Today in Labor History December 3, 1946: Female retail clerks at Hastings and Kahn’s launched the Oakland General Strike, the last General Strike to occur in the U.S. Other workers soon joined in. Over 100,000 workers participated in the 3-day Oakland General Strike, which was part of the 1945-1946 strike wave, the largest strike wave in US history. Over 5 million workers participated in the nationwide strike wave, including 225,000 UAW members, 174,000 electric workers struck, 750,000 steel workers, 250,000 railroad workers. There were several other General Strikes in 1946, too, including Lancaster, PA; Stamford, CT; Rochester, NY. In reaction to this strike wave, Congress passed the Taft-Hartley Act in 1947, which severely restricted the powers and activities of unions. It also banned General Strikes, stripping away the most powerful tool workers had.
We must devastate the avenues where the wealthy live.
-Lucy Parsons
Today, In honor of Black History Month, we celebrate the life of Lucy Parsons (c. 1851 – 1942) an American anarchist born to an enslaved African American who then married a black freedman in Texas. She may also have had indigenous and Mexican heritage. She married Albert Parsons, a former Confederate officer, in Waco, Texas. After the war, he was shot in the leg for helping African Americans register to vote.
They moved to Chicago together around 1873 and their politics were radicalized by the violent repression of the Great Upheaval of 1877. Both members of the International Workingmen's Association, and the Knights of Labor, they participated in the strikes that would result in up to 30 deaths by cops and national guards, in Chicago, alone. Nationwide, the wave of wildcat strikes associated with the Great Upheaval would result in over 100 worker deaths. Because of his revolutionary street speeches, Albert was fired from his job at the Chicago Times and blacklisted. Albert Parsons was executed in 1887 as one of the Haymarket Martyrs who had been fighting for the eight-hour workday.
Lucy Parsons later set up the Chicago Working Women's Union with her friend Lizzie Swank and other women. Lucy would go on to cofound the IWW, in 1905, with Mother Jones, Big Bill Haywood, Eugene Debs, James Connolly, and others. The IWW was and is a revolutionary union seeking not only better working conditions in the here and now, but the complete abolition of capitalism. The preamble to their constitution states, “The working class and the employing class have nothing in common.” They advocate the General Strike and sabotage as two of many means to these ends. Lucy also edited radical newspapers and became a sought-after public speaker.
Today in Labor History February 11, 1919: The Seattle General Strike ended after five days as a result of a sell-out compromise by AFL bureaucrats. The strike began in response to government sanctioned wage cuts. Both the AFL and the IWW participated. During the strike, the workers formed councils, which took over virtually all major city services, including food distribution and security. They also continued garbage collection. Laundry workers continued to handle hospital laundry. And firefighters remained on duty. They established a system of food distribution, which provided 30,000 meals each day. Any exemption to the work stoppage had to be ok’d by the General Strike Committee.
Worker/artist owned cooperative — with distribution, to tell their own stories. Images below.
Workers, writers, and artists start a cooperative production company
They license/option existing stories to the company (which they own together!) and put stories on a website where audiences can access them
Stories can be scripts, treatments, readings, storyboards — it's great material in those formats, and people will dive into those stories just the same
Share the website (distribution!) with followings, along with a way to subscribe
You now have a worker/writer/artist owned cooperative, with distribution, stories, and an audience!
More details in the images below, made as a guide/resource to be helpful.
A photo of two of the criminals ruling #Israel looking on as their gangster pals pass the first of what will be a long series of fascist laws. The only effective tool remaining to the majority of Israelis who oppose the fascists is the general strike. The question is whether they will use it with the approval of trade union leaders or without it if they must.
Today in Labor History January 18, 1934: The anarchist General Confederation of Labor launched a General Strike in Portugal after the government banned unions, strikes and collective bargaining. The government put it down, killing 100, deporting 600 and outlawing of the labor union. Some members of the union blamed the strike’s failure on Communists, who they believe ratted out their plans to the government in advance, resulting in the arrest of several strike leaders the night before the strike took place.
Today in Labor History March 9, 1902: Actor Will Geer was born. Best known for his role as Grandpa Walton in the long-running series, “The Waltons,” Geer also appeared in the groundbreaking film, “Salt of the Earth,” which portrayed the struggle of Mexican American workers at the Empire Zinc Mine. Because of his activism on labor and political issues, he was blacklisted in Hollywood for many years. In 1934, he became a member of the Communist Party. He also met LGBTQ activist Harry Hay that year and they became lovers. Together, they supported the 1934 San Francisco General Strike and demonstrated against fascism and for workers’ rights. Hay was a co-founder of the Mattachine Society, the first major gay rights group in the United States, and the Radical Faeries, an anarcho-pagan queer spiritual-political movement.
Today in Labor History July 31, 1922: A General Strike against Fascism began in Italy, running from July 31 to August 2. Socialists led the strike, which the fascists defeated. Rudolph Rocker, an Anarcho-Syndicalist of the period, said: "… the democratic government armed the Fascist hordes and throttled this last attempt at the defense of freedom and right. But Italian democracy had dug its own grave. It thought it could use Mussolini as a tool against the workers, but thus it became its own grave-digger." In October, 1922, Mussolini and the fascists led a march through Rome, which ultimately led to a coup and their ascension to power.
Today in Labor History January 16, 1969: Jan Palach committed suicide by self-immolation in Prague, Czechoslovakia to protest the Soviet invasion that ended the Prague Spring. Prior to his political suicide, he sent a letter to several public figures demanding an end to censorship and an end to the Soviet propaganda paper, as well as a call for a General Strike to meet these demands. His funeral turned into a major protest against the occupation. Several others also committed self-immolation in the coming months.
Hmmmm.... So #MethaneLeaks are a substantial source of #ClimateChange. Well then, #BigOilAndGas needs to take care of that ASAP! And so do any responsible nations!
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.”
We cancelled all of our #streaming to support the #WGAstrike, & are uncovering a long-ignored trove of DVDs & VCR tapes (we have a working VCR!).
Last night was #Juno w/Elliot Page. Tonight, one of my all-time favorites: #RubyInParadise w/Ashley Judd.
Respect to workers whose labor opened up a wider, wilder world for me, evoked sympathy & understanding for new people & cultures, made me laugh, gave new ideas & taught history & compassion.
Since they're predicting it'll be the costliest strike in U.S. history, and it could cause extreme supply chain disruptions anyway, it'd be a great time for the rest of us to stay home from work, too.
What time is it, people?
It's time for a General Strike!
make sure y'all take a look at the thread i posted about #PuertoRico's #SummerOfProtest; the largest #GeneralStrike in the history of the island and the United States. lasted 12-15 days (depending on who is counting) and it ended with the then governor of Puerto Rico, the nepobaby Ricardo (Ricky) Rosselló giving in his resignation and fleeing the island.
There is a global #GeneralStrike planned for my birthday, 17 May, so maybe y'all could use that as motivation if, you know, standing up for #Rafah and #Gaza aren't enough motivation? LOL