Today in Labor History June 2, 1945: World War II: The segregated, all-Nisei U.S. 522nd Field Artillery Battalion stopped a death march from Dachau to the Austrian border. As a result, they saved several hundred prisoners. Ironically (and criminally), back in the states, most Nisei (Japanese-Americans) were living in concentration camps.

#workingclass #LaborHistory #WorldWarTwo #concentrationcamps #dachau #antisemitism #AntiAsianHate #racism #fascism #nazis #nisei

Today in Labor History April 29, 1992: People rioted in Los Angeles and protested in other major cities in response to the Rodney King verdict. Despite video footage of police brutally beating a defenseless King, the jury acquitted all the police officers involved. Over the next three days 64 people died and hundreds of buildings were destroyed. However, the LA riots in also included an anti-Asian pogrom. 2,300 Korean businesses were looted or burned and hundreds of Koreans suffered from PTSD. Those who died included 2 Asians, 28 African Americans, 19 Latinos and 15 whites. In San Francisco, African American youth chased cops down the street with bats. And protesters shattered the façade of Bank of America with a concrete bus bench. I also remember having to duck behind a car to avoid being shot by a scared shop owner near Chinatown, as young men ran out of his store with 12-packs of beer. The violent police assault on King was one of the first to go viral in the digital age. It inspired hundreds of protests and ushered in a new era of citizen journalists documenting police brutality that contributed to the growth of the Black Lives Matter movement.

#workingclass #LaborHistory #policebrutality #police #RodneyKing #lapd #blm #blacklivesmatter #Riot #racism #antiAsianHate #BlackMastodon

Today in Labor History April 26, 1862: Congress passed the Anti-Coolie Act of 1862. They also called it, "An Act to Protect Free White Labor.” The law was one of a series of xenophobic laws enacted specifically to block the immigration of Chinese to the U.S., particularly to California. Laws like this encouraged anti-Asian violence like the Los Angeles anti-Chinese riot of 1871, the San Francisco anti-Chinese riot of 1877, the Denver Chinatown riot of 1880, the Eureka Chinese expulsion of 1885, the Rock Springs Massacre of 1885, the Tacoma pogrom of 1885, and the Seattle anti-Chinese riots of 1886.

You can read my full article, America’s Long Sordid History of Anti-Asian Violence, here: https://michaeldunnauthor.com/2021/03/21/americas-long-sordid-history-of-anti-asian-violence/

#workingclass #LaborHistory #xenophobia #AntiAsianHate #RaceRiots #racism #immigration #sanfrancisco #losangeles #denver #chinese #riot #seattle

Today in Labor History January 22, 1849: Terence Powderly, leader of the Knights of Labor, and mayor of Scranton, PA, was born on this date. the KOL attracted and spawned many radicals, including Daniel DeLeon, who went on to cofound the IWW and the Socialist Labor Party. Two of the Haymarket martyrs were also KOL members. The KOL, like its more radical cousin, the IWW, called for the abolition of the wage system. Like the IWW, their slogan was, “An Injury to One is the Concern of All.” And like the IWW, they claimed to fight for all workers, regardless of country, creed, gender or color. However, in reality, the union was xenophobic and racist, particularly toward the Chinese and participated in several anti-Chinese pogroms.

#workingclass #LaborHistory #KnightsOfLabor #IWW #union #strike #racism #haymarket #AntiAsianHate

Today in Labor History December 9, 1869: The Knights of Labor was founded in Philadelphia as a secret society open to all members of the working class. They specifically barred bankers, land speculators, lawyers, liquor dealers and gamblers from membership in their union. The Knights were one of the most important labor organizations of the late 1800s, reaching a membership of 700,000 by 1886. One of their first early successes was their strike against J. Gould’s Wabash Railroad. In addition to walking off the job, they occupied company buildings and sabotaged the tracks and equipment. While other unions were fighting for a 10-hour work day, the Knights were demanding an 8-hour day, as well as an end to child and convict labor. They were also one of the earliest labor organizations to accept blacks and women, and one of the first organized by industry, rather than craft. 50 African American sugarcane workers, organized by the Knights, were murdered by white scabs in the 1887 Thibodaux massacre. Their motto was “An Injury to One is the Concern of All.” Yet they also supported the Chinese Exclusion Act and participated in anti-Chinese riots, including one in Tacoma, Washington (1885) in which they expelled all the Chinese from town (at the time, 10% of the city’s population), as well as the Rock Springs massacre, in Wyoming (1885), which killed scores of Chinese. Support for the Knights quickly waned following the repression in the wake of the Haymarket Affair.

The KOL attracted and spawned many radicals, including Daniel DeLeon. He went on to cofound the IWW and the Socialist Labor Party. Two of the Haymarket martyrs were also KOL members. The KOL also denounced strikes. However, like its more radical cousin, the IWW, it called for the abolition of the wage system. And like the IWW, fought to organize all workers into one big union, including women and immigrants. In 1890, they merged with another union to form the United Mine Workers.

#workingclass #LaborHistory #union #strike #knightsoflabor #racism #Riot #AntiAsianHate #haymarket #eighthourday #IWW

Today in Labor History November 14, 1942: Japanese-American prisoners attacked a man believed to be an informer at the Poston concentration camp, in Yuma, AZ. The authorities arrested two popular inmates, leading to a giant strike by prisoners. A similar uprising took place at the Manzanar concentration camp, in California, the following month.

#workingclass #LaborHistory #japanese #concentrationcamp #worldwartwo #rebellion #strike #prison #racism #AntiAsianHate #immigration #antiimmigrant

Today in Labor History October 24, 1871: A mob of 500 White and Hispanic residents of Los Angeles (10% of the city’s population at the time) entered Old Chinatown and robbed, beat and murdered Chinese residents in the Chinese massacre of 1871. The incident started after reports that the Chinese were slaughtering whites in cold blood, including a cop and a rancher. The mob killed 19 Chinese immigrants. They hanged 15 of them, after first shooting them to death, fully 10% of L.A.’s small Chinese community. Only 8 of the rioters were convicted, but all of their convictions were overturned on technicalities. The massacre is represented in Judy Baca’s “Great Wall” mural in L.A.

You can read my longer article, “America’s Long Sordid History of Anti-Asian Violence,” here: https://michaeldunnauthor.com/2021/03/21/americas-long-sordid-history-of-anti-asian-violence/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kJOpKiJVdfQ

#workingclass #LaborHistory #chinatown #massacre #losangeles #AntiAsianHate #racism #immigration #chinese

Today in Labor History October 11, 1906: San Francisco ordered the segregation of all Asian children in schools until Teddy Roosevelt forced the city to rescind the order. It sparked a diplomatic crisis between the U.S. and Japan.

Read America’s Long Sordid History of Anti-Asian Violence here: https://michaeldunnauthor.com/2021/03/21/americas-long-sordid-history-of-anti-asian-violence/

#workingclass #LaborHistory #racism #xenophobia #AntiAsianHate #sanfrancisco #japan #schools #children

Today in Labor History September 2, 1885: 150 white miners, mostly affiliated with the Knights of Labor, attacked their Chinese fellow workers in the Rock Springs massacre in Wyoming. As a result, they killed 28 Chinese miners, wounded 15 others and forced all the other Chinese to flee town. By the time the federal troops arrived, there were no surviving Chinese people left in town. The bosses had been preferentially hiring the Chinese immigrants at lower wages than the European immigrants. The Chinese Exclusion Act, passed in 1882, also contributed by fanning the flames of anti-Asian bigotry.

You can read my entire article on the history anti-Asian hate in the U.S. here: https://michaeldunnauthor.com/2021/03/21/americas-long-sordid-history-of-anti-asian-violence/

#workingclass #LaborHistory #strike #massacre #racism #AntiAsianHate #chinese #immigration #mining #wyoming #union