Today in Labor History March 19, 1935: Harlem Uprising occurred, during the Great Depression, after rumors circulated that a black Puerto Rican teenage shoplifter was beaten by employees at an S. H. Kress "five and dime" store, and then killed by the police. Protests were quickly organized by the Young Liberators and the Young Communist League, which were promptly declared illegal by the police. Participants smashed windows of the store and began looting. The protest and looting spread, causing $200 million in damages. Police arrested 125 people and killed 3. Mayor LaGuardia set up a multi-racial Commission to investigate the causes of the riot, headed by African-American sociologist E. Franklin Frazier and with members including labor leader A. Philip Randolph. The identified "injustices of discrimination in employment, the aggressions of the police, and the racial segregation" as conditions which led to the outbreak of rioting, and congratulated the Communist organizations as deserving "more credit than any other element in Harlem for preventing a physical conflict between whites and blacks".

#workingclass #LaborHistory #harlem #Riot #greatdepression #racism #police #policebrutality #poverty #segregation #BlackMastodon

Today in Labor History March 19, 1933: Nazis arrested Jewish antifascist photographer Gerda Taro and interrogated her about a supposed communist plot to overthrow Hitler. She had previously been arrested for distributing anti-fascist literature. The Nazis eventually let her go and she fled to France, and then Yugoslavia. She died at the age of 26, photo-documenting the Spanish Republican war against Franco and the fascists. Some said that she was responsible, along with Robert Capa, for inventing the genre of war photography. Capa was actually the nom de guerre of Taro’s lover, Endre Friedmann, a Hungarian Jew who taught her the art of photography and who later went on to found Magnum Photos, along with French photographer Henri Cartier-Bresson. “Capa” was Friedmann’s street name, back in Hungary. It meant “shark.”

#workingclass #LaborHistory #worldwartwo #hitler #nazis #holocaust #antisemitism #antifascism #antifa #fascism #photography #photojournalism #journalism #gerdataro #robertcapa

Today in Labor History March 19, 1742: Tupac Amaru was born. Tupac Amaru II had led a large Andean uprising against the Spanish. As a result, he became a mythical figure in the Peruvian struggle for independence and in the indigenous rights movement. The Tupamaros revolutionary movement in Uruguay (1960s-1970s) took their name from him. As did the Túpac Amaru Revolutionary guerrilla group, in Peru, and the Venezuelan Marxist political party Tupamaro. American rapper, Tupac Amaru Shakur, was also named after him. Chilean poet, Pablo Neruda, wrote a poem called “Tupac Amaru (1781).” And Clive Cussler’s book, “Inca Gold,” has a villain who claims to be descended from the revolutionary leader.

#workingclass #LaborHistory #indigenous #inca #tupac #conquest #colonialism #uprising #Revolutionary #PabloNeruda #poetry #novel #tupacamaru #peru #fiction #books #author #writer #poetry @bookstadon

Today in Labor History March 18, 1970: The first mass work stoppage in the 195-year history of the U.S. Postal Service began on this date in New York City. The walkout was illegal, giving President Richard Nixon the excuse to send in federal troops to sort the mail. But the strike succeeded in forcing Congress to raise wages and reorganize the postal system and marked a new militancy among postal employees.

#LaborHistory #workingclass #postal #union #strike #nixon #congress #wages #newyork #wages

Today in Labor History March 18, 1968: The staff of San Francisco's "progressive" rock station KMPX-FM walked out on strike citing a lack of control over programming & "hassles over the whole long-hair riff." Performers like the Rolling Stones, Joan Baez, the Jefferson Airplane and the Grateful Dead requested the station not play their music as long as the station was run by strikebreakers.

#workingclass #LaborHistory #strike #rollingstones #JoanBaez #gratefuldead #JeffersonAirplane #sanfrancisco #kmpx #radio

Today in Labor History March 18, 1918: U.S. authorities arrested Mexican anarchist Ricardo Flores Magón under the Espionage Act. They charged him with hindering the American war effort and imprisoned him at Leavenworth, where he died under highly suspicious circumstances. The authorities claimed he died of a "heart attack," but Chicano inmates rioted after his death and killed the prison guard who they believed executed him. Magon published the periodical “Regeneracion” with his brother Jesus, and with Licenciado Antonio Horcasitas. The Magonostas later led a revolution in Baja California during the Mexican Revolution. Many American members of the IWW participated. During the uprising, they conquered and held Tijuana for several days. Lowell Blaisdell writes about it in his now hard to find book, “The Desert Revolution,” (1962). Dos Passos references in his “USA Trilogy.”

#literary #historicalfiction #workingclass #LaborHistory #RicardoFloresMagon #magon #magonistas #mexico #mexican #Revolution #chicano #prison #Riot #books #author #writer @bookstadon

Today in Labor History March 18, 1834: The authorities sentenced Six farm laborers from Tolpuddle, Dorset, England to be transported to Australia for forming a trade union. In April, 30,000 workers marched in support of the deportees. The Tolpuddle struggle, which began in 1832, marked the beginning of British trade unionism. The workers were fighting for an end to the “Combination Laws,” which outlawed the formation of unions. The Tolpuddle Martyrs were pardoned in 1836, thanks to the popular protests.

#workingclass #LaborHistory #tolpuddle #martyrs #union #britain #australia #deportation

Today in Labor History March 18, 1871: The Paris Commune began on this date. It started with resistance to occupying German troops and the power of the bourgeoisie. They governed from a feminist and anarcho-communist perspective, abolishing rent and child labor, and giving workers the right to take over workplaces abandoned by the owners. The revolutionaries took control of Paris and held on to it for two months, until it was brutally suppressed. During Semaine Sanglante, the nationalist forces slaughtered 15,000-20,000 Communards. Hundreds more were tried and executed or deported. Many of the more radical communards were followers of Aguste Blanqui. Élisée Reclus was another leader in the commune. Many women participated, like Louise Michel and Joséphine Marchais, including in the armed insurrection. Nathalie Lemel, a socialist bookbinder, and Élisabeth Dmitrieff, a young Russian exile, created the Women's Union for the Defence of Paris and Care of the Wounded, demanding gender and wage equality.

Read my complete biograph of Louise Michel here: https://michaeldunnauthor.com/2024/04/20/louise-michel/

#workingclass #LaborHistory #paris #commune #anarchism #communism #execution #massacre #feminism #ChildLabor #Revolution #wageequality #socialism #agusteblanqui #ÉliséeReclus #womenshistorymonth #louisemichel