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

Today in Labor History July 9, 1935: The Squeegee Strike began in New York, in protest of the dismissals of six subway car cleaners who refused a work speed-up. All were reinstated and most of the union’s grievances were resolved. It was the first successful strike by the new Transport Workers Union (TWU), created in 1934 by 7 NYC subway workers who belonged to the Irish nationalist organization Clan na Gael. They were inspired by the socialism and trade union work of James Connolly, one of the founding members of the IWW . The TWU was a militant industrial union, organizing all workers in the industry, regardless of skill or job title. The union quickly expanded to include workers in all transport industries, throughout the U.S.

#workingclass #LaborHistory #union #strike #socialism #jamesconnolly #IWW #ireland #newyork

Today in Labor History June 26, 1894: The American Railway Union (ARU), led by Eugene Debs, called a nationwide boycott in solidarity with their striking members at Pullman, Illinois. The Pullman Railroad Strike began as a wildcat strike in Chicago, when 4,000 railway workers walked off the job. It quickly escalated into the largest industrial strike the U.S. had ever seen, with 260,000 workers participating. Most of the workers lived in the company town of Pullman, just south of Chicago. When George Pullman slashed wages and jobs, he didn’t lower rents. Consequently, the workers called a strike. In addition to fighting for increased wages and union representation, they also wanted democracy in the autocratic company town. When the strike started, the Pullman workers were not yet organized in a union. However, Eugene Debs, who created the ARU in 1893, came in to organize the men and they quickly signed up. He called a boycott which halted much of the rail transport west of the Mississippi. Worker sabotage caused $80 million in damages. The government sent in federal troops to suppress the strike, killing at least 30 strikers. They also arrested Debs for conspiracy to block U.S. mail. Clarence Darrow defended him. However, he still got six months in prison. Debs would go on to cofound the IWW, in 1905, along with Lucy Parsons, Mother Jones, Big Bill Haywood, James Connolly, and others.

#workingclass #LaborHistory #strike #union #wildcat #eugenedebs #pullman #chicago #prison #IWW #motherjones #lucyparsons #jamesconnolly #BigBillHaywood #boycott #conspiracy #sabotage

James Connolly (Séamas Ó Conghaile) was born on 5 June 1868 to Irish parents in the Cowgate area of Edinburgh, Scotland, Connolly left school for working life at the age of 11, and became involved in socialist politics in the 1880s.

He opposed British rule in Ireland, and was one of the leaders of the Easter Rising of 1916, commanding the Irish Citizen Army throughout.

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#Ireland #IrishHistory #JamesConnolly #EasterRising #OnThisDay