Today in Labor History December 28, 1907: The New York Rent Strike began in the Lower Eastside, in response to proposed rent increases during the Panic of 1907, when tens of thousands lost their jobs. The organizers were Jewish immigrant women, but leadership was eventually taken over by the Socialist Party of America. One of the early organizers of the rent strike was Pauline Newman, who had been working at the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory since age 11. By age 15, she was active in Socialist organizations. She survived the deadly fire at the Triangle factory in 1911, which killed 146 young women and girls, mostly Jewish and Italian immigrants, and became an effective organizer with the ILGWU. She helped organize a 1909 General Strike among women garment worikers. Her organizing earned her the moniker “East Side Joan of Arc.”

The Lower Eastside rent strike soon spread to other parts of Manhattan and Brooklyn, with roughly 10,000 tenants taking part. The landlords ultimately broke the strike through mass evictions and police brutality. Nevertheless, approximately 2,000 people did successfully block rent increases. The rent strike was the larges the city had ever seen until then, and it helped to spawn decades of radical tenant organizing in New York.

#workingclass #LaborHistory #housing #rent #rentstrike #strike #police #policebrutality #evictions #jewish #immigration #socialism #paulinenewman #feminism #ilgwu #triangleshirtwaist #childlabor #GeneralStrike

Today in Labor History June 3, 1900: The International Ladies’ Garment Workers Union (ILGWU) was founded. In 1909, they led the Uprising of 20,000, a 14-wk strike sparked by a walkout at the Triangle Shirtwaist Company, that led to a General Strike. Management used thugs to brutally beat the women, while police looked the other way. In 1910, they led an even bigger strike, The Great Revolt, of 60,000 cloak-makers. The Triangle Shirtwaist fire, in 1911, prompted many more women to join the union. In 1919, many members left to join the Communist Party. Many of those who remained were anarchists with dual membership in the radical IWW. They challenged the autocratic leadership of the ILGWU. The 1920s was marred by sectarian battles between left- and right-wing factions and violence by hired gangsters. Ironically, it was Arnold Rothstein (the Jewish gangster behind the Chicago Black Sox scandal, and who mentored mobsters Meyer Lansky and Lucky Luciano) who got the gangsters to withdraw from the union.

#workingclass #LaborHistory #union #strike #ilgwu #IWW #TriangleShirtwaist #mafia #LuckyLuciano #GeneralStrike #communism #anarchism #arnoldrothstein #meyerlansky

Today In Labor History April 8, 1864: The 13th amendment to the U.S. Constitution was ratified, banning chattel slavery. However, it permitted a continuation of wage slavery and the forced labor of convicts without pay. And on this date in 1911, 128 convict miners, mostly African-Americans jailed for minor offenses, were killed by a massive explosion at the Banner coalmine near Birmingham, Alabama. While the Triangle Shirtwaist fire, which occurred just two weeks earlier, elicited massive public attention and support for the plight of immigrant women working in sweatshop conditions, the Banner explosion garnered almost no public sympathy, probably due to racism and the fact that they were prisoners.

#workingclass #LaborHistory #prison #prisonlabor #racism #coal #mine #immigrants #prisoner #slavelabor #slavery #workplacesafety #alabama #BlackMastadon #triangleshirtwaist #fire #explosion

Today is the anniversary of the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire that killed 146 garment workers.

This led me to look at ReadThePlaque. I found three plaques which give three very different perspectives of the events around it
https://readtheplaque.com/plaque/triangle-shirtwaist-factory#gsc.tab=0

#TriangleShirtwaist #ILGWU #History

Notable in these times when history is contested. As far as I know, all 3 of them are factually accurate, but they present and emphasize different facts.

It’s giving strong #TriangleShirtwaist energy 🔥

https://www.theatlantic.com/podcasts/archive/2023/12/dont-buy-that-sweater/676924/?gift=-Fv9R4P6cEEN68vsamhTNFKSBrO6OwIcUKLoHcZUi7c&utm_source=copy-link&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=share

#history

Today in Labor History June 3, 1900: The International Ladies’ Garment Workers Union (ILGWU) was founded. In 1909, they led the Uprising of 20,000, a 14-wk strike sparked by a walkout at the Triangle Shirtwaist Company, that led to a General Strike. Management used thugs to brutally beat the women, while police looked the other way. In 1910, they led an even bigger strike, The Great Revolt, of 60,000 cloak-makers. The Triangle Shirtwaist fire, in 1911, prompted many more women to join the union. In 1919, many members left to join the Communist Party. Many of those who remained were anarchists with dual membership in the radical IWW. They challenged the autocratic leadership of the ILGWU. The 1920s was marred by sectarian battles between left- and right-wing factions and violence by hired gangsters. Ironically, it was Arnold Rothstein (the Jewish gangster behind the Chicago Black Sox scandal, and who mentored mobsters Meyer Lansky and Lucky Luciano) who got the gangsters to withdraw from the union.

#workingclass #LaborHistory #union #strike #ilgwu #IWW #TriangleShirtwaist #mafia #LuckyLuciano #GeneralStrike #communism #anarchism

Today In Labor History April 8, 1911: 128 convict miners, mostly African-Americans jailed for minor offenses, were killed by a massive explosion at the Banner coalmine near Birmingham, Alabama. While the Triangle Shirtwaist fire, which occurred just two weeks earlier, elicited massive public attention and support for the plight of immigrant women working in sweatshop conditions, the Banner explosion garnered almost no public sympathy, probably due to racism and the fact that they were prisoners.

#workingclass #LaborHistory #prison #prisonlabor #racism #coal #mine #immigrants #prisoner #WorkplaceDeaths #slavelabor #slavery #workplacesafety #alabama #BlackMastadon #triangleshirtwaist #fire #explosion

Today in Labor History April 1, 1929: Textile workers struck at the Loray Mill, in Gastonia, N.C. Textile mills started moving from New England, to the South, in the 1890s, to avoid the unions. This escalated after the 1909 Shirtwaist strike (which preceded the infamous Triangle Shirtwaist fire), the IWW-led Lawrence (1912) and (1913) Patterson strikes, which were led by Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, Big Bill Haywood and Carlo Tresca. The Gastonia strike was violent and bloody. Dozens of strikers were imprisoned. A pregnant white woman, Ella Mae Wiggins, wrote and performed songs during the strike. She also lived with and organized African American workers, one of the worst crimes a poor white woman could commit in the South. The strike ended soon after goons murdered her. Woody Guthrie called Wiggins the pioneer of the protest ballad and one of the great folk song writers.

Wiley Cash wrote a wonderful novel about Ella Mae Wiggins and the Gastonia strike, “The Last Ballad.” Jess Walter wrote a really great novel about the Spokane free speech fight, featuring Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, called “The Cold Millions.” Other novels about the Gastonia strike include Sherwood Anderson’s, “Beyond Desire,” and Mary Heaton Vorse’s, “Strike!”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dJj65ZmjnS8

#workingclass #LaborHistory #gastonia #loray #strike #union #EllaMayWiggins #WoodyGuthrie #novel #fiction #HisFic #IWW #TriangleShirtwaist #books #author #writer #historicalfiction #folkmusic #racism #communism #woodyguthrie @bookstadon