Today in Labor History March 5
Today in Labor History March 5, 1770: The Boston Massacre took place. British soldiers, living in colonists’ homes, started taking jobs from local workers. Angered, rope makers started provoking the British soldiers, who fired at and killed Crispus Attucks, a multiethnic colonist. They went on to kill 4 others. Attucks is considered the first casualty in the American Revolution.
1800s
Today in Labor History March 5, 1871: Rosa Luxemburg (1871-1919) was born in Zamosc, Poland. Together with Karl Liebknecht, she helped found the radical Spartacus League in 1916. After the Spartacist uprising in Berlin, they were both arrested and murdered by German soldiers.
Today in Labor History March 5, 1879: The first group of black “exodusters” arrived in St. Louis aboard the steamer Colorado. They were heading to Kansas, which was considered the “promised land” for jobs. Many were fleeing harsh sharecropper contracts, pass laws, imprisonment and racist violence.
Tennessee cabinetmaker, “Pap” Singleton, who called himself the Father of the Colored Exodus, encouraged the migration by printing handbills. A steamboat strike later slowed the migration, reducing the exodus to a trickle by 1881.
1900-1910s
Today in Labor History March 5, 1906: U.S. Army troops beat the native Moros in the First Battle of Bud Dajo, during Moro Rebellion, Philippines. However, it wasn’t even close to being a battle. The U.S. had overwhelming firepower, slaughtering nearly everyone they encountered, men, women and children, and then posing with the corpses. Only six people survived. Mark Twain said, “In what way was it a battle? We cleaned up our four days’ work and made it complete by butchering these helpless people.” The Moro Rebellion (1899-1913) was a liberation struggle against U.S. colonialism by Muslims in the Southern Philippines, (Mindanao, Jolo and the neighboring Sulu Archipelago).
Today in Labor History March 5, 1917: Members of the IWW went on trial in Everett, Washington for the Everett Massacre, which occurred on November 5, 1916. In reality, they were the victims of an assault by a mob of drunken, vigilantes, led by Sheriff McRae. The IWW members had come to support the 5-month long strike by shingle workers. When their boat arrived, the Sheriff asked who their leader was. They replied, “We are all leaders.” Then the vigilantes began firing at their boat. They killed 12 IWW members and 2 of their own, who they accidentally shot in the back.
1940s-1960s
Today in Labor History March 5, 1940: Six high-ranking members of the Soviet politburo, including Joseph Stalin, signed an order for the execution of 25,700 Polish intelligentsia, cops and military officers. 14,700 of them were prisoners of war. This extrajudicial mass execution was known as the Katyn massacre. Afterwards, the Soviets tried to cover their tracks by blaming the Nazis for the massacre. They continued to deny responsibility until 1990, when the government finally acknowledged and condemned the killings and cover-up.
Today in Labor History March 5, 1965: A Leftist uprising against British colonialism erupted in Bahrain, known as the March Intifada. The uprising began after the Bahrain Petroleum Company laid off hundreds of workers at on March 5, 1965. Students at Manama High School, the only high school in Bahrain, went out into the streets to protest the lay-offs. Several people died in the clashes between protesters and police. The authorities quickly suppressed the uprising. However, as news of the crackdown spread, protests erupted throughout the country, creating a nationwide uprising which lasted for a month.
Today in Labor History March 5, 1968: The first Chicano student walkout in East Lost Angeles occurred on this date. The Walkouts, or Chicano Blowouts, occurred throughout 1968 in protest of unequal conditions in Los Angeles Unified School District high schools. Thousands of students participated.