Today in Labor History—May 4

Memorial to the Haymarket Martyrs (Image by Jeff Zoline)

May 4, 1886 - A day after police killed four striking workers and injured hundreds, protesters gathered at Haymarket Square in Chicago. As the peaceful event drew to a close, a bomb was thrown into the police line, killing one officer and injuring several. Police responded by shooting into the crowd, killing one and wounding many. Eight anarchists were later framed even though most were not even present at the Haymarket rally and there was no evidence that linked any of them to the bombing. Four were hanged, one committed suicide and three were eventually pardoned by Illinois Gov. John Peter Altgeld. The Haymarket affair gave the pretext for a national witch hunt against anarchists and labor radicals and ended the quick rise of the Knights of Labor, a predecessor to the IWW. The Knights of Labor had been growing rapidly, attracting radicals and anarchist members. They professed solidarity with all workers, regardless of race or ethnicity. (From Workday Minnesota and The Daily Bleed)

May 4, 1919 – Students demonstrated in Peking, marking the beginning of the May 4th Movement. (From The Daily Bleed)

May 4, 1919 – The Battle of the Barricades on the Fremantle occurred on the Australian waterfront between striking wharf laborers, strikebreakers and police. One person was killed and 33 were injured. (From The Daily Bleed)

Jim Zwerg, Freedom Rider, After Being Beaten, 1961

May 4, 1961 –The "Freedom Ride" bus trips began throughout the American South. The Freedom Rides were organized by James Farmer and the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) to desegregate bus terminals. On May 14, the first freedom bus was attacked. (From The Daily Bleed)

May 4, 1970 – Four students were murdered at Kent State University by Ohio National Guardsmen. They were protesting the U.S. invasion of Cambodia . (From The Daily Bleed)

May 4, 1989 – 30,000 students marched for democracy to Tiananmen Square in Beijing. (From The Daily Bleed)

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 22

Mark Twain, 1871 (from Wikipedia)

March 22, 1886 - Mark Twain, who was a lifelong member of the International Typographical Union, gave a speech entitled, “Knights of Labor: The New Dynasty.” In the speech, he commended the Knights’ commitment to fair treatment of all workers, regardless of race or gender. “When all the bricklayers, and all the machinists, and all the miners, and blacksmiths, and printers, and stevedores, and housepainters, and brakemen, and engineers . . . and factory hands, and all the shop girls, and all the sewing machine women, and all the telegraph operators, in a word, all the myriads of toilers in whom is slumbering the reality of that thing which you call Power, ...when these rise, call the vast spectacle by any deluding name that will please your ear, but the fact remains that a Nation has risen.” (From Workday Minnesota)

Today in Labor History—February 22

February 22, 1879 – "Révolte" first appeared in Switzerland, founded by Peter Kropotkin, François Dumarteray, and Élisée Reclus. (From the Daily Bleed)

February 22, 1892 – The founding convention of the People's Party met in St. Louis, with the support of the Knights of Labor, United Mine Workers and 20 other organizations. The party criticized political corruption, increasing concentration of wealth, and attacks on the rights of workers and farmers. (From Workday Minnesota)

February 22, 1917 – The Russian Revolution began. (From the Daily Bleed)

February 22, 1918 – At the height of the Red Scare, the office of the "Cronaca Sovversiva" was raided. Sacco and Vanzetti had written for this anarchist newspaper and donated money to it, marking their first official link to anarchist activities by the authorities.. (From the Daily Bleed)

February 22, 1921 – A wave of strikes in Petrograd occurred in opposition to terrible factory conditions and the discipline of 'war communism.' (From the Daily Bleed)

February 22, 2004 – Education Secretary Rod Paige called the nation's largest teachers union, National Education Association (NEA), a "terrorist organization" during a White House meeting with state governors. Meanwhile the Bush administration asserted the right to imprison citizens or non-citizens indefinitely without trial or access to lawyers, family members or journalists, as long as they were accused of being terrorists.  (From the Daily Bleed)

Today in Labor History—February 16, 2012

February 16, 1885 – The Knights of Labor struck the Wabash Railroad. (From the Daily Bleed)

February 16, 1934 – Thousands of Socialists battled Communists at a rally in New York's Madison Square Garden. (From the Daily Bleed)

Today in Labor History—January 22

January 22, 1849 – Terence Powderly, leader of the Knights of Labor was born on this date. (From the Daily Bleed)

Farabundo Marti, 1929

January 22, 1932 – A peasant uprising in El Salvador was met with extreme state violence, resulting in the "Matanza Massacre" of 30,000.  Salvadoran communists, peasants and indigenous had rebelled against the military dictatorship, creating the first soviets in the Western hemisphere. The state violence and repression that followed obliterated what was left of the country’s indigenous population, as well as most of its socialists, communists, anarchists and labor organizers. One of the first to go before Martinez’ firing squads was Farabundo Marti. Martinez once said that America was great because it wiped out its Indians and so, too, must El Salvador. (From Daily Bleed, Eduardo Galeano, Memory of Fire)

January 22, 1997 – 150,000 South Korean workers walked off their jobs to protest recent anti-labor legislation. The recent strike wave had already "cost" South Korean corporations about $3 billion in lost production.

Labor History Timeline: Early Industrial Capitalism, Abolition and the Nascent Labor Movement

1800    Gabriel Prosser Uprising: Prosser was a literate, enslaved blacksmith who planned a large slave uprising in Richmond, Virginia but was betrayed and executed before the revolt was launched. At the time, 39% of Virginia’s population was enslaved, thus the potential damage from a slave revolt was significant. It is estimated that 100 co-conspirators were involved in Gabriel’s Uprising, including several whites who he likely met working in the foundries. (Sources: Wikipedia)

Denmark Vessey

1822    The Vessey Conspiracy: Denmark Vessey, a Caribbean slave inspired by the 1791 Haitian revolution, purchased his freedom and then plotted what would have been the largest slave insurrection in U.S. history. However, turncoats reported him and the other conspirators, leading to their execution. (Sources:Wikipedia)

1825    First Women’s Union: United Tailoresses of New York. (Sources: UHWO)

Nat Turner captured by Mr. Benjamin Phipps

1831    Nat Turner’s Rebellion: Also known as the Southampton Insurrection, the Rebellion was a slave revolt in Virginia in which slaves killed 55-65 whites, the highest number of white casualties of any slave revolt in U.S. history. The insurrection was put down by authorities within a few days, but Turner managed to evade capture for several months. Between 100 and 200 slaves were executed by the courts or by white mobs in retaliation. (Sources: Wikipedia)

1834    Chesapeake and Ohio Canal Workers Riot: On January 29, canal workers rioted, prompting President Jackson to send in troops, the first time American troops were used to suppress a domestic labor dispute. Workers were rebelling because of terrible working conditions and low pay. Construction teams were made up mostly of Irish, German, Dutch and black workers who toiled long hours for low wages in dangerous conditions. The use of federal troops set a dangerous precedent that gave business leaders the confidence that they could count on the federal government to quash labor unrest in the future. (Sources: the Daily Bleed and History.com)

1835    Philadelphia General Strike:  Workers struck for the 10-hour day in what was probably the nation’s first General Strike. In all, 20,000 workers walked off the job. After one week, the city caved to the workers’ demands, granting all city employees a 10-hour day that ran from 6 am to 6 pm, with an hour lunch and an hour for dinner. Their success inspired a wave of strikes and ultimately led to the 10-hour day in many other cities (Sources:UHWO, Socialist Webzine)

1835    Children Struck for 11-Hour Day: In the Patterson silk mills, children went on strike for an 11-hour day and a 6-day work week. (Source: AFGE)

1838    Caulkers Association Founded: One of the first black unions, the Caulkers Association began in the Baltimore shipyards, where Frederick Douglas worked before escaping to freedom. The union bargained collectively and often won wage increases for its members. (Sources: APWU)

The Last Moments of John Brown, by Thomas Hovenden

1859    Harpers Ferry: John Brown led an unsuccessful raid on the federal armory at Harpers Ferry, WV, in an attempt to provoke a slave revolt and provide weapons to them. The raid ultimately led to his arrest and execution. (Sources: Wikipedia)

1863    Emancipation Proclamation was issued by President Lincoln, ordering the freeing of all slaves held in the Confederate states. (Sources: UHWO)

1865    13^th Amendment: Abolished slavery. (Sources: UHWO)

1867    Chicago General Strike for 8-Hour Day: The 1-week strike to enforce the state’s new 8-hour day law ultimately failed, as militia were brought in to force workers back to work, general for 10-12 hour shifts. The 8-hour day movement started in earnest in 1864 and was inspired by the abolition of slavery (shorter day meant a little more freedom). The movement was about leisure, freedom and personal growth, each of which requires less time at work. (Sources: AFGE, Encyclopedia of Chicago, Truth Out)

Terence Powderly, Grand Master Workman of the Knights of Labor  

1869    The Knights of Labor (KOL), officially known as the "Noble and Holy Order of the Knights of Labor," was founded on December 28, 1869, when both American capitalism and the labor movement were young and relatively disorganized. It began as a secret society, but quickly grew into the largest and most significant labor organization in the U.S. by the 1880s. The Knights are considered by many to be a predecessor to the more well-known Industrial Workers of the World (IWW). Like its more radical cousin, the IWW, the KOL called for the abolition of the wage system and fought to organize all workers into one big union, including women, blacks and immigrants. And, like the IWW, one of the KOL’s slogans was, “An Injury to One is the Concern of All.” (Sources: Modern School; The Knights of Labor;The Lucy Parsons Project; Libcom.org; The Samuel Gompers Papers;Wikipedia)

National Colored Union, Harpers

1869    First National Black Union: The Black National Labor Union was founded in Washington, D.C. under the leadership of Isaac Myers (later ceded to Frederick Douglas). Myers was born to free African Americans in Baltimore in 1835 and was a member of the Caulkers Association (see 1838, above), where he worked with Douglas. (Sources: AFGE, APWU)

6th Regiment Repressing Workers, Baltimore, 1877

1877    The Great Upheaval (AKA: The St. Louis Commune, St. Louis General Strike, The Great Strike, The Great Train Strike)—As many as 100 workers were killed and over 200 were injured in the wave of strikes occurring throughout the country. The strike united diverse workers, including black and white, as well as skilled and unskilled. The Great Upheaval began in Martinsburg, WV, on July 16, when the B&O Railroad slashed wages by 10%, the second wage cut in 8 months. The train crews refused to work, drove out the police and occupied the rail yards. Local townspeople backed the strikers and came to their defense. When the militia was sent in to run the trains, the strikers and their supporters defended themselves with guns, derailed the trains and guarded the switches at gunpoint. While they halted all freight movement, they continued to move mail and passengers, thus maintaining public support. When militia reinforcements were sent in, most mutinied or refused to fight, as they were sympathetic to the workers.  Throughout the country, similar scenarios unfolded, with workers taking over the railroads and other businesses, and attacking police and militias when they tried to take them back or to bring in and defend strikebreakers.  In numerous towns, the soldiers fraternized with locals, refused to fight them and sometimes joined their struggle.(Soures: Modern School; UE News; Howard Zinn; Brecher, Jeremy., Strike!, 1997. ISBN 0-89608-570-8)

1877    Ten coal-mining activists ("Molly Maguires") were hanged in Pennsylvania. The Mollys were an Irish secret society of coal miners accused of kidnapping and other acts of violence. They were convicted based on the testimony of one Pinkerton private cop and various witnesses were believed by many to have been bribed or coerced. (Sources: Lutins.org; Wikipedia; Spartacus)

Chinese Railroad Workers in the Snow

1882    Chinese Exclusion Act: Chinese men had been encouraged to immigrate to the U.S. from 1848 to 1869 to work in California’s gold fields and on the transcontinental railroad. They worked for low wages and put little pressure on state infrastructure, in part because they were single males, but also because of restrictive and racist laws and the threat of attack by whites. By the 1870s, racist attacks against the Chinese were on the rise and white citizens were complaining that the Chinese were taking their jobs. The Chinese Exclusion Act, one of America’s most restrictive anti-immigrant laws ever, remained in place until 1943, when the U.S. needed China’s assistance in its war with Japan. (Sources: Wikipedia, Harvard University Library).

Rock Springs Massacre

1885    Rock Springs Race Riot and Massacre—28 Chinese Americans killed by white miners in a dispute stemming from Union Pacific Coal Company’s practice of paying Chinese laborers a fraction of what they paid white workers. In a particularly negative blot on U.S. labor history, the Knights of Labor not only helped organize the white workers, but many of their members participated in the attacks on the Chinese workers. (Sources: Wikipedia; History Matters)

1886    Bay View Massacre 6 workers and 1 child were killed at the Milwaukee Iron Company Rolling Mill while fighting for the 8-hour day. (Sources: Wikipedia; Links to the Past; Wisconsin Labor History Society; libcom.org)

1886    American Federation of Labor: The AFL was founded in 1886 in Columbus, OH, with Samuel Gompers as its leader. The AFL emerged in response to turf wars with the Knights of Labor, particularly after a cigar makers strike in New York. (Gompers had been the head of one of the rival cigar makers unions.) The union, which was always staunchly anti-communist, began to make alliances with the Democratic Party in 1907 and was an enthusiastic supporter of World War I, WWII, the Korean and Cold Wars. (Sources: AFGE, Wikipedia, Marxists.org)

Haymarket Rioters, Harpers

1887    The Haymarket Affair 8 cops died, mostly from friendly fire, plus an unknown number of civilians, when a bomb was thrown at a public meeting in Haymarket Square, Chicago, during planning for a General Strike to win the 8-hour day. 8 anarchists were arrested and convicted in a kangaroo court, despite the fact none was present at the bombing. 4 were executed and one committed suicide in jail to “cheat” the state out of its revenge on him. May 1^st is celebrated as International Workers Day in virtually every country of the world (except the U.S.) to commemorate this struggle. (Sources: Modern School; IWW;Lucy Parsons Project; Recollection Books; Libcom.org)

1887    The Thibodaux Massacre: The Louisiana Militia and bands of whites shot at least 35 unarmed black sugar workers and lynched two strike leaders. Some sources place the death toll at over 300. The massacre came during a 3-week labor dispute that had been organized by the Knights of Labor. Gov. Sam McEnery eventually brought in 10 companies of infantry to break the strike. (Sources: Lutins.org; Wikipedia, Libcom.org)

Shield Used by Striking Homestead Workers

1892    Homestead Steel Strike and Massacre: Homestead Steel Works in Pennsylvania was owned by Andrew Carnegie and managed by Henry Clay Frick. Amalgamated Association of Steel and Iron Workers (AA) had won a bitter and violent strike against Homestead in 1882, and Frick and Carnegie vowed to crush the union, which they ultimately did. In January, Carnegie slashed wages, while Frick imposed speedups and hired 300 Pinkertons. In July, Frick laid off the entire Homestead workforce, effectively ending collective bargaining. The workers fought back, taking over the town’s political authority and running its infrastructure. 10,000 strikers temporarily held off the Pinkertons and scabs with sticks and a few guns. However, 40 strikers were shot and nine killed, while 120 Pinkertons were shot and seven killed. (Sources: Modern School, Part I; Modern School, Part II; Wikipedia; Strike! by Jeremy Brecher, South End Press, Boston, 1972)

1892    Frisco Mine was dynamited by striking Coeur D’Alene miners after they discovered they had been infiltrated by Pinkertons and after one of their members had been shot. Prior to this, the mine owners had increased work hours, decreased pay and brought in a bunch of scabs to replace striking workers. Ultimately, over 600 striking miners were imprisoned without charge by the military in order to crush the strike. These events led to the formation of the Western Federation of Miners, one of the more radical unions of its day. (Sources: Wikipedia; Fire in the Hole)

Big Bill Haywood

1893    Western Federation of Miners (WFM) formed in May of this year, in Butte, Montana, representing 15 unions in Montana, Idaho, Colorado, Utah and South Dakota. Big Bill Haywood became a leader of the organization by 1902 and vigorously espoused industrial unionism, in which all workers in a given industry are organized in one big union in order to maximize solidarity and power. In response to the mass arrests and imprisonment of its members during the 1890s, Haywood began to call for the complete abolition of the wage system. (Sources:Wikipedia; Strike! by Jeremy Brecher, South End Press, Boston, 1972)

1894    Cripple Creek Strike and Waite Agreement: Cripple Creek mine owners in Colorado attempted the same attacks on Colorado miners (e.g., longer hours and pay cuts) and organized a private army to enforce their will. The private army terrorized citizens, as well as miners, and was ultimately disbanded by the mine owners under threat of martial law in what was known as the Waite Agreement, which last for ten years. The WFM were also able to win the 8-hour day for their members. The peace and victory would be a short-lived precursor to the Colorado Labor Wars of 1903-1904—See Below. (Sources: Wikipedia;Strike! by Jeremy Brecher, South End Press, Boston, 1972)

Pullman Strike

1894    Pullman Strike: 34 workers were killed in this nationwide rail strike led by Eugene Debs. The strike began in Pullman, IL, as a wildcat response to wage cuts. The strike escalated to involve over 250,000 workers across 27 states, with 12,000 army soldiers being sent in to quash the strike. The rail workers ultimately signed a no-union pledge that kept the lines union-free until the Great Depression. (Sources: Wikipedia; Strike! by Jeremy Brecher, South End Press, Boston, 1972; Recollection Books)

Protest March After the Lattimer Massacre

1897    Lattimer Massacre: 19 unarmed immigrant miners were killed by a sheriff’s posse during a strike in Luzerne County, PA. (Sources: Wikipedia; UMWA)

1898    Virden Massacre: 25 workers were killed in a battle with armed guards transporting black strikebreakers in from Alabama. The strikers succeeded in turning away the train and winning wage increases. (Sources: Wikipedia; Remember Virden; Illinois Labor History)

1899    Bunker Hill: Bloody strikes had been going on at this and other Idaho mines over the course of the 1890s. The mine owners had been using scabs, Pinkertons, armed goons, soldiers, lock-outs and other tactics to squeeze the workers and crush their union. In retaliation, the miners loaded a train with dynamite and delivered it to the Bunker Hill mine in 1899, killing one scab and one WFM member. (Sources: Laborers.org; Wikipedia)

1902    8-Hour Days Were Created by State Amendments in Utah and Colorado. In Colorado, the law was passed with the support of 72% of voters and the backing of the WFM. However, under pressure from the mining companies, the legislature ignored the referendum and the miners decided to strike (see Colorado Labor Wars, below). (Sources: Wikipedia)

1902    Pennsylvania Mining Strike (AKA The Coal Strike): Anthracite coal miners (UMWA) in Eastern Pennsylvania were striking for higher wages, shorter hours and union recognition. Teddy Roosevelt intervened (the first time a president had done so), threatening to send in the military after negotiations failed to end the conflict. The strike finally ended  with a a raise and shorter hours, but still no union recognition. (Sources: Wikipedia;Stfrancis.edu)

1902    Pana Massacre: 14 workers were killed, martial law was declared, and the town of Pana, IL, was occupied by National Guards in an attempt to break the UMWA. (Sources: Lutins.org;Wikipedia; Rense.com)

1903-1904       Colorado Labor Wars: The National Guards, Pinkertons and vigilantes were used by the mine owners to intimidate miners. Hundreds of striking WFM miners were arrested and held in stockades. Many were deported. Children were arrested for chiding soldiers. General Sherman Bell, of the National Guards and a former mine manager, upon hearing that imprisoned WFM miners were asking for writs of habeas corpus, said “Habeas corpus be damned. We’ll give them post mortems.” (Sources: Wikipedia; Colorado’s War on Militant Unionism, George Suggs; Lucy Parsons Project)

1904    Dunnville Battle: 6 workers were killed and more than 70 were deported in the continuation of the Colorado Labor Wars. (Sources: Rense.com