Today in Labor History July 31, 1968: Students protested the Olympics in Mexico City. They occupied schools and began a General Strike. Cops violently attacked them. The violence culminated with the Tlatelolco massacre, October 2, during which the cops slaughtered 350-400 people, using snipers. They arrested and tortured over 1,300.

Alejandro Jodorowsky dramatized the massacre in his surreal film, “The Holy Mountain” (1973). In it, he showed birds, fruits, vegetables and other things falling and being ripped out of the wounds of the dying students. The late author, Roberto Bolaño, recounted the massacre in his novel “Amulet” (1999). He also retells the story in his novel, “The Savage Detectives.”

#workingclass #LaborHistory #students #olympics #mexico #protest #massacre #tlatelolco #generalstrike #police #policebrutality #policemurder #robertobolaño #film #author #books #fiction #novel #writer @bookstadon

Today in Labor History July 31, 1922: A General Strike against Fascism began in Italy, running from July 31 to August 2. Socialists led the strike, which the fascists defeated. Rudolph Rocker, an Anarcho-Syndicalist of the period, said: "… the democratic government armed the Fascist hordes and throttled this last attempt at the defense of freedom and right. But Italian democracy had dug its own grave. It thought it could use Mussolini as a tool against the workers, but thus it became its own grave-digger." In October, 1922, the fascists led a march through Rome, which ultimately led to a coup and their ascension to power. During the march, Mussolini was in Milan, supposedly with a ticket for an ocean liner to flee the country should the fascists fail in the coup.

Building AI and huge data centers in the desert is WILDLY ignorant and misdirected behavior. It's almost as if the people who build and design these things don't even consider naturally cool or water rich places. They don't even try. I mean, if ya gonna build something that needs ALL THE WATER, then why not build it where water never stops? Nevermind. Don't you dare touch the rainforest and shorelines. How 'bout we just shut it down altogether?
Not being accountable to resources IS the downfall of humanity. I have never had a question or bout of loneliness so deep that I am willing to turn to chatgpt and away from the resources that we depend on for ACTUAL life: water, air, land.
The people who continue to push Capitalism as "the way" are actively going against what is best for people and planet. There is NO ethical consumption under #capitalism We MUST return to reciprocal, nurturing relationships with the land and each other, as indigenous cultures have for generations. #mutualaide #offgrid #generalstrike #conservation #permaculture #solarpunk #community

Today in Labor History July 27, 1918: Miner and union organizer Ginger Goodwin was shot by a hired private cop outside Cumberland, British Columbia sparking Canada's first General Strike. He was a labor activist and a member of the Socialist Party of Canada. Additionally, he was an antiwar activist who said that workers of one country should not be employed to kill workers of another country because of capitalist conflict. “War is simply part of the process of Capitalism,” he said. “Big financial interests will reap the victory, no matter how the war ends.” However, in spite of his protests, he was still drafted to fight in the First World War. In order to avoid conscription, he fled into the mountains, where he was murdered by a cop in 1918. Canada’s first General Strike began in response.

https://youtu.be/GrwUueuW6rs

The Ballad Of Ginger Goodwin

Ginger Goodwin is a name you don't often hear or see.
They don't say a word about him in our country's history.
He was a labour leader and he wouldn't go to war.
"While the army breaks our strikes at home, its strikers I'll fight for."

In Trail back in the summer of 1917.
Ginger fought against conscription even though he was class D.
But when he led a miners' strike to spread the eight hour day
Conscription checked him out again and found he was class A.

Ginger hid from cops and soldiers in the hills near Cumberland.
Miners brought him food and sheltered him, they knew he was their friend.
So the bosses hired special cops when their power was at stake.
Dan Campbell murdered Goodwin at the head of Comox Lake.

The whole damn town of Cumberland turned out for the funeral hike.
Vancouver's workers shut her down for a one day general strike.
Soldiers back from foreign wars then attacked the labour hall.
Both the bosses and the workers knew who caused the Czar's downfall.

You can still see Ginger's grave along the road to Cumberland.
He didn't win no medals and no one understands.
Don't tell me that a hero has to die in foreign lands.
We lost heroes here in labour's wars and they all had dirty hands.

Today in Labor History July 26, 1877: Federal troops killed up to 30 workers at the "Battle of the Viaduct," Chicago, during the Great Upheaval (AKA Great Train Strike). This came after the Workingmen’s Party (affiliated with the First International), organized a rally of six thousand people. At this gathering, a former Confederate Army Officer from Waco, Texas, named Albert Parsons, gave a fiery speech. The events of the Great Upheaval radicalized Parsons and his wife Lucy. In the years following it, they became some of the nation’s leading anarchist organizers. The state executed him in 1887 as one of the Haymarket Martyrs who had been fighting for the eight-hour workday. His widow, Lucy, an African American woman, went on to cofound the radical Industrial Workers of the World, in 1905, along with Mother Jones, Eugene Debs, Big Bill Haywood, and others.

The day after Parsons’ speech, protests erupted. Police fired into the crowd, killing three men. The next day, an armed demonstration of 5,000 workers fought the police and soldiers in the Battle of the Viaduct, when they killed as many as 30 more workers and injured over one hundred. One journalist wrote, “The sound of clubs falling on skulls was sickening for the first minute, until one grew accustomed to it. A rioter dropped at every whack, it seemed, for the ground was covered with them.” A judge later found the police guilty of preventing the workers from exercising their right to freedom of speech and assembly

The Great Upheaval was a national strike wave involving major uprisings in Martinsburg, WV, Baltimore, Pittsburgh, Saint Louis, San Francisco, Boston, Reading, PA, New York and many other cities. I write about it in my historical “Great Upheaval Trilogy.” My first book, “Anywhere But Schuylkill,” takes place in the years immediately preceding the Great Upheaval. Book II, “Red Hot Summer in the Smoky City,” my current WIP, takes place in Pittsburgh, at the height of the Great Upheaval.

You can read my complete article about the Great Upheaval here: https://michaeldunnauthor.com/2024/03/31/the-great-upheaval/

You can read my biography of Lucy Parsons here: https://michaeldunnauthor.com/2024/03/24/lucy-parsons/

And you can get my book ANYWHERE BUT SCHUYLKILL from these indie book sellers:
https://www.keplers.com/
https://www.greenapplebooks.com/

Or send me $25 via Venmo (@Michael-Dunn-565) and your mailing address, and I will send you a signed copy!

#workingclass #LaborHistory #chicago #massacre #railroad #GeneralStrike #wildcat #strikewave #IWW #socialism #haymarket #anarchism #lucyparsons #policebrutality #policemurder #fiction #novel #historicalfiction #writer #author #books @bookstadon

It's time to stop fucking around

#GeneralStrike
Sign the Strike Card

https://generalstrikeus.com/

Today in Labor History July 22, 1877: A General Strike began in St. Louis, as part of the national Great Upheaval wave of wildcat strikes. The St. Louis strike is generally considered the first General Strike in U.S. history. It was organized by the communist Workingman’s Party and the Knights of Labor. In addition to joining in solidarity with striking rail workers, thousands in other trades came out to fight for the 8-hour day and an end to child labor. For nearly a week, workers controlled all functions of society. Black and white workers united, even though the unions were all segregated. At one rally, a black steamboat worker asked the crowd if they would stand behind levee workers, regardless of race. “We will!” they shouted back. Another speaker said, “The people are rising up in their might and declaring they will no longer submit to being oppressed by unproductive capital.”

Whereas most of the worker uprisings that were occurring throughout the U.S. were spontaneous wildcat strikes (as most of the unions were opposed to the great strike), the situation in St. Louis was led by communists and was revolutionary. “There was a time in the history of France when the poor found themselves oppressed to such an extent that forbearance ceased to be a virtue, and hundreds of heads tumbled into the basket. That time may have arrived with us.” A cooper said this to a crowd of 10,000 workers in St. Louis, in July, 1877. He was referring to the Paris Commune, which happened just six years prior. Like the Parisian workers, the Saint Louis strikers openly called for the use of arms, not only to defend themselves against the violence of the militias and police, but for outright revolutionary aims: “All you have to do is to unite on one idea—that workingmen shall rule this country. What man makes, belongs to him, and the workingmen made this country.”

Karl Marx enthusiastically followed events during the Great Strike. He called it “the first uprising against the oligarchy of capital since the Civil War.” He predicted that it would inevitably be suppressed, but might still “be the point of origin for the creation of a serious workers’ party in the United States.” Ironically, many of the Saint Louis activists were followers of Ferdinand Lasalle, whom Marx despised, and who believed that communist revolution could happen through the vote. And some of them, like Albert Currlin, a Workingmen’s Party leader in Saint Louis, were outright racists, who mistrusted the black strikers and refused to work with them, undermining the success of the commune. Ultimately, 3,000 federal troops and 5,000 deputized police (i.e., vigilantes) ended the strike by killing at least 18 people and arresting at least 70.

My novel, “Anywhere But Schuylkill,” is about the coal strike that preceded the Great Upheaval. My work in progress, “Red Hot Summer in the Big Smoke,” opens exactly two weeks prior to the start of the Great Upheaval, with the mass execution of innocent coal miners and union organizers who were framed by the Pinkertons.

You can get my novel from any of these indie retailers:
https://www.keplers.com/
https://www.greenapplebooks.com/

Or send me $25 via Venmo (@Michael-Dunn-565) and your mailing address, and I will send you a signed copy!

You can read my complete article on the Great Upheaval here: https://michaeldunnauthor.com/2024/03/31/the-great-upheaval/

You can read my complete article on the Pinkertons here: https://michaeldunnauthor.com/2024/04/04/union-busting-by-the-pinkertons/

#workingclass #LaborHistory #greatupheaval #paris #commune #Revolutionary #communism #saintlouis #pinkertons #GeneralStrike #wildcat #strike #knightsoflabor #workingmensparty #marx #solidarity #books #author #writer #fiction #historicalfiction @bookstadon

Today in Labor History July 21, 1877: 30,000 Chicago workers rallied on Market Street during the Great Upheaval wave of strikes occurring throughout the country. Future anarchist and Haymarket martyr Albert Parsons spoke to the crowd, advocating the use of the ballot to obtain "state control of the means of production," and urged workers to join the communist Workingmen's Party. Parsons was later abducted by armed men who took him to the police where he was interrogated and informed that he had caused the city great trouble. These events helped radicalize him, as well as his wife, Lucy parson, who would go on to cofound the IWW, and moved them both away from electoral politics and directly into radical anarchist activism. Lucy condoned political violence, self-defense against racial violence, and class struggle against religion.

The strike wave started in Martinsburg, W.V., on July 16, and quickly spread along the railroad lines throughout the country. In Chicago, striking workers from numerous industries took to the streets daily. They shut down the railroads, mills, foundries and many other businesses. They carried banners that said "Life by work, or death by fight". One speaker said, "We must rise up in our might, and fight for our rights. Better a thousand of us be shot down in the streets than ten thousand die of starvation."

On July 26, the protesters threw rocks and fired pistols at the cops, who fired back until they ran out of ammo and were forced them to flee. However, they ran into a detachment of reinforcements and federal troops, sent in by President Hayes. This led to the Battle of the Viaduct, resulting in 15-30 dead strikers and dozens wounded. One journalist wrote, “The sound of clubs falling on skulls was sickening for the first minute, until one grew accustomed to it. A rioter dropped at every whack, it seemed, for the ground was covered with them.”

In Pittsburgh, 20 striking railroad workers were killed by state troopers during the Great Upheaval. The second book of my “Great Upheaval” trilogy, “Hot Summer in the Smoky City,” takes place in Pittsburgh during the Great Upheaval. My first book, Anywhere But Schuylkill, takes place just before the Great Upheaval begins.

You can get my book here:
https://www.keplers.com/
https://www.greenapplebooks.com/

Or send me $25 via Venmo (@Michael-Dunn-565) and your mailing address, and I will send you a signed copy!

Read my complete article on the Great Upheaval here: https://michaeldunnauthor.com/2024/03/31/the-great-upheaval/

Read my complete article on Lucy Parsons here: https://michaeldunnauthor.com/2024/03/24/lucy-parsons/

#workingclass #LaborHistory #GreatUpheaval #railroad #chicago #massacre #children #GeneralStrike #IWW #police #policebrutality #AnywhereButSchuylkill #anarchim #communism #albertparsons #haymarket #novel #books #fiction #historicalfiction #writer #author #wildcat @bookstadon

Today in Labor History July 20, 1934: Police shot at picketing strikers on Bloody Friday of the Minneapolis General Strike, killing two and wounding 67. The teamsters strike had begun in May. While the teamsters’ national leadership was conservative and opposed to strikes, Local 574, in Minneapolis, was affiliated with the Communist Party, and Local 544 was connected with the Trotskyist Communist League. They began organizing their members for a strike in spite of the national leadership. They effectively shut down nearly all transport in the city, except for food, which they permitted to prevent starvation. The police, and vigilantes working for the bosses, routinely attacked them on the picket line. Consequently, workers in other industries joined them in solidarity, leading to a General Strike. On July 20, as the cops tried escort scabs onto a worksite, picketers with clubs tried to block them. The cops opened fire with shotguns. An eyewitness said he saw a man stepping on his own intestines and another carrying his own severed hand.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hr7cTjkAY14

Today in Labor History July 20 1877: In the midst of the Great Upheaval (AKA Great Train Strike), the Maryland state militia fired on striking railroad workers in Baltimore, killing over 20, including children. The strike had started on July 14, in Martinsburg, WV, at the B&O Railroad yards. It quickly spread into Charleston, WV and Baltimore and Cumberland, MD. In Baltimore, as the 5th Regiment marched toward Camden Station with fixed bayonets on their Springfield rifles, crowds attacked them with bricks. Miraculously, no serious injuries occurred. However, when the 6th Regiment began their march, the crowds drove them off with paving stones and fists. Without orders, they began firing at the crowd, killing several. When the two regiments met at Camden Station, the crowds again hurled stones and bricks, disabling locomotives, tearing up tracks and driving off the engineers. They set fire to railroad cars and buildings and cut the firemen’s hoses when they tried to douse the flames.

The Great Upheaval came in the middle of the Long Depression, one of the worst depressions the U.S. has ever faced. My novel, “Anywhere But Schuylkill,” takes place in the years leading up to the Great Strike and is Part I of “The Great Upheaval” trilogy. I am currently working on Book II: “Red Hot Summer in the Smoky City.”

You can get a copy here:

keplers.com/
https://www.greenapplebooks.com/

Or send me $25 via Venmo (@Michael-Dunn-565) and your mailing address, and I will send you a signed copy!

Read my full article on the Great Upheaval here: https://michaeldunnauthor.com/2024/03/31/the-great-upheaval/

#workingclass #LaborHistory #GreatUpheaval #railroad #baltimore #massacre #children #GeneralStrike #AnywhereButSchuylkill #novel #books #fiction #historicalfiction #writer #author #wildcat @bookstadon

Today in Labor History July 19, 1877: In the midst of the Great Train Strike of 1877, Pittsburgh workers drove soldiers out of town. Trainmen took control of the railroads in Pittsburgh to protest wage cuts. Two days later, National Guard moved in, killing 20 people.

In Lebanon, Pennsylvania a National Guard company mutinied. In Altoona, Pennsylvania strikers surrounded the troops and sabotaged the engines, forcing the soldiers to surrender. The soldiers then fraternized with the striking workers and marched home to the accompaniment of singers from an African-American militia company. In Harrisburg, the state capital, teenagers made up a large part of the multi-ethnic crowd.

In Pittsburgh, workers struck against the mighty Pennsylvania Railroad, the largest corporation in the world. Young boys and men from the mills and factories joined in. Again, the militia refused to attack the workers. Many soldiers joined the strikers. So, the Governor brought in the Philadelphia militia. The battle-hardened soldiers from the Civil and Indian Wars had no ties to the Pittsburgh community, and no qualms about shooting civilians. They opened fire on the crowd, killing twenty workers in five minutes.
The crowd retreated, but returned with their own militia. They burned the rail yards to the ground, holding off firefighters at gunpoint. The Philadelphia militia hid in the roundhouse, but the fire forced them to flee. The workers and police fired on them as they ran. In nearby Allegheny, strikers looted the armory. They dug trenches, took over the telegraph and railroad, and controlled all economic and political functions.

Read my full article on the Great Upheaval here: https://michaeldunnauthor.com/2024/03/31/the-great-upheaval/

My novel, Anywhere But Schuylkill, takes place in the period leading up to the Great Train Strike and is the first book in my Great Upheaval trilogy. You can get a copy here:

keplers.com/
https://www.greenapplebooks.com/

Or send me $25 via Venmo (@Michael-Dunn-565) and your mailing address, and I will send you a signed copy!

#workingclass #LaborHistory #railroad #strike #GeneralStrike #pittsburgh #massacre #pittsburgh #pennsylvania #civilians #mutiny #sabotage #wages #novel #books #authors #historicalfiction #writingcommunity @bookstadon

The San Francisco General Strike began on July 16, 1934 in response to the police murders of two longshoremen, Howard Sperry and Nick Bourdoise, July 5, 1934, on Rincon Hill, near the Ferry Building, during the West Coast Maritime Strike.

This sidewalk mural commemorates these events. It is located in front of the ILWU Hall, near Fishermens Wharf.

I remember taking my son to Pier 39 once when he was about six or seven, to play games at the arcade there. On our way back to the car, we passed this mural. He was intrigued. As I was explaining it to him, describing the history, a young longshoreman came out and asked if we'd like to come inside, see the other murals and statues. He gave us the full tour, explaining everything, and my son was completely mesmerized, as was I.

Plaque commemorating the 1934 San Francisco General Strike.

Reads: In memory of Howard Sperry and Nick Bourdoise, who gave their lives on Bloody Thursday July 5, 1934 so that all working people might enjoy a greater measure of dignity and security.

Sperry and Bordoise were fatally shot by San Francisco police at the intersection of Mission and Steuart Streets, when longshoremen and seamen attempted to stop maritime employers from breaking their joint strike. Community outrage at these killings sparked a General Strike by all San Francisco unions.

The maritime strike continued through the middle of summer, concluding with a union victory which brought decent conditions to the shipping industry and set the stage for the rebirth of a strong and democratic labor movement on the west coast.

"An Injury to One is an Injury to All"

Mural commemorating the 1934 San Francisco General Strike, located in the old Rincon district, where the bloody maritime strike took place. 2 workers were killed by police: Howard Sperry and Nick Bordoise.

Today in Labor History July 16, 1934: The San Francisco General Strike began, with 150,000 workers participating. The longshoremen’s strike actually started on May 9 and lasted 83 days, leading ultimately to the unionization of all West Coast ports. The strike grew violent quickly, with company goons and police brutalizing longshoremen and sailors. They hired private security to protect the scabs they brought in to load and unload ships, housing them in moored ships and wall compounds that the strikers attacked. In San Pedro, two workers were killed by private security on May 15. Battles also broke out in Oakland, San Francisco, Portland and Seattle. On Bloody Thursday, July 5, in San Francisco, police attacked strikers with tear gas and with clubs while on horseback and later fired into the crowd, killing two and injuring others. A General Strike was called on July 14 and began on July 16, lasting 4 days. Many non-unionized workers joined the strike. Movie theaters and night clubs shut down. Many small businesses shut down & posted signs in solidarity with the strikers.

On July 17, the cops arrested 300 people they accused of being communists, radicals or subversives. The National Guard also blocked both ends of Jackson Street that day with machine gun-mounted trucks to aid vigilante attacks on the Marine Workers Industrial Union headquarters and the ILA soup kitchen. They raided many other union halls and communist organizations. Vigilantes kidnapped and beat a lawyer for the ACLU, as well as 13 radicals from San Jose, CA.

Today in Labor History 7/16/1877: The Great Railway Strike (Great Upheaval) began in Martinsburg, WV, with strikes spreading across the country, despite the unions, which tried to block it. Boatmen, steelers, miners & workers of all ages, genders & races joined in. Militias & national guards were deployed. For the 1st time ever, federal troops were used to crush a strike. Workers fought back with rocks & bricks. They sabotaged equipment. Dumped railroad cars. Rerouted engines. Many of the poorly paid soldiers went AWOL & joined the strikers. In Lebanon, PA, they mutinied. Karl Marx called it “the first uprising against the oligarchy of capital since the Civil War.”

In Chicago & St. Louis, strikes were led by the communist Workingmen’s Party, affiliated with the First International. In Chicago, future Haymarket martyr, Albert Parsons, gave a fiery speech. In St. Louis, workers took over & ran the city for a week in what became known as the St. Louis Commune (after the Paris Commune of 1871). At a huge meeting in St. Louis, a black man asked: “Will you stand with us regardless of color?” The crowd replied: “We will!”

The Great Upheaval ended after 45 days, with over 100 workers slaughtered. In Pittsburgh, the militia killed 20 workers in 5 minutes. In Chicago, they killed another 20. In Scranton, up to 50 were killed. In the aftermath, unions became better organized, particularly the new Knights of Labor, which mushroomed in size. But the bosses learned many lessons, too. Many of the old stone armories we see across the country today were built after the Great Upheaval to provide cities with greater fire power for the next great strikes.

My novel, "Anywhere But Schuylkill," is part of the "Great Upheaval" trilogy. You can get a copy from these indie booksellers:
https://www.keplers.com/
https://www.greenapplebooks.com/
https://christophersbooks.com/

Or send me $25 via Venmo (@Michael-Dunn-565) and your mailing address, and I will send you a signed copy!

You can read my full article on the Great Upheaval here: https://michaeldunnauthor.com/2024/03/31/the-great-upheaval/

#workingclass #LaborHistory #strike #wildcat #GeneralStrike #railroad #union #marx #uprising #rebellion #KnightsOfLabor #chicago #pittsburgh #saintlouis #pariscommune #communism #police #policebrutality #books #fiction #historicalfiction #novel #write #author @bookstadon