On This Day in Working Class History

On this day, 27 June 1905, the revolutionary union the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) was founded in Chicago, Illinois.
One of the first multiracial unions in the US, the IWW advocated that all workers unite into one big union, taking control of society and abolishing capitalism.
Its founding conference lasted from June 27 to July 8, and was attended by over 200 workers, including legendary labour organisers like Mother Jones, 'Big' Bill Haywood and leading Black anarchist, Lucy Parsons.
It organised large swathes of previously unorganised workers in the US, and pioneered many innovative new types of industrial action like slowdowns and sabotage. Parsons, at its founding convention, delivered a speech arguing for sit-in strikes, which would sweep the US 30 years later, declaring:
"My conception of the strike of the future is not to strike and go out and starve, but to strike and remain in and take possession of the necessary property of production."
The IWW won big improvements for hundreds of thousands of workers, and for its troubles faced brutal repression from employers, with many organisers beaten, jailed and murdered. It also spread to other countries, including Chile, Australia and South Africa.
The union still exists today, although much smaller than it was, and its members are active in many organising projects.
Learn more in our podcast series about the union: https://workingclasshistory.com/tag/iww

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On this day, 26 June 1993, 4,000 workers took to the streets in Decatur, Illinois to protest against their employers. Workers from A.E. Staley, who had been working to rule against imposition of a new, inferior contracts, joined striking coal miners as well as Caterpillar workers who were on a go-slow across the midwest. The following day, A.E. Staley locked out its nearly 800 production workers in an attempt to force them to agree to a switch from eight to 12-hour shifts. So began a mammoth struggle which would only come to an end in December 1995 when, after betrayal by the leadership of the United Paperworkers International Union, a majority of strikers voted to accept the contract. Some union members were so angry at the result that company security and police had to be used to protect the union local president, Jim Shinall. Meanwhile, workers at Caterpillar also walked out on strike for 17 months until the United Auto Workers called off the action in defeat. Bridgestone-Firestone workers in Decatur and four other plants were also forced to accept 12-hour shifts following the defeat of their 10-month strike.
More information, sources and map: https://stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/9840/decatur-workers-protest

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On 25 June 2021, oil workers employed by ExxonMobil on the Doba oilfield in Chad went on strike when the potential sale of the oilfield was announced. The workers were demanding that in the event the sale went through that they would still receive benefits and redundancy pay they were previously entitled to.
The stoppage continued for two weeks, and worker protests continued for some time. In September, Chad's government announced they would work to ensure the workers kept their jobs.
More information, sources and map: https://stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/7908/doba-oil-workers-strike

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On this day, 24 June 1980, a two-day general strike began in El Salvador protesting against the US-backed military dictatorship and its counter-insurgency death squads. 85% of the economy was shut down and 80,000 people took to the streets. Police and soldiers killed two people building barricades in the suburb of Delgado.
Noam Chomsky described the crackdown of the right-wing regime which began in March 1980: "the war against the population began in force (with continued US support and involvement). The first major attack was a big massacre at the Rio Sumpul, a coordinated military operation of the Honduran and Salvadoran armies in which at least 600 people were butchered. Infants were cut to pieces with machetes, and women were tortured and drowned. Pieces of bodies were found in the river for days afterwards. There were church observers, so the information came out immediately, but the mainstream US media didn't think it was worth reporting. Peasants were the main victims of this war, along with labour organisers, students, priests or anyone suspected of working for the interests of the people."
More information, sources and map: https://stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/9669/el-salvador-general-strike

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On 23 June 2015 municipal workers on the French island of Saint Pierre went on strike demanding a pay increase to compensate for rising prices. The strike was initiated by Force Ouvrière, but supported by other unions, and lasted until June 25, when the local government agreed to pay increases averaging €150 per month to its workers from January 2016.
More information, sources and map: https://stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/7876/saint-pierre-strike

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On this day, 22 June 1945, tens of thousands of workers in Nigeria defied the Trades Union Congress (TUC) and walked out on a general strike in protest at the British colonial administration refusing to meet workers' demands for a minimum wage of 2 shillings and sixpence and a 50% increase in the cost of living allowance. 
The TUC wanted to delay any action, but after months of agitation involving mass meetings of up to 8,000 workers at a time, the workers were not prepared to wait any longer. Railway employees, dockers and civil service workers walked out while many workers at private firms refused to cross picket lines. 
At its peak, between 42,000 and 200,000 workers were out, and despite the deployment of British troops and sabotage by some nationalist groups like the Nigeria Youth Movement the stoppage lasted 45 days. 
The strike was largely successful, as the cost of living increase was awarded in 1946, backdated to the previous year.
More information, sources and map: https://stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/9494/Nigeria-general-strike

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On 21 June 2018, health workers in Mongolia announced that they would go on strike in a dispute over pay and conditions at state-run hospitals. The workers also began holding a sit-down protest outside the Ministry of Labour and Social Protection in the capital, Ulaanbaatar. Doctors, nurses and other workers at 207 health facilities around the country had indicated that they would join the strike.
The strike was scheduled to begin on July 4, but it was postponed for an indefinite period after the Ministry agreed to 24 of 26 demands by workers, including a pay increase.
More information, sources and map: https://stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/7850/mongolian-health-workers-protest

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On this day, 20 June 1967, boxing legend Muhammad Ali was convicted for refusing the draft for the Vietnam war in Houston, Texas. Ali had been a vocal opponent of the US war, saying “Why should they ask me to put on a uniform and go 10,000 miles from home and drop bombs and bullets on brown people in Vietnam while so-called Negro people in Louisville are treated like dogs?” 
To try to quell the escalating resistance to the war, Ali was given the maximum sentence of five years imprisonment and a $10,000 fine. But their efforts were unsuccessful, and the anti-war movement continued to grow. Despite the Nation of Islam beginning to distance themselves from Ali, demonstrations supporting him took place around the world, from Egypt to Guyana to London to Ghana. Four years later his conviction was overturned by the Supreme Court. 
Ali had no regrets: "I wasn’t trying to be a leader. I just wanted to be free. And I made a stand all people, not just Black people, should have thought about making, because it wasn’t just Black people being drafted. The government had a system where the rich man’s son went to college, and the poor man’s son went to war. Then, after the rich man’s son got out of college, he did other things to keep him out of the Army until he was too old to be drafted."
Learn more about the movement against the Vietnam war in our podcast episodes 43-46: https://workingclasshistory.com/2020/09/23/e43-46-the-movement-against-the-vietnam-war-in-the-us/

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On this day, 19 June 1937, after employers failed to agree to oil workers' pay demands, workers at one of Trinidad's oilfields went on strike. 
British colonial authorities attempted to arrest Uriah Butler, a former oil worker-turned preacher, who was helping to lead the dispute. However, he was defended by a crowd of workers, who killed two policemen – soaking one of them with paraffin and burning them. Butler (pictured) then went into hiding. 
The strike quickly spread across all oilfields, then to the rest of the economy. A state of emergency was declared and two British warships rushed to the island, arriving on 22 and 23 June, bringing marines and additional police from England and Ireland. 
Two local military units were also mobilised against the workers, and after numerous arrests and imprisonments the rebellion was quashed. Butler was captured in September and jailed for 2 years for sedition. 
Learn more in episodes 75-76 of our podcast: https://workingclasshistory.com/podcast/e75-76-trinidad-general-strike/

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On 18 June 2022 firefighters working at the Providenciales International Airport on the Turks and Caicos Islands went on strike in protest at an unequal implementation of a pay award. The action shut down the airport and caused cancellations in domestic and international flights. Workers were due to receive their first pay increase in seven years, of 15%. But the workers complained that the increase was not being paid equally to all workers. After a few days, the airport authority issued a statement promising to review workers' salaries with the aim at implementing a new, fair grading scale.
More information, sources and map: https://stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/7806/turks-and-caicos-airport-strike

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