Today in Labor History April 14, 1930: Over 100 Mexican and Filipino farm workers were arrested for union activities in Imperial Valley, CA. 8 were convicted of “criminal syndicalism.”
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Today in Labor History April 13, 1873: The Colfax massacre, occurred in Colfax, Louisiana. A mob of former Confederate soldiers and current KKK members murdered 60-153 black militiamen after they surrendered. The militiamen were guarding the parish courthouse in the wake of the contested 1872 election for governor. Southern elections during Reconstruction were regularly marred by violence and fraud. It was the worst act of racist violence during Reconstruction.
Today in Labor History April 12, 1963: Mexican journalist and human rights activist, Lydia Cacho, was born on this day. She has reported extensively on violence and sexual abuse against women in Mexico. In 2006, she reported on the hundreds of female homicides in Ciudad Juárez. That same year, a tape emerged of a conversation between businessman Kamel Nacif Borge and the governor of Puebla, in which they conspired to have her beaten and raped for her reporting.
Covid is no worse than the flu?
I know, I have now led dozens of posts over the past few years with this sarcastic question. But now, with the pandemic officially declared over by the politicians and the majority of the public behaving as though Covid19 is no longer a threat, it seems particularly apropos in light of the reasons for declaring the pandemic over: to get people back to work and back to consuming. Yet, as the data from this study show, Long Covid has had an enormous negative impact on the income and quality of life for millions of Americans, particularly the poor and working class, and particularly for African Americans and women.
*Nearly 1 in 7 working-age adults in the U.S. had experienced Long Covid by the end of 2023
*Socially disadvantaged adults were 152% more likely to suffer from Long Covid
*Groups with higher risk for Long Covid include being Black, LGBTQ, Hispanic, Female, or low income
*In 2022, people with Long Covid lost $211 billion in wages
*In 2023, people with Long Covid lost $218 billion in wages
One reason for the disproportionate effect of Long Covid on marginalized communities, particularly BIPOC and poor people, is that these groups suffer disproportionately from chronically elevated levels of the stress hormone, Cortisol, due to the stress caused by racism, sexism, homophobia, and poverty. Elevated Cortisol levels are also associated with increased risk of heart disease, hypertension, and diabetes, as well as impaired immune function.
For a really good documentary on the Social Determinants of Health and the relationship between racism and poverty on stress/cortisol levels and negative health outcomes, please see the Unnatural Causes video series
CIDRAPStudies: 1 in 7 US working-age adults report long COVID, with heaviest burden on the poor
Today in Labor History April 10, 1947: FBI agents visited Ronald Reagan (then president of the Screen Actors Guild) and his wife Jane Wyman, accusing them of belonging to a communist front group. To prove his loyalty, Reagan agreed to become a secret informer and went on to have a long and illustrious career as an anti-communist, union-busting, trickle-down asshole.
@TheDialecticalCommunist@social.marxist.networkPSL organizers went to the @UAW rally in Detroit and asked workers what they’re striking for.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/08/nyregion/homeless-shelters-new-york-city.html
Thousands of working people in New York City now live in shelters, unable to afford apartments despite holding down jobs that pay them $50,000 or more.
The New York Times · They Work All Day and Go Home to Shelters
Yesterday it was the memoirs page. Today my book’s top of Bookshop. org’s *main* Biography & Memoir list.
(right next to Jenni Fagan (Scotland represent!) and a bit under Marcus Aurelius!)
No PR machine. Just people getting behind a working-class Scottish debut
If you’ve been thinking about it, now’s the time:
tinyurl.com/4m68kbpv
Now I’m off to build a wall.
Today in Labor History April 6, 1968: Oakland police attacked the Black Panthers headquarters and assassinated Bobby Hutton, an unarmed teenager.
Today in Labor History April 5, 1989: The United Mine Workers launched their strike against Pittston Coal Co., eventually winning concessions by Pittston on February 20, 1990. The strike started in response to Pittston’s termination of health care for widows, retirees and disabled veteran miners. During the strike, there were 2,000 miners camped out daily at Camp Solidarity, and up to 40,000 total engaging in wild cat strikes, civil disobedience, picketing, occupations and sabotage. The strike reduced Pittston’s production by two-thirds, while over 4,000 strikers were arrested during the strike.
𓊉 @pepperz@tech.lgbtRight I agree that a lot of our issues are intersectional, and we must work making our society as equitable as possible.
The part that I disagree on is doing everything at once. I don't think we will be able to fully make everyone not racist, homophobic, or other 'ist/phobias,' At least in our life time anyway. We can reform our society by mitigating measures against bigoted views in the future with proper education, and policies. But there will always be people with biases, even to the subconscious level.
I believe that we have to put out the large fire to properly attend to the other ones. In your analogy, if our garden has a lot of weeds, and pests. We probably should contain the biggest issue at hand so we can attended to the other issues.
If we all collectively see ourselves as #workingclass and fight the same fight. I think being around a diverse group can be the start to help others out of their biases, and maybe help their comrades in their struggle too. But we must fight #fascism
𓊉 @pepperz@tech.lgbtThey are going to fuck up #socialsecurity by rewriting the software to make it less functional. To then try to pull the wool over the #workingclass as a means to place social security on the bargaining table.
Remember this is the last Bastion for anyone making under $300k a year to get a lick of their labor given to the #federalgovernment
If it comes to the bargaining table they will push to disband it, and what will happen to all those trillions of dollars? It won't be in your wallet, or any of your loved ones, or even neighbors.
That money will be used to make the #onepercent richer.
We have to stop letting our distractions that categories whether it be race, religion, gender, sexuality, and even political affiliation.
Together we are strong and the #oligarchs need us more that we need them. The real fight is the #classwar
#uspol #uspolitics #programming #lgbt #leftist #REPUB #republicans #communism #socialism #anarchism #econimics #boycottMusk
https://www.wired.com/story/doge-rebuild-social-security-administration-cobol-benefits/
WIRED · DOGE Plans to Rebuild SSA Codebase In Months, Risking Benefits and System Collapse
Today in Labor History: March 28, 1968: Martin Luther King led a march of striking sanitation workers in Memphis, Tennessee. Police attacked the workers with mace and sticks. A 16-year old boy was shot. 280 workers were arrested. He was assassinated a few days later after speaking to the striking workers. The sanitation workers were mostly black. They worked for starvation wages under plantation like conditions, generally under racist white bosses. Workers could be fired for being one minute late or for talking back, and they got no breaks. Organizing escalated in the early 1960s and reached its peak in February, 1968, when two workers were crushed to death in the back of a garbage truck.
Liberals claimed that Trump's mass deportations would lead to food shortages and skyrocketing food costs. Probably will. But there's more to it than simply following through on a fascist campaign pledge. Gives them cover for stripping away child labor laws, paving the way for an escalation of injuries, deaths, and exploitation of children, as more and more corporate farmers demand child laborers to replace the immigrants they've lost to deportation.
The Independent · Florida wants to loosen child-labor laws to make up for loss of migrant workers
@midtsveen@social.linux.pizza
My friends know I'm an Anarcho-Syndicalist.
Is it professional suicide to tell my boss?
Working-class women aren’t supposed to say this.
But I did.
And I want to hear it from you too.
Join me. Tell me about your work. Your words. What you’ve built.
https://kristie-de-garis.ghost.io/working-class-women-arent-supposed-to-say-this/
By Hand · Working-Class Women Aren't Supposed To Say This‘What I’ve made is good. What I’ve made is important.’
It’s rare and radical to say that out loud. Especially if you’re working class. Especially if you’re a woman.
Because when you’re working class and a woman, you’re not supposed to say you’
Today in Labor History March 25, 1931: The authorities arrested the Scottsboro Boys in Alabama and charged them with rape. The Scottsboro Boys were nine African American youths, ages 13 to 20, falsely accused of raping two white women. A lynch mob tried to murder them before they had even been indicted. All-white juries convicted each of them. Several judges gave death sentences, a common practice in Alabama at the time for black men convicted of raping white women. The Communist Party and the NAACP fought to get the cases appealed and retried. Finally, after numerous retrials and years in harsh prisons, four of the Scottsboro Boys were acquitted and released. The other five were got sentences ranging from 75 years to death. All were released or escaped by 1946. Poet and playwright Langston Hughes wrote it in his work Scottsboro Limited. And Richard Wright's 1940 novel Native Son was influenced by the case.
#workingclass #LaborHistory #scottsboroboys #racism #lynching #rape #prison #langstonhughes #richardwright #novel #naacp #communism #books #author #writer #fiction #alabama #BlackMastadon @bookstadon
Today in Labor History March 25, 1911: Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire in New York City killed 146 people, mostly immigrant women and young girls who were working in sweatshop conditions. As tragic as this fire was for poor, working class women, over 100 workers died on the job each day in the U.S. in 1911. What was most significant was that this tragedy became a flash point for worker safety and public awareness of sweatshop conditions.
The Triangle workers had to work from 7:00 am until 8:00 pm, seven days a week. The work was almost non-stop. They got one break per day (30 minutes for lunch). For this they earned only $6.00 per week. In some cases, they had to provide their own needles and thread. Furthermore, the bosses locked the women inside the building to minimize time lost to bathroom breaks.
A year prior to the fire, 20,000 garment workers walked off the job at 500 clothing factories in New York to protest the deplorable working conditions. They demanded a 20% raise, 52-hour work week and overtime pay. Over 70 smaller companies conceded to the union’s demands within the first 48 hours of the strike. However, the bosses at Triangle formed an employers’ association with the owners of the other large factories. Soon after, strike leaders were arrested. Some were fined. Others were sent to labor camps. They also used armed thugs to beat up and intimidate strikers. By the end of the month, almost all of the smaller factories had conceded to the union. By February, 1910, the strike was finally settled.
@midtsveen@social.linux.pizza21:03—Good Night #Fediverse!
I'm logging off for today, spending the rest of my evening with #FreeTube being broken, so it's #YouTube instead.
@ZhiZhu@newsie.social"And the fact that so many voters seemed oblivious to clear signs about what #Trump would do if he won ought to inform every discussion about how to #oppose him...
the #voters who have most to lose from this extremism didn’t notice...
#WorkingClass voters didn’t notice.
What all this says is that the priority for #Democrats isn’t to pursue whatever you think is a better #policy mix.
It is to get voters to notice."
https://paulkrugman.substack.com/p/social-security-a-time-for-outrage
