workingclasshistory:

On this day, 8 May 1928, Luisa Lallana, an 18 year old Argentinian anarchist factory worker was murdered by a strikebreaker during a dockers’ strike. The previous month, stevedores in Rosario walked out demanding their first pay increase in 5 years. Luisa and some of her colleagues from the Mancini burlap bag factory were distributing leaflets from the Women’s Port Committee in support of the dockworkers, when Juan Romero, a scab and member of the extreme right paramilitary Patriotic League of Argentina, shot her in the head. She died that afternoon. The following day, local unions, the anarchist union FORA and the Communist Party called a general strike in protest. Thousands of people downed tools and marched, and her funeral procession was led by a column of 1000 women. Police violently attacked the mourners, while two warships arrived in the port to reinforce the police and paramilitaries. In all, 11 workers were killed during the strike that month.