Today in Labor History November 21, 1831: Silk workers went on strike in Lyon, France. However, when the National Guard killed several workers, the entire city soon rose up in an insurrection known as the First Canut Revolt. Workers captured the police barracks and stole the weapons. They set up barricades and hoisted the black flag. The military guard attempted to stop them, but had to retreat under a hail of bullets. National Guardsmen switched sides and joined the rebels. After a bloody battle with the military guard, in which over 170 died, the rebels captured the town. However, the authorities ultimately subdued the uprising when a much larger military force was sent in from Paris. #workingclass #LaborHistory #france #strike #insurrection #revolt #blackflag #massacre #police #barricades #rebellion

Today in Labor History November 21, 1921: The original Columbine Massacre occurred in Serine, Colorado. State police and company thugs used machine guns against the unarmed miners, slaughtering six striking IWW members, all of whom were unarmed. Dozens more were injured. #workingclass #LaborHistory #IWW #columbine #massacre #colorado #police #union #strike #policebrutality #mining

No war but class war!

Today in Labor History November 20, 1969: Indigenous activists seized control of Alcatraz Island, in San Francisco Bay, and occupied it until the U.S. Government ousted them 19 months later. The protest group called themselves Indians of All Tribes. They took the island because, according to the Treaty of Fort Laramie, all retired, abandoned or out-of-use federal land was to be returned to the Indians who once occupied it. Since Alcatraz had been closed for over 6 years, and the island had been declared surplus federal property, indigenous activists believed that the island was theirs to reclaim. One of the organizers of the Occupation, Richard Oakes, was shot to death in 1972 by a white supremacist YMCA counselor in Sonoma, CA. And the American Indian Movement (AIM) was targeted by the FBI’s COINTELLPRO. Other organizers of the Alcatraz Occupation included LaNada Means, head of the Native American Student Organization at the University of California, Berkeley, and poet, musician and songwriter John Trudell. At the height of the movement, there were 400 people occupying the island. They set up a school, daycare center, and health clinic. Trudell began making daily radio broadcasts from the island. The longshore union rented space on Pier 40 to coordinate the delivery of supplies. Grace Thorpe, daughter of Olympic champion and multisport indigenous superstar, Jim Thorpe, helped convince celebrities like Jane Fonda, Anthony Quinn, Marlon Brando, Jonathan Winters, Buffy Sainte-Marie and Dick Gregory, to visit the island and show their support, bringing national and international attention to the cause. AIM also formed coalitions with the Black Panthers and the Brown Berets, who help run security on the island. #workingclass #LaborHistory #alcatraz #occupation #nativeamerican #indigenous #aim #StolenLand #solidarity #blackpanthers #brownberets #americanindianmovement #jimthorpe #johntrudell #richardoakes #lanadameans #landback

Today in Labor History November 20, 1936: Buenaventura Durruti, Spanish anarchist militant, was shot dead during the Battle of Madrid. His body was buried in Barcelona, in a ceremony attended by over 200,000 people. Durruti was a member of the anarchosyndicalist CNT labor union and the Iberian Anarchist Federation (FAI). In 1920, along with several Basque anarchists, he formed the paramilitary group Los Justicieros, who unsuccessfully tried to assassinate the king. After this, he went to Barcelona, to help organize workers with the CNT. There he formed one of Spain’s most famous affinity groups, Los Solidarios. In 1923, the group was implicated in the assassination of Cardinal Juan Soldevilla y Romero, as a reprisal for the killing of an anarcho-syndicalist union activist Salvador Seguí. After this, Durruti went in hiding in South America, where he robbed banks to raise money for the cause. He returned to Spain in the 1930s, where he formed the Durutti Column, which won numerous battles against the fascists during the Civil War. The accompanying image of Durruti, with his quote, “We are ready to end fascism once and for all, even in spite of the Republican government,” seems almost as if he was speaking directly to Americans in 2024. #workingclass #LaborHistory #anarchism #durruti #spain #CivilWar #antifa #antifascism #fascism #cnt #FAI

Today in Labor History November 20, 1922: Ricardo Flores Magón died in Leavenworth Federal Penitentiary. Ricardo, with his brother Enrique, founded and edited the anarchist paper Regeneracion, founded the Partido Liberal de Mexico, and organized with the IWW. Magon was one of the major intellectual forces inspiring the Mexican Revolution, and he launched a short-lived revolution in Baja California, in which many IWW members from participated. In 1918, the U.S. arrested him under the 1917 Anti-Espionage Act, for publishing an anti-war manifesto. This was part of the First Red Scare, also known as the Palmer Raids, which also swept up Eugene Debs and Emma Goldman. Ricardo Flores Magon died 4 years later, in Leavenworth Prison. The image of Ricardo Flores Magon includes his quote: La Rebeldia es la vida. La sumision es la Muerte. Rebellion is life. Submission is death. #workingclass #LaborHistory #anarchism #magonistas #RicardoFloresMagon #mexico #Revolution #prison #IWW

Today in Labor History November 20, 1896: Rose Pesotta was born on this date to a Jewish family in Ukraine. Pesotta was an anarchist labor activist and the only woman on the General Executive Board of the International Ladies' Garment Workers (ILGWU) from 1933-1944. She learned about anarchism by reading books by Bakunin in her father’s library. Her parents set up an arranged marriage for her, which she did not approve. So, she emigrated to the U.S. in 1913, joining the ILGWU the next year. Her local, #25, was filled with militant women veterans of the 1909 Shirtwaist Strike. She wrote regularly for the New York Anarchist press, in both English and in Yiddish. She was friends with Italian-American anarchist Bartolomeo Vanzetti. In 1933, she organized immigrant Mexican garment workers, leading to the Los Angeles Garment Workers Strike. She also organized workers in Canada and Puerto Rico. Later in life, she worked briefly for the B’nai B’rith. She also wrote two memoirs, Bread Upon the Waters (1944),[6] and Days of Our Lives (1958). #workingclass #LaborHistory #anarchism #rosepesotta #feminism #ilgwu #ukraine #jewish #yiddish #union #strike #immigration #memoir #writer #author #books @npub1wceq...lzu8

UCSF, San Francisco's largest hospital system, is punishing employees for expressing solidarity with Palestine, suppressing their free speech, supposedly because it makes some snowflake zionist staff and patients feel "unsafe." This is happening at schools and workplaces across the country, too. And it's both absurd and reactionary. Would they be punishing students and employees if some right wingers felt "unsafe" because of rainbow flags? Pro-choice pins? Anti-klan posters? Indigenous rights bumper stickers? Well, obviously they are in many parts of the U.S. but not in the SF Bay Area. My school district mandates the flying of the progress flag, while threatening and punishing expressions of solidarity with Palestine.

The Intercept

San Francisco’s Biggest Hospital System: Don’t Talk About Palestine

Nine health care workers at UCSF report punishment for speaking out about human rights for Palestinians, or simply wearing a pin.

#palestine #FreePalestine #EndTheOccupation #freespeech