On This Day in Working Class History

On this day, 17 June 1971, construction workers in New South Wales initiated a "green ban", refusing to build luxury houses over Kelly's Bush, the last open space in a suburb. 
Local women had been campaigning to save the park, and eventually they approached construction workers and their union, the Builders Labourers Federation (BLF). The workers agreed to boycott the work, in a move which became known as a "green ban". 
Despite a management threat to use scab replacement workers, the builders and residents won, and Kelly's Bush remains an open public reserve today. 
A wave of green bans subsequently began which stopped billions of dollars of harmful development over the next four years. Wildlife and historic buildings were protected, as well as working-class and Aboriginal housing, and bans also took place in defence of women's and LGBT+ rights.
We tell the inspiring story of the green bans in our podcast episodes 47-48: https://workingclasshistory.com/2020/10/30/e47-48-green-bans/

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On this day, 16 June 1983, workers at the Chilean state-run El Salvador copper mines launched an illegal strike in protest at General Pinochet's dictatorship jailing their union leader the previous day. More strikes were due to take place at other mines the following day, and other unions were deliberating on whether not to join the strikes. Government officials responded by sacking 550 workers at the mines, and stating they would fire any workers who took part in the strikes. Despite many right-wing figures claiming that the Western-backed regime was an economic success story, Chile was at this time in the midst of a severe recession with collapsing economic growth and official unemployment figures of 20%. Meanwhile, the government was imposing spending restrictions demanded by the International Monetary Fund and private banks.

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On this day, 15 June 1970, one of the biggest strikes in Turkish history took place after the government introduced two laws which made it more difficult for workers to change unions, in order to keep workers in the moderate Türk-İş union federation rather than joining the more militant DİSK federation. 
Up to 150,000 workers in Istanbul walked out, joined by others in Ankara, Izmir, Izmit and elsewhere. 
Police and soldiers attacked the workers, killing at least four workers, including Abdurrahman Bozkurt, Yaşar Yıldırım, Mehmet Gıdak and Mustafa Baylan and injuring nearly 200. 
The government then enacted martial law for three months, and thousands of workers were sacked, but resistance continued and in 1972 the new laws were annulled.
More information, sources and map: https://stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/8693/15-16-June-workers-resistance

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On this day, 14 June 1994, striking workers on the French colony of Wallis and Futuna rioted during a general strike demanding pay increases, cheaper transportation and the implementation of French labour laws.
The first strike by Force Ouvrière occurred in February during a visit by the French Minister of Overseas Territories. A second strike began in June by school teachers, which was then joined by Force Ouvrière on June 13.
On the night of June 14, strikers trashed government buildings and threw petrol bombs into the Territorial Assembly.
Following the riot, negotiations took place between workers' representatives and the government, and the strike ended. The strike achieved an increase in the minimum wage and the creation of government-run primary schools in every village.
More information, sources and map: https://stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/7756/wallis-and-futuna-general-strike

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On this day, 13 June 1992, around 20 mostly South Asian women workers at a metal finishing plant in Burnsall, Smethwick, walked out on strike. They were demanding union recognition, equal pay and basic health and safety. The employer retaliated by sacking all of them. There were several disagreements between the union, GMB, and the strikers about the form and nature of the strike action, with the strikers increasingly resisting the union’s attempts to take control of the strike action. Though the women had had strong community support, the strike was eventually called off after a year by union officials, who decided it was unwinnable.
More information, sources and map: https://stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/8492/burnsall-strike

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On this day, 12 June 2011 a strike of public sector workers in Botswana ended after nine weeks when the government agreed to offer them a pay increase of 3%. Previously, on the advice of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, the government had refused to offer any increase despite significant rises in the cost of living.
More information, sources and map: https://stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/7735/botswana-strike-ends

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On this day, 11 June 2016 a three-week strike by miners at Tasiast in Mauritania ended after the Kinross Gold Corporation agreed to restart negotiations on a new labour agreement within 10 days. The Canadian-owned company was attempting to reduce its production costs.
More information, sources and map: https://stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/7731/tasiast-miners-strike-ends

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On this day, 10 June 1973, a strike of gravediggers at three cemeteries in the New York metropolitan area was expanded to include 44 others. On June 21, the courts ordered strikers to return to work, which they ignored. The president of the striking Local 365 of the Cemetery Workers and Greens Attendants union was subsequently found guilty of contempt of court, jailed and fined. Eventually, after 27 days of strike action, the employers from Jewish, Roman Catholic and nonsectarian cemeteries, collectively agreed most of the workers' demands, including annual wage increases of $12 per week for the next three years, and an employer-funded pension scheme. During the dispute some bodies were buried by relatives and friends of the deceased, but a backlog of at least 1,400 unburied bodies remained.
More information, sources and map: https://stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/8213/NY-gravediggers-strike-grows

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On this day, 9 June 1963, Black civil rights activist Fannie Lou Hamer was arrested on trumped up charges and brutally beaten in jail. 
Hamer had become a voting rights activist, and was on her way home to Mississippi from a voter registration workshop in South Carolina when she was arrested with other activists. 
In detention, a Mississippi police officer ordered two other prisoners to beat Hamer with a blackjack. Hamer and her activist friends were beaten brutally, and although charges were dropped and she was released three days later it took her over a month to recover and she was left blind in one eye and with kidney damage which contributed to her premature death at the age of 59. 
The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee sued the local police department for the attack, but the perpetrators were acquitted by an all-white jury.
Previously in 1961, Hamer had been sterilised without her consent or knowledge by a white doctor, who was acting according to Mississippi authorities' plan to reduce the poor Black population of the state.
Despite the violence she was subjected to, Hamer continued her civil rights activism until her death.
More information, sources and map: https://stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/10916/fannie-lou-hamer-arrested

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On this day, 8 June 1861, eight coalminers working in the Redbank mine in Queensland, Australia, went on strike demanding an extra shilling per ton in pay. The strikers' names were Thomas Jones, George Smith, Edward Davis, Hugh Carter, John Coleman, William Griffith, Abel Alford, and Thomas Stafford. While the strike was an important event in Australian labour history, some sources erroneously describe it as the first strike in Queensland, whereas in fact numerous groups of Chinese shepherds had gone strike in Queensland beforehand.
More information, sources and map: https://stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/10816/redbank-miners-strike

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