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 1

May 1, International Workers Day!!!!

Mother Jones (Library of Congress)

May 1, 1830 - Mary Harris "Mother" Jones was born. Mother Jones was renowned for her militancy and fiery oration, as well as her many juicy quotes. She once said, “I’m no lady. I’m a hell-raiser.”  She also was an internationalist, saying “My address is wherever there is a fight against oppression.” Despite the difficulties of constant travel, poor living and jail, she lived to be 100.  (From Workday Minnesota and the Daily Bleed)

May 1, 1866 – Beginning on this day, white Democrats and police attacked freedmen and their white allies in Memphis. By the end of the three-day race riot, 48 were killed. (From the Daily Bleed)

May 1, 1883 - Cigar makers in Cincinnati threatened to strike factory owners continued to make them pay 30 cents per month to heat their factories.   (From The Unionist)

May 1, 1884 – The Federation of Organized Trades and Labor Unions (FOTLU), forerunner of the AFL, resolved that "8 hours shall constitute a legal day's work from and after May 1, 1886." Ironically, the FOTLU, which was one of the first bureaucratized “business” unions and which was created as a conservative foil against the radical Knights of Labor, essentially contributed to the ensuing mass insurgency with its resolution. (From the Daily Bleed)

May 1, 1886 – The first nationwide General Strike for the 8-hour day occurred. 340,000 workers struck in Chicago, Milwaukee cities throughout the U.S. Four demonstrators were killed and over 200 wounded by police in Chicago. The US will set another day as Labor Day to undercut world solidarity. (From the Daily Bleed)

May 1, 1888 - Nineteen machinists at the East Tennessee, Virginia and Georgia Railroad, angered over a wage cut, voted to form a union, which ultimately became the International Association of Machinists. (From Workday Minnesota)

May 1, 1889 – The first International Labor Day was celebrated. The U.S. decided to create its own labor day in September to undercut worker solidarity and to white wash away its violent history of repressing strikes and worker protest. (From the Daily Bleed)

May 1, 1890 – The first May Day celebration in Poland saw about 10,000 workers assemble in Warsaw. All nine organizers were arrested and sent to Russian prisons, where two of them died. (From the Daily Bleed)

May 1, 1891 –The French army tested their new Lebels machine guns against peaceful May Day demonstrators that included women and children carrying flowers and palms, killing 14 and wounding 40. (From the Daily Bleed)

May 1, 1894- The cross-country march by Coxey’s Army of the Unemployed ended with in a march down Pennsylvania Ave. in Washington, D.C. (From Workday Minnesota. Also see Today in Labor History, April 29)

May 1, 1899 – Tzarist police arrested 3000 of the 20,000 participants in Warsaw’s May Day demonstration. (From the Daily Bleed)

May 1, 1901- The Cooks’ and Waiters’ Union struck in San Francisco. They were demanding one day of rest per week, a ten-hour work day and a closed union shop for all restaurants in the city. (From The Unionist)

May 1, 1905 – 60 workers found were killed in fights with police during May Day protests in Poland. (From the Daily Bleed)

May 1, 1906 – 1,200 members of the Iron Molders Union in Milwaukee struck for shorter hours and more pay. They lost the strike after two years of bitter struggle. One employer, Allis-Chalmers, spent $21,700 to hire the Burr-Herr Detective Agency, resulting in more than 200 assaults on union members, including union leader Peter Cramer, whose was killed. The agency offered one unionist 10 dollars for each striker he beat up. (From the Daily Bleed)

May 1, 1933 - The first issue of the Catholic Worker was published. The Catholic Worker was founded in New York City by Dorothy Day and Peter Maurin, anarchist-Catholics. The first run of the paper published 2,500 copies. By 1936, circulation had risen to 150,000. (From the Daily Bleed and Workday Minnesota)

May 1, 1938 - Congress enacted amendments to the 1938 Fair Labor Standards Act, extending protections to the employees of state and local governments. However, these protections didn’t take effect until 1985 because of court challenges.(From The Unionist)

May 1, 2006 - Millions of immigrants, participating in a national day of mobilization, stayed home from work. Their goal was to demonstrate their economic power and demand comprehensive reform of U.S. immigration laws. It is estimated that 100,000 gathered in San Jose, California, 200,000 in New York, 400,000 each in Chicago and Los Angeles.  There were demonstrations in at least 50 cities. Despite their numbers, the country has seen a wave of increasingly repressive and racist immigration laws enacted locally in places like Arizona, Georgia, Florida. (From Workday Minnesota, The Unionist)

Today In Labor History: March 26

March 26, 1910—Congress amended the Immigration Act of 1907 to specifically bar entrance of “paupers, anarchists, criminals and the diseased.” The move was specifically designed to limit entry of Eastern and Southern European immigrants, many of whom were becoming radicalized by the deplorable working and living conditions in late 19^th and early 20^th century America. (For more on the radicalization of Eastern and Southern European immigrants in the U.S., see “THE WHOLE WORLD IS OUR COUNTRY”: IMMIGRATION AND ANARCHISM IN THE UNITED STATES, 1885-1940).

March 26, 1912 – A mining disaster at Jed, West Virginia, killed 83 workers.

(Sources: Kenyon Zimmer, Daily Bleed and Workaday Minnesota).

Today in Labor History—December 31

December 31, 1890 - Ellis Island opened on this date in New York City, where millions of immigrants to the United States first set foot in the land of the free. (From Workday Minnesota)

December 31, 1931 – 60,000 unemployed workers rallied at Pitt Stadium in Pittsburgh, near Father Cox's Shantytown. The shantytown lasted from 1929 to 1932 and was the staging base for the Reverend James Cox's unemployed army. (From the Daily Bleed)

December 31, 1982--Martial law was declared in Poland in 1981 in an attempt to suppress the anti-communist Solidarnosc labor movement. It was suspended on this date in 1982 and officially ended July 22, 1983.

Exchange Students Win $200K Settlement for Exploitation at Hershey Plant

Last year there was strike at Hershey Chocolate by 300 foreign students living here on J-1 work-study visas. According to Democracy Now, it was the first time that foreign students had engaged in a strike against their employer.

Their actions are now starting to pay off. Over 1,000 students from Eastern Europe and Asia recently won more than $200,000 in back wages for their work at Hershey in a settlement with the U.S. Labor Department, according to the Huffington Post. The feds have also imposed fines on three groups involved in staffing for minimum wage, overtime and safety violations: SHS Group, a temporary workers firm; Exel, Inc, the company that oversaw the plant; and the Council for Educational Travel-USA, a nonprofit that imports foreign students on J-1 travel visas.

Hershey, however, has so far gotten off without consequences, even though they benefited financially from the exploitation of the students.

The students had to pay between $3,000 and $6,000 to participate in the “cultural exchange program,” a modern day form of job sharking run by the U.S. government. In reality, many were forced to do heavy lifting from 11:00 pm until 7:00 am and toil under sweat shop conditions, when they were supposed to be sleeping and studying for their day classes. They were also forced to live in company housing with rents far above market value, similar to the company towns of the early 20^th century, where workers were paid in scrip.

Interestingly, they did learn a lot about American culture, just not the white-washed American Dream fantasy that the program had hoped for. They not only learned that American capitalism will take advantage of every opportunity to abuse people for private gain, but they also learned that Americans themselves are hungry, homeless, unemployed and desperate for a stable income. (The student workers were given jobs at minimum and sub-minimum wage, while local residents were suffering high rates of unemployment and poverty).

Green Cards For Sale For Union-Busters

Huck/Konopacki Labor Cartoons

While non-profits and student fundraising groups help build schools in poor communities in Africa and Latin America, wealthy investors from China, Nigeria and other nations are spending tens of millions of dollars to build superfluous school classrooms, libraries and gyms for U.S. charter schools.

Under the federal EB-5 program, wealthy foreigners can effectively purchase U.S. immigration visas for themselves and their families if they invest at least $500,000 into certain development projects, including private charter schools, according to Reuters. All they have to do is create 10 new jobs (even at minimum wage) and maintain them for at least two years. This year the feds approved 3,000 applications for the EB-5 program, nearly double last year’s total.

It’s a great deal for the foreign investors, as they can reap large rewards for their investments, while living legally in the U.S. as they manage their investments. At the same time, charter schools are always looking for more capital to supplement the state and local revenues they already receive. The additional investment capital, combined with lower labor costs and fewer contractual restrictions (most charter schools are not unionized), allows them to do numerous things that would be impossible for traditional public schools (e.g., longer school days, force teachers to be on-call at night and on weekends for homework help, replace teachers with non-credentialed monitors and force students to spend long hours in front of computers).

The influx of foreign capital makes it easier for charter schools to proliferate, increasing the ratio of public schools that are run by private (and in many cases for-profit) charter companies, while at the same time increasing the ratio of non-unionized teachers and unskilled pseudo-teachers. In New Orleans, for example, where charter schools now make up the majority of public schools, unionized teachers now comprise a small minority of working teachers.

Aside from making charter schools much more profitable by reducing wages, benefits and job protections, this back door form of union busting benefits other regional businesses by lowering average wages and benefits in the area. Without tenure and seniority protections or the backing of a union and union lawyers, teachers are less likely to speak out in defense of their students, colleagues or working conditions. Overall, it increases worker passivity and submissiveness, since any criticism or questioning of management could cost one her job.

However, one might reasonably wonder why foreign investors need to be bribed with green cards if charter schools are such a great investment?

The fact is that charter schools are still a relatively risky investment. The IRS is planning to scrutinize their tax-exempt status more closely, according to the Reuters article, especially if they rely on for-profit management companies, as many “non-profit” charters do. At the same time, many charters are being shut down by regulators or going out of business because of poor financial performance. Six Missouri campuses of Imagine Schools, one of the nation’s largest for-profit chains, were recently shut down by state regulators because of poor academic performance, according to the Reuters article. Charters from the Aspire chain have also been revoked, or not renewed, in California. Close to 15% of the 6,700 charter schools that started over the past twenty years have since closed, mostly because of financial troubles, according to the Center for Education Reform.

The EB-5 program also serves the interests of Obama and Duncan’s school privatization agenda by attracting more investment capital to help support fledgling charter schools, while relieving the feds of some of the financial responsibility at a time when there is considerable resistance to government spending on social programs. It is telling that the federal government is unwilling to provide funds to lower class sizes in traditional public schools or to pay teachers a decent wage. It is also telling that the feds have made it easier for wealthy foreigners to live here comfortably as they exploit communities, children and teachers, while refusing to pass the Dream Act or any meaningful immigration reform that would prevent the disruption of immigrant families who are already living here, often with children who are here legally or who have lived here since early childhood.

Today in Labor History—August 10

August 10, 1893 -- San Francisco began deporting Chinese workers under the first Chinese Exclusion Act (passed May 6, 1882). (From the Daily Bleed)

August 10, 1905 – The International Association of Bridge and Structural Iron Workers launched a national strike against the American Bridge Co., a subsidiary of the US Steel Corp. (From the Daily Bleed)

August 10, 1931 – The Air Line Pilots Association was founded in Chicago, winning its first contract in 1939, signing a deal with American Airlines. (From Workday Minnesota)

August 10, 1970 – The Equal Rights Amendment was passed in the House of Representatives by a vote of 350 to 15. (From the Daily Bleed)

Immigrant Labor Illegal (Unless They Are Prisoners)

Parchman Farm Prison Labor, 1911

It should be obvious that increasing raids and deportations of immigrants is great for business as it reduces the chances that immigrant laborers will organize or fight for their workplace rights out of fear they will be deported. Deportations increased 400% from 1996 and 2011, while the Department of Homeland Security has increased its daily detention capacity to 34,000 beds, according to a recent piece in Truthout, much of it run by private, for-profit prison companies.

There is another less obvious way to profit from the crackdown on immigrants: force them to work while in detention, either for free or for a pittance. The 13^th amendment to the constitution abolished chattel slavery, but it did not block prisons (private or public) from compelling prisoners to work for little or no pay. Prisoners at private immigration detention centers are typically paid between one and three dollars a day, according to the Truthout piece, which is on par with some of the poorest paid workers in the world.

The work that prisoners do (e.g., cleaning kitchens and restrooms, cooking, doing laundry) is work that prison companies (or the state) would normally have to contract out to employees at minimum wage or higher. Yet prisoners do this work for far less the minimum wage, saving the prisons considerable expense and increasing their profits.

The work is called voluntary, but it is not. Refusing to work has led to punishment for some prisoners. Yet even when there is not overt punishment, there is still a strong incentive for prisoners to acquiesce to the unfavorable working conditions: access to money for phone cards, supplemental food, soap, toothpaste and other goods and services that make their detention slightly less onerous.

The Truthout article highlights the sad irony that these prisoners are in detention for working in the U.S. without having the legal immigration papers to do so, yet it is precisely because they lack these papers that they are compelled to work in the detention centers.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) tries to reconcile this paradox by claiming that they are not employees, but prisoners. They cannot be considered employees because they work for a “stipend.” Of course this is really just a word game meant to cover up the fact that immigration detention centers engage in slavery. Indeed, Jacqueline Stevens, political science professor at Northwestern University, implies that the “voluntary” work program is tantamount to slavery, as detainees are "forced to work at wages they can't negotiate and far below the wages Congress set."

It is important to recognize that without the exceedingly cheap labor obtained by paying detainees $1 per day, it would be difficult or impossible for the private companies that run the detention centers to make a profit. This has led to heavy lobbying by private prisons companies to maintain harsh immigration policies that maintain high levels of immigrant raids and roundups.

However, support for this system goes well beyond the companies that profit directly from it. Anti-immigrant hysteria in Congress does not simply win support from voters who are terrified of terrorists or bamboozled into believing that immigrants are responsible for their unemployment. The existence of lave-like labor in prisons drives down wages in the industries that provide similar services outside of prisons, thus benefiting companies that provide cheap food, laundry and cleaning services.

Today in Labor History—July 7

July 7, 1903 – The "March of the Mill Children" began, led by Mary Harris “Mother” Jones, from Philadelphia to Teddy Roosevelt’s summer home in Oyster Bay, Long Island. The goal of the march was to publicize the terrible conditions for children laborers and to demand a 55 hour work week.

July 7, 1882 - Striking longshoremen in New York City held a meeting to plan how to keep new immigrants from scabbing on them. They were successful, at least temporarily, as 500 newly arrived Jews marched straight from the ship to the union hall on July 14. The following day, 250 Italian immigrants stopped scabbing on the railroad and joined the union. (From Workday Minnesota)

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 1

May 1, International Workers Day!!!!

Mother Jones (Library of Congress)

May 1, 1830 - Mary Harris "Mother" Jones was born. Mother Jones was renowned for her militancy and fiery oration, as well as her many juicy quotes. She once said, “I’m no lady. I’m a hell-raiser.”  She also was an internationalist, saying “My address is wherever there is a fight against oppression.” Despite the difficulties of constant travel, poor living and jail, she lived to be 100.  (From Workday Minnesota and the Daily Bleed)

May 1, 1866 – Beginning on this day, white Democrats and police attacked freedmen and their white allies in Memphis. By the end of the three-day race riot, 48 were killed. (From the Daily Bleed)

May 1, 1883 - Cigar makers in Cincinnati threatened to strike factory owners continued to make them pay 30 cents per month to heat their factories.   (From The Unionist)

May 1, 1884 – The Federation of Organized Trades and Labor Unions (FOTLU), forerunner of the AFL, resolved that "8 hours shall constitute a legal day's work from and after May 1, 1886." Ironically, the FOTLU, which was one of the first bureaucratized “business” unions and which was created as a conservative foil against the radical Knights of Labor, essentially contributed to the ensuing mass insurgency with its resolution. (From the Daily Bleed)

May 1, 1886 – The first nationwide General Strike for the 8-hour day occurred. 340,000 workers struck in Chicago, Milwaukee cities throughout the U.S. Four demonstrators were killed and over 200 wounded by police in Chicago. The US will set another day as Labor Day to undercut world solidarity. (From the Daily Bleed)

May 1, 1888 - Nineteen machinists at the East Tennessee, Virginia and Georgia Railroad, angered over a wage cut, voted to form a union, which ultimately became the International Association of Machinists. (From Workday Minnesota)

May 1, 1889 – The first International Labor Day was celebrated. The U.S. decided to create its own labor day in September to undercut worker solidarity and to white wash away its violent history of repressing strikes and worker protest. (From the Daily Bleed)

May 1, 1890 – The first May Day celebration in Poland saw about 10,000 workers assemble in Warsaw. All nine organizers were arrested and sent to Russian prisons, where two of them died. (From the Daily Bleed)

May 1, 1891 –The French army tested their new Lebels machine guns against peaceful May Day demonstrators that included women and children carrying flowers and palms, killing 14 and wounding 40. (From the Daily Bleed)

May 1, 1894- The cross-country march by Coxey’s Army of the Unemployed ended with in a march down Pennsylvania Ave. in Washington, D.C. (From Workday Minnesota. Also see Today in Labor History, April 29)

May 1, 1899 – Tzarist police arrested 3000 of the 20,000 participants in Warsaw’s May Day demonstration. (From the Daily Bleed)

May 1, 1901- The Cooks’ and Waiters’ Union struck in San Francisco. They were demanding one day of rest per week, a ten-hour work day and a closed union shop for all restaurants in the city. (From The Unionist)

May 1, 1905 – 60 workers found were killed in fights with police during May Day protests in Poland. (From the Daily Bleed)

May 1, 1906 – 1,200 members of the Iron Molders Union in Milwaukee struck for shorter hours and more pay. They lost the strike after two years of bitter struggle. One employer, Allis-Chalmers, spent $21,700 to hire the Burr-Herr Detective Agency, resulting in more than 200 assaults on union members, including union leader Peter Cramer, whose was killed. The agency offered one unionist 10 dollars for each striker he beat up. (From the Daily Bleed)

May 1, 1933 - The first issue of the Catholic Worker was published. The Catholic Worker was founded in New York City by Dorothy Day and Peter Maurin, anarchist-Catholics. The first run of the paper published 2,500 copies. By 1936, circulation had risen to 150,000. (From the Daily Bleed and Workday Minnesota)

May 1, 1938 - Congress enacted amendments to the 1938 Fair Labor Standards Act, extending protections to the employees of state and local governments. However, these protections didn’t take effect until 1985 because of court challenges.(From The Unionist)

May 1, 2006 - Millions of immigrants, participating in a national day of mobilization, stayed home from work. Their goal was to demonstrate their economic power and demand comprehensive reform of U.S. immigration laws. It is estimated that 100,000 gathered in San Jose, California, 200,000 in New York, 400,000 each in Chicago and Los Angeles.  There were demonstrations in at least 50 cities. Despite their numbers, the country has seen a wave of increasingly repressive and racist immigration laws enacted locally in places like Arizona, Georgia, Florida. (From Workday Minnesota, The Unionist)

Today In Labor History: March 26

March 26, 1910—Congress amended the Immigration Act of 1907 to specifically bar entrance of “paupers, anarchists, criminals and the diseased.” The move was specifically designed to limit entry of Eastern and Southern European immigrants, many of whom were becoming radicalized by the deplorable working and living conditions in late 19^th and early 20^th century America. (For more on the radicalization of Eastern and Southern European immigrants in the U.S., see “THE WHOLE WORLD IS OUR COUNTRY”: IMMIGRATION AND ANARCHISM IN THE UNITED STATES, 1885-1940).

March 26, 1912 – A mining disaster at Jed, West Virginia, killed 83 workers.

(Sources: Kenyon Zimmer, Daily Bleed and Workaday Minnesota).