Today in Labor History March 23, 1871: Far left workers proclaimed communes in Lyon and Marseilles. The Paris Commune began March 18. Workers, including Cluseret and Mikhail Bakunin and other anarchists and left socialists of the International Workingmen’s Association, had tried to create a commune in Lyon in 1870, as well. Prior to this, Cluseret fought the bourgeois moderates during the 1848 Paris uprising. And in 1860, he joined Garabaldi in his fight for Italian independence. In 1860, when William Sewell made a plea for European generals, he joined Union army with letters of support from Garibaldi, serving as a colonel, commanding troops in Shenandoah Valley. He eventually rose to the rank of general, but eventually quit when he was accused of insubordination for complaining about the abuse of civilians by Union troops. After that, he joined the Irish Republican cause, managing to escape a death sentence by the British. During the Paris Commune, Cluseret served as Minister of War. However, when he refused to arrest Monsignior Darboy, Archbishop of Paris, he was arrested for collusion with the enemy.

Cluseret once said, “the U.S. presents that strange anomaly of enslaved labor in a free nation. Politically free, the worker is socially the capitalists’ serf.”

Marx called him an opportunist and an overambitious babbler.

#workingclass #LaborHistory #civilwar #paris #lyon #Marseille #commune #bakunin #anarchism #cluseret #workers #marx #slavery #Abolition #independence

Today in Labor History March 22, 1794: President Washington signed the Slave Trade Act, which banned U.S. ships and citizens from engaging in the international slave trade. However, Americans continued to import and export slaves illegally, and other countries could still legally import slaves into the U.S. until 1807. A slave trader named John Brown, founder of Brown University, was the first person tried and acquitted under the Slave Trade Act. But the government still confiscated his ship. He was later elected to Congress.

#workingclass #LaborHistory #slavery #brownuniversity #racism #abolition #washington #congress #BlackMastodon

I have been so excited to announce this!

You're invited to a Conflict circle facilitation workshop by @genopretkbh ❤️‍🔥

#Aarhus let's study and practice restorative and transformative justice 🌿

Event info: https://dukop.dk/9563/

#RestorativeJustice #Abolition #TransformativeJustice #GenoprettendeRetfærdighed #MellemfolkeligtSamvirkeAarhus

Today in Labor History March 21, 1937: Palm Sunday, cops killed 19 unarmed men, women and children marching in a protest in Ponce, Puerto Rico. They injured another 200 civilians. The Puerto Rican Nationalist Party organized the march to commemorate the abolition of slavery in 1873 and to protest the imprisonment of the party’s leaders by the U.S. The police used Thompson submachine guns, rifles and pistols, shooting marchers in the back, during the Ponce Massacre. A commission placed the blame for the massacre on the U.S. appointed governor of Puerto Rico, Blanton Winship. However, no one, including Winship, nor any of the shooters, were ever prosecuted or punished.

#workingclass #LaborHistory #ponce #massacre #PuertoRico #colonialism #slavery #abolition #prison

Today in Labor History March 20, 1852: Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin was published, leading to a wave of support for abolition, as well as the publication of 30 books defending slavery. Stowe’s work was the first novel to sell a million copies.

#workingclass #LaborHistory #HarrietBeecherStowe #uncletom #slavery #abolition #books #author #writer #fiction #novel @bookstadon

“Building new, supposedly nicer cages is a reformist reform.
A non-reformist reform … [is] how do we start getting people out.”
- Victoria Law

🔗 https://youtu.be/SHrkD6L6jyA

#law #prisons #abolition #criminaljusticereform

Good piece from MJ about how staff at #architecture firm DLR Group refused to work on 🧊 detention projects.

#Prison #abolition folks shd take note abt pressure that can work to change design & systems tht can be inhumane.

#immigration #ethics #AIA

https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2026/03/ice-dlr-group-detention-corecivic-contract-worker-resistance-trump/

Mississippi Goddamn!

Today in Labor History March 16, 1995: Mississippi finally ratified the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, banning chattel slavery, 130 years after it was officially ratified by the U.S. in 1865. However, Mississippi never formally notified the U.S. archivist of its belated decision. In other words, the 1995 ratification was unofficial and did not legally count. It would not be until February 7, 2013, 148 years later, that it would make its ratification of the amendment legal.

Here is Nina Simone performing her famous song, Mississippi Goddam!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LJ25-U3jNWM

#workingclass #LaborHistory #slavery #mississippi #ninasimone #MississippiGoddam #abolition #thirteenthamendmendment #constitution #racism