1800s
Today in Labor History November 10, 1887: Chicago Haymarket martyr Louis Lingg, 22, “cheated” the state the day before his scheduled execution by committing suicide in his prison cell. He exploded a dynamite cap in his mouth.
Today in Labor History November 10, 1898: White supremacists launched a coup d’etat in Wilmington, North Carolina. The Wilmington Insurrection of 1898 is the only instance of a municipal government being overthrown in U.S. history. The local white press declared it a race riot, caused by blacks. But it was actually a coup by members of the state’s Democratic party. They conspired and led a mob of 2,000 white men to overthrow the legitimately elected biracial government. They deported opposition black and white political leaders from the city and may have killed over 300 people. And they destroyed black property and businesses, including the only black newspaper in the city. And they got away with it, too.
Charles Aycock, one of the main organizers, went on to become governor of North Carolina. Rebecca Felton, a feminist who supported equal pay for women and the lynching of black residents, went on to become the nation’s first female senator. Numerous other coup leaders and supporters went on to hold state and federal offices.
1930s
Today in Labor History November 10, 1933: Members of the Independent Union of All Workers occupied the Hormel meatpacking plant in Austin, Minnesota, in one of the first sit-down strikes. Workers occupied the plant for three days, demanding a raise. An agreement was brokered by Governor Floyd B. Olson. Hormel referred to his leadership of the plant as benign dictatorship.
1970s
Today in Labor History November 10, 1975: United Nations General Assembly passed Resolution 3379, determining that Zionism was a form of racism. Mexico’s support for the resolution led to a boycott of that nation by American Jews. In 1991, Israel forced the UN to remove the declaration before they would participate in the Madrid peace talks. George H. W. Bush called Resolution 3379 a mockery of the principles upon which the UN was created. He, of course, was an expert in making a mockery of the UN’s principles.
1990s
Today in Labor History November 10, 1995: The Nigerian government executed playwright and environmental activist Ken Saro-Wiwa, along with eight other members of the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (Mosop). Saro-Wiwa led a nonviolent movement protesting the despoiling of Ogoniland by Royal Dutch Shell. Beverly Naidoo’s 2000 novel, “The Other Side of Truth,” is based on Saro-Wiwa’s execution, as is Richard North Patterson’s 2009 novel, “Eclipse.”