Today in Labor History October 7, 1944: Uprising at Birkenau extermination camp (associated with Auschwitz). Jewish Sonderkommando, mostly from Greece and Hungary, attacked the SS with stones and hammers, killing three of them, and set crematorium IV on fire and threw their Oberkapo into a furnace. Sonderkommando were Jewish prisoners who were forced by the Nazis, on threat of their own deaths, to dispose of gas chamber victims). After escaping, the rebels reached Rajsko, where they hid in the granary, but the SS pursued and killed them by setting the granary on fire. By the time the rebellion at crematorium IV had been suppressed, 212 members of the Sonderkommando were still alive and 451 had been killed.
7 October 1944 | Jewish prisoners of the Sonderkommando at the German Nazi camp Auschwitz II-Birkenau organized a revolt. They set crematorium IV on fire, causing serious damage, as well as attacked the SS men in the vicinity. 1/5
Today in Labor History September 19, 1676: Rebels burned Jamestown to the ground during Bacon's Rebellion. This armed insurrection against the rule of Governor William Berkeley was the first class uprising in North America and one of the driving forces for the creation of racial identities. During the uprising, thousands of indentured white Europeans united with free, indentured and enslaved blacks to demand rights and privileges they were being denied. They took up arms and drove Berkeley from Jamestown. The unification of poor blacks and whites scared the hell out of the ruling class. Consequently, they realized they needed to sow divisions between the poor, so they would fight among each other rather than unify in another uprising against the rich. This led to a hardening of the color lines and the development of the ideas of race and racial superiority.
Today in Labor History September 18, 1988: The 8888 Uprising in Myanmar ended. Students started the protests in Yangon. As the protests spread, hundreds of thousands of monks, children, university students, housewives, doctors and common people joined the movement to overthrow the military dictatorship. Up to 10,000 people were slaughtered over the 6-month protest movement.
About 44 years ago the Frente Sandinista de Liberación Nacional (Sandinista National Liberation Front) overthrew the Somoza dictatorship in Nicaragua. It was known as the Sandinista Revolution.
One third of the rebels were women. They were at the forefront of the movement and integral to its success.
Today in Labor History September 9, 1739: Stono Rebellion, the largest slave uprising in Britain's mainland North American colonies prior to the American Revolution, erupted near Charleston, South Carolina. A literate Congolese former soldier named Jemmy led the revolt of 60 enslaved people. They killed over 20 white colonists, on their march to Spanish Florida, where freedom had been promised to those fleeing slavery in the British colonies. Over 30 rebels died in battle. Over 20 more were executed in the aftermath.
Today in Labor History August 30, 1800: Gabriel Prosser postponed his planned slave rebellion in Richmond, Virginia. The authorities still arrested and executed him, along with 20 others. While the revolt never occurred, it was the one event that most directly confronted the founding fathers with the enormous gulf between their ideal of liberty and their sleazy accommodations to slavery. It led to a rash of new legislation curtailing the rights of free African Americans, as well as laws prohibiting the education and hiring out of enslaved black people. Richmond, at the time of the planned revolt, was a black-majority town, with 39% of its residents being enslaved. There was a community whipping post, where people were brutalized publicly. There was also a growing number of free black people in Richmond, due in part to the influence of abolitionist Quakers and Methodists, as well as numerous refugees from the Haitian Revolution, a few years prior. The goal of the uprising was to completely end slavery in Virginia by holding Virginia's Governor, James Monroe, hostage to negotiate for their freedom. In 2007, Governor Tim Kaine informally pardoned Gabriel.
Arna Bontemps, a member of the Harlem Rennaisance, wrote Black Thunder (1936), a historical novel based on Gabriel's Rebellion. Alex Haley mentions it in his book, Roots. Barbara Chase-Riboud writes about it in her 1979 novel, Sally Hemings. And "Gabriel, the Musical" was produced in Richmond Virginia in 2022, with libretto by Jerold Solomon, Foster Solomon and Ron Klipp, and Music & Lyrics by Ron Klipp.
Today in Labor History August 29, 1786: Shays' Rebellion began in Massachusetts. It was an armed uprising of farmers and tradesmen in response to a debt crisis among the citizenry and in opposition to the state government's increased efforts to collect taxes both on individuals and their trades. Revolutionary War veteran Daniel Shays led four thousand rebels (called Shaysites) in a protest against economic and civil rights injustices. They marched on the federal Armory in Springfield an unsuccessful attempt to seize its weaponry and overthrow the government. The Federal Government, still young and weak, was unable to finance sufficient troops to put down the rebellion. Consequently, it was the Massachusetts State Militia that ultimately quashed the uprising, over 5 months later. Despite the duration and violence of the uprising, only 9 people died.
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.”
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.”
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."
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.
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).
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 Labor History August 16, 2012: South African police fatally shot 34 miners and wounded 78 in the Marikana massacre, during a 6-week wildcat strike at the Lonmin platinum mine in North West province. It was the most lethal attack by South African security forces against civilians since the 1976 Soweto uprising in 1976 and has been compared to the 1960 Sharpeville massacre.
Today in Labor History August 14, 1791: Dutty Boukman led a Vodou ceremony with enslaved people from Saint Domingue plantations that led to the start of the Haitian Revolution, the largest slave uprising since the Spartacist revolt against the Romam empire. Boukman was born in Senegambia. His name, Boukman, came from the English “Book Man,” because he not only knew how to read, but taught other enslaved people how to read. He, and priestess Cécile Fatiman, had led a series of meetings with enslaved people prior to August 14 to organized and plan for the uprising. Boukman was killed by French troops a few months into the revolution. Trinidadian Marxist writer C. L. R. James wrote the best book on the Haitian Revolution: “The Black Jacobins,” (1938). Also, be sure to check out the wonderful music of the contemporary Haitian pop group, Boukman Eksperyans, named for the Haitian revolutionary, Dutty Boukman. A fictionalized version of Boukman plays the title character in Guy Endore's novel “Babouk,” an anti-capitalist parable about the Haitian Revolution.
Today in Labor History August 2, 1943: Jewish prisoners revolted at Treblinka, one of the deadliest of the Nazi death camps, where approximately 900,000 persons were murdered in less than 18 months. In early 1943, an underground Jewish resistance formed at Treblinka. One of the organizers, Dr. Julian Chorążycki, killed himself with poison when he was caught prior to the uprising, so the Nazis couldn’t torture the plot details out of him. The conspirators raided the arsenal, stealing rifles, grenades and pistols. They set buildings on fire, attacked the main gate and tried to climb the fence. German and Ukrainian guards opened fire with machine guns, resulting in near-total slaughter. About 200 Jews escaped, but half of them were caught and killed.
Today in Labor History August 1, 1921: Sheriff Sid Hatfield and Ed Chambers were murdered by Baldwin-Felts private cops. They did it in retaliation for Hatfield’s role in the Matewan labor battle in 1920, when two Felts family thugs were killed by Hatfield and his deputies, who had sided with the coal miners. The private cops executed Hatfield and Chambers on the Welch County courthouse steps in front of their wives. This led to the Battle of Blair Mountain, where 20,000 coal miners marched to the anti-union stronghold Logan County to overthrow Sheriff Dan Chaffin, the coal company tyrant who murdered miners with impunity. The Battle of Blair Mountain started in September 1921. The armed miners battled 3,000 cops, private cops and vigilantes, who were backed by the coal bosses. It was the largest labor uprising in U.S. history, and the largest armed insurrection since the Civil War. The president of the U.S. eventually sent in 27,000 national guards. Over 1 million rounds were fired. Up to 100 miners were killed, along with 10-30 Baldwin-Felts detectives and 3 national guards. They even dropped bombs on the miners from planes, the second time in history that the U.S. bombed its own citizens (the first being the pogrom again black residents of Tulsa, earlier that same year).
On 1 August 1944 at 5.00pm Poland time (nowadays known as "W hour" or "godzina W" in Polish) an uprising across the Warsaw began.
It wasn't an easy task as only one out of ten had a firearm at all. Nazis who were occupying entire Poland were way stronger in terms of army equipment.
Despite lack of heavy weapons, the morale of Poles who were fighting were high. There was even a radio station called "Błyskawica" ("Thunder") which ran across the entiriety of the Warsaw Uprising (the core which was powering the transmitter is now available to be seen in Warsaw Uprising Museum).
However, almost entire Warsaw got grounded as a result of that. Hundreds of thousands of civilians were killed.
Despite lack of success, the memory of people fighting for free Poland should be remembered forever.
Today in Labor History July 20, 1549: Kett's Rebellion against the enclosures began. Insurgents began destroying enclosures in Morley St. Botolph on July 6. When they attacked the estate of John Flowerdew, on July 20, he tried to bribe them into attacking the estate of Robert Kett, instead. However, the plan backfired when Kett joined the rebels and helped them to tear down his own fences. Their 3,500-strong peoples' army captured Norwich. They tried landowners en masse and established a Commonwealth on Mousehold Heath. The movement gained strength, with the army growing to 16,000. The authorities eventually quashed the rebellion. Overall, 3,000 rebels and 250 mercenaries of the state died in the battles. But Kett refused the King's pardon, arguing: "Kings are wont to pardon wicked persons, not innocent men. We have done nothing to deserve such a pardon. We have been guilty of no crime." In response, the authorities tortured and hanged Kett slowly over several days.
Numerous historical novels have portrayed Kett's rebellion: “Mistress Haselwode: A tale of the Reformation Oak” (1876), by Frederick H. Moore; “For Kett and Countryside” (1910), by F.C. Tansley; “The Great Oak” (1949), by Jack Lindsay; “A Rebellious Oak” (2012), by Margaret Callow and “Tombland” (2018), by C.J. Sansom.
'There's a photo of #Prigozhin serving wine to George w. #Bush in the #Kremlin when he visited decades ago. And there's a photo of him at a meeting between President #Putin and various members of the #Russian military elite with representatives of #Libya , a country where #Wagner#mercenaries were believed to be active'
'In #Syria , first of all #Putin 's air power and military and political backing to Bashar al #Assad the #Syrian president was crucial. It kept him in power. It helped him in shifting the tide of the conflict since 2015. The conflict started as a peaceful #uprising against Assad 12 years ago and turned into a full-scale civil #war. It has left at least half a million people dead and hundreds of thousands missing.'
A great #Thread🧵 from @mariyadelano with an update about the people involved in the #RussianCoup (not only #Prigozhin and #Putin, but also the #Wagner troops), and some VERY interesting information about the entire situation. It also addresses the Prigozhin-passport photo images, which were circulating online at one point.
Today in Labor History June 23, 1848: Workers rose up in Paris. The rebellion lasted until the 26th. They were rebelling against plans to close the National Workshops created by the Second Republic to provide work and income for the unemployed. The National Guard killed up to 10,000 people. They deported another 4,000 to Algeria. This was after the Revolution of February, 1848, which overthrew King Louis Philippe and established the Second Republic.
Today in Labor History June 15, 1913: U.S. troops finally ended the Moro Uprising (1899-1913) in the Philippines, with the extermination of 500 men, women and children. The Moros (Muslims of Mindinao, Jolo and Sulu) had refused to submit to American colonization after resisting the Spanish for 400 years. The rebellion was part of the Philippine-American War, which claimed over 4,000 U.S. lives, and as many as 250,000 Filipinos. After the Uprising of 1899-1913, More liberation groups continued to struggle against Japanese occupation, and against the Filipino government.
Today in Labor History June 5, 1832: The poor of Paris revolted against the new monarchy, in the wake of crop failures, food shortages and a cholera epidemic, which killed over 100,000 people in France. The poor were especially hard hit by the outbreak. Many believed that the wealthy had poisoned their wells. The Society of the Rights of Man organized an army and raised the red flag, declaring "Liberty or Death." Nearly 100 Republicans died in their attempt to overthrow the government. Over 70 monarchists died defending it. The uprising was the inspiration for Victor Hugo's “Les Miserables,” which depicts the period leading up to the rebellion. Hugo was living in Paris at the time, working on a play. When he heard the gunfire, he ran outside to see what was happening, and quickly got pinned down by gunfire, taking shelter between Republican barricades.