Today in Labor History March 31, 1990: 200,000 people protested against the new Poll Tax in London. The new tax shifted the burden from the somewhat progressive tax based on property values, to an entirely regressive tax.
@MikeDunnAuthor I evaded the whole lot by accident due to a Council strike, LB Greenwich didn't process my form showing I'd moved out of Reading!
Was fine until I got nicked for minor drug possession in London in 1994 - Metpol had 0 record of me existing, and sent Thames Valley Police to my family home at 06:00 to do a citizenship check (as I am brown), which was awkward with my parents (as they knew I had got in trouble and that wouldn't normally have happened as I was over 18 by then)
Today in Labor History March 30, 1930: Hundreds of thousands of unemployed workers demonstrated in thirty cities. 35,000 marched in New York City and were violently assaulted by the police. At the time, there was virtually no formal aid available for the unemployed or poor. The ruling elite feared that workers would choose the dole over work if given the choice. So, they opposed unemployment insurance. Even the AFL opposed unemployment insurance because it saw itself as the representative of skilled workers only. It didn’t care about unskilled factory workers. The demonstrations were organized by the Communist Party, with the goal of overthrowing capitalism.
@MikeDunnAuthor Umm, a century later, why do you think the railroads had that personal time off/sick leave issue in the Oval Office at the end of the most recent bargaining round?
International scientists call for greater conservation to reduce risk of future pandemics.
"To effectively prevent pandemics, we must recognize 2 keys points: 1st that pandemics almost always start with a microbe infecting a wild animal in a natural environment and 2nd that human caused land use change often triggers the events- whether through wildlife trade or other distal activities- that facilitate spillover of microbes from wild animals to humans"
Today in Labor History March 29, 1951: Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were convicted of conspiracy to commit espionage. They were executed at Sing Sing in 1953. The Rosenberg’s sons, Michael and Robert Meeropol (adopted by Abel Meeropol, the composer of “Strange Fruit,”), maintained their parents’ innocence. However, after the fall of the Soviet Union, decoded Soviet cables showed that their father had, in fact, collaborated, but that their mother was innocent. They continued to fight for the mother’s pardon, but Obama refused to grant it. The Rosenberg’s sons were among the last students to attend the anarchist Modern School, in Lakewood, New Jersey, before it finally shut its doors in 1958.
@MikeDunnAuthor Despite their soviet files, I believe that the US made up its mind to make an example of the Rosenbergs and never afforded them a fair trial.
Today in Labor History March 29, 1973: Workers launched a wildcat strike and occupation of Fiat plants at Mirafiori. This came during a wave of Italian student and worker protests going back to the 1960s.
Today in Labor History March 29, 1948: Police attacked striking members of the United Financial Employees’ Union and arrested forty-three in the “Battle of Wall Street.” This was the first and only strike in the history of the New York or American Stock Exchanges.