Social Security contributions cap out at $160,000. A person making $160,000 and a person making $1,000,000,000 [1 billion] make the same contributions. That’s $999,840,000 that is free of social security taxes.
On this day, 24 January 1964, a mutiny broke out amongst soldiers near Nairobi and in Nakuru, Kenya, in protest at low pay for African soldiers. The rebels seized weapons and ammunition from an armoury at the Lanet barracks, then went on sitdown strike. Kenyan independence leader and prime minister Jomo Kenyatta promised that the mutineers would be “dealt with firmly”, then called in British troops to suppress the rebellion. A US destroyer also rushed to the area to back up UK forces. In the repression, one African soldier was killed, and one soldier and one passerby were wounded. It was the third such rebellion that week in East Africa: British troops also suppressed mutinies with similar demands in Tanzania and Uganda, again at the invitation of the new “anti-colonial” leaders.
Learn more about mutinies in our podcast episode 38 with Srsly Wrong: https://workingclasshistory.com/podcast/e38-mutiny-with-srsly-wrong/https://www.facebook.com/workingclasshistory/photos/a.296224173896073/2193422437509561/?type=3
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, England. 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.296224173896073/2193952297456575/?type=3
On this day, 25 January 1911 Kanno Sugako, a Japanese anarchist feminist, was executed for her part in a plot to assassinate the Emperor. She remains the only woman to be executed in Japan for treason (content note: sexual violence).
Radicalised at the age of 14 after being raped, she was one of Japan’s first women journalists and advocates of women’s rights, as well as a prolific writer of fiction and non-fiction. She was inspired by Sophia Perovskaya, who helped assassinate the Russian Tsar.
Sugako had admitted her guilt in the plot, as had her half-dozen or so co-conspirators. But 24 anarchists, who were mostly innocent, were sentenced to death, which enraged Sugako.
In her prison diary she wrote: “Needless to say, I was prepared for the death sentence. My only concern day and night was to see as many of my… fellow defendants saved as possible… I am convinced our sacrifice is not in vain. It will bear fruit in the future. I am confident that because I firmly believe my death will serve a valuable purpose I will be able to maintain my self-respect until the last moment on the scaffold. I will be enveloped in the marvelously comforting thought that I am sacrificing myself for the cause. I believe I will be able to die a noble death without fear or anguish.”
In her final entry she wrote of how he felt upon learning that 12 of her fellow defendants were reprieved, and so would not be executed: “I am very happy that some of the defendants have been saved. They must be the people who I was certain were innocent. After hearing the news I felt that half the burden on my shoulders had been lifted.”
You can read her full diary here: https://libcom.org/history/reflections-way-gallowshttps://www.facebook.com/workingclasshistory/photos/a.296224173896073/2194604487391356/?type=3
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