Today in Labor History June 23, 1947: The anti-worker Taft-Hartley Act was passed, overriding President Harry Truman’s veto. It came on the heels of the largest strike wave in U.S. history. When World War Two ended, inflation soared and veterans flooded the labor market. As a result, frustrated workers began a series of wildcat strikes. Many grew into national, union-supported strikes. In November 1945, 225,000 UAW members went on strike. In January 1946, 174,000 electric workers struck. That same month, 750,000 steel workers joined them. Then, in April, a national coal strike began. 250,000 railroad workers struck in May. In total, 4.3 million workers went on strike. It was the closest the U.S. came to a national General Strike in the 20th century. And in December 1946, Oakland, California did have a General Strike, led by women retail workers. It was the last in U.S. history, and the action the most prompted Congress to take action on behalf of their corporate bosses.

Taft-Hartley rolled back many of the labor protections created by the 1935 Wagner Act. It weakened unions in numerous ways, including the banning of the General Strike, and all forms of protest in support of workers at other companies, effectively prohibiting solidarity actions. It also allowed states to exempt themselves from union requirements. Twenty states immediately enacted anti-union open shop laws. There hasn’t been a General Strike in the U.S. since then.

#LaborHistory #workingclass #tafthartley #generalstrike #union #antiunion #antilabor #unionbusting #solidarity #oakland #WorldWarTwo #congress

Pretty much the entire VC-Tech alliance was nothing but self-dealing fraud:

https://david.newgas.net/did-my-old-job-only-exist-because-of-fraud/

It's why there were so many incubators.

It's why there was Startup Weekend - which was a ludicrous farce, despite how much I enjoyed them.

It's why so many valuations in so many ridiculous startups with laughable premises were off the charts.

The entire tech industry as we know it was built on fraud.

We got played.

#GeneralStrike #PermanentStrike

Today in Labor History June 21, 1919: Strikers were murdered by police on Bloody Sunday, during the Winnipeg General Strike. The strike, which lasted six weeks, from May 15 to June 26, involved over 30,000 workers, and shut down all economic activity. Workers were angry over wartime price gouging and profiteering by business, inflation, stagnant wages, and discrimination against immigrants. Like the IWW, they were calling for the establishment of One Big Union in order to solidify class solidarity and unite workers across all industries into a single organization. Over the course of the strike, 2 workers were killed, 30 were injured, and 94 were arrested.

#workingclass #LaborHistory #GeneralStrike #winnipeg #canada #police #policebrutality

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Path%C3%A9_News_No._57_-_(excerpt)_(Winnipeg_General_Strike)_(1919).webm

Mark Carney’s corporate checklist includes gutting the right to strike

#Canada #cdnpoli #unions #labour #labor #WorkersRights #solidarity #generalstrike #MarkCarney

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2qNlQ_tJAg8

Someone once told me, "We are the universe experiencing itself."

That little sentence upended my entire worldview and mental model in a way that I will - thankfully - never recover.

It's why I'm agnostic instead of atheist.

It's why I'm in favor of communalism and local determination and not "order" and hierarchies.

The purpose of life is to experience it - full stop.

And we've created a world that limits that for the vast majority of people.

Fix it.

#GeneralStrike #PermanentStrike