Today in Labor History August 19, 1953: The U.S. CIA and British MI6 helped Iranian royalist troops overthrow the liberal-leaning Premier Mohammed Mossadegh. As Prime Minister, he introduced reforms such as social security, land reforms and higher taxes including on rental income. He also nationalized the nation’s petroleum industry, which the Anglo-Persian Oil Company (APOC/AIOC), later known as British Petroleum (BP) could not tolerate. As a result, they installed the brutal, pro-Western Shah Mohammed Pahlevi. The brutality of his regime, the torture, secret police, disappearances and mass imprisonment of opponents, set the stage for the Islamic Revolution in 1979, and over 45 years of US aggression against Iran.
#workingclass
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Today in Labor History August 19, 1920: A peasant insurrection began in Tambov, USSR, over the confiscation of their grain. Led by Alexander Antonov, a former official of the Socialist Revolutionary Party, the Green Army uprising evolved into a guerrilla war against the Red Army, Cheka Units and the Soviet authorities. The Bolsheviks finally suppressed the revolt in June, 1921. 240,000 died in the rebellion and over 50,000 were imprisoned. They also used chemical weapons on the peasants. Dissident writer, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, wrote about it in a short story in his book, “Apricot Jam and other Stories,” (2010).
#workingclass #LaborHistory #peasant #uprising #rebellion #revolt #russia #CivilWar #soviet #ussr #communism #tambov #fiction #writer #books #author @bookstadon
Today in Labor History August 19, 1916: Strikebreakers attacked and beat picketing IWW strikers in Everett, Washington. The police refused to intervene, claiming it was federal jurisdiction. However, when the strikers retaliated, they arrested the strikers. Vigilante attacks on IWW picketers and speakers escalated and continued for months. In October, vigilantes forced many of the strikers to run a gauntlet, violently beating them in the process. The brutality culminated in the Everett massacre on November 5, when Wobblies (IWW members) sailed over from Seattle to support the strikers. The sheriff called out to them as they docked, “Who is your leader?” And the Wobblies yelled back, “We all are!” The sheriff told them they couldn’t dock. One of the Wobblies said, “Like hell we can’t!” And then a mob of over 200 vigilantes opened fire on them. As a result, seven died and 50 were wounded. John Dos Passos portrays these events in his USA Trilogy.
#workingclass #LaborHistory #IWW #union #strike #washington #everett #vigilante #massacre #policebrutality #police #fiction #historicalfiction #novel #writer #books #author #dospassos @bookstadon
Today in Labor History August 19, 1909: The first edition of the IWW’s The Little Red Songbook was published in Spokane, WA. The book’s subtitle is “Songs to Fan the Flames of Discontent.” Between 1909 and 1995, the Wobblies printed 36 editions. The songbook always includes songs by Joe Hill, Ralph Chaplin, T-Bone Slim, and Haywire Mac. Most editions contained many of the best-known labor songs, like "The Internationale," "The Preacher and the Slave," and "Solidarity Forever." Haywire Mac, composer of the “Big Rock Candy Mountain” and “Hallelujah I’m a Bum,” was one of the original members of the IWW band, in Spokane, in 1907. Mac later participated in the anarchist Magonista Revolution in Baja California, helping to capture and occupy Tijuana. He eventually settled down in San Francisco, where he hosted working-class radio and television programs.
You can read my bio of Haywire Mac here: https://michaeldunnauthor.com/2021/03/16/the-haywire-mac-story/
Continued thread
#HasanPiker isn't even doing much to build the American #labor movement. I appreciate him pushing people to join their #Unions or #Unionize their #workplace.
But without dropping the #Dems. What is the point then?! How will #America have a #revolution without #workingclass power & Independent Politics?
Today in Labor History August 18, 1920: The Nineteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was ratified. This guaranteed women's right to vote. Congress first introduced a women's suffrage amendment in 1878. Before 1776, women were allowed to vote in several of the colonies, but by 1807 all the state constitutions had denied them this right. In 1848, the Seneca Falls convention adopted the Declaration of Sentiments, calling for equality between the sexes and the right to vote. The Nineteenth Amendment enfranchised 26 million American women just before the 1920 U.S. presidential election. Newly enfranchised women prioritized a reform agenda, including the Sheppard–Towner Maternity and Infancy Protection Act of 1921, which expanded maternity care during the 1920s. This was the first federal social security law and was huge until Congress let it lapse in 1929.
In 1920, only 36% of eligible women voted (compared with 68% of men). This was due to barriers like literacy tests, long residency requirements, and poll taxes. By 1960, women were voting in greater numbers than men. However, 3 million women south of the Mason–Dixon line remained disenfranchised. Election officials regularly utilized fraud, intimidation, poll taxes, and state violence to block their access to the polls. In 1926, officials in Birmingham, Alabama beat African American women who were trying to register to vote. These practices continued until the 24th Amendment, in 1962, and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. And they continue today with a host of new voting restrictions being imposed in mostly Republican states.
Poster depicting an older woman, a younger woman and a girl, standing before a ballot box. The heading reades VOTE. By League of Women Voters, 1920 - http://edu.lva.virginia.gov/dbva/files/original/57260de85ec24fc10f971a60198a77bc.pdf, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=79171479
Today in Labor History August 18, 1823: Enslaved people in Demerara (Guyana) used their license to travel on an official rest day to launch an uprising of that included more than 30,000 enslaved people. The rebellion was largely nonviolent, but the authorities still brutally crushed it. They slaughtered hundreds of slaves and executed dozens more after the fighting ended.
Today in History August 18, 1977: Steve Biko was arrested at a police roadblock under the Terrorism Act No. 83 in King William's Town, South Africa. He later died from injuries received during this arrest. Biko was a socialist and an anti-apartheid activist. He was 31 at the time of his assassination. He was influenced by the teachings of Martinican philosopher Frantz Fanon and the American Black Power Movement. His death brought international attention to South Africa's apartheid policies and helped launch the modern anti-apartheid movement. Biko was a leading figure in the creation of the South African Students' Organisation (SASO) in 1968, which was formed to give people of color the leading voice in the anti-apartheid movement which, until then, was dominated by white liberals. SASO was one of the first South African anti-apartheid groups that was open only to people of color (he used the term “blacks” to refer to Bantu-speaking people, as well as “coloureds” and Indians, who were also persecuted under Apartheid).
“Hillbilly Nationalists,” by Amy Sonnie and James Tracy, talks about a similar dynamic in the U.S. Civil Rights movement of the sixties. In the U.S., this conflict helped to spur the organization of white radical working-class groups, like the Young Patriots, who worked in solidarity with groups like the Young Lords, and the Black Panthers, who, in turn, influenced Biko’s politics.
#workingclass #LaborHistory #stevenbiko #Biko #southafrica #apartheid #racism #police #terrorism #policebrutality #policemurder #socialism #blackpanthers #younglords #YoungPatriots #books #nonfiction #hillbillynationalists #BlackMastadon @bookstadon
Today in Labor History August 18, 1812: Lady Ludd led the Luddite Corn Market riot of women and boys in Leeds, England. Luddites also rioted in Sheffield against flour and meat sellers. England was suffering huge food shortages and inflation at the time, in part because of the War of 1812, which had started in June, and the ongoing Napoleonic wars. Additionally, new technological innovations were allowing mill owners to replace many of their employees with machines. In response, Luddites would destroy looms and other equipment. To try and get control over these worker protests, the British authorities made illegal oath-taking punishable by death in July 1812. They also empowered magistrates to forcibly enter private homes to search for weapons. And they stationed thousands of troops in areas where rioting and looting had occurred over the summer.
There are numerous parallels between that period and today. Like then, we have new technologies, such as Artificial Intelligence, that could reduce the amount of dangerous and tedious toil for the working-class, giving them higher wages and reduced hours. Instead, the technology is being used by the bosses to cut jobs and further enrich themselves. Like then, we are funding numerous wars and genocides, paid for through austerity that has been imposed on the working-class. And like then, governments are planning and implementing new repressive laws and police powers to undermine working-class protest.
Charlotte Bronte’s second novel, “Shirley” (1849), takes place in Yorkshire, 1811-1812, during the Luddite uprisings. It was originally published under the pseudonym, Currer Bell. The novel opens with a ruthless mill owner waiting for the delivery of new, cost-saving equipment that will allow him to fire many of his workers, but Luddites destroy the equipment before it reaches him. As a result of the novel’s popularity, Shirley became a popular female name. Prior to this, it was mostly a male name.
#workingclass #LaborHistory #luddite #england #inflation #genocide #ukraine #palestine #gaza #hunger #freespeech #fiction #novel #author #writer #books @bookstadon
#covid #covid19 #health #healthcare #medsky #disability #workingclass #leftists #politics #news Don't worry about it bro...
When liberal democracy fails the working class, fascism is there to pick up the slack.
And it’s round two right now, ya’all.
#1933again #mussoliniagain #workingclass #socialism #democracy #liberalism
Hate to say it, but this stat is more than 10 years old. The corporate leach who runs that company is making a lot more than that today. Plus, he no doubt gets far more than that in non-wage compensation.
The federal minimum wage is still only $7.25/hour, same as it was in 2008. Only difference is that today that $7.25/hr is even further from a living wage than it was then. And if you are a new worker, under the age of 20, they can pay you a "training" wage of only $4.25/hr.
Today in Labor History August 17, 1985: Members of the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) in Austin, Minnesota, went on strike against Hormel, makers of SPAM, after the company slashed wages by nearly $2.50 per hour, and this after an 8-year wage freeze. They ignored the advice of their national union and struck anyway. Workers continued to strike even after the company tried to reopen the plant with replacement workers, including some union members who crossed the picket lines, and even after the national union cut ties with them, seized funds, and changed the locks on the local’s office. The UFCW national organization accused the Hormel local of being fascists. The Communist Party sided with the national. The AFL-CIO refused the local’s request to call for a boycott. The authorities called out the National Guards who, along with the police, beat and arrested striking workers. After ten months the strike ended, with no gains for union members.
Today in Labor History August 17, 1861: Edward Józef Abramowski, Polish philosopher, psychologist, and libertarian socialist was born. Considered the founder of the Polish co-operative movement, Abramowski also served as chair of Experimental Psychology, at the University of Warsaw, a position he occupied from 1915 until his death in 1918. He participated in the Paris gathering of Polish socialists, in 1892, where the Polish Socialist Party was founded. In his most well-known work, “Socialism & State,” he called himself a "state-rejecting socialist." However, toward the end of his life, he leaned more toward anarcho-syndicalism.
The decadence was always going to end.
The #workingclass never experienced it, but those comfy upper #middleclass who are suddenly thrown into "uncomfortable situations" welcome to our world.
The comfort was temporary & at the expense of #poor & working class globally.
Today in Labor History August 16, 1933: The anti-Semitic Christie Pits riot took place in Toronto, Canada. At the time, Toronto’s Jewish community was predominantly poor and working-class. During the summer, they would go to the predominantly Anglo Beaches to swim. Some of the locals formed a "Swastika Club" and openly displayed the Nazi symbol to intimidate the Jews. The riot broke out after a baseball game when people displayed a blanket with a large swastika painted on it. A number of Jewish and Italian youth rushed the Swastika sign to destroy it, resulting in a melee with fists and clubs. A mob of more than 10,000 joined in, amidst cries of Heil Hitler. Miraculously, no one died. However, scores were injured. Many required medical and hospital attention.
The incident was depicted in two graphic novels: “Christie Pits” (2019) written by Jamie Michaels and illustrated by Doug Fedrau, and “The Good Fight” (2021) by Ted Staunton and Josh Rosen.
#workingclass #LaborHistory #antisemitism #riot #nazis #canada #jewish #toronto #hitler #fiction #graphicnovel #novel #literature #books #author #writer @bookstadon
Today in Labor History August 16, 1929: The 1929 Palestine riots broke out in Mandatory Palestine between Arabs and Jews. In total, 133 Jews and 116 Arabs died in the riots. The conflict began when several hundred members of a right-wing Jewish youth group marched to the Western Wall shouting "the Wall is ours." Rumors circulated among the Arabs that the procession carried weapons and had attacked local residents and cursed the name of the Prophet Muhammad. The following day, an Arab stabbed a 17-year-old Jew. A Jewish mob attacked the cops who were trying to arrest the Arab suspect. They also attacked and burned neighboring Arab tents and shacks. Over the next four days, there were another 12 attacks by Jews on Arabs and seven attacks by Arabs on Jews.
Today in Labor History August 16, 1973: A 60-year-old United Farm Workers (UFW) member, Juan de la Cruz, was shot by a strike breaker during the UFW's a second grape boycott, in opposition to the Teamster’s sweetheart deals with the California growers. He died the next day. Another UFW striker, Nagi Daifallah, was killed two days before.