Today in Labor History July 7, 1992: The New York Court of Appeals ruled that women had the same right as men to go topless in public. Currently, only 33 states truly permit women to go topless (

Gotopless

Topless Laws

Do you know which cities are Top-free cities?

), with complete bans still in effect in Utah, Indiana and Tennessee, and ambiguous laws in several other states. “Free the Nipple” is a campaign that challenges the convention that only men are allowed to be topless in public, while it is considered indecent for women to do the same. The campaign was started by filmmaker Lina Esco, who created a documentary of herself walking through New York City topless in 2012. While it is currently legal for anyone to go topless in Washington, D.C., it is apparently considered disrespectful to flash your nipples at President Biden, at least if you’re nonbinary. In 2023, trans activist Rosa Montoya was invited to participate at the White House Pride event and took off her top. She was subsequently banned from future White House events and eventually issued an apology for behaving in a way that was “unbecoming” of a White House guest, in spite of her behavior being perfectly legal. Perhaps if she was still a teenager Biden would have sniffed her hair? Meanwhile, in the UK, where, in 2025, the Supreme Court ruled that trans women do not meet the “definition” of women, it is still illegal for women to go topless in public. So, trans activists have been demonstrating topless there, creating a paradox, not to mention a lot of confusion and frustration, for the police and politicians who, under the state’s new definition of gender, cannot arrest them, though they desperately want to. #workingclass #LaborHistory #feminism #nipples #breasts #TransRightsAreHumanRights #lgbtq #biden #FreetheNipple #sexism #transphobia

Today in Labor History July 7, 1931: Construction began on the Hoover dam. 16 workers and camp residents died from heat exhaustion during a single month of construction. Temperatures routinely soared over 110 degrees Fahrenheit. Several strikes led to nominal improvements in working conditions. Thousands of men were employed in the highly segregated project. Only 30 African Americans were allowed to work at any given time and Chinese workers were officially excluded. The Wobblies (IWW) tried to organize the men and sent in 11 organizers who were promptly arrested. Eugene Nelson, a Wobbly hobo, writes about it in his wonderful biographical novel, “Break Their Haughty Power.” #workingclass #LaborHistory #IWW #union #organizing #hooverdam #workplacesafety #workplacedeaths #racism #immigration #segregation #author #writer #books #fiction #novel @npub1wceq...lzu8

Today in Writing History July 7, 1907: Robert Heinlein was born. Heinlein was a pioneer of “hard” science fiction, which emphasized scientific accuracy in science fiction stories. He was considered one of the big 3, along with Isaac Asimov and Arthur C. Clarke. Some of his best-known works include “Starship Troopers,” “Stranger in a Strange Land,” and “The Moon is a Hard Mistress.” He often used technological advances to explore provocative political and social issues, and to speculate how they might affect the future. The social commentary in the fiction of H.G. Wells and Upton Sinclair influenced him. He believed that some form of socialism was inevitable and that some aspects of it were already developing in the U.S. However, in his later years he became very conservative. He became a member of the Citizen's Advisory Council on National Space Policy, which made policy recommendations that were later transformed into Reagan’s Strategic Defense Initiative, or Star Wars. #sciencefiction #scifi #author #writer #novel #books #heinlein #asimov #arthurcclarke #socialism #fiction #starwars #reagan #coldwar @npub1wceq...lzu8

Another nice nostalgic mischaracterization of history. First, with respect to War Crimes, the UN and most international human rights organizations have a consensus that Israel is guilty of War Crimes and Genocide. However, the most powerful European nations, and the U.S., by virtue of their weaponry, and their economic and political power, get the de facto ultimate say. And they never call it a war crime when its not in their interests. Second, with respect to protest, totalitarian states never allow any protests. Democracies do, but only to the extent that they don't threaten profits, and the power of the ruling class. As soon as they seem to be gaining mass support, threatening profits, making things uncomfortable for the bosses and politicians, they get shut down, often violently. This was true in the 1960s, 1980s, 1990s and today.

Today in Labor History July 6, 1911: IWW labor organizer Joe Hill's song "The Preacher & the Slave" first appeared in the IWW’s Little Red Song Book. The song is a parody of the hymn, “Sweet By and By,” often song by the Salvation Army (who the IWW called the Starvation Army), which would try to drown out the union’s street-corner labor organizing with their hymns. The Wobbly bard, Haywire Mac, is believed to be the first person to sing this song in public. Woody Guthrie, Pete Seeger and Utah Phillips also covered the song. You can read my bio of Haywire Mac here:

Michael Dunn

The Haywire Mac Story - Michael Dunn

Biography of Harry Haywire Mac McClintock

Long-haired preachers come out every night, Try to tell you what's wrong and what's right; But when asked how 'bout something to eat They will answer in voices so sweet Chorus You will eat, bye and bye, In that glorious land above the sky; Work and pray, live on hay, You'll get pie in the sky when you die And the Starvation Army, they play, And they sing and they clap and they pray, Till they get all your coin on the drum, Then they tell you when you're on the bum (Chorus) Workingmen of all countries, unite Side by side we for freedom will fight When the world and its wealth we have gained To the grafters we'll sing this refrain Chorus #workingclass #LaborHistory #IWW #joehill #union #PreacherAndTheSlave #folkmusic #woodyguthrie #utahphillips

Today in Labor History July 6, 1892: Locked out workers out at the Homestead Steel Works battled 300 Pinkerton detectives hired by Carnegie, who owned the Homestead mill. Homestead boss, Henry Clay Frick, had locked the workers out on July 1 and brought in Pinkertons to import and protect scabs brought in to replace striking workers. Determined to keep the plant closed and inoperable by scabs, the strikers formed military units that patrolled the grounds around the plant, and the Monongahela River in boats, to prevent access by strikebreakers and their Pinkerton guards. On the night of July 5, Pinkertons, armed with Winchester rifles, attempted to cross the river. Reports conflict as to which side fired first, but a gun battle ensued. Steelworkers defended themselves with guns and a homemade cannon. Women participated in the action, calling on strikers to kill the Pinkertons. 3-7 Pinkertons and 11 union members were killed in the battle. The Pinkertons eventually fled, but the strike continued for months. Court injunctions eventually helped to crush the union, protecting the steel industry for decades from organized labor. Alexander Berkman and Emma Goldman plotted to assassinate Homestead Boss Henry Clay Frick for his role in killing the workers. Berkman later carried out the assassination attempt, failed, and went to prison for 14 years. He wrote a book about his experience called, “Prison Memoirs of an Anarchist” (1912). He also wrote “The Bolshevik Myth” (1925) and “The ABC of Communist Anarchism” (1929). K. Friedman wrote about the strike in “By Bread Alone” (1901). Friedman was a Chicago socialist, settlement-house worker and journalist. His novel was an early example of the transformation in socialist fiction from "utopian" to "scientific" socialism. More recently, Trilby Busch wrote about the strike in her novel, “Darkness Visible” (2012). @robertatracy also references the strike in her recent novel “Zigzag Woman” (2024). And the Pinkertons play prominently in my novel “Anywhere But Schuylkill.” You can read my history of the Pinkertons here:

Michael Dunn

Union Busting and the Pinkertons - Michael Dunn

Union Busting by the Pinkertons was key to the rapid accumulation of wealth by the robber barons like Gowen, Carnegie, Rockefeller

You can get a copy of my novel, “Anywhere But Schuylkill,”

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Or send me $25 via Venmo (@Michael-Dunn-565) and your mailing address, and I will send you a signed copy! #workingclass #LaborHistory #union #strike #homestead #carnegie #socialism #pinkertons #scabs #anarchism #alexanderberkman #emmagoldman #pittsburgh #steel #fiction #books #novel #writer #author #historicalfiction @npub1wceq...lzu8

Radar Festival is hemorrhaging bands, all dropping out in solidarity with Bob Vylan, who they banned, for his anti-Genocide message at Glastonbury.

Today in Labor History July 5, 1998: Rebel Longshoreman, writer and Wobbly (IWW) Gilbert Mers (1908-1998) died. Mers wrote the book “Working the Waterfront: The Ups & Downs of a Rebel Longshoreman” in which he exposed the Texas Rangers of the 1930s and 40s as legalized strike-breaking bullies. #WorkingClass #LaborHistory #longshoremen #IWW #GilbertMers #waterfront #TexasRangers #writer #author @npub1wceq...lzu8