Working Class History

#OtD 10 Mar 2005 Chris Pallis, better known as Maurice Brinton died. He was a neurologist and libertarian socialist, a member of Solidarity, and a writer of such works as his classic, "The Bolsheviks and Workers Control" stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/1252...

#OtD 10 Mar 1919 Leo Jogiches, Polish-German communist, key figure of the Spartacus League & KPD, and lover of Rosa Luxemburg, was murdered while trying to investigate the assassinations of Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht. stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/8216...

#OtD 10 Mar 1952 Fulgencio Batista led a coup in Cuba. Backed by the US, business, his government killed thousands in anti-Communist purges. He was eventually overthrown by the revolution in 1959 stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/8220...

#OtD 10 Mar 1906 the Catastrophe de Courrières occured in France. It was a mining disaster killing 1,060 workers and sparked 45,000 miners going on a 55 day strike, which was eventually crushed by the French Army stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/8215...

#OtD 10 Mar 1925 Korean anarchists Kim Joann, Choung Shin, and others helped organize communes among refugees in Manchuria, north-east China. Four years later they would establish an anarchist society based on "no rule," freedom, and mutual aid. libcom.org/history/anar...

#OtD 10 Mar 1958 a general strike began in Eritrea, which had been given to Ethiopia by the UN and UK. Unions were banned, and Amharic language was imposed in schools. Ethiopian troops fired on strikers, which spurred support for independence. More: stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/7724...

#OtD 10 Mar 2011 Dichello Distributors in Orange, CT, locked out @Teamsters when they rejected health and pension cuts. Workers picketed and jeered at scab replacements. In April workers accepted a new deal with health and pension benefits restored stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/7725...

#OtD 10 Mar 1923 CNT union activist Salvador Seguí was assassinated on the street in Barcelona. Francesc Comes was wounded and died days later. The killing was by gunmen of the "Sindicatos Libres", an extreme right-wing Catholic nationalist "union" stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/8219...

#OtD 10 Mar 1920 the El Bordo mine fire occurred in Pachuca, Mexico, killing dozens. The US company sealed the mine claiming 10 miners inside had died. But later 87 bodies were found, many burned after they were shut in. 7 miraculously survived stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/8217...

#OtD 10 Mar 1939 Spanish anarchist film maker Armand Guerra died. He produced reports on social cinema in French unions and produced documentaries for the CNT during the Spanish Revolution. He died of an aneurysm in Paris shortly after the war was lost. libcom.org/history/arma...

El Bordo Fire: Tragedy in Pachuco, Mexico On this day, 10 March 1920, the El Bordo mine fire occurred in Pachuca, Mexico, which killed dozens of miners. The fire broke out at 6 AM, and there was a brief evacuation period before the mine shafts were sealed shut.  Officials of the United States Smelting, Refining and Mining Company claimed that after the evacuation fewer than 10 workers remained inside, all of whom were declared to be dead by company doctors.  When the mine was finally reopened six days later, it was clear that the company had been lying. Inside were the charred bodies of 87 miners: many of whom had reached the exit of the mine, but were burned to death as they were unable to leave. Miraculously, seven miners had even managed to survive despite being trapped underground.  As in almost all historical examples of corporations killing their workers, no bosses were prosecuted or punished. More information, sources and map: https://stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/8217/el-bordo-fire

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#OtD 9 Mar 1916 Pancho Villa, a leader in the Mexican Revolution and ally of Emiliano Zapata, led a raid on Columbus, New Mexico. It was in opposition to US support for Venustiano Carranza, who opposed land redistribution stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/1092...

#OtD 9 Mar 1991 mass demonstrations against Slobodan Milosevic and his government's control of the news spark a week of protest and a ends with the release of political prisoners and a removal of several lower ranking politicians.

#OtD 9 Mar 1907 legendary anarchist and birth control advocate Emma Goldman was barred from addressing any meetings in public halls in Columbus, Ohio. More info in this timeline of her life: stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/1092...

#OtD 9 Mar 1914 women battled police in Glasgow during Emmeline Pankhurst's speaking tour of Scotland. They used jiu-jitsu and barbed wire concealed in flower bouquets, and one woman fired blanks from a revolver stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/1092...

#OtD 9 Mar 1883 in Paris a large crowd of unemployed people led by Louise Michel and Émile Pouget brandishing black flags, looted bakeries, redistributed bread, and clashed with police stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/1091...

#OtD 6 Mar 1974 UK coal miners ended a four-week strike after winning a 35% pay increase and bringing down the Conservative government. Learn more in our podcast: workingclasshistory.com/podcast/e81-...

#OtD 7 Mar 1932 the Ford Hunger March massacre took place in Detroit. Police and Ford security killed four unemployed workers and injured 60 when they opened fire on a demo organised by the Communist Party's Unemployed Council stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/1072...

#OtD 7 Mar 1921 the repression of the Kronstadt Rebellion against the Bolsheviks, demanding worker self-governance and freedom for socialist prisoners began. It was brutally crushed by the Red Army led by Trotsky and hundreds were executed stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/1072...

#OtD 7 Mar 1970 the Snake Pit gay bar in NYC was raided by police. Over 160 men were arrested, one of whom, Diego Viñales, an Argentinian fearing deportation, was severely injured as he leapt out of a second story window at the police station. More: stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/1073...

#OtD 7 Mar 1942 Lucy Parsons, African-American anarchist, founding member of the Industrial Workers of the World (@IWW), and powerful orator for women, working people, and political prisoners died in a house fire. More about IWW women in our podcast: workingclasshistory.com/2018/12/02/e...

#OtD 8 Mar 1979 women who had participated in the Iranian revolution took to the streets with the slogan: "We did not make a revolution to go back!" The protest came shortly after the announcement of a law making wearing of the hijab mandatory stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/1106...

#OtD 8 Mar 1926 the largely female members of the Fur & Leather Workers' Union went on strike in New York City, enduring beatings by police. They won a 10% raise and a five-day week. Learn more about women's struggles throughout history: shop.workingclasshistory.com/collections/...

#OtD 8 Mar 1917 defying union leaderships, women workers and housewives took the streets of St Petersburg against high prices and hunger. They were joined the next day by 200,000 workers, sparking the February Revolution stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/1082...

#OtD 8 Mar 1782 the Gnadenhutten massacre took place in Ohio, when US forces in the revolutionary war massacred 96 Christian Lenape native Americans, scalping 39 children, 29 women and 28 men, before pillaging and burning their village stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/1082...

#OtD 8 Mar 1926 hundreds of striking textile workers clashed with police in Clifton, NJ, as they attempted to picket the Forstmann and Huffmann Mills. Police blocked the strikers and punched them, so they yelled "shame!" and "scab!" at working mills. stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/1083...

#OtD 8 Mar 1922 seamen in Hong Kong and Canton (now Guangzhou) won pay rises of 15-30%, ending their seven-week strike. The British colonial govt tried to crush the strike but it spread, and armed strikers blockaded the island until victory stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/1082...

#OtD 8 Mar 2018 a monument to Mary Barbour was unveiled in Glasgow. Barbour was a peace campaigner and a pioneering advocate of family planning services, and a leader during the great Glasgow rent strike of 1915. stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/1083...

#OtD 8 Mar 1926 mostly Jewish striking fur workers demonstrated outside the offices of The Jewish Daily Forward newspaper in NYC in protest at an anti-strike article it had published the previous day, booing the editor and burning copies of the paper. stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/1083...

#OtD 8 Mar 1937 the Battle of Guadalajara during the Spanish Civil War began with an Italian and nationalist attack on Madrid. The attack and several following were repelled and the republicans launched a successful counter offensive. More in our podcast: workingclasshistory.com/podcast/e39-...