1

December 1, 1904 – W. A. "Tony" Boyle, future president of the United Mine Workers (UMW) was born on this date. (From the Daily Bleed)

December 1, 1908 – As Brazil and Argentina prepared for war, workers on both sides of the border protested. (From the Daily Bleed)

December 1, 1912 – The rustling card system was put into place by the Anaconda Mining and Smelter Company. Agitators were identified by spies and refused cards and jobs. (From the Daily Bleed)

Ralph Chaplin (public domain)

 December 1, 1914 – The famous labor song, "Solidarity Forever," was written on this date by IWW songwriter Ralph Chaplin. He wrote the song for a hunger march to be led by Lucy Parsons in Chicago (on January 17, 1915).

Solidarity Forever

(To the tune of Glory Glory Hallelijah)

When the union's inspiration through worker's blood shall run,
There can be no power greater anywhere beneath the sun;
Yet what force on earth is weaker than the feeble strength of one,
For the union makes us strong.
[Chorus]
Is there aught we hold in common with the greedy parasite
Who would lash us into serfdom & would crush us with his might?
is there anything left to us but to organize & fight?
For the union makes us strong
[Chorus]
In our hands is placed a power greater than their hoarded gold,
Greater than the might of armies magnified a thousand fold;
We can bring to birth a new world from the ashes of the old,
For the union makes us strong.
[Chorus]: Solidarity forever, Solidarity forever, Solidarity forever,
For the union makes us strong (From the Daily Bleed)

Rust Bucket UST Buford Carrying Its "Christmas Present" of Reds to Lenin and Trotsky

December 1, 1919 -- US: Alexander Berkman, Emma Goldman and 200 other anarchists, labor militants and radicals were deported to Russia on the Buford. (From the Daily Bleed)

December 1, 1955 - Rosa Parks, a 43-year-old African-American seamstress, boarded a bus in downtown Montgomery, Alabama, and refused to move to the back. She was arrested, triggering a year-long boycott of the city bus system and legal actions which ended racial segregation on municipal buses throughout the southern United States (From Workday Minnesota)

December 1, 1966 – The Youngstown General Duty Nurses Association (YGDNA) became the first nurses in Ohio to engage in a mass resignation or "strike." According to the American Nurses Association, it may have been the first concerted action by nurses in a labor dispute in the nation. (From the Daily Bleed)

Charter School Enrollment Rising Rapidly

Huck/Konopacki Labor Cartoons

Between the 2010-11 and 2011-12 school years, the number of students enrolled in charter schools rose by nearly 13%, to just over two million students nationwide, according to a new report from the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools. 110 school districts across the nation have at least 10% of their students enrolled in charter schools, 16 more than last year.

New Orleans leads the nation with 70% of its students enrolled in charter schools, the New York Times reported last week. Detroit, Washington, D.C., and St. Louis, each have more than 30% of their public school students attending charter schools. New York City saw a 24% jump in charter school enrollment over the past year. California currently has the highest total number of charter schools, according to the WSWS.

The rise of charter schools has come primarily as a result of a highly effective and well-funded PR campaign financed by billionaires like Bill Gates, the Waltons, Eli Broad and others, that has painted the entire traditional public school system as a complete failure and charter schools as their best salvation. They have spent millions of dollars propping up fledgling charters that could not possibly have survived or thrived without private donations. They have bought politicians and initiatives in many states, resulting in laws that facilitate the creation of new charter schools and that defund traditional schools (like NCLB and Parent Trigger laws, which have been used to foist charter schools upon communities). Wall Street bankers and hedge fund managers have also jumped into the charter school circus, recognizing the large profits to be made in public education (see here and here).

Proponents have even created their own reality with bogus studies that “prove” that charter schools are far more effective than they actually are. In reality, charter schools are no better than traditional public schools. A national study by the Center for Research on Education Outcomes at Stanford found that while 17% of charter schools produced better results than neighborhood public schools, 37% were significantly worse, and the rest were no different. Also, many of the studies that have found superior outcomes at charter schools were based on dubious or misinterpreted data.

Furthermore, charter schools are far more segregated than traditional public schools. 70% of black charter school students attend schools with 90-100% minority students, 75% of whom are also black, yet black students make up only one-third of all charter school students. Half of Latino charter students also attend racially isolated minority schools. Charter schools are also segregated by class. While, poor students make up 40% of public school students, they make up only 17% of private religious and 10% of private secular school students. (For more on charter school segregation (see here, here and here.) Additionally, many push out or block special education students and English Language Learners from enrolling. In contrast, traditional public schools must accept all students, regardless of socioeconomic status, ethnicity or physical or mental ability.

Today in Labor History—October 22

October 22, 1905 – 30,000 people joined the uprising in Santiago, Chile—part of the "Semana Roja" (Red Week). (From the Daily Bleed)

October 22, 1905 – Police massacred 200 demonstrators in Argentina who were opposing a tax on cattle. Popular outrage swept the country leading to a General Strike. The government declared a "state of siege." (From the Daily Bleed)

October 22, 1956 – Russian troops began to advance on Budapest against students and workers who were demonstrating in solidarity with Polish workers. (From the Daily Bleed)

October 22, 1962 -- Nelson Mandela's trial for treason began on this date.(From the Daily Bleed)

October 22, 1963 -- US: More than 200,000 students boycotted schools in Chicago to protest de facto segregation. (From the Daily Bleed)

Today in Labor History—October 11

October 11, 1873 - The Miners’ National Association was founded in Youngstown, Ohio, with the goal of uniting all miners, regardless of skill or ethnicity, echoing the Knights of Labor and presaging the IWW. (FromWorkday Minnesota)

October 11, 1906 – San Francisco ordered the segregation of all Asian children in schools until Teddy Roosevelt forced the city to rescind the order. (From the Daily Bleed)

October 11, 1972 – Right wing truckers struck against the democratically-elected Allende government in Chile, assisted by the CIA, helping to set the stage for years of brutal repression by the Pinochet dictatorship. (From theDaily Bleed)

Today in Labor History—October 5

October 5, 1934 – 40,000 miners and iron workers went on strike against the right wing government, seizing towns around Gijon. The uprising in the mining districts of Asturias, Spain, was followed by intense repression during which thousands of miners were executed, thousands more were tortured and 30-40,000 were imprisoned. (From the Daily Bleed)

October 5, 1958 – Clinton, Tennessee high school, which had been desegregated in 1956, was blown up by segregationists. (From the Daily Bleed)

October 5, 1976 - The United Auto Workers and Ford Motor Co. ended a three-week strike by agreeing to a contract that included an increase in vacation days and improved retirement and unemployment benefits. (From Workday Minnesota)

Today in Labor History—August 12

August 12, 1881 - The United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners was founded. (From Workday Minnesota)

August 12, 1898 – Coal company guards killed seven and wounded 40 miners who were trying to stop scabs from taking their jobs in Virden, Illinois. (From the Daily Bleed)

August 12, 1933 – A General Strike brought down the Machado government in Cuba. (From the Daily Bleed)

August 12, 1936 -- The First International Brigades arrived in Spain to fight against Franco. (From the Daily Bleed)

British internationalistas' flag

Hungarian Internationalistas' flag

August 12, 1959 – Little Rock, Arkansas began to integrate two of its public schools, in response to a federal mandate, admitting a whopping six black students to two schools and even this was met with violence by segregationist mobs. (From the Daily Bleed)

The Little Rock 9 being escorted into Central High in 1957

August 12, 1978 – South Korean police stormed the YH Wig factory sit-in, arresting 180 and killing one. (From the Daily Bleed)

August 12, 1992 - The U.S., Canada and Mexico signed the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), which took effect in January 1994. Since then, the U.S. has lost 3 million jobs, while wages in Mexico have plummeted. (From Workday Minnesota)

Today In Labor History—June 29

Michael Schwab

June 29, 1898 – Michael Schwab, who was convicted for the Haymarket bombing, died from tuberculosis, having been pardoned and released from prison just a few months prior.

June 29, 1919 – Striking meat-workers in Townsville, Queensland, Australia clashed with police. Nine people were wounded in an exchange of gunshots.

June 29, 1936 – Jesus Pallares, founder of the 8,000-member coal miners union, Liga Obrera de Habla Esanola, was deported from the U.S. as an "undesirable alien." One hundred miners were arrested during the 1934 La Liga strike against the Gallup American Company in New Mexico.

June 29, 1941 – Stokely Carmichael (1941-1998), founder of the U.S. civil rights group the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) was born in Port of Spain, Trinidad. Emigrated to the United States.

June 29, 1983 – President Reagan said that one cause of the decline in public education was the effort to comply with court-ordered desegregation.

(All 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—February 25

The Death Ship book cover (from Libcom)

February 25, 1882 – Ret Marut, also known as B. Traven, author of such novels as The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, The Death Ship, The Rebellion of the Hanged, The White Rose, was born on this date. (From the Daily Bleed)

February 25, 1908 – The "Washington Post" proposed that ALL anarchists should be executed (whether or not they have been convicted of any crime or offense). (From the Daily Bleed)

Leaders of the Paterson silk strike: Patrick Quinlan, Carlo Tresca, Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, Adolph Lessig, and Bill Haywood

 February 25, 1913 – The Paterson, New Jersey silk strike began, with 25,000 immigrant textile workers walking out when mill owners doubled the size of the looms without increasing staffing or wages. The strike was organized by the Industrial Workers of the World, but collapsed when mill owners exploited divisions between skilled and unskilled workers, successfully getting the skilled workforce to agree to return to work. Five strikers were killed during the 208-day walkout.  (From Workday Minnesota and the Daily Bleed)

February 25, 1964 – 172,000 students boycotted Chicago schools to protest segregation. (From the Daily Bleed)