Today in Labor History May 31, 2010: Israeli commandos boarded the Turkish ship MV Mavi Marmara, part of a six-boat Gaza Freedom Flotilla, while it was in international waters, and killed ten Turkish civilians, a few of whom may have been armed with metal bars and knives. The flotilla had been organized by the Free Gaza Movement and the Turkish Foundation for Human Rights and Freedoms and Humanitarian Relief (İHH). They were carrying humanitarian aid and construction materials to aid Gazans, living under an Israeli-Egyptian blockade of Gaza. The United Nations Human Rights Commission (UNHRC) concluded that six of the deaths had been summary executions. Israeli commandos boarded the other five ships, too, where activists employed passive resistance without any violent deaths.

A UNHRC report deemed the Israeli blockade of Gaza illegal. In 2013, Israel's prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu apologized to Turkey's prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and offered $20 million in compensation. The Freedom Flotilla was the ninth attempt by activists to break the blockade of Gaza.

The Israeli blockade of Gaza began in 2010, in response to the Hamas election victory in 2007. It lasted the entire twelve years until the events of October 7, 2022, when Israel tightened the blockade further and initiated their genocide. During the periods of total closure, Israel completely banned all movement of people or goods between Gaza and Israel, the West Bank, and foreign markets, including neighboring Egypt. The world Bank estimates that in 1996, alone, the blockade caused Gaza to lose 40% of its GNP.

#workingclass #LaborHistory #freepalestine #gaza #genocide #israel #palestine #idf #massacre #freedomflotilla #humanrights #civilians #endtheoccupation

Today in Labor History May 31, 1921: The Tulsa Race Riot. From May 31 through June 1, deputized whites (i.e., racist vigilantes) killed more than 300 African Americans in the worst race riot in U.S. history. The violence began in response to a false report in the Tulsa Tribune accusing a black man of attacking a white girl in an elevator. The headline made the front page. However, there was an accompanying editorial that called for a lynching. White Tulsans went to the African American community of Greenwood (the Black Wall Street) and started shooting black people. They looted and burned 40 square blocks, destroying over 1,400 African American homes, hospitals, schools, and churches. Ten thousand became homeless and had to spend the winter of 1921 living in tents.

Many African American residents fought back, including veterans of World War One. This attempt at self-preservation prompted the deputized whites and National Guardsmen to arrest 6,000 black residents. Furthermore, they bombarded the community from the air in what was likely the first aerial bombardment of mainland U.S. residents. At least a dozen planes, some carrying police, circled the community and dropped burning balls of turpentine. They also shot at residents from the air. Many of the whites were members of the Klan, such as W. Tate Brady, who had also participated in the tarring and feathering of members of the Industrial Workers of the World in 1917.

Just a few months later, the government again bombarded civilians from the air, during the Battle of Blair Mountain, when 15,000 coal miners battled 3,000 cops, private cops and vigilantes, in the largest insurrection since the Civil War. Up to 100 miners died in the fighting, along with 10-30 Baldwin-Felts detectives and three national guards.

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

#workingclass #LaborHistory #tulsa #massacre #riot #racism #pogrom #IWW #police #policebrutality #massacre #greenwood #BlackWallStreet #kkk #klan #kukluxklan #blairmountain #miner #coal #union #strike #BlackMastadon

New Orleans. On June 13, 1913, police officers and private security guards opened fire on the strikers, killing two and wounding several.

#workingclass #LaborHistory #IWW #NewOrleans #PoliceBrutality #PoliceMurder #police #acab #union #strike

Today in Labor History May 31, 1905: The Spanish anarchist Alexander Farras threw a bomb into a procession headed by French President Loubet and the King Alphonso XIII of Spain. The leaders were not hurt, though several people were wounded. Farras was never caught. Four other anarchists were arrested, tried and acquitted. Then, the following year, again on May 31, anarchist Mateo Morral made another attempt on King Alphonso XIII. He hid a bomb in a bunch of flowers and threw it at the King during his royal wedding. Because he worked in the anarchist Modern School’s publishing house and was a friend of Francisco Ferrer (the founder of the first Modern Schools), Ferrer was later arrested and imprisoned as an accomplice. You can read my complete history of Ferrer and the Modern School movement here: https://michaeldunnauthor.com/2022/04/30/the-modern-school-movement/

#workingclass #LaborHistory #anarchism #regicide #atentat #assassination #spain #franciscoferrer #modernschool #alexanderfarras #bomb

Today in Labor History May 31, 1889: The infamous Johnstown Flood. 2,209 people died when a dam holding back a private resort lake burst upstream from Johnstown, Pennsylvania. It was the deadliest U.S. disaster to date. Bodies were found as far away as Cincinnati. It caused $17 million of damage (about $490 million in 2020 dollars).

Wealthy industrialists, like Andrew Carnegie and Henry Clay Frick owned and patronized the resort. (Carnegie also owned Homestead Steel, and Frick was the manager in charge of the butchering of striking workers that occurred there in 1892). They had built cottages and a clubhouse and created the South Fork Fishing and Hunting Club, an exclusive and private mountain retreat. They had also lowered the dam to build a road across it and installed a fish screen in the spillway that tended to trap debris. Investigators believe these alterations contributed to the disaster. Yet none of the members of the South Fork Fishing and Hunting Club were found guilty of any crimes. Furthermore, survivors repeatedly lost court cases in their attempts to recover damages due to the club members’ wealth and expensive legal team. However, public outrage did prompt changes in American law leading to one of strict liability in future cases.

The flood has been depicted repeatedly in American culture. Bruce Springsteen references it in “Highway Patrolman.” Rudyard Kipling talked about it in his novel “Captains Courageous.” The Paul Newman film, “Slapshot” takes place in Johnstown. It is also referenced in episodes of Star Trek, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and dozens of other poems, songs, plays, novels, and works of nonfiction.

#workingclass #LaborHistory #Johnstown #flood #disaster #classwar #liability #novel #books #fiction #poem #poetry #writer #author #homestead #strike #union #massacre

Today in Labor History May 31, 1838: Kentish peasants clashed with British troops in the Battle of Bosendon Wood. Sir William Courtenay led the uprising. Courtenay had previously run for public office and spent time in a lunatic asylum. He built up a large local following in the previous four years with his millenarian preaching and demonstrations against the New Poor Law of 1834. On May 29, 1838, he led a march through town, with a loaf of bread on a pole (a local symbol of protest). They continued protesting for the next two days, alarming the town’s wealthy elites. When the authorities tried to arrest Courtenay, he shot and killed a constable. The authorities quickly mustered a small army. Courtenay had a gun and a sword, but his followers had only sticks. Courtenay managed to kill a Lieutenant in the ensuing battle, but was promptly killed by other soldiers, who also killed eight of his followers.

#workingclass #LaborHistory #peasant #uprising #revolt #massacre #ClassWar #poverty #uk #britain
#hunger

Today in Labor History May 31, 1819: Poet Walt Whitman was born. Whitman published his first and most famous collection of poems, Leaves of Grass, in 1855, using his own money. It was criticized as obscene for its sensuality. During the Civil War, he volunteered in hospitals caring for the wounded. Many believe Whitman was gay or bisexual, based on his writings, though it is disputed by some historians. Oscar Wilde met Whitman in the United States in 1882 and told the homosexual-rights activist George Cecil Ives that Whitman's sexual orientation was beyond question—"I have the kiss of Walt Whitman still on my lips." Whitman is considered by many to be America’s first and greatest poet. He inspired many who came after him, including Ezra Pound, Langston Hughes, Kerouac, Ginsberg, Ferlinghetti, Gary Snyder and June Jordan.

Whitman’s commitment to solidarity inspired many leftists of the late 1800s and early 1900s, including Emma Goldman, and the IWW, which distributed to copies of Whitman’s poems to its members in the form of The Little Blue Book. Bartolomeo Vanzetti, Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, Ralph Chaplin also claimed Whitman as an inspiration. He also inspired Cuban poet and revolutionary Jose Marti, as well as Pablo Neruda and Jorge Luis Borges.

#workingclass #LaborHistory #waltwhitman #civilwar #poetry #books #poet #writer #lgbtq #gay #obscenity #oscarwilde #allanginsberg #IWW #solidarity @bookstadon

Il romanzo working class di Joseph Ponthus racconta che la classe non è una categoria chiusa e che le contraddizioni dei rapporti sociali ci inducono a…

https://jacobinitalia.it/pensare-la-classe/

#JosephPonthus #lavoro #workingclass

Reform are a party of the rich for the benefit of the rich.

The richest 10% would benefit the most from Farage's budget plans.

I sometimes wonder why everyone can't see the con

#Reform #farage #WorkingClass #ClassPolitics #ukpolitics

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/farage-reform-tax-starmer-labour-b2760738.html

Today in Labor History May 30, 1937: “Memorial Day massacre:” Police attacked striking steelworkers, shooting many in the back, killing 10 and wounding 100, at the Republic Steel plant in South Chicago. 1937 – In what became known as the Memorial Day Massacre, police open fire on striking steelworkers at Republic Steel in South Chicago, killing 10 and wounding more than 160. The press called it the “Red Massacre,” as if to justify police violence and murder of working-class people.

#workingclass #LaborHistory #MemorialDay #massacre #strike #union #policebrutality #policemurder #police #acab #chicago #steel

Today in Labor History May 30, 1899: Pearl Hart committed one of the last stage coach robberies in America, and one of the only committed by a woman. At a young age, she married a man who turned out to be abusive. After watching Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show, she decided that the cowboy lifestyle was the life for her. So, she abandoned her husband and caught a train to Trinidad, Colorado (near the site of the future Ludlow Massacre). "I was only twenty-two years old. I was good-looking, desperate, discouraged, and ready for anything that might come." During this time, she may have worked as a prostitute and developed a morphine habit. However, she wasn’t earning much money and decided to rob a stagecoach, along with a companion, Joe Boot. She cut her hair short and dressed as a man. They robbed the stagecoach without incident. But the authorities caught up them and arrested them less than a week later. Hart escaped, but was recaptured after two weeks. During her trial, she pleaded that she needed the money for her sick mother. The jury acquitted her, which really pissed off the judge.

#workingclass #LaborHistory #crossdressing #transvestism #robbery #poverty #pearlhart #cowboy #ludlow #Prostitution #sexwork #addiction

Today in Labor History May 30, 1381: Tax collector John Bampton sparked the Peasants’ Revolt in Brentwood, Essex. The mass uprising, also known as Wat Tyler’s Rebellion, or the Great Rising, began because of attempts to collect a poll tax. However, tensions were already high because of the economic misery and hunger caused by the Black Death pandemic of the 1340s, and the Hundred Years’ War. During the uprising, rebels burned public records and freed prisoners. King Richard II, 14 years old, hid in the Tower of London. Rebels entered the Tower and killed the Lord Chancellor and the Lord High Treasurer, but not the king. It took nearly six months for the authorities to suppress the Peasants’ Revolt. They slaughtered over 1,400 rebels. Roughly 600 years later, Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher tried again to impose a poll tax on Britain’s working class. It also sparked a revolt which brought an end both to the tax and Thatcher’s regime. Billy Bragg references Thatcher’s poll tax in his song, All You Fascists.

#workingclass #LaborHistory #peasant #revolt #rebellion #polltax #thatcher #wattyler #pandemic #plague #massacre #execution #billybragg #fascism

#WorkingClass #Wages #Capitalism #Socialism #Anarchy #Meme #Memes #Humor

After standing up for #Palestinians, #immigrants and the #workingclass, there are a few people with nothing else to do, but create a group to get #DaveNeal, first-time father, and standup comic cancelled

Details to come. Stay tuned.

Slavery was never abolished, it was only extended to include all the colors...

#Slavery #Capitalism #WorkingClass #AntiCapitalism #Socialism #Anarchism #Anarchy #Meme #Memes #Humor

To Stop Losing the #CultureWars, Learn From #GayMarriage

https://jacobin.com/2025/05/gay-marriage-culture-wars-class

To win on #socialissues, #theLeft has to develop the #cultural #competence to connect #progressive goals with #workingclass priorities. The #gay #marriage fight offers a formula for appealing to ordinary #Americans’ #values without giving up on #socialprogress.

AI CEO says AI could wipe out half of all white collar jobs in the next 5 years and cause unemployment to spike up to 20%.

https://www.axios.com/2025/05/28/ai-jobs-white-collar-unemployment-anthropic?utm_source=firefox-newtab-en-us

#workingclass #ai #tech #unemployment #classwar

Today in Labor History May 29, 1941: Animators working for Walt Disney begin a five-week strike for recognition of their union, the Screen Cartoonists’ Guild. Disney’s initial response was to fire them. However, the union held fast and ultimately prevailed, winning union recognition. Still, dozens of Disney’s best animators left for good, joining other studios or, as in the case of Hank Ketchum (creator of Dennis the Menace), starting their own studio, United Productions. At the time of the strike, the Disney animators were working on Dumbo. The clowns in the film were a caricature of strikers, when they “hit the big boss for a raise.”

The musical, Dumbo, had lots of great music and animation. My favorite scene is the hallucinogenic Pink Elephants On Parade, performed here by the Sun Ra Arkestra. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ss0uEo3skcg

#workingclass #LaborHistory #strike #union #disney #animation #hollywood #dumbo #sunra #jazz

Today in History, Stravinsky's Rites of Spring premiered, leading to a class riot between the rich, in the expensive box seats, and the workingclass bohemians down below.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8FXA_8LR2IM&t=92s

#workingclass #LaborHistory #Stravinsky #ballet #Riot #paris #Music #concert