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Today in Labor History April 22, 2011: Songwriter, musician and activist Hazel Dickens died at age 75. Dickens was well known, not only for her protest songs, but for her activism, too. According to blogger John Pietaro, "Dickens didn’t just sing the anthems of labor, she lived them and her place on many a picket line, staring down gunfire and goon squads, embedded her into the cause." She was born in West Virginia in 1925. After her family moved to Baltimore in the 1940s, she met Mike Seeger. Together, the two became active in the Baltimore folk music and protest scenes. She wrote “They’ll Never Keep Us Down,” and “Working Girl Blues.” She made appearances in the Oscar-winning documentary Harlan County, USA, about the struggle of coalminers and contributed four songs to the film's soundtrack. She was also in the films Matewan and Songcatcher. And she recorded an album called, Don’t Mourn, Organize! covering the songs of IWW singer and organizer, Joe Hill.

In the accompanying Youtube video, she performs Fire in the Hole, from Matewan. https://youtu.be/1pb2bDA7Kd0

#workingclass #LaborHistory #folk #folkmusic #singer #songwriter #HazelDickens #coal #mining #union #protest #matewan #IWW #feminism #joehill #mikeseeger

Agitate Educate Organize

#Art #illustration #tshirts #joshMcPhee #JustSeeds #iww

“Why is the labor movement so dependent on the government in the first place? Can we afford to be in a situation where one orange man can suspend the union process? The moment has opened our imaginations to what labor organizing would be like without the NLRB.”

No #NLRB? No problem. Via @industrialwrkr

#IWW #UnionStrong #1u #labor

https://industrialworker.org/no-nlrb-no-problem/

Today in Labor History April 19, 1913: Modestino Valentino, a bystander, was shot and killed by company detectives during a conflict between IWW strikers and scabs in Patterson, N.J., during the infamous Silk Strike, which the workers ultimately lost on July 28, 1913. During the strike, 1,850 workers were arrested, including Elizabeth Gurley Flynn and Big Bill Haywood.

#workingclass #LaborHistory #IWW #patterson #strike #union #police #policebrutality #policemurder #BigBillHaywood #ElizabethGurleyFlynn #newjersey

Today in Labor History April 18, 1914: IWW workers in Taft, California, continued their strike against Standard Oil. It was the first strike ever against the company. The workers demanded an eight-hour day and a 50-cents raise.

#workingclass #LaborHistory #standardoil #IWW #union #strike #california #eighthourday

#UKpol
#Trans
#IWW
https://iww.org.uk/news/bigoted-bourgeoisie-courts-never-cared-about-workers-whether-cis-or-trans/

California's senator Scott Wiener proposed a bill that would've let wildfire victims sue the oil companies for causing the climate crisis.

Guess who teamed up with the Big Oil execs to defeat the bill?

Unions.

Specifically the unions representing oil industry workers. In other words, the workers collaborated with their class enemies: their bosses.

I'm not opposed to unions. I've been a union organizer for decades. But goddamn, these blockheads are acting just like Mr. Block (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mr._Block). They somehow forgot the first rule of labor: the boss is NOT your friend. Be suspicious. Don't trust them. And sure as hell don't collaborate with them to help enrich them even further, especially not on your backs, nor in ways that further destroy the planet.

"The working class and the employing class have nothing in common.... Between these two classes a struggle must go on until the workers of the world organise as a class, take possession of the means of production, abolish the wage system, and live in harmony with the earth."
-- preamble to the constitution of the IWW

That last line, added to the original 1905 preamble to the IWW constitution in the late 1980s, might sound a bit vague and "crunchy." But it was an attempt to acknowledge that some types of work simply shouldn't exist. That's not to say those who currently work in those industries (e.g. Fossil fuel extraction) should be thrown under the bus. Everyone should be allowed to do something productive that they enjoy. And everyone should have all the material necessities to live a safe secure and meaningful existence. But saving the planet from climate collapse will certainly require many changes in the types of work that are available. Coal mining, for example, has been on the decline for years because there is so little left in many regions that it's not profitable for the bosses to continue paying miners to mine ît anymore.

In a sane and compassionate world, we'd provide these workers with free Healthcare housing, UBI, and retraining so they could transition to some other productive endeavor. And union leaders would recognize that the interests of their members are much more closely aligned with, and linked to, those of the rest of the working class. (Continued burning of oil will contribute to more climate disasters, more wild fires, and possible the loss of their own members' lives or homes).

https://calmatters.org/politics/2025/04/california-oil-union-climate-bill/

#workingclass #LaborHistory #IWW #climatecrisis #wildfires #unions #ubi #BigOil

In the annals of "complying in advance", the US-Canada part of the #IWW (Industrial Workers of the World) is doing a paperwork attack on the part of itself that organizes prisoners. The stated reasons are a jumble of concerns about proper receipts, with some part of leadership stating that good recordkeeping will make the union less of a target for fascists. But mostly it's that union leadership doesn't like prisoner organization or really anything that people look to the IWW for.

https://www.onebigunion.ie/post/that-s-entertainment-musicians-urged-to-unionise

#Derry #entertainmentworkers #labormovement #Musicians #Organize #solidarity #unions #iww

Today in Labor History April 14, 1917: IWW sailors went on strike in Philadelphia and won a ten dollar per month raise. Ben Fletcher, an African-American IWW organizer, was instrumental in organizing the Philadelphia waterfront. Fletcher was born in Philly in 1890. He joined the Wobblies (IWW) in 1912, became secretary of the IWW District Council in 1913. He also co-founded the interracial Local 8 in 1913.

In 1913, Fletcher led 10,000 IWW Philly dockworkers on a strike. Within two weeks, they won a 10-hr day, overtime pay, & created one of the most successful antiracist, anticapitalist union locals in the U.S. At the time, roughly one-third of the dockers on the Philadelphia waterfront were black. Another 33% were Irish. And about 33% were Polish and Lithuanian. Prior to the IWW organizing drive, the employers routinely pitted black workers against white, and Polish against Irish. The IWW was one of the only unions of the era that organized workers into the same locals, regardless of race or ethnicity. And its main leader in Philadelphia was an African American, Ben Fletcher.

By 1916, thanks in large part to Fletcher’s organizing skill, all but two of Philadelphia’s docks were controlled by the IWW. And the union maintained control of the Philly waterfront for about a decade. At that time, roughly 10% of the IWW’s 1 million members were African American. Most had been rejected from other unions because of their skin color.

Fletcher also traveled up and down the east coast organizing dockers. However, he was nearly lynched in Norfolk, Virginia in 1917. And in 1918, the state arrested him, sentencing him to ten years for the crime of organizing workers during wartime. He served three years.

You can read my full biography of Ben Fletcher here: https://michaeldunnauthor.com/2021/05/13/ben-fletcher-and-the-iww-dockers/

#workingclass #LaborHistory #IWW #union #strike #benfletcher #racism #africanamerican #philadelphia #longshore #lynching #BlackMastadon

Today in Labor History April 13, 1894: The Great Northern rail strike began in Helena, Montana. It quickly spread to St. Paul. The strike was led Eugene V. Debs, president of the American Railway Union. Workers succeeded in shutting down most of the critical rail links. Consequently, the owners gave in to nearly all of the union’s demands. The successful strike led to thousands of rail workers joining the new union. Debs would go on to lead numerous other strikes, run for president of the U.S. several times, including from his prison cell, and to cofound the revolutionary union IWW, along with Mother Jones, Big Bill Haywood, Lucy Parsons, and others.

#workingclass #LaborHistory #union #strike #eugenedebs #railroad #solidarity #potus #IWW #motherjones #lucyparsons #bigbillhaywood

join the Tacoma IWW branch next Thursday April 17th at 12:30pm at Freighthouse Square (in food court), to eat some food, hang out and see what we've been up to. All are welcome.

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#tacomaiww #iww #solidarityforever #industrialworkersoftheworld
#industrialunionism #aninjurytooneisaninjurytoall
#solidarityunionism #industrialworker #wobradio #wobblies #onebigunion
#abolitionofthewagesystem

Today in Labor History April 10, 1997: Exotic dancers at San Francisco’s Lusty Lady, ratified their first-ever union contract. Thus they became the first successfully unionized sex business. (Pacers, in San Diego, had unionized a few years earlier. However, they had an open shop, allowing management to recruit new, non-union employees. Consequently, they were able to decertify the union.) Lusty Lady later became a worker-owned cooperative and a member of NoBAWC (the network of Bay Area Workers Collectives), a program initiated by the Bay Area IWW.

For a great book on the struggle to organize Lusty Lady, please see Jenny Worley’s “Neon Girls: A Stripper’s Education in Protest and Power.”

#workingclass #LaborHistory #WorkerCollective #union #NOBAWC #LustyLady #books #author #writer #IWW @bookstadon

Today In Labor History April 9, 1930: The IWW organized the 1700-member crew of the Leviathan, the world’s largest ship. Originally a German passenger ship, the U.S. seized it in 1917, during World War I, when it was docked in New York harbor. The U.S. subsequently used it to transport its troops to Europe. In September, 1918, the Leviathan left New Jersey, filled with men dying from Influenza. Dozens perished from the flu on the passage over.

#workingclass #LaborHistory #iww #WorldWarOne #pandemic #flu #influenza #union #mutiny #strike

Today In Labor History April 3, 1913: Pietro Botto, socialist mayor of Haledon, N.J., invited the Paterson silk mill strikers to assemble in front of his house. 20,000 showed up to hear speakers from the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), Upton Sinclair, John Reed and others, who urged them to remain strong in their fight. The Patterson strike lasted from Feb. 1 until July 28, 1913. Workers were fighting for the eight-hour workday and better working conditions. Over 1800 workers were arrested during the strike, including IWW leaders Big Bill Haywood and Elizabeth Gurley Flynn. Five were killed. Overall, the strike was poorly organized and confined to Paterson. The IWW, the main organizer of the strike, eventually gave up.

#workingclass #LaborHistory #Patterson #strike #IWW #union #anarchism #PoliceBrutality #socialism #UptonSinclair #JohnReed #BigBillHaywood #ElizabethGurleyFlynn

Today In Labor History April 3, 1917: After the U.S. declared war, sailors, escorted by police, destroyed the IWW building in Kansas City. The action inspired similar attacks in Detroit, Duluth and other towns that had a large IWW presence.

#workingclass #LaborHistory #IWW #union #PoliceBrutality #antiwar #police #wwi #kansascity #redscare #palmer

Today In Labor History March 27, 1912: Start of the 8-month Northern railway strike in Canada by the IWW. Over 8,000 construction workers walked off the job at Northern Railway workcamps Wobblies picketed employment offices in Vancouver, Seattle, San Francisco, Tacoma and Minneapolis in order to block the hiring of scabs.

Fellow workers pay attention to what I'm going to mention,
For it is the fixed intention of the Workers of the World.
And I hope you'll all be ready, true-hearted, brave and steady,
To gather 'round our standard when the red flag is unfurled.

CHORUS:
Where the Fraser River flows, each fellow worker knows,
They have bullied and oppressed us, but still our union grows.
And we're going to find a way, boys, for shorter hours and better pay, boys
And we're going to win the day, boys, where the river Fraser flows.

For these gunny-sack contractors have all been dirty actors,
And they're not our benefactors, each fellow worker knows.
So we've got to stick together in fine or dirty weather,
And we will show no white feather, where the Fraser river flows.
Now the boss the law is stretching, bulls and pimps he's fetching,
And they are a fine collection, as Jesus only knows.
But why their mothers reared them, and why the devil spared them,
Are questions we can't answer, where the Fraser River flows.

(Lyrics by Joe Hill, 1912, to the tune of “Where the River Shannon Flows.”)

#workingclass #LaborHistory #IWW #strike #union #railroad #FraserRiver #joehill #scabs #sanfrancisco #vancouver #seattle #minneapolis

The wealthy have never cared about helping others. Their lack of regard for other people is how they got and stayed wealthy. For thousands of years, poor folk have been conned into thinking the lords will help them, when it is always we who help each other best. #EatTheRich #IWW

1er mai - LEE REED (ON), Jetsam, Union Thugs, Kon-Fusion, Sistema de Muerte, L RO, Sentai Dub Attack

<p>Batiment 7, Thursday, May 1 at 08:00 PM EDT</p><p>1er mai RAGER - deux scènes, musique non-stop // May Day RAGER - two stages, non-stop music</p><p>Un spectacle-bénéfice pour les travailleurs migrants pour la journée internationale des travailleuses et des travailleurs // A benefit show for migrant workers for International Workers' Day</p><p>Tous les fonds seront remis à Solidarité sans frontières/Solidarity across borders/Solidaridad sin frontera // All the funds raised will be donated to Solidarité sans frontières/Solidarity across borders/Solidaridad sin frontera</p><p>Avec // with</p><p>LEE REED (anarchist rap / Hamilton, ON)</p><p><a target="_blank" href="https://leereed.bandcamp.com/">https://leereed.bandcamp.com/</a></p><p>JETSAM (trans anarchist powerviolence / Montréal)</p><p><a target="_blank" href="https://jetsammtl.bandcamp.com">https://jetsammtl.bandcamp.com</a></p><p>UNION THUGS (Folk-Rock &amp; Oi! de Grève / Montréal)</p><p><a target="_blank" href="https://unionthugs.bandcamp.com">https://unionthugs.bandcamp.com</a></p><p>SISTEMA DE MUERTE (Hardcore / Montréal)</p><p><a target="_blank" href="https://sistemademuerte.bandcamp.com/album/sistema-de-muerte">https://sistemademuerte.bandcamp.com/album/sistema-de-muerte</a></p><p>L RO (Hip-hop / Montréal)</p><p><a target="_blank" href="https://lrobta.bandcamp.com/album/105">https://lrobta.bandcamp.com/album/105</a></p><p>KON-FUSION (Cumbia / Montréal)</p><p><a target="_blank" href="https://www.kon-fusion.net/">https://www.kon-fusion.net/</a></p><p>SENTAI DUB ATTACK (Dub Reggae Cumbia / Montréal)</p><p><a target="_blank" href="https://sentaidubattack.bandcamp.com/releases">https://sentaidubattack.bandcamp.com/releases</a></p><p>+ </p><p>des visuels riot porn par // riot porn visuals by <a target="_blank" href="http://SUB.MEDIA">SUB.MEDIA</a> (<a target="_blank" href="https://sub.media)">https://sub.media)</a></p><p>IWW</p><p>Left Wing Books</p><p>et plus! // and more!</p><p>*******</p><p>Portes // Doors - 20h</p><p>Musique // Music - 20h30 </p><p>Don suggéré à la porte // Suggested donation at the door - 20$</p><p>Personne ne sera refusé par manque de fonds // No one turned away for lack of funds</p><p>*************</p><p>Politique de sécurité et de respect de l'événement : Nous nous engageons à créer un environnement sûr, inclusif et accueillant pour toutes les personnes participantes.</p><p>Politique de tolérance zéro : Les comportements racistes, transphobes, capacitistes et haineux en général ainsi que le harcèlement ou tout comportement qui fait que les autres se sentent en danger ou indésirables entraîneront l'expulsion immédiate de l'événement.</p><p>//</p><p>Event safety and respect policy: We are committed to creating a safe, inclusive and welcoming environment for all participants.</p><p>Zero tolerance policy: Racist, transphobic, ableist and generally hateful behaviour as well as harassment or any behaviour that makes others feel unsafe or unwanted will result in immediate expulsion from the event.</p>

https://montreal.askapunk.net/event/1er-mai-lee-reed-on-jetsam-union-thugs-kon-fusion-sistema-de-muerte-l-ro-sentai-dub-attack