Today in Labor History May 18, 1928: Big Bill Haywood died in exile in the Soviet Union. He was a founding member and leader of both the Western Federation of Miners and the IWW (the Wobblies). During the first two decades of the 20th century, he participated in the Colorado Labor Wars and the textiles strikes in Lawrence and Patterson. The Pinkertons tried, but failed, to bust him for the murder of former Idaho governor Frank Steunenberg. However, in 1918, the feds used the Espionage Act to convict him, and 101 other Wobblies, for their anti-war activity. As a result, they sentenced him to twenty years in prison. But instead of serving the time, he fled to the Soviet Union, damaging his image as a hero among the Wobblies. He ultimately died from a stroke related to his alcoholism and diabetes. Half his ashes were buried in the Kremlin Wall Necropolis. The other half of his ashes were sent to Chicago and buried near the Haymarket Martyrs’ Monument.

You can read my full article on union busting by the Pinkertons here: https://michaeldunnauthor.com/2024/04/04/union-busting-by-the-pinkertons/

Today in Labor History May 17, 1917: The government stayed the execution of Tom Mooney while he appealed his case. Mooney ultimately spent 22 years in prison for the San Francisco Preparedness Day Parade bombing in 1916, a crime he did not commit. Mooney, along with codefendant Warren Billings, were members of the IWW and were railroaded because of their union and anarchist affiliations. The bomb exploded at the foot of Market Street, killing ten and wounding forty. Billings had heard rumors that agents provocateurs might try to blacken the labor movement by disrupting the pro-war parade. He tried to warn his comrades.

Mooney’s father had been in the Knights of Labor, a forerunner of the IWW. He had been beaten so badly during one strike, that his comrades thought he was dead. He ultimately died of silicosis from mining at the age of 36, when Tom was only ten. In San Francisco, Tom Mooney published The Revolt, a socialist newspaper. He was tried and acquitted three times for transporting explosives during the Pacific Gas & Electric strike in 1913.

Mooney filed a writ of habeas corpus in 1937, providing evidence that his conviction was based on perjured testimony and evidence tampering. Among this evidence was a photograph of him in front of a large, ornate clock, on Market Street, clearly showing the time of the bombing and that he could not have been at the bombing site when it occurred. The Alibi Clock was later moved to downtown Vallejo, twenty-five miles to the northeast of San Francisco. A bookstore in Vallejo is named after this clock. He was finally pardoned in 1939. Upon his release, he marched in a huge parade down market street. Cops and leaders of the mainstream unions were all forbidden from participating. An honor guard of longshoremen accompanied him carrying their hooks. His case helped establish that convictions based on false evidence violate people’s right to due process.

The accompanying photo shows Oliver Law, and the Tom Mooney Machine Gun Company, part of the Abraham Lincoln Brigades, who fought in the Spanish war against fascism (AKA the Spanish Civil War). Oliver Law was a communist, and the first black man known to have commanded white U.S. troops.

Read my complete article on Mooney and Billings here: https://michaeldunnauthor.com/2024/05/19/tom-mooney-and-warren-billings/

Today in Labor History May 16, 1918: Congress passed the Sedition Act against radicals and pacifists, leading to the arrest, imprisonment, execution and deportation of dozens of unionists, anarchists and communists. The law forbade the use of “disloyal, profane, scurrilous, or abusive” language about the U.S. government, its flag, or it military. The mainstream press supported the act, despite the significant limitations it imposed on free speech and of press freedom. In June, 1918, the government arrested Eugene Debs for violating the act by undermining the government’s conscription efforts. He served 18 months in prison. Congress repealed the act in 1920, since world War I had ended. However, Attorney General, A. Mitchell Palmer, lobbied for a peacetime version of it. Additionally, he continued to round up labor activists, communists and anarchist for seditious behavior, particularly Wobblies, or members of the IWW. For example, they convicted Marie Equi for giving a speech at the IWW hall in Portland, Oregon after WWI had ended.

New Podcast! "15 May 1942: T-Bone Slim body found" on @Spreaker #history #iww #workers
https://www.spreaker.com/episode/15-may-1942-t-bone-slim-body-found--65866843

Fresh new instance, fresh new #introduction time.

I'm Erin, yet another autistic transgender anarchist from so-called Portland, Oregon. I used to have fancy tech jobs with titles like "Lead Full-Stack Software Engineer" until I burnt out, got laid off, and discovered that the tech industry was done with me. Nowadays I survive on a very part-time gig as a general technologist and some freelance tech work when I can find it. My part-time gig is unionized through the IWW, of which I am a proud member. I've been on fedi under various names and handles since GNU Social was the cool new thing.

My special interests include Cybersecurity, Casio watches, Dungeons & Dragons, Final Fantasy XIV, the Indieweb, Linux, old ThinkPads, XMPP, Yuri Anime and Manga, and stuffed sharks.

formerly @kvuzet

Here's a big list of tags:
#ActuallyAutistic #Anarchism #Blahaj #CyberSecurity #DnD #FFXIV #F91W #Frontend #Indieweb #InfoSec #IWW #Linux #Queer #RSS #SDF #ThinkPad #Tech #Trans #WebDev #XMPP #Yuri

4 hours for work, 8 hours for rest, 12 hours do what thou wilt

To-day is #MayDay, also called #InternationalWorkersDay. The date comes from the #HaymarketMartyrs, killed in the US for demanding an eight-hour workday. The US labour movement has gotten way too timid over the last century and it needs to wake tf up.
#UnionStrong #IWW #strike

Happy #mayday !! I’ve been working on this assortment of images as part of my #draweveryday efforts, for the SF Bay Area #iww chapter. #sabocats reject the bullshit that is killing us all! #sabotage now! Reach out to your local #industrialworkersoftheworld chapter today and #organize ! Now is the time! #fightfascism #oligarchy #union #unionbusting #cat #blackcat #billionaires #fascism #amazon #prisonlabor

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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.

You can read my complete bio of Lucy Parsons here: https://michaeldunnauthor.com/2024/03/24/lucy-parsons/

Today In Labor History May 1, 1830: Mary Harris "Mother" Jones was born. Mother Jones was renowned for her militancy and fiery oration, as well as her many juicy quotes. She once said, “I’m no lady. I’m a hell-raiser.” She also was an internationalist, saying “My address is wherever there is a fight against oppression.” Despite the difficulties of constant travel, poor living and jail, she lived to be 100. She was also a cofounder of the anarchosyndicalist IWW.

Greater Chicago GMB is also helping promote, and participate in, several days of activity from May 1-5th.

Members of the Industrial Workers of the World #IWW at Urban Ore in #Berkeley, #California have now been on strike for five weeks.

https://itsgoingdown.org/strike-by-wobblies-at-urban-ore-in-berkeley-ca-enters-fifth-week/

“Why is the labor movement so dependent on the government in the first place? Can we afford to be in a situation where one orange man can suspend the union process? The moment has opened our imaginations to what labor organizing would be like without the NLRB.”

No #NLRB? No problem. Via @industrialwrkr

#IWW #UnionStrong #1u #labor

https://industrialworker.org/no-nlrb-no-problem/

In the annals of "complying in advance", the US-Canada part of the #IWW (Industrial Workers of the World) is doing a paperwork attack on the part of itself that organizes prisoners. The stated reasons are a jumble of concerns about proper receipts, with some part of leadership stating that good recordkeeping will make the union less of a target for fascists. But mostly it's that union leadership doesn't like prisoner organization or really anything that people look to the IWW for.

https://sd.aflcio.org/sftrades/news/no-union-fascists-why-sioux-falls-afl-cio-banned-white-supremacists

#AFLCIO #IWW #LaborMovement #Organize
#SiouxFalls #Solidarity #unions
#workingclasshistory

join the Tacoma IWW branch next Thursday April 17th at 12:30pm at Freighthouse Square (in food court), to eat some food, hang out and see what we've been up to. All are welcome.

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#tacomaiww #iww #solidarityforever #industrialworkersoftheworld
#industrialunionism #aninjurytooneisaninjurytoall
#solidarityunionism #industrialworker #wobradio #wobblies #onebigunion
#abolitionofthewagesystem

The wealthy have never cared about helping others. Their lack of regard for other people is how they got and stayed wealthy. For thousands of years, poor folk have been conned into thinking the lords will help them, when it is always we who help each other best. #EatTheRich #IWW