Tag: Organized Labor

Peace & Justice History for 3/28

March 28, 1799
The New York state legislature enacted a law mandating the gradual end of slavery. Children of slaves would not be emancipated until they had served their parent’s “holder” and reached their mid-twenties. It was not until 1827 that a subsequent law declared, “every person born within this state, whether white or colored, is free.”
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March 28, 1918
2,000 in the city and province of Quebec, Canada, demonstrated at the culmination of the conscription crisis during the “Great War” (World War I).
High casualty rates in Europe forced the Ottawa, Ontario, national government to institute a draft. The Canadiens resisted military service in support of Great Britain’s foreign policy. The protests continued for five days over the Easter weekend.

Anti-Conscription Parade in Victoria Square, Montreal, Quebec, May 24, 1917.The gathering in this photo looks calm. Riots nearly a year later resulted in the death of four demonstrators in Quebec City.
Read more 
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March 28, 1964
Three hundred were arrested during a sit-down protest at U.S. Air Force headquarters in Ruislip, England. The protest was organized by the Committee of 100, a group using nonviolent direct action to campaign for British unilateral nuclear disarmament.
Conceived by the president of the Committee for Nuclear Disarmament, Bertrand Russell (he resigned this post soon after), and a young American academic named Ralph Schoenman, they proposed mass civil disobedience in resisting nuclear weapons, challenging the authorities to “fill the jails” with the intention of causing prison overload and large-scale disorder
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Police in Ruislip arrested men and women demonstrators indiscriminately. photo: John ‘Hoppy’ Hopkins.
They were committed to nonviolence, and on arrest would go limp so as to create maximum disruption without conflict.
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March 28, 1968
Martin Luther King, Jr., led a march in support of striking sanitation workers in Memphis, Tennessee.
Shortly after its start, violence broke out followed by looting; one 16-year-old black boy was killed, 60 people were injured, and over 150 arrested.
Police dispersed the rioters with mace, batons and teargas. National Guard troops are called in and sealed off black neighborhoods; martial law was declared by nightfall.
Despite the violence, King insisted on returning to the city and the sanitation workers’ side the following week.
Two alternative views of what happened that day in Memphis, and what followed 
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March 28, 1979
In the worst nuclear accident in U.S. history, a cooling system on the Unit Two reactor failed at Three Mile Island (TMI) in Middletown, Pennsylvania.
This led to a partial meltdown that uncovered the reactor’s core. Radioactive steam leaked into the atmosphere, prompting fears for the safety of the plant’s 500 workers and the surrounding community.
More from nearby Dickinson College
 
Three Mile Island accident timeline with photos 
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March 28, 2001
After being delayed by massive anti-nuclear protests en route, 60 tons of nuclear waste arrived by train at Dannenberg, Germany. Though the government has agreed to phase out German reliance on nuclear power, some plants will continue to operate until 2021.
The waste fuel rods sent to France for reprocessing had to return to Germany for permanent long-term storage. Transported through Germany by train, and then by truck to their permanent site in Gorleben, movement of the 28 glass casks was considered an unacceptable safety risk to residents. Protesters blocked the tracks, sometimes chaining themselves in place, to stop the shipment.
20,000 police were required to allow the train’s passage.
Protester Jürgen Sattari said he considered the operation a success.
“We want to stop the convoy,” he said. “Of course we know we can’t halt it indefinitely, but we can drive up the political price.”
More on the broad-based struggle against nuclear waste in Germany 

https://www.peacebuttons.info/E-News/peacehistorymarch.htm#march28

Peace & Justice History for 3/7

March 7, 1932
The Ford Hunger March began on Detroit’s east side and proceeded 10 miles seeking relief during the Great Depression. Facing hunger and evictions, workers had formed neighborhood Unemployed Councils. Along the route, the marchers were given good wishes from Detroit Mayor Frank Murphy as well as two motorcycle escorts, and thousands joined the marchers along the route.

At the Detroit city limit, the marchers were met by Dearborn police and doused by fire hoses.
Despite the cold weather, they continued to the Employment Office of the Ford River Rouge plant, from which there had been massive layoffs.
Five workers were killed and nineteen wounded by police and company “security” armed with pistols, rifles and a machine gun.
  Dave Moore
According to Dave Moore, one of the marchers, “That blood was black blood and white blood. One of the photos that was published in the Detroit Times, but never seen since, shows a black woman, Mattie Woodson, wiping the blood off the head
of Joe DiBlasio, a white man who lay there dying . . .

It’s been 75 years, but when you drive down Miller Road today, your car tires will be moistened with the blood that those five shed.” Grave markers with the words “His Life for the Union” pay tribute to the fallen hunger marchers in Woodmere Cemetery on Detroit’s west side.
March 7, 1965
525 civil rights advocates began a 54-mile march on a Sunday morning from Selma, Alabama, to the capital of Montgomery, to promote voting rights for blacks. Just after crossing the Edmund Pettus Bridge on the outskirts of Selma, the marchers were attacked in what became known as Bloody Sunday.

Enforcing an order by Governor George Wallace, the group was broken up by state troopers and volunteer officers of the Dallas County sheriff who used tear gas, nightsticks, bullwhips and rubber tubing wrapped in barbed wire. John Lewis, then head of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and a leader of the march, suffered a fractured skull.John Lewis was elected a member of Congress from Georgia in 1986 and served till his death in 2020.ABC television interrupted a Nazi war crimes documentary, “Judgment at Nuremberg,” to show footage of the violence in Selma, confusing some viewers about who was beating whom.

Injured in Selma
Selma 1965 – Edmund Pettus Bridge, video excerpt from a PBS documentary
with Rep. John Lewis and others who were there
Read more
March 7, 1988
A Federal Court ruled in Atlanta, Georgia, that a peace group must have the same access to students at high school career days as military recruiters. 
 
the anti-recruitment movement today: LEAVE MY CHILD ALONE!

https://www.peacebuttons.info/E-News/peacehistorymarch.htm#march7

Peace & Justice History for 1/23

The 1970 entry reminded me of how, during the W admin in 2001 before and after the plane crashes and USA PATRIOT, Bartcop used to mention and link Paul Krassner’s site (now gone, of course. A great deal about him is gone online, but I found a link to something still up. Anyway.) Anyway, he was hilarious for his time, and wrote a great resistance blog during a few years back then. It was cheering. So here’s the 23rd’s history:

January 23, 1890
The United Mine Workers of America was formed through the amalgamation of the National Progressive Union (organized 1888) and the mine locals under the Knights of Labor, including all workers in the coal industry. The workers faced unstable employment, the prevalence of company towns (where the mine owners controlled all housing and commerce), and extremely hazardous working conditions.
UMWA history 
January 23, 1962

Fifteen members of the Committee of 100, the non-violent direct action wing of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND), sat in at the British House of Commons demanding a halt to nuclear weapons testing.
CND history 
January 23, 1970
Called as witnesses, folksingers Judy Collins, Arlo Guthrie, Country Joe McDonald, Phil Ochs, and Pete Seeger were denied permission to sing as part of their testimony for the defense at the trial of “The Chicago Seven.”
Seven leaders of demonstrations at the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago were being tried for conspiring to incite a riot as they protested the Vietnam war.

Judy Collins, Arlo Guthrie, Country Joe McDonald, Phil Ochs, and Pete Seeger
More on the Chicago 7 
Paul Krassner’s quite irreverent recollection of testifying at the trial 
January 23, 1973
President Richard Nixon announced a Vietnam peace deal. The president appeared on national television and said that National Security Adviser Henry A. Kissinger and North Vietnam’s chief negotiator, Le Duc Tho, had initialed an agreement in Paris “to end the war and bring peace with honor in Vietnam and Southeast Asia.”
The agreement had actually been initialed six days beforehand.
Henry A. Kissinger and Le Duc Tho initial the agreement.
Read more 
Listen to Nixon’s announcement 
January 23, 1976
The Continental Walk for Disarmament & Social Justice began in Ukiah, California, heading for Washington, D.C. Its purposes were “to raise the issue of disarmament through unilateral action . . . to educate about nonviolent resistance as a means superior to armament . . . and to demonstrate how global and domestic and economic problems are interconnected with militarism and the causes of war . . . .”

Initiated by the War Resisters League, and co-sponsored by the Fellowship of Reconciliation, American Friends Service Committee, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, Catholic Peace Fellowship, Clergy and Laity Concerned, SANE, and Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom, the walk took 10 months and covered 8,000 miles through 34 states.
Comprehensive archive of the walk: 

https://www.peacebuttons.info/E-News/peacehistoryjanuary.htm#january23

Peace & Justice History for 1/4

January 4, 1961
The longest recorded labor strike ended after 33 years: Danish barbers’ assistants had begun their strike in 1938 in Copenhagen.
January 4, 1965
The Free Speech Movement held its first legal rally in Sproul Plaza of the University of California at Berkeley.
January 4, 1974
President Richard Nixon refused to release tape recordings of Oval Office discussions and other documents subpoenaed by the Senate Watergate Committee investigating illegal activities of the president’s re-election committee.

Nixon’s attempted suppression didn’t work.

Listen to the “smoking gun”

https://www.peacebuttons.info/E-News/peacehistoryjanuary.htm#january4

Peace & Justice History for 1/2

January 2, 1905
The Conference of Industrial Unionists in Chicago formed the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), frequently known as The Wobblies. The IWW mission was to form “One Big Union” among industrial workers.


IWW home  
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January 2, 1920
U.S. Attorney General Alexander Palmer, in what were called the Palmer or Red raids, ordered the arrest and detention without trial of 6,000 Americans, including suspected anarchists, communists, unionists and others considered radicals, including many members of the IWW.

Attorney General Alexander Palmer
This followed a mass arrest of thousands two months earlier based on Palmer’s belief that Communist agents from Russia were planning to overthrow the American government.
A suicide bomber had blown off the front door of the newly appointed Palmer the previous June, one in a series of coordinated attacks that day on judges, politicians, law enforcement officials, and others in eight cities nationwide. Palmer put a young lawyer, J. Edgar Hoover, in charge of investigating the bombings, collecting information on potentially violent anarchists, and coordinating the mass arrests.
More on the Palmer raids
FBI perspective 
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January 2, 1975
A U.S. Court ruled that John Lennon and his lawyers be given access to Department of Immigration and Naturalization files regarding his deportation case, to determine if the government case was based on his 1968 British drug conviction, or his anti-establishment comments during the years of the Nixon administration.
On October 5, 1975, the U.S. Court of Appeals overturned the order to deport Lennon, and he was granted permanent residency status.

Watch the trailer for the documentary, “The U.S. v. John Lennon” 
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January 2, 1996

Khaleda Zia
An estimated 100,000 Bangladeshi women traveled from the countryside to attend a rally in Dacca, the capital, to protest Islamist clerics’ attacks on women’s education and employment.
Khaleda Zia, the country’s first female prime minister, had introduced compulsory free primary education, free education for girls up to class ten, a stipend for the girl students, and food for the education program.
About Khaleda Zia 

https://www.peacebuttons.info/E-News/peacehistoryjanuary.htm#january2

Peace & Justice History for 11/19:

November 19, 1915
Joe Hill, a labor organizer for the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) was assassinated by firing squad in the courtyard of the Utah State Penitentiary in Salt Lake City.

The IWW, or Wobblies as they were known, were advocates of organizing all workers into One Big Union. It is reported that Joe had been framed for murder by copper bosses, the press and government forces.
Just prior to his execution, as Joe stood before the firing squad he propelled himself him from organizer to labor martyrdom with these words: “Don’t waste any time in mourning. Organize!“
Joe Hill: The Man Who Didn’t Die,  and more 
The IWW today 
November 19, 1969
In an effort to undercut growing opposition to a draft made necessary by the Vietnam War, Congress passed a law requiring random selection of draftees through a lottery.
The Selective Service System would call up young men based upon their birthday, first with 19-year-olds and those with expired college deferments.
November 19, 1977

Sadat arrives in Israel
In an unprecedented move for an Arab leader, Egyptian President Anwar el-Sadat traveled to Israel to seek a permanent peace settlaement with Egypt’s neighbor after decades of conflict. This action was extremely unpopular in the Arab World and especially among Muslim fundamentalists. Egypt and Israel had fought four wars since 1948.

Sadat on November 9:
“ Israel would be astonished when they hear me say this. But I say it. I am ready to go even to their home … to the Knesset and discuss peace with them if need be.”
Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin on November 11:
“ Let us say to one another, and let it be a silent oath by the peoples of Egypt and Israel: no more wars, no more bloodshed and no more threats.”
Together in Israel:
Sadat:
“ I wish to tell you today and I proclaim to the whole world: We accept to live with you in a lasting and just peace.”
Begin:
“ Everything must be negotiated and can be negotiated.
We Jews appreciate courage, and we will know how to appreciate our visitor’s courage.”
Sadat’s speech to the Israeli Knesset (parliament):

https://www.peacebuttons.info/E-News/peacehistorynovember.htm#november19

Peace & Justice History for 11/8

Short one today, very bad one tomorrow but also some light.

November 8, 1892
Thirty thousand Black and White factory and dock workers staged a general strike in New Orleans, demanding union recognition, closed shops (where all co-workers join the union), and hour and wage gains. They were joined by non-industrial laborers, such as musicians, clothing workers, clerks, utility workers, streetcar drivers, and printers.
November 8, 1935
United Mine Workers president John L. Lewis and other labor leaders formed the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO). They had split with the existing labor union umbrella organization, the American Federation of Labor (AFL), which was not interested in organizing unskilled workers, such as those in the steel, rubber, textile and auto industries.

John L. Lewis
CIO history 

https://www.peacebuttons.info/E-News/peacehistorynovember.htm#november8

Peace & Justice History for 10/24:

October 24, 1935
Langston Hughes’s first play, “Mulatto,” opened on Broadway. It was the longest-running play (373 performances) by an African-American until Lorraine Hansberry’s “A Raisin in the Sun” which premiered in 1959.
Langston Hughes
First-rate bio of Langston Hughes 
October 24, 1940
The 40-hour workweek went into effect under the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938, requiring employers to pay overtime and restricting the use of child labor.
Decades of labor agitation and a considerable number of lives made this change possible.

More on The Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938: 
October 24, 1945

The United Nations World Security Organization came into being when the Soviet Union (Union of Soviet Socialist Republics or USSR) in mid-afternoon deposited its instrument of ratification of the U.N. Charter.
The USSR became the last of the five major powers and the 29th of 51 nations, the minimum necessary to bring this about. James F. Byrnes, U.S. Secretary of State, then signed the protocol formally attesting that the Charter of the United Nations had come into force.This is now considered United Nations Day.
Read more  (no paywall.)
October 24, 1970
Salvador Allende Gossens, an avowed Marxist and head of the Unidad Popular Party, became the president of Chile after being elected and confirmed by the Chilean Congress.For the next three years, the United States exerted tremendous pressure to destabilize and unseat the Allende government. In 1958, and again in 1964, Allende had run on a socialist /communist platform. In both elections, the United States government (as well as U.S. businesses such as International Telephone and Telegraph (ITT), which had significant investments in Chile) worked to defeat Allende by sending millions of dollars of assistance to his political opponents.

Allende and supporters
More on Allende 
October 24, 1981

More than 250,000 people, organized by the Committee for Nuclear Disarmament (CND), marched through London to protest the siting of American nuclear missiles in the United Kingdom.
More background and video

https://www.peacebuttons.info/E-News/peacehistoryoctober.htm#october24