On This Day in Working Class History

On this day, 25 October 1983, the Hayes Cottage Hospital in England was occupied by its staff and run under workers' control in protest at its proposed closure the following week. 
A leaflet about the occupation issued at the time stated: "This action was taken after a lot of thought but it was clearly the only way to stop the closure after other avenues had been exhausted.
"The reaction of the people of Hayes has been really magnificent. We have had visitors coming round with food, supplies and money…
"G.P's connected with the hospital are to start admitting pat...

On this day, 24 October 1975, 500 workers at the La Tondeña distillery in the Philippines went on strike and occupied the plant, despite president Ferdinand Marcos have declared martial law.
The workers were organised in the Kaisahan ng Malayang Manggagawa ng La Tondeña union, and were demanding numerous improvements including: permanent status for casual workers, better pay and maternity leave.
After 44 hours, the strike was repressed by security forces. But the action inspired other resistance to the regime, and the workers' slogan, "Tama Na, Sobra, Welga Na" ("Enough! Too much! Strike now!") caught on and was later adapted to...

On this day, 23 October 1913, suffragettes carried out an arson attack on Bristol University's recently-built boat house at their athletics ground. 
Suffragette literature was left nearby as well as a note saying "Business before pleasure. Hobhouse being responsible will pay. Release Mary Richardson." 
Mary Richardson was a London suffragette who had recently been imprisoned for an arson attack on a house in Hampton-on-Thames. Hobhouse was presumably aristocrat and Liberal cabinet minister Charles Hobhouse.
In retaliation for the attack, around 300 Bristol University students attacked the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU) shop which was nearby, smashing its windows, and bu...

On this day, 22 October 1921, workers at the Castleconnell fisheries in Ireland went on strike after their boss repeatedly failed to attend arbitration meetings to address their demands. When he failed to make concessions, workers escalated their tactics by occupying fisheries and declaring a soviet (workers council). The Dáil cabinet instructed police and volunteers to evict the strikers, but the workers held out until December 22, when they agreed to leave for a final arbitration session, which sided very much with the workers.
More information, sources and map: https://stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/12632/castleconnell-fisheries-strike

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On this day, 21 October 1935, the St Vincent labour rebellion began on the British-occupied Caribbean island when workers protesting against high prices in the capital, Kingstown, were fired on by police. People were protesting against plans to maintain sugar tariffs which helped producers at the expense of consumers. They held an angry rally outside the courthouse, where they smashed windows and damaged the cars of officials. The governor and attorney general were attacked, and the crowd ransacked the office of a councillor and plantation owner, and liberated 10 prisoners. Armed police read the Riot Act and then began firing into the crowd...

On this day, 20 October 1901, hundreds of workers at the sugar refinery in Rosario, Argentina, demonstrated outside their factory for a pay increase and a maximum 10-hour working day.
The strike was attended by anarchist leaders such as Romulo Ovidi. After being identified by the police, the officers tried to arrest them without provocation, unleashing disorder, which they tried to suppress with sabres.
Anarchist and Yugoslavian migrant worker Cosme Budislavich, 34, was shot in the back of the head by the police as he tried to flee the scene. Later, officers arrested other workers and witnesses. The working class of...

On this day, 19 October 1945, the UK Labour government decided to deport hundreds of Chinese seamen who were living in Liverpool, 20,000 of whom had been brought to the city to assist the war effort in World War II. 
The Home Office claimed they were "an undesirable element" in the city. However, in reality the law-abiding behaviour of Chinese migrant workers had received much official praise. 
Government records show the real reason was that local "authorities were anxious to secure the use of the housing accommodation which the Chinese occupied". 
The government had no legal justification for the deportations, so...

On this day, 18 October 1931, German workers in Braunschweig went on strike in protest against the Nazis. In the latter half of 1931 there were 25 political strikes by 30,000 workers in protest against fascism, with many more the following year. 
However, they remained mostly short stoppages in small and medium enterprises and were insufficient to damage the state and stop the rise of the Nazis.
Pictured: Left: German anti-Nazi protest in Berlin, 1932, featuring the 3 arrows symbol. Right: Headquarters of Anti-Fascist Action in Berlin.
We have posters and other items using German anti-fascist artwork from the 1930s available to help fund o...

On this day, 17 October 1950, miners of the International Union of Mine, Mill, and Smelter Workers went on strike against the Empire Zinc Company. 
Their initial demands were for the end of discriminatory pay which paid white workers more than Mexican workers, and an end to segregated housing. Later, they added indoor plumbing and hot water for Mexican-American homes to their list of demands. 
The company fought back, sending police to harass picketers, posting eviction notices on company houses, cutting off credit to strikers at the company grocery store, and sending in scabs. In time, miners from other companies in...

On this day, 16 October 1951, firefighters in Britain took their first ever national industrial action with an unofficial "spit and polish" strike, in response to attacks on pay and conditions. The action consisted of responding to emergency calls and putting out fires but refusing all other routine duties like domestic chores and training. The background to the dispute was fire services reverting back to the control of local authorities after World War II, with councils claiming they could not afford the pay firefighters the same salaries they received during the war. However, historians like Victor Bailey believe that authorities wanted to...

On this day, 15 October 1913, Indian workers at the Farleigh colliery near Newcastle, South Africa, went on strike in protest against a tax on former indentured servants. The move was part of an ongoing campaign against racist pass laws in the white-ruled British colony.
The laws restricted the movement of Indian people, did not recognise Asian marriages or allow the immigration of spouses, and imposed a £3 per year tax on former indentured servants. This extremely high tax effectively forced many Indian migrants back into indentured servitude.
A campaign the previous decade had faltered, but returned in September 1913 when Indian w...

On this day, 14 October 1976, over a million Canadian workers stage a one-day strike to protest wage and price controls. Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau had actually campaigned against wage controls during the 1974 elections but his measures were considered to be the worst attack on labour since the 1930s. In response to the walk out, wage controls were reversed eight months before they were initially supposed to end, and the strike strengthened the labour movement as a whole.
More information, sources and map: https://stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/8623/1-million-canadians-strike

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On this day, 13 October 1948, 181 drivers at the Ruppert brewery in Manhattan went on wildcat strike in support of 21 drivers who had failed to keep up with excessively quick delivery schedules. Their union, the United Brewery Workers, had sanctioned the sackings and did not approve the walkout. Bosses claimed the following morning that everything was back to normal, but had to admit by the end of the day that workers had ignored the union's call to return to work and the strike had spread to 10 other breweries and that 2,687 workers were out. Soon, 3,500 were on strike and New York's local beer...

On this day, 12 October 1919, 150 Royal Navy sailors mutinied and broke out of their ships at Port Edgar upon hearing they were being sent to the Baltic to fight against the Russian revolution. The desertion prevented the first destroyer flotilla from departing. Most of the mutineers were arrested and 10 imprisoned: despite the government having pledged that only volunteers would be sent to fight against the Russians. 
More information, sources and map: https://stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/8435/150-royal-navy-sailors-mutiny

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On this day, 11 October 1884, one of the longest-burning fires in the world began when striking mine workers set fire to the New Straitsville mine in Ohio.
Miners employed by the Columbus & Hocking Coal and Iron Company had walked out on strike in June, and mine bosses hired scab replacement workers in their place. To prevent the mines from operating, a group of unknown people set fire to mine cars and pushed them into six mines in the area, setting them on fire.
The employers attempted to put the fire out but failed, and in the 1930s the government...

On this day, 10 October 1947 a strike began by Black African railway workers in the French colonies now known as Benin and the Côte d'Ivoire. The strike spread throughout the whole of French West Africa (including what is now Senegal and Guinea as well). It lasted until March 19 the following year when workers returned to work having gain many concessions from their employer.
More information, sources and map: https://stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/8246/french-african-railway-strike

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On this day, 9 October 1912, the mostly female workforce at the Phoenix Mill in Little Falls, New York, walked out on wildcat strike to force their employer to follow a new state law limiting working hours to 54 per week, down from 60. 2,000 other workers from the Phoenix and Gilberts Mills joined them on strike, and the workers joined the revolutionary Industrial Workers of the World union. The IWW sent in organisers including Matilda Rabinowitz, Big Bill Haywood and others, and fellow IWW member Helen Keller also supported the strike. The police chief declared:  “We have a strike on our hands and a for...

On this day, 8 October 1916, mostly migrant workers at Rockefeller's Standard Oil Company in New Jersey walked out on strike against low wages and dangerous conditions. City authorities collaborated with the company and sent in police to brutally repress the strike, killing four and injuring dozens and the strike collapsed after 10 days. This is a history of the dispute: https://libcom.org/history/bloodshed-bayonne

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On this day, 7 October 1988, thousands of workers in Montenegro, then part of Yugoslavia, went on strike demanding the resignation of the Communist Party leadership, whom they blamed for 200% inflation and a 50% reduction in living standards over the past eight years. Montenegrins and Serbs also complained of persecution by ethnic Albanians in neighbouring Kosovo.
While riot police attacked and teargassed workers, the Communist Party declared that they supported the demands of the workers. The government stated that their demands were "justified and were an expression of the economic crisis in the country, an expression of a big drop in the...

On this day, 6 October 1995, 32,000 machinists went on strike at Boeing, one of the world's largest aircraft manufacturers. It lasted for 69 days and ended in most of their demands being met. 
More information, sources and map: https://stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/10666/machinists-at-boeing-strike

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On this day, 5 October 2001, workers at the Queen Elizabeth Central Hospital in Blantyre, Malawi, launched a sitdown strike for better pay. In particular, the workers were complaining about wages and additional allowances, which were considerably lower for health workers than they were for workers in the justice system.
The strike shut down almost all of the 1500-bed facility, with only a few beds remaining open in the Orthopaedics and burns departments. The strike was primarily by nurses, but also included support staff and doctors.
The government responded by relocating some strikers, deploying armed police, reportedly using tear gas...

On this day, 4 October 1945, US President Harry S. Truman ordered the Navy to seize half of the US's oil refining capacity in order to break a three-week strike of the nation's oil workers. More info in this excellent book: https://shop.workingclasshistory.com/collections/books/products/strike-jeremy-brecher

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On this day, 3 October 2019, a series of protests led by Indigenous peoples began in Ecuador in protest at an austerity package backed by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) known as Decree 883. The bill, aimed at reducing public spending, included pay cuts and increases in fuel costs of at least 30%. The movement began with a strike of transport workers on 3 October. After unions called off the stoppage, Indigenous peoples then took the lead in organising disruptive street protests. After a two-week period, protesters with improvised shields and wooden sticks blocked roads and seriously disrupted the economy, closing businesses and drastically reducing...

On this day, 2 October 1915, the mostly women workers at the weaving mill in Morozov, Russia walked out for a pay rise to compensate for the increasing cost of living. The strike spread to tens of thousands of other workers in nearby towns, who stayed out until 7 October when they received a 20% raise. 
More information, sources and map: https://stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/9226/morozov-mill-women-workers-strike

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On 1 October 2012 health workers in Estonia began a strike for better pay and conditions. In particular, they were demanding a 23% pay increase for caretakers, 17.5% for nurses, and 11% for doctors. They also demanded reduced workloads, and pay for interns.
At first, workers in Tallin and Tartu walked out from outpatient care centres, while doctors initiated a go-slow. On October 8 the strike expanded to include inpatient facilities, and affected cities like Parnu, Viljamdi, Narva, and Kuressaare.
On October 26 the strike ended when the government agreed to the workers' demands.
More information, sources and map: https://stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/7715...

On this day, 30 September 1919, compositors and pressmen working at The Daily Sketch newspaper in London refused to print the paper until an editorial criticising an ongoing railway strike was deleted. That same day, another newspaper had its publication delayed by its workers demanding that a government advert appealing to the public to resist the strike be thrown out. However they were persuaded by union leaders to withdraw their demand. Newspaper packers and delivery drivers also tried to delay and sabotage their distribution. Two days later, bosses at the far-right Daily Mail tabloid threatened to close the publication down rather than...

On this day, 29 September 1909, the revolutionary Industrial Workers of the World union began the first of what became known as the free speech fights, in Missoula, Montana. Members would publicly speak on the streets of the town in open defiance of a law banning public speaking. When one speaker was arrested another took their place, including well known organisers Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, who was pregnant at the time, and Frank Little. As a result, the local jail was filled with no end to the stream of workers coming in to speak. By 8 October the council declared the IWW could speak...

On this day, 28 September 1991, leading labour organiser Shankar Guha Niyogi was assassinated in his sleep at midnight in Bhilai, India. Niyogi, who had successfully led efforts to organize cement factory and contract coalminers, as well as establish health care and cultural programs for poor workers and peasants, had angered many local industrialists, whose profits had suffered as a result. He was murdered by a hired gunman, Paltan Mallah. In 1997, several capitalists were convicted of conspiracy to murder, along with Mallah himself. Although in 2005, in a judgement which caused widespread dismay in India, the industrialists’ convictions were all overturned by the Su...

On this day, 27 September 1973, the United Farm Workers in California won their second strike in a jurisdictional dispute with the Teamsters union, when yet again the Teamsters were forced to concede the UFW's jurisdiction in organising farm workers. During the dispute one UFW striker was killed, three others shot and wounded, and others were attacked or firebombed. 
More information, sources and map: https://stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/9967/united-farm-workers-win-second-jurisdiction-strike-against-teamsters

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On this day, 26 September 1939, the actor Ricky Tomlinson was born. Now famous for his roles in The Royle Family, Riff Raff and Mike Bassett: England Manager, he also participated in the 1972 building workers' strike. Following the dispute, Tomlinson was one of 24 building worker trade unionists who were convicted on various charges relating to the strike in what was one of the greatest miscarriages of justice faced by the British labour movement in the twentieth century. Following almost fifty years of tireless campaigning, the convictions of the Shrewsbury defendants was overturned in March 2021.
Tomlinson tells us his story of the...

On this day, 25 September 2005, sex workers in Gyeonggi province, South Korea, organised in the Democratic Coalition of Sex Workers, reached the first collective bargaining agreement with brothel owners in the country's history. 
Over the next five years, the union had grown to encompass some 220 members in the vicinity of the US army base camp Humphrey. And it had achieved improvements for its members in contracts on pay, working hours, annual leave, disciplinary procedures and even how to pay back loans from employers.
More information, sources and map: https://stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/9792/south-korean-sex-workers-collective-bargaining-agreement

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On this day, 24 September 1945 in New York City, around 1.5 million workers got an impromptu day off when elevator workers in over 2,000 city high-rise buildings, including the Empire State building, went on strike against pay cuts, which workers said breached the contract recommendations of the War Labor Board. Garment workers walked out on sympathy strike. The strike remained strong for five days until the governor intervened, persuading the workers to stop their strike if the employers agreed to arbitration, which they did. The arbitrators eventually ruled in favour of the workers.
More information, sources and map: https://stories.workingclasshistory.com...

On this day, 23 September 2017, the strike of video game voice actors in the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) against 11 US video game developers and publishers, including Activision, Electronic Arts, Disney and others, ended in a partial victory after 340 days. It was the longest strike in the history of the union.
In particular, employers agreed to additional bonus payments of between $75 and $2100 depending on the number of sessions worked.
More information, sources and map: https://stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/9614/video-game-voice-actors-strike-ends

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On this day, 22 September 1912, the syndicalist union the Casa del Obrero Mundial (House of the World Worker) was formed in Mexico during the turbulent events of the revolution, despite repression by the then-government of Francisco Madero. 
However, the union later began supporting a capitalist faction involved in the conflict – the constitutionalist forces of Venustiano Carranza – and wound up fighting against the revolutionary peasant army of Emiliano Zapata.
After it had outlived its usefulness, the Carranza government turned on the union and shut it down.
More information, sources and map: https://stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/9521/casa-del-obrero-mundial-founded

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On 21 September 1945, a strike began of supervisors in US coal mines demanding recognition for their union, the United Clerical, Technical and Supervisory Employees of the Mining Industry, part of the United Mine Workers of America.
The strike began to spread, and rank-and-file coalminers stopped work in solidarity with their supervisors. Eventually, 200,000 miners were out, shutting down at least 82 bituminous mines across eight states or more.
Although the strike was solid and still growing, it was called off by union leader John Lewis on October 17 despite not achieving the union's demand.
The stoppage was part of a wave...

On this day, 20 September 1979, Aotearoa's (New Zealand's) only nationwide general strike took place when the Federation of Labour called a one-day strike of all its members in support of the Drivers Union. 300,000 people took to the streets around the country after a pay agreement between transport workers and employers was blocked by the government. The government claimed that the strike had no impact, but they agreed to refer the dispute to the Arbitration Court, which upheld the original wage agreement as demanded by the strikers.
More information, sources and map: https://stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/9334/new-zealand-general-strike

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On this day, 19 September 1795, two enslaved people named Tula and Karpata who had been leading a revolt on the Dutch colony of Curaçao were betrayed and taken prisoner, effectively ending a month-long rebellion. 
They and two other leaders, Pedro Wakao and Louis Mercier were executed, and many other rebels had been killed in the fighting. Despite this, the government was forced to grant limited rights to enslaved people, and in 1814 they abolished the slave trade. Although slavery continued in Dutch colonies until 1863.
More information, sources and map: https://stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/9146/curaçao-slave-revolt-crushed

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On this day, 18 September 1809, the old price riots began in the Covent Garden Theatre in London during the opening night of Macbeth in protest at increased prices at the newly reopened venue. The original theatre had burned down, and when it reopened standard ticket prices had increased from 3 shillings and sixpence to 4 shillings. After the play ended, the audience refused to leave so the owner, John Kemble, called police, however this escalated the situation and rioters did not disperse until 2 AM. Kemble later hired a famous boxer and some of his associates to quell the protests, but this also failed...

On this day, 17 September 1941, the Canadian government essentially made all strikes in "war industries" illegal. The new order further made it that if any worker went on strike contrary to the new regulations, or encouraged or incited others to strike, then they would be liable to a fine of $500, twelve months in prison, or both.
More information, sources and map: https://stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/12593/canada-hinders-"war-industry"-strikes

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On this day, 16 September 1937, ten young migrants from Achill Island, Ireland died in a shed fire in Kirkintilloch, Scotland. A group of 26 young migrant workers, many of whom were siblings, were part of the many migrants looking for temporary work during the height of the harvest season. 
The victims were from 13 to 23-years-old and slept in quarters arranged with the boys in a shed with inverted potato boxes covered in straw as bedding. Late in their first night there, the bodies of the young men and boys were found huddled in a corner opposite the door protecting each other.