Today in Labor History September 4, 1949: The Peekskill riots at a Paul Robeson concert in Peekskill, New York. A mob of locals attacked concert-goers with baseball bats and rocks. Police arrived hours later and did little to intervene. Thirteen people were seriously injured, Robeson was lynched in effigy and a cross was burned on the hillside. Robeson was well known for his strong pro-trade union stance, civil rights activism, communist affiliations and anti-colonialism. He also had been increasingly vocal against the Ku Klux Klan and other forces of white supremacy. The concert was a benefit for the Civil Rights Congress. Just prior to the riots, Robeson had spoken at Soviet-sponsored World Peace Conference in Paris, where he said the following:

“We in America do not forget that it was on the backs of white workers from Europe and on the backs of millions of blacks that the wealth of America was built. And we are resolved to share it equally. We reject any hysterical raving that urges us to make war on anyone. Our will to fight for peace is strong.... We shall support peace and friendship among all nations, with Soviet Russia and the People's Republics.”

#WorkingClass #LaborHistory #peekskill #NewYork #Riot #racism #communism #anticommunism #PaulRobeson #soviet #ussr #police #colonialism #peace #antiwar #union #CivilRights

@bandcampunited

Here's one of my favorite compilations.

#Organize #Unions #JoeHill

#BillyBragg #UtahPhillips #MarkLevy #PaulRobeson #SiKahn #PeteSeeger #MatsPaulson #JoeGlazer #LoriElaineTaylor #CiscoHouston #EarlRobinson #CarlosCortez #ElizabethGurleyFlynn #HazelDickens

1. Billy Bragg - Joe Hill
2. Utah Philips - Joe Hill's Last Will
3. Mark Levy - Joe Hill's Ashes
4. The Preacher and the Slave
5. Paul Robeson - Joe Hill
6. Si Kahn - Paper Heart
7. Pete Seeger - Casey Jones (The Union Scab)
8. Mats Paulson - Mr. Block
9. Joe Glazer/Lori Elaine Taylor - Joe Hill Listens to the Praying
10. Cisco Houston - The Tramp
11. Earl Robinson - Joe Hill
12. Carlos Cortez - The White Slave
13. Elizabeth Gurley Flynn - Narrative
14. Hazel Dickens - The Rebel Girl
15. Entertainment Workers IU 630 with Utah Philips - There is Power in a Union

https://smithsonianfolkways.bandcamp.com/album/dont-mourn-organize-songs-of-labor-songwriter-joe-hill

Happy #MayDay #LabourDay! Here is wonderful #PaulRobeson - great friend and mentor to #HarryBelafonte - singing the Ballad of Joe Hill to Scottish miners in 1949

https://youtu.be/B0bezsMVU7c

“Take this one thing with you to home
And to work and to school to mom and to dad
There are moments when you can stop the world
Remember that friends and don' t be sad

Take this one thing with you to home
And to work and to school to mom and to dad
Don't hang a man out to dry again
Don't make him fight it all alone again”

“Paul Robeson”
By World/Inferno Friendship Society
https://open.spotify.com/track/6uhw3W0OYLkh8e4FyimCZi?si=-wOdPag6SSSNfv-IlHwh2w

#music #PaulRobeson #solidarity #AmListeningTo

Today in Labor History January 19, 1920: Crystal Eastman, Roger Nash Baldwin, Elizabeth Gurley Flynn (from the IWW) and others founded the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). Their original focus was freedom of speech, primarily anti-war speech, and supporting conscientious objectors. In 1923, they defended author Upton Sinclair after he was arrested for trying to read the First Amendment during an IWW rally. In 1925, they persuaded John T. Scopes to defy Tennessee's anti-evolution law in The State of Tennessee v. John Thomas Scopes. Clarence Darrow, an ACLU member, headed Scopes' legal team. The ACLU lost the case and Scopes was fined $100. In 1926, they defended H. L. Mencken, who deliberately broke Boston law by distributing copies of his banned American Mercury magazine and won their first major acquittal. However, they kicked Elizabeth Gurley Flynn off their board in 1940 because of her Communist affiliations. And they refused defend Paul Robeson and other leftists in the 1950s.

#workingclass #LaborHistory #IWW #ElizabethGurleyFlynn #communism #aclu #evolution #uptonsinclair #PaulRobeson #clarencedarrow #hlmencken @bookstadon

Today in Labor History January 19, 1915: The authorities arrested IWW bard and organizer Joe Hill in Salt Lake City and later convicted him on trumped up murder charges. They executed him 21 months later despite worldwide protests and two attempts to intervene by President Woodrow Wilson. In a letter to Bill Haywood shortly before his death he penned the famous words, "Don't mourn - organize!"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B0bezsMVU7c

#workingclass #LaborHistory #IWW #JoeHill #deathpenalty #prison #organizer #PaulRobeson

RT @SanjuktaChoudh5@twitter.com

আজ কমরেড #Stalin এর জন্মদিন । পশ্চিমি সংবাদমাধ্যম এর প্রচারিত খবর বক্তব্য ব্যাখ্যা টিপ্পনী সমালোচনা বিশ্লেষণ ইত্যাদি পড়ে আমাদের মনে হয় স্তালিন = হিটলার । আজ #PaulRobeson এর একটি লেখা পড়ে দেখি না হয় । এইটুকু বলতে পারি গ্যারান্টি দিয়ে রবসন #CPIM নন

🐦🔗: https://twitter.com/SanjuktaChoudh5/status/1605452604648980480

https://archive.org/details/paulrobesonmi5

Paul Robeson MI5 documents by Security Service (MI5), the national archives

Topics #PaulRobeson, #MI5, #anticommunism, #politicalpolice, #surveillance, #racism, #counterinsurgency

“The documents on this page are drawn from Mi5 archives and relate to Paul Robeson's activities.” (source)