Society is increasingly divided between a law-and-order faction and those who see racism in a pattern of police killings or mistreatment of minorities.
Today in Labor History September 2, 1921: The Battle of Blair Mountain ended on this date in 1921, with the U.S. government bombing striking coal miners by plane, the second time the U.S. government used planes to bomb its own citizens (the first was in the Tulsa riots, earlier that year). The Battle of Blair Mountain was one of the largest civil uprisings in U.S. history and the largest armed insurrection since the Civil War. The uprising lasted 5 days and involved 10,000-15,000 coal miners confronting an army of scabs and police. The battle came as mine owners tried to crush attempts by coal miners to unionize the southwestern West Virginia coalfields. From the late 1800s, mine owners forced workers to live in company towns, where rent was deducted from their wages and they were paid in scrip, which was accepted only at the overpriced company stores and was worthless everywhere else. The work was very dangerous and safety equipment and precautions were minimal. The mine owners had a long tradition of using private detectives and goons to spy on workers, infiltrate their meetings, rough them up, and block any attempts to unionize. The battle began after Sheriff Sid Hatfield (an ally of the miners and hero from the Battle of Matewan) was assassinated by Baldwin-Felts agents. Much of the region was still under martial law as a result of the Battle of Matewan. Miners began to leave the mountains armed and ready for battle. Mother Jones tried to dissuade them from marching into Logan and Mingo Counties, fearing a bloodbath. Many accused her of losing her nerve. The miners ignored her and a battle ensued between miners and cops, private detectives, scabs and eventually the U.S. military.
#Layoffs at #Riot: 530 #gamedevs are losing their jobs, because "investments are not paying off" as the CEO puts it.
In other words: Workers are paying the price for reckless trend-chasing and mismanagement. This comes from a company which has made the news many times for its toxic work environment. Game devs endured it, now they get laid off and the C-suite stays on and gets millions in pay-outs.
This is the hallmark of an industry that mistreats its workers.
Today in Labor History September 4, 1949: The Peekskill riots at a Paul Robeson concert in Peekskill, New York. A mob of locals attacked concert-goers with baseball bats and rocks. Police arrived hours later and did little to intervene. Thirteen people were seriously injured, Robeson was lynched in effigy and a cross was burned on the hillside. Robeson was well known for his strong pro-trade union stance, civil rights activism, communist affiliations and anti-colonialism. He also had been increasingly vocal against the Ku Klux Klan and other forces of white supremacy. The concert was a benefit for the Civil Rights Congress. Just prior to the riots, Robeson had spoken at Soviet-sponsored World Peace Conference in Paris, where he said the following:
“We in America do not forget that it was on the backs of white workers from Europe and on the backs of millions of blacks that the wealth of America was built. And we are resolved to share it equally. We reject any hysterical raving that urges us to make war on anyone. Our will to fight for peace is strong.... We shall support peace and friendship among all nations, with Soviet Russia and the People's Republics.”
La ZAD: Another End of the World Is Possible
“All the things you dream of: do them now, while your enemies are reeling, trying to figure out their next angle of attack. There won’t ever be less repression, less police and private security, less drones and dogs. I personally regret not pushing harder before our possibilities shifted, not taking things to the fullest expression they could have reached. I hope you won’t have these same regrets.”
via @CrimethInc
Learning from 50 Years of Struggle at Notre-Dame-des-Landes https://de.crimethinc.com/2018/04/09/la-zad-another-end-of-the-world-is-possible-learning-from-50-years-of-struggle-at-notre-dame-des-landes
Today in Labor History September 24, 1906: The Atlanta massacre ended on this day. Rioting by white mobs began on September 22 after newspapers published several luridly detailed and unsubstantiated reports of black men allegedly raping 4 local women. The racist mobs destroyed black businesses and homes, killing at least 25 African Americans (official reports). However, the actual death toll may be closer to 100. Black men, including university professors, met to organize defense committees and began arming themselves. However, police and state militias raided their meetings and disarmed them. One cop was killed in the fight. W. E. B. Du Bois, who was teaching at Atlanta University at the time, purchased a shotgun when rioting broke out. "I bought a Winchester double-barreled shotgun and two dozen rounds of shells filled with buckshot. If a white mob had stepped on the campus where I lived I would without hesitation have sprayed their guts over the grass." The massacre was not publicly marked in Georgia until 2006, its 100th anniversary, nor made part of state's curriculum for public schools until 2007.
#Québec City, April 2001: The Revolutionary #Anti-Capitalist Offensive
Anarchists Confront the Summit of the Americas
"In April 2001, at the high point of the so-called “anti-globalization” phase of the worldwide anti-capitalist movement, anarchists from all around #NorthAmerica converged in Québec City to oppose a transcontinental summit intended to establish a “Free #TradeArea of the Americas” (FTAA). The ensuing clashes arguably represent the culmination of that era’s powerful social movements. In the following narrative, a participant in the events in Québec City offers a blow-by-blow account of the epic street battles of April 20-21, including selections from the anarchist media coverage of that time. The result makes for exciting reading, to say the least, but it also an important educational document that has much to offer today’s anarchists." https://crimethinc.com/2021/04/19/the-revolutionary-anti-capitalist-offensive-anarchists-confront-the-summit-of-the-americas-april-2001 #anarchism#Riot#Policeviolence#Protest#US#Antireport
"In oral argument today, Justice Thomas is minimizing the severity of the 1/6 insurrection at the Capitol. Perhaps that's because his #wife was part of the conspiracy. What a disgrace that he's sitting on this case," lawyer Jeffrey Toobin wrote on X.
Today in Labor History March 13, 1968: Student demonstrations in Warsaw led to street riots. All Polish universities went out on strike against the repressive communist regime, with students occupying the campus buildings. The strike, which came in the wake of Soviet withdrawals of diplomatic relations with Israel, in the protest of the 1967 war, spread throughout the country, leading to a violent government crackdown and antisemitic purge that was branded as anti-Zionism. Thousands of Jews fled the country because of political harassment and being fired from their jobs.
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 January 29, 1834: Chesapeake and Ohio Canal workers rioted. President Jackson sent in troops to quell the unrest. It was the first time the government used troops to suppress a domestic labor dispute. Workers rebelled because of deadly working conditions and low pay. George Washington had designed the canal project. He intended it to facilitate transportation of goods from the Chesapeake Bay to the Ohio River Valley. Construction teams were made up mostly of Irish, German, Dutch and black workers. They toiled long hours for low wages in dangerous conditions. From this, and similar projects of the era, came the line: “the banks of the canals are lined with the bones of dead Irishmen.” Also from this project came the poem:
Ten thousand Micks,
They swung their picks,
To build the new canal.
But the choleray
Was stronger ‘n they
And twice it killed ‘em all.
Big Brick Energy: Eine Multi-City-Studie zum George-Floyd-Aufstand 2020 #BLM
„Big Brick Energy geht einen Schritt über Anekdoten und heiße Aufnahmen hinaus. Ein Jahr lang untersuchten die Mitglieder von „Unity and Struggle“ den Aufstand, indem sie fünfzehn Genoss*innen in fünf Städten interviewten, die Berichterstattung aus denselben Städten zusammenstellten und offizielle Berichte von Lokalregierungen und Polizeidienststellen in siebzehn Städten im ganzen Land untersuchten. (Weitere Informationen zu unseren Methoden finden Sie in Anhang A.) Wir haben gemeinsame Dynamiken an verschiedenen Orten herausgearbeitet, Taktiken und Strategien identifiziert, die die Bewegung und die herrschende Klasse angewandt haben, untersucht, was funktioniert und was nicht, und wichtige Herausforderungen und Fragen aufgezeigt, auf die ein zukünftiger Aufstand wahrscheinlich stoßen wird.“ http://www.unityandstruggle.org/2022/07/big-brick-energy-a-multi-city-study-of-the-2020-george-floyd-uprising/
Today in Labor History January 21, 1999: Striking miners used stones and clubs to force their way through riot police in Bucharest Romania in the Mineriad of 1999. They were protesting against low wages and poor working conditions. The Mineriads were a series of protests by Jiu Valley miners in Bucharest during the 1990s.
Today in Labor History December 19, 2001: The Argentine government declared a state of siege to stop the worst looting and rioting in a decade sparked by austerity measures and poverty.
Today in Labor History December 6, 1889: The trial of the Chicago Haymarket anarchists began amidst national and international outrage and protest. None of the men on trial had even been at Haymarket Square when the bomb was set off. They were on trial because of their anarchist political affiliations and their labor organizing for the 8-hour work-day. 4 were ultimately executed, including Alber Parsons, husband of future IWW founding member Lucy Parsons. One, Louis Ling, cheated the hangman by committing suicide in his cell. The Haymarket Affairs is considered the origin of International Workers Day, May 1st, celebrated in virtually every country in the world, except for the U.S., where the atrocity occurred. Historically, it was also considered the culmination of the Great Upheaval, which a series of strike waves and labor unrest that began in Martinsburg, West Virginia, 1877, and spread throughout the U.S., including the Saint Louis Commune, when communists took over and controlled the city for several days. Over 100 workers were killed across the U.S. in the weeks of strikes and protests. Communists and anarchists also organized strikes in Chicago, where police killed 20 men and boys. Albert and Lucy Parsons participated and were influenced by these events. I write about this historical period in my Great Upheaval Trilogy. The first book in this series, Anywhere But Schuylkill, came out in September, 2023, from Historium Press. Check it out here: https://www.thehistoricalfictioncompany.com/it/michael-dunn and https://michaeldunnauthor.com/
"The DC Circuit Court of Appeals ruled on Tuesday that all participants in the January 6, 2021 siege of the U.S. Capitol can be charged with disorderly or disruptive conduct — even if they were personally not destroying property or acting violently."
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 December 18, 1830: The "Swing Rioters" went on trial on this date. The rioters were agricultural laborers who fought for a minimum wage during the early decades of the 19th century. During this time, England shifted from self-sufficient, open fields to farms rented by tenant farmers. Technology, including the increasing use of threshers, and a surplus of labor, drove down wages. Farm workers in the "swing" counties of the south and east of England responded by destroying farm machinery. Hundreds were arrested, jailed and executed.
Today in Labor History January 31, 1971: For the second time in six months, rioting broke out during an anti-war protest in East Los Angeles. Police fired into the crowd, killing one protester. The anti-war demonstrations were organized by the Chicano Moratorium. Chicanos were dying at a higher rate during the Vietnam War than white Americans. During the August 29, 1970 protests, police killed three people, including Journalist Ruben Salazar. Oscar Zeta Acosta portrayed Salazar in his 1973 novel, “The Revolt of the Cockroach People.” Hunter S. Thompson portrayed Acosta as his “Samoan attorney” in “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.”
France Splits Into Rival Camps Over Police Shooting of a Teenager (www.nytimes.com)
Society is increasingly divided between a law-and-order faction and those who see racism in a pattern of police killings or mistreatment of minorities.
The Baseball Game That Caused a Riot (www.youtube.com)