On This Day in Working Class History

On 29 March 1963, 150 sawmill workers at Peak Timber in what is now Eswatini went on strike demanding more pay.
A further strike erupted at the mill on May 28, when 300 workers at the mill went on strike for a few hours in protest against the retrenchment of five workers after a small part of the plant was closed.
There was further unrest on June 17, when workers gathered in support of a strike of workers at the nearby Havelock mine, after which 63 workers were arrested.

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On this day, 28 March 1919, the state of Arkansas joined the majority of other US states in introducing a law prohibiting anarchism and communism. The law, to "define and punish anarchy and… Bolshevism" barred any "attempt to overthrow [the] present form of government of the State of Arkansas or the United States" and "exhibit[ing] any flag, etc, which is calculated to overthrow present form of government." Violations of the law could incur fines of up to $1,000 and imprisonment of up to six months.

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On 27 March 1974 a strike began on Christmas Island, an Australian colony essentially run by the British Phosphate Commissioners (BPC), a phosphate mining company. The firm employed mostly Asian workers from Singapore, Malaysia and China, who were low-paid and housed in inadequate accommodation, and European workers who were paid five times as much as Asians and had better quality housing and schools.
The catalyst for the strike was the sacking of an interpreter, Teo Boon How, on March 26, who was due to be deported the next day. In his support, over 1100 Asian workers took to the streets instead of going to work, forcing BPC to reinstate How.
The following year, How helped establish a secret union, the Union of Christmas Island Workers (UCIW), which would organise further strikes.
More information, sources and map: https://stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/7925/christmas-island-dismissal-strike

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On this day, 26 March 1915, police in Sioux City, Iowa, arrested 14 members of the revolutionary Industrial Workers of the World union for holding street meetings in an attempt to drive the union out of town. 
The IWW had begun a free speech fight to defend its right to organise. Members responded to a call and flocked to the town, holding street meetings to get arrested and flood the jails. 
When these 14 defendants were arrested, they refused to cooperate in court and jail, and when set to work on a rock pile they went on strike and set fires in their cells, and more militants kept arriving. 
By late April the police caved and agreed to free speech for the IWW. 
Learn more about the union and its free speech fights at this time in our podcast episode 6: https://workingclasshistory.com/2018/05/23/wch-e6-the-industrial-workers-of-the-world-in-the-us-1905-1918/

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On this day, 25 March 2008 two Chinese construction workers were killed and at least four injured during a strike in Mongomo, Equatorial Guinea.
Workers employed by Jianyu Overseas Development, a subsidiary of the Wheihai group, working on infrastructure projects, went on strike a few days prior. Guinean troops arrived, stormed workers' dormitories, made several arrests and attempted to force strikers back to work.
When the workers refused, soldiers opened fire, killing and injuring several, and then arrested around 100 workers. Hundreds of workers were subsequently sent back to China, where they were also censured by the Chinese government.
More information, sources and map: https://stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/7909/mongomo-construction-strike

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On 24 March 2008 around 8000 workers at the Dacia-Renault factory in Romania launched an indefinite strike demanding pay increases of 50-70%. It was the biggest private sector strike in the country since the overthrow of the state socialist government in 1989. And for the first time in the country, workers based their pay demands not on Romanian salaries but on salaries of Renault workers in Turkey or France, who earned €900-2000 per month, compared with only €300 in Romania.
The strike ended on April 11, when union leaders announced that employers had agreed to a package of concessions equating to a pay increase of roughly 30-40%.
More information, sources and map: https://stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/7896/dacia-renault-strike

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On this day, 23 March 1944, the most significant attack on Nazi occupation forces by the Italian partisan resistance took place on Via Rasella in Rome. Around a dozen members of the communist-led partisan Patriotic Action Group (GAP) attacked an SS company of over 150 ethnic Germans, which was tasked with fighting the resistance. The partisans detonated a home-made bomb then opened fire with hand-thrown mortar bombs, handgrenades and guns before vanishing. The resistance unit suffered no casualties, while over 30 SS members were killed and over 100 wounded. Unable to capture those responsible, the following day the enraged Nazis massacred 335 people, some of whom had been arrested for resistance activities but most of whom were unrelated civilians.
Learn more about the Italian resistance in our podcast episodes 77-80: https://workingclasshistory.com/podcast/e77-80-italian-resistance/

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On this day, 22 March 1986, thousands of striking workers from US military bases in the Philippines blockaded the gates of US navy and air force bases near Manila. Violence also broke out in many locations, as over 20,000 striking workers pursuing better severance built barricades and clashed with US service personnel attempting to cross the picket lines. 

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Mini podcast episode about this date in history, 21 March 1991, when the abolition of the poll tax in the UK was announced, following a mass non-payment campaign and widespread rioting. The hated tax, introduced by Margaret Thatcher's Conservative government, charged the working class the same as the rich as there was a charge for every individual in a household. 
Despite the defeat of the working class movement in Britain in the 1980s, people up and down the country self-organised an unprecedented campaign which resulted in over 17 million people refusing to pay, with thousands of people clogging the country's court system. 
First, the movement brought down Thatcher herself, leading to her resignation in November 1990. The new government then announced the abolition of the tax. It was later replaced by the council tax, which charged rates based on house value. 
Learn about the movement against the poll tax in episodes 110-111 of our podcast: https://workingclasshistory.com/podcast/e110-111-poll-tax-revolt/

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On 20 March 2013 workers for the Azores-based SATA airline (now renamed Azores Airlines) and TAP Air Portugal called off a three-day strike which was scheduled for the following day.
7000 workers including pilots and support staff were due to walk out in protest against scheduled pay cuts of between 3.5 and 10%.
The strike was cancelled, when according to union officials, management agreed to all of the workers' demands.

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