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 February 16, 1885: The Knights of Labor struck Jay Gould’s Wabash Railroad when he fired members of their union. The strike tied up the entire line in the Southwest. Members of the union on other railroad lines refused to operate any trains with Wabash cars on it. Gould eventually agreed not to discriminate any more against members of the union. As a result, membership in The Knights of Labor swelled. When they struck again in 1886, at least 10 people were killed. The strike unraveled within a couple of months, leading to the demise of the union.
Today in Labor History February 15, 1910: The ILGWU declared the Uprising of Twenty Thousand shirtwaist strike officially over. The garment workers strike began September 27, 1909, in response to abysmal wages and safety conditions. The majority of striking workers were immigrant women, mostly Yiddish-speaking Jews (75%) and Italians (10%), and mostly under the age of 20. Five women died in the strike, which the union won, signing contracts with 339 manufacturing firms. However, 13 firms, including Triangle Shirtwaist Company, never settled. One of the demands had been for adequate fire escapes and for open doors to the streets for emergencies. In 1911, 146 girls and women were killed in the Triangle Shirtwaist fire.
Today, in honor of Black History Month, we remember the Orangeburg Massacre, which occurred on February 8, 1968 in South Carolina, when highway patrolmen opened fire on black student protesters from South Carolina State, who were trying to integrate a bowling alley. They killed 3 African American students and wounded 33. They were the first student demonstrators killed by the police in the 1960s.
Allan Pinkerton, creator of the Pinkerton Detective Agency, the private cops that murdered dozens of labor organizers and activists, that tried to frame Big Bill Haywood for murder, that provided the perjured testimony and bogus evidence that got 20 innocent Irish American miners executed as Molly Maguires only immigrated to the U.S. to avoid a stiff prison term in Britain, where he was wanted for armed insurrection. Yes, America’s first celebrity cop had been an arsonist, vandal and violent soldier in the radical Chartist movement, before fleeing to the U.S. with his 15-year-old wife.
If you think the were just a nightmare from America’s labor and activist history, think again. They are still at it today, undermining labor organizing at Amazon, Apple and Google, among other.
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 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 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/
Today in Labor History December 4, 1969: Chicago Black Panthers, Fred Hampton and Mark Clark, were assassinated by the Chicago Police, with assistance from the FBI. Hampton was chairman of the Illinois Black Panther Party (BPP) and deputy chairman of the national BPP. He founded the antiracist, anti-classist Rainbow Coalition, which included the Black Panthers, Young Lords and Young Patriots (a radical poor white people’s movement). On the night of the assassination, an infiltrator drugged Hampton with barbiturates. He remained unconscious when the cops entered his bedroom, dragged away his pregnant girlfriend, then fired several shots into his chest and head.
Today in Labor History November 21, 1921: The original Columbine Massacre occurred in Serine, Colorado. State police and company thugs used machine guns against the unarmed miners, slaughtering six striking IWW members, all of whom were unarmed. Dozens more were injured.
Today in Labor History November 13, 1922: A railway workers' strike in Guayaquil, Ecuador grew into a general strike, which lasted 3 days and culminated in a massacre on Nov 15, when Police and military shot down over 300 workers. Trolley workers continued to strike throughout November, eventually winning many of their demands.
Today in Labor History November 13, 1887: Police charged a crowd of unemployed protesters in Trafalgar Square, London, killing three and arresting over 300 in what was to become known as "Bloody Sunday." At least 400 people were seriously injured, including one who was bayoneted. It also became a turning point in the British struggle for free speech, with William Morris, Edward Carpenter and George Bernard Shaw all speaking out against this repression. Eleanor Marx, Karl’s youngest daughter, also participated.
Today in Labor History November 5, 2001: At least four hunger strikers who were protesting Turkish prison conditions died in a police raid. Their deaths brought the total to 45 deaths in that year. Hundreds of jailed left-wing militants had joined the death fast to protest being kept in isolation cells in “F-type” high security prisons, subjected to torture, beatings and abuse.
Today in Labor History November 5, 1916: The Everett Massacre occurred in Everett, Washington. 300 IWW members arrived by boat in Everett to help support the shingle workers’ strike that had been going on for the past 5 months. Prior attempts to support the strikers were met with vigilante beatings with axe handles. As the boat pulled in, Sheriff McRae called out, “Who’s your leader?” The Wobblies answered, “We’re all leaders!” The sheriff pulled his gun and said, “You can’t land.” A Wobbly yelled back, “Like hell we can’t.” Gunfire erupted, most of it from the 200 vigilantes on the dock. When the smoke cleared, two of the sheriff’s deputies were dead, shot in the back by their own men, along with 5-12 Wobblies on the boat. Dozens more were wounded. The authorities arrested 74 Wobblies. After a trial, all charges were dropped against the IWW members. The event was mentioned in John Dos Passos’s “USA Trilogy.”
Mural on sculpture at corner of Spear and Mission, San Francisco's Rincon Hill district (now known as South Beach) and site of the 1934 General Strike, in which 9 workers were killed by the police.
Mural contains the IWW slogan an Injury to One is An Injury to All. ILWU leader Harry Bridges had been a member of the IWW, which had tried to organize the Pacific ports in the 1920s, including the San Pedro Maritime Strike, 1923.
There is an accompanying brass plaque, which describes the strike, and pays homage to Howard Sperry and Nick Bordoise, killed on Bloody Thursday, July 5, 1934.
The artists of the mural were: Miranda Bergman, Tem Drescher, Nicole Emmanuel, Lari Kiholani, James Morgan, Raymond M Patlan, Eduardo Pineda, James Prigoff, O'Brian Theile, & Horace Washington.
Today in Labor History October 22, 1905: Up to 50,000 people joined the Huelga de Carne uprising in Santiago, Chile, part of Semana Roja (Red Week). The total population of Santiago was only 320,000. Demonstrators looted grocery stores and attacked police stations, telephone and telegraph lines and private residences in this protest against high food prices. Police massacred 230 demonstrators. Popular outrage swept the country leading to a General Strike.
Today in Labor History October 19, 1922: Beginning of a railroad strike in Duran, Ecuador that led to a 3-day General Strike by railway workers in neighboring Guayaquil. Police and military massacred over 300 workers.
Today in Labor History October 18, 2019: Riots in Santiago Chile escalated into open battles with the cops and the destruction of dozens of metro stations. The protests began as a coordinated fare evasion campaign by secondary school students which led to spontaneous takeovers of the city's main train stations. On 25 October 2019, over 1.2 million people took to the streets of Santiago to protest against social inequality. Thousands were arrested and 36 people died in the protests.
Today in Labor History October 17, 1961: French police massacred 200-300 Algerians protesting against police oppression and the curfew imposed against their community in Paris. Police searched the Algerian ghettos for FLN members, indiscriminately killing dozens of innocent Algerians before turning their guns on a large group of protesters gathered near the Seine River. The next day, the police released an official death toll of three dead and 67 wounded, a figure disputed by witnesses who observe bodies littering the area and floating in the Seine.
Today in Labor History October 15, 1966: The Black Panther Party was created by Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale, in Oakland, California. One of their early core practices was open-carry armed citizen’s patrols monitoring abusive police behavior. They also implemented free breakfast programs and community health clinics, and advocated for revolutionary class struggle. The FBI sabotaged the Panthers through its COINTELPRO and participated in the assassination of Panthers, like Fred Hampton and Mark Clark. In 1969, the Panthers officially declared sexism to be counterrevolutionary and ordered its male members to treat women as equals. In 1970, Huey Newton expressed support for the Women’s Liberation Movement, and the LGBTQ Liberation Movement which, he correctly noted, were subject to much of the same police brutality as were African Americans.