Today in Labor History—June 1

June 1 is the day that U.S. labor law officially allows children under the age of 16 to work up to 8 hours per day between the hours of 7:00 am and 9:00 pm. (From Workday Minnesota) Time is ticking away, Bosses. Have you signed up sufficient numbers of low-wage tykes to maintain production rates with your downsized adult staffs?

 

Tupac Amaru

June 1, 1572 – The Battle of Coyaochaca between Hurtado de Arbieto and the rebel army of Tupac Amaru was fought in Peru. (From the Daily Bleed)

June 1, 1771 – A crowd of women was arrested while destroying the fences around Rewhay Common, England, in attempt to resist the enclosures of the commons that was occurring throughout the coutnry. Another group of women marched to Burton-on-Trent where they freed their comrades. (From the Daily Bleed)

 

Arggghh, Matey, Nicaragua is My Personal Slave State!

June 1, 1855 – American pirate William Walker conquered Nicaragua, ceded it to the U.S. south, and reintroduced slavery. Walker was later captured and executed in Trujillo, Honduras. (From the Daily Bleed)

 

Captain Jack, Modoc Warrier

June 1, 1873 – Captain Jack, who led a band of 52 warriors against the U.S. army near Tule Lake, California, finally surrendered to U.S. troops. The fight was part of the Modoc Wars, in which the Modoc tribe (southern Oregon and Northern California) resisted domination by the U.S. Many of his own people had joined with the U.S. forces to help capture him. Captain Jack had led the most expensive Indian War in US history. (From the Daily Bleed, Wikipedia)

 

Cananea Riot, 1906

June 1, 1906 – The bloody Cananea copper miners' strike began in Sonora, Mexico. The miners were demanding 5 pesos a day and an 8-hour workday, commensurate with the U.S. citizens who were working with them side-by-side. As many as 100 miners were killed. (From the Daily Bleed)

June 1, 1909 – W. E. DuBois founded the NAACP. (From the Daily Bleed)

 

Raising of U.S. Flag as U.S. Occupied Veracruz

June 1, 1914 – 80 militia men refused to board a train as reinforcements for the U.S. invasion of Veracruz, Mexico. The U.S. ultimately occupied the region for six months because President Huerta refused to provide the U.S. with a 21-gun salute as an apology for arresting nine U.S. sailors. More significantly, Veracruz was an important oil port. Germany and Britain had been battling for its control. The occupation gave the U.S. greater influence on the still unfolding Mexican revolution, as well as the growing tensions in Europe. (From the Daily Bleed)

June 1, 1914 – U.S. troops arrived in Colorado to reclaim coal mines from striking miners, after the Colorado National Guard massacred 19 in the miners’ camp. 2 women and 11 children were among those killed. (From the Daily Bleed, and here and here)

June 1, 1916 – Pacific Coast longshoremen (ILA) struck up and down the Pacific coast. (From the Daily Bleed)

 

Propaganda Poster for the May 30th Movement

June 1, 1925 – The Shanghai General Strike began, as part of an ongoing labor insurgency occurring throughout China's industrial cities. The day prior, police opened fire on protesters. (From the Daily Bleed)

June 1, 1929 --A meeting of the Korean Anarchist Federation (KAF) was held in Peking in which it was decided to divert all resources outside Korea itself to Manchuria. Over 2 million Koreans were living in Manchuria at the time, and the KAF was a significant force. Their significance was short-lived, however, as the Japanese attacked from the south, while Stalinists attacked from the north. By 1931, many of the anarchist leaders were dead and the region was devastated. (From the Daily Bleed and The Korean Anarchist Movement)

June 1, 1942 - The Polish Socialist newspaper, Liberty Brigade, made the first public report that that the Nazis were gassing Jews by the thousands. In the article, they published an interview with a young Jew, Emanuel Ringelblum, who had escaped the Chelmno death camp. (From Workday Minnesota)

June 1, 1963 – The U.S. Supreme Court banned formal prayers and religious exercises from public schools. (From the Daily Bleed)

June 1, 1968 – Libertarian Socialist Helen Keller died in Westport, Connecticut. (From the Daily Bleed)

June 1, 1981 – Two Filipino longshore labor organizers, Domingo & Viernes, were assassinated in Seattle, Washington on orders of U.S.-backed dictator Ferdinand Marcos. (From the Daily Bleed)

Today in Labor History—May 26

Mandrin, France's "Robin Hood"

May 26, 1755 – Louis Mandrin, the French version of Robin Hood, was caught and executed. (From the Daily Bleed)

May 26, 1791 – King Louis XVI of France was forced by the revolutionary French Assembly to relinquish his crown and state assets. (From the Daily Bleed)

May 26, 1851 – Stevedores and Longshoreman struck in San Francisco. (From the Daily Bleed)

May 26, 1871 – The “Bloody Week” of repression and violence against the Paris Commune continued, with battles at the Bastille and Villette. Communards were defeated on this date at Belleville and Père Lachaise. The Versailles forces assassinated injured communards in their ambulances, inspiring an angry crowd to execute 50 hostages in revenge. (From the Daily Bleed)

May 26, 1894 –The Western Federation of Miners (WFM) struck for an eight-hour day in Cripple Creek, Colorado. (From the Daily Bleed)

May 26, 1920 –The Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) Marine Transport Workers struck in Philadelphia. (From the Daily Bleed)

Walter Reuther, UAW

May 26, 1937 - Henry Ford unleashed his company goons on United Auto Workers organizers at the “Battle of the Overpass” near the River Rouge plant. General Motors and Chrysler signed collective bargaining agreements with the UAW in 1937, but Ford held out until 1942. (From Workday Minnesota)

May 26, 1937 --The "Little Steel" strike began in Ohio. Over 600 workers picketed at Republic’s mill in Cleveland, while virtually every one of its 6500 workers abandoned the mill. The National Guard was used to crush the strike, first in Youngstown, and then in Canton, Massillon, Warren and finally Cleveland, completely busting the strike by mid-July. (From the Daily Bleed)

May 26, 1944 –The French resistance called General Strike against the Nazis in Marseille, while a U.S. bombing raid on Marseille killed 6,000 in the workers' districts. (From the Daily Bleed)

May 26, 1968 – The May Days uprisings were continuing in France. A General Strike had paralyzed the government which was on the verge of collapse. (From the Daily Bleed)

Today in Labor History: April 19

April 19, 1943 – The 50,000 Jews remaining in Warsaw began a desperate and heroic attempt to resist Nazi deportation to extermination camps. Their armed insurgency became known as the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. (From the Daily Bleed) There had been over 3 million Jews living in Poland prior to the Nazi occupation. The Nazis rounded them up and forced them into crowded ghettos. The Warsaw ghetto had 250,000-300,000 Jews living in abominable conditions. Between 250,000 and 300,000 Warsaw ghetto residents died at the Treblinka concentration camp within the two months the Nazis were deporting them. The Jews managed to stockpile Molotov cocktails, hand grenades, military uniforms, and even a few pistols and some explosives. The resistance was crushed by the Nazis on May 16. (From Wikipedia)

Today in Labor History—February 27

Guards' cannon dragged to Montmartre During Paris Commune (contemporary sketch)

February 27, 1871 – The Paris Commune began when regular soldiers, sent to confiscate cannon from the National Guard militia in Paris, were confronted by the crowd and then decided to fraternize with them. (From the Daily Bleed)

Cartoon showing US Socialist Presidential candidate, Eugen V. Debs, who ran from in prison in the 1920 election.

 February 27, 1875 – Eugene V. Debs became a charter member and secretary of the Vigo Lodge, Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen. By 1880, he had become grand secretary of the national Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen and editor of the Locomotive Fireman's Magazine. He later led the bitter Pullman strike. (From the Daily Bleed)

February 27, 1902 – John Steinbeck was born on this date in Salinas, California. Steinbeck, who won the Nobel Prize for literature in 1962, wrote numerous novels from the perspective of farmers and the working class, including The Grapes of Wrath (1939), Tortilla Flats, Of Mice and Men, Cannery Row & East of Eden. (1952). (From the Daily Bleed)

February 27, 1912 – “The Times" of London published a lead story about a "conspiracy" of unions to take over ownership of British coal mines. The piece was based on a pamphlet, "The Miner's Next Step," which had been printed in Tonypandy, a scene of recent bloodshed between strikers and police. The pamphlet, written by the South Wales Miner's Federation, called for direct action and industrial solidarity. (From the Daily Bleed)

February 27, 1933 – Berlin's Reichstag parliament building was torched. The Nazi's tried to blame it on communists as a ploy in their steady consolidation of total power. (From the Daily Bleed)

Jarama Valley, Woody Guthrie

February 27, 1937 – Lincoln Brigadiers attacked Pingarrón Hill ("Suicide Hill") in Jarama Valley, Spain. Of the 500 who fought in this infamous battle, over 300 were killed or wounded. The Lincoln Brigade was made up of Americans who went to Spain (in violation of U.S. law) to help fight Franco and the fascists. (From the Daily Bleed)

February 27, 1939 - Following a decade of sit-down strikes, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that sit-down strikes were illegal. (From Workday Minnesota)

February 27, 1942 – The Seattle School Board accepted the forced resignation of Japanese-American teachers. (From the Daily Bleed)


February 27, 1943 – A mine disaster killed 74 workers at Red Lodge, Montana. (From the Daily Bleed)

February 27, 1973 – 300 Oglala Sioux American Indian Movement (A.I.M.) activists liberated and occupied Wounded Knee, South Dakota (the site of the 1890 massacre of Sioux by the U.S. cavalry), in response to a campaign of terror by tribal and FBI officials. From the Daily Bleed)

February 27, 2001 – Seattle ACORN workers went on strike. Their office shut was down after their employer refused to recognize Public Interest Workers IU 670 union of the IWW. From the Daily Bleed)

Today in Labor History—November 28

November 28, 1891 - The International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers was founded on this date. The IBEW currently represents approximately 750,000 members in utilities, construction, telecommunications, broadcasting, manufacturing, railroads and government. (From Workday Minnesota)

November 28, 1944 – 400 people in Rotterdam attacked a coal warehouse. The Nazis executed 40 Dutch men in retaliation. (From the Daily Bleed)

November 28, 1953 – A photoengravers strike shut down New York City’s newspapers for 11 days. (From the Daily Bleed)

November 28, 1994 – In the wake of years of outsourcing and downsizing, Bell-Atlantic announced another 5,600 lay-offs. In response, 1,200 employees in Pennsylvania came to work in T-shirts that portrayed themselves as road kill on the information superhighway. Management suspended them all without pay when they refused to remove the shirts. (From the Daily Bleed)

Today in Labor History—November 15

November 15, 1881 – The "Federation of Organized Trades and Labor Unions" (FOTLU), a precursor to the American Federation of Labor (AFL) was founded on this date. (From the Daily Bleed)

November 15, 1919 – The main headquarters of the New York City Wobblies (IWW) was ransacked and destroyed by agents acting under the US Attorney General Palmer. The Palmer raids were part of the first U.S. communist witch hunt, starting well before the more well known McCarthy purges. It was also were J. Edgar Hoover cut his baby teeth. (From the Daily Bleed)

November 15, 1922 –A General Strike was called by the anarchosyndicalist-inspired union FTRE. The strike united nearly all the workers and craftsmen in Guayaqui, but was brutally suppressed that ended in a massacre of the workers. (From the Daily Bleed)

Buenaventura Durutti

November 15, 1936 – On this date, 1,800 militiamen from the anarchist Durutti Column entered Madrid to fight the fascists. Madrid was the first large city in the world to be subjected to a fascist attack as a prelude to WWII. By November 18^th, only 700 of the 1800 anarchist militiamen were still fighting. Many had died and others had deserted because they had gone solong without food or sleep. Durutti persuaded some to return to their positions, but was himself mortally wounded on November 20. (From the Daily Bleed)

November 15, 1938 - The Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) had its first constitutional convention. (From Workday Minnesota)

November 15, 1987 – 6,000 antigovernment strikers sacked the city hall of Brasov, Romania. (From the Daily Bleed)

Today in Labor History—November 9

November 9, 1933 – 200 assembly-line workers at Nash automobile in Kenosha, Wisconsin, walked out in protest of the new piece rates. Owner Charles Nash subsequently locked out all 3,000 workers. Workers at both the Racine and Milwaukee's Seaman Body plants eventually joined the strike eventually all winning raises of up to 17% and union recognition at each plant.(From the Daily Bleed)

November 9, 1935 - The Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) was founded on this date in 1935. Important founding members included the Steelworkers, Auto Workers and Textile Workers. The CIO ultimately merged with the American Federation of Labor (AFL) in 1955 to form the AFL-CIO. (From Workday Minnesota)

Ohel Yaaqov Synagogue Destroyed by Nazis, Kristallnacht, Wiki Commons

November 9, 1938 – Kristallnacht, "Crystal Night," began on this date in Germany, marking the beginning of the Holocaust with the killing of 91 Jews and the deportation of 30,000 to concentration camps. (From the Daily Bleed)

November 9, 1939 – J. Edgar Hoover created an FBI list of potential political detainees that included Communists, labor leaders, journalists, poets, writers critical of the FBI and some members of Congress. (From the Daily Bleed)

November 9, 1969 – 78 Indians landed on Alcatraz Island leading to a 6 month occupation. (From the Daily Bleed)

Today in Labor History—July 13

Rioters and Federal Troops Clash During New York Draft Riots

July 13, 1863 – Modern history's bloodiest riot began when 50,000 Civil War draft protesters burned buildings (including an orphan asylum), stores and draft offices in New York City. They also attacked police, as well as blacks, who they blamed for the war. 1,200 died. (From the Daily Bleed)

July 13, 1869 -- Street riots against Chinese laborers began in San Francisco. (From the Daily Bleed)

July 13, 1892 -- Martial law was declared in Coeur D'Alene, Idaho, with National Guards and federal troops coming to “restore order” after the dynamiting at the Frisco mine on July 11. (From the Daily Bleed)

July 13, 1917 – A 3-day General Strike began in São Paulo, Brazil, following the killing of the anarchist shoemaker, Antonio Martinez on July 10. Martinez was killed police during a demonstration in support of textile strikers. (From the Daily Bleed)

July 13, 1934 - The Southern Tenant Farmers' Union was launched in Arkansas. (From Workday Minnesota)

July 13, 1991 – The Chicago police chief called for the suspension of constitutional rights so his cops could fight crime more effectively, praising the "low crime rate" of Nazi Germany. (From the Daily Bleed)

July 13, 1995 - Newspaper workers struck against The Detroit News and Detroit Free Press. Hundreds of workers were locked out in the strike. (From Workday Minnesota)

Today in Labor History—May 26

Mandrin, France's "Robin Hood"

May 26, 1755 – Louis Mandrin, the French version of Robin Hood, was caught and executed. (From the Daily Bleed)

May 26, 1791 – King Louis XVI of France was forced by the revolutionary French Assembly to relinquish his crown and state assets. (From the Daily Bleed)

May 26, 1851 – Stevedores and Longshoreman struck in San Francisco. (From the Daily Bleed)

May 26, 1871 – The “Bloody Week” of repression and violence against the Paris Commune continued, with battles at the Bastille and Villette. Communards were defeated on this date at Belleville and Père Lachaise. The Versailles forces assassinated injured communards in their ambulances, inspiring an angry crowd to execute 50 hostages in revenge. (From the Daily Bleed)

May 26, 1894 –The Western Federation of Miners (WFM) struck for an eight-hour day in Cripple Creek, Colorado. (From the Daily Bleed)

May 26, 1920 –The Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) Marine Transport Workers struck in Philadelphia. (From the Daily Bleed)

Walter Reuther, UAW

May 26, 1937 - Henry Ford unleashed his company goons on United Auto Workers organizers at the “Battle of the Overpass” near the River Rouge plant. General Motors and Chrysler signed collective bargaining agreements with the UAW in 1937, but Ford held out until 1942. (From Workday Minnesota)

May 26, 1937 --The "Little Steel" strike began in Ohio. Over 600 workers picketed at Republic’s mill in Cleveland, while virtually every one of its 6500 workers abandoned the mill. The National Guard was used to crush the strike, first in Youngstown, and then in Canton, Massillon, Warren and finally Cleveland, completely busting the strike by mid-July. (From the Daily Bleed)

May 26, 1944 –The French resistance called General Strike against the Nazis in Marseille, while a U.S. bombing raid on Marseille killed 6,000 in the workers' districts. (From the Daily Bleed)

May 26, 1968 – The May Days uprisings were continuing in France. A General Strike had paralyzed the government which was on the verge of collapse. (From the Daily Bleed)

Today in Labor History: April 19

April 19, 1943 – The 50,000 Jews remaining in Warsaw began a desperate and heroic attempt to resist Nazi deportation to extermination camps. Their armed insurgency became known as the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. (From the Daily Bleed) There had been over 3 million Jews living in Poland prior to the Nazi occupation. The Nazis rounded them up and forced them into crowded ghettos. The Warsaw ghetto had 250,000-300,000 Jews living in abominable conditions. Between 250,000 and 300,000 Warsaw ghetto residents died at the Treblinka concentration camp within the two months the Nazis were deporting them. The Jews managed to stockpile Molotov cocktails, hand grenades, military uniforms, and even a few pistols and some explosives. The resistance was crushed by the Nazis on May 16. (From Wikipedia)