Singer-songwriter-guitarist David Crosby, a founding member of two popular and enormously influential ’60s rock units, the Byrds and Crosby, Stills & Nash (later Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young), has died. He was 81 years old.
His wife released a statement to Variety, writing, “It is with great sadness after a long illness, that our beloved David (Croz) Crosby has passed away. He was lovingly surrounded by his wife and soulmate Jan and son Django. Although he is no longer here with us, his humanity and kind soul will continue to guide and inspire us. His legacy will continue to live on through his legendary music. Peace, love, and harmony to all who knew David and those he touched. We will miss him dearly. At this time, we respectfully and kindly ask for privacy as we grieve and try to deal with our profound loss. Thank you for the love and prayers.”
On this day, 20 January 1934, Nazi Germany introduced a decree “regulating national labour” which according to the US government “introduced the fuhrer-principle into industrial relations”. The owner was deemed the fuhrer of an enterprise, who was responsible for making all “decisions for the employees and labourers in all matters concerning the enterprise"… “The employees and labourers owe him faithfulness”.
Robert Ley, head of the German Labour Front, which was set up by the state after all trade unions were banned, told a meeting of Siemens workers in Berlin, some of whom were enslaved labourers: “We are all soldiers of labour, amongst whom some command and the others obey. Obedience and responsibility have to count amongst us again… We can’t all be on the captain’s bridge, because then there would be nobody to raise the sails and pull the ropes. No, we can’t all do that, we’ve got to grasp the fact.”
Along with other measures against radical workers, Nazi policies led Ley to declare in 1935 that Germany was the first European country to end the class struggle. They also helped reduce the share of national income going to workers: which fell from 56.9% in 1932 to 53.6% in 1938, while the share going to big business soared from 17.4% up to 26.6%.
Pictured: Nazis raiding a union office.
Learn more about German resistance to nazism in our podcast episodes 63-64: https://workingclasshistory.com/podcast/e63-64-mildred-fish-harnack/ https://www.facebook.com/workingclasshistory/photos/a.296224173896073/2190738331111305/?type=3
On this day, 20 January 1900, health officials in Honolulu, Hawaii, trying to fight an outbreak of bubonic plague attempted to conduct controlled burnings of homes and businesses in Chinatown which quickly got out of control. The fire accidentally set light to the wooden roof of the old Kaumakapili church, then continued to spread for 17 days, devastating an area of 38 acres, including 4,000 homes of mostly Chinese and Japanese residents.
Authorities disregarded evidence that rats spread the disease, and instead scapegoated Asian residents for the disease which had killed a Chinese bookkeeper. They based their tactics not on science but on racist stereotypes about Chinese homes being dirty. So they set up a cordon sanitaire, effectively quarantining people of Asian descent in the city for weeks. Their possessions were thrown out into the street, their homes sprayed with carbolic acid, and they were forced to shower in public in mass, makeshift cleaning stations. Officials then began burning the homes of Chinese and Japanese people.
When the January fire first started spreading out of control, residents fleeing for their lives were turned back by the National Guard, backed up by white vigilantes. Eventually a single exit in the cordon was opened to allow people to escape the fires.
The Honolulu Advertiser declared that “intelligent Anglo-Saxon methods” had been employed to combat a “disease wafted to these shores from Asiatic countries”. Another local paper celebrated the fire for supposedly eradicating the plague while also clearing valuable real estate.
After the fire, many of the residents made homeless were never able to return to live in the area, and its demographics were permanently altered.
Read this story are hundreds of others in our book, Working Class History: Everyday Acts of Resistance & Rebellion: https://shop.workingclasshistory.com/products/working-class-history-everyday-acts-resistance-rebellion-book
Pictured: cordoned off Asian residents https://www.facebook.com/workingclasshistory/photos/a.296224173896073/2190944831090655/?type=3
On this day, 20 January 1934, Nazi Germany introduced a decree “regulating national labour” which according to the US government “introduced the fuhrer-principle into industrial relations”. The owner was deemed the fuhrer of an enterprise, who was responsible for making all “decisions for the employees and labourers in all matters concerning the enterprise"… “The employees and labourers owe him faithfulness”.
Robert Ley, head of the German Labour Front, which was set up by the state after all trade unions were banned, told a meeting of Siemens workers in Berlin, some of whom were enslaved labourers: “We are all soldiers of labour, amongst whom some command and the others obey. Obedience and responsibility have to count amongst us again… We can’t all be on the captain’s bridge, because then there would be nobody to raise the sails and pull the ropes. No, we can’t all do that, we’ve got to grasp the fact.”
Along with other measures against radical workers, Nazi policies led Ley to declare in 1935 that Germany was the first European country to end the class struggle. They also helped reduce the share of national income going to workers: which fell from 56.9% in 1932 to 53.6% in 1938, while the share going to big business soared from 17.4% up to 26.6%.
Pictured: Nazis raiding a union office.
Learn more about German resistance to nazism in our podcast episodes 63-64: https://workingclasshistory.com/podcast/e63-64-mildred-fish-harnack/ https://www.facebook.com/workingclasshistory/photos/a.296224173896073/2190738331111305/?type=3
