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.
#workingclass
45 posts14 participants6 posts today
Today in Labor History March 31, 1966: There was a two-day boycott of Seattle schools protesting segregation. The protest was organized by the Central Area Civil Rights Committee (CACRC), the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). The organizers set up eight “Freedom Schools” to educate students who walked out of class. But they had to scramble to come up with dozens more because so many students honored the boycott. The “Freedom Schools” taught African American history and the history of the civil rights movement, among other things.
Today in Labor History March 31, 1927: Birth of Cesar Chavez. In 1965, Chavez led farm workers in California on their first grape boycott. The nationwide protest lasted five years and ended with the first union contract for U.S. farm workers outside of Hawaii. In 1966, Chavez’s organization officially became the United Farm Workers. Chavez was inspired by the nonviolent civil disobedience of Gandhi. In addition to strikes, boycotts and pickets, he was famous for going on hunger strikes. Later he became infatuated with the religious cult, Synanon. He used Synanon’s “game” to punish union members and enforce conformity. Chavez also supported the brutal Filipino dictator Ferdinand Marcos. This alienated Filipino members of the union, as well as many of the religious organizations that had supported the UFW.
Today in Labor History March 31, 1809: Nikolai Gogol, the Russian-Ukrainian novelist, was born. Gogol was one of the first authors to use surrealism and absurdism (see “The Nose,” “The Overcoat,” and “Nevsky Prospekt.”) Many of his works satirized Russian political corruption, like “Dead Souls,” and the “Government Inspector.” He influenced several generations of writers, including Dostoevsky, Bulgakov, Nabakov, Kafka and Flannery O’Connor. The gypsy punk band, Gogol Bordello, took their name from him.
#workingclass #LaborHistory #gogol #russia #ukraine #fiction #satire #surrealism #kafka #dostoevsky #literature #books #writer #author #courruptiohn #punk @bookstadon
Today in Labor History March 31, 1949: The Canadian Seamen's Union launched a strike that would last six months.
Not a Dad Joke (but relevant to this post):
What's stiff and full of seamen?
.... A submarine.
Today in Labor History March 31, 1883: Cowboys in the Texas panhandle began a 2-and-a-half-month strike for higher wages. Investment firms from the East Coast and Europe were taking over the land and cutting benefits that cowboys had accustomed to, like keeping some horses for themselves and holding some of the land for their own small farming. New ranch owners were more interested in expanding holdings and increasing profits, forcing their hands to work entirely for wages, and maintaining all livestock entirely for the profit of the owners.
Media from as far away as Colorado accused the cowboys of being incendiaries, threatening to burn down the ranches, attacking ranchers, and indiscriminately killing cattle.
#workingclass #LaborHistory #cowboy #strike #texas #wages #books #nonfiction #author #writer @bookstadon
A letter from an Italian postal worker to the USPS Workers that are faced with a fight against the privatization of the postal service in the USA:
World Socialist Web SiteLetter from an Italian postal worker“I write to you from Rome, Italy, where we postal workers have already lived through the catastrophe that now looms over you in the United States: privatization. I write not only in solidarity but in warning, so that you may learn from our painful experience and resist this assault with the full strength of an organized working class.”
What's better than immigrant employees who you can underpay, abuse and threaten to report to ICE if they try to organize?
That's right, Children!
Their tiny fingers and hands are ideal for unclogging gears and conveyor belts. Their youthful exuberance, energy, and sense of invincibility are easily exploitable to get the risky work you need done! Incentivize them with vape pens and pizza parties. Pay them a fraction of what you'd pay adults. And if they organize? Just fire them all and replace them with their younger siblings.
Truthout · Florida Republicans Advance Bill Allowing Employers to Schedule Child Workers for Overnight Shifts“This bill is going to lead to exploitation of children,” one critic of the proposal said.
Do Protests Work?
New York lawmakers are following the lead of the Tesla Takedown movement by threatening to shut down the state's Tesla stores.
Will this end the fascist takeover of the U.S.? End capitalism? Stop Trump's assaults on trans folks, immigrants, women, people of color, and the working class? His threats to the rest of the planet?
Of course not. But who doesn't enjoy seeing his "ketamine-fueled jester" hemorrhage money?
https://www.politico.com/news/2025/03/26/new-york-lawmakers-target-tesla-00252361
Today in Labor History March 29, 1797: William Godwin married Mary Wollstonecraft. Godwin was an English journalist, philosopher and novelist. And one of the first modern proponents of anarchism. His most famous books are “An Enquiry Concerning Political Justice” and “Things as They Are; or, The Adventures of Caleb Williams,” a mystery novel that attacks aristocratic privilege. Wollstonecraft was a British writer, philosopher, and advocate of women's rights, and is regarded by many as one of the founding feminist philosophers. Her most famous book was “A Vindication of the Rights of Woman” (1792). She died 11 days after giving birth to her second daughter, Mary Shelley, author of Frankenstein.
#workingclass #LaborHistory #anarchism #feminism #marywollstonecraft #williamgodwin #philosophy #novel #fiction #frankenstein #maryshelley #books #author #writer #journalism @bookstadon
Today in Labor History March 29, 1935: French illegalist anarchist Clément Duval died. He was a major influence on other illegalist anarchists of the era, including members of the Bonnot Gang. In 1886, Duval robbed the mansion of a Parisian socialite. He was condemned to death, but his sentence was later commuted to hard labor on Devil's Island, French Guiana, setting for the novel Papillon. According to Paul Albert, "The story of Clement Duval was lifted and, shorn of all politics, turned into the bestseller Papillon." In a letter printed in the November 1886 issue of the anarchist paper Le Révolté, Duval famously declared: "Theft is but restitution carried out by an individual to his own benefit, being conscious of another's undue monopolization of collectively produced wealth."
#workingclass #LaborHistory #anarchism #prison #devilsisland #papillon #clementduval #bonnotgang #novel #fiction #books #author #writer @bookstadon
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.
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 were adopted by Abel Meeropol, the composer of “Strange Fruit,” (made famous by Billie Holiday). The sons 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.
The Modern School movement began in 1901, in Barcelona, Spain, when Francisco Ferrer opened his Escuela Moderna. It was one of the very first Spanish schools to be fully secular, co-educational, and open to all students, regardless of class. His ideas were so popular that 40 more Modern Schools opened in Barcelona in just a few years, while 80 other schools adopted his textbooks. In 1909, there were mass protests and a General Strike against Spanish intervention in Morocco. The state responded with a week of terror and repression, during which they slaughtered over 600 workers and falsely executed Ferrer as an instigator of the protests. His execution led to worldwide protests. Modern Schools started to pop up outside of Spain, inspired by his original Escuela Moderna, including 20 in the U.S.
For more on the Modern School movement, read my article: https://michaeldunnauthor.com/2022/04/30/the-modern-school-movement/
Today in Labor History March 29, 1965: The U.S. Supreme Court ruled for the defendant in Textile Workers Union v. Darlington Manufacturing Company. In a 7-0 ruling they ruled that a company could close a recently unionized factory, even if it was done specifically to bust the union.
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.
Some great weekend reading here.
Swap out one horrifying news story about fascism for this piece and feel infintely better about the world.
https://kristie-de-garis.ghost.io/working-class-women-arent-supposed-to-say-this/
By Hand · Working-Class Women Aren't Supposed To Say This‘What I’ve made is good. What I’ve made is important.’
It’s rare and radical to say that out loud. Especially if you’re working class. Especially if you’re a woman.
Because when you’re working class and a woman, you’re not supposed to say you’
Replied in thread
𓊉 Right I agree that a lot of our issues are intersectional, and we must work making our society as equitable as possible.
The part that I disagree on is doing everything at once. I don't think we will be able to fully make everyone not racist, homophobic, or other 'ist/phobias,' At least in our life time anyway. We can reform our society by mitigating measures against bigoted views in the future with proper education, and policies. But there will always be people with biases, even to the subconscious level.
I believe that we have to put out the large fire to properly attend to the other ones. In your analogy, if our garden has a lot of weeds, and pests. We probably should contain the biggest issue at hand so we can attended to the other issues.
If we all collectively see ourselves as #workingclass and fight the same fight. I think being around a diverse group can be the start to help others out of their biases, and maybe help their comrades in their struggle too. But we must fight #fascism
They are going to fuck up #socialsecurity by rewriting the software to make it less functional. To then try to pull the wool over the #workingclass as a means to place social security on the bargaining table.
Remember this is the last Bastion for anyone making under $300k a year to get a lick of their labor given to the #federalgovernment
If it comes to the bargaining table they will push to disband it, and what will happen to all those trillions of dollars? It won't be in your wallet, or any of your loved ones, or even neighbors.
That money will be used to make the #onepercent richer.
We have to stop letting our distractions that categories whether it be race, religion, gender, sexuality, and even political affiliation.
Together we are strong and the #oligarchs need us more that we need them. The real fight is the #classwar
#uspol #uspolitics #programming #lgbt #leftist #REPUB #republicans #communism #socialism #anarchism #econimics #boycottMusk
https://www.wired.com/story/doge-rebuild-social-security-administration-cobol-benefits/
WIRED · DOGE Plans to Rebuild SSA Code Base in Months, Risking Benefits and System Collapse
Today in Labor History March 28, 1977: AFSCME Local 1644 struck in Atlanta, Georgia, for a pay raise. This local of mostly African American sanitation workers saw labor and civil rights as part of the same struggle. They saw their fight as a continuation of the 1968 Memphis sanitation strike. For several years, they organized to get black civil rights leaders elected to public office. They succeeded in getting their man, Maynard Jackson, elected mayor of Atlanta. After all, as vice mayor, Jackson had supported their 1970 strike. Yet, in his first three years as mayor, he refused to give them a single raise. Consequently, their wages dropped below the poverty line for a family of four. Jackson accused AFSCME of attacking Black Power by challenging his authority. He fired over 900 workers by April 1 and crushed the strike by the end of April. Many believe this set the precedent for Reagan’s mass firing of 11,000 air traffic controllers during the PATCO strike, in 1981.
Today in Labor History: March 28, 1968: Martin Luther King led a march of striking sanitation workers in Memphis, Tennessee. Police attacked the workers with mace and sticks. A 16-year old boy was shot. 280 workers were arrested. He was assassinated a few days later after speaking to the striking workers. The sanitation workers were mostly black. They worked for starvation wages under plantation like conditions, generally under racist white bosses. Workers could be fired for being one minute late or for talking back, and they got no breaks. Organizing escalated in the early 1960s and reached its peak in February, 1968, when two workers were crushed to death in the back of a garbage truck.
