Today in Labor History May 20, 1949: The U.S. established the National Security Agency. Up until recently it was (and probably still is) the nation’s largest spy agency, in spite of massive cuts and mass firings by the Trump administration. The NSA currently engages in worldwide mass data collection as well as physically bugging targets. They were likely behind the Stuxnet software attack that severely damaged Iran’s nuclear program. The NSA spied on anti-Vietnam War activists and continues to spy on U.S. citizens. Many of their secret surveillance programs were leaked by Edward Snowden, who was forced to flee the country. He is now living in exile in Russia. Private companies, like AT&T and Verizon have collaborated with the NSA to help them spy on U.S. citizens. They supposedly have access to all communications made via Google, Microsoft, Facebook, Yahoo, YouTube, AOL, Skype, Apple and Paltalk. I’d like to say the good news is that the vast majority of this data is pornographic. Problem is, they’re using people’s porn habits to discredit and embarrass them, particularly Muslim clerics and activists. According to a July 2014 report in the Washington Post, 90% of those being surveilled by the NSA are ordinary Americans, not intended targets. But since they’re surveilling every communication made by nearly everyone in the U.S., they’re surveilling pretty much everyone. So, the obvious question is: Why are 10% of all Americans (a full 33 million people) considered targets? And if there really are 33 million of us who are opposed the U.S. government, how come we keep ending up with such shit politicians? And this particular data was true prior to Trump taking office. One can presume that everyone who has ever said anything critical of the U.S., or Trump, is now in the crosshairs. #workingclass #LaborHistory #nsa #espionage #edwardsnowden #spying #data #intelligence #activist #vietnam #privacy #pornography #islamophobia #masssurveillance

Today in Labor History May 20, 1956: In Operation Redwing, the U.S. dropped the first airborne hydrogen bomb over the Bikini Atoll. From May to July, the U.S. detonated 17 nuclear devices in the Bikini and Enewetak atolls. They tested both thermonuclear and fission weapons. They cynically named each of the tests after a different Native American tribe, and then, in the following years, went on to devastate indigenous lands within the U.S. mainland through nuclear mining, testing and waste storage. Between 1946 and 1958, the U.S. detonated 67 nuclear devices in the Marshall Islands. According to anthropologist Holly Barker, it was the equivalent of 1.6 Hiroshima-sized bombs dropped on the islands every day for 12 years. As a result of these tests, the U.S. completely vaporized three of the Bikini Islands and polluted huge swaths of water and land, poisoning countless indigenous people there. Many starved to death because they were relocated to places that couldn’t produce enough food. Each resident now receives a paltry $550 annually from the U.S. government to cover medical treatment related to radiation poisoning. #workingclass #LaborHistory #nuclear #atomic #bomb #bikini #indigenous #colonialism #coldwar #genocide #radioactive #hiroshima #marshallislands

Today in Labor History May 16, 1862: President Lincoln signed the Homestead Act. As a result, 84 million acres of public (i.e., Indigenous) lands were opened to settlers. Any citizen who had never taken up arms against the U.S. (i.e., northerners), including women and freed slaves, could file for a federal land grant. Consequently, great swaths of Native American land and natural resources were usurped by settlers. Additionally, much of the land was acquired by businesses, not individual citizens. For example, most of the rainforest west of Portland, Oregon was acquired by the Oregon Lumber Company through illegal claims under the act. #workingclass #LaborHistory #LandTheft #homestead #indigenous #NativeAmerican #lincoln

Today in Labor History May 18, 1814: Russian anarchist militant and philosopher Mikhail Bakunin was born. In Paris, in the 1840’s, he met Marx and Proudhon, who were early influences on him. He was later expelled from France for opposing Russia’s occupation of Poland. In 1849, the authorities arrested him in Dresden for participating in the Czech rebellion of 1848. They deported him back to Russia, where the authorities imprisoned him and then exiled him to Siberia in 1857. However, he escaped through Japan and fled to the U.S. and then England. In 1868, he joined the International Working Men’s Association, leading the rapidly growing anarchist faction. He argued for federations of self-governing workplaces and communes to replace the state. This was in contrast to Marx, who argued for the state to help bring about socialism. In 1872, they expelled Bakunin from the International. Bakunin had an influence on the IWW, Noam Chomsky, Peter Kropotkin, Herbert Marcuse, Emma Goldman, and the Spanish CNT and FAI. #workingclass #LaborHistory #anarchism #bakunin #IWW #cnt #chomsky #kropotkin #emmagoldman #marx #rebellion #revolution

These plantation museums exist all over the south, often run for profit by the descendants of the white people who built these mansions and who accrued massive fortunes through the unpaid labor of enslaved people. Over 80% of these museums avoid or trivialize issues of slavery, oppression, and racism as legitimate parts of their historical narratives.

Review of Representations of Slavery: Race and Ideology in Southern Plantation Museums

Jennifer L. Eichstedt and Stephen Small, Representations of Slavery: Race and Ideology in Southern Plantation Museums. Review by Rex Ellis. CRM: Th...

#racism #slavery #abolition #plantation #BlackMastadon