There’s a great book I recommend to all of you called Labor's Untold Story: The Adventure Story of the Battles, Betrayals and Victories of American Working Men and Women by Richard O. Boyer, Herbert M. Morais.
Milwaukee had the Bay View Massacre in May 1886. 12000 worker protest brought the Governor to send in National Guard. Seven people died from gunshots, including a 13 yr old boy. They just wanted an eight hour workday. Milwaukee has a park, at the lakefront site of the attack, (Lake Michigan) to commemorate the tragedy.
The idealism is to become a powerful billionaire so rich you never have to work again and once you reach that status you can become a philanthropist who gives back and helps the less fortunate.
…but first you must win the rat race by dancing on the backs of the bruised and exploiting the less fortunate.
America never really gave up its love of slavery. Now it’s a matter of how cheap the labor can become, how many basic protections can be removed, and how to keep control over their employees (like with health insurance). The addition of private armed security personnel teams is great for worker morale.
If those cops were willing to open fire on union protesters while being filmed, would they have been willing to physically force workers back into the mill and make them work?
A special pleading. If you know somebody so ignorant that they can't briefly explain the difference between the Wagner act and the taft-hartley act, give of your time to educate them.
"MINNEAPOLIS: Emergency crews are responding to the Lowry Tunnel after a westbound semi-truck carrying ammunition crashed near the entrance and “split in half.” The extent of injury is not yet available. Both westbound and eastbound traffic are impacted as of now, with Troopers reporting the entire tunnel will need to be shut down while the crash is cleared."
They need to teach about the labor battles. Blair Mountain, Haymarket, the Chicago Memorial Day Battle. Labor fought long and hard to exist. And they have been losing ground since idiot Reagan and his rich buddies. Labor history needs to be taught like our country's own history, it's all part of the woven fabric of America. It is something to be proud of, to stir the blood, to be held sacred.
They need to teach it to a bunch of rank and file union members who have come to take for granted what their union does for them and forgets how much blood and sweat was spilled to make that happen. Far too many vote for stupid shit like culture war nonsense and wedge issue crap and end up voting against their self interests. Not all unions are the same of course- many memberships remember their roots and vote accordingly. But too often some of the bigger unions like the teamsters have strayed far from their pro labor roots because of a steady bombardment of RW propaganda playing to their innate cultural grievances.
Love these. Especially because labor history is today the most suppressed chapter of the American story.
There has been backsliding on other suppressed chapters, like those for indigenous people and enslave people, but there is also been progress.
Is there a labor History month? Is it observed by retailers as well as by good people? I don't think so.
The reason for this is obvious. It's explained in today's labor history article. Violence. The story of American labor is the story of official and extra legal violence against the bodies of workers and their families.
The story begins literally on the afternoon that christoforo Colombo arrived in the hemisphere. Began in enslavement of indigenous people. When European diseases proved genocidal, then the importation of enslaved people from other continents, principally Africa. And there was indentured servitude, slavery by another name. Industrialism brought child labor and wage slavery. When legal slavery was finally outlawed (after the bloodiest war on the continent) there labor exploitation through sharecropping, and involuntary prison labor.
When unions got going, they were met with private police and cudgels. Then, abusive injunctions, national guard rifleman, rioting police.
The body of a worker in this hemisphere, since 1492, has been far from sacred. It has been overworked, tortured, beaten, shot, blown up, kidnapped, raped, buried in shallow Graves and wrapped in carpets and tossed from country Bridges.
Yet, except for a few very few examples, this history is not recorded in our landscapes or on our calendars. Oh yes there is a Labor Day, but it is perhaps the statutory holiday that has had the most history sucked from it.
Is there a statue of monument to the heroic workers in your town? Certainly your town had them. If there is no remembrance, no memorial for it is in construction of stone and metal that are shaped into the things we choose to remember, then that history must be under suppression.
Or, perhaps even more likely as in my Southern hometown, there is no such monument to labor because labor has never been liberated in our town since it's quote founding unquote 300 some years ago.
Considering everything that is happening in Washington today and around the country, and the absolute absence of our labor history and of today's workers from places of attention and honor in our civilization, we must see this as our new front.
United in support of those who labor, and those who gave their lives so that we might labor today or freely and more remuneratively, we can defeat every enemy of human Liberty.
We should take inspiration and strength from the history of Labor organizing in this country, and from examples around the world, The dock workers of Gdansk being one excellent example.
Here's a project. Find a notable event from labor history in your town. With friends and neighbors, build with common wood and found objects the historical marker that should be at the site. My people, keep the inscription accurate but short, two sentences, 75 characters. No more. Let the marker make the people ask you questions. And in that conversation you can fill them in on the facts. And from that conversation draw authentic human connections in relationships, which can then be leveraged into a movement that will rededicate the temples of power democracy, and cleanse them of the filth that occupies them now.
It is no wonder that, after having witnessed Derek Chauvin murder George Floyd while being recorded, that people waited on pins and needles to see if the piece of shit would even be convicted.
What struck me as especially disturbing (and angering) was how Chauvin just defiantly stared into the camera as he was doing it. As if no one--not even recorded history (in this case, literally)--would recall the atrocity.
When you’ve been allowed even encouraged to violently operate with impunity for your entire career (Chauvin was also a police trainer for fucks sake) your ability to sense when you are crossing the line from merely satisfying your urge to commit savageries over to actually courting the death of your targets gets increasingly blurry.
I always wonder how many "Let them eat cake" comments the GOP can make before the political atmosphere here becomes France in 1789. The GOP certainly seems like they want to find that out, for some reason.
There’s a great book I recommend to all of you called Labor's Untold Story: The Adventure Story of the Battles, Betrayals and Victories of American Working Men and Women by Richard O. Boyer, Herbert M. Morais.
Ta, Erik. This Union Maid always learns something from. your posts. Solidarity Forever.
Milwaukee had the Bay View Massacre in May 1886. 12000 worker protest brought the Governor to send in National Guard. Seven people died from gunshots, including a 13 yr old boy. They just wanted an eight hour workday. Milwaukee has a park, at the lakefront site of the attack, (Lake Michigan) to commemorate the tragedy.
Thanks so much for this, Erik. My father was one of the 1937 Jones & Laughlin strikers at the South Side Works.
I really hope this history does not repeat itself. I wish I were joking...
The idea of capitalism is weird.
The idealism is to become a powerful billionaire so rich you never have to work again and once you reach that status you can become a philanthropist who gives back and helps the less fortunate.
…but first you must win the rat race by dancing on the backs of the bruised and exploiting the less fortunate.
Noblesse oblige is dead.
Well how else would you keep score against all your rich frienemies?
America never really gave up its love of slavery. Now it’s a matter of how cheap the labor can become, how many basic protections can be removed, and how to keep control over their employees (like with health insurance). The addition of private armed security personnel teams is great for worker morale.
If those cops were willing to open fire on union protesters while being filmed, would they have been willing to physically force workers back into the mill and make them work?
A special pleading. If you know somebody so ignorant that they can't briefly explain the difference between the Wagner act and the taft-hartley act, give of your time to educate them.
Ammunition truck sliced in half at Lowry Hill Tunnel in Minneapolis: https://xcancel.com/MN_CRIME/status/1928482543738777636#m
"MINNEAPOLIS: Emergency crews are responding to the Lowry Tunnel after a westbound semi-truck carrying ammunition crashed near the entrance and “split in half.” The extent of injury is not yet available. Both westbound and eastbound traffic are impacted as of now, with Troopers reporting the entire tunnel will need to be shut down while the crash is cleared."
Well, that’s unusual. How’d they manage to do that?
Speeding into the curve, I suspect.
They need to teach about the labor battles. Blair Mountain, Haymarket, the Chicago Memorial Day Battle. Labor fought long and hard to exist. And they have been losing ground since idiot Reagan and his rich buddies. Labor history needs to be taught like our country's own history, it's all part of the woven fabric of America. It is something to be proud of, to stir the blood, to be held sacred.
Matewan.
The Homestead Strike and the Lattimer Massacre too, also.
They need to teach it to a bunch of rank and file union members who have come to take for granted what their union does for them and forgets how much blood and sweat was spilled to make that happen. Far too many vote for stupid shit like culture war nonsense and wedge issue crap and end up voting against their self interests. Not all unions are the same of course- many memberships remember their roots and vote accordingly. But too often some of the bigger unions like the teamsters have strayed far from their pro labor roots because of a steady bombardment of RW propaganda playing to their innate cultural grievances.
This is on one of the main corners in Helsinki. A statue that honors labor.
https://www.bing.com/images/search?view=detailV2&ccid=zWlDMT%2fv&id=07A02BB6BB49D233DDF008868537FB155F3D23C5&thid=OIP.zWlDMT_vfOsC_b7AvKxoagHaFc&mediaurl=https%3a%2f%2fc8.alamy.com%2fcomp%2fBE6M1N%2fmonument-helsinki-finland-europe-BE6M1N.jpg&cdnurl=https%3a%2f%2fth.bing.com%2fth%2fid%2fR.cd6943313fef7ceb02fdbec0bcac686a%3frik%3dxSM9XxX7N4WGCA%26pid%3dImgRaw%26r%3d0&exph=956&expw=1300&q=labor+statue+in+helsinki&simid=608051852780335770&FORM=IRPRST&ck=09BFE373A65024203E4138F0F02E3E92&selectedIndex=0&itb=0&idpp=overlayview&ajaxhist=0&ajaxserp=0
Whereas the US honors wealth, not the people who do the work that creates the wealth. Funny, that.
When I saw it on a cold winter's day, all I could think of was their poor, cold peepees.
EFFIN' REAGAN....
Don't elect bad actors. Said it in 1980, 1984, 2016 and 2024.
Love these. Especially because labor history is today the most suppressed chapter of the American story.
There has been backsliding on other suppressed chapters, like those for indigenous people and enslave people, but there is also been progress.
Is there a labor History month? Is it observed by retailers as well as by good people? I don't think so.
The reason for this is obvious. It's explained in today's labor history article. Violence. The story of American labor is the story of official and extra legal violence against the bodies of workers and their families.
The story begins literally on the afternoon that christoforo Colombo arrived in the hemisphere. Began in enslavement of indigenous people. When European diseases proved genocidal, then the importation of enslaved people from other continents, principally Africa. And there was indentured servitude, slavery by another name. Industrialism brought child labor and wage slavery. When legal slavery was finally outlawed (after the bloodiest war on the continent) there labor exploitation through sharecropping, and involuntary prison labor.
When unions got going, they were met with private police and cudgels. Then, abusive injunctions, national guard rifleman, rioting police.
The body of a worker in this hemisphere, since 1492, has been far from sacred. It has been overworked, tortured, beaten, shot, blown up, kidnapped, raped, buried in shallow Graves and wrapped in carpets and tossed from country Bridges.
Yet, except for a few very few examples, this history is not recorded in our landscapes or on our calendars. Oh yes there is a Labor Day, but it is perhaps the statutory holiday that has had the most history sucked from it.
Is there a statue of monument to the heroic workers in your town? Certainly your town had them. If there is no remembrance, no memorial for it is in construction of stone and metal that are shaped into the things we choose to remember, then that history must be under suppression.
Or, perhaps even more likely as in my Southern hometown, there is no such monument to labor because labor has never been liberated in our town since it's quote founding unquote 300 some years ago.
Considering everything that is happening in Washington today and around the country, and the absolute absence of our labor history and of today's workers from places of attention and honor in our civilization, we must see this as our new front.
United in support of those who labor, and those who gave their lives so that we might labor today or freely and more remuneratively, we can defeat every enemy of human Liberty.
We should take inspiration and strength from the history of Labor organizing in this country, and from examples around the world, The dock workers of Gdansk being one excellent example.
Here's a project. Find a notable event from labor history in your town. With friends and neighbors, build with common wood and found objects the historical marker that should be at the site. My people, keep the inscription accurate but short, two sentences, 75 characters. No more. Let the marker make the people ask you questions. And in that conversation you can fill them in on the facts. And from that conversation draw authentic human connections in relationships, which can then be leveraged into a movement that will rededicate the temples of power democracy, and cleanse them of the filth that occupies them now.
We live about a 15 minute walk from the site of the Triangle Shirtwaist tragedy.
"The police are not here to create disorder, they're here to preserve disorder."
--Richard J. Daly
I HATE capitalism.
*clenches fist*
Same, friend.
"No one was prosecuted for the massacre."
Caught on video, and no one was held responsible.
It is no wonder that, after having witnessed Derek Chauvin murder George Floyd while being recorded, that people waited on pins and needles to see if the piece of shit would even be convicted.
What struck me as especially disturbing (and angering) was how Chauvin just defiantly stared into the camera as he was doing it. As if no one--not even recorded history (in this case, literally)--would recall the atrocity.
To me his look was just pure... nothing. Blank. As if he was autistic. I don't understand what he was thinking. Was he thinking? So weird.
When you’ve been allowed even encouraged to violently operate with impunity for your entire career (Chauvin was also a police trainer for fucks sake) your ability to sense when you are crossing the line from merely satisfying your urge to commit savageries over to actually courting the death of your targets gets increasingly blurry.
Same here. HORRIBLE!
Isn’t the pig considering a pardon?
That's one of the things I'm afraid of. But Chauvin's got state AND federal charges against him, so he stays there!
Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose.
Oui.
Noticed how he was not charged until after the 3rd Precinct burned. And the county prosecutor would not charge him.
The short-fingered vulgarian and those who put him in power (the Moneyed ones, not the moron in the street) can't wait for this to happen again!
This is precisely the endgame and always has been.
OT:
Joni is all out of fucks.
https://www.rawstory.com/jonie-ernst-medicaid-horrifying-answer/
I can wish death upon you and call you idiots to your faces and you'll still vote me in!
... but the Dems messaging is the problem!!
https://files.explosm.net/comics/Kris/should.png
You first Pig Nutz
The Register isn't cutting her much slack: https://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/news/politics/2025/05/30/joni-ernst-town-hall-medicaid/83885078007/
I always wonder how many "Let them eat cake" comments the GOP can make before the political atmosphere here becomes France in 1789. The GOP certainly seems like they want to find that out, for some reason.
How many times did Miss Bread Bags attempt to speak to President Biden? Are there receipts?
That bitch can go first.
Why are we accepting this behavior from these horrible fucking psychopaths?
Hypernormalization.
The caring shows. Poor people need to die, but they also need to make babies they cannot afford.
Low-skilled workers, breeders and cannon fodder.
While working two jobs, someone needs to pick the apples.