Today in Labor History April 6, 1968: Oakland police attacked the Black Panthers headquarters and assassinated Bobby Hutton, an unarmed teenager.

#workingclass #LaborHistory #blackpanthers #bobbyhutton #oakland #policebrutality #assassination #racism #BlackMastodon

Today in Labor History April 6, 1919: The Bavarian Soviet Republic was declared. Novelist, B. Traven (Death Ship, Treasure of the Sierra Madre), served on its Central Council of Workers, Soldiers and Farmers. The socialist republic was quashed a month later by the Freikorps, which included Rudolf Hess and other future members of the Nazi party.

#workingclass #LaborHistory #soviet #socialism #communism #germany #nazis #btraven #fiction #fascism #writer #author #books @bookstadon

Today in Labor History April 6, 1712: New York City saw its first slave revolt. It occurred just north of Wall Street, in response to the execution of twenty-one blacks for killing nine whites. Conditions were ideal for a revolt, since black slaves and freemen worked in close proximity, making communication and planning easier. In the aftermath of the revolt, the authorities jailed 70 black men. Six “committed suicide” in custody. The authorities executed twenty of the prisoners by burning and one on the “breaking wheel.” They also passed new regulations, prohibiting black men from meeting in groups larger than three or carrying firearms. Free men were also denied the right to own property.

#workingclass #LaborHistory #slavery #abolition #racism #revolt #uprising #newyork #wallstreet #BlackMastodon

Today in Labor History April 6, 1905: The Teamsters launched a sympathy strike with clothing cutters in Chicago. The strike started on December 15, 1904, at Montgomery Ward. The company locked out the workers and tried to starve them. The strike quickly spread to other unions. By April 6, 1905, there were 5,000 clothing workers on the picket lines. The teamsters added another 10,000 of their own. The bosses tried to ram through armed wagons full of scabs. The strikers fought back. Things grew increasingly violent. By the time the strike ended in May, twenty-one people were dead, mostly workers.

#workingclass #LaborHistory #teamsters #chicago #sympathystrike #unions #GeneralStrike #policebrutality #massacre

Today in Labor History April 5, 2010: Twenty-nine coal miners were killed in an explosion at the Upper Big Branch Mine in West Virginia. In 2015, Former Massey Energy CEO Don Blankenship was convicted of a misdemeanor for conspiring to willfully violate safety standards and was sentenced to one year in prison. He was found not guilty of charges of securities fraud and making false statements. Investigators also found that the U.S. Department of Labor and its Mine Safety and Health Administration was guilty of failing to act decisively, even after Massey was issued 515 citations for safety violations at the Upper Big Branch mine in 2009, prior to the deadly explosion.

So, the U.S. Dept of Labor, back when the U.S. staffed and funded its regulatory agencies, allowed a murderous boss to get away with 515 safety violations, resulting in the deaths of 29 miners, without any consequences for its bosses. And the courts gave the murderous CEO of Massey Energy a year in a Country Club prison for those same 29 worker deaths. Historically, mining (including coal, copper, gold, etc) has been one of the deadliest industries on the planet for workers, with thousands of deaths, and tens of thousands of injuries, in and around the pits, and tens of thousands of deaths from chronic lung ailments. It has also been one of the most oppressive for workers and one of the most violent in terms of the capitalist response to labor organizing, with hundreds of striking miners murdered in the U.S., alone.

To read more about mine worker organizing read here:

https://michaeldunnauthor.com/2024/12/24/the-calumet-massacre/
https://michaeldunnauthor.com/2024/04/20/the-ludlow-massacre/
https://michaeldunnauthor.com/2024/04/14/the-battle-of-blair-mountain/

#workingclass #LaborHistory #mining #explosion #workplacedeaths #coal #westvirginia #workplacesafety #profits #workersafety #strike #union

Today in Labor History April 5, 1989: The United Mine Workers launched their strike against Pittston Coal Co., eventually winning concessions by Pittston on February 20, 1990. The strike started in response to Pittston’s termination of health care for widows, retirees and disabled veteran miners. During the strike, there were 2,000 miners camped out daily at Camp Solidarity, and up to 40,000 total engaging in wild cat strikes, civil disobedience, picketing, occupations and sabotage. The strike reduced Pittston’s production by two-thirds, while over 4,000 strikers were arrested during the strike.

#workingclass #LaborHistory #pittston #coal #mining #strike #wildcat #disability #CivilDisobedience #sabotage #solidarity #police #healthcare #ableism

Today in Labor History April 5, 1977: U.S. disability rights activist stormed and occupied the offices of the US Department of Health, Education, and Welfare (HEW) in Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Denver, Los Angeles, New York City, Philadelphia, San Francisco, and Seattle. They demanded enactment of section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, which had passed Congress four years prior. The law mandated that no federally funded programs could exclude persons with disabilities and put into place legal protections, and the right to accommodations, for students with disabilities. During the prior four years, HEW director Joseph Califano repeatedly delayed enactment of the law, while regulations were weakened to benefit business interests. During the San Francisco protests, disability rights activists Judith Heumann, Kitty Cone, and Mary Jane Owen organized a 25-day occupation of the US Federal Building with 150 other activists. Solidarity support was provided by the Black Panthers, allied politicians, and the International Association of Machinists, who donated food, mattresses, wheelchairs, and other equipment, and who helped a delegation get to Washington, D.C. The regulations for section 504 were ultimately signed into law on 28 April, 1977.

For a really great documentary on the birth of this movement, please see “Crip Camp, A Disability Revolution” (2020).

#workingclass #LaborHistory #CivilDisobedience #occupation #directaction #disability #ableism #union #solidarity # #blackpanthers #sanfrancisco #JudithHeumann #KittyCone #MaryJaneOwen #BlackMastodon

The Silent #Peavey Plant: How #America’s #WorkingClass #Amp Empire Was #Outsourced
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3f9nxMf_HRU

What's your take? LLM generated?

At first, I thought it sounded like the host of another #history ch. I looked at the ch info. It's from 2015. Only one other video besides the current batch. One ~45min per day over the last 3wks. I know it's typical for netcasts to record several episodes & release before doing a big promotion so, it's possible these were all done within the last year & maybe the unseen host does not have a dayjob.

This video is a slide show. It sounds like a few lines were spliced in after a first take.

#ai? #musicEquipment

For the first time ever, A Pound of Ground Beef Now Costs More Than the Federal Minimum Wage....

Helps explain why 60% of U.S. households can no longer afford a "minimal quality of life."

Time for a General Strike?

Hell yeh.

But not just to remove the fascist from office. But to replace the whole damned system with one that generously supports the material, social and emotional needs of all its residents, not just the 0.1%.

https://money.com/federal-minimum-wage-vs-ground-beef-cost/

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/cost-of-living-income-quality-of-life/

#workingclass #minimumwage #classwar #poverty #inflation #generalstrike

Today In Labor History April 4, 1968: James Earl Ray assassinated Martin Luther King at the Lorraine Hotel, Memphis, Tennessee. King was in Memphis to support the sanitation workers’ strike that had started in February, 1968, for better working conditions and higher pay. The strike began 2 weeks after 2 workers were crushed to death when their truck malfunctioned, intensifying the already high level of frustration and anger over working conditions and safety. King led a protest march on March 28. Over 20,000 kids cut class to join the demonstration. Some members of the march began smashing downtown windows and looting. The cops intervened with mace, tear gas, clubs and live gunfire, killing 16-year-old Larry Paine, who had his hands in the air when he was shot. On April 3, one day before his assassination, King gave his “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop” speech.

#workingclass #LaborHistory #CivilRights #MartinLutherKing #racism #assassination #mlk #memphis #union #strike #police #policebrutality #policemurder #capitalism #students #kids #BlackMastodon