It is probably just coincidence, but it feels like mockery that they released these charges on the 106th anniversary of the coordinated attack on the #IWW as part of the #palmerraids

Today in Labor History September 5, 1917: Federal agents attacked Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) halls and offices in 48 cities across the nation as part of the Palmer raids against the left.

#WorkingClass #LaborHistory #IWW #union #PalmerRaids #RedScare #police #PoliceBrutality

Today in Labor History September 5, 1964: Elizabeth Gurley Flynn died in Moscow. Flynn was an anarchist, labor militant and highly successful organizer with the IWW. before joining the American Communist Party. She was also a founding member of the ACLU. She is portrayed in Jess Walter’s historical novel, “The Cold Millions,” about the Spokane Free Speech Fight.

#WorkingClass #LaborHistory #IWW #anarchism #communism #union #strike #aclu #HistoricalFiction #fiction #novel #writer #author #JessWalter @bookstadon

I joined the #IWW >:3c

Today in Labor History September 3, 1915: Australian Wobbly (IWW member) Tom Barker was arrested for his anti-war poster. Later that month, 12 other IWW leaders got 5-15 years, each, for opposing World War I. Prior to this, he was forced out of New Zealand for helping to organize the Aukland General Strike. After the Australian authorities arrested him, he was deported to Chile, before traveling the world helping to organize workers.

#WorkingClass #LaborHistory #IWW #TomBarker #australia #NewZealand #chile #union #GeneralStrike #antiwar

Today in Labor History August 31, 1919: John Reed and others formed the Communist Labor Party of America in Chicago. The party evolved into the American Communist Party. Reed was a journalist and communist activist who extensively covered World War I. He was most famous for his coverage of the Russian Revolution and his book, “Ten Days That Shook the World.” He died in Moscow in 1920 from typhus. They gave him a hero’s welcome and buried him in Kremlin Wall Necropolis. Only two other American were given this honor: Big Bill Haywood, a founding member of the IWW, and C.E. Ruthenberg, founder of the Communist Party USA.

John Dos Passos included a short biography of him in his “U.S.A.” trilogy. Uptain Sinclair called him the Revolution’s Playboy, elements of which can be seen in Warren Beaty’s portrayal of Reed in the film, “Reds.” Sergei Eisenstein made a film version of “Ten Days That Shook the World” in 1927.

#WorkingClass #LaborHistory #JohnReed #communism #russia #ussr #soviet #kremlin #IWW #journalism #writer #author #books @bookstadon

Union Bosses aren't any better than capitalist bosses. This is why we must join together in solidarity through radical industrialized unions run by the rank-and-file directly. #IWW

Writers Guild of America seeks to sabotage strike as secret in-person negotiations continue https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2023/08/16/xovw-a16.html #WGA #SAG #strike

@tigerdaz @Radical_EgoCom
You are probably thinking of Valve Corporation, for one example. They moved to a flat, non-hierarchical organization and it's been interesting to watch. Still a capitalist corporate entity though.

A syndicate is a self-organized group for conducting a particular business or production. It can be the Mob or Lloyd's of London insurers or a worker's collective.

#Syndicalism is kind of the more radical side of international trade unionism. #AnarchoSyndicalism takes the self-organizing principle farther as a replacement for capitalism rather than as a balancing factor, and philosophizes about the nature of property and industrialization.

Interest in the area seems to be skewing into #solarPunk territory which seems like a natural progression to me.

The #fediverse is a fine case study for how difficult and amazing decentralized and federated social institutions can be. Here we are, working out some of the necessary skills for #Transition communities, including the economics.

It's complicated stuff and still just nascent, but look at the crazy complexity of the laws in nation-states, civil powers, municipalities. We will improve on that by removing economic and moral compulsions.

#directAction #decentralization #liberation #IWW

Support radical queer labor!

This was a flier we made back in the early '90s, when the janitors at the End Up night club, in San Francisco, organized with the IWW.

The teamsters honored our picket line and refused to deliver booze. So, management rented a U-haul and tried to deliver it themselves. We blocked them for a while, until the cops came and arrested some of us.

But a lot of angry patrons couldn't understand why we were fighting against other queers (i.e., management) and, in their eyes, jeopardizing a queer-safe place. The idea that queer capitalists were exploiting queer workers seemed a radical idea to many people back then. Probably still does to a lot of people. One big happy queer family, right?

#WorkingClass #LaborHistory #IWW #lgbtq

Today in Labor History August 27, 1917: The IWW was made illegal in Australia and their membership rolls were given to employers, leading to widespread repression. Despite all this, the IWW helped lead the General Strike of 1917.

#WorkingClass #LaborHistory #IWW #australia #ww1 #union #GeneralStrike

#IWW #Labor #Wobbly #WorkersRights

From #BeauOfTheFifthColumn on #YouTube: new #NLRB guidance on automatic #union recognition in instances of #UnionBusting.

https://youtu.be/nrIjeSW-GRQ?si=nBLPjFu9wP9UgKG5

Today in Labor History August 26, 1913: The Dublin lock-out began, a 5- month strike over terrible living and working conditions, and for union recognition. At the time, some Irish workers were living with 55 people per house. The Infant mortality rate among the poor was 142 per 1,000 births. TB-related deaths were 50% higher than in England or Scotland. The main organizers of the strike were 2 syndicalists, James Larkin and IWW cofounder, James Connolly. Several workers were killed by police and by strikebreakers. Hundreds were injured. WB Yeats’ poem, September 1913, is often viewed as a commentary on the brutality of the strike. Connolly was later executed as a leader of the Easter Rising, in 1916.

#WorkingClass #LaborHistory #dublin #lockout #union #strike #ireland #socialism #JamesLarkin #JamesConnolly #IWW #police #PoliceBrutality

Today in Labor History August 25, 1819: Allan Pinkerton was born. He founded the Pinkerton private police force, whose strike breaking detectives (Pinkertons, or 'Pinks') gave us the word 'fink' as they slaughtered dozens of workers in various labor struggles. Ironically, Pinkerton was a violent, radical leftist as a youth. He fought cops in the streets as a member of the Chartist Movement. He had to flee the UK in order to not be imprisoned and executed. Yet in America, he became the nation’s first super cop. He created the secret service. He foiled an assassination attempt against Lincoln. He fine-tuned the art of spying on activists and planting agents provocateur in their ranks. His agents played a major role in destroying the miners’ union in the 1870s, as portrayed in my novel, “Anywhere But Schuylkill.” Later, they assassinated numerous organizers with the IWW and came within inches of successfully getting Big Bill Hayward convicted on trumped up murder charges.

Anywhere But Schuylkill will be out in early September, 2023, from Historium Press: https://www.thehistoricalfictioncompany.com/it/michael-dunn

You can read my satirical biography of Pinkerton here: https://marshalllawwriter.com/the-eye-that-never-sleeps/

#WorkingClass #LaborHistory #Pinkertons #IWW #police #SecretService #books #fiction #HistoricalFiction #AnywhereButSchuylkil #mining #coal #writer #author @bookstadon

Today in Labor History August 23, 1909: IWW strikers boarded a streetcar in McKees Rock, Pennsylvania looking for scabs, during the Pressed Streetcar Strike, in the Mckees Rock borough of Pittsburgh. A deputy sheriff shot at them and was killed in the return fire. A gun battle ensued that killed 12-26 workers. IWW cofounder, William Trautman, led the Wobbly contingent during the strike. He later wrote a novel, “Riot,” based on the strike. After the authorities arrested Trautman during the strike, Big Bill Haywood and Joe Ettor came to organize the strikers.

Pressed Streetcar employed 6,000 people, mostly immigrant, from 16 different ethnic backgrounds. It was the second largest streetcar manufacturer in the country. Working conditions were horrendous, even by Pittsburgh standards. Locals referred to it as the slaughterhouse. The local coroner estimated that workers were dying at a rate of one per day, mostly by cranes. Slavic immigrants complained that company officials forced their wives and daughters to perform sexual favors in exchange for debts owed to the company for food and rent.

#WorkingClass #LaborHistory #strike #union #IWW #pittsburgh #riot #massacre #police #PoliceBrutality #PoliceMurder #BigBillHaywood #immigration #books #author #writer @bookstadon

Today in Labor History August 22, 1978: The Sandinistas captured the Nicaraguan National Palace launching the Sandinista revolution. The red and black symbolism on the flags of the modern Sandinistas, as well as Sandino’s movement in the 1930s, came from the anarchosyndicalists. Sandino spent much of the 1920s working with Mexican anarchosyndicalists, including the IWW.

#WorkingClass #LaborHistory #sandinistas #nicarague #IWW #anarchism #anarchosyndicalism #mexico #Revolution

Today in Labor History August 20, 1909: The Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) was engaged in a free-speech fight in Fresno, California, over the right to organize workers from street corners. Native American, Frank Little, led the fight, and the drive to organize local agricultural workers, including African Americans and immigrants from China and Latin America. Little, was lynched in 1917, during a labor struggle in Montana.

#WorkingClass #LaborHistory #IWW #FrankLittle #FreeSpeech #fresno #NativeAmerican #indigenous #immigration

Today in Labor History August 19, 1909: The first edition of the IWW’s The Little Red Songbook was published in Spokane, WA. The book’s subtitle is “Songs to Fan the Flames of Discontent.” Between 1909 and 1995, the Wobblies printed 36 editions. The songbook always includes songs by Joe Hill, Ralph Chaplin, T-Bone Slim, and Haywire Mac. Most editions contained many of the best-known labor songs, like "The Internationale," "The Preacher and the Slave," and "Solidarity Forever."

#WorkingClass #LaborHistory #IWW #LittleRedSongbook #FolkMusic #union #HaywireMac #JoeHill #internationale #wobblies #solidarity

Today in Labor History August 19, 1916: Strikebreakers attacked and beat picketing IWW strikers in Everett, Washington. The police refused to intervene, claiming it was federal jurisdiction. However, when the strikers retaliated, they arrested the strikers. Vigilante attacks on IWW picketers and speakers escalated and continued for months. In October, vigilantes forced many of the strikers to run a gauntlet, violently beating them in the process. The brutality culminated in the Everett massacre on November 5, when Wobblies (IWW members) sailed over from Seattle to support the strikers. The sheriff called out to them as they docked, “Who is your leader?” And the Wobblies yelled back, “We all are!” The sheriff told them they couldn’t dock. One of the Wobblies said, “Like hell we can’t!” And then a mob of over 200 vigilantes opened fire on them. As a result, seven died and 50 were wounded. John Dos Passos portrays these events in his USA Trilogy.

#WorkingClass #LaborHistory #IWW #union #strike #washington #vigilante #massacre #PoliceBrutality #police #fiction #HistoricalFiction #novel #writer #books #author #DosPassos @bookstadon

Today in Labor History August 11, 1964: Stuart Christie, a Scottish anarchist, was arrested in Madrid, Spain while attempting to assassinate Francisco Franco. At the time, Christie was 18 years old. He faced execution by garroting, but was, instead, sentenced to 20 years. Franco released him after three years, supposedly because of his mother’s plea for his release. He went on to found Cienfuegos Press, The Free-Winged Eagle and The Hastings Trawler. In 2006, he created the online Anarchist Film Channel.

#WorkingClass #LaborHistory #anarchism #IWW #antifascism #FranciscoFranco #fascism #spain #Scotland #StuartChristie

#kolektiva #iww #USA #union As Labor Day approaches in this era of American union growth and solidarity please seek out and drop by your local union and/or IWW events, parties, cookouts, etc. Learn more about America's relation with labor, why we don't (officially) celebrate May Day like a large portion of the rest of the world, and how organizing on YOUR level can help improve the material conditions for EVERYONE in your neighborhood, workplace, city, and state.