Today in Labor History March 7, 1942: IWW cofounder and anarchist labor organizer Lucy Parsons died on this date in Chicago, Illinois. Lucy Parsons was part African American and part Native American. Her mother had been a slave. In 1871, she married Albert Parsons, a Confederate soldier, in Waco, Texas. Soon after, they were forced to flee due to racism, moving to Chicago. There they participated in the Great Upheaval of worker rebellions that swept across the U.S. in 1877. They were also active in the movement for the 8-hour day and other worker movements. In 1887, the authorities executed Albert, along with several other anarchists, for the Haymarket bombing, even most hadn’t been present at the bombing. In 1905, Lucy Parsons cofounded the IWW, along with Eugene Debs, Mother Jones, Big Bill Haywood and others. In 1915, she organized the Chicago Hunger Demonstrations. They were so effective that they pushed the AFL, the Socialist Labor Party and the Hull House to participate. In 1925, she participated in the International Labor Defense, which defended workers, communists, the Scottsboro Nine and others.

You can read my complete bio of Lucy here: https://michaeldunnauthor.com/2024/03/24/lucy-parsons/

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Today in Labor History February 27, 1875: Eugene V. Debs became a charter member and secretary of the Vigo Lodge Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen. By 1880, he had become the grand secretary of the union and editor of the Locomotive Fireman’s Magazine. He later led the bitter Pullman strike. After that, he cofounded the IWW and ran for President of the US as a socialist while in prison.

#workingclass #LaborHistory #socialism #potus #EugeneDebs #union #strike #prison

Tribune libre et opinion : Pourquoi Zohran Mamdani cite Eugene Debs ?

https://www.clp-kvd.org/2026/02/tribune-libre-et-opinion-pourquoi-zohran-mamdani-cite-eugene-debs/

How the Wobblies Smashed Racism - OVER A CENTURY AGO!

https://peertube.gravitywell.xyz/w/1e4rfKQbfHHLeFij4qwXWj

A quotation from Eugene Debs

Eugene V. Debs (1855-1926) American union leader, activist, socialist, politician
Speech (1908-05-23), “The Issue,” Girard, Kansas

More about this quote: wist.info/debs-eugene-v/375/

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December 25, 1921

President Harding announced the release of Socialist Party leader Eugene V. Debs from prison, unconditionally commuting his 10-year sentence to time served. Debs’s full rights as a citizen, however, were not restored. He had been imprisoned for his vocal opposition to U.S. participation in World War I.
Following a meeting with the president and attorney general, Debs commented,

". . . a convict for his principles is always a citizen in good standing. He is a citizen by his own inherent, God-given integrity. The only man who loses his citizenship is the man who renounces his principles and abdicates his manhood."
#EugeneDebs

Today in Labor History December 23, 1921: President Warren Harding issued a "Christmas amnesty," freeing Eugene V. Debs and 23 other political prisoners who had been imprisoned for their opposition to World War I under the Sedition Act. Debs was a founding member of the IWW, a socialist, and a 5-time candidate for president of the US. In the 1912 election, he won 6% of the vote. He also led the 1894 Pullman Strike of over 250,000 railroad workers.

In 2023, the U.S. launched its #WithoutJustCause campaign to seek the release of the over 1 million political prisoners around the world, ignoring/denying the fact that it has its own political prisoners, including Mumia Abu-Jamal, who has been in prison through eight different presidencies. Very few political prisoners have been pardoned historically, particularly those on the Left. Here are a few exceptions:

*Washington and Adams both pardoned several men convicted for the Whiskey Rebellion.
*Hayes pardoned the anarchist Ezra Heywood for his 1878 conviction for violating the Comstock Act (for publishing articles in support of free love).
*Teddy Roosevelt pardoned Filipino revolutionary Servillano Aquino, ancestor to future Philippine presidents Benigno and Corazon Aquino.
*Coolidge commuted the sentence of Marcus Garvey, convicted of mail fraud, but then had him deported.
*Ford granted amnesty to over 50,000 Vietnam War resisters.
*Jimmy Carter granted clemency to Lolita Lebrón, Rafael Cancel Miranda, Irving Flores Rodriguez, Puerto Rican nationalists who opened fire in the U.S. House of Representatives and wounding five Congressmen in 1954
*Clinton pardoned Elizam Escobar, Puerto Rican artist and activist, convicted of seditious conspiracy in 1980; and commuted the sentences of 16 members of FALN, a Puerto Rican clandestine paramilitary. He also commuted the sentence of Susan Rosenberg, former radical activist and domestic terrorist, convicted of illegal explosives possession in 1984. She also was involved in several Brink’s armored car robberies, providing material support to the Black Liberation Army, and helping Assata Shakur escape from prison.
*Obama commuted the sentence of army whistle blower Chelsea Manning. He also commuted the sentence of Oscar López Rivera, an FALN member serving 55 years for seditious conspiracy
*Trump posthumously pardoned Susan B. Anthony for illegally voting in 1872, in spite of the fact that Anthony, herself, never would have accepted a pardon, as it would have wrongly validated the trial proceedings and the fine she refused to pay.
*Biden commuted the life sentence of Leonard Peltier to home confinement for life.

#workingclass #LaborHistory #prison #union #strike #solidarity #socialism #sedition #IWW #worldwarone #antiwar #politicalprisoner #eugenedebs #mumia #leonardpeltier