MikeDunnAuthor

https://kolektiva.social/@MikeDunnAuthor

Working Class Historical Fiction from the not so gilded age. Labor History. Social justice. An injury to one is an injury to all!

https://michaeldunnauthor.com
https://www.thehistoricalfictioncompany.com/michael-dunn

Pronouns: He/him

#Solidarity #Sabotage #GeneralStrike
#HistoricalFiction #WorkingClass #LaborHistory
#WomensRights #antifascism #AntiImperialism #LGBTQIA+ #EndAbleism #TransRightsAreHumanRights #SelfDetermination #ClimateChange

Website: https://michaeldunnauthor.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Michael.Dunn.Fiction
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/michaeldunnauthor/
Header: 1910 photograph of breaker boys, by Lewis Hines. "Breaker Boys" worked 14-16 hours a day in coal mines. They were young boys, usually between the ages of 8 and 12 years old, employed in breaking stage of coal mining.

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2024-08-29T23:50:51Z

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Last Notes

2024-10-14 17:31:25

Today in Labor History October 14, 1981: Dock workers in Darwin, Australia, began a seven-day strike, refusing to load uranium on board "Pacific Sky" for eventual use by the U.S. military. After a week, the ship was forced to leave without its cargo.
#workingclass #LaborHistory #australia #union #strike #directaction #imperialism #nuclear #dockworkers

2024-08-21 14:05:12

https://kolektiva.social/system/media_attachments/files/113/000/385/163/256/763/original/1be336244b859c0a.jpg

2024-07-09 17:31:14

Basic Biology:
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2024-07-09 17:05:50

Today in Labor History July 9, 1947: The Greek government ordered the arrest of 11,500 people on charges of plotting a Communist revolution. It occurred during the Greek Civil War (1943-1949), between Royalists (supported by the UK and US) and various Communist factions (supported by Yugoslavia and the USSR). It was the first US proxy war against Russia during the Cold War. Well over 200,000 people died and over 1 million were displaced. Nearly 80 years later, the U.S. continues its attempts to usurp Russia’s regional hegemony through another proxy war. This war has a similar number of deaths and refugees, but in only one-third the amount of time. And this time, both nations possess nuclear arsenals large enough to destroy the planet several times over.
#workingclass #LaborHistory #greece #communism #nationalism #russia #coldwar #imperialism #Revolution #proxywar #freespeech #prison #civilwar #ukraine #nuclear #bomb
https://kolektiva.social/system/media_attachments/files/112/757/612/526/324/350/original/6bb2649608823f19.jpg

2024-07-06 16:36:24

Today in Labor History July 6, 1911: IWW labor organizer Joe Hill's song "The Preacher & the Slave" first appeared in the IWW’s Little Red Song Book. The song is a parody of the hymn, “Sweet By and By,” often song by the Salvation Army (who the IWW called the Starvation Army), which would try to drown out the union’s street-corner labor organizing with their hymns. The Wobbly bard, Haywire Mac, is believed to be the first person to sing this song in public. Woody Guthrie, Pete Seeger and Utah Phillips also covered the song.
Long-haired preachers come out every night,
Try to tell you what's wrong and what's right;
But when asked how 'bout something to eat
They will answer in voices so sweet
Chorus
You will eat, bye and bye,
In that glorious land above the sky;
Work and pray, live on hay,
You'll get pie in the sky when you die
And the Starvation Army, they play,
And they sing and they clap and they pray,
Till they get all your coin on the drum,
Then they tell you when you're on the bum
(Chorus)
Workingmen of all countries, unite
Side by side we for freedom will fight
When the world and its wealth we have gained
To the grafters we'll sing this refrain
Chorus
#workingclass #LaborHistory #IWW #joehill #union #PreacherAndTheSlave #folkmusic #woodyguthrie #utahphillips
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2024-07-06 16:33:32

Today in Labor History July 6, 1892: Locked out workers out at the Homestead Steel Works battled 300 Pinkerton detectives hired by Carnegie, who owned the Homestead mill. The Pinkertons were there to import and protect scabs brought in to replace striking workers. They opened fire on the striking steelworkers who defended themselves with guns and a homemade cannon. 3-7 Pinkertons and 11 union members were killed in the battle. The strike lasted for months. Court injunctions eventually helped to crush the union, protecting the steel industry for decades from organized labor. Alexander Berkman and Emma Goldman plotted to assassinate Homestead Boss Henry Clay Frick for his role in killing the workers. Berkman later carried out the assassination attempt, failed, and spent years in prison.
K. Friedman wrote about the strike in “By Bread Alone” (1901). Friedman was a Chicago socialist, settlement-house worker and journalist. His novel was an early example of the transformation in socialist fiction from "utopian" to "scientific" socialism. More recently, Trilby Busch wrote about the strike in her novel, “Darkness Visible” (2012). @robertatracy also references the strike in her recent novel (2024), “Zigzag Woman.” And the Pinkertons play prominently in my recent novel, “Anywhere But Schuylkill” (https://www.amazon.com/Anywhere-but-Schuylkill-Michael-Dunn-ebook/dp/B0CJVW1BP2)
You can read my history of the Pinkertons here: https://michaeldunnauthor.com/2024/04/04/union-busting-by-the-pinkertons/
#workingclass #LaborHistory #union #strike #homestead #carnegie #socialism #Pinkertons #scabs #anarchism #alexanderberkman #pittsburgh #steel #fiction #books #novel #writer #author #historicalfiction @npub1wce…lzu8

2024-07-04 14:46:08

Today in Labor History July 4, 1832: John Neal delivered one of the first known public lectures in the US advocating for the rights of women, including suffrage and equal pay. Neal was a writer, abolitionist, advocate for racial and gender equality, and creator of the American gymnastics movement. He fought against the poll tax, arguing that both "the poor and the rich are taxed ... under the militia law" which was designed "to defend property of the rich man. The rich, of course, do not appear in the field. The poor do. The latter cannot afford to keep away; the former can." He proposed replacing the poll tax with a property tax. He also wrote that the Indian is the only true native American. (In those days, “Native American meant a white person born in America, as opposed to immigrants). He also wrote that American Indians "have never been the aggressors" in conflicts with European-Americans and that "no people, ancient or modern ... have been so deplorably oppressed, belied, and wronged, in every possible way." And he proposed legalizing interracial marriage, but for proto-eugenicist reasons: so that future generations of "the negroes of America would no longer be a separate, inferior class, without political power, without privilege, and without a share in the great commonwealth." As a writer, he is the first to use the phrase son-of-a-bitch in a work of fiction. Neal was also the first U.S. daily news columnist, its first art critic, author of the first history of American literature, and a pioneer in children’s stories.
#workingclass #LaborHistory #feminism #equalpay #Abolition #writer #author #fiction #tax #indigenous #nativeamerican #slavery #racism @npub1wce…lzu8
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2024-07-02 15:37:50

Today in Labor History July 2, 1892: Carnegie Steel locked out workers at its Homestead, PA, plant. The lockout culminated in a major battle between strikers and Pinkerton security agents on July 6. Determined to keep the plant closed and inoperable by scabs, the strikers formed military units that patrolled the grounds around the plant, and the Monongahela River in boats, to prevent access by strikebreakers and their Pinkerton guards. On the night of July 5, Pinkertons, armed with Winchester rifles, attempted to cross the river. Reports conflict as to which side fired first, but a gun battle ensued. Both sides suffered numerous deaths and injuries. Women also participated in the action. In the end, the Pinkertons gave up and surrendered. However, the governor called in the state militia, which quickly displaced the picketers and allowed the scabs in, thus ending the strike. In the wake of the bloody strike, Alexander Berkman, an anarchist, tried to assassinate Henry Clay Frick, Carnegie’s agent at Homestead.
K. Friedman wrote about the strike in “By Bread Alone” (1901). Friedman was a Chicago socialist, settlement-house worker and journalist. His novel was an early example of the transformation in socialist fiction from "utopian" to "scientific" socialism. More recently, Trilby Busch wrote about the strike in her novel, “Darkness Visible” (2012). Roberta Tracy also references the strike in her recent novel (2024), “Zigzag Woman.” And the Pinkertons play prominently in my recent novel, “Anywhere But Schuylkill.”
You can read my history of the Pinkertons here: https://michaeldunnauthor.com/2024/04/04/union-busting-by-the-pinkertons/
#workingclass #LaborHistory #union #strike #homestead #carnegie #socialism #Pinkertons #scabs #anarchism #alexanderberkman #pittsburgh #steel #fiction #books #novel #writer #author #historicalfiction @npub1wce…lzu8
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2024-06-30 15:07:50

What time is it?
Time to Organize!
Fire Your Boss Today!
#generalstrike #directaction #sabotage
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2024-06-30 14:39:51

- reply

This meme reminds of seeing Subhumans at Punk Rock Bowling this past May. On stage, they called themselves a bunch of old geezers. But they still fuckin' rocked! (Coincidentally, last night I just read the part of Michelle Gonzales's book, The Spitboy Rule: Tales of a Female Punk Band, where she talks about touring with Citizen Fish).

2024-06-29 15:22:12

Today In Labor History June 29, 1906: US Congress renewed the 1903 Anarchist Exclusion Act, which amended previous immigration law by adding four new inadmissible classes: anarchists, people with epilepsy, beggars, and importers of prostitutes.
#workingclass #LaborHistory #anarchism #immigration #FreeSpeech #Prostitution #disability #ableism #antiimmigration
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2024-06-28 17:06:44

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2024-06-28 16:31:03

Today in Labor History June 28, 1956: 100,000 workers struck in Poznañ, Poland, shouting "Bread & Freedom.” The protests were violently suppressed, with at least 67 workers killed. The government sent in tanks and 10,000 soldiers. The next day, another 70 would be killed, 700 would be arrested, and hundreds more would be wounded. Several months later, anti-government protests would break out in Hungary, during its Revolution. The Soviets sent in tanks to suppress that uprising, killing thousands. And from these events came the term “tankie” to refer to hardline communists who continued to support (or not criticize) these authoritarian governments and their repressive actions against their workers.
#workingclass #LaborHistory #communism #strike #union #poland #tanks #massacre #tankie #soviet #authoritarian
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2024-06-27 18:05:44

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Great story.

2024-06-27 15:09:15

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I was

2024-06-26 22:20:52

Way back in the 1980s, when I was in college, we had a tent city on the UC Berkeley campus to protest the Apartheid regime in South Africa. Lots of parallels to what's been happening on campuses recently with the Palestinian solidarity protests, including violent police crack downs.
During this time, author Kurt Vonnegut came to speak in support of the movement, and against Apartheid. I don't remember what he said then. But here's an amusing clip of him talking about the writing process, explaining the different types of character arcs a story can have.
https://youtu.be/oP3c1h8v2ZQ
#apartheid #freepalestine #EndtheOccupation #kurtvonnegut #author #writer #books #student #college #protest #police #policebrutality @npub1wce…lzu8

2024-06-26 14:14:24

Today in Labor History June 26, 1894: The American Railway Union (ARU), led by Eugene Debs, called a nationwide boycott in solidarity with their striking members at Pullman, Illinois. The Pullman Railroad Strike began as a wildcat strike in Chicago, when 4,000 railway workers walked off the job. It quickly escalated into the largest industrial strike the U.S. had ever seen, with 260,000 workers participating. Most of the workers lived in the company town of Pullman, just south of Chicago. When George Pullman slashed wages and jobs, he didn’t lower rents. Consequently, the workers called a strike. In addition to fighting for increased wages and union representation, they also wanted democracy in the autocratic company town. When the strike started, the Pullman workers were not yet organized in a union. However, Eugene Debs, who created the ARU in 1893, came in to organize the men and they quickly signed up. He called a boycott which halted much of the rail transport west of the Mississippi. Worker sabotage caused $80 million in damages. The government sent in federal troops to suppress the strike, killing at least 30 strikers. They also arrested Debs for conspiracy to block U.S. mail. Clarence Darrow defended him. However, he still got six months in prison. Debs would go on to cofound the IWW, in 1905, along with Lucy Parsons, Mother Jones, Big Bill Haywood, James Connolly, and others.
#workingclass #LaborHistory #strike #union #wildcat #eugenedebs #pullman #chicago #prison #IWW #motherjones #lucyparsons #jamesconnolly #BigBillHaywood #boycott #conspiracy #sabotage
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2024-06-19 14:26:58

Today in Labor History June 19, 1865: African Americans were declared free in Texas, more than 2 months after the end of the Civil War and the final enforcement of the Emancipation Proclamation. This date is now celebrated each year as "Juneteenth." It officially became a national holiday in 2021. Emancipation under the proclamation only applied to enslaved people living in former Confederate states. Enslaved people living outside the former confederacy did not gain legal freedom until the 13th Amendment was ratified in December, 1865. And incarcerated prisoners are still constitutionally exempt from protections against slavery.
#workingclass #LaborHistory #slavery #emancipation #juneteenth #racism #texas #AfricanAmerican #CivilWar #BlackMastadon
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2024-06-17 16:56:23

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Wikipedia.

2024-06-17 15:26:22

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There are probably Cesar Chavez and MLK Jr. streets in most major cities, at least those not in Republican strongholds. SF has both. But at important as these two men were, historically, neither was really thought of as a radical.
I think you could make a case that MLK actually was in many ways, and that the mainstream view of him today was deliberately cultivated by corporate interests.

2024-06-17 14:55:19

Today in Labor History June 17, 1876: U.S. army soldiers attacked an encampment of Lakota and Cheyenne in Rosebud, South Dakota. Led by Crazy Horse, the native warriors routed the Americans. The Cheyenne called it the Battle Where the Girl Saved Her Brother because the fight involved Buffalo Calf Road Woman, who courageously road out into the middle of the battle, grabbed her brother, and carried him to safety. The area had been promised to the tribes through treaties, signed after they had won previous battles. However, when gold was discovered in the Black Hills, the U.S. government wanted the land. Buffalo Calf Road Woman also fought at Little Bighorn, alongside her husband, Black Coyote. She was the one who struck the blow that knocked Custer off his horse, resulting in his death.
#workingclass #LaborHistory #nativeamerican #indigenous #lakota #cheyenne #southdakota #crazyhorse #BuffaloCalfRoadWoman #littlebighorn #treaty
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2024-06-17 14:17:14

To this day, Mexico honors Ricardo Flores Magon, and his brothers, who led the anarchist revolution in, and occupation of, Tijuana and other northern Baja California towns in 1911, during the early days of the Mexican Revolution.
Berlin has a Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz in the Mitte neighborhood. I spoke at a radio station there, about Food Not Bombs, back in the early 1990s. Germany has at least one street named after Emma Goldman.
There is a Kropotkinskaya metro station in Moscow & Mount Kropotkin in Antarctica. There are still numerous schools around the world named for Spanish anarchist educator Francisco Ferrer. And numerous places have streets or squares named after Karl Marx.
But where are the revolutionary street and place names in the U.S.? Emma Goldman and Ricardo Flores Magon both spent considerable portions of their lives in the U.S., including time in U.S. prisons (Magon died in Leavenworth). Joe Hill's music lives on, was performed by Pete Seeger, Utah Philips, and Paul Robeson, was executed by the state on trumped up charges. Where are the Joe Hill streets? How about Albert Parsons, falsely convicted and executed for the Haymarket bombing, or his wife Lucy, radical organizer and cofounder of the IWW? How about street names or parks named for Cherokee radical and IWW organizer Frank Little, lynched by vigilantes? Or African-American IWW organizer Ben Fletcher?
The closest thing that comes readily to my mind is a short stretch of 9th St., in Oakland, renamed Huey P Newton Street, in 2021. Or Malcolm X school in Berkeley.
If you know of other examples of street or place names in the U.S. named for radicals or revolutionaries, please share photos.
#workingclass #LaborHistory #anarchism #communism #IWW #joehill #emmagoldman #marx #haymarket #kropotkin #rosaluxemburg #RicardoFloresMagon #tijuana
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2024-06-17 14:13:35

Today in Labor History June 17, 1911: Federal troops, led by Madero, recaptured Tijuana from the Magonista anarchist rebels. Among those surviving and escaping was the famous Wobbly (IWW) songwriter, Joe Hill. Another Wobbly bard, Haywire Mac (compose of The Big Rock Candy Mountain and Hallelujah, I’m a Bum), also participated in the occupation of Tijuana. The Magonistas had captured the Baja California border town of Mexicali on January 29, and Tijuana on May 8, as well as Ensenada, San Tomas, and many other northern Baja California towns. The rebels encouraged the people to take collective possession of the lands. They also supported the creation of cooperatives and opposed the establishment of any new government. Many U.S. members of the IWW participated in the revolution. Lowell Blaisdell writes about it in his now hard to find book, “The Desert Revolution,” (1962). The IWW had been active in nearby San Diego since 1906, sight of an infamous Free Speech fight in 1912. During that struggle, in which many veterans of the Desert Revolution fought, police killed 2 workers. Vigilantes kidnapped Emma Goldman and her companion Ben Reitman, who had come to show their support. However, before deporting them, they tarred and feathered Reitman and raped him with a cane.
Read my history of the IWW in San Diego here: https://michaeldunnauthor.com/2022/02/01/today-in-labor-history-february-1/
Read my biography of Haywire Mac here: https://michaeldunnauthor.com/2021/03/16/the-haywire-mac-story/
#workingclass #LaborHistory #anarchism #IWW #RicardoFloresMagon #magonista #mexico #Revolution #folkmusic #joehill #haywiremac #emmagoldman #vigilantes #tijuana #sandiego #freespeech #books #nonfiction #author #writer @npub1wce…lzu8
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2024-06-16 15:39:02

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2024-06-14 14:53:03

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2024-06-12 15:31:53

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2024-06-12 15:27:45

Keep in mind, the median rent in the U.S. for a 1-bedroom apt is >$18,000/year.
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2024-06-08 17:19:21

Anti-Genocide poster seen in San Francisco, California.
#palestine #israel #genocide #freepalestine #EndTheOccupation #gaza #starvation #who #biden
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2024-06-08 17:04:38

Anti-Genocide poster seen in San Francisco.
#palestine #israel #genocide #freepalestine #EndTheOccupation #gaza
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2024-06-08 16:11:53

Why does the U.S. let Israel get away with it?
Today in Labor History June 8, 1967: The Israeli military attacked the United States and got away with it. Israeli aircraft and boats attacked the USS Liberty during Israel's "Six Day War," killing 34 U.S. sailors and wounded 171. The U.S. government “investigated” the attack and issued a whitewashed report calling it an unfortunate mistake. However, witnesses and critics dispute this claim, calling it a deliberate attack by Israel to silence U.S. criticism of Israel’s war tactics. According to George Ball, undersecretary of state at the time, the attack set the stage for future Israeli policy by sending the message to Israel's leaders “that nothing they might do would offend the Americans to the point of reprisal. If America’s leaders did not have the courage to punish Israel for the blatant murder of its own citizens and soldiers, it seemed clear that their American friends would let them get away with almost anything."
#workingclass #LaborHistory #israel #zionism #impunity #warcrimes #USSLiberty #palestine
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2024-06-06 16:31:40

Today in Labor History June 6, 1982: Israel invaded Lebanon, remaining until June 6, 1985. The war was led by Ariel Sharon, who later became prime minister, despite the Kahan Commission later finding him culpable for the Sabra and Shatila massacre, which killed up to 3,500 Palestinian refugees and Lebanese Shiites. By the end of the war, Israel had lost over 650 soldiers. However, up to 2,400 PLO militants and 1,200 Syria soldiers were killed. And as many as 20,000 civilians were killed during the war.
#workingclass #LaborHistory #zionism #israel #palestine #lebanon #invasion #occupation #massacre #SabraAndShatila #refugees #humanrights #PLO
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2024-06-05 16:26:54

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2024-06-02 14:44:33

Today in Labor History June 2, 1863: Backed by three gunboats, Harriet Tubman and her force of 300 black soldiers, freed 800 slaves in the Combahee River Raid, South Carolina. Furthermore, they set fire to the plantations and destroyed millions of dollars-worth of stores, cotton and homes of the wealthy, without losing a single person. Additionally, it was the only military engagement in American history where a woman, black or white, “led the raid and under whose inspiration it was originated and conducted.” Tubman devised her war strategy after repeatedly penetrating across enemy lines and spying on Confederate troop movements. In the aftermath, Confederate Captain John F. Lay said, “The enemy seems to have been well posted as to the character and capacity of our troops and their small chance of encountering opposition, and to have been well guided by persons thoroughly acquainted with the river and country.” Most Americans know of Tubman’s role in the Underground Railroad. However, she was also a spy for the Union Army. And in the late 1850s, she helped John Brown plan his raid on Harper’s Ferry and recruit supporters for the raid.
#workingclass #LaborHistory #civilwar #harriettubman #slavery #Abolition #undergroundgailroad #johnbrown #liberation #espionage #strongwomen #BlackMastadon #blm
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2024-06-01 17:04:52

Capitalism has worked very well. Anyone who wants to move to North Korea is welcome.
--Bill Gates
#classwar #capitalism #greed
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2024-05-28 17:35:16

You can see video of the Punks With Books event here, including Billy Bragg, Juanita Mantz, Michele Gonzales, Jacob Lamb, James Tracy, and me.
https://www.instagram.com/reel/C7csNxisxiw/?igsh=MTc4MmM1YmI2Ng==
@npub1wce…lzu8 #books #BillyBragg #punkswithbooks #punkrockbowling #writers #authors

2024-05-22 14:11:13

#TransRightsAreHumanrights
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2024-05-18 15:33:26

Today in Labor History May 18, 1979: An Oklahoma jury ruled in favor of the estate of atomic worker Karen Silkwood. Kerr-McGee Nuclear Company was ordered to pay $505,000 in actual damages and $10 million in punitive damages for negligence leading to Silkwood’s plutonium contamination. On appeal, the court reduced the settlement to a pitiful $5,000, the estimated value of her property losses. In 1984, the Supreme Court restored the original verdict, but Kerr-McGee again threatened to appeal. Ultimately, Silkwood’s family settled out of court for $1.38 million and the company never had to admit any wrongdoing.
Silkwood first started working at Kerr-McGee in 1972. She joined the Oil, Chemical & Atomic Workers union and participated in a strike. After the strike, her comrades elected her to the union’s bargaining committee. She was the first woman to attain that status at Kerr-McGee. In this role, one of her duties was to investigate health and safety issues. Not surprisingly, she discovered numerous violations, including exposure of workers to contamination. The union accused Kerr-McGee of falsifying inspection records, manufacturing faulty fuel rods and other safety violations. After testifying to the Atomic Energy Commission, Silkwood discovered that her own body and home were contaminated with radiation. Her body contained 400 times the legal limit for plutonium contamination and she was expelling contaminated air from her lungs. Her house was so contaminated they had to destroy much of her personal property.
Later, she decided to go public with documentation proving the company’s negligence. She left a meeting with union officials in order to meet a New York Times journalist. She brought a binder and packet of documents supporting her allegations with her. However, she never made it, dying in a suspicious car crash. The documents were never found. Some journalist believe she was rammed from behind by another vehicle. Investigators noted damage to the read of her car that would be consistent with this hypothesis. She had also received death threats shortly before her death. However, no one has yet substantiated the claims of foul play.
#workingclass #LaborHistory #silkwood #union #atomic #nuclear #radioactive #contamination #murder
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2024-05-17 14:24:31

Today in LGBTQ History, May 17 is International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia and Transphobia (IDAHOBIT). This date was chosen to commemorate the 1990 decision to remove homosexuality from the International Classification of Diseases of the World Health Organization (WHO). In 2009, the WHO added transphobia to the name of the campaign, and organized activities that year to highlight and end. The goal of the campaign is to raise awareness of violence, discrimination, and repression of LGBT communities throughout the world.
#workingclass #LaborHistory #lgbtq #transphobia #homophobia #biphobia #who
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2024-05-13 13:55:29

Today in Labor History May 13, 1960: San Francisco Police violently attacked university students who were nonviolently protesting HUAC (House Un-American Committee) hearings. After protesters were denied entrance to the meeting, police attacked and swept them out of City Hall's rotunda and down the stairs with fire hoses. 12 people hospitalized (including eight police, mostly from exhaustion). 64 were arrested. Charges were dropped against all but one, who was acquitted in a jury trial. The hearings were led by the infamous Joe McCarthy. They would come into union towns like Chicago, San Francisco and Seattle, and issue subpoenas to all the progressives and radicals in the town, especially union leaders, many of whom were communists, or had communist ties. The only defense was to take the Fifth Amendment. The consequence of that was that you would usually lose your job, your name would be plastered in the papers, and your kids would be mistreated in school. Alternatively, you could take the First, like the Hollywood Ten did. For that, you’d be held in contempt of court sent to prison.
#workingclass #LaborHistory #huac #joemccarthy #mccarthyism #communism #freespeech #prison #police #PoliceBrutality #sanfrancisco
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2024-05-09 14:43:11

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2024-05-04 15:52:01

Today in Labor History May 4, 1970: Ohio National Guards murdered four students at Kent State University. They also injured nine others, including one who was permanently paralyzed. During the massacre, they fired 67 rounds in 13 seconds at the unarmed crowd. The students were protesting the U.S. invasion of Cambodia. With the current wave of student protests against the Israeli genocide in Gaza, the government’s response is looking sickeningly similar to its response to student protests in the early 70s: Violent repression, use of chemical agents, snipers on rooftops. If the vitriolic rhetoric of politicians and pundits continues, another student massacre seems imminent.
#students #KentState #massacre #NationalGuard #cambodia #bombing #USImperialism #MayTheFourth #freepalestine #EndTheOccupation #genocide #gaza #studentprotests #freespeech
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2024-05-02 14:17:06

Today in Labor History May 2, 1963: Bull Connor jailed 958 children in Birmingham, Alabama. Those not jailed got blasted with fire hoses and attacked by dogs.
#LaborHistory #workingclass #racism #CivilRights #PoliceBrutality #police #acab #bullconnor #birmingham #children #jimcrow
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2024-05-02 14:12:17

Today in Labor History May 2, 1933: In one of his first acts after coming to power, Adolf Hitler abolished all labor unions. Storm troopers occupied union offices across Germany. Union leaders were arrested, beaten, tortured and imprisoned, or sent to concentration camps. In the coming months, thousands more communists, anarchists and labor activists were arrested and murdered.
#workingclass #LaborHistory #union #communism #anarchism #nazis #massacre #ConcentrationCamp #hitler #fascism #prison #torture
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2024-05-01 15:15:12

Today In Labor History May 1, 1830: Mary Harris "Mother" Jones was born. Mother Jones was renowned for her militancy and fiery oration, as well as her many juicy quotes. She once said, “I’m no lady. I’m a hell-raiser.” She also was an internationalist, saying “My address is wherever there is a fight against oppression.” Despite the difficulties of constant travel, poor living and jail, she lived to be 100. She was also a cofounder of the anarchosyndicalist IWW.
#workingclass #LaborHistory #union #strike #IWW #mining #motherjones #solidarity #prison #mayday
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2024-04-28 16:13:50

Always punch up, never down!
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2024-04-21 16:40:04

Today in Labor History April 21, 1910: Mark Twain died. William Faulkner called him "the father of American literature." He grew up in Hannibal, Missouri, which provided the setting for “Tom Sawyer” and “Huckleberry Finn.” He apprenticed with a printer and worked as a typesetter, contributing articles to the newspaper of his older brother Orion Clemens. He later worked as a riverboat pilot before heading west to join Orion in Nevada. Twain was famous for his wit and brilliant writing. However, he also had extremely progressive politics for his era. Later in his life, he became an ardent anti-imperialist. “I have read carefully the treaty of Paris and I have seen that we do not intend to free, but to subjugate the people of the Philippines. We have gone there to conquer, not to redeem… And so I am an anti-imperialist. I am opposed to having the eagle put its talons on any other land.” During the Boxer Rebellion, he said that "the Boxer is a patriot. He loves his country better than he does the countries of other people. I wish him success." From 1901, until his death in 1910, he was vice-president of the American Anti-Imperialist League, which opposed the annexation of the Philippines by the U.S. He was also critical of European imperialists such as Cecil Rhodes and King Leopold II of Belgium, who attempted to establish colonies in African. He also supported the Russian revolutionaries fighting against the Tsar.
Many people have criticized him for his racism. Indeed, schools have banned “Huckleberry Finn.” However, Twain was an adamant supporter of abolition and said that the Emancipation Proclamation “not only set the black slaves free, but set the white man free also." He also fought for the rights of immigrants, particularly the Chinese. "I have seen Chinamen abused and maltreated in all the mean, cowardly ways possible... but I never saw a Chinaman righted in a court of justice for wrongs thus done to him." And though his early writings were racist against indigenous peoples, he later wrote that “in colonized lands all over the world, "savages" have always been wronged by "whites" in the most merciless ways, such as "robbery, humiliation, and slow, slow murder, through poverty and the white man's whiskey."
Twain was also an early feminist, who campaigned for women's suffrage. He also wrote in support of unions and the labor movement, especially the Knights of Labor, one of the most important unions of the era. “Who are the oppressors? The few: the King, the capitalist, and a handful of other overseers and superintendents. Who are the oppressed? The many: the nations of the earth; the valuable personages; the workers; they that make the bread that the soft-handed and idle eat.”
#workingclass #LaborHistory #marktwain #racism #feminism #imperialism #abolition #KnightsOfLabor #union #Literature #fiction #books #novel #author #writer [@bookstadon](https://a.gup.pe/u/bookstadon)
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2024-04-17 13:45:17

Today in Labor History April 17, 1996: Brazilian police attacked 2,000 landless peasants, killing 19 and wounding 69. Over 1,000 would be killed in similar protests throughout the 1990s.
#workingclass #LaborHistory #peasant #massacre #brazil #police #policebrutality #policemurder
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2024-04-13 23:06:08

On June 21, 1877, the authorities hanged ten Irish miners in a single day in Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania. Known as Black Thursday, or Day of the Rope, it was the second largest mass execution in U.S. history. (The largest was in 1862, when the U.S. government executed 38 Dakota warriors). They convicted the Irishmen of murder, and accused them of being terrorists from a secret organization called the Molly Maguires. They executed ten more over the next two years, and imprisoned another twenty suspected Molly Maguires. Most of the convicted men were union activists. Some even held public office, as sheriffs and school board members.
However, there is no evidence that an organization called the Molly Maguires ever existed in the U.S. The only serious evidence against the men was presented by a spy, James McParland, working for the Pinkerton Detective Agency, who provided the plans and weapons the men purportedly used in their crimes. The entire legal process was a travesty: a private corporation (the Reading Railroad) set up the investigation through a private police force (the Pinkerton Detective Agency) and prosecuted them with their own company attorneys. No jurors were Irish, though several were recent German immigrants who had trouble understanding the proceedings.
Nearly everything people “know” today about the Molly Maguires comes from Allan Pinkerton’s own work of fiction, The Molly Maguires and the Detectives (1877), which he marketed as nonfiction. His heavily biased book was the primary source for dozens of academic works, and for several pieces of fiction, including Arthur Conan Doyle’s final Sherlock Holmes novel, Valley of Fear (1915), and the 1970 Sean Connery film, Molly Maguires.
My novel, Anywhere But Schuylkill, tells a truer story of these union miners and their persecution by the Pinkertons.
You can read my complete article on the Molly Maguires here: https://michaeldunnauthor.com/2024/04/13/the-myth-of-the-molly-maguires/
#workingclass #LaborHistory #MollyMaguires #union #Pinkertons #coal #mining #police #racism
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2024-04-13 15:49:17

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2024-04-10 03:35:05

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2024-04-05 16:07:11

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