Working Class History
Working Class History#OtD 21 Jan 2019 workers at Italpizza in Modena, Italy went on strike against pay cuts. The mostly women and migrant workers were threatened by factory guards, and beaten and arrested by police, but organised more strikes throughout 2019 https://stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/9382/modena-pizza-strike
Working Class History#OtD 20 Jan 1969, at a Nixon counter-inaugural protest, SDS activist, Marilyn Salzman Webb, tried to speak about women's oppression. Men heckled her shouting, "Take her off the stage and fuck her!" until she was drowned out. Learn more about the movt: https://workingclasshistory.com/2020/09/23/e43-46-the-movement-against-the-vietnam-war-in-the-us/
Working Class History#OtD 20 Jan 1893 at dawn, hundreds of peasants in Sicily started working on land owned by the city of Caltavuturo: land they believed to be rightfully theirs. Police responded by firing on the peasants, killing 13 and wounding 40 https://stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/9267/caltavuturo-massacre
Working Class History#OtD 17 Jan 1893 a coup d'état took place in Hawaii, organised by United States. A republic was briefly declared, and the island was annexed by the US five years later: the first of many overseas imperialist conquests by the nation https://stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/8879/us-organised-coup-in-hawaii
Working Class History#OtD 17 Jan 1937 communist philosopher and veteran of France 1968, Alain Badiou, was born. Described as the "world's leading philosopher of communism", he has authored many influential works, some of which are available in our online store: https://shop.workingclasshistory.com/collections/books/alain-badiou
Working Class History#OtD 17 Jan 1928 Vidal Sassoon, anti-fascist hairdresser born. Aged 17 he joined the 43 Group, formed by Jewish ex-servicemen, which smashed Oswald Mosley's fascists off the streets of London. Sassoon's weapon of choice? A pair of scissors. Learn more: https://workingclasshistory.com/2020/02/17/e35-37-the-43-group/
Working Class History#OtD 15 Jan 1978 the Scala nightclub in Barcelona was firebombed, killing 4 of the workers, most of whom were anarchists. Police blamed anarchists but a police agent was actually responsible, attempting to crush the reborn @Cntsindicato@mastodon.social union https://stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/8674/scala-firebombing
Working Class History#OtD 14 Jan 1987 student Park Jong-chul was tortured to death by police in Seoul for opposing the US-backed dictatorship. When his murder was uncovered it sparked the June Democratic Struggle which brought down the dictatorship. Learn more in our podcast: https://workingclasshistory.com/podcast/e91-92-south-korea-1987/
Working Class History#OtD 13 Jan 1949 workers at Calvary Cemetery in NYC went on strike in the first recorded strike by Catholic laity against Catholic clergy. The cardinal—who wouldn't give workers Saturdays off—notably brought in seminary students as strikebreakers https://stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/8478/catholic-cemetery-workers-strike
Working Class History#OtD 12 Jan 1989 punks were identified as the main problem in a "youth analysis" by the East German govt. Punks were surveilled, arrested and beaten, had their mohawks cut off, movements restricted and badjacketed if they refused to be informants https://stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/8402/ddr-punk-problem