Today in Labor History January 29, 1936: Rubber workers engaged in a sit-down strike in Akron, Ohio. Their action helped establish the United Rubber Workers as a national union. Working conditions and pay were terrible and workers and virtually no benefits. They engaged in numerous sit-down strikes in the 1930s. Theirs preceded the more famous Flint sit-down strike of 1936-1937. The first American sit-down strike was probably in 1909, when 3,000 members of the IWW engaged in a sit-down strike against General Electric, in Schenectady, NY.
Today in Labor History January 29, 1911: The Mexican Liberal Party, led by the anarchist Magonistas, captured the Baja California border town of Mexicali, during their revolution in Baja California. Many members of the IWW participated in the revolution, which also conquered and held Tijuana and Ensenada for several days. Lowell Blaisdell writes about it in his now hard to find book, “The Desert Revolution,” (1962).
Today in Labor History January 28, 1914: The Edmonton, Canada city council caved in to the IWW, agreeing to provide a large hall to house the homeless. They also agreed to pass out three 25-cent meal tickets per day to each man, and to employ 400 people on a public project. On December 27, 1913, IWW workers in Edmonton had begun a rebellion to force the city to house 400 unemployed during winter.
Today in Labor History January 22, 1849: Terence Powderly, leader of the Knights of Labor, and mayor of Scranton, PA, was born on this date. the KOL attracted and spawned many radicals, including Daniel DeLeon, who went on to cofound the IWW and the Socialist Labor Party. Two of the Haymarket martyrs were also KOL members. The KOL, like its more radical cousin, the IWW, called for the abolition of the wage system. Like the IWW, their slogan was, “An Injury to One is the Concern of All.” And like the IWW, they claimed to fight for all workers, regardless of country, creed, gender or color. However, in reality, the union was xenophobic and racist, particularly toward the Chinese and participated in several anti-Chinese pogroms.
Today in Labor History January 19, 1920: Crystal Eastman, Roger Nash Baldwin, Elizabeth Gurley Flynn (from the IWW) and others founded the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). Their original focus was freedom of speech, primarily anti-war speech, and supporting conscientious objectors. In 1923, they defended author Upton Sinclair after he was arrested for trying to read the First Amendment during an IWW rally. In 1925, they persuaded John T. Scopes to defy Tennessee's anti-evolution law in The State of Tennessee v. John Thomas Scopes. Clarence Darrow, an ACLU member, headed Scopes' legal team. The ACLU lost the case and Scopes was fined $100. In 1926, they defended H. L. Mencken, who deliberately broke Boston law by distributing copies of his banned American Mercury magazine and won their first major acquittal. However, they kicked Elizabeth Gurley Flynn off their board in 1940 because of her Communist affiliations. And they refused defend Paul Robeson and other leftists in the 1950s.
Today in Labor History January 17, 1915: Lucy Parsons, anarchist and IWW cofounder, organized and led a hunger march of 1,500 people in Chicago. They carried banners saying, “We want work, not charity,” and “We refuse to starve!” Police attacked them with clubs and shot at them. Amazingly, no one was killed. They also arrested 15, including Parsons, for marching without a permit.
Keep encouraging #DollarGeneral and all these other arsehole capitalists to hire more #workers and ditch the self check-out. The more jobs disappear that way wjthout #socialism or #UBI, the more we undermine our own #economy and #livingstandards.
chicago is currently undergoing a bitterly cold spell. as i write this, its -14F, with a wind chill of -33F.
one of my workplace campaigns, composed primarily of chicago residents who walk to work, organized a 100% sick out against working. they followed it up with a letter to the boss, demanding no work until wednesday, when the weather is supposed to break.
the boss quickly caved, even agreeing to pay wages while closed.
Today in Labor History January 14, 1914: The trial of Suhr and Ford began on this date in Marysville, California. Suhr and Ford were IWW organizers who were ultimately convicted for their alleged role in the gun battle at Durst Ranch in Wheatland. Four died in the so-called “Wheatland riots” (Aug 1913) when police fired into a crowd of California farmworkers trying to organize with the IWW. The dead included the district attorney and sheriff, as well as two farm workers. The governor called in the national guard to restore order. At the time, Durst Ranch was the largest employer of agricultural laborers in the state. They grew hops for the British beer industry. Durst regularly hired seasonal pickers in the summers, forcing them to live in tents on a hot, barren hillside. Conditions were unsanitary. The closest water was a mile away. Durst’s brother exploited workers further by selling them overpriced lemonade, in lieu of water. They had to pay 75 cents per week in rent. Wages were under $1.50/day and Durst withheld 10% of each worker’s wages as insurance against them quitting before harvest season ended.
I'm a member of the #IWW and some people may be interested in this internal journalist piece. Usually this would be published in union internal media but both its online forum and its US monthly newsletter have been made pretty much untenable:
Today in Labor History January 12, 1928: Police raided the IWW (Industrial Workers of the World) Halls, in Walsenburg and Trinidad Colorado. They killed two union members in the process. This was near the site of the Ludlow Massacre where, in 1914, National Guards slaughtered 21 people, including two women and eleven children, on behalf of John D. Rockefeller. Conditions were still deplorable, with 12-hour days, 6-day work weeks, and regular fatalities in the mines. The IWW had been leading a miners’ strike in the region since October 18, 1927. Over 8,000 men walked out, shutting down 113 out of 126 mines in the state. Police routinely arrested picketers en masse. They’d move them from jail to jail to make it harder for their lawyers to find them. Sometimes they deported them from the state and threatened to shoot them if they returned. The strike ended in February, with concessions to the workers, but no IWW representation.
Today in Labor History January 11, 1943: American mobster, Carmine Galante, assassinated Carlo Tresca in New York City. He was an Italian-American newspaper editor, socialist labor organizer with the IWW, and outspoken critic of the Mafia, Stalinism and fascism. In 1937, he participated in the Dewey Commission, which cleared Trotsky of all charges made during the Moscow Trials.
Today in Labor History January 11, 1912: The Bread and Roses textile strike began in Lawrence, Massachusetts. The IWW organized and led this strike of 32,000 women and children after management slashed wages. A group of Polish women walked out after receiving their pay and realizing they’d been cheated. Others soon joined them. The strike lasted 10 weeks. Many sent their children to live with family, friends or supporters during the strike to protect them from the hunger and violence. Members of the Modern School took in many of these kids. During the strike, the cops kept arresting the women for loitering. So, they began to march as they protested. This was the first known use of the moving picket line. The strike was led by IWW organizers Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, Big Bill Haywood, Joe Etter and Arturo Giovannitti. Hundreds were arrested, including Etter and Giovannitti, who were charged with murder. 3 workers died.
Today in Labor History January 10, 1914: IWW labor organizer and folk singer, Joe Hill, was arrested for killing two men during a grocery store robbery. He claimed innocence and the evidence against him was flimsy. However, because of his radical associations, they still framed and convicted him. President Wilson, Hellen Keller (also an IWW member) and the Swedish ambassador all asked for clemency. Hill’s final message from prison, before being shot by firing squad, was “Don’t mourn, Organize!” His ashes were sprinkled in every state of the union, except Utah because he didn’t want to be found dead in Utah. They were also sprinkled in Canada, Sweden, Australia and Canada. Some of his most famous songs were “The Preacher and the Slave,” “The Rebel Girl,” “There is Power in a Union,” “Casey Jones, the Union Scab,” and “Mr. Block.” In 1988, an envelope containing his remaining ashes was discovered. Abbie Hoffman suggested that folksinger Billy Bragg should consume them and he supposedly did, washed down, of course, with copious beer.
Today in Labor History December 28, 1869: Uriah Stephens founded the Knights of Labor (KOL) on this date. Though the leadership often denounced socialists and anarchists, the KOL attracted and spawned many, including Daniel DeLeon, who would go on to later cofound the IWW and the Socialist Labor Party, as well as two of the Haymarket martyrs. The KOL also denounced strikes, yet, like its more radical cousin, the IWW, it called for the abolition of the wage system and fought to organize all workers into one big union, including women and immigrants. And, like the IWW, one of the KOL’s slogans was, “An Injury to One is the Concern of All.”
Today in Labor History December 27, 1913: IWW workers in Edmonton, Alberta Canada began a rebellion that ultimately forced the city to house 400 unemployed during winter. At the time, Edmonton, was a major railroad center. Thousands of workers from all over Canada and the U.S. had come for work, but ended up stuck there without jobs or money. The authorities refused to help. So, the IWW created the Edmonton Unemployed League. They demanded that the city provide work to everybody regardless of race, color or nationality. Furthermore, they demanded a wage 30 cents per hour and three 25-cent meal tickets per worker per day, redeemable at any restaurant in town. They backed these demands with mass protests that continued, despite police beatings and arrests. Finally, on January 28, 1914 the city council provided a large hall for the homeless, passed out the free meal tickets and hired 400 people on a public project.
Today in Labor History December 24, 1936: On Christmas Eve, drunk cops beat up 150 strikers on the Houston docks, sending 18 to the hospital. They were members of the Maritime Federation of the Gulf Coast. Gilbert Mers, who had dual membership in the Maritime Federation and the IWW, was their leader. Violence against dockers was rampant along the gulf coast in the 1930s. In July 1934, three black longshoremen were shot to death during a strike. In 1935, longshoremen struck along the entire gulf coast, with 14 more workers getting killed. From 1936 to 1938, 28 union members were killed and over 300 injured in strikes. Mers’ autobiography, “Working the Waterfront: The Ups and Downs of a Rebel Longshoreman,” was published in 1988, ten years before his death, at age 90. As a young man, Mers worked the docks in Corpus Christi, but went on to become President of the Corpus Christi Central Labor Council and the President of the Maritime Federation of the Gulf Coast, while remaining a dedicated dual member of the IWW throughout his life. He was part of the effort to establish an industry-wide union along the Gulf Coast states. In his autobiography, he exposes the brutality and corruption of the Texas Rangers in the 1930s-‘40s, and their use as violent, strike-breaking bullies with badges.
Today in Labor History December 23, 1921: President Warren Harding issued a "Christmas amnesty," freeing Eugene V. Debs and 23 other political prisoners who had been imprisoned for their opposition to World War I under the Sedition Act. Debs was a founding member of the anarchosyndicalist union, the IWW, a socialist, and a 5-time candidate for president of the US. In the 1912 election, he won 6% of the vote. He also led the 1894 Pullman Strike of over 250,000 railroad workers.