Thursday, November 15, 2012

Today in Labor History—November 15


November 15, 1881 – The "Federation of Organized Trades and Labor Unions" (FOTLU), a precursor to the American Federation of Labor (AFL) was founded on this date. (From the Daily Bleed)

November 15, 1919 – The main headquarters of the New York City Wobblies (IWW) was ransacked and destroyed by agents acting under the US Attorney General Palmer. The Palmer raids were part of the first U.S. communist witch hunt, starting well before the more well known McCarthy purges. It was also were J. Edgar Hoover cut his baby teeth. (From the Daily Bleed)

November 15, 1922 –A General Strike was called by the anarchosyndicalist-inspired union FTRE. The strike united nearly all the workers and craftsmen in Guayaqui, but was brutally suppressed that ended in a massacre of the workers. (From the Daily Bleed)
Buenaventura Durutti
November 15, 1936 – On this date, 1,800 militiamen from the anarchist Durutti Column entered Madrid to fight the fascists. Madrid was the first large city in the world to be subjected to a fascist attack as a prelude to WWII. By November 18th, only 700 of the 1800 anarchist militiamen were still fighting. Many had died and others had deserted because they had gone solong without food or sleep. Durutti persuaded some to return to their positions, but was himself mortally wounded on November 20. (From the Daily Bleed)

November 15, 1938 - The Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) had its first constitutional convention. (From Workday Minnesota)

November 15, 1987 – 6,000 antigovernment strikers sacked the city hall of Brasov, Romania. (From the Daily Bleed)

No comments:

Post a Comment