Today in Labor History June 16

1830s

Today in Labor History June 16, 1836: Workers formed the London Working Men’s Association, launching the Chartist movement. The Chartists took their name from the People’s Charter, which demanded universal suffrage for men, regardless of social class. The movement appealed to skilled workers, not the masses of unskilled laborers. They followed the utopian socialism of Robert Owen. The movement lasted from 1838 to 1857. America’s first cop, Allan Pinkerton, creator of the Secret Service & persecutor of the Molly Maguires, was a radical participant in the Chartist movement before becoming the bulldog of capitalists. While the Chartism was primarily a constitutional movement, there was a radical, insurectionary wing. Pinkerton was a part of this wing. He fought cops, destroyed property, set fires and behaved like today’s Black Block Anarchists.

1840s

Today in Labor History June 16, 1848: Rebellious citizens captured the Berlin arsenal, as revolution swept across 50 European states. While the middle classes were fighting for a unified German state and increased civil liberties, the working class had more revolutionary aspirations. Participants in the revolution included communist and anarchist revolutionaries like Marx, Engels and Mikhail Bakunin, as well as the composer Wagner. European government eventually suppressed each of the revolutions, with great loss of life and mass imprisonment.

Many fled to the U.S. and became known as “forty-eighters.” They moved to places like Cincinnati’s Ober der Rhine neighborhood, or Saint Louis. After risking their lives fighting against serfdom in Europe, many were so horrified by the persistence of slavery in their new country that they dedicated themselves to the cause of abolition and free thinking, joining organizations like the Freimӓnverein (Society of Freemen) and the Wide Awakes (a radical militia that defended free blacks and fought confederates in the streets). Some of them also became publishers, like Henry Boernstein, who had previously published “Vorwärts!” in Paris with Karl Marx, Engels, Heinrich Heine and others.

1860s-1870s

Today in Labor History June 16, 1869: In the small mining town of Ricamarie, France, troops opened fire on miners. They had been protesting the arrest of 40 workers. As a result, troops killed 14 people, including a 17-month-old girl in her mother’s arms. Furthermore, they wounded 60, including 10 children. This strike, and another in Aubin, along with the Paris Commune, were major inspirations for Emile Zola’s seminal work, “Germinal.” They were also why he chose to focus on revolutionary worker actions.

Today in Labor History June 16, 1873: The authorities arrested Susan B. Anthony for trying to vote while being female.

1910s-1920s

Today in Labor History June 16, 1918: Eugene Debs delivered his famous Canton, Ohio anti-war Speech. During World War I, the authorities routinely rounded up radicals and jailed them, often illegally. They were using the new Espionage Act to prosecute people for their opposition to the war. Deb’s made his speech in protest of the Act. 

Today in Labor History June 16, 1920: The U.S. Marines began fighting in Haiti to defend U.S. “interests” there.

1930s

Today in Labor History June 16, 1933: President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the National Industrial Recovery Act, which recognized the right of workers to organize and bargain collectively through unions. The U.S. Supreme Court later found the legislation to be unconstitutional. However, it inspired a wave of union organizing and paved the way for the National Labor Relations Act, which passed in 1935.

Today in Labor History June 16, 1937: Stalinists in the Spanish Republican regime outlawed the Trotskyist POUM, one of the three major constituents of the Spanish Republican forces. They were also the group with which George Orwell fought. Because of Stalinist persecution of the POUM and anarchists, they weakened the Republicans’ ability to resist the fascists. Orwell had to flee because of this betrayal by the Stalinists. For a good fictionalization of the Spanish war against the fascists, and the POUM’s and anarchist’s betrayal by the Stalinists, see Ken Loach’s Tierra y Libertad. Also, Orwell himself wrote about his experiences in his excellent book, “Homage to Catalonia.” Another great book from this war is Hemingway’s, “For Whom the Bell Tolls.”

1950s-1970s

June 16, 1953: Jack Hall of the ILWU and six others were convicted under the Smith Act for being communists. They were known as the “Hawai‘i Seven.”

Today in Labor History June 16, 1976: 20,000 students demontrated in Soweto South Africa. They were protesting against the requirement that they learn the Afrikaans language in their schools. They considered Afrikaans to be the language of the repressive Apartheid regime. The uprising spread to seven other black townships and became known as the Soweto Uprising. The police responded by shooting directly into the crowds of children and teachers. Official reports claim that police killed 176 people, mostly children. However, some estimate that over 700 were killed. By the end of the year, thousands had died in demonstrations throughout the country.

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