Today in Labor History December 21, 1598: The Mapuche, led by cacique Pelentaru, defeated Spanish troops in southern Chile in the Battle of Curalaba.
Today in Labor History December 21, 1907: The Santa María School massacre occurred in Iquique, Chile. The Chilean Army attacked striking saltpeter miners and their wives and children, killing over 2,000 and destroying the strike. It also effectively quashed the union movement for the next decade. The saltpeter strike was part of a wave of strikes that started in 1905. There was a General Strike earlier in December, 1907. The massacre is depicted in Volodia Teitelboim’s 1952 novel, “Hijo de salitre.”
1910s
Today in Labor History December 21, 1910: 344 miners died when the Hulton Bank Colliery No. 3 Pit exploded in Westhoughton, England. It was the third worst mining disaster in British history. The original owner of the mine, William Hulton, once served as sheriff. In that role he sentenced 4 people to death, including a 12-year-old boy. Their crime was participating in a Luddite attack in 1812. His orders also led to the Peterloo Massacre in 1819. He paid the lowest wages of any colliery owner in Lancashire and he violently opposed any attempts to organize. His son and grandson, who later took over control of the colliery, were no better.
December 21, 1911: The Bonnot Gang, a group of anarchist bandits, pulled off the first bank robbery using an automobile, in broad daylight, in the midst of a populous Paris district.
Today in Labor History December 21, 1916: The authorities outlawed the Wobblies (Industrial Workers of the World, or IWW) in Australia.
December 21, 1919: U.S. immigration deported anarchist Emma Goldman to Russia. The authorities deported, arrested and killed hundreds of anarchists, communists, labor leaders and radicals during the Palmer Raids (also known as the First Red Scare). It virtually destroyed the IWW.
Today in Labor History December 21, 1925: Serge Eisenstein’s silent movie The Battleship Potemkin premiered on this date in Moscow. This silent film, which inspired many later film greats, depicts the 1905 mutiny of sailors against their Czarist commanders during the Russo-Japanese war.
December 21, 1986: More than 50,000 students demonstrated for democracy and freedom in Shanghai’s Peoples Square.