Today in Labor History—June 11

Richard II meets the rebels (from Froissart's Chronicles)

June 11, 1381 – A Peasant revolt broke out in England, calling for property to be held in common and equality for all. Also known as Wat Tyler's rebellion and marked the beginning of the end of serfdom. (From the Daily Bleed)

Wat Tyler's execution by Walworth, while Richard II watches

June 11, 1848 – The wave of European revolutions continued with the uprising in Prague. (From the Daily Bleed)

June 11, 1872 - Labor unions were legalized in Canada, following a Toronto printers' strike. (From Workday Minnesota)

Blockade of engines in W. Virginia (from Harpers)

 June 11, 1877 –The Great U.S. Railroad Strike began. (From the Daily Bleed)

Maryland national guard battling striking rail workers

 June 11, 1913 – Cops shot Black & White IWW (Industrial Workers of the World) members and AFL maritime workers who were striking against United Fruit company in New Orleans, killing one and wounding two. (From the Daily Bleed)

June 11, 1925 – During a mine workers strike against the British Empire Steel Corporation (BESCO) in Cape Breton, drunken company police attacked on horseback, beating all in their way. They then rode through the school yards, knocking down innocent children, cracking jokes that the miners were at home hiding under their beds. (From the Daily Bleed)

June 11, 1926 – The first 40-hour work week in the U.S. was won by New York fur workers. (From the Daily Bleed)

June 11, 1929 – Student strikers occupied buildings at the Universidad Nacional de Mexico. (From the Daily Bleed)

June 11, 1957 – Chinese students fought that cops and attacked the Communist Party HQ in Hang Yang. (From the Daily Bleed)

June 11, 1968 –May Days continued into June in France with ongoing strikes and protests. In the factories of Peugeot-Sochaux, two workers were killed by the hated CRS. (From the Daily Bleed)

June 11, 1973 – General Strike against General Franco was launched in Pamplona, Spain. (From the Daily Bleed)

June 11, 1974 – A labor dispute at the Chrysler Truck Facility erupted into a spontaneous wildcat strike lasting from June 11 through June 14. Two Dodge Truck strikers wrote, "[we wanted] to free ourselves from the tyranny of the workplace; stop being forced to sell our labor to others; stop others from having control over our lives." (From the Daily Bleed)

June 11, 1981 – The first baseball player's strike in major-league history began midseason. (From the Daily Bleed)

June 11, 2002 – Earth First! and IWW activists Judi Bari and Darryl Cherney won $4.4 million in a false-arrest lawsuit against Oakland police and the FBI. They had been arrested for blowing up their own car while they were in it. The jury unanimously found that six of the seven FBI and OPD defendants had deliberately framed Bari and Cherney in an effort to crush Earth First! and chill participation in Redwood Summer.

Today in Labor History—May 31

Scene at Bossenden Wood

May 31, 1838 -- Kentish peasants clashed with armed British troops at Bosendon Wood. (From the Daily Bleed)

May 31, 1905 – The Spanish anarchist Alexander Farras threw a bomb into a procession headed by French President Loubet and the King Alphonso XIII of Spain. The leaders were not hurt, though several people were wounded. Farras was never caught. Four other anarchists were arrested, tried and acquitted. (From the Daily Bleed)

May 31, 1906 – Another attempt was made on King Alphonso XIII. This time, anarchist Mateo Morral hid a bomb in a bunch of flowers and threw it at the King during his royal wedding. Because he worked in Modern School’s publishing house and was a friend of Francisco Ferrer (the founder of the first Modern Schools), Ferrer was later arrested and imprisoned as an accomplice.

Protest for Sacco and Vanzetti in London, 1921

May 31, 1921 - The infamous trial of Sacco and Vanzetti, in which the two Italian anarchists were railroaded for a crime they did not commit, began in Dedham, Massachusetts. Judge Webster Thayer’s anti-worker and anti-immigrant opening remarks set the tone for the trial. (From Workday Minnesota)

May 31, 1921 – Over 300 were killed in Tulsa, Oklahoma, in the worst race riot in U.S. history. The violence was precipitated by a false report in the Tulsa Tribune, accusing a black man of attacking a white girl in an elevator. While the headline made the front page, there was an accompanying editorial on the back page calling for a lynching. White Tulsans began shooting blacks, and then looted and burned their homes and businesses, completely destroying the black community of Greenwood. (From the Daily Bleed)

May 31, 1955 – The Supreme Court ordered school integration "with all deliberate speed." (From the Daily Bleed)

May 31, 1961 – A U.S. sponsored coup in the Dominican Republic led to the killing of Dictator Rafael Leónidas Trujillo. Dominicans then voted in Juan Bosch, who incensed the military and the ruling elite by refusing to buy military airplanes, announcing agrarian reforms, legalizing divorce, and increasing workers' wages. Within seven months there was another coup, by the same generals who led the coup against Trujillo, School of the Americas alumni: Generals Imbert and Wessin y Wessin. The U.S. immediately recognized the new government. (From the Daily Bleed)

May 31, 1968 –Student protests were spreading throughout the world, with protests on this date in Vienna, in Denmark and Buenos Aires on June 1, and the Yugoslav insurrection beginning soon after. Thousands of students went on strike in Brazil on June 6, followed by protests in Geneva and Turkey, 20. (From the Daily Bleed)

May 31, 1986 – The Tiananmen Square demonstrations entered their 18th day, with 100,000 filling the Square. (From the Daily Bleed)

May 31, 2000 – Protesting teachers burn pamphlets at a fence around the Los Pinos presidential residence in Mexico City, as riot police attempted to protect the building. Teachers throughout the country had been protesting for better wages and education reform since May 15.

Today in Labor History—May 22

Versaille generals being shot during the Paris Commune

May 22, 1871 –The "Bloody Week" continued in France for the second day, as government forces brutally suppressed the Paris Commune. (From the Daily Bleed)

May 22, 1895 – Eugene Debs was thrown in prison for his role in the Pullman Railway Strike (also known as the "Debs Rebellion"). (From the Daily Bleed)

May 22, 1930 – Harvey Milk, gay rights activist and San Francisco city Supervisor, was born. He was assassinated by a former supervisor (and current lunatic) Dan White, who only got a couple years in jail using the famous Twinkie defense., resulting in rioting in San Francisco. (From the Daily Bleed)

May 22, 1968 –New York police busted through the barricades at Columbia University, busting the student occupations there, resulting in 998 arrested, over 200 injuries. They were demanding a black studies program and an end to military recruitment and ROTC on campus. (From the Daily Bleed)

May 22, 1969 –The first strike by Chicago teachers began on this day and lasted for three days. (From the Daily Bleed)

Today in Labor History—May 13

May 13, 1960 – Police violently attacked students who were nonviolently protesting HUAC hearings. (From the Daily Bleed)

May 13, 1968 – Students occupied the Sorbonne, in Paris and joined workers in a General Strike. (From the Daily Bleed)

May 13, 1968 – The Poor People’s Campaign raised Resurrection City, in Washington, D.C. (From the Daily Bleed)

May 13, 1985 – Philadelphia Mayor Wilson Goode ordered MOVE headquarters bombed, resulting in 11 deaths and 61 homes destroyed. (From the Daily Bleed)

 May 13, 1989 – 1,000 students began a hunger strike in support of democracy protestors’ demands for a dialogue with the government. (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—April 29

Coxey's Army Leaving Camp (Library of Congress)

April 29, 1894 –Jacob Coxey led a group of 500 unemployed workers from the Midwest to Washington, D.C. His Army of the Poor was immediately arrested for trespassing on Capitol grounds.

The Return of Coxey's Army (By Eddie Starr)

When they busted all the unions,
You can't make no living wage.
And this working poor arrangement,
Gonna turn to public rage.
And then get ready . . .
We're gonna bring back Coxey's Army
And take his message to the street.

(From the Daily Bleed)

U.S. Marines With Captured Sandinista Flag, 1932

April 29, 1895 –Warships were sent to Nicaragua to "protect" US interests, the first of many military interventions in that small Central American country. President Taft ordered the overthrow of President Zelaya in 1909.The U.S. later invaded in 1910 and occupied the country in 1912, an occupation that was ultimately ended by the resistance of Augusto Sandino and the original Sandinistas in 1933. In 1934, Anastasio Somoza assassinated Sandino. (From the Daily Bleed and Wikipedia)

 

April 29, 1899 – Failing to achieve their demand that only union men be employed at the Bunker Hill Company at Wardner, Idaho, members of the Western Federation of Miners (WFM) dynamited the $250,000 mill, completely destroying it. President McKinley responded by sending in black soldiers from Brownsville, Texas, with orders to round up the miners and imprison them in specially built "bullpens." From 1899 to 1901, the U.S. Army occupyied the Coeur d'Alene mining region in Idaho. (From the Daily Bleed)

April 29, 1915 –The Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom was founded at The Hague, which works for world disarmament, full rights for women, racial and economic justice, an end to all forms of violence, and to establish the political, social, and psychological conditions which can assure peace, freedom, and justice for all. Its first president was Jane Addams, who founded and directed Hull House in Chicago for newly arrived immigrants. (From Workday Minnesota)

Captured Revolutionary, May 1919 (German Federal Archive)

April 29, 1919 –From April 29 to May 2, government forces in Munich violently crushed the Republic of the Councils of Bavaria. Workers, socialists, anarchists, and sympathizers bravely resisted. Over 700 were summarily executed. (From the Daily Bleed)

April 29, 1937 –The Friends of Durruti Group postered Barcelona with a list of their demands: "All power to the working class. All economic power to the unions." (From the Daily Bleed)

April 29, 1970 –The National Guard killed seven students at Ohio State University. (From the Daily Bleed)

Today in Labor History--April 12

April 12, 1900 – Birth of Florence Reece, an activist in the Harlan County, Kentucky, coal strikes, and author of “Which Side Are You On?” The song was written in 1931 during a UMW strike in which sheriff Blair led a gang of thugs in a rampage of beating & murdering union leaders. Florence wrote the song on an old wall calendar while her home was being ransacked by Blair’s goons. (From the Daily Bleed and Workday Minnesota).

April 12, 1935 – 150,000 college students protested across the U.S. in the first nationwide student strike against war. Between 1936, and 1939, the movement mobilized at least 500,000 college students (almost 50% of all American college students at the time) in annual one-hour strikes against war. (From the Daily Bleed).

April 12, 1937 - The U.S. Supreme Court upheld the Wagner Act (also known as the National Labor Relations Act) which created the structure for collective bargaining and rules for strikes and job actions. (From Workday Minnesota)

Today in Labor History—April 1

April 1, 1649 – Diggers occupied St. George's Hill, near Cobham, Surrey, England, seizing land to hold in common and to plant. Other Digger communities followed in Northants, Bucks, Kent, Herts, Middx, Leics, Beds, Glos & Notts.

April 1, 1882 – Coal Heavers strike against the Suez Canal Company in Port Said.

 

April 1, 1920 – T-Bone Slim's The Popular Wobbly published in the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) "One Big Union Monthly".

April 1, 1924 – West Virginia miners walked out at the Coal River Colliery Company (CRC). The strike was unusual because CRC was an investment venture of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers (BLE), with stock owned by members of the Brotherhood. The United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) called the strike because the company refused to pay the current union wage scale.

April 1, 1932 – 500 hungry school children in tattered clothes marched through Chicago's downtown section to the Board of Education offices to demand that the school system provide them with food.

April 1, 1946 – The 400,000-strong mine workers strike was put down by the U.S. military on orders of President Truman.

April 1, 1961 – Local 101 began a 6-week strike against Brooklyn Union Gas Company.

April 1, 1963 – The longest newspaper strike in U.S. history ended on this date. The nine major papers in New York City ceased publication over 100 days ago.

(From the Daily Bleed)

 

Today in Labor History—March 13

(From wikipedia)

March 13, 1925 – Tennessee made it unlawful to teach evolution. (From the Daily Bleed)

March 13, 1946 - The United Auto Workers and General Motors signed a new contract after a four-month strike over wages. (From Workday Minnesota)

March 13, 1961 – IWW Labor organizer and recovering anarchist Elizabeth Gurley Flynn was elected chair of the National Committee of the Communist Party, U.S.A. (From the Daily Bleed)

March 13, 1963 – Labor Local 260 Houston negotiated its first contract with Pioneer Bus, ending dual pay scales for black and white drivers. (From the Daily Bleed)

March 13, 1967 – United Farm Workers (UFW) won a contract with the Christian Brothers Winery. (From the Daily Bleed)

March 13, 1968 – Student demonstrations in Warsaw led to street riots. All Polish universities were out on strike, with students occupying university. (From the Daily Bleed)

March 13, 1996 – Two leaders of the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions, Yang Kyu Hon and Kwon Young Kil, were arrested. (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 23

Traven's Supposed Birth Place, Rathaus Schwiebus about 1900

February 23, 1882 – B. Traven (1882?-1969) was born on this date in Poznañ, Poland. Traven (also known as Ret Marut, Hal Croves, Bruno Traven, Traven Torsvan, Otto Feige) wrote the Death Ship, Treasure of the Sierra Madre and numerous novels depicting working conditions among Mexican peasants and indigenous people in his Jungle series. He was also active in the Bavarian Soviet of 1918-1919. (From the Daily Bleed)

February 23, 1887 - The Journeyman Bakers National Union was chartered by the American Federation of Labor on this date. Its founder, George Block, was also nominated to head the newly-formed AFL. When he declined, Samuel Gompers was unanimously chosen. Today, the bakers union has become the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers International Union. (From Workday Minnesota)

Jean-Baptiste_Clément_recadré.jpg‎

 February 23, 1903 – Jean-Baptiste Clément (b.1836) died on this date. Clement was a Paris Communard, poet, singer and author of the famous song "The Time of Cherries." He was one of the last on the barricades during the commune, ultimately being forced into hiding and taking refuge in England. He was condemned to death in absentia, later returning to France after the Amnesty of 1879. Paris now has schools and a street named for him. (From the Daily Bleed)

February 23, 1917 – A strike began among women textile workers in Petrograd. Demonstrations turned into bread riots and spread throughout the city. The troops who crushed similar demonstrations in 1905 refused to put down the uprising, with many joining in by the end of the month. (From the Daily Bleed)

February 23, 1995 – Two hundred high school students rioted outside Patterson City Hall, New Jersey, in response to the shooting of a classmate by police. (From the Daily Bleed)

Today in Labor History—February 11

February 11, 1916 – Feminist and civil-rights activist Flo Kennedy was born in on this date Kansas City, Missouri. As a lawyer, Kennedy represented Billie Holiday, Charlie Parker and H. Rap Brown. In 1972 she formed the Feminist Party and filed an Internal Revenue Service complaint alleging that the Catholic Church violates tax-exempt requirements by spending money to influence political decisions. "I'm just a loud-mouthed middle-aged colored lady . . . & a lot of people think I'm crazy. Maybe you do too, but I never stop to wonder why I'm not like other people. The mystery to me is why more people aren't like me." (From the Daily Bleed)

Seattle Strikers and their Supporters Took Over Most City Services, Including Food Distribution

 February 11, 1919 – The Seattle General Strike ended. (From the Daily Bleed)

Sit Down Strikers in Flint

 February 11, 1937 - General Motors recognized the United Auto Workers (UAW) following a 44-day sit-down strike involving 48,000 GM workers. Two months later, company guards beat up UAW leaders at the River Rouge, Michigan plant.  (From Workday Minnesota)

February 11, 1964 – 19,000 students boycotted Cincinnati schools to protest segregation. (From the Daily Bleed)

February 11, 1981 – Eight workers were contaminated when 100,000 gallons of radioactive coolant leaked into a containment building of the Tennessee Valley Authority's (TVA) Sequoyah I plant in Tennessee. (From the Daily Bleed)

Today in Labor History—February 9

February 9, 1886 – President Cleveland declared a state of emergency in Seattle because of anti-Chinese violence.  (From the Daily Bleed)

February 9, 2000 – Over 100,000 people demonstrated in México City demanding the freedom of students arrested when police regained control of the country's main campus closed by a nine-month strike. The demonstrators were students, parents, trade unions and leftist groups. (From the Daily Bleed)

Today in Labor History—January 8

January 8, 1811 – A slave uprising occurred on this date in New Orleans. (From the Daily Bleed)

Mary Kenney O'Sullivan (from I Am Woman blog)

January 8, 1864 – Mary Kenney O'Sullivan (1864-1943) was born on this date in Hannibal, Missouri. O’Sullivan was the first American Federation of Labor (AFL) woman organizer. She also organized the Woman's Bookbinder Union in 1880 and was a founder of the National Women’s Trade Union League (WTUL) in 1903. (From the Daily Bleed)

January 8, 1883 – In Lyon, France the trial of the anarchists known as "the 66" began on this date. "The 66" were accused of promoting workers' strikes and the abolition of the rights of property, family, fatherland and religion. Leaders like Peter Kropotkin, Emile Gautier, Joseph Bernard and Toussaint Bordat received four years in prison, while 39 of their cohorts received sentences ranging from six months to three years. (From the Daily Bleed)

January 8, 1892 – An anarchist revolt occurred in Andalusia involving hundreds of farm laborers who took the town of Jerez. The uprising was quickly subdued and its leaders captured and tortured. Four were sentenced to death and executed on February 10. (From the Daily Bleed)

January 8, 1933 – An anarchist uprising began in Barcelona, Madrid and Valencia. While the northern uprising was quickly suppressed, another anarchist uprising broke out in the Andalusian town of Casas Viejas on January 11. (From the Daily Bleed)

January 8, 1969 – In San Jose, California, teachers joined with striking students to oppose the Vietnam War. (From the Daily Bleed)

January 8, 1991 – 200 Teamsters leaders held a "Labor for Peace" meeting to oppose the Gulf War, New York City. (From the Daily Bleed)

Today in Labor History—January 3

Propaganda Film on the Preparedness Day Bombing, Hearst-Pathe Film

Tom Mooney, 1910

January 3, 1917 – The trial of labor organizer Tom Mooney began in San Francisco on this date. Mooney was framed by Martin Swanson, a detective with a long history of interfering in San Francisco strikes, for the Preparedness Day bombing. Swanson maintained constant surveillance and harassment of Mooney and Warren Billings, as well as Alexander Berkman & Emma Goldman. Billings and Mooney were still convicted and imprisoned for the bombing, with Mooney serving over 22 years for a crime he did not commit. (From the Daily Bleed)

January 3, 1931 - Roughly 500 farmers marched into the business section of England, Arkansas, to demand food for their starving families after their crops were ruined by a long drought. The farmers threatened to take the food by force if it was not freely provided to them, one of scores of such incidents that occurred during the Great Depression (and surprisingly have not happened more frequently during the current one). (From Workday Minnesota)

January 3, 1964 – 450,000 public school kids went on strike in New York City to protest de facto racial segregation and poor learning conditions. (From theDaily Bleed)