On this day, 12 August 1936, after the French government shut the border with revolutionary Spain, the first international volunteers who were heading to Spain to join the fight against right-wing general Francisco Franco began crossing the Pyrenees mountains on foot.
While Nazi Germany and fascist Italy was supplying thousands of troops, and heavy weaponry to Franco, the left-wing Popular Front government in France assisted a blockade of Spain, helping deny aid to its own Popular Front government which the right-wing were attempting to overthrow through civil war.
Tens of thousands of mostly working class people from around the world travelled to Spain to try to help defeat the fascists. Around 15,000 of them would never return home.
We have books about the conflict, as well as items commemorating the international volunteers available here to help fund our work here: https://shop.workingclasshistory.com/collections/spanish-civil-war
Pictured: Republican troops crossing the Pyrenees, 1939 https://www.facebook.com/workingclasshistory/photos/a.296224173896073/1782534338598375/?type=3
On this day, 14 August 1889, the great London dock strike began when workers at West India Dock walked out and called on others to join them. Within two weeks 130,000 were out and dockers’ wives organised a rent strike for the duration of the stoppage.
Other workers like Jewish tailors walked out with their own demands. Australian dockers donated money to support their UK colleagues, and after four weeks the employers caved and agreed nearly all the workers’ demands.
The men had been inspired by the strike of “match girls” at Bryant & May the previous year. The dispute marked a turning point in British working class history, as disorganised casual workers like the dockers were inspired to organise themselves and start to win.
This is a short history of the struggle: https://libcom.org/history/1889-the-great-london-dock-strikehttps://www.facebook.com/workingclasshistory/photos/a.296224173896073/1784349595083516/?type=3
On this day, 20 August 2018, the first day of the school year, 15-year-old autistic school student Greta Thunberg began a solo school strike demanding government action on climate change. Instead of going to class, she printed leaflets declaring “We kids most often don’t do what you tell us to do. We do as you do. And since you grown-ups don’t give a shit about my future, I won’t either. My name is Greta and I’m in ninth grade. And I refuse school for the climate until the Swedish general election.” Then she headed to the Swedish parliament building where she protested alone. Within a couple of days a handful of people began to join her, and she gave numerous interviews to journalists, making headlines around the world. Within a few months, hundreds of thousands of schoolchildren in hundreds of towns and cities around the world organised their own walkouts. While Thunberg as inspired many young people, some commentators have pointed out that she received much more favourable media coverage than Indigenous youth who have been using direct action and fighting police to protect biodiversity and fight climate change for years in places like Standing Rock in the United States. https://www.facebook.com/workingclasshistory/photos/a.296224173896073/1788581631326979/?type=3
On this day, 19 August 1944, this photograph was taken in Paris of 18-year-old French Resistance fighter, Simone Segouin, also known under her nom de guerre Nicole Minet. She had come from Chartres to help liberate the capital.
Segouin’s first mission with the resistance was to steal a bicycle from the German military. It was then repainted, and then used for resistance activities. For example on one occasion she was transporting weapons by bike from Chartres to Dreux. She was stopped by German soldiers, but then managed to escape after bombardment by British soldiers distracted the Germans.
At the time of writing (August 2021), Segouin, aged 95, lives in Courville-sur-Eure, where a street has been named after her.
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