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)

Today in Labor History—June 11

Richard II meets the rebels (from Froissart's Chronicles)

June 11, 1381 – A Peasant revolt broke out in England, calling for property to be held in common and equality for all. Also known as Wat Tyler's rebellion and marked the beginning of the end of serfdom. (From the Daily Bleed)

Wat Tyler's execution by Walworth, while Richard II watches

June 11, 1848 – The wave of European revolutions continued with the uprising in Prague. (From the Daily Bleed)

June 11, 1872 - Labor unions were legalized in Canada, following a Toronto printers' strike. (From Workday Minnesota)

Blockade of engines in W. Virginia (from Harpers)

 June 11, 1877 –The Great U.S. Railroad Strike began. (From the Daily Bleed)

Maryland national guard battling striking rail workers

 June 11, 1913 – Cops shot Black & White IWW (Industrial Workers of the World) members and AFL maritime workers who were striking against United Fruit company in New Orleans, killing one and wounding two. (From the Daily Bleed)

June 11, 1925 – During a mine workers strike against the British Empire Steel Corporation (BESCO) in Cape Breton, drunken company police attacked on horseback, beating all in their way. They then rode through the school yards, knocking down innocent children, cracking jokes that the miners were at home hiding under their beds. (From the Daily Bleed)

June 11, 1926 – The first 40-hour work week in the U.S. was won by New York fur workers. (From the Daily Bleed)

June 11, 1929 – Student strikers occupied buildings at the Universidad Nacional de Mexico. (From the Daily Bleed)

June 11, 1957 – Chinese students fought that cops and attacked the Communist Party HQ in Hang Yang. (From the Daily Bleed)

June 11, 1968 –May Days continued into June in France with ongoing strikes and protests. In the factories of Peugeot-Sochaux, two workers were killed by the hated CRS. (From the Daily Bleed)

June 11, 1973 – General Strike against General Franco was launched in Pamplona, Spain. (From the Daily Bleed)

June 11, 1974 – A labor dispute at the Chrysler Truck Facility erupted into a spontaneous wildcat strike lasting from June 11 through June 14. Two Dodge Truck strikers wrote, "[we wanted] to free ourselves from the tyranny of the workplace; stop being forced to sell our labor to others; stop others from having control over our lives." (From the Daily Bleed)

June 11, 1981 – The first baseball player's strike in major-league history began midseason. (From the Daily Bleed)

June 11, 2002 – Earth First! and IWW activists Judi Bari and Darryl Cherney won $4.4 million in a false-arrest lawsuit against Oakland police and the FBI. They had been arrested for blowing up their own car while they were in it. The jury unanimously found that six of the seven FBI and OPD defendants had deliberately framed Bari and Cherney in an effort to crush Earth First! and chill participation in Redwood Summer.

Today in Labor History—May 28

Grachus Babeuf

May 28, 1797 – Revolutionary Gracchus Babeuf was executed (1760-1797). Babeuf formed a secret society that plotted to overthrow the government, known as the Conspiracy of the Equals. The group included Sylvain Maréchal, Jacques Roux, Jean Varlet and others. (From the Daily Bleed)

May 28, 1879 – The First American law prohibiting employment of women was passed to prevent women from working in Illinois, in coal mines. (From the Daily Bleed)

May 28, 1937 – Petroleum workers struck in Mexico. (From the Daily Bleed)

May 28, 1946 –A General Strike shut down Rochester, New York. (From the Daily Bleed)

May 28, 1967 – Schoolteachers returned to work after a 6-day strike. (From the Daily Bleed)

May 28, 1968 – Students occupied the University of Madrid (still under control of fascist dictator Francisco Franco). Cops raided the campus and removed the occupiers, and then shut down the University. (From the Daily Bleed)

Today in Labor History—May 18

Tupac Amaru

May 18, 1781 – Tupac Amaru II, and other Peruvian indigenous leaders, who rebelled against the Spanish conquistadors, was drawn and quartered in Plaza Mayor del Cuzco. (From the Daily Bleed)

Bakunin speaking at IWA, 1869

May 18, 1814 –Russian Anarchist militant and philosopher Mikhail Bakunin was born.  (From the Daily Bleed)

May 18, 1872 – Philosopher, mathematician & social critic Bertrand Russell (1872-1970) was born in Wales. Russell won the Nobel prize for literature in 1950. He was imprisoned as a pacifist during WWI, and again in 1961, for protesting in Whitehall. (From the Daily Bleed)

May 18, 1895 – Augusto Sandino, leader of the original Sandinista movement for  Nicaraguan independence was born. (From the Daily Bleed)

May 18, 1917 - The Amalgamated Meat Cutters and Butcher Workmen started organizing in packinghouses across the United States, ultimately bringing their membership from 6,500 in 1917 to 100,000 by 1919. (From Workday Minnesota)

May 18, 1920 - Ten people were killed when coal company officials in Matewan, West Virginia, tried to remove striking union workers from coal company housing. They sent in agents from the Baldwin-Felts detective agency who evicted several families before trying to hop on a train out of town. Sheriff Hatfield, who supported the miners’ right to organize, tried to arrest the detectives who, in turn, tried to arrest Hatfield. Unbeknownst to the detectives, they had been surrounded by miners. No one knows who shot first, but when the smoke had cleared, there were 7 dead detectives (including Albert and Lee Felts) and 4 dead townspeople. The episode became known as the “Matewan Battle” or “Matewan Massacre,” and is depicted in John Sayles’ film Matewan. It should be pointed out that mining was one of the most dangerous and corrupt industries around. Miners were typically forced to live in company town and purchase living necessities from company stores at inflated prices. They were paid in scrip, which was useless outside of the company towns. In the time leading up to the Battle of Matewan, numerous miners had been assassinated by vigilantes, goons or detectives. In the aftermath of the massacre, the miners went on strike and were treated to even more violence. Striking miners were beaten and left to die in the streets. The remaining Felts brother, Tom, instigated a vendetta against Sheriff Hatfield, eventually having him killed by his agency in 1921. (From Workday Minnesota, Wikipedia, Daily Bleed and Matewanwv.com)

May 18, 1927 –Possibly the first U.S. school massacre occurred. Andrew Kehoe was seeking revenge against the community for taxes imposed on his farm to pay for a new school, set off a TNT bomb in the school in Bath, Michigan, killing 43 people, including 39 grade-school children. He then killed his wife, himself & the school superintendent. (From the Daily Bleed)

May 18, 1968 – 10,000 marched in Madrid, Spain, erected barricades and clashed with police, in solidarity with the May revolt in France (and in spite of the fact they are still living under a fascist dictatorship). (From the Daily Bleed)

May 18, 1979 – Silkwood vs. Kerr-McGee case was settled, establishing that corporations are responsible for the people they irradiate. (From the Daily Bleed)

May 18, 1991 – 200,000 violently protest against South Korean government. (From the Daily Bleed)

Today in Labor History—April 25

April 25, 1886 – The New York Times called the eight-hour workday movement "un-American" calling the public demonstrations "labor disturbances brought about by foreigners." The ruling elite created a hysteria about how the eight-hour day would ruin our economy and culture, much like they are doing today with respect to unions, teachers and collective bargaining. Other media prophesied that the eight-hour day would cause "loafing and gambling, rioting, debauchery and drunkenness." (From Workday Minnesota)

April 25, 1945 – The founding conference of United Nations began in San Francisco, California. (From the Daily Bleed)

April 25, 1974 – The Armed Forces Movement (MFA - Movimento das Forças Armadas) began its Revolt against the Portuguese dictatorship. Known as the Revolução dos Cravos ("Carnation Revolution"), the uprising ended the 48-year military dictatorship. (From the Daily Bleed)

April 25, 1993 – Over one million marched in Washington, D.C., for gay, lesbian, bisexual, & transgender rights. (From the Daily Bleed)

Today in Labor History—February 27

Guards' cannon dragged to Montmartre During Paris Commune (contemporary sketch)

February 27, 1871 – The Paris Commune began when regular soldiers, sent to confiscate cannon from the National Guard militia in Paris, were confronted by the crowd and then decided to fraternize with them. (From the Daily Bleed)

Cartoon showing US Socialist Presidential candidate, Eugen V. Debs, who ran from in prison in the 1920 election.

 February 27, 1875 – Eugene V. Debs became a charter member and secretary of the Vigo Lodge, Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen. By 1880, he had become grand secretary of the national Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen and editor of the Locomotive Fireman's Magazine. He later led the bitter Pullman strike. (From the Daily Bleed)

February 27, 1902 – John Steinbeck was born on this date in Salinas, California. Steinbeck, who won the Nobel Prize for literature in 1962, wrote numerous novels from the perspective of farmers and the working class, including The Grapes of Wrath (1939), Tortilla Flats, Of Mice and Men, Cannery Row & East of Eden. (1952). (From the Daily Bleed)

February 27, 1912 – “The Times" of London published a lead story about a "conspiracy" of unions to take over ownership of British coal mines. The piece was based on a pamphlet, "The Miner's Next Step," which had been printed in Tonypandy, a scene of recent bloodshed between strikers and police. The pamphlet, written by the South Wales Miner's Federation, called for direct action and industrial solidarity. (From the Daily Bleed)

February 27, 1933 – Berlin's Reichstag parliament building was torched. The Nazi's tried to blame it on communists as a ploy in their steady consolidation of total power. (From the Daily Bleed)

Jarama Valley, Woody Guthrie

February 27, 1937 – Lincoln Brigadiers attacked Pingarrón Hill ("Suicide Hill") in Jarama Valley, Spain. Of the 500 who fought in this infamous battle, over 300 were killed or wounded. The Lincoln Brigade was made up of Americans who went to Spain (in violation of U.S. law) to help fight Franco and the fascists. (From the Daily Bleed)

February 27, 1939 - Following a decade of sit-down strikes, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that sit-down strikes were illegal. (From Workday Minnesota)

February 27, 1942 – The Seattle School Board accepted the forced resignation of Japanese-American teachers. (From the Daily Bleed)


February 27, 1943 – A mine disaster killed 74 workers at Red Lodge, Montana. (From the Daily Bleed)

February 27, 1973 – 300 Oglala Sioux American Indian Movement (A.I.M.) activists liberated and occupied Wounded Knee, South Dakota (the site of the 1890 massacre of Sioux by the U.S. cavalry), in response to a campaign of terror by tribal and FBI officials. From the Daily Bleed)

February 27, 2001 – Seattle ACORN workers went on strike. Their office shut was down after their employer refused to recognize Public Interest Workers IU 670 union of the IWW. From the Daily Bleed)

Today in Labor History—December 23

December 23, 1617--America's first penal colony was established in Virginia, creating safe, humane [sic] home for the nascent country's future class war prisoners. (From the Daily Bleed)

December 23, 1921 - President Warren Harding issued a "Christmas amnesty," freeing Eugene V. Debs and 23 other political prisoners who had been imprisoned for their opposition to World War I. (from Workday Minnesota)

December 23, 1938--Franco's forces launched an assault on Catalonia.(From the Daily Bleed)

December 23, 1947-- Truman pardoned 1,523 out of 15,805 WWII draft resistors.(From the Daily Bleed)

Today in Labor History—August 12

August 12, 1881 - The United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners was founded. (From Workday Minnesota)

August 12, 1898 – Coal company guards killed seven and wounded 40 miners who were trying to stop scabs from taking their jobs in Virden, Illinois. (From the Daily Bleed)

August 12, 1933 – A General Strike brought down the Machado government in Cuba. (From the Daily Bleed)

August 12, 1936 -- The First International Brigades arrived in Spain to fight against Franco. (From the Daily Bleed)

British internationalistas' flag

Hungarian Internationalistas' flag

August 12, 1959 – Little Rock, Arkansas began to integrate two of its public schools, in response to a federal mandate, admitting a whopping six black students to two schools and even this was met with violence by segregationist mobs. (From the Daily Bleed)

The Little Rock 9 being escorted into Central High in 1957

August 12, 1978 – South Korean police stormed the YH Wig factory sit-in, arresting 180 and killing one. (From the Daily Bleed)

August 12, 1992 - The U.S., Canada and Mexico signed the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), which took effect in January 1994. Since then, the U.S. has lost 3 million jobs, while wages in Mexico have plummeted. (From Workday Minnesota)

Today in Labor History—July 31

July 31, 1916 – Electricity workers went on strike in Mexico City, launching a General Strike. (From the Daily Bleed)

July 31, 1922 – A General Strike against Fascism began in Italy, running from July 31 to August 2. (From the Daily Bleed)

July 31, 1968 – Violent street battles between students and riot police occurred in México City. Students occupied schools and began a General Strike, which culminated in the Tlatelolco massacre on October 2^nd, with over 300 people slaughtered and thousands arrested and tortured. (From the Daily Bleed)

July 31, 1970 - Members of the National Football League Players Association (NFLPA) went on strike over pay, pensions, the right to arbitration and the right to have agents. The strike lasted only two days, but inaugurated the NFLPA as a real union. (From Workday Minnesota)

Today in Labor History—July 14

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Prise de la Bastille, by Jean-Pierre-Louis-Laurent Houel.

July 14, 1789 – Parisians stormed the Bastille, marking the beginning of the French Revolution. The Bastille was a symbol of tyranny, feudal authority and the "divine" rights of kings. The revolution sparked optimism among working people throughout the world. However, only the middle-classes gained control. (From the Daily Bleed)

July 14, 1798 – The Federalist-sponsored Alien and Sedition Acts made it a crime to write, utter or publish "any false, scandalous, & malicious" statements about the government, Congress, or the President. Republicans arrested, including newspaper editors and one member of Congress. Jefferson denounced the laws as a violation of the 1^st Amendment. (From the Daily Bleed and Wikipedia)

July 14, 1811 -- England: Luddites attacked machines in Sunnon-in-Ashuano. (From the Daily Bleed)

Buenaventura Durruti

July 14, 1896 – Legendary Spanish anarchist and military strategist Buenaventura Durruti was born. Durruti helped organize attacks on the government of dictator Miguel Primo de Riviera in 1923. He was influential in the anarchist federation FAI and the syndicalist union CNT. Durruti is probably best known for leading thousands of anarchist troops (the Durruti Column) against the Franco dictatorship. (From the Daily Bleed and Wikipedia)

Woody Guthrie's Guitar Kills Fascists, Library of Congress

 July 14, 1912 – Folk singer Woody Guthrie was born. (From Workday Minnesota)

July 14, 1921 – The Sacco and Vanzetti case went to the jury. At 7:30 pm the jury returned its verdict: both were both found guilty of murder in the first degree. (From the Daily Bleed)

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)

Today in Labor History—June 11

Richard II meets the rebels (from Froissart's Chronicles)

June 11, 1381 – A Peasant revolt broke out in England, calling for property to be held in common and equality for all. Also known as Wat Tyler's rebellion and marked the beginning of the end of serfdom. (From the Daily Bleed)

Wat Tyler's execution by Walworth, while Richard II watches

June 11, 1848 – The wave of European revolutions continued with the uprising in Prague. (From the Daily Bleed)

June 11, 1872 - Labor unions were legalized in Canada, following a Toronto printers' strike. (From Workday Minnesota)

Blockade of engines in W. Virginia (from Harpers)

 June 11, 1877 –The Great U.S. Railroad Strike began. (From the Daily Bleed)

Maryland national guard battling striking rail workers

 June 11, 1913 – Cops shot Black & White IWW (Industrial Workers of the World) members and AFL maritime workers who were striking against United Fruit company in New Orleans, killing one and wounding two. (From the Daily Bleed)

June 11, 1925 – During a mine workers strike against the British Empire Steel Corporation (BESCO) in Cape Breton, drunken company police attacked on horseback, beating all in their way. They then rode through the school yards, knocking down innocent children, cracking jokes that the miners were at home hiding under their beds. (From the Daily Bleed)

June 11, 1926 – The first 40-hour work week in the U.S. was won by New York fur workers. (From the Daily Bleed)

June 11, 1929 – Student strikers occupied buildings at the Universidad Nacional de Mexico. (From the Daily Bleed)

June 11, 1957 – Chinese students fought that cops and attacked the Communist Party HQ in Hang Yang. (From the Daily Bleed)

June 11, 1968 –May Days continued into June in France with ongoing strikes and protests. In the factories of Peugeot-Sochaux, two workers were killed by the hated CRS. (From the Daily Bleed)

June 11, 1973 – General Strike against General Franco was launched in Pamplona, Spain. (From the Daily Bleed)

June 11, 1974 – A labor dispute at the Chrysler Truck Facility erupted into a spontaneous wildcat strike lasting from June 11 through June 14. Two Dodge Truck strikers wrote, "[we wanted] to free ourselves from the tyranny of the workplace; stop being forced to sell our labor to others; stop others from having control over our lives." (From the Daily Bleed)

June 11, 1981 – The first baseball player's strike in major-league history began midseason. (From the Daily Bleed)

June 11, 2002 – Earth First! and IWW activists Judi Bari and Darryl Cherney won $4.4 million in a false-arrest lawsuit against Oakland police and the FBI. They had been arrested for blowing up their own car while they were in it. The jury unanimously found that six of the seven FBI and OPD defendants had deliberately framed Bari and Cherney in an effort to crush Earth First! and chill participation in Redwood Summer.

Today in Labor History—May 28

Grachus Babeuf

May 28, 1797 – Revolutionary Gracchus Babeuf was executed (1760-1797). Babeuf formed a secret society that plotted to overthrow the government, known as the Conspiracy of the Equals. The group included Sylvain Maréchal, Jacques Roux, Jean Varlet and others. (From the Daily Bleed)

May 28, 1879 – The First American law prohibiting employment of women was passed to prevent women from working in Illinois, in coal mines. (From the Daily Bleed)

May 28, 1937 – Petroleum workers struck in Mexico. (From the Daily Bleed)

May 28, 1946 –A General Strike shut down Rochester, New York. (From the Daily Bleed)

May 28, 1967 – Schoolteachers returned to work after a 6-day strike. (From the Daily Bleed)

May 28, 1968 – Students occupied the University of Madrid (still under control of fascist dictator Francisco Franco). Cops raided the campus and removed the occupiers, and then shut down the University. (From the Daily Bleed)

Today in Labor History—May 18

Tupac Amaru

May 18, 1781 – Tupac Amaru II, and other Peruvian indigenous leaders, who rebelled against the Spanish conquistadors, was drawn and quartered in Plaza Mayor del Cuzco. (From the Daily Bleed)

Bakunin speaking at IWA, 1869

May 18, 1814 –Russian Anarchist militant and philosopher Mikhail Bakunin was born.  (From the Daily Bleed)

May 18, 1872 – Philosopher, mathematician & social critic Bertrand Russell (1872-1970) was born in Wales. Russell won the Nobel prize for literature in 1950. He was imprisoned as a pacifist during WWI, and again in 1961, for protesting in Whitehall. (From the Daily Bleed)

May 18, 1895 – Augusto Sandino, leader of the original Sandinista movement for  Nicaraguan independence was born. (From the Daily Bleed)

May 18, 1917 - The Amalgamated Meat Cutters and Butcher Workmen started organizing in packinghouses across the United States, ultimately bringing their membership from 6,500 in 1917 to 100,000 by 1919. (From Workday Minnesota)

May 18, 1920 - Ten people were killed when coal company officials in Matewan, West Virginia, tried to remove striking union workers from coal company housing. They sent in agents from the Baldwin-Felts detective agency who evicted several families before trying to hop on a train out of town. Sheriff Hatfield, who supported the miners’ right to organize, tried to arrest the detectives who, in turn, tried to arrest Hatfield. Unbeknownst to the detectives, they had been surrounded by miners. No one knows who shot first, but when the smoke had cleared, there were 7 dead detectives (including Albert and Lee Felts) and 4 dead townspeople. The episode became known as the “Matewan Battle” or “Matewan Massacre,” and is depicted in John Sayles’ film Matewan. It should be pointed out that mining was one of the most dangerous and corrupt industries around. Miners were typically forced to live in company town and purchase living necessities from company stores at inflated prices. They were paid in scrip, which was useless outside of the company towns. In the time leading up to the Battle of Matewan, numerous miners had been assassinated by vigilantes, goons or detectives. In the aftermath of the massacre, the miners went on strike and were treated to even more violence. Striking miners were beaten and left to die in the streets. The remaining Felts brother, Tom, instigated a vendetta against Sheriff Hatfield, eventually having him killed by his agency in 1921. (From Workday Minnesota, Wikipedia, Daily Bleed and Matewanwv.com)

May 18, 1927 –Possibly the first U.S. school massacre occurred. Andrew Kehoe was seeking revenge against the community for taxes imposed on his farm to pay for a new school, set off a TNT bomb in the school in Bath, Michigan, killing 43 people, including 39 grade-school children. He then killed his wife, himself & the school superintendent. (From the Daily Bleed)

May 18, 1968 – 10,000 marched in Madrid, Spain, erected barricades and clashed with police, in solidarity with the May revolt in France (and in spite of the fact they are still living under a fascist dictatorship). (From the Daily Bleed)

May 18, 1979 – Silkwood vs. Kerr-McGee case was settled, establishing that corporations are responsible for the people they irradiate. (From the Daily Bleed)

May 18, 1991 – 200,000 violently protest against South Korean government. (From the Daily Bleed)