Working Class History
Working Class HistoryOnly 1 day left to support our Kickstarter. Help publish a vital first person account of Argentina’s 2001 uprising against IMF driven austerity. Grab a discounted copy and other rewards before it closes tomorrow. Join us and help bring this book to life:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/wrkclasshistory/argentina-a-tale-of-two-utopias
Working Class History#OtD 17 Nov 1866 American anarchist Voltairine de Cleyre was born. As well as advocating for workers' control of production, she attacked female beauty ideals, gender roles for children & marriage laws which allowed men to rape their wives. Posters here: https://shop.workingclasshistory.com/collections/working-class-heroes/voltairine-de-cleyre
Working Class History#OtD 16 Nov 1989 six Jesuit priests, their housekeeper and her daughter were killed by the US-backed military in El Salvador for being "subversive". Troops then tried to make the murders look like the work of left-wing guerrillas https://stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/8824/jesuits-murdered-in-el-salvador
Working Class History#OtD 13 Aug 1937 four striking Indian sugar workers were massacred at the Union Flacq Sugar Estate, Mauritius. In response, protests escalated. The British colonial government was then forced to legalise unions and set up collective bargaining https://stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/7741/mauritius-strike-massacre
Working Class History#OtD 13 Aug 1776 a crowd of women in Fishkill, New York, seized tea during a food riot in the American revolution https://stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/8449/fishkill-food-riot
Working Class History#OtD 13 Aug 1917 a revolutionary general strike began in Sabadell, Spain, as part of a national strike called by the UGT union, which was supported by the @Cntsindicato@mastodon.social. The civil guard attacked workers, killing 13 and destroying the union office https://stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/7740/sabadell-general-strike
Working Class History#OtD 13 Aug 1955 Lamar Smith, African-American civil rights activist and WWI veteran, was murdered by racists outside the Lincoln courthouse in Mississippi. Despite many witnesses, including the sheriff, no one was charged with any crime https://stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/8456/lamar-smith-murdered
Working Class History#OtD 13 Aug 1973 five Black independence activists were sentenced to eight life sentences in the US Virgin Islands. After the killing of eight tourists, Black people were rounded up and tortured into confessing, and jurors were threatened to convict https://stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/8457/fountain-valley-five-convicted
Working Class History#OtD 13 Aug 1880 Mary Macarthur was born in Glasgow, Scotland. She was central to the working-class wing of the suffragettes who opposed WWI and votes just for rich women, which made her unpopular with middle-class suffragettes https://stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/8451/mary-macarthur
Working Class History#OtD 12 Aug 1887 pioneering Colombian socialist and women's rights advocate María Cano aka "flor del trabajo" ("flower of labour") was born. She gave fiery speeches to crowds of mining, oil and banana workers, and was repeatedly arrested https://stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/8368/maría-cano-born