Workers Know Your History - 1912.

      Think of it, 1912, women and children had their working hours cut from 56 to 54, but with a pay cut?? It's not that long ago, and the powers that be in the corporate financial Mafia are doing their best to turn the clock back. The system stinks it always has and always will.

This from Anarchist News:

29th Annual Bread and Roses Festival!

Mon, 08/19/2013 - 17:42 -- Anonymous (not verified)

        In 1912, a new state law went into effect reducing the work week of women and children from 56 to 54 hours. But because so many women and children worked in the mills, men’s hours were also reduced. When the first paychecks of the year revealed a cut in pay, thousands of workers, already barely surviving on an average pay of $8.76 a week, walked out of the mills, and the Great Strike had begun.

       The strike united workers from 51 different nationalities. Carried on throughout a brutally cold winter, the strike lasted more than two months, defying the assumptions of conservative trade unions within the American Federation of Labor that immigrant, largely female and ethnically divided workers could not be organized. In late January, when a bystander was killed during a protest, I.W.W. organizers Joseph Ettor and Arturo Giovannitti were arrested on charges of being accessories to the murder. I.W.W. leaders Bill Haywood and Elizabeth Gurley Flynn came to Lawrence to run the strike. Together they masterminded its signature move, sending hundreds of the strikers’ hungry children to sympathetic families in New York, New Jersey, and Vermont. The move drew widespread sympathy, especially after police stopped a further exodus, leading to violence at the Lawrence train station.The IWW raised funds on a nation-wide basis to provide weekly benefits for strikers and dramatized the strikers’ needs by arranging for several hundred children to go to supporters’ homes in New York City for the duration of the strike. The union established an efficient system of relief committees, soup kitchens, and food distribution stations, while volunteer doctors provided medical care.

     Congressional hearings followed, resulting in exposure of shocking conditions in the Lawrence mills and calls for investigation of the “wool trust.” Mill owners soon decided to settle the strike, giving workers in Lawrence and throughout New England raises of up to 20 percent.

         The Boston Industrial Workers of the world see this event as a critical part of our history and fully support The Bread & Roses Heritage Committee. we call to all workers to come out on labor day SEPTEMBER 2, 2013 to recognize, commemorate, inform, and share the labor history and social justice legacy of Lawrence’s 1912 Bread & Roses strike.

an injury to one is an injury to all!

http://www.breadandrosesheritage.org/

http://iwwboston.org/

Some of Glasgow's working class history HERE:

Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk

WORKERS KNOW YOUR HISTORY - BLAIR MOUNTAIN.

The Other Side of Life

         The other night I was in a room with a few other members of Clydeside Industrial Workersof the World, watching films, uploaded from Youtube about Blair Mountain.

       No the mountain isn't the cash Tony Blair has accumulated for himself as a stooge to the U.S. War machine. Blair Mountain is in the Appalachians in West Virginia. In 1921 it was the scene of an armed confrontation between miners wearing red bandanna – nickname “red-necks” - seeking to organise throughout the State, and a reactionary militia mobilised by the authoritarian regime in Logan County. It resulted in the intervention of thousands of federal troops sent in to halt and disarm the biggest clash on U.S. Soil since the Civil War. Years later it was dramatised in the film, Matewan.

       On page 3 of Industrial Worker, the story is brought up to date by the battle to preserve the historical site and environment of forests, against current mine companies engaged in devastating open cast mining. A hidden agenda is to physically obliterate any record of the miners struggle which saw 20,000 mobilised to defend and to organise those suffering terrible exploitation and working conditions in company towns.

        Looking at such a video brings it home to you just how tough life was back then. In USA, the “land of the free”, the owners regularly turned to “Pinkerton” type agencies to assassinate workers involved in strike action, recruit desperate scabs & evict strikers from “company provided” housing.

      There is a wealth of material in the internet now from the IWW and radical union sites, determined not to forget our history. Despite all the knowledge that can be accessed, the authorities prefer the mass of people to stay as passive consumers, lulled into a “social amnesia”, where a diet of pap, glosses over a history based on class violence & subjugation. So many valiant efforts by workers and radicals are wiped from consciousness & memory, as new generations are bombarded with the propaganda of our rulers. In the USA it has a subtle twist, with all the nonsense of religious fundamentalism, a racket by manipulators & money makers to feed off the human need for group solidarity, common cause and to be uplifted “spiritually”.

Jim McFarlane, hereandnowscot@gmail.com

Some of Glasgow's working class HERE.

ann arky's home.

WORKERS KNOW YOUR HISTORY - GLASGOW WEAVERS STRIKE.

         We should never forget that in any industrial struggle you are not only fighting your employer, but the powers that be. The authorities will always throw the full extent of their power in support of the employer and against the workers. You elect them and they support your employer, that's how the system works. That power can be police intimidation/brutality/provocation, to bringing the troops onto the streets to crush the resistance of the group in dispute. Britain is no different in that respect, we have had the troops on the streets on numerous occasions. Troops were put on the streets in Liverpool during the 1911 dockers strike, resulting in two strikers being shot dead on the street. Later in Glasgow 1919 during the 40 hour week struggle, once again the state brought troops on to the streets. That event in Glasgow became known as Bloody Friday. We can go away back to what was probably the first organised strike in the country and the then authorities ran true to form and brought the troops out against the strikers, that was the 1787 Glasgow weavers strike. Don't ever expect "YOUR" elected representatives to support you in any workers dispute, they support the system, which is one of exploitation and business orientated, your are just the replaceable wee cogs in their greed machine.

Memorial at The Weavers Cemetery Calton Glasgow.

  

GLASGOW’S WEAVERS’ STRIKE, 1787

BACKGROUND.

Glasgow’s population at this period was around 60,000. Weaving was the main occupation in Glasgow and surrounding districts after the collapse of the tobacco trade due to the American War of Independence. The movement for parliamentary reform was still a seed in people’s hearts. It took the French Revolution to cause it to shoot and grow. Attempts by workers to unite in defence of their living standards were deemed an offence under common law. The weavers’ strike of 1787 was the first recorded strike in Glasgow’s history.

Around June 1787 the Glasgow weavers and those of surrounding areas learned that the payments for weaving muslin were to be cut. This would be the second cut to the weavers income in eight months. Many meetings were held around the districts and on June the 30th 1787 seven thousand attended a meeting on Glasgow Green. On the 4th of July terms of a unanimous resolution from the meeting appeared in a letter printed in the Glasgow Mercury. The letter was sent by James Mirrie on behalf of the committee appointed by the weavers. The letter pointed out that the cut suggested by the manufacturers would bring weavers income down by one-fourth while other trades had been rightfully rising in face of an increase in house rents and other means of subsistence. It also stated that they would not 'offer violence to any man or his work'.

STRIKE.

The strike started in June and lasted through July, August, September in to October. Calton was a district then just outside Glasgow’s boundary. Most of the population of the district were weavers. Around mid-day on Monday 3rd September, the authorities of Glasgow learned that a large crowd of weavers had formed at Calton near the city boundary at Gallowgate. The Lord Provost and Magistrates arrived to disperse the crowd but were driven back by stones thrown by the weavers. Later in the day the authorities were informed that the weavers were again assembling and proposed to march to Glasgow Cathedral.

RIOT ACT.

The 39th Regiment of Foot, under the command of Colonel Kellet was sent. With them went the Lord Provost, the Sheriff-Substitute, a Magistrate and others intent on dispersing the weavers. The groups met at a spot near Drygate Bridge. The soldiers were ordered to open fire, 3 weavers were killed outright and three were mortally wounded. A considerable number were wounded. How many can only be guessed at.

It is now accepted that the Riot Act was not read, it is claimed that the Sheriff-Substitute was preparing to read the Riot Act when the soldiers opened fire in self defence. After the riot Magistrates offered rewards for information leading to the arrest of activists. As well as James Granger, one of the main organisers of the strike, others were arrested but not brought to trial. On the 4th September the Magistrates brought in another regiment from Beith.

Towards the end of September Colonel Kellet and Major Powlet were presented with the freedom of the city. At the Tontine Tavern a dinner was given for the officers. Each soldier stationed in Glasgow was given a new pair of shoes and stockings.

TRIAL AND SENTENCE.

James Granger’s trial, he was then aged 38, married and had six children, took place in Edinburgh in the year 1788. It was the first case of “forming illegal combinations” in Scotland. He was found guilty on Tuesday 22nd July and sentenced on Friday 25th The sentence was that he be carried to the Tollbooth, to remain there until the 13th August, on which day he would be publicly whipped through the streets of the city at the hands of the Common Executioner; that he should then be set at liberty and allowed till the 15th October to settle his affairs, after which he is to banish himself from Scotland for seven years, under the usual certifications, in case of his again returning during that term. A severe price to pay for trying to prevent a wage cut. James Granger returned and took part in the 1811-1812 strike and lived to the age of 75.

      This was the scene at Glasgow Trongate 1919 after the events of the 40 hour week strike which resulted in what became know as "Bloody Friday", look closely and you will see the troops have "fixed bayonets".

More on Glasgow's working class history can be found HERE.

ann arky's home.