Today in Labor History March 14, 1954: Salt of the Earth premiered. The film depicted the 1951 strike of Mexican-American workers at the Empire Zinc mine, in New Mexico. The film was one of the first to portray a feminist political point of view, particularly through Actress Rosaura Revueltas’s role as Esperanza Quintero. When the Company uses the new Taft-Hartley Act (which also bans General Strikes) to impose an injunction preventing the men from picketing, their wives go walk the picket line in their places. LGBTQ and labor activist Will Geer also played in the film. Writer Michael Wilson, director Herbert Biberman and producer Paul Jarrico had all been blacklisted for their alleged communist ties. Only 13 of the 13,000 theaters in the U.S. showed the film. #workingclass #LaborHistory #SaltOfTheEarth #strike #union #generalstrike #lgbtq #TaftHartley #communism #feminism #MexicanAmerican #chicano #film #blacklist

Today in Labor History March 13, 1920: The Kapp Putsch attempted to overthrow the new German republic. While the government officials fled, workers launched a General Strike and refused to cooperate with the nationalists and royalists behind the coup attempt. The General Strike effectively ended the right-wing assault on the republic. However, it also inspired even more radical actions by the workers, including the Communist Ruhr Uprising, which lasted from March 13 through April 12. The government utilized the right-wing Freikorps to suppress the uprising, killing over 1,000 workers. #workingclass #LaborHistory #communism #uprising #GeneralStrike #freikoprs #putsch #germany

Better yet, abolish the class system. Yeet the rich!

Today in Labor History March 11, 1811: Luddites attacked looms near Nottingham, England, because automation was threatening their jobs. At the time, workers were suffering from high unemployment, declining wages, an “endless” war with France and food scarcity. On March 11, they smashed machines in Nottingham and demonstrated for job security and higher wages. The protests and property destruction spread across a 70-mile area of England, reaching Manchester. The government sent troops to protect the factories and made machine-breaking punishable by death. #workingclass #LaborHistory #luddites #automation #unemployment #england #wages #war #technology #vandalism

Today in Labor History March 11, 1850: French anarchist Clément Duval was born. His theory of individual reclamation, which justified theft, and other crimes, as both educational and legitimate ways to redistribute the wealth, influenced the Illegalists of the 1910s, including Jules Bonnot, of the Bonnot Gang. According to Paul Albert, "The story of Clement Duval was lifted and, shorn of all politics, turned into the bestseller Papillon." #workingclass #LaborHistory #anarchism #illegalism #prison #deportation #wealth #BonnotGang #papillon #individualism #novel #fiction #writer #author #books @npub1wceq...lzu8