#LucyParsons #Anarchism #TheEmpiresMustFall

can anyone recommend a comprehensive #podcast, blog or video about lucy parsons?
#lucyParsons #radical #history #socialist #anarchocommunist #BlackMastodon

Today in Labor History July 10, 1894: The Pullman Rail Car strike was put down by 14,000 federal and state troops. Over the course of the strike, soldiers killed 70 American Railway Union (ARU) members. Eugene Debs and many others were imprisoned during the strike for violating injunctions. Debs founded the ARU in 1893. The strike began, in May, as a wildcat strike, when George Pullman laid off employees and slashed wages, while maintaining the same high rents for his company housing in the town of Pullman, as well as the excessive rates he charged for gas and water. During the strike, Debs called for a massive boycott against all trains that carried Pullman cars. While many adjacent unions opposed the boycott, including the conservative American Federation of Labor, the boycott nonetheless affected virtually all train transport west of Detroit. Debs also called for a General Strike, which Samuel Gompers and the AFL blocked. At its height, over 200,000 railway workers walked off the job, halting dozens of lines, and workers set fire buildings, boxcars and coal cars, and derailed locomotives. Clarence Darrow successfully defended Debs in court against conspiracy charges, arguing that it was the railways who met in secret and conspired against their opponents. However, they lost in their Supreme Court trial for violating a federal injunction.

By the 1950s, the town of Pullman had been incorporated into the city of Chicago. Debs became a socialist after the strike, running for president of the U.S. five times on the Socialist Party ticket, twice from prison. In 1905, he cofounded the radical IWW, along with Lucy Parsons, Mother Jones, Big Bill Haywood and Irish revolutionary James Connolly. In 1894, President Cleveland designated Labor Day a federal holiday, in order to detract from the more radical May 1st, which honored the Haymarket martyrs and the struggle for the 8-hour day. Legislation for the holiday was pushed through Congress six days after the Pullman strike ended, with the enthusiastic support of Gompers and the AFL.

#WorkingClass #LaborHistory #railway #strike #union #EugeneDebs #socialism #anarchism #IWW #massacre #SCOTUS #prison #GeneralStrike #boycott #afl #haymarket #conspiracy #MotherJones #LucyParsons #BigBillHaywood #Revolutionary

Today in Labor History June 27, 1905: The Industrial Workers of the World (AKA IWW or the Wobblies) was founded at Brand's Hall, in Chicago, Illinois. The IWW was a radical syndicalist union, that advocated industrial unionism, with all workers in a particular industry organized in the same union, as opposed by the trade unions typical today. Founding members included Big Bill Haywood, James Connolly, Eugene V. Debs, Lucy Parsons, and Mother Jones. The IWW was and is a revolutionary union that sought not only better working conditions in the here and now, but the complete abolition of capitalism. The preamble to their constitution states, “The working class and the employing class have nothing in common.” They advocate the General Strike and sabotage as two of many means to these ends. However, sabotage to the Wobblies does not necessarily mean bombs and destruction. According to Big Bill Haywood, sabotage is any action that gums up the works, slowing down profits for the bosses. Thus, working to rule and sit-down strikes are forms of sabotage. The IWW is the first union known to have utilized the sit-down strike. They were one of the first and only unions of the early 20th century to organize all workers, regardless of ethnicity, gender, nationality, language or type of work (e.g., they organized both skilled and unskilled workers).

There are lots of great books about the IWW artwork and music. The Little Red Songbook. The IWW, Its First 50 Years, by Fred Thompson. Rebel Voices: An IWW Anthology, by Joyce Kornbluth. But there are also tons of fictional accounts of the Wobblies, too. Lots of references in Dos Passos’, USA Trilogy. Red Harvest, by Dashiell Hammett, was influenced by his experience working as a Pinkerton infiltrator of the Wobblies. The recent novel, The Cold Millions, by Jess Walter, has a wonderful portrayal of Elizabeth Gurly Flynn, during the Spokane free speech fight.

#WorkingClass #LaborHistory #anarchism #iww #LucyParsons #BigBillHaywood #MotherJones #EugeneDebs #union #strike #GeneralStrike #DirectAction #sabotage #Revolutionary #book #novel #writer #fiction #author @bookstadon

Today In Labor History May 1, 1886: The first nationwide General Strike for the 8-hour day occurred in Milwaukee and other U.S. cities. In Chicago, police killed four demonstrators and wounded over 200. This led to the mass meeting a Haymarket Square, where an unknown assailant threw a bomb, killing several cops. The authorities responded by rounding up all the city’s leading anarchists, and a kangaroo court which wrongfully convicted 8 of them, including Albert Parsons, husband of Lucy Parsons, who would go on to cofound the IWW, along with Mother Jones, Big Bill Haywood, Eugene Debs, and others. Worldwide protests against the convictions and executions followed. To honor the wrongfully executed anarchists, and their struggle for the 8 hour day, May first has ever since been celebrated as International Workers Day in nearly every country in the world, except the U.S.

#WorkingClass #LaborHistory #anarchism #Haymarket #bombing #PoliceBrutality #police #prison #execution #DeathPenalty #GeneralStrike #IWW #LucyParsons #MotherJones #8HourDay

Today in labor history April 30 1886: 50,000 workers in Chicago were on strike. 30,000 more joined in the next day. The strike halted most of Chicago’s manufacturing. On May 3rd, the Chicago cops killed four unionists. Activists organized a mass public meeting and demonstration in Haymarket Square on May 4. During the meeting, somebody threw a bomb at the cops. The explosion and subsequent gunfire killed seven cops and four civilians. Nobody ever identified the bomber. None of the killer cops was charged. However, the authorities started arresting anarchists throughout Chicago.

Ultimately, they tried and convicted eight anarchist leaders in a kangaroo court. The men were: August Spies, Albert Parsons, Adolph Fisher, George Engel, Louis Lingg, Michael Schwab, Samuel Felden and Oscar Neebe. Only two of the men were even present when the bomb was thrown. The court convicted seven of murder and sentenced them to death. Neebe was give fifteen years. Parson’s brother testified at the trial that the real bomb thrower was a Pinkerton agent provocateur. This was entirely consistent with the Pinkertons modus operandi. They used the agent provocateur, James McParland, to entrap and convict the Molly Maguires. As a result, twenty of them were hanged and the Pennsylvania mining union was crushed. McParland also tried to entrap WFM leader, Big Bill Haywood, for the murder of Idaho Governor Frank Steunenberg. Steunenberg had crushed the WFM strike in 1899, the same one in which the WFM had blown up a colliery. However, Haywood had Clarence Darrow representing him. And Darrow proved his innocence.

On November 11, 1887, they executed Spies, Parson, Fisher and Engel. They sang the Marseillaise, the revolutionary anthem, as they marched to the gallows. The authorities arrested family members who attempted to see them one last time. This included Parson’s wife, Lucy, who was also a significant anarchist organizer and orator. In 1905, she helped cofound the IWW. Moments before he died, Spies shouted, "The time will come when our silence will be more powerful than the voices you strangle today." And Engel and Fischer called out, "Hurrah for anarchism!" Parsons tried to speak, but was cut off by the trap door opening beneath him.

Workers throughout the world protested the trial, conviction and executions. Prominent people spoke out against it, includin Clarence Darrow, Oscar Wilde, George Bernard Shaw, and William Morris. The Haymarket Affair inspired thousands to join the anarchist movement, including Emma Goldman. And it is the inspiration for International Workers’ Day, which is celebrated on May 1st in nearly every country in the world except the U.S.

#WorkingClass #LaborHistory #anarchism #haymarket #LucyParsons #IWW #EmmaGoldman #strike #union #8HourDay #PoliceBrutality #KillerCops #prison #DeathPenalty #Pinkertons

Reaching the ending of the book and of the story; I have now encountered more details about how Lucy Parsons influenced as well as feuded with Emma Goldman and Eugene Debs. Lucy was not into the whole free love thing, while Emma Goldman was. Obviously Debs, who did presidential runs, was not as dismissive of the potential of the ballot box to bring about change as Lucy the radical anarchist was.

The author repeatedly criticizes Lucy for giving short shrift to the plight of African-American laborers--but also repeats this error. Indeed, one element I feel the book lacks is detailed descriptions of the working conditions of the people Lucy was fighting for, even as it recounts her fiery oration on that same subject.

#History #LaborHistory #Anarchy #Anarchism #Socialism #LucyParsons #EmmaGoldman #EugeneDebs

I've been reading "Goddess of Anarchy: The Life and Times of Lucy Parsons" by Jacqueline Jones, and, as I progress into the book, I've been sensing some authorial hostility to anarchism in general. This review confirms my impression. Still, it is a fascinating portrait of Chicago & the USA labor movement circa 1900. I wouldn't say don't read it, since there is so little scholarship about Lucy Parsons. But grains of salt etc.

If you don't know, Lucy was married to Albert Parsons, one of the anarchists executed by the state in revenge for the Haymarket Riot in Chicago 1886. She was an activist before and after her husband's death but being the widow of a martyr added impact to her already influential writings and speeches. The first picture below is from 1886, the second from 1920.

#Anarchy #Anarchism #history #LucyParsons

https://blackrosefed.org/review-dont-throw-lucy-parsons-under-the-liberal-bus/

#LucyParsons had some ideas worth revisiting under modern capitalism.

En el #DiaInternacionalDeLaMujer conozcamos un poco de #LucyParsons

https://entretodosdigital.blogspot.com/2023/03/a-proposito-del-dia-de-la-mujer-mas.html

But we have real heroes on #InternationalWomensDay like #lucyparsons

Today in Labor History March 7, 1942: IWW cofounder and anarchist labor organizer Lucy Parsons died on this date in Chicago, Illinois. Lucy Parsons was part African American and part Native American. Her mother had been a slave. In 1871, she married Albert Parsons, a Confederate soldier, in Waco, Texas. Soon after, they were forced to flee due to racism, moving to Chicago. There they participated in the Great Upheaval of worker rebellions that swept across the U.S. in 1877. They were also active in the movement for the 8-hour day and other worker movements. In 1887, the authorities executed Albert, along with several other anarchists, for the Haymarket bombing, even most hadn’t been present at the bombing. In 1905, Lucy Parsons cofounded the IWW, along with Eugene Debs, Mother Jones, Big Bill Haywood and others. In 1915, she organized the Chicago Hunger Demonstrations. They were so effective that they pushed the AFL, the Socialist Labor Party and the Hull House to participate. In 1925, she participated in the International Labor Defense, which defended workers, communists, the Scottsboro Nine and others.

#LaborHistory #WorkingClass #LucyParsons #IWW #haymarket #anarchism #communism #racism #rebellion #8HourDay #MotherJones #EugeneDebs #execution #BigBillHaywood

#lucyparsons #quotes #quote #classwar

One of Lucy Parson’s famous speeches: https://www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/1886-lucy-parsons-i-am-anarchist/

#BlackHistory #LucyParsons #anarchism

Read about Lucy Parson’s life: https://www.zinnedproject.org/materials/lucy-gonzales-parsons/

#BlackHistory #LucyParsons #anarchism

"The reinvention of daily life means marching off the edge of our maps."

—— Lucy Parsons

Said to be “more dangerous than a thousand rioters," Lucy Gonzales Parsons was a labor organizer, incendiary public speaker, writer, and publisher. An outspoken anarcho-socialist, her white husband Albert was executed as part of the rushed trials following the Haymarket labor uprising.

#BlackHistoryMonth #LucyParsons

#AnarchistMemes #LucyParsons #Abolition #BlackAnarchism #AnarchoSyndicalism #AnarchoCommunism #MayDay #Strike #Riot #Haymarket #Illegalism #Nihilism :queeranarchy:

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#AnarchistMemes #LucyParsons #ChicagoEight #Mayday #Haymarket #Anarchist #Riot #Strike #AnarchistPoetry :queeranarchy: