Today in Labor History January 26, 1808: Soldiers took over New South Wales, Australia, during the Rum Rebellion. It was Australia’s only military coup. At the time, NSW was a British penal colony. William Bligh was governor of the territory. This was the same William Bligh who was overthrown in the Mutiny on the Bounty, in 1789. It is questionable why the British thought he’d do better in charge of a bunch of prisoners and unruly soldiers, than he did with a bunch of sailors. Perhaps they were just desperate.
One of Bligh’s commissions was to reign in the Rum Corps. They held a monopoly on the illegal rum trade in Australia. They also controlled the sale of other commodities. Bligh started to enforce penalties for the illegal sale and importation of liquor. He also tried to provide relief to farmers, suffering from recent flooding and price-gouging by the Rum Corps. He did this by providing provisions from the colony’s stores. The monopolists didn’t like his looting of the stores, from which they were profiting handsomely. Nor did they like his enforcement of the liquor laws. So, they arrested him and deported him to Hobart, Van Diemen’s Land. The military remained in control of NSW until 1810.
1880s-1890s
Today in Labor History January 26, 1886: In Decazeville, France, miners attacked the home of the mine engineer, Watrin, after he slashed their wages by 10%. He died when they threw him from his window. Paul Lafargue, Cuban-French revolutionary and son-in-law of Karl Marx, who wrote about the strike in June of 1886, considered the strike to be one of the seminal moments for French socialists over the past 15 years.
Today in Labor History January 26, 1897: the Amalgamated Meat Cutters and Butcher Workmen of North America received a charter from the American Federation of Labor to organize “every wage earner from the man who takes the bullock at the house until it goes into the hands of the consumer.” The union merged with the Retail Clerks International Union in 1979 to form the United Food and Commercial Workers.
1930s
Today in Labor History January 26, 1937: A two-day sit-down strike occurred at a Brooklyn power plant, leading to a large-scale organizing drive in New York subways.
Today in Labor History January 26, 1939: Nationalist troops loyal to fascist General Francisco Franco and aided by Italian fascists conquered Barcelona during the Catalonia Offensive. Over 10,000 Republican troops were injured and 60,000 were captured. The number who died is unknown.
1990s
Today in Labor History January 26, 1991: 200,000 people marched against the Gulf War in New York city. 200,000 more marched in San Francisco, and another 200,000 in Bonn, Germany.