Today in Labor History August 31

1700s-1800s

Today in Labor History August 31, 1798:  Irish rebels, with French assistance, established the short-lived Republic of Connacht during the Irish Rebellion of 1798. On September 8, 1798 the British army defeated the new Republic at the Battle of Ballinamuck. The British army then spread out into the rebel-held Province of Connacht, slaughtering people and burning villages. And they hunted down and hanged with many of the rebel leaders.

Today in Writing History August 31, 1885: DuBose Heyward, American author and playwright was born. Heyward wrote the book, “Porgy,” upon which the Gershwin opera, “Porgy and Bess,” was based.

1910s

Today in Writing History August 31, 1908: Armenian-American writer William Saroyan was born. He won the Pulitzer Prize for drama in 1940 and the Academy Award for best screenplay for his story, “The Human Comedy.” Saroyan was born in Fresno, California, but spent several of his early years in an orphanage in Oakland. He later reunited with his family in Fresno. Many of his early stories were about Armenian farm workers, during the Depression, in California’s San Joaquin Valley.

Today in Labor History August 31, 1909: The Spanish authorities charged Francisco Ferrer as “author in chief” of the uprising known as the “Tragic Week.” Ferrer, an anarchist educator, created the first Modern Schools (Escuelas Modernas). They executed him on October 13, 1909, leading to worldwide condemnation. Hundreds of thousands of people participated in the protests that followed. Supporters created new Modern Schools throughout the world, including dozens in the U.S.

1910s

Today in Labor History August 31, 1919: John Reed and others formed the Communist Labor Party of America in Chicago. The party evolved into the American Communist Party. Reed was a journalist and communist activist who extensively covered World War I. He was most famous for his coverage of the Russian Revolution and his book, “Ten Days That Shook the World.” He died in Moscow in 1920 from typhus. They gave him a hero’s welcome and buried him in Kremlin Wall Necropolis. The Soviets gave this honor to only two other Americans: Big Bill Haywood, from the IWW, and C.E. Ruthenberg, founder of the Communist Party USA.

John Dos Passos included a short biography of him in his “U.S.A.” trilogy. Uptain Sinclair called him the Revolution’s Playboy. Warren Beaty demonstrates this in his portrayal of Reed in the film, “Reds.” Sergei Eisenstein made a film version of “Ten Days That Shook the World” in 1927.

1920s-1930s

Today in Labor History August 31, 1929: 690 delegates from 18 states abandoned the conservative American Federation of Labor to form the Trade Union Unity League. The League was a wing of the Communist Party. They pushed for organizing workers along industrial lines, rather than by craft, like the AFL. This put all workers in a given industry together in one big union. At its peak, the League had 125,000 members. In 1930, it led a protest of one million jobless workers in a dozen cities to demand relief and unemployment insurance. The league fell apart in the late 1930s due to competition from the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO).

Today in Labor History August 31, 1933: Italian American labor organizer, Giovanni Pippan was murdered during his campaign to organize the Italian bread wagon drivers of Chicago. 

Today in Labor History August 31, 1939: Nearly all 430 workers at the California Sanitary Canning Company participated in a massive walkout. The majority of the workers were Mexican-American women. They were demanding union recognition for their affiliation with the United Cannery, Agricultural, Packing, & Allied Workers of America (UCAPAWA). They eventually won a union contract and wage increase.

1950s-1960s

Today in Labor History August 31, 1955: Gary Webb, American journalist and author was born. Webb wrote the “Dark Alliance” series, in the San Jose Mercury News. This series connected the Nicaraguan Contras and the CIA with the crack epidemic in Los Angeles.

1960s-1990s

Today in Labor History August 31, 1968: Canadian elementary school students near Montreal occupied their school, demanding reforms. 

Today in Labor History August 31, 1980: Solidarnosc forced the Polish dictatorship to sign a 21-point bill of rights allowing workers to organize in independent unions. The agreement came after two months of crippling strikes that began at the shipyards of Gdansk.

Today in Labor History August 31, 1983: Polish police used tear gas and water cannons on 10,000 Solidarity demonstrators.

Today in Labor History August 31, 1991: The second Solidarity Day demonstration occurred in Washington, D.C., with over 350,000 union members demanding workplace fairness and health care reform. The first Solidarity Day took place 10 years earlier in the wake of the PATCO firings.