Fear #21 (April 1974) Cover by Gil Kane & Frank Giacoia
It’s only a movie, only a movie, only a movie, only a movie, only a movie, only a movie, only a movie…
On this day, 30 July 1766, silver miners in Real Del Monte, Mexico, went on strike against a 25% pay cut in the first recorded strike against an employer in North American history. They faced down repression from the bosses’ private army and held out until September, when the employers caved in.
We chose this date to launch WCH 5 years ago. We have launched a birthday fundraising appeal to make our project sustainable for the future. Please check it out on our website: https://workingclasshistory.com/2019/07/30/working-class-history-turns-5/
Pictured is the mine today https://www.facebook.com/workingclasshistory/photos/a.296224173896073/1178093795709102/?type=3
On this day, 27 August 1974, African-American prisoner Joan Little killed a white prison guard in self-defence and escaped from the Beaufort County jail in North Carolina. The guard had threatened her with an ice pick and forced her to perform a sex act, at which point she managed to grab the pick and kill him. She handed herself in to police the following week, at which point she was charged with first-degree murder, which carried an automatic death sentence. Her case rallied support from civil rights activists, feminists and anti-death penalty activists, and eventually she became the first woman to successfully use resisting sexual assault as a defence for using deadly force. https://www.facebook.com/workingclasshistory/photos/a.296224173896073/1197311970453951/?type=3
