Today in Labor History—June 19

Juneteenth Celebration, Richmond Virginia, 1905

June 19, 1865 – Slaves were declared free in Texas, a date now celebrated each year as the holiday "Juneteenth." (From the Daily Bleed)

Juneteenth Celebration, Austin, Texas, 1900

 June 19, 1886 – The Kangaroo trial of eight anarchists for the Haymarket bombing began in Chicago on this date. (From the Daily Bleed)

The  Haymarket Martyrs

 June 19, 1888 – U.S. marines attacked Seoul, Korea, (to protect U.S. interests?)  (From the Daily Bleed)

June 19, 1898 --Guam was bombarded by the U.S.S. Charleston (To steal Spanish interests?) (From the Daily Bleed)

IWW leaders Patrick Quinlan, Carlo Tresca, Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, Adolph Lessig, Big Bill Haywood, 1913

 June 19, 1902 –Silk workers struck in Paterson, New Jersey. The event escalated into a riot. Silk workers had struck several times in the 19^th century and again, in 1913, led by the IWW. (From the Daily Bleed)

Magonistas after capturing Mexicali

 June 19, 1911 – Federales and Maderistas retook Mexicali from the Magonista anarchist rebels, led by Ricardo Flores Magon. (From the Daily Bleed)

A Sandinista flag capture by U.S. marines

 June 19, 1930 – U.S. and Nicaraguan troops battled Sandinista forces. (From the Daily Bleed)

June 19, 1937 – The Women's Day Massacre: During the Great Ohio Steel Strike of 1937, there were numerous street battles between workers and police, including the Youngstown Riots & Poland Avenue Riot on June 21st. On June 19^th, there were smaller battles that some believe were initiated by the cops to test the likely extent of union resistance in a real fight.  When the cops in Youngstown couldn't find any union leaders to beat up, they went after women picketers who were sitting in chairs to support the strike. (From the Daily Bleed)

June 19, 1938 – Canada’s Bloody Sunday: The RCMP and Vancouver police attacked strikers with tear gas and clubs and battle unemployed workers at a Vancouver post office. (From the Daily Bleed)

June 19, 1953 – The Black community of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, began a bus boycott (2 ½ years before the more famous Montgomery, Alabama protest. (From the Daily Bleed)

June 19, 1953 – Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were electrocuted in Sing Sing for their alleged sale of atomic secrets to the Russians. In a little known related story, the Rosenberg’s orphaned children were adopted by the poet and lyricist Abel Meeropol, who wrote the anti-lynching song Strange Fruit, later made famous by Billie Holliday. (From the Daily Bleed and Wikipedia)

June 19, 1953 – The ILWU began a four day strike to protest the Smith Act convictions of Jack Hall and six others for suspicion of being communists (See Today in Labor History—June 16). (From the Daily Bleed)

June 19, 1968 – Over 50,000 demonstrators participated in the Poor People's Campaign Solidarity Day March in Washington, D.C. (From the Daily Bleed)

June 19, 1981 – Soldiers killed 200 Mayas in Coy, Huehuetenango, Guatemala. (From the Daily Bleed)

June 19, 1985 – Gunmen opened fire on an outdoor restaurant in San Salvador’s upscale Zona Rosa, killing 13, including four U.S. Marines and two U.S. businessmen. A broadcast by Radio Venceremos, the FMLN’s pirate radio station, said:  "If U.S. Army members and CIA agents died in San Salvador, it was because they came to attack our people. No one had summoned them; they died as a result of the interventionist policy carried out by President Reagan, whose intervention grows day by day. Reagan will have to assume full responsibility for his deeds." (From the Daily Bleed)

June 19, 1988 – Haiti’s civilian government was overthrown by a U.S.-backed military coup. (From the Daily Bleed)

June 19, 1996 – Large parts of the South Korea auto industry were shut down by workers at Kia, the country's second largest auto company, in a wage dispute. (From the Daily Bleed)

Today in Labor History-June 18

June 18, 1918 - The American Federation of Teachers issued a charter to the St. Paul Federation of Women Teachers Local 28, and then, one year later, the issued a charter to the men’s teachers’ local. Both locals participated in the first organized teachers’ strike in the nation, in 1946. (From Workday Minnesota)

Assassination of Kurt Wilckens in the Penitenciaría Nacional.

June 18, 1923 – A nationwide General Strike took place in Argentina in protest of the assassination of the anarchist Kurt Wilckens in his prison cell. Two workers were killed in the strike as police tried to raid the offices of the anarchist union (FORA (Fédération Ouvrière Régionale Argentine). (From the Daily Bleed)

June 18, 1954 – The US-CIA supported coup against Arbenz in Guatemala was completed.  (From the Daily Bleed)

Today in Labor History—June 17

June 17, 1838 – On or about today the first Cherokee Indians began the Trail of Tears forced march to Oklahoma. 4000 Cherokees died as a result of President Jackson's Indian Removal bill, 10% of the tribe. (From the Daily Bleed)

Sioux charge during the Battle of Rosebud (image from the Library of Congress)

 June 17, 1876 – An encampment of Lakota and Cheyenne in Rosebud, South Dakota, led by Crazy Horse, was attacked by U.S. army soldiers, who were subsequently routed. (From the Daily Bleed)

Potemkin propaganda, 1925 (from x-ray delta one's flikr stream)

 June 17, 1905 – Five ships of the Black Sea fleet arrived from Sevastopol to quash the mutiny on the battleship Potemkin. One of the ships, the George the Conqueror, joined the Potemkin rebels, with both ships escaping to Romanian waters. (From the Daily Bleed)

Magonistas, Tijuana, June 22, 1911

 June 17, 1911 – Tijuana was recaptured from the Magonista anarchist rebels by Federal troops, now lead by Madero. Among those surviving and escaping was the famous Wobbly songwriter Joe Hill. (From the Daily Bleed)

June 17, 1913 – The Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) initiated a sit down strike at the Studebaker auto plant. (From the Daily Bleed)

June 17, 1936 – The Steel Workers Organizing Committee was founded in Pittsburgh, by Philip Murray, John L. Lewis and nine other labor organizers. The Steel Workers Organizing Committee evolved into the United Steelworkers of America. Within one year, more than 125,000 people had joined the union, rallying around the goal of raising wages to $5 per day. (From Workday Minnesota and the Daily Bleed)

Tank in Liepzig (Attribution: Bundesarchiv, Bild 175-14676 / CC-BY-SA)

 June 17, 1953 – Workers revolted in East Berlin and Leipzig, sparking rebellions all over East Germany. Workers were striking for democracy and in opposition to Russian imperialism. The USSR responded with tanks. (From the Daily Bleed)

FOIA released CIA file on the overthrow of Arbenz

June 17, 1954 – The CIA supplied and directed Guatemalan forces in the overthrow constitutionally elected government of Jacabo Arbenz Guzman, after it nationalized United Fruit Co. (From the Daily Bleed)

June 17, 1980 – Mine workers struck in Montana today through November 21. (From the Daily Bleed)

Today in Labor History—April 28

Fletcher Christian's Home (public domain)

April 28, 1789 – Fletcher Christian led a group of mutineers against Captain William Bligh’s brutal working conditions on the HMS Bounty. The story was later retold by Charles Nordhoff and James Norman Hall in their trilogy. “Mutiny on the Bounty,” was, of course, the most famous of the trilogy. The descendents of Christian and the other mutineers live today on the South Pacific island of Pitcairn. (From the Daily Bleed)

Jules Bonot, After the Cops Got Him

April 28, 1912 – Jules Bonnot, French leader of the anarchist/illegalist Bonnot Gang, was killed in a police shootout. (From the Daily Bleed)

April 28, 1914 – 181-192 workers died in a coal mine collapse disaster at Eccles, West Virginia. The mine was owned by the Guggenheim family. (From the Daily Bleed and Wikipedia)

April 28, 1919 – A bomb plot was discovered in which over 30 dynamite bombs were to be sent people "on the anarchists' enemies list," including U.S. Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer, who had been rounding up, imprisoning and deporting anarchists and union activists. Other targets included  J. P. Morgan, John D. Rockefeller, Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, and Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis. (From the Daily Bleed)

April 28, 1924 – 119 workers died in the Benwood, West Virginia coal mine disaster. (From the Daily Bleed)

April 28, 1945 – Fascist dictator Benito Mussolini was hanged by partisans. (From the Daily Bleed, which also asked the question: Was he hung well??) 

Execution of Mussolini (Click here for newsreel footage)

April 28, 1953 – After overthrowing the democratically elected government Iran, the CIA installed the Shah, launching a 25-year reign of terror against the Persian people. (From the Daily Bleed)

April 28, 1965 – 20,000 U.S. Marines invaded the Dominican Republic to prevent democracy and to prop up the military junta. (From the Daily Bleed)

April 28, 1967 – Muhammad Ali refused to be drafted to fight in Vietnam and was thus stripped of his boxing title within hours. His justification for refusing to go:  "No Viet Cong ever called me nigger.” (From the Daily Bleed)

April 28, 1970 – Congress approved the creation of OSHA, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (only to watch idly as it was gutted by Reagan, and again by his successors). The AFL-CIO declared April 28 “Workers Memorial Day” to honor the hundreds of thousands of working people killed and injured on the job every year. (From Workday Minnesota)

April 28, 1977 – The Mothers of the Disappeared held their first rally at Plaza de Mayo, Buenos Aires. Under the U.S.-supported military dictatorship, 20,000 to 30,000 people were murdered or disappeared in Argentina between 1976 and 1983. (From the Daily Bleed)

Today in Labor History--April 15

April 15, 1834 –"Bloody Week" ended in Lyon, France, with a blood bath against insurgent silk workers. Several hundred were killed. (From The Daily Bleed)

A.Phillip Randolph

April 15, 1889 – Birth of A. Philip Randolph, organizer and president of the African-American Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters. According to Randolph "The labor movement traditionally has been the haven for the dispossessed, the despised, the neglected, the downtrodden, and the poor." Randolph believed in permanent social change, but not without the direct participation of those affected, including mass demonstrations.  Initially, no African-American newspapers supported his fight to unionize the Pullman porters. (From Workday Minnesota and The Daily Bleed)

April 15, 1902--A peasant uprising in Russia led to the ceasing of wealthy estates and the assassination of the head of the secret police (from the Daily Bleed).

April 15, 1908—L’Ecole Renovee, the Journal of the International League for the Rational Education of Children, debuted in Paris. Its founding members included Spanish anarchist educator Francisco Ferrer, creator of the first Modern Schools, as wells as Anatole France, Peter Kropotkin, and biologist Ernst Haekel.

April 15, 1915 – The IWW union Agricultural Workers Organization formed in Kansas City, Mo. (From the Unionist)

April 15, 1916  – The American Federation of Teachers was created in Chicago. (From the Unionist)

April 15, 1919 –  The first women-led union, the Telephone Operators Department of IBEW began what would ultimately become a successful six-day strike across New England. (From the Unionist)

Sacco & Vanzetti

 April 15, 1920 – Two men rob and kill Frederick Parmenter & Alessandro Berardelli, employees of the Slater & Morrill Shoe Company, in South Braintree, Massachusetts, making off with the $15,776.51 payroll they were carrying. The anarchists Sacco & Vanzetti ultimately were blamed for the robbery, convicted by a kangaroo court and executed. (From The Daily Bleed)

April 15, 1934 – Transport Workers Union was founded. (From the Unionist) 

April 15, 1947--Jackie Robinson became the first African American to play in the Major Leagues in the modern era. African Americans had played in the 19th century, before the league had become segregated. (From Workday Minnesota)

April 15, 1951 – The first strike wave against fascist Spain began in the Basque country and spread to Catalonia. Over 100,000 workers from a number of different industries & cities defied the government's order to return to work and risked prison or death. (From The Daily Bleed)

April 15, 1961--CIA arrived at the Bay of Pigs, Cuba, in order to bring unions and workers' rights to the so-called Workers' Paradise.

April 15, 1969--Thousands of welfare recipients marched in New York City to protest cuts to their benefits (from the Daily Bleed).

April 15, 1981--Guatemalan soldiers murdered 69 people in Quiche province (from the Daily Bleed).

April 15, 1982--Guatemalan soldiers murdered 100 children and 73 women in Baja Verapaz (from the Daily Bleed).

With Friends Like These: Twisted Lefty Support for Drones and the CIA

As Congress prepared to grill John Brennan, Obama’s appointment to lead the CIA, protesters from Code Pink and other organizations lined up outside in preparation to protest the hearings. As they waited, Code Pink cofounder, Medea Benjamin, was interviewed by KPFA’s Brian Edwards Tiekert (Thursday, 2/7/13, KPFA’s “Up Front”). In the interview, Benjamin listed numerous perfectly good reasons why Brennan should be on trial, rather than being rubber-stamped to head the CIA (e.g., he was rejected for the position four years ago because of his support for torture and “extraordinary rendition,” plus his continued to support for the use of drones to assassinate anyone he sees fit).

However, when Tiekert asked her who she would rather have running the CIA, instead of stating the obvious (i.e., Nobody should run the CIA because the CIA should not exist), she proposed Dennis Kucinich.

Of course Kucinich is no longer an option, having accepted a media job with Fox News. But the fact she named anyone at all implies she is okay with the existence of an organization that exists primarily to promote the interests of America’s largest corporations through the neutralization or elimination anyone or anything that stands in the way. She also suggested in the interview that she takes issue with the CIA’s current tendency to act like a “death squad,” as if this were something new. The CIA has always engaged in assassinations or trained its proxies to do it for them. The only thing new is the candor and brazenness of the President, members of Congress, cabinet members and media in their discussions of assassinating “enemies,” foreign or domestic. That is, in the past the CIA carried out its assassinations in secret because it was assumed the American public would find it distasteful. Today, in the era of endless war against terrorism, the right (indeed obligation) to assassinate is portrayed as so vital that it trumps all individual liberties and rights, including those for American citizens and those etched into the Constitution—and many Americans embrace this logic.

Benjamin has been an outspoken critic of the drone program since its inception, particularly because it has resulted in so many civilian deaths. Thus, it was strange to hear her argue that drones, because they are a military weapon, should be left in the hands of the military, not Brennan or the CIA. Does this mean she is also okay with the use of drones to slaughter people, so long as it is soldiers, rather than spies, who are pushing the buttons, or is she so naïve that she believes the military will use drones “responsibly,” and somehow miraculously avoid civilian casualties?

It might be argued that Benjamin is just not that quick on her feet; that these were simply bloopers coming from an activist who was not sufficiently prepared for her interview. It is true that she was being interviewed outside Congress as she prepared to enter and disrupt it, so perhaps her train of thought was disrupted by adrenaline. However, one would think that someone in her position, who has spent years being critical of U.S. foreign policy and jingoism, would have a stronger critique and mistrust of the CIA and the military. Likewise, as an activist famous for her street theater and disruptive tactics, one would expect her to be well-prepared for addressing the media.

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—September 11

September 11, 1916 – The trial of labor activist Warren Billings began in San Francisco on trumped up charges stemming from the Preparedness Day parade bombing. (From the Daily Bleed)

September 11, 1925 – Thee IWW (Industrial Workers of the World) marine strike began. (From the Daily Bleed)

September 11, 1973 – The CIA overthrew the democratically elected government of Allende, ending nearly 150 years of democratic rule. Also killed in the coup were folk singer Victor Jara, and American IWW journalist Frank Teruggi. Jara courageously continued singing Venceremos (We Shall Win) while he lay on the ground, hands broken by his torturers, as they slaughtered hundreds in the national stadium. 16 years of military terror followed underPinochet. (From the Daily Bleed)

September 11, 2001 - The World Trade Center was attacked in New York City, killing hundreds of workers and setting into motion a decade of U.S. initiated terror on civilians in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan, and domestic repression within the U.S.

Today in Labor History—June 19

Juneteenth Celebration, Richmond Virginia, 1905

June 19, 1865 – Slaves were declared free in Texas, a date now celebrated each year as the holiday "Juneteenth." (From the Daily Bleed)

Juneteenth Celebration, Austin, Texas, 1900

 June 19, 1886 – The Kangaroo trial of eight anarchists for the Haymarket bombing began in Chicago on this date. (From the Daily Bleed)

The  Haymarket Martyrs

 June 19, 1888 – U.S. marines attacked Seoul, Korea, (to protect U.S. interests?)  (From the Daily Bleed)

June 19, 1898 --Guam was bombarded by the U.S.S. Charleston (To steal Spanish interests?) (From the Daily Bleed)

IWW leaders Patrick Quinlan, Carlo Tresca, Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, Adolph Lessig, Big Bill Haywood, 1913

 June 19, 1902 –Silk workers struck in Paterson, New Jersey. The event escalated into a riot. Silk workers had struck several times in the 19^th century and again, in 1913, led by the IWW. (From the Daily Bleed)

Magonistas after capturing Mexicali

 June 19, 1911 – Federales and Maderistas retook Mexicali from the Magonista anarchist rebels, led by Ricardo Flores Magon. (From the Daily Bleed)

A Sandinista flag capture by U.S. marines

 June 19, 1930 – U.S. and Nicaraguan troops battled Sandinista forces. (From the Daily Bleed)

June 19, 1937 – The Women's Day Massacre: During the Great Ohio Steel Strike of 1937, there were numerous street battles between workers and police, including the Youngstown Riots & Poland Avenue Riot on June 21st. On June 19^th, there were smaller battles that some believe were initiated by the cops to test the likely extent of union resistance in a real fight.  When the cops in Youngstown couldn't find any union leaders to beat up, they went after women picketers who were sitting in chairs to support the strike. (From the Daily Bleed)

June 19, 1938 – Canada’s Bloody Sunday: The RCMP and Vancouver police attacked strikers with tear gas and clubs and battle unemployed workers at a Vancouver post office. (From the Daily Bleed)

June 19, 1953 – The Black community of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, began a bus boycott (2 ½ years before the more famous Montgomery, Alabama protest. (From the Daily Bleed)

June 19, 1953 – Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were electrocuted in Sing Sing for their alleged sale of atomic secrets to the Russians. In a little known related story, the Rosenberg’s orphaned children were adopted by the poet and lyricist Abel Meeropol, who wrote the anti-lynching song Strange Fruit, later made famous by Billie Holliday. (From the Daily Bleed and Wikipedia)

June 19, 1953 – The ILWU began a four day strike to protest the Smith Act convictions of Jack Hall and six others for suspicion of being communists (See Today in Labor History—June 16). (From the Daily Bleed)

June 19, 1968 – Over 50,000 demonstrators participated in the Poor People's Campaign Solidarity Day March in Washington, D.C. (From the Daily Bleed)

June 19, 1981 – Soldiers killed 200 Mayas in Coy, Huehuetenango, Guatemala. (From the Daily Bleed)

June 19, 1985 – Gunmen opened fire on an outdoor restaurant in San Salvador’s upscale Zona Rosa, killing 13, including four U.S. Marines and two U.S. businessmen. A broadcast by Radio Venceremos, the FMLN’s pirate radio station, said:  "If U.S. Army members and CIA agents died in San Salvador, it was because they came to attack our people. No one had summoned them; they died as a result of the interventionist policy carried out by President Reagan, whose intervention grows day by day. Reagan will have to assume full responsibility for his deeds." (From the Daily Bleed)

June 19, 1988 – Haiti’s civilian government was overthrown by a U.S.-backed military coup. (From the Daily Bleed)

June 19, 1996 – Large parts of the South Korea auto industry were shut down by workers at Kia, the country's second largest auto company, in a wage dispute. (From the Daily Bleed)

Today in Labor History-June 18

June 18, 1918 - The American Federation of Teachers issued a charter to the St. Paul Federation of Women Teachers Local 28, and then, one year later, the issued a charter to the men’s teachers’ local. Both locals participated in the first organized teachers’ strike in the nation, in 1946. (From Workday Minnesota)

Assassination of Kurt Wilckens in the Penitenciaría Nacional.

June 18, 1923 – A nationwide General Strike took place in Argentina in protest of the assassination of the anarchist Kurt Wilckens in his prison cell. Two workers were killed in the strike as police tried to raid the offices of the anarchist union (FORA (Fédération Ouvrière Régionale Argentine). (From the Daily Bleed)

June 18, 1954 – The US-CIA supported coup against Arbenz in Guatemala was completed.  (From the Daily Bleed)