Today in Labor History June 30, 1906: United States Congress passes the Meat Inspection Act and Pure Food and Drug Act in response to Upton Sinclair's novel, “The Jungle,” which exposed atrocious sanitary conditions in Chicago meat packing industry. Sinclair intended his book not only to bring attention to the public health threat of the squalid working conditions, but also to the racism faced by Chicago’s largely immigrant meat workers, as well as the corruption of both the politicians and union officials. However, the public was most outraged by the prospect of getting food poisoning from the rotten meat.

#workingclass #LaborHistory #meatpacking #publichealth #thejungle #uptonsinclair #union #corruption #foodsafety #chicago #workplacesafety #immigration #fiction #novel #book #author #writer @bookstadon

https://kolektiva.social/@MikeDunnAuthor/114773442978509435

Today in Labor History June 30, 1906: United States Congress passes the Meat Inspection Act and Pure Food and Drug Act in response to Upton Sinclair's novel, “The Jungle,” which exposed atrocious sanitary conditions in Chicago meat packing industry. Sinclair intended his book not only to bring attention to the public health threat of the squalid working conditions, but also to the racism faced by Chicago’s largely immigrant meat workers, as well as the corruption of both the politicians and union officials. However, the public was most outraged by the prospect of getting food poisoning from the rotten meat.

#workingclass #LaborHistory #meatpacking #publichealth #thejungle #uptonsinclair #union #corruption #foodsafety #chicago #workplacesafety #immigration #fiction #novel #book #author #writer @bookstadon

Today in Labor History April 14, 1935: The Black Sunday dust storm swept across the Oklahoma and Texas panhandles. This was one of the worst storms of the Dust Bowl. 4 years later, on this same date, John Steinbeck published his classic working-class novel, The Grapes of Wrath, about Dust Bowl refugees in California.

#workingclass #LaborHistory #dustbowl #GreatDepression #JohnSteinbeck #GrapesOfWrath #refugees #poverty #fiction #books #author #writer #Oklahoma #texas

https://kolektiva.social/@MikeDunnAuthor/114336624136022966

Today in Labor History April 14, 1935: The Black Sunday dust storm swept across the Oklahoma and Texas panhandles. This was one of the worst storms of the Dust Bowl. 4 years later, on this same date, John Steinbeck published his classic working-class novel, The Grapes of Wrath, about Dust Bowl refugees in California.

#workingclass #LaborHistory #dustbowl #GreatDepression #JohnSteinbeck #GrapesOfWrath #refugees #poverty #fiction #books #author #writer #Oklahoma #texas @bookstadon

Today in Labor History September 11, 1973: The CIA helped overthrew the democratically elected government of Allende in Chile. This ended nearly 150 years of democratic rule. Also killed in the coup were folk singer Victor Jara, and American IWW journalist Frank Teruggi. Jara courageously continued singing Venceremos (We Shall Win) while he lay on the ground, hands broken by his torturers, as they slaughtered hundreds in the national stadium. 16 years of military terror followed under Pinochet’s rule. Chilean-American author Isabel Allende is a cousin of the assassinated former president, Salvador Allende. She wrote her debut novel, “House of the Spirits,” while in exile in Venezuela, after fleeing the Pinochet dictatorship.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0nybX2_mYqg

#WorkingClass #LaborHistory #SalvadorAllende #pinochet #chile #dictatorship #cia #FolkMusic #VictorJara

How a Folk Singer’s Murder Forced Chile to Confront Its Past | Retro Report

Victor Jara was a legendary Chilean folk singer and political activist whose brutal murder during a military coup in 1973 went unsolved for decades. Now, his...

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Content warning: Treblinka Uprising; Holocaust Click to open/close

Today in Labor History August 2, 1943: Jewish prisoners revolted at Treblinka, one of the deadliest of the Nazi death camps, where approximately 900,000 persons were murdered in less than 18 months. In early 1943, an underground Jewish resistance formed at Treblinka. One of the organizers, Dr. Julian Chorążycki, killed himself with poison when he was caught prior to the uprising, so the Nazis couldn’t torture the plot details out of him. The conspirators raided the arsenal, stealing rifles, grenades and pistols. They set buildings on fire, attacked the main gate and tried to climb the fence. German and Ukrainian guards opened fire with machine guns, resulting in near-total slaughter. About 200 Jews escaped, but half of them were caught and killed.

#WorkingClass #LaborHistory #holocaust #nazis #treblinka #ConcentrationCamp #antisemitism #genocide #uprising #resistance #jewish

Content warning: Police Brutality; Vigilantes Click to open/close

Today in Labor History February 1, 1912: The Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) started the San Diego Free Speech Fight in response to a city ordinance preventing public speaking in and around the Stingaree neighborhood (now known as the Gaslamp Quarter). The authorities were trying to squelch labor and radical organizing in the multi-ethnic, working-class neighborhood, infamous for its houses of prostitution, gambling dens, opium dens and Chinese ghetto. Even as late as the 1980s, it still had a skid row feel, with its multitude of tattoo parlors, bars, sailors, junkies and fascination parlors. As a kid, I remember watching the con artists running games of 3-Card Monte on the sidewalks there.

The IWW had been active in San Diego since 1906. They organized timber workers and cigar makers, as well as workers at San Diego Consolidated Gas and Electric Company. Their strike at the power company led to the formation of a public service union, which disbanded in 1911, when many Wobblies flocked to Tijuana to join the anarchist Magonista revolution there.

As the Free Speech fight progressed, anarchists, socialists and liberals joined the struggle, deliberately speaking in the restricted zone so that the jails would overflow. And they all demanded individual trials in order to clog up the legal system. Jail conditions were horrendous. Prisoners were crowded into the drunk tanks and forced to sleep on vermin-infested floors. Beatings were routine. 63-year-old Michael Hoy died from a police beating in jail. The IWW called on members from across the country to ride the rails to San Diego to join the fight. At least 5,000 heeded the call.

The local papers, of course, ran countless editorials attacking the radicals and glorifying the police. This encouraged vigilantes, who’d patrol the rail yards looking for incoming Wobblies. They deported many across county lines where they forced them to kiss the flag and run through gauntlets of men who beat them with pick axe handles. On May 7, the cops killed another Wobbly, Joseph Mikolash. And on May 15, vigilantes kidnapped Emma Goldman and her companion Ben Reitman, who had come to show their support. However, before deporting them, the vigilantes tarred and feathered Reitman and raped him with a cane. Ben Reitman was a physician who focused his practice on providing treatment for tramps, hobos, prostitutes and the most marginalized members of society. The July 11, 1912 edition of the IWW’s “Little Red Songbook” included the song: “We’re Bound for San Diego:”

In that town called San Diego, when the workers try to talk,
The cops will smash them with a sap and tell them “take a walk.”
They throw them in a bull pen and they feed them rotten beans.
And they call that “law and order” in the city, so it seems.

#workingclass #LaborHistory #sandiego #freespeech #policebrutality #prison #IWW #anarchism #socialism #strike #magonista #Tijuana #vigilantes #EmmaGoldman