Today in Labor History April 26, 1862: Congress passed the Anti-Coolie Act of 1862. They also called it, "An Act to Protect Free White Labor.” The law was one of a series of xenophobic laws enacted specifically to block the immigration of Chinese to the U.S., particularly to California. Laws like this encouraged anti-Asian violence like the Los Angeles anti-Chinese riot of 1871, the San Francisco anti-Chinese riot of 1877, the Denver Chinatown riot of 1880, the Eureka Chinese expulsion of 1885, the Rock Springs Massacre of 1885, the Tacoma pogrom of 1885, and the Seattle anti-Chinese riots of 1886. You can read my full article America’s Long Sordid History of Anti-Asian Violence:

Michael Dunn

America’s Long Sordid History of Anti-Asian Violence - Michael Dunn

History of anti-Asian violence and racism in America

#workingclass #LaborHistory #xenophobia #AntiAsianHate #RaceRiots #racism #immigration #sanfrancisco #losangeles #denver #chinese #riot #seattle

Today in Labor History April 26, 1924: The U.S. House of Representatives passed House Joint Resolution No. 184. It was a constitutional amendment to prohibit the labor of persons under 18 years of age. The Senate approved the measure a few weeks later, but it was never ratified by the states and is still technically pending. Even so, the act included many exclusions, like in agriculture. From 2015 to 2022, the number of kids working in violation of child labor laws rose by 283%. And, as you all probably already have heard, many Republican leaders are weakening child labor laws to make it even easier, and legal, to exploit kids in dangerous, low-paid jobs.

USAFacts

Is child labor increasing in the US? | USAFacts

Cases of child labor violations have fallen since the early 2000s. But from 2015 to 2022, the number of minors employed in violation of child labor...

#workingclass #LaborHistory #childlabor #ChildExploitation #children

Today in Labor History April 26, 1937: The Nazis and Italian fascists bombed Guernica, a town in the Basque region of Spain, at the request of Spanish fascist leader, Francisco Franco. Later that year, Picasso painted his famous painting, Guernica, in protest of the atrocity. This was during the Spanish Civil War. The Republicans, a coalition of anarchist, socialist and communist partisans, were fighting the Nationalists, led by Franco. They bombed Guernica for two hours, killing between 1,000 and 3,000 civilians, or 20-60% of the population. #workingclass #LaborHistory #fascism #antifascism #nazis #guernica #picasso #basque #spain #CivilWar #anarchism #socialism #communism

Today in Labor History April 26, 2004: Author Hubert Selby died. He wrote “Last Exit to Brooklyn” and “Requiem for a Dream.” His first novel, “The Queen is Dead,” was banned in Italy and prosecuted for #obscenity in the U.K. Allan Ginsberg thought that Last Exit would “explode like a rusty hellish bombshell over America and still be eagerly read in a hundred years.” Selby dropped out of high school to work on the docks of Brooklyn, before becoming a merchant seaman in 1947. However, he caught tuberculosis from the cows on board the ship. He was in and out of hospitals for the next three years. Doctors told him he was going to die. But several surgeries and experimental drugs saved his life. Too sick to do physical labor, he tried writing to earn a living. #workingclass #LaborHistory #HubertSelbey #literature #books #author #fiction #writer #obscenity #allanginsberg #LastExitToBrooklyn @npub1wceq...lzu8

Today in Labor History April 26, 1649: The English authorities sentenced Robert Lockier to be shot for leading a mutiny. Cromwell’s New Model Army had just defeated Charles I in the English Civil War. However, the Army failed to negotiate a settlement with the King. And when Charles I double-crossed them, they executed him. A conflict arose between the monarchists, who wanted another king, and Cromwell, who wanted a plutocratic Parliament. Then there were the Levellers, who wanted a democracy in which every male head of household had a vote, regardless of whether he owned property. And the Diggers (AKA the True Levellers), who wanted universal suffrage AND common ownership of the land. Lockier was a Leveller and a member the New Model Army. On April 24, he and some other soldiers barricaded themselves in a Leveller meeting place in London. They demanded to paid their overdue wages. Cromwell ended the mutiny after a few days and arrested Lockier as the ringleader. The Diggers originally called themselves the True Levellers, to distinguish themselves from the more moderate Levellers. However, in April, 1649, they began pulling down enclosures (common lands usurped by the landlords) on St. George’s Hill. And when they started planting the land in common, for the benefit of all peasants, people started calling them Diggers. Needless to say, the local landlords were peeved. They asked the New Model Army to come in and remove the Diggers. However, their commander told the landlords to use the courts. So, the landlords organized gangs to beat and burn out the Diggers. Ultimately, the court ruled that the Army could evict the Diggers if they did not leave. So, they left. But they started new commons in neighboring regions. #workingclass #LaborHistory #diggers #Cromwell #mutiny #levellors #CivilWar #england #NewModelArmy #BillyBragg

That's all we've ever been allowed to teach. And the repression started well before Trump was elected. Good luck teaching anything even remotely supportive of the Arab or Muslim experience. Forget anything that even mentions the word Palestine. And that's in the "liberal" San Francisco Bay Area. There are already other places in the U.S., like Florida, where you can be fired simply for saying the word "Gay." And who remembers hearing anything in school about Marx, socialism, anarchism, that wasn't completely negative? Anything about MLK's support of labor unions and opposition to the Vietnam War? General Strikes? The Tulsa pogrom? The Battle of Blair Mountain or the Great Train Strike of 1877 (the 2 largest insurrections and 2 largest labor uprisings in the U.S. since the Civil War)??? Dozens of books banned from school libraries and from the curriculum. #workingclass #LaborHistory #union #strike #generalstrike #racism #socialism #marxism #censorship #bookbans #freespeech #FreePalestine #zionism #anarchism #homophobia #lgbtq #trump #MAGA