On this day, 24 January 1986, print workers at Rupert Murdoch’s News International went on strike against the company who had opened a new, open shop, no-strike plant at Wapping in London.
The strikers were all quickly sacked and replaced by scabs provided by the EETPU union. Despite holding out for over a year, the workers lost, and the dispute marked the effective death of the previously powerful organised print workers in the UK.
This is a short history of the dispute: https://libcom.org/history/1986-1987-wapping-printers-strikehttps://www.facebook.com/workingclasshistory/photos/a.296224173896073/1332928560225624/?type=3
The 50th Davos gathering ended on Friday. It’s the annual meeting that critics love to hate. They say the World Economic Forum’s event is just a forum for the rich and powerful to feel as if they’re making a difference. And that their wheeling and dealing does not include input from the rest of world.
So does the conference actually do any good?
To explore the impact of the prestigious summit on world affairs, we interviewed more than half a dozen leaders in the field of global health, economic development and social justice and asked them to reflect on past efforts at Davos to improve the lives of those in low-income countries.
On this day, 23 January 1977, bricklayer and student Arturo Ruiz was murdered by fascists in Madrid as he demonstrated in support of political prisoners jailed by the Franco regime. The demonstration was declared illegal by the new “democratic” government which sent in police to attack the crowd. As protesters dispersed, a waiting group of right-wing extremists shot him in the back, killing him. The police let the murderers escape, and instead charged the demonstrators who were yelling in outrage. A group of young people placed bricks and a makeshift wooden cross at the site of his death but riot police again intervened, removing the bricks, smashing the cross and scrubbing the blood from the ground with their boots. The next day demonstrations against the killing took place across Spain, in which one young woman was also killed by police.
We have lots of other anniversaries today as well. For all of them follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/wrkclasshistoryhttps://www.facebook.com/workingclasshistory/photos/a.296224173896073/1332094826975664/?type=3
A detail of a relief on the false door of Nikaure depicts two women singing and playing the harp. Old Kingdom, 4th Dynasty,
ca. 2613-2494 BC. Saqqara necropolis.
The US health insurance industry resents being on the receiving end of surprise bills and price-gouging, so Blue Cross/Blue Shield are spending $55m to have the nonprofit Civica Rx tool up to make generics of off-patent drugs whose sole manufacturers are shkreliing the prices into the stratosphere.
Civica already supplies drugs to 1,200 hospitals. …
