On this day, 7 May 1912, the first general strike for waiters and hotel workers in New York City began when 150 workers at the Belmont Hotel walked out on strike. Organised by the Industrial Workers of the World union, at its peak over 6000 workers were out, demanding one day off per week, higher wages and no discrimination against union members. The employers tried to stoke racial hatred by hiring African-Americans strikebreakers, so the workers allied with the Coloured Waiters’ Association and called on black workers to join the strike. Various individual hotels agreed to some of the strikers’ demands. Combined with police violence, media harassment, an increasing number of scabs who included local college students, the strike ended by late June, and some key organisers were blacklisted. However hotel workers continued to strike in the coming years, and today hotel workers in New York City remain among the best paid in the world. This is our podcast episode about the IWW at that time: https://workingclasshistory.com/2018/05/23/wch-e6-the-industrial-workers-of-the-world-in-the-us-1905-1918/
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Queen Nefertari before the God Thoth
Chapter 94 of the Book of the Dead, Queen Nefertari standing in front of the god Thoth, the ibis-headed scribe, detail of a painting from the north wall, east side chamber. New Kingdom, 19th Dynasty, reign of Ramesses II, ca. 1279-1213 BC. Tomb of Nefertari (QV66), Valley of the Queens, West Thebes.
(via egypt-museum-deactivated2021071)
The Green Anti-Capitalist Front has called for a week of action in the UK at the end of February (24/02-02/03) against ecocide and capitalism
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On this day, 3 January 1966, military veteran and civil rights activist Sammy Younge, Jr was murdered in Alabama. Younge, who only had one kidney, was killed by a gas station attendant in Macon County for trying to use the “whites-only” restroom. https://www.facebook.com/workingclasshistory/photos/a.296224173896073/1313025088882638/?type=3
On this day, 10 January 1979, as the ‘Winter of Discontent’ neared its peak, the number of lorry drivers across Scotland and northern England on wildcat strike against the pay restraint agreement between the Labour government and the unions reached 50,000. Drivers picketed ports and warehouses to stop fleets of trucks moving goods. By the end of the strike, many bosses would have gone massively beyond the 5% cap with some offering their drivers pay increases of as much as 22%.
This is interesting set of articles and analysis about the strike wave: https://libcom.org/history/delightful-measures-changed-reflections-1978-79-winter-discontent https://www.facebook.com/workingclasshistory/photos/a.296224173896073/1319524908232656/?type=3
On this day, 21 September 1976, Chilean socialist refugee Orlando Letelier and think tank worker Ronni Moffitt were murdered in Washington DC by a car bomb planted by Pinochet’s secret police. The killings by agents of the US-backed dictator General Pinochet were part of Operation Condor, a Latin American anti-communist program supported by the US which killed up to 60,000 working class militants, socialists and anarchists. https://www.facebook.com/workingclasshistory/photos/a.296224173896073/1215954675256347/?type=3
Enormous 'Megafire' In Australia Engulfs 1.5 Million Acres -
Abu Simbel Temple
View of the Great Temple of Ramesses II at Abu Simbel, Lower Nubia.
(via egypt-museum-deactivated2021071)