Today In Labor History—June 29

Michael Schwab

June 29, 1898 – Michael Schwab, who was convicted for the Haymarket bombing, died from tuberculosis, having been pardoned and released from prison just a few months prior.

June 29, 1919 – Striking meat-workers in Townsville, Queensland, Australia clashed with police. Nine people were wounded in an exchange of gunshots.

June 29, 1936 – Jesus Pallares, founder of the 8,000-member coal miners union, Liga Obrera de Habla Esanola, was deported from the U.S. as an "undesirable alien." One hundred miners were arrested during the 1934 La Liga strike against the Gallup American Company in New Mexico.

June 29, 1941 – Stokely Carmichael (1941-1998), founder of the U.S. civil rights group the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) was born in Port of Spain, Trinidad. Emigrated to the United States.

June 29, 1983 – President Reagan said that one cause of the decline in public education was the effort to comply with court-ordered desegregation.

(All from the Daily Bleed)

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)

Today in Labor History—June 23

Lamartine in front of the Town Hall of Paris rejects the red flag on 25 February 1848

June 23, 1848 – Workers rose up in Paris. The rebellion lasted until the 26th. (From the Daily Bleed)

June 23, 1947 - The anti-worker Taft-Hartley Act was passed, overriding President Harry Truman’s veto. The act rolled back many of the labor protections created by the 1935 Wagner Act. Taft-Hartley weakened unions in numerous ways, including the banning of the general striking. It also allowed states to exempt themselves from union requirements. Twenty states immediately enacted anti-union open shop laws. (From Workday Minnesota and Shmoop Labor History)

June 23, 1966 – Race riots began in Cleveland, Ohio and continued for a month. (From the Daily Bleed)

Today in Labor History—June 20

Caricature of the 3rd estate carrying the 2nd (clergy) and 1st (nobility) estates on its back

June 20, 1791 – A French mob invaded the Tuileries and King Louis XVI tried (unsuccessfully) to flee the French Revolution. (From the Daily Bleed)

Albert Parsons

 June 20, 1848 – Albert Parson, Anarchist labor leader and Haymarket martyr, was born in Montgomery, Alabama. (From the Daily Bleed)

June 20, 1893 – Eugene Debs formed the American Railway Union (ARU), one of the earliest unions to organize by industry and regardless of race or ethnicity (see Knights of Labor and IWW) . Within a few months the union was leading an 18-day strike against the Great Northern Railroad, successfully forcing management to reverse three wage cuts, despite the fact that the nation was in the midst of a terrible depression. The victory set the union on a remarkable course in which it averaged 2,000 new members a day.. (From Workday Minnesota and the Daily Bleed)

June 20, 1909 – Méxican rebel forces led by the anarchist Flores Magón brothers attacked Casas Grandes, Chih. (From the Daily Bleed)

Voltairine de Cleyre, 1891

 June 20, 1912 – Voltairine de Cleyre, one of the earliest feminist anarchists, died at the age 45, following a long illness. Two thousand supporters attended her funeral at Waldheim cemetery, where she was buried next to the Haymarket Martyrs. (From the Daily Bleed)

June 20, 1920 – Police shot 14 Wobblies (members of the Industrial Workers of the World) during a labor clash in Butte, Montana. In April, company guards at the Anaconda mine fired on striking Wobblies, killing one. Vigilantes or company goons lynched IWW organizer Frank Little in Butte in 1917. (From the Daily Bleed)

June 20, 1927 – A newspaper strike halted publication of "The Butte Miner," "Anaconda Standard," & "Butte Daily Post" (until July 4). (From the Daily Bleed)

June 20, 1941 – The first United Auto Workers (UAW) contract ever was signed with Henry Ford, who recognizes the UAW. (From the Daily Bleed)

June 20, 1943 – Striking African American auto workers were attacked by the National Workers League, KKK and armed white workers at Detroit's Bell Isle amusement park. 34 people killed and 1,300 arrested in these race riots. (From the Daily Bleed)

June 20, 1982 – 2,500 protesters were arrested in two days of anti-nuclear demonstrations and  blockades of Lawrence Livermore labs, California. (From the Daily Bleed)

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)

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)

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 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)

Charges Dropped and Free Trip to Space Camp for Kiera Wilmot

16-year-old Kiera Wilmot was recently arrested and charged as an adult with two charges for a science experiment that went a tiny bit awry (see Zero Tolerance for Science, or Common Sense). Thanks to the public outcry, all charges have been dropped. However, it gets even better: former NASA engineer Homer Hickam is sending Kiera and her twin sister Kayla to space camp, according to Good Education.

Hickam, who had served as SpaceLab’s lead astronaut and who had worked at the International Space Station, raised funds for scholarships to the U.S. Advanced Space Academy for the two scientifically inclined girls. While other scientists had spoken out on Kiera’s behalf, Hickam felt particularly moved, having had a similar experience in high school. He had been accused of starting a forest fire and was arrested, but ultimately released after his physics teacher and principal advocated for him.

Today in Labor History: April 17

April 17, 617--53 Scottish monks were burned alive in their refectory by armed women seeking revenge for being cheated out of their pasture rights on the isle of Eigg (from the Daily Bleed). Wikipedia says that 150 Christians, including Saint Donnan (who had recently introduced Christianity to the area), were burnt alive by the pagan Pictish queen, but is vague about their motivation.

April 17, 1824--Slavery was abolished in Central America (from the Daily Bleed).

Benjamin Tucker

\April 17, 1854--American individualist anarchist and publisher of Liberty, Ben Tucker, was born on this date (from the Daily Bleed).

Richmond, VA Bread Riot

April 17, 1864 –Bread riots in Savannah, Georgia. (From the Daily Bleed) The Civil War had been going on for several years. Soldiers were deserting, particularly working class conscripts. Those that remained were hungry and eating/stealing whatever food could be found, creating food shortages for all but the most well off residents, precipitating food riots throughout the south, particularly by poor women. (From Not Even Past)

 

April 17, 1905-- The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that a New York maximum hours law for bakery workers was unconstitutional under the Due Process clause of the 14th Amendment. Legislation limiting hours of employment was not passed until the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938. (From Workday Minnesota)

April 17, 1912 –Miners struck at the Lena gold fields in eastern Siberia to protest terrible working & living conditions. Strike leaders were arrested and troops fired on a peaceful strikers’ march, killing over 200. (From the Daily Bleed)

April 17, 1968—One-third of the Duke University student body struck against racial discrimination in hiring (From the Daily Bleed)

April 17, 1996--Brazilian police attacked 2,000 landless peasants, killing 19 and wounding 69. Over 1,000 would be killed in similar protests throughout the 1990s. (From the Daily Bleed)

Today In Labor History: April 8

April 8, 1864—13^th amendment to the U.S. Constitution was ratified, banning chattel slavery, but allowing a continuation of wage slavery and the forced labor of convicts without pay. (From the Daily Bleed)

April 8, 1911 – 128 convict miners, mostly African-Americans jailed for minor offenses, were killed by a massive explosion at the Banner coalmine near Birmingham, Alabama. While the Triangle Shirtwaist fire, which occurred just two weeks earlier, elicited massive public attention and support for the plight of immigrant women working in sweatshop conditions, the Banner explosion garnered almost no public sympathy, probably due to racism and the fact that they were prisoners. (From Workday Minnesota)

Emma Goldman 1911 (Library of Congress)

April 8, 1916—Emma Goldman was arrested for giving a lecture on birth control. (From the Daily Bleed)

April 8, 1937—The UAW struck a GM plant in Ontario to win union recognition. (From the Daily Bleed)

April 8, 1952 - President Harry Truman sent the U.S. Army to take over the nation’s steel mills to avoid a strike. The U.S. Supreme Court later ruled the president’s action to be illegal. (From Workday Minnesota)

Today in Labor History—March 13

(From wikipedia)

March 13, 1925 – Tennessee made it unlawful to teach evolution. (From the Daily Bleed)

March 13, 1946 - The United Auto Workers and General Motors signed a new contract after a four-month strike over wages. (From Workday Minnesota)

March 13, 1961 – IWW Labor organizer and recovering anarchist Elizabeth Gurley Flynn was elected chair of the National Committee of the Communist Party, U.S.A. (From the Daily Bleed)

March 13, 1963 – Labor Local 260 Houston negotiated its first contract with Pioneer Bus, ending dual pay scales for black and white drivers. (From the Daily Bleed)

March 13, 1967 – United Farm Workers (UFW) won a contract with the Christian Brothers Winery. (From the Daily Bleed)

March 13, 1968 – Student demonstrations in Warsaw led to street riots. All Polish universities were out on strike, with students occupying university. (From the Daily Bleed)

March 13, 1996 – Two leaders of the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions, Yang Kyu Hon and Kwon Young Kil, were arrested. (From the Daily Bleed)