Today in Labor History—June 4

1850 – During June of 1850,  Mikhail Bakunin's death sentence in Germany was commuted to life imprisonment. (From the Daily Bleed)

1861 – During June of 1861 Mikhail Bakunin escaped from Siberia via the Amur River, and arrived in Nikolavsk in July, where he boarded an American merchant ship, Vickery, to Hakodate, Japan. (From the Daily Bleed)

June 4, 1904 – Members of the International Brotherhood of Paper Makers struck Wisconsin paper mills in. (From the Daily Bleed)

June 4, 1906—Francisco Ferrer (founder of the first Modern Schools) was arrested and imprisoned for participating in Mateo Morral’s assassination attempt against Spanish monarch Alfonso XIII. Ferrer was later released due to lack of evidence. Morral worked in Modern School’s publishing house and was a friend of Ferrer’s.

Nestor Makhno during the Ukranian Free Territory, 1919-1921

June 4, 1919 – The 4th (Ukrainian) Congress of Free Soviets, was banned by Leon Trotsky, Bolshevist troops were sent to destroy the Rosa Luxemburg Commune near Provkovski, and the Ukrainian anarchist insurgent Nestor Makhno was declared an outlaw. (From the Daily Bleed)

March in support of the Chilean socialist republic, 1932

June 4, 1932 -- Chilean politicians and the military carried out a coup d'etat, installing Marmaduke Grove, who declared Chile a "socialist republic." However, workers and were given no means to participate. Twelve days later, the military ended the "workers republic." (From the Daily Bleed)

Zoot Suits, 1942 (Library of Congress)

June 4, 1943 – The Zoot Suit riots began on this date in Los Angeles, with white soldiers attacking blacks & Hispanics. (From the Daily Bleed)

June 4, 1963 – Jimmy Hoffa and seven other members of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, were indicted on charges of fraudulently obtaining $20 million in loans from a Teamsters Union Pension Fund. (From the Daily Bleed)

June 4, 1979 – The Sandinistas called for an "insurrectional general strike." (From the Daily Bleed)

June 4, 1989 – The Chinese army massacred at least 2,000 peacefully protesting students and workers in Beijing's Tiananmen Square. (From the Daily Bleed)

Today in Labor History—May 30

May 30, 1741 – 13 black men were burned at the stake, and 17 black men, two white men, and two white women were hanged, for their roles in a New York City slave revolt in. (From the Daily Bleed)

Mikhail Bakunin

 May 30, 1814 –Anarchist Mikhail Bakunin was born, Russia. (From the Daily Bleed)

Maxim Gorkey, 1906 (Library of Congress)

May 30, 1901 – Maxim Gorky, imprisoned for printing revolutionary literature, was released after Leo Tolstoy interceded on his behalf. Gorky later served a similar role, interceding on behalf of writers imprisoned by Stalin. (From the Daily Bleed)

May 30, 1912 – U.S. Marines invaded Nicaragua. (From the Daily Bleed)

May 30, 1937 - “Memorial Day massacre:” Police attacked striking steelworkers, shooting many in the back, killing 10 and wounding 100, at the Republic Steel plant in South Chicago. (From Workday Minnesota)

May 30, 1968 – May Days continued in France, which was now in the midst of a giant general strike. Trains stopped running. Airports were shut down. Millions of workers barricaded themselves in their factories. Even soccer players occupied their stadiums. Politicians warned that they were on the verge of civil war or revolution. (From the Daily Bleed)

Today in Labor History—May 18

Tupac Amaru

May 18, 1781 – Tupac Amaru II, and other Peruvian indigenous leaders, who rebelled against the Spanish conquistadors, was drawn and quartered in Plaza Mayor del Cuzco. (From the Daily Bleed)

Bakunin speaking at IWA, 1869

May 18, 1814 –Russian Anarchist militant and philosopher Mikhail Bakunin was born.  (From the Daily Bleed)

May 18, 1872 – Philosopher, mathematician & social critic Bertrand Russell (1872-1970) was born in Wales. Russell won the Nobel prize for literature in 1950. He was imprisoned as a pacifist during WWI, and again in 1961, for protesting in Whitehall. (From the Daily Bleed)

May 18, 1895 – Augusto Sandino, leader of the original Sandinista movement for  Nicaraguan independence was born. (From the Daily Bleed)

May 18, 1917 - The Amalgamated Meat Cutters and Butcher Workmen started organizing in packinghouses across the United States, ultimately bringing their membership from 6,500 in 1917 to 100,000 by 1919. (From Workday Minnesota)

May 18, 1920 - Ten people were killed when coal company officials in Matewan, West Virginia, tried to remove striking union workers from coal company housing. They sent in agents from the Baldwin-Felts detective agency who evicted several families before trying to hop on a train out of town. Sheriff Hatfield, who supported the miners’ right to organize, tried to arrest the detectives who, in turn, tried to arrest Hatfield. Unbeknownst to the detectives, they had been surrounded by miners. No one knows who shot first, but when the smoke had cleared, there were 7 dead detectives (including Albert and Lee Felts) and 4 dead townspeople. The episode became known as the “Matewan Battle” or “Matewan Massacre,” and is depicted in John Sayles’ film Matewan. It should be pointed out that mining was one of the most dangerous and corrupt industries around. Miners were typically forced to live in company town and purchase living necessities from company stores at inflated prices. They were paid in scrip, which was useless outside of the company towns. In the time leading up to the Battle of Matewan, numerous miners had been assassinated by vigilantes, goons or detectives. In the aftermath of the massacre, the miners went on strike and were treated to even more violence. Striking miners were beaten and left to die in the streets. The remaining Felts brother, Tom, instigated a vendetta against Sheriff Hatfield, eventually having him killed by his agency in 1921. (From Workday Minnesota, Wikipedia, Daily Bleed and Matewanwv.com)

May 18, 1927 –Possibly the first U.S. school massacre occurred. Andrew Kehoe was seeking revenge against the community for taxes imposed on his farm to pay for a new school, set off a TNT bomb in the school in Bath, Michigan, killing 43 people, including 39 grade-school children. He then killed his wife, himself & the school superintendent. (From the Daily Bleed)

May 18, 1968 – 10,000 marched in Madrid, Spain, erected barricades and clashed with police, in solidarity with the May revolt in France (and in spite of the fact they are still living under a fascist dictatorship). (From the Daily Bleed)

May 18, 1979 – Silkwood vs. Kerr-McGee case was settled, establishing that corporations are responsible for the people they irradiate. (From the Daily Bleed)

May 18, 1991 – 200,000 violently protest against South Korean government. (From the Daily Bleed)

Today in Labor History—May 3

Mikhail Bakunin as a Young Man

May 3, 1849 – A popular rebellion broke out in Dresden, with the militant Russian anarchist Mikhail Bakunin emerging as an "heroic" leader. He was imprisoned in the Konigstein fortress and condemned to death. (From The Daily Bleed)

May 3, 1886 - At the height of the movement for the eight-hour day, police shot into a crowd of workers engaged in a general strike at McCormick Harvester Co. in Chicago. Four workers were killed and hundreds were injured. Anarchists called for a public rally the following day at Haymarket Square to protest the police brutality. At the rally, a bomb was thrown, killing several police. No one was ever caught, yet the police arrested eight leading anarchists who were convicted and sentenced to death. The event  became the inspiration for International Workers Day. (From Workday Minnesota and The Daily Bleed)

May 3, 1886 – One thousand brewery workers, on strike for a wage increase, marched to the Falk Brewery, in Milwaukee, to encourage workers there to join their strike. They were members of the radical industrial union the Knights of Labor. (From The Daily Bleed)

May 3, 1887 – Two explosions at Mine #1 in Nanaimo, British Columbia, killed 97 white mineers and 52 Chinese miners. (From The Daily Bleed)

May 3, 1898 – Bread riots occurred in Milano, Italy. They were brutally repressed, with heavy loss of life. (From The Daily Bleed)

May 3, 1916 –An uprising by Vietnamese was suppressed by the French. (From The Daily Bleed)

May 3, 1919 – Pete Seeger was born, Patterson, New York. (From The Daily Bleed)

May 3, 1920 - A young anarchist printer, Andreas Salsedo, “fell” to his death from a 14th story window of an FBI detention room in New York City. He had been arrested during the anti-commie raids launched by Attorney General Mitchell Palmer. The FBI claimed it was suicide. (From Workday Minnesota and The Daily Bleed)

May 3, 1926 – A general strike by the Trades Union Congress of Great Britain was finally ended after nine days, though coal miners continued to strike through the summer. (From The Daily Bleed)

May 3, 1928 – Anarchist Severino Di Giovanni bombed the Italian consulate in Buenos Aires to protest against the Italian dictatorship. The fascists were assassinating Italian antifascists in exile). Nine were killed and 34 wounded in the blast. (From The Daily Bleed)

May 3, 1934 – The IWW strike at Draper Manufacturing Co. began in Cleveland, Ohio. (From The Daily Bleed)

May 3, 1937 – The Spanish Republican government launched attacks on workers leading to open resistance against Republican and Communist authorities by radical workers, anarchists, and others opposed to the regional takeover of the worker-run telephone company in Barcelona. (From The Daily Bleed)

May 3, 1968 – The first battles of the May Upheaval began in the Latin Quarter of Paris. The police arrested 500 students meeting at the University of Sorbonne to protest repression at Nanterre. Revolt broke out along the route taken by police vans, with thousands fighting against the police. Throughout the month of May and part of June, workers and students occupied schools, factories and offices. By mid-May, 10 million workers were on strike. (From The Daily Bleed)

May 3, 1971 – 7,000 people were arrested trying to shut down the Pentagon in protest against the Vietnam war. (From The Daily Bleed)

May 3, 1974 – Spanish banker Balthasar Suarez was kidnapped in Paris by the "Groups of International Revolutionary Action" (GARI ) in an attempt to free 100 political prisoners in Spain being held by Franco. (From The Daily Bleed)

Today in Labor History—June 4

1850 – During June of 1850,  Mikhail Bakunin's death sentence in Germany was commuted to life imprisonment. (From the Daily Bleed)

1861 – During June of 1861 Mikhail Bakunin escaped from Siberia via the Amur River, and arrived in Nikolavsk in July, where he boarded an American merchant ship, Vickery, to Hakodate, Japan. (From the Daily Bleed)

June 4, 1904 – Members of the International Brotherhood of Paper Makers struck Wisconsin paper mills in. (From the Daily Bleed)

June 4, 1906—Francisco Ferrer (founder of the first Modern Schools) was arrested and imprisoned for participating in Mateo Morral’s assassination attempt against Spanish monarch Alfonso XIII. Ferrer was later released due to lack of evidence. Morral worked in Modern School’s publishing house and was a friend of Ferrer’s.

Nestor Makhno during the Ukranian Free Territory, 1919-1921

June 4, 1919 – The 4th (Ukrainian) Congress of Free Soviets, was banned by Leon Trotsky, Bolshevist troops were sent to destroy the Rosa Luxemburg Commune near Provkovski, and the Ukrainian anarchist insurgent Nestor Makhno was declared an outlaw. (From the Daily Bleed)

March in support of the Chilean socialist republic, 1932

June 4, 1932 -- Chilean politicians and the military carried out a coup d'etat, installing Marmaduke Grove, who declared Chile a "socialist republic." However, workers and were given no means to participate. Twelve days later, the military ended the "workers republic." (From the Daily Bleed)

Zoot Suits, 1942 (Library of Congress)

June 4, 1943 – The Zoot Suit riots began on this date in Los Angeles, with white soldiers attacking blacks & Hispanics. (From the Daily Bleed)

June 4, 1963 – Jimmy Hoffa and seven other members of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, were indicted on charges of fraudulently obtaining $20 million in loans from a Teamsters Union Pension Fund. (From the Daily Bleed)

June 4, 1979 – The Sandinistas called for an "insurrectional general strike." (From the Daily Bleed)

June 4, 1989 – The Chinese army massacred at least 2,000 peacefully protesting students and workers in Beijing's Tiananmen Square. (From the Daily Bleed)

Today in Labor History—May 30

May 30, 1741 – 13 black men were burned at the stake, and 17 black men, two white men, and two white women were hanged, for their roles in a New York City slave revolt in. (From the Daily Bleed)

Mikhail Bakunin

 May 30, 1814 –Anarchist Mikhail Bakunin was born, Russia. (From the Daily Bleed)

Maxim Gorkey, 1906 (Library of Congress)

May 30, 1901 – Maxim Gorky, imprisoned for printing revolutionary literature, was released after Leo Tolstoy interceded on his behalf. Gorky later served a similar role, interceding on behalf of writers imprisoned by Stalin. (From the Daily Bleed)

May 30, 1912 – U.S. Marines invaded Nicaragua. (From the Daily Bleed)

May 30, 1937 - “Memorial Day massacre:” Police attacked striking steelworkers, shooting many in the back, killing 10 and wounding 100, at the Republic Steel plant in South Chicago. (From Workday Minnesota)

May 30, 1968 – May Days continued in France, which was now in the midst of a giant general strike. Trains stopped running. Airports were shut down. Millions of workers barricaded themselves in their factories. Even soccer players occupied their stadiums. Politicians warned that they were on the verge of civil war or revolution. (From the Daily Bleed)

Today in Labor History—May 18

Tupac Amaru

May 18, 1781 – Tupac Amaru II, and other Peruvian indigenous leaders, who rebelled against the Spanish conquistadors, was drawn and quartered in Plaza Mayor del Cuzco. (From the Daily Bleed)

Bakunin speaking at IWA, 1869

May 18, 1814 –Russian Anarchist militant and philosopher Mikhail Bakunin was born.  (From the Daily Bleed)

May 18, 1872 – Philosopher, mathematician & social critic Bertrand Russell (1872-1970) was born in Wales. Russell won the Nobel prize for literature in 1950. He was imprisoned as a pacifist during WWI, and again in 1961, for protesting in Whitehall. (From the Daily Bleed)

May 18, 1895 – Augusto Sandino, leader of the original Sandinista movement for  Nicaraguan independence was born. (From the Daily Bleed)

May 18, 1917 - The Amalgamated Meat Cutters and Butcher Workmen started organizing in packinghouses across the United States, ultimately bringing their membership from 6,500 in 1917 to 100,000 by 1919. (From Workday Minnesota)

May 18, 1920 - Ten people were killed when coal company officials in Matewan, West Virginia, tried to remove striking union workers from coal company housing. They sent in agents from the Baldwin-Felts detective agency who evicted several families before trying to hop on a train out of town. Sheriff Hatfield, who supported the miners’ right to organize, tried to arrest the detectives who, in turn, tried to arrest Hatfield. Unbeknownst to the detectives, they had been surrounded by miners. No one knows who shot first, but when the smoke had cleared, there were 7 dead detectives (including Albert and Lee Felts) and 4 dead townspeople. The episode became known as the “Matewan Battle” or “Matewan Massacre,” and is depicted in John Sayles’ film Matewan. It should be pointed out that mining was one of the most dangerous and corrupt industries around. Miners were typically forced to live in company town and purchase living necessities from company stores at inflated prices. They were paid in scrip, which was useless outside of the company towns. In the time leading up to the Battle of Matewan, numerous miners had been assassinated by vigilantes, goons or detectives. In the aftermath of the massacre, the miners went on strike and were treated to even more violence. Striking miners were beaten and left to die in the streets. The remaining Felts brother, Tom, instigated a vendetta against Sheriff Hatfield, eventually having him killed by his agency in 1921. (From Workday Minnesota, Wikipedia, Daily Bleed and Matewanwv.com)

May 18, 1927 –Possibly the first U.S. school massacre occurred. Andrew Kehoe was seeking revenge against the community for taxes imposed on his farm to pay for a new school, set off a TNT bomb in the school in Bath, Michigan, killing 43 people, including 39 grade-school children. He then killed his wife, himself & the school superintendent. (From the Daily Bleed)

May 18, 1968 – 10,000 marched in Madrid, Spain, erected barricades and clashed with police, in solidarity with the May revolt in France (and in spite of the fact they are still living under a fascist dictatorship). (From the Daily Bleed)

May 18, 1979 – Silkwood vs. Kerr-McGee case was settled, establishing that corporations are responsible for the people they irradiate. (From the Daily Bleed)

May 18, 1991 – 200,000 violently protest against South Korean government. (From the Daily Bleed)

Today in Labor History—May 3

Mikhail Bakunin as a Young Man

May 3, 1849 – A popular rebellion broke out in Dresden, with the militant Russian anarchist Mikhail Bakunin emerging as an "heroic" leader. He was imprisoned in the Konigstein fortress and condemned to death. (From The Daily Bleed)

May 3, 1886 - At the height of the movement for the eight-hour day, police shot into a crowd of workers engaged in a general strike at McCormick Harvester Co. in Chicago. Four workers were killed and hundreds were injured. Anarchists called for a public rally the following day at Haymarket Square to protest the police brutality. At the rally, a bomb was thrown, killing several police. No one was ever caught, yet the police arrested eight leading anarchists who were convicted and sentenced to death. The event  became the inspiration for International Workers Day. (From Workday Minnesota and The Daily Bleed)

May 3, 1886 – One thousand brewery workers, on strike for a wage increase, marched to the Falk Brewery, in Milwaukee, to encourage workers there to join their strike. They were members of the radical industrial union the Knights of Labor. (From The Daily Bleed)

May 3, 1887 – Two explosions at Mine #1 in Nanaimo, British Columbia, killed 97 white mineers and 52 Chinese miners. (From The Daily Bleed)

May 3, 1898 – Bread riots occurred in Milano, Italy. They were brutally repressed, with heavy loss of life. (From The Daily Bleed)

May 3, 1916 –An uprising by Vietnamese was suppressed by the French. (From The Daily Bleed)

May 3, 1919 – Pete Seeger was born, Patterson, New York. (From The Daily Bleed)

May 3, 1920 - A young anarchist printer, Andreas Salsedo, “fell” to his death from a 14th story window of an FBI detention room in New York City. He had been arrested during the anti-commie raids launched by Attorney General Mitchell Palmer. The FBI claimed it was suicide. (From Workday Minnesota and The Daily Bleed)

May 3, 1926 – A general strike by the Trades Union Congress of Great Britain was finally ended after nine days, though coal miners continued to strike through the summer. (From The Daily Bleed)

May 3, 1928 – Anarchist Severino Di Giovanni bombed the Italian consulate in Buenos Aires to protest against the Italian dictatorship. The fascists were assassinating Italian antifascists in exile). Nine were killed and 34 wounded in the blast. (From The Daily Bleed)

May 3, 1934 – The IWW strike at Draper Manufacturing Co. began in Cleveland, Ohio. (From The Daily Bleed)

May 3, 1937 – The Spanish Republican government launched attacks on workers leading to open resistance against Republican and Communist authorities by radical workers, anarchists, and others opposed to the regional takeover of the worker-run telephone company in Barcelona. (From The Daily Bleed)

May 3, 1968 – The first battles of the May Upheaval began in the Latin Quarter of Paris. The police arrested 500 students meeting at the University of Sorbonne to protest repression at Nanterre. Revolt broke out along the route taken by police vans, with thousands fighting against the police. Throughout the month of May and part of June, workers and students occupied schools, factories and offices. By mid-May, 10 million workers were on strike. (From The Daily Bleed)

May 3, 1971 – 7,000 people were arrested trying to shut down the Pentagon in protest against the Vietnam war. (From The Daily Bleed)

May 3, 1974 – Spanish banker Balthasar Suarez was kidnapped in Paris by the "Groups of International Revolutionary Action" (GARI ) in an attempt to free 100 political prisoners in Spain being held by Franco. (From The Daily Bleed)

Today In Labor History—July 1

Bakunin speaking before the International Workingmens Association, Basel Congress, 1869

July 1, 1876 – Anarchist leader Michael Bakunin died in Berne, Switzerland. (From the Daily Bleed)

July 1, 1910 – The ILGWU organized a large strike, known as the "Great Revolt" involving 50,000 cloak-makers that lasted through October. Taking their lead from the women, the mostly male cloak-makers won uniform wages, a shorter work week and paid holidays. As a result of the strikes in 1909 and 1910, the ILGWU swelled in membership. (From the Daily Bleed)

July 1, 1922 – 1,000,000 railroad shop workers walked off their jobs, initiating what became known as the “Big Strike.” They eventually lost and many members were blacklisted. (From Workday Minnesota and the Daily Bleed)

July 1, 1937 – The Hawaiian long shore strike brought together Japanese, Filipino and other ethnic plantation workers into one labor union (ILWU). (From the Daily Bleed)

July 1, 1968 – The United Auto Workers (UAW) under the leadership of Walter Reuther, left the AFL, partly because of conflicts between Reuther and AFL president George Meany. Reuther died (was killed?) in a plane crash in 1970, and the UAW did not rejoin the AFL until 1981. (From Shmoop Labor History)

July 1, 1977 – Native American activist Leonard Peltier was sentenced to two consecutive life terms for the killing of two FBI agents who died while attacking an American Indian Movement (AIM) encampment, despite the fact that there was no evidence directly linking him to their deaths. (From the Daily Bleed)

July 1, 1983 – Copper miners began a against Phelps-Dodge in Clifton, Arizona, in which Governor Bruce Babbitt repeatedly sent in state police and National Guardsmen to suppress the laborers. (From the Daily Bleed)