Today in Labor History March 12, 1912: The IWW won their Bread and Roses textile strike in Lawrence, MA. This was the first strike to use the moving picket line, implemented to avoid arrest for loitering. The workers came from 51 different nationalities and spoke 22 different languages. The mainstream unions, including the American Federation of Labor, all believed it was impossible to organize such a diverse workforce. However, the IWW organized workers by linguistic group and trained organizers who could speak each of the languages. Each language group got a delegate on the strike committee and had complete autonomy. Big Bill Haywood and Elizabeth Gurley Flynn masterminded the strategy of sending hundreds of the strikers' hungry children to sympathetic families in New York, New Jersey, and Vermont, drawing widespread sympathy, especially after police violently stopped a further exodus. 3 workers were killed by police during the strike. Nearly 300 were arrested.
The 1911 verse, by Poet James Oppenheim, has been associated with the strike, particularly after Upton Sinclair made the connection in his 1915 labor anthology, “The Cry for Justice: An Anthology of the Literature of Social Protest”
As we come marching, marching, we battle too for men,
For they are women's children, and we mother them again.
Our lives shall not be sweated from birth until life closes;
Hearts starve as well as bodies; give us bread, but give us roses!
Today in Labor History March 11, 1919: Ukrainian Jewish anarchist Mollie Steimer was arrested in New York City and charged with inciting to riot. She was charged with sedition and eventually deported to Soviet Russia, where she met her lifelong partner Senya Fleshin. The two agitated for the rights of anarchist political prisoners in the USSR. The authorities there deported her again, this time to western Europe, where she and Fleshin organized aid for political prisoners. With the rise of the Nazis in Europe, she and Fleshin fled to Mexico, where they spent the rest of their lives working as photographers. She died in 1980.
Today in Labor History March 11, 1858: The Great Indian Mutiny, also known as the Sepoy Rebellion, ended with massacres by the British. 6,000 British troops died in the fighting. However, at least 800,000 Indians died in the fighting and from the famines and epidemics that resulted.
Today in Labor History March 11, 1850: French anarchist Clément Duval was born. His theory of individual reclamation, which justified theft, and other crimes, as both educational and legitimate ways to redistribute the wealth, influenced the Illegalists of the 1910s, including Jules Bonnot, of the Bonnot Gang. According to Paul Albert, "The story of Clement Duval was lifted and, shorn of all politics, turned into the bestseller Papillon."
Today in Labor History March 11, 1833: The U.S. invaded Nicaragua to “protect U.S. business interests.” The U.S. invaded again in 1853, 1854, 1867, 1894, 1896, 1898, 1899 and 1909. Then, in 1912, they invaded and occupied the country for 21 years.
Today in Labor History March 11, 1811: Luddites attacked looms near Nottingham, England, because automation was threatening their jobs. At the time, workers were suffering from high unemployment, declining wages, an “endless” war with France and food scarcity. On March 11, they smashed machines in Nottingham and demonstrated for job security and higher wages. The protests and property destruction spread across a 70-mile area of England, reaching Manchester. The government sent troops to protect the factories and made machine-breaking punishable by death.
Today in Labor History March 10, 1906: Coal dust exploded at the Courrieres mine in France. 1,099 miners died. It was the second worst mining disaster of the 20th century. (1,549 miners died in the Benxihu accident in China, in 1946). As a result of the Courrieres disaster, 45,000 miners went on strike, protesting the ongoing unsafe working conditions. The authorities sent in the military, which quashed the strike.
I was wandering around a nearby town and found a lovely little used bookstore. After slowly perusing the shelves I settled on copies of #Starhawk’s Fifth Sacred Thing and City of Refuge - grandmothers of #hopepunk.
The bookseller and I chatted about my time working in a used bookstore in #Butte#Montana and the #LaborHistory there.
It was a good day 🌟 @bookstodon
Today in Labor History March 9, 1911: Frank Little and other free-speech fighters were released from jail in Fresno, California, where they had been fighting for the right to speak to and organize workers on public streets. Little was a Cherokee miner and IWW union organizer. He helped organize oil workers, timber workers and migrant farm workers in California. He participated in free speech fights in Missoula, Spokane and Fresno, and helped pioneer many of the passive resistance techniques later used by the Civil Rights movement. He was also an anti-war activist, calling U.S. soldiers “Uncle Sam’s scabs in uniforms.” 1917, he helped organize the Speculator Mine strike in Butte, Montana. Vigilantes broke into his boarding house, dragged him through the streets while tied to the back of a car, and then lynched him from a railroad trestle. Prior to Little’s assassination, Author Dashiell Hammett had been asked by the Pinkerton Detective Agency to murder him. Hammett declined.
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 March 9, 1879: Anarchist militant and IWW organizer, Carlo Tresca, was born. Tresca was an outspoken opponent of fascism in Germany and Italy, and of Soviet Communism. He was one of the main organizers of the Patterson Silk Strike. He was assassinated in 1943 by an unknown assailant, presumably a fascist or the Mafia. Some believe the Soviets killed him in retaliation for his criticism of Stalin. The most recent research suggests it was the Bonanno crime family, in response to his criticism of the mafia and Mussolini.
Today in Labor History March 9, 1841: The U.S. Supreme Court issued a ruling that freed the remaining 35 survivors of the Amistad mutiny. In 1839, Portuguese slave traders had illegally transported 52 Mende people from west Africa to Cuba, on the Amistad, in violation of European treaties against the slave trade. Joseph Cinque led his fellow captive Africans in a mutiny, killing the cook and captain, and forcing the remaining crew to return them to Africa. The crew tricked them and sailed up the Atlantic coast, presuming they would be intercepted by the U.S. Navy, which captured the ship near Montauk, Long Island. President Martin Van Buren wanted to send the prisoners back to Spanish authorities in Cuba to stand trial for mutiny. However, the Court recognized the mutineers’ rights as free citizens. Abolitionists raised funds for the mutineers’ defense. Former President John Quincy Adams, who opposed slavery, represented them in court.
Today in Labor History March 8, 1971: The Citizens Committee to Investigate the FBI stole 1,000 documents from the FBI office in Media, Pennsylvania. They later released the documents to newspapers, revealing the FBI’s COINTELPRO program, which harassed, imprisoned & murdered US political dissidents. According to Noam Chomsky, 40% of the documents were dedicated to political surveillance. James Ellroy wrote about the burglary in his 2009 novel, “Blood’s a Rover.”
Today in Labor History March 8, 1911: The first modern International Women’s Day was celebrated in Austria, Denmark, Switzerland, Germany and the U.S. IWD has its roots in the suffrage movement of New Zealand, and leftist labor organizing in the U.S. and Europe. The earliest Women’s Days were organized by the Socialist Party of America, in New York, in 1909, and by German socialists in 1910. They chose the date of March 8 in honor of the garment workers strikes in New York that occurred on March 8, in 1857 and 1908. However, the first IWD celebrated on March 8, the current date, was in 1911. The holiday was associated primarily with far-left movements until the feminist movement adopted it in the 1960s, when it became a more mainstream celebration.
Today in Labor History March 8, 1908: Thousands of workers in the New York needle trades (mostly women) launched a strike for higher wages, shorter hours and an end to child labor. They chose this date in commemoration of the 1857 strike. In 1910, German socialist Clara Zetkin proposed to the Second International, that March 8 be celebrated as International Women’s Day to commemorate this strike and the one in 1857.
Today in Labor History March 8, 1857: Women garment workers picketed in New York City, demanding a 10-hour workday, better working conditions, and equal rights for women. In 1910, German socialist Clara Zetkin proposed to the Second International, that March 8 be celebrated as International Women’s Day to commemorate this strike.
Today in Labor History March 7, 1932: Over 3,000 people, led by the United Auto Workers, marched on the main Ford plant in Dearborn, Michigan. Workers on the Ford Hunger March were demanding that laid off colleagues be rehired. They also demanded a slow-down of the assembly lines and an end to the evictions of unemployed workers from their homes. Marchers carried banners saying "Give Us Work," "We Want Bread Not Crumbs," and "Tax the Rich and Feed the Poor." During the protests, police opened fire with machine guns, killing 4 and injuring 60. A fifth worker died later from his wounds. The Unemployed Council (part of the Communist Party) also supported the march.
Today in Labor History March 6, 1978: President Jimmy Carter invoked the Taft-Hartley law to quash the 1977-78 national contract strike by the United Mine Workers of America (UMWA). The UMWA had been on strike since December 1977, but rejected a tentative contract agreement in early March, 1978. Carter invoked the national emergency provision of Taft-Hartley and ordered strikers back to work. They ignored the order and the government did little to enforce it. By late March, they reached a settlement. Taft-Hartley was enacted in the wake of the strike wave of 1945-1946 and was designed to prevent solidarity strikes and General Strikes. The last General Strike in U.S. history (Lancaster, PA; Stamford, CT; Rochester, NY; and Oakland, CA) occurred just prior to Taft-Hartley.
Today in Labor History March 6, 1930: 100,000 people demonstrated for jobs in New York City. Demonstrations by unemployed workers, demanding unemployment insurance, occurred in virtually every major U.S. city. In New York, police attacked a crowd of 35,000. In Cleveland, 10,000 people battled police. In Detroit, the Communist Party organized an underemployment demonstration. Over 50,000 people showed up. Thousands took to the streets in Toledo, Flint and Pontiac. These demonstrations led to the creation of the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), sponsored by Republican congressman Hamilton Fish, with the support of the American Federation of Labor, to investigate and quash radical activities.
Today in Labor History March 6, 1857: The Dred Scott decision by the U.S. Supreme Court opened up federal territories to slavery and denied citizenship to blacks. Dred Scott had sued for his family’s freedom, arguing that they had lived four years in the north, where slavery was illegal. The Court ruled 7-2 that people of African descent weren’t U.S. citizens and thus had no standing before the court.
Today in Labor History March 5, 1965: A Leftist uprising against British colonialism erupted in Bahrain, known as the March Intifada. The uprising began after the Bahrain Petroleum Company laid off hundreds of workers at on March 5, 1965. Students at Manama High School, the only high school in Bahrain, went out into the streets to protest the lay-offs. Several people died in the clashes between protesters and police. The authorities quickly suppressed the uprising. However, as news of the crackdown spread, protests erupted throughout the country, creating a nationwide uprising which lasted for a month.
Today in Labor History March 5, 1917: Members of the IWW went on trial in Everett, Washington for the Everett Massacre, which occurred on November 5, 1916. In reality, they were the victims of an assault by a mob of drunken, vigilantes, led by Sheriff McRae. The IWW members had come to support the 5-month long strike by shingle workers. When their boat, the Verona, arrived, the Sheriff asked who their leader was. They replied, “We are all leaders.” Then the vigilantes began firing at their boat. They killed 12 IWW members and 2 of their own, who they accidentally shot in the back. Before the killings, 40 IWW street speakers had been taken by deputies to Beverly Park, where they were brutally beaten and run out of town. In his “USA” trilogy, John Dos Passos mentions Everett as “no place for the working man.” And Jack Kerouac references the Everett Massacre in his novel, “Dharma Bums.”
Today in Labor History March 4, 1998: In Oncale v. Sundowner Offshore Services, Inc., the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that federal laws banning sexual harassment in the workplace also apply when both parties are the same sex. Joseph Oncale had been subjected to repeated sexual harassment by male coworkers on a Chevron Oil platform in the Gulf of Mexico.
Today in Labor History March 4, 1804: Irish convicts rose up against British colonial authority in the Colony of New South Wales in the Castle Hill Rebellion. It was the first major convict uprising in Australian history to be suppressed under martial law. The prisoners escaped from a prison farm with the goal of stealing ships and sailing back to Ireland. With a few days, the authorities suppressed the uprising. They executed nine leaders and punished hundreds of others.
Today in Labor History March 3, 1985: Arthur Scargill declared an end to Britain’s National Miners’ Strike. The miners returned to work without winning any major demands. After the strike, most of Britain's coal mines closed, supposedly because they weren’t profitable. Consequently, the union shrunk from 170,000 members down to 100 by 2015. Margaret Thatcher declared the miners the “Enemy Within.”