Today in Labor History April 12, 1900: Florence Reece was born. Reece was an activist in the Harlan County, Kentucky, coal strikes, and author of the song, “Which Side Are You On?” She originally wrote the song when she was twelve, when her father was on strike. She updated it to its current form in 1931, during a UMW strike, in response to Sheriff Blair’s thugs, who beat & murdered union leaders. Florence wrote the revised lyrics on an old wall calendar while her home was being ransacked by Blair’s goons, who were looking for her husband, Sam Reece, an organizer with the miners’ union. Sam got wind of the raid in advance, and was gone by the time the thugs arrived. Florence Reece appeared in the documentary Harlan County, USA (1976). Sam died of black lung in 1978. Many artists covered “Which Side Are You On,” including Pete Seeger, Billy Bragg, Dropkick Murphys, Natalie Merchant, Ani DiFranco, and Tom Morello.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K7ZHfZt4o6c

#workingclass #LaborHistory #FlorenceReece #harlan #coal #mining #union #strike #WhichSideAreYouOn #umw

RE: https://kolektiva.social/@micchiato/116386933201484006

this is awesome! folks are starting to get active! now we need this, but in bigger numbers. if the folks filming had gone to help instead of filming, they could have taken out even more.

while on the subject of filming...please, PLEASE, stop filming people doing direct action! you show up to a protest and pull out your phone to film folks doing illegal shit and i see you, im breaking your fucking phone. your social media is the least important thing in this moment. someone's doing something to help folks being attacked and your first thought isn't help, but film? go the fuck home we don't need you.

#Ireland #US #military #Iran #war

#NoFaceNoCase #DontFilmJustHelp
#DirectAction #WeProtectUs #AreYouUsOrThem #WhichSideAreYouOn

"If moderation is a fault, then indifference is a crime."

Jack Kerouac

#quoteoftheday #Moderation #Indifference #WhichSideAreYouOn #Resist

Today in Labor History February 16, 1931: The Harlan County War (AKA Bloody Harlan) began when the Harlan County Coal Operators' Association cut miners' wages by 10%, leading to a nearly decade-long series of coal strikes, executions, and bombings in Harlan County, Kentucky from 1931-1939. At least 13 coal miners were killed, along with 5 cops and vigilantes working for the coal operators. The bosses also evicted union organizers, and their families, from Company housing. The companies owned every in the entire county. Evicted workers flocked to the three that were independent, particularly Evarts. The scabs were protected by private cops, who were given full police privileges, as well as the right to act with impunity outside the coal properties. The thugs were organized and led by Sheriff Blair.

It was during this strike that Florence Reece composed the famous folk song, “Which Side Are You On?” which has been covered by Pete Seeger, Billy Bragg, Dropkick Murphys, Natalie Merchant, Ani DiFranco, and Tom Morello, among many others. She wrote the song after Sheriff Blair and his men had come to her house in search of her husband, Sam, one of the union leaders. She was home alone with their seven children. They ransacked the whole house and then remained outside, waiting to shoot him down when he returned. But he didn't come home that night. Afterward she tore a sheet from a calendar on the wall and wrote the words to “Which Side Are You On?” to an old Baptist hymn: “Lay the Lily Low.” Reece also supported a second wave of strikes in the 1970s, as portrayed in the documentary “Harlan County, USA,” in which she performs "Which Side Are You On?."

#workingclass #LaborHistory #union #strike #coal #harlancounty #coal #mining #vigilantes #police #police brutality #florencereece #folk #folkmusic #whichsideareyouon #communism

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K7ZHfZt4o6c

"The civil rights movement didn't begin in Montgomery and it didn't end in the 1960s. It continues on to this very minute."

Julian Bond

#quoteoftheday #CivilRights #GoodTrouble #Resist #WhichSideAreYouOn

Hey. So, kidnapping the President of another country is super f*cked up.

#NoWar #Venezuela #WhichSideAreYouOn

#Apple #TimCook #collaborator #complicit #AppleisEvil
#WhichSideAreYouOn

https://migrantinsider.com/p/scoop-apple-quietly-made-ice-agents