Today in Labor History April 3, 1891: Deputized members of the National Guard fired on immigrant strikers in the Morewood massacre, in Pennsylvania. They killed at least ten workers and injured dozens more. The workers were organized with the new United Mine Workers, and were fighting Henry Clay Frick, the same industrialist responsible for the massacre at Homestead the following year, and the man who anarchist Alexander Berkman attempted to assassinate, also in 1892.

Today In Labor History April 3, 1913: Pietro Botto, socialist mayor of Haledon, N.J., invited the Paterson silk mill strikers to assemble in front of his house. 20,000 showed up to hear speakers from the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), Upton Sinclair, John Reed and others, who urged them to remain strong in their fight. The Patterson strike lasted from Feb. 1 until July 28, 1913. Workers were fighting for the eight-hour workday and better working conditions. Over 1800 workers were arrested during the strike, including IWW leaders Big Bill Haywood and Elizabeth Gurley Flynn. Five were killed. Overall, the strike was poorly organized and confined to Paterson. The IWW, the main organizer of the strike, eventually gave up.

Today In Labor History April 3, 1917: After the U.S. declared war, sailors, escorted by police, destroyed the IWW building in Kansas City. The action inspired similar attacks in Detroit, Duluth and other towns that had a large IWW presence.

Today In Labor History April 3, 1948: Cheju Massacre in Korea. Between 1948 and 1949, one of the 20th century’s least known genocides occurred. On the island of Cheju-do, 30,000 civilians were massacred (10% of the island’s population) by the South Korean army, Cheju-do police and the U.S. military. However, the governor of Cheju told American intelligence that the real number was closer to 60,000. Another 30,000 people fled to Japan. The massacre was designed to suppress a worker uprising and General Strike.

Today In Labor History April 3, 1950: Composer Kurt Weill died. Weill’s most famous song was Mack the Knife ("Die Moritat von Mackie Messer"), which became a schlock classic after Bobby Darin’s rendition. However, Weill wrote the song as part of Bertolt Brecht’s “Three Penny Opera,” which was a socialist critique of the capitalist world. Weill was persecuted by the Nazis for his political views and his Jewish heritage. He fled to America, with his wife, singer Lotte Lenya. Some of Weill’s other well-known songs include: Alabama Song (covered by the Doors), Pirate Jenny (covered by Nina Simone), Mack the Knife (also covered by Louis Armstrong), Der Kleine des Lieben Gottes (covered by John Zorn).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6orDcL0zt34

No worse than the flu?

I've lost track of how many different ways this claim is false. But here's yet another:

Healthcare workers with chronic condition miss more days of work due to COVID than flu

67% vs 12% of absences due to COVID, flu

https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/covid-19/healthcare-workers-chronic-condition-miss-more-days-work-due-covid-flu-data-show

Today in Labor History April 2, 1840: Émile Zola, French novelist, playwright, journalist was born. He was also a liberal activist, playing a significant role in the political liberalization of France, and in the exoneration of Alfred Dreyfus, the Jewish army officer falsely convicted and imprisoned on trumped up, antisemitic charges of espionage. He was also a significant influence on mid-20th century journalist-authors, like Thom Wolfe, Truman Capote, Hunter S. Thompson, Norman Mailer and Joan Didion. Wolfe said that his goal in writing fiction was to document contemporary society in the tradition of Steinbeck, Dickens, and Zola.

Zola wrote dozens of novels, but his most famous, Germinal, about a violently repressed coalminers’ strike, is one of the greatest books ever written about working class rebellion. It had a huge influence on future radicals, especially anarchists. Some anarchists named their children Germinal. Rudolf Rocker had a Yiddish-language anarchist journal in London called Germinal, in the 1910s. There were also anarchist papers called Germinal in Mexico and Brazil in the 1910s.

#workingclass #LaborHistory #zola #germinal #anarchism #writer #fiction #strike #dreyfus #antisemitism #rebellion #novel #author #books #france #mining #coal #journalism @bookstadon

Today in Labor History April 2, 1863: Bread riots occurred in Richmond, Virginia, as a result of a drought the previous year, combined with a blockade by the Union Army and overall Civil War-related shortages. Food riots occurred throughout the South around this time, led primarily by women. During the Richmond riot, women broke into storehouses and shops, stealing food, clothing and jewelry before the militia was able to restore order.

Today in Labor History April 2, 1903: Mexican police fired on more than 10,000 protestors, killing 15 and wounding many more. People had been protesting the reelection of General Bernardo Reyes as governor of Nuevo Leon, who was aligned with Mexico's brutal dictator, Porfirio Diaz.

"Uptown Girl" is a song written and performed by American musician #BillyJoel from his ninth studio album #AnInnocentMan (1983), released in September 1983 as the album's second single. The lyrics describe a #workingclass "#downtown man" attempting to woo a #wealthy "uptown girl". The 12" EP has the tracks "#MyLife", "#JustTheWayYouAre" and "#ItsStillRockAndRollToMe" (catalogue number TA3775), whereas some 7" single versions featured "Careless Talk" as a B-side.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xUZ2TYsEM5Y

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.

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

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.

https://truthout.org/articles/fl-gop-bill-would-allow-employers-to-schedule-child-workers-for-overnight-shifts/

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