Today in Labor History—March 20

March 20, 1852 -- Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin was published, leading to a wave of support for abolition, as well as the publication of 30 books defending slavery. Stowe’s work was the first novel to sell a million copies. (From the Daily Bleed)

March 20, 1937 – Detroit police evicted strikers from the Newton Packing Company. Three hours later, 150 police attacked sit-down strikers at a tobacco plant. By April 1, there were over 120,000 striking auto workers in Michigan. (From the Daily Bleed)

March 20, 1985 – The Bolivian army crushed a General Strike.

Today in Labor History—March 11

March 11, 1811 - Luddites attacked looms near Nottingham. (From the Daily Bleed)


March 11, 1812 - Luddites suffered their first defeat at Rawkolds Mill, England.
(From the Daily Bleed)


March 11, 1833 -  U.S. invaded Nicaragua to protect Nicaraguan workers, er, U.S. business interests in that country. (From the Daily Bleed)


March 11, 1845 - Maori uprising against British rule began on this date. (From the Daily Bleed)


March 11, 1858 - The Great Indian Mutiny (March 9-16)--also known as the Sepoy Rebellion--ended with massacres and harsh reprisals against the Indian protesters by the British.
(From the Daily Bleed)


March 11, 1930 - Mahatma Gandhi began his Salt March on this date. Marching from Ahmadabad to Delhi, Indians were protesting the salt tax and exposing the tyranny of British rule in India. (From Workday Minnesota)

March 11, 1937 -  The MacBeth mine exploded in West Virginia, killing 18 workers. (From the Daily Bleed)

March 11, 1950 - TWA maintenance workers won an 11-day strike. They won severance pay and limits on subcontracting.
(From the Daily Bleed)

March 11, 1976 - Cesar Chavez ended another fast (this one for 23 days). 
(From the Daily Bleed)

Today in Labor History—March 4

March 4, 1634 – The first American tavern opened on this date in Boston, Massachusetts. (From the Daily Bleed)

Union Stockyards, Chicago, 1870s (from Wikipedia)

 March 4, 1865 - Union Stockyards opened in Chicago, establishing the Windy City as the world's largest meat packing center by the end of the decade. Thousands of workers migrated to Chicago to work in the yards, leading to the organizing of numerous unions and the establishment of Chicago as one of the nation’s union strongholds. (From Workday Minnesota)

March 4, 1908 -- Lakeview School, in Collinwood, Ohio, caught fire, with 174 children and two teachers dying as a result. (From the Daily Bleed)

Anti-IWW Cartoon from the Spokane Spokesman Review, 1909 (Image from WAFreePress)

March 4, 1910—The Industrial Workers of the World won their free speech fight in Spokane, Washington, when the licenses of 18 “employment” agencies were revoked. The campaign was intended to dissuade workers from “buying” jobs in the streets from the job sharks (“employment” agencies) that routinely swindled workers. The fight began in late 1908 and continued through 1909. (From the Daily Bleed)

March 4, 1937 – The UAW won their sit-down strike in Flint, Michigan. The strike at the Fisher Body Plant Number One lasted 40 days and was the longest sit-down strike in history. 5,000 armed workers circled the plant to protect the workers inside. Following police attacks with tear-gas, workers fought back with fire hoses. 13 workers were injured by police gunfire. By the time the National Guard arrived, sympathy strikes had spread to GM plants across the country. (From the Daily Bleed)

March 4, 1989 - The International Association of Machinists struck Eastern Airlines, with 8,500 ramp service workers, mechanics, aircraft cleaners and stock clerks joined by 6,000 flight attendants and 3,400 pilots in the nationwide strike. (From Workday Minnesota)

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—February 24

Children of Lawrence, MA strikers sent to live with sympathizers in New York City during the work stoppage

February 24, 1912 - Women and children were beaten by police during the Bread and Roses textile strike in Lawrence, Massachusetts. (From Workday Minnesota and the Daily Bleed)

Arrest and escorting plainclothes policemen. Petrograd. 1917

 February 24, 1917 – A Petrograd bread riot turned into revolution when soldiers refused to fire on demonstrators turned on their officers, stormed the arsenal and liberated 20,000 automatic pistols, torched the police stations and emptied the prisons. (From the Daily Bleed)

February 24, 1919 – A new Federal Child Labor law passed and was declared unconstitutional in 1924. A similar law passed two years earlier was declared unconstitutional in 1918. (From the Daily Bleed)

February 24, 1923 – A U.S. Labor Party convention repudiated Communism. (From the Daily Bleed)

February 24, 1939 – The Supreme Court ruled that sit-down strikes were illegal. (From the Daily Bleed)

February 24, 1965 – District 1199 Health Care Workers became the first U.S. labor union to oppose the war in Vietnam. (From the Daily Bleed)

Today in Labor History—February 17, 2012

February 17, 1879 – Russian nihilists unsuccessfully tried to assassinate Czar Alexander in St. Petersburg.  (From the Daily Bleed)

Big Bill Haywood

 February 17, 1906 - "Big Bill" Haywood and two others were arrested (kidnapped) for the murder of former Idaho Governor Frank Stuenenberg. Clarence Darrow successfully defended them, telling jurors, "If at the behest of this mob you should kill Bill Haywood, he is mortal, he will die, but I want to say that a million men will grab up the banner of labor where at the open grave Haywood lays it down . . ." (From Workday Minnesota)

Florence Kelley

 February 17, 1932 – Florence Kelley (b.1859) died on this date. Kelley was a social and political reformer who worked against sweatshops and fought for the minimum wage, eight-hour workdays and children’s rights. (From the Daily Bleed)

February 17, 1936 – The United Rubber Workers launched a sit-down strike at Goodyear Tire and Rubber Co., Akron, Ohio. (From the Daily Bleed)

February 17, 1937 – Workers at Fansteel Corporation staged a sit-down strike for union recognition. (From the Daily Bleed)

February 17, 1996 – A 3-day UAW wildcat strike began at the Chrysler truck plant in Warren, Michigan. (From the Daily Bleed)

Today in Labor History—February 11

February 11, 1916 – Feminist and civil-rights activist Flo Kennedy was born in on this date Kansas City, Missouri. As a lawyer, Kennedy represented Billie Holiday, Charlie Parker and H. Rap Brown. In 1972 she formed the Feminist Party and filed an Internal Revenue Service complaint alleging that the Catholic Church violates tax-exempt requirements by spending money to influence political decisions. "I'm just a loud-mouthed middle-aged colored lady . . . & a lot of people think I'm crazy. Maybe you do too, but I never stop to wonder why I'm not like other people. The mystery to me is why more people aren't like me." (From the Daily Bleed)

Seattle Strikers and their Supporters Took Over Most City Services, Including Food Distribution

 February 11, 1919 – The Seattle General Strike ended. (From the Daily Bleed)

Sit Down Strikers in Flint

 February 11, 1937 - General Motors recognized the United Auto Workers (UAW) following a 44-day sit-down strike involving 48,000 GM workers. Two months later, company guards beat up UAW leaders at the River Rouge, Michigan plant.  (From Workday Minnesota)

February 11, 1964 – 19,000 students boycotted Cincinnati schools to protest segregation. (From the Daily Bleed)

February 11, 1981 – Eight workers were contaminated when 100,000 gallons of radioactive coolant leaked into a containment building of the Tennessee Valley Authority's (TVA) Sequoyah I plant in Tennessee. (From the Daily Bleed)

Today in Labor History—January 26

January 26, 1886 – In Decazeville, France, miners attacked the home of their sub-manager at Watrin Mines, after he slashed their wages by 10%. He died when he jumped from his window. (From the Daily Bleed)

January 26, 1897 - The Amalgamated Meat Cutters and Butcher Workmen of North America received a charter from the American Federation of Labor to organize "every wage earner from the man who takes the bullock at the house until it goes into the hands of the consumer." The union merged with the Retail Clerks International Union in 1979 to form the United Food and Commercial Workers. (From Workday Minnesota)

Free Speech Costs Money--Dole Corporate Person (Image from Flickr by takomabibelot)

January 26, 1907 – Over 100 years before the OWS movement, anti-corporate personhood activists won a small and short-lived victory when Congress blocked corporations from contributing to election campaigns for national office. (From the Daily Bleed)

January 26, 1937 – A two-day sit down strike occurred at a Brooklyn power plant leading to a large scale organizing drive in New York subways. (From TWU)

January 26, 1983 – The National Commission on Excellence in Education, using bad statistics, called U.S. education mediocre. The commission recommended greater emphasis on English, math, social studies, and computer science; longer school days; abolition of seniority and merit pay for teachers. (From the Daily Bleed)

January 26, 1991 – 200,000 marched against the Gulf War in New York City, 200,000 marched in San Francisco and 200,000 in Bonn, Germany. (From the Daily Bleed)

Today in Labor History—January 11

Blake's "Lovers' Whirlwind" Illustration for Dante's Inferno (from Wikipedia)

January 11, 1804 -- The Sussex Examiner reported that English poet William Blake was tried for sedition for saying "Damn the king and damn his soldiers." (From the Daily Bleed)

January 11, 1908 – A General Strike occurred in Buenos Aires Argentina.(From the Daily Bleed)

New York Modern School, 1911

January 11, 1911 – The first American "Modern School," based on ideas of Francisco Ferrer, was founded by a group including Leonard Abbott, Alexander Berkman and Emma Goldman, in New York City. (From the Daily Bleed)

Children of Striking Textile Workers Being Sent to Live With Family in NY

January 11, 1912 – The IWW-organized (Industrial Workers of the World) "Bread & Roses" textile strike of 32,000 women and children began on this date in Lawrence, Massachusetts. The first to walk out were a group of Polish women who, upon collecting their pay, exclaimed that they had been cheated & promptly abandoned their looms. The Strike lasted 10 weeks, beginning after the legislature cut maximum working hours for women and children from 56 to 54 hours per week and the employers cut their pay along with the hours. Many sent their children to live with family or comrades in New York during the strike. The Modern School organizers and parents took in many of these children. (From the Daily Bleed)

January, 11, 1936 – Auto workers engaged in a sit-down strike at General Motors plant in Flint, Michigan. (From the Daily Bleed)

Today in Labor History—December 30

December 30, 1883 - John Swinton's Paper described the abuse of immigrants conned by job sharks lured to the U.S. with tales of high wages and dream jobs, only to get stuck in terrible jobs with rotten wages. (From Workday Minnesota)

Bonnot Gang-First Use of Get Away Car

Victor Serge

 December 30, 1890 – Victor Serge was born on this date in Brussels. Serge was a novelist, poet, historian, & militant activist, most well-known as a member of the Bonnot Gang (see here, here, here and here) and for his novel The Birth of Our Power. (From theDaily Bleed)

 

December 30, 1905 – Governor Frank Steunenberg of Idaho was assassinated by a bomb during period of bitter labor disputes in the state. Steunenberg, had become governor of Idaho on a Populist Party "defend the working man" ticket, but then called on federal troops to crush the 1899 miners’ strike. Members of the radical WFM were implicated by the actual assassin, Harry Orchard, a union member and paid informant for the Cripple Creek Mine Owners’ Association (From the Daily Bleed and Wikipedia)

December 30, 1936 - Auto workers began their historic sit-down strike at the GM Fisher plant in Flint, Michigan. (From Workday Minnesota)

Today in Labor History—December 28

Terence Powderly, Grand Master of Knights of Labor, 1890

December 28, 1869 - The Knights of Labor (KOL) was founded on this date. Though the leadership often denounced socialists and anarchists, the KOL attracted and spawned many, including Daniel DeLeon, who would go on to later cofound the IWW and the Socialist Labor Party, as well as two of the Haymarket martyrs. The KOL also denounced strikes, yet, like its more radical cousin, the IWW, it called for the abolition of the wage system and fought to organize all workers into one big union, including women and immigrants. And, like the IWW, one of the KOL’s slogans was, “An Injury to One is the Concern of All.” The KOL was one of the main organizations behind the Great Upheavaland one of the first labor organization not only to take on the Robber Barons, but to defeat them (if only temporarily). (From Workday Minnesota, the Daily Bleed, and the Lucy Parsons Project).

Flint Sit-Down Strike

 December 28, 1936 - The great sit-down strike against General Motors in Flint, Michigan, was preceded by two days when workers at the Fisher Body plant in Cleveland engaged in a sit-down strike. (From Workday Minnesota)

December 28, 1944 – President Franklin D. Roosevelt ordered the Army to seize the executive offices of Montgomery Ward and Company after the patriotic corporation failed to comply with a National War Labor Board directive regarding union shops.  (From the Daily Bleed)

Today in Labor History—March 20

March 20, 1852 -- Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin was published, leading to a wave of support for abolition, as well as the publication of 30 books defending slavery. Stowe’s work was the first novel to sell a million copies. (From the Daily Bleed)

March 20, 1937 – Detroit police evicted strikers from the Newton Packing Company. Three hours later, 150 police attacked sit-down strikers at a tobacco plant. By April 1, there were over 120,000 striking auto workers in Michigan. (From the Daily Bleed)

March 20, 1985 – The Bolivian army crushed a General Strike.

Today in Labor History—March 11

March 11, 1930 - Mahatma Gandhi began his Salt March on this date. Marching from Ahmadabad to Delhi, Indians were protesting the salt tax and exposing the tyranny of British rule in India. (From Workday Minnesota)

Today in Labor History—March 4

March 4, 1634 – The first American tavern opened on this date in Boston, Massachusetts. (From the Daily Bleed)

Union Stockyards, Chicago, 1870s (from Wikipedia)

 March 4, 1865 - Union Stockyards opened in Chicago, establishing the Windy City as the world's largest meat packing center by the end of the decade. Thousands of workers migrated to Chicago to work in the yards, leading to the organizing of numerous unions and the establishment of Chicago as one of the nation’s union strongholds. (From Workday Minnesota)

March 4, 1908 -- Lakeview School, in Collinwood, Ohio, caught fire, with 174 children and two teachers dying as a result. (From the Daily Bleed)

Anti-IWW Cartoon from the Spokane Spokesman Review, 1909 (Image from WAFreePress)

March 4, 1910—The Industrial Workers of the World won their free speech fight in Spokane, Washington, when the licenses of 18 “employment” agencies were revoked. The campaign was intended to dissuade workers from “buying” jobs in the streets from the job sharks (“employment” agencies) that routinely swindled workers. The fight began in late 1908 and continued through 1909. (From the Daily Bleed)

March 4, 1937 – The UAW won their sit-down strike in Flint, Michigan. The strike at the Fisher Body Plant Number One lasted 40 days and was the longest sit-down strike in history. 5,000 armed workers circled the plant to protect the workers inside. Following police attacks with tear-gas, workers fought back with fire hoses. 13 workers were injured by police gunfire. By the time the National Guard arrived, sympathy strikes had spread to GM plants across the country. (From the Daily Bleed)

March 4, 1989 - The International Association of Machinists struck Eastern Airlines, with 8,500 ramp service workers, mechanics, aircraft cleaners and stock clerks joined by 6,000 flight attendants and 3,400 pilots in the nationwide strike. (From Workday Minnesota)