Today in Labor History July 20, 1934: Police shot at picketing strikers on Bloody Friday of the Minneapolis General Strike, killing two and wounding 67. The teamsters strike had begun in May. While the teamsters’ national leadership was conservative and opposed to strikes, Local 574, in Minneapolis, was affiliated with the Communist Party, and Local 544 was connected with the Trotskyist Communist League. They began organizing their members for a strike in spite of the national leadership. They effectively shut down nearly all transport in the city, except for food, which they permitted to prevent starvation. The police, and vigilantes working for the bosses, routinely attacked them on the picket line. Consequently, workers in other industries joined them in solidarity, leading to a General Strike. On July 20, as the cops tried escort scabs onto a worksite, picketers with clubs tried to block them. The cops opened fire with shotguns. An eyewitness said he saw a man stepping on his own intestines and another carrying his own severed hand. #workingclass #LaborHistory #minneapolis #GeneralStrike #policebrutality #police #acab #communism #policemurder #scab #union #strike #teamsters

Today in Labor History July 20, 1549: Kett's Rebellion against the enclosures began. Insurgents began destroying enclosures in Morley St. Botolph on July 6. When they attacked the estate of John Flowerdew, on July 20, he tried to bribe them into attacking the estate of Robert Kett, instead. However, the plan backfired when Kett joined the rebels and helped them to tear down his own fences. Their 3,500-strong peoples' army captured Norwich. They tried landowners en masse and established a Commonwealth on Mousehold Heath. The movement gained strength, with the army growing to 16,000. The authorities eventually quashed the rebellion. Overall, 3,000 rebels and 250 mercenaries of the state died in the battles. But Kett refused the King's pardon, arguing: "Kings are wont to pardon wicked persons, not innocent men. We have done nothing to deserve such a pardon. We have been guilty of no crime." In response, the authorities tortured and hanged Kett slowly over several days. Numerous historical novels have portrayed Kett's rebellion: “Mistress Haselwode: A tale of the Reformation Oak” (1876), by Frederick H. Moore; “For Kett and Countryside” (1910), by F.C. Tansley; “The Great Oak” (1949), by Jack Lindsay; “A Rebellious Oak” (2012), by Margaret Callow and “Tombland” (2018), by C.J. Sansom. #workingclass #LaborHistory #rebellion #uk #england #enclosures #uprising #HistoricalFiction #novel #book #fiction #author #writer @npub1wceq...lzu8

United States of Hypocrisy Customs and Border Patrol agents are allowed to have gang tattoos on their own bodies, even though anyone else with a tattoo, even those without any criminal convictions, can be rounded up and shipped off to foreign gulags.

The Intercept

CBP Agents Can Have Gang Tattoos — as Long as They Cover Them Up

U.S. immigration officials have sent people to CECOT because of what they deemed gang tattoos. CBP grooming standards allow them.

#ice #cbp #gestapo #racism #immigration #cecot

U.S. Mercenaries in the Genocide 7,000 U.S. citizens have either signed up or returned to Israel to fight with the IDF since Oct 7, 2023, with an estimated 23,000 U.S. citizens currently serving in the IDF. This, as Netanyahu faces shortages of domestic soldiers, with 100,000 Israelis refusing to serve. Meanwhile, at least 20 U.S. charities have raised $26 million since 2020 to recruit "lone soldiers" to fight for Israel. They wine and dine them with celebrities like Ben Shapiro, and New York mayor Eric Adams. Most Lone Soldiers are non-Israeli Jews recruited specifically to fight in the IDF, or Jews who made Aliyah (exercised their "right of return") and then joined the IDF.

The Intercept

U.S. Nonprofits Funnel Millions to Israeli Army Volunteers

Lone soldier programs recruit American teens to provide reinforcements to the Israeli military during its ongoing genocide in Gaza.

#israel #genocide #gaza #idf #palestine #freepalestine

Today in Labor History July 17, 1944: Two ammunition ships exploded at Port Chicago, CA (now known as the Concord Naval Weapons Center). The explosion killed 322 sailors, including 202 African-Americans assigned by the Navy to handle explosives. The explosion could be seen 35 miles away in San Francisco, across the Bay. In response, 258 African-Americans refused to return to the dangerous work, initiating what would be known as the Port Chicago Mutiny. 50 of the men were convicted and sentenced to hard labor. 47 were released in 1946. During their court proceedings, Thurgood Marshall, working then for the NAACP, prepared an appeal campaign, noting that only black men had been assigned to the dangerous munitions loading job. At the time, navy had over 100,000 black sailors, but no black officers. Beginning in 1990, a group of 25 Congressional leaders began a campaign to exonerate the mutineers. However, Congress did not exonerate the men until 2019. In the 1980s, activists regularly protested at the Concord Naval Weapons Center against U.S. arms shipments to the Contras in Nicaragua. These shipments were supposedly secret, and illegal under the Congressional Boland Amendment. The base shipped 60,000 to 120,000 tons of munitions each year to U.S. forces and allies, including the Contras. On September 1, 1987, a weapons train deliberately ran over veterans who were blockading the tracks, including Brian Willson, who lost both of his legs, and a portion of his frontal lobe, in the collision. Days later, activists dismantled the train tracks. And for years after, activists maintained a 24-hour vigil at the site. The FBI had been surveilling Willson for more than a year as a “domestic terrorist,” even though all of his activism and protests had been entirely nonviolent. The train crew had been told to not stop the train, even if protesters were on the tracks. #workingclass #LaborHistory #brianwillson #portchicago #ConcordNavalWeaponsCenter #nicaragua #contras #sandinistas #directaction #civildisobedience #domesticsurveillence #fbi #mutiny #weapons #disaster #racism #blm #naacp #thurgoodmarshall #terrorism #BlackMastadon

The San Francisco General Strike began on July 16, 1934 in response to the police murders of two longshoremen, Howard Sperry and Nick Bourdoise, July 5, 1934, on Rincon Hill, near the Ferry Building, during the West Coast Maritime Strike. This sidewalk mural commemorates these events. It is located in front of the ILWU Hall, near Fishermens Wharf. I remember taking my son to Pier 39 once when he was about six or seven, to play games at the arcade there. On our way back to the car, we passed this mural. He was intrigued. As I was explaining it to him, describing the history, a young longshoreman came out and asked if we'd like to come inside, see the other murals and statues. He gave us the full tour, explaining everything, and my son was completely mesmerized, as was I. #sanfrancisco #GeneralStrike #ilwu

Today in Labor History July 15, 1954: Spanish fascist dictator Francisco Franco amended their vagrancy law to include LGBTQ people, including punishments of hard labor and detention in concentration camps, where they were routinely subjected to sexual violence. The majority of detainees were working-class gay men and trans women. It was not uncommon to hear upper class and aristocratic gays and lesbians refer to the dictatorship as a “great” historical period. Indeed, Salvador Dali continued to fawn over the fascist dictator until his death, in spite of the fact that Franco executed Dali’s own lover, the poet Federico Garcia Lorca, in the 1930s. And Andre Breton kicked Dali out of the Paris Surrealist Group for his fascist leanings. Fascism continued in Spain up until Franco’s death, in 1975. Today, however, both Barcelona and Madrid are often described as among the most LGBTQ-friendly cities in the world. In 2005, Spain became one of the first countries in the world to legalize gay marriage. And Madrid’s Pride event is one of the largest in Europe, in spite of the fact that the city remains one of the most politically conservative regions of Spain. You can see the trailer for Las noches de Tefía, about the concentration camp in the Canary Islands, that Franco used for LGBTQ prisoners: #workingclass #LaborHistory #lgbtq #fascism #spain #dictatorship #franco #torture #prison #concentrationcamps #dali #lorca #madrid #barcelona #homophobia #transphobia