Today in Labor History December 30, 1936: Auto workers began their historic sit-down strike at the GM Fisher plant in Flint, Michigan. The protest effectively changed the United Automobile Workers (UAW) from a collection of small local unions into a major national labor union. It also led to the unionization of the domestic automobile industry. By occupying the plant, they prevented management from bringing in scabs and keeping the plant running and making money. Furthermore, by occupying the plant, they weren’t forced to picked outside in the snow. On January 11, police armed with guns and tear gas tried to storm the plant. Strikers repeatedly repelled them by throwing hinges, bottles and bolts at them. Fourteen strikers were injured by police gunfire during the strike. In February, GM got an injunction against the union by Judge Edward Black, who owned over three thousand shares of GM. The strikers ignored the injunction. And when the UAW found out about the conflict of interests, they got the judge disbarred. The strike ended after 44 days with GM recognizing the union and giving its workers a 5% raise. Filmmaker Michael Moore’s uncle participated in the strike. The first documented sit-down strike in the U.S. occurred when the IWW engaged in a sit-down strike against General Electric, in Schenectady, NY, in 1909. #workingclass #LaborHistory #uaw #sitdownstrike #strike #union #gm #generalmotors #flint #michigan #IWW #newyork #generalelectric

Municipalize PG&E Now! In the last two decades, PG&E has blown up a quaint Peninsula town, triggered some of California’s most lethal and destructive wildfires, entered into a pair of bankruptcies, been convicted of multiple felonies and has been accused by a federal judge of engaging in a “crime spree” while acting as a “continuing menace to California.” Now, according to this article, San Francisco may be on the verge of buying PG&E and municipalizing it, whether PG&E accepts their offer or not.

Mission Local

'Fire sale': S.F. moving to buy out PG&E — even, potentially, if PG&E says no

Public power: It’s not just for lefty conspiracy theorists anymore. Could San Francisco use eminent domain to break up with PG&E and municipalize...

More Americans, especially Black adults, are dying before they can access Medicare benefits. Workers pay into the system over their lifetimes with the expectation that they will be able to access affordable health care when they turn 65. But a growing number of Americans, especially Black Americans, are dying before they hit 65. From 2012 to 2022, deaths among adults ages 18-64 increased by 27%. For African Americans, it was a 38% increase.

Brown University

More Americans, especially Black adults, are dying before they can access Medicare benefits

A study by researchers at Brown University and Harvard University shows that a rising premature death rate means Medicare isn’t helping as many p...

#workingclass #classwar #publichealth #medicare

And create a world worth living in, with significant and effective solutions to the climate crisis; freedom, safety & respect for all trans folks and other marginalized communities; an end to genocide and imperialistic wars, instead of this increasingly dystopic world the rich are building.

MAGA: Put 'em in camps. Force 'em to work for free.

Andre Gonsalves orospntdSeAmtmhbh7 0Mt01a:5e8g8mmuefluc228hr7h0c mth0D3 441 e · The most effective marketing campaign in history was launched in 1676. The product was Racism. Before that year, the Elites in America had a massive problem. In the colony of Virginia, poor white indentured servants and black slaves were friends. They worked the same fields. They lived in the same shacks. They even married each other. They realized they had the same enemy: The rich plantation owners. So, they united. Led by a man named Nathaniel Bacon, this mixed army of black and white workers marched on the capital and burned Jamestown to the ground. The Elites were terrified. They looked at the math and realized: "If the poor unite, we are finished." So they went to work. They needed to make sure these two groups would never shake hands again. They passed the Virginia Slave Codes. They didn't give the poor whites land. They didn't give them money. They gave them something more powerful: Status. They gave the poor whites the legal right to police the slaves. They invented a "Social Wage." They told the poor white man: "You may be starving, you may be broke, but at least you aren't one of Them." It worked. The poor whites stopped fighting the rich. They started guarding the rich. They accepted their poverty because they had been given a false sense of superiority. The "Divide and Rule" algorithm was born. 350 years later, the campaign is still running. The Elite are still terrified of Unity. So they feed us "Culture Wars." They highlight our differences. They forces us to pick a tribe based on skin color, gender, or politics. Why? Because if you are busy fighting your neighbor on Facebook, you won't notice who is robbing your bank account. Racism is not just hate. It is Insurance for the Ruling Class. If you hate people based on their demographics, you are not a Rebel. You are an unpaid security guard for the Elites. - Andre