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La Canadenca Strike (1919)

Wed Feb 05, 1919

Image: Military forces patrolled the city during the general strike (23/3/1919), Josep Brangulí Soler, National Archive of Catalonia. [elnacional.cat]

On this day in 1919, a general strike broke out in Catalonia when thousands of workers across multiple industries went out on strike, causing widespread power outages and the Spanish government to declare a state of war.

The strike was initiated after an energy company, La Canadenca, reduced wages and fired over one hundred striking workers who were protesting the pay cuts. This and the curbing of labor rights prompted the rest of the workers at La Canadenca to go on strike and demand the readmission of those sacked and wage increases.

The labor stoppage soon spread to other companies in the sector via the CNT's union for water, gas and electricity workers. The

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J.W. Loguen (1813 - 1872)

Fri Feb 05, 1813

Jermain Wesley Loguen, born into slavery on this day in 1813, was an abolitionist, bishop of the AME Church, and author of "The Reverend J. W. Loguen, as a Slave and as a Freeman, a Narrative of Real Life".

At the age of 21, he escaped slavery via the Underground Railroad, and his home as a free man went on to become a major stop in the railroad. He also founded schools for black children in Utica and his city of resident, Syracuse, New York.

On October 1st, 1851, an enslaved man he was harboring known as "Jerry" was arrested under the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850. The anti-slavery Liberty Party was holding its state convention in the city and, when word of the arrest spread, several hundred abolitionists broke into the city jail and freed Jerry. The event came to be widely known as the "Jerry Rescue".

• Date: 181

Fugitive Slave Act (1793)

Mon Feb 04, 1793

The Fugitive Slave Act, passed on this day in 1793, was a federal law that guaranteed the right of a slaver to recover an escaped enslaved person and acquire their children as property.

Founding U.S. President George Washington used the Fugitive Slave Act twice to try and kidnap a 19 year old woman who escaped his bondage, Oney Judge. According to an 1845 article from The Liberator, first Washington sent a man by the name of Bassett to persuade her to return. They told her they would set her free when she arrived at Mount Vernon, to which she replied "I am free now, and choose to remain so."

Bassett would be sent a second time by Washington, with orders to bring her and her infant child by force. New Hampshire Governor John Langdon entertained Bassett while sending word to Judge to flee before midnight. In this wa

Betty Friedan (1921 - 2006)

Fri Feb 04, 1921

Betty Friedan, born on this day in 1921, was an American feminist activist and writer, authoring the widely influential book "The Feminine Mystique" in 1963. "The Feminine Mystique" is often credited with sparking the second wave of American feminism in the 20th century.

In 1966, Friedan co-founded and was elected the first president of the National Organization for Women (NOW), which aimed to bring women "into the mainstream of American society now [in] fully equal partnership with men."

In 1970, Friedan organized the nationwide Women's Strike for Equality on August 26th, the 50th anniversary of the Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution granting women the right to vote.

The national strike was successful beyond expectations in broadening the feminist movement; the march led by Friedan in New

Elizabeth Blackwell (1821 - 1910)

Sat Feb 03, 1821

Elizabeth Blackwell, born on this day in 1821, was a physician and social reformer who became the first woman to receive a medical degree in the United States and to be registered with the British General Medical Council.

Blackwell played an important role in both the United States and the United Kingdom as a social awareness and moral reformer, and was a pioneer in promoting education for women in medicine.

Blackwell also founded the "New York Dispensary for Indigent Women and Children" to, in her words, "give poor women an opportunity of consulting physicians of their own sex". Her contributions remain celebrated with the Elizabeth Blackwell Medal, awarded annually to women who have made significant contribution to the promotion of women in medicine.

• Date: 1821-02-03
• Learn More: [en.wikip

NYC School Boycott (1964)

Mon Feb 03, 1964

Image: A propaganda poster showing a black child looking through a broken window, urging the viewer to participate in the boycott. From the Queens College Civil Rights Archives [zinnedproject.org]

On this day in 1964, 464,000 New York City school children, about half of the city's student body, boycotted the segregated school system, one of the largest civil rights demonstrations in U.S. history.

According to the Brooklyn Eagle, a newspaper at the time, "Though segregation in New York was not codified like the Jim Crow laws in the South, a de facto segregation was evident in the city's school system." The NY Times reported that more than a third of the schools were picketed by parents, students, teachers, and activists.

Bayard Rustin, a chief organizer of the 1963 March on Washington and the Freedom Rides, dire

Battle of Cinderloo (1821)

Fri Feb 02, 1821

Image: An unknown artist's impression of the uprising [shropshirestar.com]

On this day in 1821, 3,000 striking workers in present-day Telford, England clashed with Yeomanry, who fired into the crowd after workers refused an order to disperse. Two workers were killed, two were sentenced to death, and nine were arrested.

Colliers across the Coalbrookdale Coalfields had gone on strike the previous day in response to the lowering of their wages, and production across the area came to a halt. A large body of men marched to ironworks at Madeley Wood and Dawley, blowing out all the furnaces, damaging machinery, and inciting non-striking workers to join in.

By mid-afternoon the next day, a crowd of 3,000 had gathered at Old Park, near two industrial spoil heaps known as the 'Cinders Hills'. Yeomanry were sent out to disperse

NYC Tenants Resist Evictions (1932)

Tue Feb 02, 1932

Image: A rent strike in Harlem, New York City, September 1919 [dissentmagazine.org]

On this day in 1932, a crowd of more than 1,000 clashed with police attempting to evict three families in the Bronx. The action was part of a larger period of tenant rebellion which kept 77,000 tenants from being evicted.

The New York Times described the crowd like this: "Women shrieked from the windows, the different sections of the crowd hissed and booed and shouted invectives. Fighting began simultaneously in the house and the street".

The action was part of a larger period of tenant rebellion in 1930s New York City. Beginning in 1930, small bands of people, often led by communists, began to use strong-arm tactics to prevent marshals from putting furniture on the street. Rent riots began in the Lower East Side and

Greensboro Sit-ins Begin (1960)

Mon Feb 01, 1960

Image: Sitting from left: Joseph McNeil, Billy Smith and Clarence Henderson on second day of sit-ins, Woolworth, Greensboro, February 2nd, 1960 [blackpast.org]

On this day in 1960, the "Greensboro Four" sat down at F. W. Woolworth Company Store's lunch counter in Greensboro, North Carolina to protest segregation.

The four men had purchased toothpaste and other products from a desegregated counter at the store with no problems, but were then refused service at the store's lunch counter when they each asked for a cup of coffee.

The four students returned the next day, and within a few days the protest included hundreds of students. The Greensboro Sit-in sparked a movement of sit-in protests against segregation across the country, continuing into the summer and expanding to other places of discrimination, suc

Farabundo Martí Executed (1932)

Mon Feb 01, 1932

Farabundo Martí was a Salvadoran labor organizer and Marxist-Leninist revolutionary executed by the state on this day in 1932 after he helped lead a peasant uprising against President Maximiliano Hernandez Martínez.

Martí was born in Teotepeque, El Salvador on May 5th, 1893. He abandoned studying in university in favor of more directly participating in revolutionary working class organizing. He was a member of a number anti-capitalist organizations throughout the region, and became a founder of the Central American Communist Party in 1925.

In 1928, Martí fought alongside Augusto Sandino in Nicaragua in opposition to the country's occupation by the U.S. military. In 1931, Martí returned to El Salvador to help initiate a guerrilla revolt of indigenous farmers.

The uprising against dictator Maximiliano Hern

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Winter Soldier Investigation (1971)

Sun Jan 31, 1971

Image: Veterans testifying at the Vietnam Veterans Against the War Winter Soldier Investigation on October 10th, 1971. Photo by Jeff Albertson [credo.library.umass.edu/]

The "Winter Soldier Investigation" was a media event that began on this day in 1971, sponsored by Vietnam Veterans Against the War (VVAW), who were intending to publicize war crimes committed by the United States.

The VVAW challenged the morality and conduct of the war by showing the direct relationship between military policies and war crimes in Vietnam. More than one hundred people all gave testimony about war crimes they had committed or witnessed during the years 1963 - 1970.

With the exception of Pacifica Radio, the event was not covered extensively outside of Detroit press. Several journalists and a film crew recorded

Battle of George Square (1919)

Fri Jan 31, 1919

Image: David Kirkwood being detained by police during 1919 Battle of George Square on January 31st 1919 [Wikipedia]

On this day in 1919, the Battle of George Square took place in Glasgow, Scotland, a conflict between Glasgow police and the British Army against 25,000 striking Glasgow workers who were demanding a 40-hour work week.

The strike began a few days earlier, on January 27th, after a meeting of around 3,000 workers gathered in St. Andrew's Halls. The movement for the 40 hour week grew quickly; by the 30th, more than 40,000 workers from local engineering and shipping industries had joined in, and sympathy strikes broke out among power station workers and local miners.

On January 31st, approximately 20,000-25,000 workers gathered in George Square. Fighting broke out between city police and worker

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Ecuador Fuel Strike (1994)

Sun Jan 30, 1994

Image: Protesters in Quito, taking to the streets in 2019 after the government ended fuel subsidies, causing price increases

On this day in 1994, approximately half a million workers staged a 24-hour strike in Ecuador to protest a government increase in fuel prices, blocking roads and burning tires.

Fuel prices would again cause widespread strikes and civil unrest in 2019, when President Lenín Moreno issued a decree on October 1st, ending subsidies for diesel and extra gasoline with ethanol to comply with International Monetary Fund (IMF) loan conditions.

Leaders of the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador (CONAIE) and the United Workers Front (FUT) announced a national strike to protest the resultant fuel increases on October 9th, 2019.

• Date: 1994-01-30
• Learn More: [www.latimes.com

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Anna LoPizzo Murdered by Police (1912)

Mon Jan 29, 1912

On this day in 1912, striking worker Anna LoPizzo was shot and killed by police during the Lawrence Textile Strike, one of the most significant labor struggles in U.S. history. Two IWW leaders were arrested for her death.

The Lawrence Textile Strike was a strike of immigrant workers in Lawrence, Massachusetts that began on January 11th, 1912. It was led by the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) and united immigrant workers of over forty nationalities. Prompted by a two-hour pay cut corresponding to a new law shortening the workweek for women, the strike spread rapidly through the town, growing to more than twenty thousand workers and involving nearly every mill in Lawrence.

LoPizzo was a striking immigrant worker who was killed when, according to IWW literature, officer Oscar Benoit fired into a c

Magonistas Take Mexicali (1911)

Sun Jan 29, 1911

Image: Magonista rebel soldiers who took the city of Tijuana in 1911, from the San Diego Historical Society's "Title Insurance and Trust Collection" [Wikipedia]

On this day in 1911, Magonistas, Mexican anarchists drawing from the ideas of Ricardo Flores Magón, took the city of Mexicali in the first of battle of the Magonista Rebellion of 1911.

The Magonista uprising was an early incident of the more broad period of unrest known as the Mexican Revolution. It was organized by the Liberal Party of Mexico ("Partido Liberal Mexicano", PLM), and was successful in northern Mexico; the Magonistas controlled Tijuana and Mexicali for about six months.

The capture of Mexicali began in a pre-dawn raid on January 29th, 1911, when 30 rebels, guided by José María Leyva and Simón Berthold, seized the town of Mexicali w