Today in Labor History March 31, 1949: The Canadian Seamen's Union launched a strike that would last six months.
Not a Dad Joke (but relevant to this post):
What's stiff and full of seamen?
.... A submarine.
#workingclass #LaborHistory #csu #canada #union #strike #PoliceBrutality #police #sailor #canada
Today in Labor History March 31, 1927: Cesar Chavez was born. Famous for his role in leading the United Farm Workers and, now, even more infamous for his sexual assaults on women and girls in the movement, it should be pointed out that there were numerous other abusive and rotten aspects to his leadership style that affected both women and men. For example, in 1967, he launched his first of several purges of the UFW, ostensibly to remove Communists. However, there was no evidence of communist infiltration of the union and it was most likely a move to solidify his autocratic rule.
In the 1970s, he blamed “illegal immigrants” and “wetbacks” for UFW failures and launched the "Illegals Campaign" to identify illegal migrants so that they could be deported. His cousin Manuel Chavez established a UFW patrol, or "wet line," along Arizona's border with Mexico to stop illegal migration into the US. Actions such as these led to conflicts with many progressive groups that had previous collaborated with the UFW, including the National Lawyers Guild and the Confederation of Mexican Workers.
In 1977, Chavez became infatuated with the religious cult, Synanon and used Synanon’s “game” to punish union members and enforce conformity and obedience to his authority by subjecting members to harsh, profanity-laced criticism from the rest of the community.
He also expressed support for the brutal Filipino dictator Ferdinand Marcos, and specifically his declaration of martial law, which alienated Filipino members of the union, as well as many of the religious organizations that had supported the UFW. Ironically, Chavez had originally travelled to the Philippines in order to win back support of Filipino farmworkers. And, contrary to the official mainstream narrative, it wasn’t even Chavez who had started the UFW, or the Delano Grape Strike. Rather the 1965 grape strike had been initiated by Larry Itliong and the Filipino-led AWOC. The nationwide protest lasted five years and ended with the first union contract for U.S. farm workers outside of Hawaii.
You can read more about the Filipino roots of the farm workers labor movement here: https://michaeldunnauthor.com/2026/03/25/larry-itliong-and-the-filipino-roots-of-the-united-farm-workers-movement/
#LaborHistory #workingclass #CesarChavez #FarmWorkers #ufw #chicano #mexicanamerican #union #strike #boycot #filipino #hungerstrike #communism
Today in Labor History March 31, 1883: Cowboys in the Texas panhandle began a 2-and-a-half-month strike for higher wages. Investment firms from the East Coast and Europe were taking over the land and cutting benefits that cowboys had accustomed to, like keeping some horses for themselves and holding some of the land for their own small farming. New ranch owners were more interested in expanding holdings and increasing profits, forcing their hands to work entirely for wages, and maintaining all livestock entirely for the profit of the owners.
Media from as far away as Colorado accused the cowboys of being incendiaries, threatening to burn down the ranches, attacking ranchers, and indiscriminately killing cattle.
#workingclass #LaborHistory #cowboy #strike #texas #wages #books #nonfiction #author #writer @bookstadon
Today in Labor History March 31, 1809: Nikolai Gogol, the Russian-Ukrainian novelist, was born. Gogol was one of the first authors to use surrealism and absurdism (see “The Nose,” “The Overcoat,” and “Nevsky Prospekt.”) Many of his works satirized Russian political corruption, like “Dead Souls,” and the “Government Inspector.” He influenced several generations of writers, including Dostoevsky, Bulgakov, Nabakov, Kafka and Flannery O’Connor. The gypsy punk band, Gogol Bordello, took their name from him.
#workingclass #LaborHistory #gogol #russia #ukraine #fiction #satire #surrealism #kafka #dostoevsky #literature #books #writer #author #courruptiohn #punk @bookstadon
Up to 60% of health care workers may have long COVID 4 years after
#covid #COVID19 #pandemic #publichealth #longcovid #healthcare #workingclass #workplacesafety
Today in Labor History March 30, 1976: Palestinian in the occupied territories, Israel proper, and in refugee camps in Lebanon, began a General Strike against Israeli plans to Judaize the Galilee, by seizing Arab-owned land there and building new Jewish settlements. It was the first time since 1948 that Arabs in Israel organized a collective Palestinian Nationalist response to Israeli policies. Police repelled protesters with water cannons and declared all demonstrations to be illegal. They threatened to fire participants from their jobs. Teachers ignored the threats and encouraged their students to join the demonstrations. The IDF killed four unarmed Palestinian protesters. The General Strike ultimately failed, with Israel effectively reducing the proportion of Galilee land owned by Arabs from 92% down to 72%. Ever since, March 30 has been commemorated by Palestinians as Land Day.
#workingclass #LaborHistory #israel #palestine #freepalestine #generalstrike #zionism #colonialism #idf
Today in Labor History March 30, 1990: Harry Bridges died at age 88. He helped found the ILWU (International Longshore and Warehouse Union) and led the union for 40 years. Bridges was born in Australia in 1901 and moved to the U.S. in 1920. He joined the IWW in 1921 and participated in an unsuccessful nationwide seamen’s strike. In 1922, he moved to San Francisco, to become a longshoreman. His militancy won him considerable support and he was soon elected a leader of the new longshoremen’s union. He helped lead the 1935 San Francisco General Strike. This was one of the last General Strikes to occur in the U.S. because the Taft-Hartley Act banned them in 1947 (in the wake of the 1945-1946 Strike Wave, with over 4.3 million U.S. workers going on strike, including General Strikes in Lancaster, Pennsylvania; Stamford, Connecticut; Rochester, New York; and Oakland, California). One of Bridge’s most famous quotes was, “The most important word in the language of the working class is solidarity.
#workingclass #LaborHistory #HarryBridges #IWW #ilwu #generalstrike #sanfrancisco #waterfront #solidarity #TaftHartley #longshore
Today in Labor History March 30, 1930: Three thousand workers, mostly African-American, began construction on the Hawks Nest Tunnel in West Virginia. The employer cut costs by failing to provide safety equipment. Additionally, bosses forced the men to work 10-15-hour days, often at gunpoint, without breaks and without masks to protect themselves from the silicon dust. Consequently, hundreds of workers died of silicosis. Possibly over 1,000 people, one-third of the entire workforce, died from silicosis, in one of America’s worst cases of mass workplace mortality.
#workingclass #LaborHistory #workplaceinjury #WorkplaceDeaths #HawksNest #racism #silicosis #forcedlabor #slavery #BlackMastodon #PPE #africanamerican
Today in Labor History March 30, 1930: Hundreds of thousands of unemployed workers demonstrated in thirty cities. 35,000 marched in New York City and were violently assaulted by the police. At the time, there was virtually no formal aid available for the unemployed or poor. The ruling elite feared that workers would choose the dole over work if given the choice. So, they opposed unemployment insurance. Even the AFL opposed unemployment insurance because it saw itself as the representative of skilled workers only. It didn’t care about unskilled factory workers. The demonstrations were organized by the Communist Party, with the goal of overthrowing capitalism.
#workingclass #LaborHistory #communism #PoliceBrutality #police #unemployment #newyork #afl #Demonstrations #capitalism
MikeDunnAuthor
Reverend Elvis