#BlueCollarWriter Labor News Update - 4/14/2025:
https://www.bluecollarwriter.com/home/labor-news-update

#1u #UnionStrong #UnionYes #ItsBetterInAUnion #LaborHistory #NLRB #Jobs #Economy

Great article on the political economy of automation. Specifically love the how the Luddites were used to illustrate the role that the state played in ensuring uneven gains from productivity. https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2025/04/21/how-to-survive-the-ai-revolution

#artificialintelligence #laborhistory #capitalism

Today in Labor History April 14, 1930: Over 100 Mexican and Filipino farm workers were arrested for union activities in Imperial Valley, CA. 8 were convicted of “criminal syndicalism.”

#workingclass #LaborHistory #imperialvalley #mexican #filipino #union #farmworkers #immigrant #strike #syndicalism #prison #repression #antilabor

Today in Labor History April 14, 1935: The Black Sunday dust storm swept across the Oklahoma and Texas panhandles. This was one of the worst storms of the Dust Bowl. 4 years later, on this same date, John Steinbeck published his classic working-class novel, The Grapes of Wrath, about Dust Bowl refugees in California.

#workingclass #LaborHistory #dustbowl #GreatDepression #JohnSteinbeck #GrapesOfWrath #refugees #poverty #fiction #books #author #writer #Oklahoma #texas @bookstadon

Today in Labor History April 14, 1919: Workers in Limerick, Ireland, initiated a General Strike against the British military occupation. They ran the city as a soviet for two weeks. Workers printed their own newspaper and issued their own currency, which local businesses accepted. They also regulated food supplies to keep prices low and prevent profiteering. Numerous other soviets were created during the Irish War of Independence.

#workingclass #LaborHistory #generalstrike #limerick #soviet #socialism #ireland #independence #colonialism #soviet

Today in Labor History April 14, 1917: IWW sailors went on strike in Philadelphia and won a ten dollar per month raise. Ben Fletcher, an African-American IWW organizer, was instrumental in organizing the Philadelphia waterfront. Fletcher was born in Philly in 1890. He joined the Wobblies (IWW) in 1912, became secretary of the IWW District Council in 1913. He also co-founded the interracial Local 8 in 1913.

In 1913, Fletcher led 10,000 IWW Philly dockworkers on a strike. Within two weeks, they won a 10-hr day, overtime pay, & created one of the most successful antiracist, anticapitalist union locals in the U.S. At the time, roughly one-third of the dockers on the Philadelphia waterfront were black. Another 33% were Irish. And about 33% were Polish and Lithuanian. Prior to the IWW organizing drive, the employers routinely pitted black workers against white, and Polish against Irish. The IWW was one of the only unions of the era that organized workers into the same locals, regardless of race or ethnicity. And its main leader in Philadelphia was an African American, Ben Fletcher.

By 1916, thanks in large part to Fletcher’s organizing skill, all but two of Philadelphia’s docks were controlled by the IWW. And the union maintained control of the Philly waterfront for about a decade. At that time, roughly 10% of the IWW’s 1 million members were African American. Most had been rejected from other unions because of their skin color.

Fletcher also traveled up and down the east coast organizing dockers. However, he was nearly lynched in Norfolk, Virginia in 1917. And in 1918, the state arrested him, sentencing him to ten years for the crime of organizing workers during wartime. He served three years.

You can read my full biography of Ben Fletcher here: https://michaeldunnauthor.com/2021/05/13/ben-fletcher-and-the-iww-dockers/

#workingclass #LaborHistory #IWW #union #strike #benfletcher #racism #africanamerican #philadelphia #longshore #lynching #BlackMastadon

Today in Labor History April 13, 1894: The Great Northern rail strike began in Helena, Montana. It quickly spread to St. Paul. The strike was led Eugene V. Debs, president of the American Railway Union. Workers succeeded in shutting down most of the critical rail links. Consequently, the owners gave in to nearly all of the union’s demands. The successful strike led to thousands of rail workers joining the new union. Debs would go on to lead numerous other strikes, run for president of the U.S. several times, including from his prison cell, and to cofound the revolutionary union IWW, along with Mother Jones, Big Bill Haywood, Lucy Parsons, and others.

#workingclass #LaborHistory #union #strike #eugenedebs #railroad #solidarity #potus #IWW #motherjones #lucyparsons #bigbillhaywood

Today in Labor History April 13, 1873: The Colfax massacre, occurred in Colfax, Louisiana. A mob of former Confederate soldiers and current KKK members murdered 60-153 black militiamen after they surrendered. The militiamen were guarding the parish courthouse in the wake of the contested 1872 election for governor. Southern elections during Reconstruction were regularly marred by violence and fraud. It was the worst act of racist violence during Reconstruction.

#workingclass #LaborHistory #kkk #racism #louisiana #reconstruction #massacre #confederacy #civilwar #whitesupremacy #BlackMastadon

Today in Labor History April 13, 1975: Phalangists in Lebanon killed 26 members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. This marked the start of the 15-year Lebanese Civil War. 120,000 people died in the war and nearly one million people fled the country. One of the worst atrocities of the war was the Sabra and Shatila massacre. Lebanese Phalangists, allied with the Israeli Defense Force (IDF), slaughtered 3,500 Lebanese and Palestinian civilians in a refugee camp. IDF soldiers facilitated the slaughter by blocking exits and preventing civilians from escaping. In 1983, the Kahan Commission found then-Israeli Defense Minister, Ariel Sharon, personally responsible for the massacre. He resigned and then became Prime Minister.

#workingclass #LaborHistory #palestine #israel #idf #lebanon #CivilWar #massacre #SabraAndShatila #PFLP #zionism #FreePalestine #palestine #humanrights