On this day, 4 May 1970, the Kent State massacre took place when the Ohio National Guard fired 67 rounds into a crowd of students protesting against the bombing of Cambodia during the Vietnam war, killing four and wounding nine others, including bystanders and one person who was permanently paralysed.
Student John Cleary was there, and recalled how he tried to take a photograph of the soldiers:
“As they got near the top of the hill, I wanted to get one last picture of them before they went over the crest of the hill. So I was kind of getting my camera, I was winding it, getting ready to take another shot and suddenly, they just turned and fired. It was like this volley of gunshots.
“And then I got hit in the chest. I guess the best way I can describe it is like getting hit in the chest with a sledgehammer. It just really knocked me down. I don't remember too much after that. I don't remember the ambulance ride.”
Cleary survived, but four people were killed: Sandra Lee Scheuer, aged 20, Allison B. Krause, 19, Jeffrey Glenn Miller, 20, and William Knox Schroeder, 19.
The repression galvanised anti-war sentiment, with students in New York hanging banners stating "You Can't Kill Us All" and in the next few days millions took to the streets in protest.
In the wake of the massacre, rather than charge any of the killers, 25 students were indicted. But charges were dropped by the following year.
Learn more about the movement against the Vietnam war in our podcast episodes 43-46. Listen wherever you get your podcasts or here on our website: https://workingclasshistory.com/2020/09/23/e43-46-the-movement-against-the-vietnam-war-in-the-us/


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On this day, 3 May 1926, police in New York City arrested 46 striking furriers, fighting for an 8-hour day. 31 of them were arrested in the fur district at the junction of 7th Avenue and 30th St for "refusing to move on when ordered to do so." Meanwhile, elsewhere in the city, 1,500 delegates of the 12,000 strikers agreed to insist that the employers had to accept the workers' demand of a 40-hour week before continuing negotiations.

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On this day, 2 May 2022 approximately 2000 striking garment and textile workers gathered in the Nhlangano manufacturing hub in Eswatini for a mass meeting. Some had walked more than 8 km to get there.
The strike of around 8000 workers in total had begun five weeks prior, demanding a living wage of at least E15 per hour or E2983 (US$183) per month.
Representatives of the striking union, the Amalgamated Trade Union of Swaziland, complained that police and government troops had been harassing strikers, visiting their homes, tear gassing them and threatening them with eviction if they did not go back to work.
Around 30 workers at the meeting got up to speak in favour of continuing the strike, and despite the repression, the strikers resolved to continue their work stoppage. On May 9, strikers agreed to return to work pending further negotiations with employers. Upon their return to work, the employers attempted to force workers to sign documents stating the reason for the absence, which most workers refused to sign. The result of the dispute is unclear.
More information, sources and map: https://stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/11054/eswatini-textile-strike

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Today, May 1, is International Workers' Day! It commemorates the sentencing to death of seven anarchist workers in Chicago who were wrongly convicted for throwing a bomb at police who attacked a strike demonstration in May 1886. 
80,000 workers in Chicago had walked out on May 1 demanding a maximum 8-hour working day, alongside over 200,000 other workers across the US. Employers and the government were determined to crush the movement, and four of the anarchists were executed, with the fifth cheating the hangman by killing himself. An eighth was sentenced to 15 years' imprisonment. The surviving three were later pardoned, and the fight for the 8-hour day continued. 
Before his execution, defendant August Spies told the court: "if you think that by hanging us you can stamp out the labour movement – the movement from which the downtrodden millions, the millions who toil and live in want and misery, the wage slaves, expect salvation – if this is your opinion, then hang us! Here you will tread upon a spark, but here, and there, and behind you, and in front of you, and everywhere, flames will blaze up. It is a subterranean fire. You cannot put it out."
Socialist and workers' organisations later chose May 1 to be celebrated as International Workers' Day, and today it is celebrated as a national holiday in many countries around the world, and an unofficial one in many others. 
Learn more about the history of May Day in this podcast episode featuring us make by Upstream, available for our supporters on Patreon. Join us and listen today at https://www.patreon.com/posts/e85-may-day-with-103374699

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On this day, 30 April 2022 food delivery couriers working for the Deliveroo app in Dubai went on strike, shutting down the app, and defying a ban on strikes in the United Arab Emirates.
The drivers were facing a pay cut from $2.79 per delivery down to $2.38. The UK-based firm, backed by tech giant Amazon, also intended to increase the length of the working day up to 14 hours per day.
The workers, all of whom were migrants from South Asia, remained on strike until May 2 when the company agreed to abandon both proposed changes.
The following week, riders for delivery service Talabat also walked out demanding a pay increase.
More information, sources and map: https://stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/7946/dubai-deliveroo-strike



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On this day, 29 April 1982, 300 mainly South Asian women machinists were on strike in protest at the sacking of two male union activists and over low wages at the Supreme Quilting clothing factory in Smethwick, West Midlands. After a prolonged dispute, during which they also picketed the plant of a sister company, Raindi Textiles, 24-hours a day, they went back to work after achieving promises of union recognition, although the two men remained sacked.
More information, sources and map: https://stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/10071/supreme-quilting-strike

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On this day, 28 April 1789, Fletcher Christian led the mutiny on the Royal Navy ship the Bounty against the bullying and oppressive Captain William Bligh. The crew seized control of the ship and set Bligh and 18 of his supporters adrift, who famously survived. Some of the mutineers were captured, but others eventually settled with some Polynesians they effectively enslaved in the previously unpopulated Pitcairn Islands, where their descendants live to this day. Later, the Polynesians would revolt against the mutineers.
More information, sources and map: https://stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/9969/mutiny-on-the-bounty

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On this day, 27 April 2007, police attacked striking Firestone rubber workers in Harbel, Liberia, injuring dozens and killing one.
Workers on the million-acre plantation had organised an Aggrieved Workers Committee the previous year to fight for better pay and conditions, and remove corrupt union officials whom they believed were mismanaging funds of the Firestone Agricultural Workers Union of Liberia (FAWUL). Eventually, the government ordered union elections to take place. Firestone management attempted to delay the election, and so in late April workers went on strike in protest.
Despite the repression, the workers kept up their struggle and union elections were eventually held in July, where the rank-and-file workers won all of the seats.
The workers went on strike again in December for union recognition.
More information, sources and map: https://stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/7923/firestone-strikers-attacked

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On this day, 26 April 2020, workers at the Amazon fulfilment centre in Shakopee, Minnesota, walked out on strike in protest at a colleague being fired for staying home during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Workers claimed that over 50 members of the predominantly Somali workforce participated in the spontaneous work stoppage after the company sacked a worker called Faiza Osman who stayed home in order to protect her two children from the novel coronavirus, despite the fact that Amazon had informed workers they were allowed to stay home. Amazon claimed that fewer than 25 out of 1,000 workers took part.
Strikers were also protesting against Amazon's decision to terminate its unlimited unpaid leave policy, despite coronavirus cases being reported at over half of its 110 warehouses.
Following the walkout, Osman was reinstated by the company.
More information, sources and map: https://stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/9801/amazon-workers-strike

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On this day, 25 April 1945, some major cities in Italy were liberated from fascism following a working class uprising and general strike in what has since been immortalised as the country's annual Liberation Day. 
Other towns and cities were liberated before and afterwards. But on April 25, the cities of Milan and Genoa were liberated. Genoa was the only European city where Nazi forces surrendered to resistance partisans. At 7:30 PM, German general Günther Meinhold and communist factory worker Remo Scappini signed the Nazi surrender agreement.
The partisan resistance force in Genoa only consisted of around 5000 fighters, compared with over 10,000 Germans, with thousands more outside the city. The partisans controlled all the major roads going in and out of the city, and they were supported by an insurrection in the city. Some German officers resisted the order to surrender, but by 9 AM on April 26, the resistance announced that the insurrection had succeeded and Genoa had been liberated.
Learn more about the Italian resistance in our podcast episodes 77-80: https://workingclasshistory.com/podcast/e77-80-italian-resistance/

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