Today in Labor History August 21, 1920: Ongoing violence by coal operators and their paid goons in the southern coalfields of West Virginia led to a three-hour gun battle between striking miners and guards that left six dead. 500 Federal troops were sent in not only to quell the fighting, but to ensure that scabs were able to get to and from the mines. A General Strike was threatened if the troops did not cease their strikebreaking activities. This was just 3 months after the Matewan Massacre, in which the miners drove out the seemingly invincible Baldwin-Felts private police force, with the help of their ally, Sheriff Sid Hatfield. 1 year later, Sheriff Hatfield was gunned down on the steps of the courthouse by surviving members of the Baldwin-Felts Agency. News spread and miners began arming themselves, leading to the Battle of Blair Mountain, the largest armed insurrection since the Civil War and the largest labor uprising in U.S. history. Over 100 people were killed in the 5-day battle, including 3 army soldiers and up to 20 Baldwin-Felts detectives. Nearly 1,000 people were arrested. 1 million rounds were fired. And the government dropped bombs from aircraft on the miners, only the second time in history that the government bombed its own citizens (the first being the pogrom against African American residents of Tulsa, during the so-called Tulsa Riots).

The Battle of Blair Mountain is depicted in Storming Heaven (Denise Giardina, 1987), Blair Mountain (Jonathan Lynn, 2006), and Carla Rising (Topper Sherwood, 2015). And the Matewan Massacre is brilliantly portrayed in John Sayles’s film, “Matewan.”

Read my history of the Battle of Blair Mountain here: https://michaeldunnauthor.com/2024/04/14/the-battle-of-blair-mountain/

#workingclass #LaborHistory #mining #strike #union #westvirginia #matewan #BattleOfBlairMountain #uprising #civilwar #GeneralStrike #tulsa #massacre #racism #books #fiction #film #writer #author #novel @bookstadon

Today in Labor History August 21, 1831: Nat Turner launched a 2-day slave revolt in Virginia. They killed over 50 whites. In response, scores of African-Americans were lynched, including many who did not participate in the revolt. Turner survived in hiding for more than two months. Mobs & militias killed around 120 enslaved and free African Americans. In the aftermath, state legislatures passed new laws prohibiting education of free and enslaved black people and restricted the civil liberties for free blacks.

The rebellion is referenced in “Narrative of the Life of Henry Box Brown.” Thomas R. Gray wrote an 1831 pamphlet, “The Confessions of Nat Turner,” based on his jailhouse interview with Turner. Harriet Beecher Stowe referenced Turner's Confessions in her 1855 novel “Dred: A Tale of the Great Dismal Swamp.” Harriet Jacobs, an escaped slave, refers to the pogrom against blacks following Turner's rebellion in her 1861 classic, “Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl.” In the 1990s, Tupac Shakur honored Turner with a cross tattoo on his back "EXODUS 1831."

#workingclass #LaborHistory #slavery #revolt #rebellion #uprising #natturner #civilliberties #books #novel #fiction #author #writer #tupac #BlackMastadon @bookstadon

Today in Labor History August 21, 1752: French radical priest Jacques Roux (1752-1794) was born in Charente, France. He participated in the French Revolution and fought for a classless society and the abolition of private property. He also helped radicalize the Parisian working class. Roux was a leader of the far-left faction, Enrages, and was elected to the Paris Commune in 1791. He demanded that food be available for everyone and argued that the wealthy should executed if they horded it.

Roux is featured in a mission in the French Revolution-set game Assassin's Creed Unity. He is also portrayed in Peter Weiss's Marat/Sade. Here, Roux is dressed in a straight jacket in an asylum and the asylum directors cut off his dialogue to symbolize the state’s desire to restrain political radicals.

#workingclass #LaborHistory #Revolution #france #jacquesroux #class #commune #theater #playwright #fiction #sade #writer #author @bookstadon

Today in Labor History August 21, 1680: Pueblo Indians captured Santa Fe from the Spanish. The Pueblo Revolt was an uprising against the Spanish colonizers in the province of Santa Fe de Nuevo México. The Pueblos killed 400 Spaniards and drove the remaining 2,000 settlers out of the province. However, the Spaniards reconquered New Mexico 12 years later. One cause of the revolt was the Spaniard’s attempt to destroy the Pueblo religion and ban their traditional dances and kachina dolls.

The Pueblo Revolt has been depicted in numerous fictional accounts, many of which were written by native and Pueblo authors. Clara Natonabah, Nolan Eskeets & Ariel Antone, from the Santa Fe Indian School Spoken Word Team, wrote and performed "Po'pay" in 2010. In 2005, Native Voices at the Autry produced “Kino and Teresa,” a Pueblo recreation of “Romeo and Juliet,” written by Taos Pueblo playwright James Lujan. La Compañía de Teatro de Albuquerque produced the bilingual play “Casi Hermanos,” written by Ramon Flores and James Lujan, in 1995. Even Star Trek got into the game, with references to the Pueblo Revolt in their "Journey's End" episode. The rebel leader, Po’pay, was depicted in Willa Cather’s “Death Comes for the Arch Bishop” and in Aldous Huxley’s “Brave New World.”

#workingclass #LaborHistory #pueblo #revolt #rebellion #uprising #nativeamerican #genocide #indigenous #newmexico #books #plays #playwright #fiction #novel #author #writer #startrek #aldoushuxley #willacather @bookstadon

Today in Labor History August 20, 1968: The Soviet Army invaded Prague with tanks and more than 200,000 Warsaw Pact troops ultimately crushing the "Prague Spring."

Today in Labor History August 20, 1619: The first group of 20 African slaves landed at Jamestown, Virginia. This marked the beginning of 240 years of legalized chattel slavery for African Americans. However, both chattel slavery and indentured servitude had been common in the 13 colonies since 1526, including for white Europeans. And the concept of race didn’t really take hold until 1676, when free and enslaved blacks and whites united against the ruling class in Bacon’s Rebellion, which also occurred in Jamestown. After putting down the rebellion, nearly a year after it began, the authorities began creating a set of racialized laws, including the Virginia Slave Codes, providing small privileges to lower class whites, and hardening the racial caste system, in a largely successful attempt to prevent further solidarity between the multi-racial lower classes.

White Working-Class Children in the UK: The Struggle with Falling Academic Performance https://www.byteseu.com/1303503/ #academic #Children #falling #GreatBritain #in #Performance #struggle #the #UK #UnitedKingdom #white #with #workingclass

https://www.europesays.com/2344296/ White Working-Class Children in the UK: The Struggle with Falling Academic Performance #academic #children #falling #GreatBritain #in #performance #struggle #the #UK #UnitedKingdom #White #with #workingclass

Today in Labor History August 19, 1953: The U.S. CIA and British MI6 helped Iranian royalist troops overthrow the liberal-leaning Premier Mohammed Mossadegh. As Prime Minister, he introduced reforms such as social security, land reforms and higher taxes including on rental income. He also nationalized the nation’s petroleum industry, which the Anglo-Persian Oil Company (APOC/AIOC), later known as British Petroleum (BP) could not tolerate. As a result, they installed the brutal, pro-Western Shah Mohammed Pahlevi. The brutality of his regime, the torture, secret police, disappearances and mass imprisonment of opponents, set the stage for the Islamic Revolution in 1979, and over 45 years of US aggression against Iran.

Today in Labor History August 19, 1920: A peasant insurrection began in Tambov, USSR, over the confiscation of their grain. Led by Alexander Antonov, a former official of the Socialist Revolutionary Party, the Green Army uprising evolved into a guerrilla war against the Red Army, Cheka Units and the Soviet authorities. The Bolsheviks finally suppressed the revolt in June, 1921. 240,000 died in the rebellion and over 50,000 were imprisoned. They also used chemical weapons on the peasants. Dissident writer, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, wrote about it in a short story in his book, “Apricot Jam and other Stories,” (2010).

#workingclass #LaborHistory #peasant #uprising #rebellion #revolt #russia #CivilWar #soviet #ussr #communism #tambov #fiction #writer #books #author @bookstadon

Today in Labor History August 19, 1916: Strikebreakers attacked and beat picketing IWW strikers in Everett, Washington. The police refused to intervene, claiming it was federal jurisdiction. However, when the strikers retaliated, they arrested the strikers. Vigilante attacks on IWW picketers and speakers escalated and continued for months. In October, vigilantes forced many of the strikers to run a gauntlet, violently beating them in the process. The brutality culminated in the Everett massacre on November 5, when Wobblies (IWW members) sailed over from Seattle to support the strikers. The sheriff called out to them as they docked, “Who is your leader?” And the Wobblies yelled back, “We all are!” The sheriff told them they couldn’t dock. One of the Wobblies said, “Like hell we can’t!” And then a mob of over 200 vigilantes opened fire on them. As a result, seven died and 50 were wounded. John Dos Passos portrays these events in his USA Trilogy.

#workingclass #LaborHistory #IWW #union #strike #washington #everett #vigilante #massacre #policebrutality #police #fiction #historicalfiction #novel #writer #books #author #dospassos @bookstadon

Today in Labor History August 19, 1909: The first edition of the IWW’s The Little Red Songbook was published in Spokane, WA. The book’s subtitle is “Songs to Fan the Flames of Discontent.” Between 1909 and 1995, the Wobblies printed 36 editions. The songbook always includes songs by Joe Hill, Ralph Chaplin, T-Bone Slim, and Haywire Mac. Most editions contained many of the best-known labor songs, like "The Internationale," "The Preacher and the Slave," and "Solidarity Forever." Haywire Mac, composer of the “Big Rock Candy Mountain” and “Hallelujah I’m a Bum,” was one of the original members of the IWW band, in Spokane, in 1907. Mac later participated in the anarchist Magonista Revolution in Baja California, helping to capture and occupy Tijuana. He eventually settled down in San Francisco, where he hosted working-class radio and television programs.

You can read my bio of Haywire Mac here: https://michaeldunnauthor.com/2021/03/16/the-haywire-mac-story/

Today in Labor History August 18, 1920: The Nineteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was ratified. This guaranteed women's right to vote. Congress first introduced a women's suffrage amendment in 1878. Before 1776, women were allowed to vote in several of the colonies, but by 1807 all the state constitutions had denied them this right. In 1848, the Seneca Falls convention adopted the Declaration of Sentiments, calling for equality between the sexes and the right to vote. The Nineteenth Amendment enfranchised 26 million American women just before the 1920 U.S. presidential election. Newly enfranchised women prioritized a reform agenda, including the Sheppard–Towner Maternity and Infancy Protection Act of 1921, which expanded maternity care during the 1920s. This was the first federal social security law and was huge until Congress let it lapse in 1929.

In 1920, only 36% of eligible women voted (compared with 68% of men). This was due to barriers like literacy tests, long residency requirements, and poll taxes. By 1960, women were voting in greater numbers than men. However, 3 million women south of the Mason–Dixon line remained disenfranchised. Election officials regularly utilized fraud, intimidation, poll taxes, and state violence to block their access to the polls. In 1926, officials in Birmingham, Alabama beat African American women who were trying to register to vote. These practices continued until the 24th Amendment, in 1962, and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. And they continue today with a host of new voting restrictions being imposed in mostly Republican states.

Poster depicting an older woman, a younger woman and a girl, standing before a ballot box. The heading reades VOTE. By League of Women Voters, 1920 - http://edu.lva.virginia.gov/dbva/files/original/57260de85ec24fc10f971a60198a77bc.pdf, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=79171479

Today in Labor History August 18, 1823: Enslaved people in Demerara (Guyana) used their license to travel on an official rest day to launch an uprising of that included more than 30,000 enslaved people. The rebellion was largely nonviolent, but the authorities still brutally crushed it. They slaughtered hundreds of slaves and executed dozens more after the fighting ended.

Today in History August 18, 1977: Steve Biko was arrested at a police roadblock under the Terrorism Act No. 83 in King William's Town, South Africa. He later died from injuries received during this arrest. Biko was a socialist and an anti-apartheid activist. He was 31 at the time of his assassination. He was influenced by the teachings of Martinican philosopher Frantz Fanon and the American Black Power Movement. His death brought international attention to South Africa's apartheid policies and helped launch the modern anti-apartheid movement. Biko was a leading figure in the creation of the South African Students' Organisation (SASO) in 1968, which was formed to give people of color the leading voice in the anti-apartheid movement which, until then, was dominated by white liberals. SASO was one of the first South African anti-apartheid groups that was open only to people of color (he used the term “blacks” to refer to Bantu-speaking people, as well as “coloureds” and Indians, who were also persecuted under Apartheid).

“Hillbilly Nationalists,” by Amy Sonnie and James Tracy, talks about a similar dynamic in the U.S. Civil Rights movement of the sixties. In the U.S., this conflict helped to spur the organization of white radical working-class groups, like the Young Patriots, who worked in solidarity with groups like the Young Lords, and the Black Panthers, who, in turn, influenced Biko’s politics.

#workingclass #LaborHistory #stevenbiko #Biko #southafrica #apartheid #racism #police #terrorism #policebrutality #policemurder #socialism #blackpanthers #younglords #YoungPatriots #books #nonfiction #hillbillynationalists #BlackMastadon @bookstadon

Today in Labor History August 18, 1812: Lady Ludd led the Luddite Corn Market riot of women and boys in Leeds, England. Luddites also rioted in Sheffield against flour and meat sellers. England was suffering huge food shortages and inflation at the time, in part because of the War of 1812, which had started in June, and the ongoing Napoleonic wars. Additionally, new technological innovations were allowing mill owners to replace many of their employees with machines. In response, Luddites would destroy looms and other equipment. To try and get control over these worker protests, the British authorities made illegal oath-taking punishable by death in July 1812. They also empowered magistrates to forcibly enter private homes to search for weapons. And they stationed thousands of troops in areas where rioting and looting had occurred over the summer.

There are numerous parallels between that period and today. Like then, we have new technologies, such as Artificial Intelligence, that could reduce the amount of dangerous and tedious toil for the working-class, giving them higher wages and reduced hours. Instead, the technology is being used by the bosses to cut jobs and further enrich themselves. Like then, we are funding numerous wars and genocides, paid for through austerity that has been imposed on the working-class. And like then, governments are planning and implementing new repressive laws and police powers to undermine working-class protest.

Charlotte Bronte’s second novel, “Shirley” (1849), takes place in Yorkshire, 1811-1812, during the Luddite uprisings. It was originally published under the pseudonym, Currer Bell. The novel opens with a ruthless mill owner waiting for the delivery of new, cost-saving equipment that will allow him to fire many of his workers, but Luddites destroy the equipment before it reaches him. As a result of the novel’s popularity, Shirley became a popular female name. Prior to this, it was mostly a male name.

#workingclass #LaborHistory #luddite #england #inflation #genocide #ukraine #palestine #gaza #hunger #freespeech #fiction #novel #author #writer #books @bookstadon

Hate to say it, but this stat is more than 10 years old. The corporate leach who runs that company is making a lot more than that today. Plus, he no doubt gets far more than that in non-wage compensation.

The federal minimum wage is still only $7.25/hour, same as it was in 2008. Only difference is that today that $7.25/hr is even further from a living wage than it was then. And if you are a new worker, under the age of 20, they can pay you a "training" wage of only $4.25/hr.

https://inthesetimes.com/article/dunkin-donuts-ceo-who-earns-10-million-claims-to-be-outraged-by-15-minimum

https://www.minimum-wage.org/federal

Today in Labor History August 17, 1985: Members of the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) in Austin, Minnesota, went on strike against Hormel, makers of SPAM, after the company slashed wages by nearly $2.50 per hour, and this after an 8-year wage freeze. They ignored the advice of their national union and struck anyway. Workers continued to strike even after the company tried to reopen the plant with replacement workers, including some union members who crossed the picket lines, and even after the national union cut ties with them, seized funds, and changed the locks on the local’s office. The UFCW national organization accused the Hormel local of being fascists. The Communist Party sided with the national. The AFL-CIO refused the local’s request to call for a boycott. The authorities called out the National Guards who, along with the police, beat and arrested striking workers. After ten months the strike ended, with no gains for union members.

Today in Labor History August 17, 1861: Edward Józef Abramowski, Polish philosopher, psychologist, and libertarian socialist was born. Considered the founder of the Polish co-operative movement, Abramowski also served as chair of Experimental Psychology, at the University of Warsaw, a position he occupied from 1915 until his death in 1918. He participated in the Paris gathering of Polish socialists, in 1892, where the Polish Socialist Party was founded. In his most well-known work, “Socialism & State,” he called himself a "state-rejecting socialist." However, toward the end of his life, he leaned more toward anarcho-syndicalism.

"#Tankies are not for the #workingclass, they are red #fascists responsible for #atrocities against the working class, we need to unite as #anarchists and abolish harmful #hierarchies!"

https://www.tumblr.com/nando161mando/792067544625364992