JAMES CONNOLLY 110th ANNIVERSARY

In the early hours of May 12th 1916, #JamesConnolly, was taken by stretcher from Dublin Castle to the stonebreakers yard in #Kilmainham Jail, strapped to a wooden chair, and executed by a #BritishArmy firing squad.

James Connolly was a Marxist, a patriot, an internationalist and the leader of the revolutionary working class in the #EasterRising. His execution was among the blackest crimes of imperialism against #Ireland and the international socialist movement.

Today in Labor History May 12, 1916: The authorities executed James Connolly on this date for his role in the Easter Rising, which took place in Dublin, the month prior. The uprising sought to end British rule and create an independent Ireland. 485 people died in the fighting, including 143 British soldiers and cops. The rest were mostly Irish civilians. The British took 3,500 prisoners and sent 1,800 to internment camps. They also executed sixteen of the rebel leaders, sparking outrage among the Irish public. Connolly was an Irish republican, socialist and union leader. Prior to the Easter Rising, he lived in Scotland and participated in Scottish socialist organizations. After that, he emigrated to the U.S., where he cofounded the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), along with Lucy Parsons, Mother Jones, Eugene Debs and Big Bill Haywood. He also founded the Irish Socialist Federation in New York. In Ireland, and was a leader of the Irish Transport and General Workers’ Union. He also participated in the Dublin lock-out, one of the largest and most significant labor disputes in Irish history.

#workingclass #LaborHistory #jamesconnolly #IWW #dublin #easterrising #union #strike #ireland #independence #socialism #colonialism

Today in Labor History May 11, 1894: The Pullman Railroad Strike began in Chicago, Illinois, when 4,000 workers walked off the job. It began as a wildcat strike and quickly escalated into the largest industrial strike to date in the U.S. Nearly 260,000 railroad workers participated. The strike and boycott halted nearly all rail traffic west of Detroit. The strike began during a severe depression. George Pullman lowered wages and began laying off workers, without reducing rent in his company town of Pullman, Illinois, where most of the workers lived. Eugene Debs rose to prominence as a labor leader during this strike. The American Federation of Labor refused solidarity because they thought Debs was stealing their members, as the American Railway Union was not an AFofL member. The government sent in federal troops to suppress the strike. 30 workers were killed in Chicago, alone. Over 40 more were killed in other parts of the country. Property damage exceeded $80 million. Debs would go on to run for president four times, as a socialist, running some of his campaigns from prison. He was also a founding member of the radical IWW, along with Lucy Parsons, Mother Jones, Big Bill Haywood, and Easter Rising martyr, James Connolly.

#LaborHistory #workingclass #eugenedebs #pullman #strike #union #railroad #massacre #wildcat #socialism #boycott #IWW #motherjones #lucyparsons #jamesconnolly #bigbillhaywood #chicago

Today in Labor History April 24, 1916: The Easter rising began in Dublin. Irish rebels, led by James Connolly and Patrick Pearce, attempted to end British rule and create an independent Ireland. The armed uprising lasted six days. Men and women participated. 485 people died in the fighting, including 143 British soldiers and cops. The rest were mostly Irish civilians. The British ultimately prevailed. They took 3,500 prisoners and sent 1,800 to internment camps. They also executed sixteen of the Rising’s leaders, including James Connolly, sparking outrage among the Irish public.

James Connolly was an Irish republican, socialist and union leader. Prior to the Easter Rising, he lived in Scotland and participated in Scottish socialist organizations. After that, he emigrated to the U.S., where he founded the Irish Socialist Federation in New York and co-founded the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), along with Mother Jones, Eugene Debs, Lucy Parsons, Big Bill Haywood, and others. In Ireland, he was a leader of the Irish Transport and General Workers’ Union and participated in the Dublin lock-out, one of the largest and most severe labor disputes in Irish history.

#workingclass #LaborHistory #easterrising #dublin #ireland #colonialism #independence #IWW #jamesconnolly #PatrickPearce #union #socialism #Revolution

Today in Labor History August 26, 1913: The Dublin lock-out began, a 5- month strike over terrible living and working conditions, and for union recognition. At the time, some Irish workers were living with 55 people per house. The Infant mortality rate among the poor was 142 per 1,000 births. TB-related deaths were 50% higher than in England or Scotland. The main organizers of the strike were 2 syndicalists, James Larkin and IWW cofounder, James Connolly. Several workers were killed by police and by strikebreakers. Hundreds were injured. WB Yeats’ poem, September 1913, is often viewed as a commentary on the brutality of the strike. Connolly was later executed as a leader of the Easter Rising, in 1916.

#workingclass #LaborHistory #dublin #lockout #union #strike #ireland #socialism #jameslarkin #jamesconnolly #IWW #police #policebrutality

Today in Labor History July 10, 1894: The Pullman Rail Car strike was put down by 14,000 federal and state troops. Over the course of the strike, soldiers killed 70 American Railway Union (ARU) members. Eugene Debs and many others were imprisoned during the strike for violating injunctions. Debs founded the ARU in 1893. The strike began, in May, as a wildcat strike, when George Pullman laid off employees and slashed wages, while maintaining the same high rents for his company housing in the town of Pullman, as well as the excessive rates he charged for gas and water. During the strike, Debs called for a massive boycott against all trains that carried Pullman cars. While many adjacent unions opposed the boycott, including the conservative American Federation of Labor, the boycott nonetheless affected virtually all train transport west of Detroit. Debs also called for a General Strike, which Samuel Gompers and the AFL blocked. At its height, over 200,000 railway workers walked off the job, halting dozens of lines, and workers set fire to buildings, boxcars and coal cars, and derailed locomotives. Clarence Darrow successfully defended Debs in court against conspiracy charges, arguing that it was the railways who met in secret and conspired against their opponents. However, they lost in their Supreme Court trial for violating a federal injunction.

By the 1950s, the town of Pullman had been incorporated into the city of Chicago. Debs became a socialist after the strike, running for president of the U.S. five times on the Socialist Party ticket, twice from prison. In 1905, he cofounded the radical IWW, along with Lucy Parsons, Mother Jones, Big Bill Haywood and Irish revolutionary James Connolly. In 1894, President Cleveland designated Labor Day a federal holiday, in order to detract from the more radical May 1st, which honored the Haymarket martyrs and the struggle for the 8-hour day. Legislation for the holiday was pushed through Congress six days after the Pullman strike ended, with the enthusiastic support of Gompers and the AFL.

#workingclass #LaborHistory #union #strike #eugenedebs #IWW #pullman #chicago #haymarket #EightHourDay #socialism #lucyparsons #motherjones #BigBillHaywood #revolutionary #jamesconnolly #generalstrike #boycott