Today in Labor History November 13, 1922: A railway workers' strike in Guayaquil, Ecuador grew into a general strike, which lasted 3 days and culminated in a massacre on Nov 15, when Police and military shot down over 300 workers. Trolley workers continued to strike throughout November, eventually winning many of their demands.

#workingclass #LaborHistory #Guayaquil #GeneralStrike #union #strike #police #PoliceBrutality #PoliceMurder #massacre

सिवान में एएसआई की गला रेतकर हत्या, जांच में जुटी पुलिस#Siwan #BiharCrime #PoliceMurder #ASIAnirudhKumar #DaraundaThana

सिवान। बिहार के सिवान जिले से एक सनसनीखेज वारदात सामने आई है। दरौंदा थाना में पदस्थापित एएसआई अनिरुद्ध कुमार की अज्ञात अपराधियों ने गला रेतकर हत्या कर दी। पुलिस ने गुरुवार की सुबह दरौंदा थाना क्षेत्र के बसांव नवका टोला से उनका शव बरामद किया। जानकारी के अनुसार, एएसआई अनिरुद्ध कुमार बुधवार की रात सिविल ड्रेस में कहीं जा रहे थे

https://townpost.net/2025/10/30/%e0%a4%b8%e0%a4%bf%e0%a4%b5%e0%a4%be%e0%a4%a8-%e0%a4%ae%e0%a5%87%e0%a4%82-%e0%a4%8f%e0%a4%8f%e0%a4%b8%e0%a4%86%e0%a4%88-%e0%a4%95%e0%a5%80-%e0%a4%97%e0%a4%b2%e0%a4%be-%e0%a4%b0%e0%a5%87%e0%a4%a4/?utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=jetpack_social

Today in Labor History October 15, 1966: The Black Panther Party was created by Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale, in Oakland, California. One of their early core practices was open-carry armed citizen’s patrols monitoring abusive police behavior. They also implemented free breakfast programs and community health clinics, and advocated for revolutionary class struggle. The FBI sabotaged the Panthers through its COINTELPRO and participated in the assassination of Panthers, like Fred Hampton and Mark Clark. In 1969, the Panthers officially declared sexism to be counterrevolutionary and ordered its male members to treat women as equals. In 1970, Huey Newton expressed support for the Women’s Liberation Movement, and the LGBTQ Liberation Movement which, he correctly noted, were subject to much of the same police brutality as were African Americans.

#workingclass #LaborHistory #BlackPanthers #marxism #Revolutionary #fbi #cointellpro #policebrutality #police #policemurder #blm #BlackMastadon

Today in Labor History September 26, 2014: A mass kidnapping in Iguala, Mexico. 43 students from the Ayotzinapa Rural Teachers' College were abducted and disappeared, most likely by local police, federal police and Mexican Army, possibly in collusion with the Guerreros Unidos drug cartel, as well. However, The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights conducted a 6-month investigation and concluded that the government’s story that the drug cartel mistook them for a rival gang and then murdered them and dumped their bodies in a garbage dump was scientifically impossible. The students had been on their way to the annual commemoration of the 1968 Tlatelolco massacre, in Mexico City. The mass kidnapping caused continued international protests and social unrest, leading to the resignation of Guerrero Governor Ángel Aguirre Rivero. Iguala Mayor José Luis Abarca Velázquez was accused of masterminding the abduction, but was never put on trial. However, a month later, he was arrested for the murder of activist Arturo Hernández Cardona.

#workingclass #LaborHistory #massacre #iguala #mexico #students #teachers #Tlatelolco #police #policebrutality #policemurder #iguala

Today in Labor History September 13, 1971: 1,000 National Guardsmen, State Troopers and local cops stormed Attica Prison in New York, after a breakdown in negotiations between officials and prisoners. Governor Rockefeller, with the consent of President Nixon, ordered the attack, which resulted in the massacre of 33 inmates and 10 hostages. Additionally, after regaining control of the prison, police tortured and sexually abused surviving inmates. Contrary to the claims of Gov. Rockefeller, the medical examiners ruled that nearly all the deaths were caused by the police. The prisoner uprising began on September 9, in protest of brutal living conditions and the demand for political rights. More than half of the 2,200 inmates participated in the uprising.

#workingclass #LaborHistory #attica #prison #riot #police #policebrutality #policemurder #racism #massacre #newyork #BlackMastodon

Today in Labor History September 12, 1977: South African anti-apartheid activist Steve Biko died after being beaten to death by police. Over 20,000 came to his funeral. His coffin was decorated with a clenched black fist. Biko was a socialist, anti-imperialist and pan-African nationalist, influenced by Frantz Fanon, Malcolm X and the U.S. Black Power Movement.

#workingclass #LaborHistory #southafrica #apartheid #racism #stevebiko #MalcolmX #police #policebrutality #policemurder #BlackMastodon

Today in Labor History September 10, 1897: A sheriff and deputies killed 19 striking miners and wounded 40 others in Lattimer mine, near Hazelton, Pennsylvania during a peaceful mining protest. Many of those killed were originally brought in as strikebreakers, but then later organized and joined the strike. The miners were mostly Polish, Lithuanian, Slovak and German. The massacre was a turning point for the UMW. Working and safety conditions were terrible. 32,000 miners had died from 1870-1897, just in the northeastern coalfields of Pennsylvania. Wages had dropped 17% since the mid-1890s.

The strike began in mid-August, when teenage mule drivers walked off the job to protest the consolidation of stables, which had forced them to walk much further just to get to work. After a scuffle between drivers and supervisors, two thousand men walked out, as well. Soon, all the mines in the region had joined the strike. Most of the men who weren’t already members of the UMW quickly joined the union. Up to 10,000 miners were now on strike. The mine owners’ private police, known as the Coal & Iron Police (miners called them Cossacks, for their brutality), was too small to quash the strike, so they called on the sheriff to intervene. He mustered a posse of 100 Irish and English immigrants, who confronted the miners as they marched toward Latimer, on Sep 10. Along the way, they joked about how many miners they were going to kill.

The massacre provoked a near uprising. The sheriff called for the deployment of the National Guard, which sent 2,500 troops to quell the unrest. 10 days later, a group of Slavic women, armed with fire pokers and rolling pins, led 150 men and boys to shut down the McAdoo coal works, but were stopped by the National Guards. The sheriff, and 73 deputized vigilantes, were put on trial. However, despite evidence clearly showing that most of the miners had been shot in the back, and none had been armed, they were all acquitted.

#workingclass #LaborHistory #coal #mining #union #strike #latimer #massacre #police #policebrutality #policemurder #immigration #nationalguards

Today in Labor History September 2, 1921: The Battle of Blair Mountain ended on this date in 1921, with the U.S. government bombing striking coal miners by plane, the second time the U.S. government used planes to bomb its own citizens (the first was in the racist Tulsa riots, earlier that year). The Battle of Blair Mountain was one of the largest civil uprisings in U.S. history and the largest armed insurrection since the Civil War. The uprising lasted 5 days and involved 10,000-15,000 coal miners confronting an army of scabs and police. The battle came as mine owners tried to crush attempts by coal miners to unionize the southwestern West Virginia coalfields. From the late 1800s, mine owners forced workers to live in company towns, where rent was deducted from their wages and they were paid in scrip, which was accepted only at the overpriced company stores and was worthless everywhere else. The work was very dangerous and safety equipment and precautions were minimal. The mine owners had a long tradition of using private detectives and goons to spy on workers, infiltrate their meetings, rough them up, and block any attempts to unionize. The battle began after Sheriff Sid Hatfield (an ally of the miners and hero from the Battle of Matewan) was assassinated by Baldwin-Felts agents. Much of the region was still under martial law as a result of the Battle of Matewan. Miners began to leave the mountains armed and ready for battle. Mother Jones tried to dissuade them from marching into Logan and Mingo Counties, fearing a bloodbath. Many accused her of losing her nerve. The miners ignored her and a battle ensued between miners and cops, private detectives, scabs and eventually the U.S. military.

You can read my complete article on the Battles of Blair Mountain & Matewan here: https://michaeldunnauthor.com/2024/04/14/the-battle-of-blair-mountain/

#workingclass #LaborHistory #coal #mining #strike #union #blairmountain #westvirginia #matewan #police #policebrutality #massacre #policemurder #Riot #motherjones

Today in Labor History August 30, 1948: Fred Hampton revolutionary activist and chairman of the Illinois chapter of the Black Panther Party was born. He founded the antiracist, anti-capitalist, working-class Rainbow Coalition, a prominent multicultural political organization that included Black Panthers, Young Patriots (which organized poor whites), and the Young Lords (which organized Hispanics), and an alliance among major Chicago street gangs to help them end infighting and work for social change. In December 1969, the Chicago police & FBI drugged Hampton, shot him and killed him in his bed during a predawn raid. They sprayed more than 90 gunshots throughout his apartment. They also killed Black Panther Mark Clark and wounded several others. In January 1970, a jury concluded that Hampton's and Clark's deaths were justifiable homicides.

Stephen King refers to Hampton in his novel “11/22/63” (2012). In that book, a character suggests that if you could travel back in time to prevent John F. Kennedy's assassination, it could have a ripple effect that also prevented Hampton's assassination.

For a really great history of the Young Patriots movement and organizing and solidarity among poor white radicals, you should read “Hillbilly Nationalists” by Amy Sonnie and James Tracy.

#workingclass #LaborHistory #blackpanthers #FredHampton #chicago #police #policemurder #policebrutality #fbi #racism #stephenking #fiction #books #novel #writer #author #BlackMastadon @bookstadon

#ACAB #BluePussies #BadCops #QualifiedImmunity #PoliceBrutality #PoliceMurder

Remember, police misconduct is not new.
The cameras are new.