Showing posts with label anarchism. Show all posts
Showing posts with label anarchism. Show all posts

Friday, June 28, 2013

Today in Labor History—June 28


Frame-Breaking by Luddites, 1812 (Frame-breaking was outlawed in 1721)
June 28, 1816 –Luddites attacked the Heathcoat and Boden's Mill at Loughborough, smashing 53 frames worth £6,000. Troops were sent in. Six Luddites were executed. The attack was part of a general revival of violence and sabotage of machinery following a bad harvest. At this same time, 'Swing' riots erupted in the countryside as a protest against low wages, unemployment & the Game Laws.
Monument to the Potemkin Mutineers in Odessa
June 28, 1905 -- The mutinous crew of the battleship "Potemkin" entered the port of Odessa, which had been taken by revolutionaries. Workers' Councils formed.

June 28, 1914 – Austria's Archduke Ferdinand was assassinated by the Serbian anarchist Gavrilo Princip, whose attentat was said to have set off World War I, which killed between 5 and 10 million soldiers.

June 28, 1916 – 50,000 workers staged a one day protest strike against the trial of Karl Leibnecht.

June 28, 1956 – 100,000 workers struck in Poznañ, Poland, shouting "Bread & Freedom. The protests were violently suppressed, with at least 67 workers killed. The government sends 10,000 soldiers to the city. The next day, another 70 would be killed, 700 would be arrested, and hundreds more would be wounded.

June 28, 1969 – Gay activists demonstrated in Sheridan Square and in front of the Stonewall Inn, where a riot occurred at 3 am earlier this morning when police raided the bar. Demonstrators were confronted by NYC Tactical Police.
(All from the Daily Bleed)

Thursday, June 27, 2013

Today in Labor History—June 27


Emma Goldman's Magazine, Mother Earth


June 27, 1869 - Anarchist, feminist and labor activist Emma Goldman was born in Lithuania. (From Workday Minnesota and the Daily Bleed)
Helen Keller, 1904
 June 27, 1880 – Helen Keller, the deaf, mute and blind author and socialist, was born (1880-1968), Tuscumbia, Alabama. (From the Daily Bleed)
June 27, 1893 – The U.S. Stock Market crashed, initiating a four-year depression. During this depression, labor and strike activity escalated, as demonstrated in the great Pullman Strike of 1894. (From the Daily Bleed)

June 27, 1905 - The Industrial Workers of the World, also known as the “Wobblies,” the radical syndicalist union, was founded at Brand's Hall, in Chicago, Illinois. The Wobblies, advocate industrial unionism, with all workers in a particular industry organized in the same union, as opposed by the trade unions typical today. (From Workday Minnesota and the Daily Bleed)

June 27, 1905 –The mutiny on the Russian battleship Potemkin officially began, with the crew killing the worst of the officers. They sailed on to Odessa (June 30) where the workers were on strike, then escaped to Rumania where they obtained political asylum. (From the Daily Bleed)
Potemkin mutiny leader Matuschenko (center), 1899
 June 27, 1935 - Congress passed the Wagner Act, authored by Senator Robert Wagner of New York. Also known as the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA), the legislation created the structure for collective bargaining in the United States. (From Workday Minnesota)

Tuesday, June 25, 2013

Today in Labor History—June 25

June 25, 1825 – U.S. troops captured Bob Forbes, leader of the Maroons (blacks resisting slavery) in Virginia. (From the Daily Bleed)
A dramatization (1905) of Sitting Bull stabbing Custer (library of Congress)
 June 25, 1876 – Lakota, Cheyenne and Arapahoe tribes defeated Custer and the U.S. Army at Little Big Horn, Montana. (From the Daily Bleed)
June 25, 1878 – Despite mass protests, Ezra Heywood was sentenced to two years hard labor for advocating free love and sexual emancipation as part of women's rights. Heywood was an anarchist, feminist and abolitionist who was hounded and harassed by the moralist vigilante Anthony Comstock. His wife, Angela Tilton, was considered by many to be even more radical than he was. (From the Daily Bleed)
Haymarket Memorial
June 25, 1893 - The Haymarket Martyrs Monument was dedicated at Forest Home Cemetery, Chicago, to honor the 8 anarchists who were framed and executed for the bombing at Haymarket Square on May 4, 1886. More than 8,000 people attended. At the base of the monument are Haymarket martyr August Spies’ last words: “The day will come when our silence will be more powerful than the voices you are throttling today.” (From Workday Minnesota and the Daily Bleed)
Striking Pullman workers confront National Guard troops in Chicago, 1894
June 25, 1894 – Eugene Debs and his American Railway Union called for a boycott of all Pullman railway cars during the now-famous Pullman Strike. Within days, 50,000 rail workers were participating, halting all railroad traffic out of Chicago. (From the Daily Bleed)
Robots in rebellion in 1922 performance of R.U.R.
June 25, 1921 -- Czech author Karel Capek's introduces the term robot in his play R.U.R. (Rossum's Universal Robots) in which robots, fed up with lousy work and pay, organize and rebel. The term comes from the Czech word “robota,” which referred to days in which peasants were forced to leave their own fields to work for free on the lands of the nobility. Even after feudalism had ended, the term was used to describe labor that was coerced, boring or uninteresting. (From the Daily Bleed)

June 25, 1938 - The Wages and Hours (later Fair Labor Standards) act was passed, which banned child labor, set the 40-hour work week and set a national minimum wage. (From Workday Minnesota and Shmoop Labor History)

June 25, 1941 - A. Philip Randolph (president Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters) called off the Negro march on Washington that had been planned for July 1 when President Roosevelt agreed to issue Executive Order 8802 banning racial discrimination in defense industries and government employment (creating the Fair Employment Practices Committee). (From Workday Minnesota and the Daily Bleed)

June 25, 1943—Congress passed the Smith-Connally Act allowing the government to take over critical industries affected by strikes, overriding President Roosevelt's veto. It also prevented unions from contributing to political campaigns. (From Shmoop Labor History)

June 25, 1968 – The 50,000 strong Poor People's Campaign March from Georgia to Washington D.C., concluded.

June 25, 1975 – Mozambique achieved independence from Portugal.

Monday, June 24, 2013

Today in Labor History—June 24


June 24, 1904 –Troops arrested 22 workers in Telluride, Colorado, accused them of being strike leaders and deported them out of the Telluride district. This was a repeat of events in March, in which 60 union miners were deported. (From the Daily Bleed)
 
Palmer disciplining labor?
June 24, 1917 – The IWW Domestic Workers Union supplied sandwiches to dozens of draft resistors in the Duluth, Minnesota jail. (From the Daily Bleed)

June 24, 1917 – The Russian Black Sea fleet mutinied at Sevastopol. (From the Daily Bleed)

June 24, 1919 – After the house of Attorney General Palmer was attacked on June 2, 1919, the Italian anarchist Luigi Galleani and his colleagues on the newspaper "Cronaca Sovversiva" were expelled from the country. Palmer oversaw the mass deportation of dozens of labor leaders, anarchists and communists, in addition to mass arrests.

June 24, 1943 – Otto Rühle (1874-1943), German Left communist of the Spartacist League (along with Liebknecht, Luxemburg, Mehring), died in Mexico. (From the Daily Bleed)

June 24, 1969 – Blacks rioted in Omaha, Nebraska, after police killed African American teenager Vivian Strong. Rioting lasted for four days. Omaha had seen race riots in 1968, 1966 and numerous labor dispute riots throughout the 19th and early 20th centuries. (From the Daily Bleed and Wikipedia)

June 24, 1971 – Seventeen workers were killed in a water tunnel in Sylmar, California, as the second explosion in two days rocked the worksite. (From the Daily Bleed)

Saturday, June 22, 2013

Today in Labor History—June 22


Ruins of the Ludlow Miners Tent Colony
June 22, 1914 – After calls for revenge against Standard Oil for the Ludlow Massacre, an anarchist bomb intended for the Rockefeller Mansion unintentionally detonated in the Ferrer Center on this date, killing three anarchists and putting a temporary end to the Modern School, which was housed there. (From the Daily Bleed)

June 22, 1920 – Following an immense open air meeting in Milan supporting the local striking rail workers, people returning home were fired upon and assaulted by gendarmes, aided by nationalists. Five young workers were shot dead and many wounded. (From the Daily Bleed)

June 22, 1922 - A several hundred striking miners seized a group of strikebreakers scabbing for the Southern Illinois Coal Company, killing 19, in what would become known as the “Herrin Massacre.” Several strikers were held in the Williamson County jail, which is now a historical museum focusing on the conflict. Those who were tried for the murders were all acquitted. (From Workday Minnesota)

Wednesday, June 19, 2013

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 19th 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 19th, 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)

Tuesday, June 18, 2013

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)

Wednesday, June 12, 2013

Today in Labor History—June 12

June 12, 1402 – The Duke of Burgundy massacred 3500 people in Paris. (From the Daily Bleed)

June 12, 1868 – U.S. troops invade Japan "to protect US interests" during their civil war. (From the Daily Bleed)

June 12, 1904 - 50,000 members of the Amalgamated Meat Cutters and Butcher Workmen walked off their jobs across the U.S. They were demanding an equalization of wages and conditions throughout U.S. plants. (From Workday Minnesota)

Francisco Ferrer
June 12, 1907 – Francisco Ferrer y Guàrdia, Spanish anarchist and creator of the original Modern School, was released from prison today for lack of evidence. He had been arrested on June 4, 1906, for complicity in an assassination attempt against King Alfonso, and held in the Carcelo Modelo in Madrid. The bombing had been committed by another young anarchist named Morral, who hid his bomb in a bunch of flowers and tossed it into the royal wedding party, killing 15 and wounding more than 70. (From the Daily Bleed)

June 12, 1910 – The Francisco Ferrer Association in the U.S. was founded, forming a colony in New Jersey and the first U.S. Modern School in New York. (From the Daily Bleed)

June 12, 1912— Massachusetts became the first state to adopt a minimum wage law. Other states passed similar laws later that year. (From Shmoop Labor History)

June 12, 1957 – Hundreds of students continued to fight cops and attack Communist Party headquarters in Hang Yang, China. (From the Daily Bleed)

June 12, 1963 – NAACP leader Medgar Evers fatally shot, Jackson, Mississippi. His murderer is not convicted until 1994. (From the Daily Bleed)

June 12, 1964 – Nelson Mandela was sentenced to life imprisonment for "sabotaging" the South African government. (From the Daily Bleed)

June 12, 1967 – The U.S. Supreme Court unanimously voted to end laws banning interracial marriages, which was still illegal in 16 states. (From the Daily Bleed)

June 12, 1967 – Riots occurred in African Americans communities in Tampa, Florida, with more following in Dayton and Cincinnati, Ohio two days later. (From the Daily Bleed)
  
June 12, 1985 – 1,756 people were arrested in 150 cities across the U.S. protesting against illegal American arming and financing of Nicaraguan Contras. (From the Daily Bleed)

Sunday, June 9, 2013

Today in Labor History—June 9


Women's Trade Union League Float, New York Labor Day Parade, 1908
June 9, 1865 - Labor activist Helen Marot was born. Marot was a librarian from a wealthy family in Philadelphia, who investigated working conditions among children and women. During her life she participated in numerous labor organizations, particularly those dedicated to the interests of women, such as the Women's Trade Union League and the Bookkeepers, Stenographers and Accountants Union in New York. She also organized and led the 1909-1910 Shirtwaist Strike in New York and was part of a commission that investigated the Triangle Shirtwaist Company Fire in 1912. (From Workday Minnesota)

June 9, 1902 – The US past anti-anarchist legislation designed to quell the rising power of anarchists in the labor movement. (From the Daily Bleed)
Crowd outside City Wall, Winnipeg, 1919, during General Strike
June 9, 1919 – The Winnipeg city council dismissed the police force during the General Strike. (From the Daily Bleed)

June 9, 1989 – Leaders of the student protests at Tiananmen Square were tried. (From the Daily Bleed)

Wednesday, June 5, 2013

Today in Labor History—June 5



June 5, 1832 – The poor of Paris revolted against the new monarchy. The Society of the Friends of the People raised the red flag, declaring "Liberty or Death." The uprising was the inspiration for Victor Hugo's Les Miserables. (From the Daily Bleed)
Ruins of Columbus, New Mexico, 1916, After Raid by Pancho Villa
 June 5, 1878 – Francisco "Pancho" Villa was born, San Juan del Rio, Durango. (From the Daily Bleed)

June 5, 1906 – The leaders of the Cananea copper strike were arrested. (From the Daily Bleed)

Lowly Driving Off in His Busytown Apple Car (Image by Valerie Everett)
June 5, 1919 – Children’s book author Richard Scarry was born, Boston. Scarry wrote or illustrated over 300 books and brought us characters like Huckle the Cat, Lowly the Worm, Wild Bill Hiccup and Gold Bug. (From the Daily Bleed)

June 5, 1919 – 67 anarchists were arrested and set up for deportation in the wake of a bomb explosion, marking the beginning of the infamous "Palmer raids" that ultimately led to the deportations and imprisonment of thousands of union members, communists and anarchists. (From the Daily Bleed)

June 5, 1919 – Merchants and workers struck in Shanghai to support students. (From the Daily Bleed)

June 5, 1925 – Mine owners in La Coruna, Chile, launched an attack on rebel workers in a nitrate mine encampment. Over 500 workers were tortured in Iqueque. This came in the wake of an earlier massacre in March, in which 500 were slaughtered by the government. (From the Daily Bleed and Wikipedia)

June 5, 1967 – Israel attacked Egypt and Syria, during the Six- Day War, resulting in its illegal occupation of the Sinai Peninsula, West Bank, Gaza Strip & Golan Heights. (From the Daily Bleed)

June 5, 1969 – Imprisoned U.S. soldiers rioted at the military penal stockade at Fort Dix over barbarous conditions and the tortures being inflicted on them by the US military state. The majority were in prison for going AWOL, resisting the draft, or as conscientious objectors. Many were being held without trial. (From the Daily Bleed)

Tuesday, June 4, 2013

Today in Labor History—June 4

1850 – During June of 1850,  Mikhail Bakunin's death sentence in Germany was commuted to life imprisonment. (From the Daily Bleed)
1861 – During June of 1861 Mikhail Bakunin escaped from Siberia via the Amur River, and arrived in Nikolavsk in July, where he boarded an American merchant ship, Vickery, to Hakodate, Japan. (From the Daily Bleed)
June 4, 1904 – Members of the International Brotherhood of Paper Makers struck Wisconsin paper mills in. (From the Daily Bleed)

June 4, 1906—Francisco Ferrer (founder of the first Modern Schools) was arrested and imprisoned for participating in Mateo Morral’s assassination attempt against Spanish monarch Alfonso XIII. Ferrer was later released due to lack of evidence. Morral worked in Modern School’s publishing house and was a friend of Ferrer’s.
Nestor Makhno during the Ukranian Free Territory, 1919-1921
June 4, 1919 – The 4th (Ukrainian) Congress of Free Soviets, was banned by Leon Trotsky, Bolshevist troops were sent to destroy the Rosa Luxemburg Commune near Provkovski, and the Ukrainian anarchist insurgent Nestor Makhno was declared an outlaw. (From the Daily Bleed)

March in support of the Chilean socialist republic, 1932
June 4, 1932 -- Chilean politicians and the military carried out a coup d'etat, installing Marmaduke Grove, who declared Chile a "socialist republic." However, workers and were given no means to participate. Twelve days later, the military ended the "workers republic." (From the Daily Bleed)
Zoot Suits, 1942 (Library of Congress)
June 4, 1943 – The Zoot Suit riots began on this date in Los Angeles, with white soldiers attacking blacks & Hispanics. (From the Daily Bleed)
June 4, 1963 – Jimmy Hoffa and seven other members of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, were indicted on charges of fraudulently obtaining $20 million in loans from a Teamsters Union Pension Fund. (From the Daily Bleed)

June 4, 1979 – The Sandinistas called for an "insurrectional general strike."
(From the Daily Bleed)
June 4, 1989 – The Chinese army massacred at least 2,000 peacefully protesting students and workers in Beijing's Tiananmen Square. (From the Daily Bleed)

Friday, May 31, 2013

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.

Wednesday, May 29, 2013

Today in Labor History—May 29


Louise Michel
May 29, 1830 – Anarchist Louise Michel, was born in Vroncourt, France. Michel, also known as The Red Virgin, was a leader of the Paris Commune. (From the Daily Bleed)

May 29, 1839 – Revolution against the Mexican government broke out in Yucatan. (From the Daily Bleed)

May 29, 1854 – Civil rights activist, Lydia Flood Jackson, opened the first school for black children in Sacramento, California. (From the Daily Bleed)

May 29, 1881 –Chinese anarchist Li Shizeng was born. He led the anarchist Jinde Hui group (Society for Progress and Virtue), with Wu Zhihui, & Zhang Ji. He also tried unsuccessfully to turn the Guomindang into an anarchist organization. (From the Daily Bleed)

May 29, 1922 – The Portuguese army and police opened fire on 10,000 protesters outside the police station in Macau. The protesters wanted the release of three Chinese barbers who had beaten up soldiers for sexually harassing a Chinese woman. Seventy people were shot dead, while over 100 beaten, leading ultimately to a general strike is declared. (From the Daily Bleed)

May 29, 1943 – The British RAF dropped 1,500 tons of bombs on Wuppertal, Germany killing 2,450 civilians and destroying nearly 4,000 houses. (From the Daily Bleed)

May 29, 1946 - The United Mine Workers (UMWA) and the U.S. government signed a pact establishing one of America’s first union medical and pension plan. The UMWA Welfare and Retirement Fund permanently changed health care delivery in U.S. coal fields. The Fund was used to build eight hospitals in Appalachia. It also established many clinics and recruited doctors to practice in rural coal field areas. (From Workday Minnesota)

May 29, 1950 –The United Auto Workers (UAW) at General Motors won hospitalization plan. (From the Daily Bleed)

May 29, 1967 – The Poor Peoples' Campaign was launched in Washington D.C. (From the Daily Bleed)

May 29, 1969 – Government violence triggered General Strikes in Cordoba and La Plata Argentina. (From the Daily Bleed)