On This Day in Working Class History

On this day, 18 August 1812, food riots broke out in Leeds and Sheffield, England, primarily led by women. In Leeds the local paper described the group of women and boys who were seizing corn and wheat, and assaulting sellers, as being "dignified with the title of Lady Ludd". In Sheffield flour dealers were forced to reduce their prices to 3 shillings per stone. 
More information, sources and map: https://stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/8955/lady-ludd-food-riots-in-leeds

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On this day, 17 August 1987, workers in South Korea occupied factories and the shipyard of the Hyundai corporation in the city of Ulsan. 
Meanwhile, upwards of 30,000 workers took to the streets and battled riot police in the city, in one of the biggest confrontations to date between workers and the US-backed dictatorship. 
The strikes spread, and the "Great Workers' Struggle," as the movement would become known, would at its height involve around 1.2 million workers – one third of the regular workforce – with 3,749 strikes taking place by the end of the year.
Learn more about the 1987 rebellion in South Korea in episodes 91 to 92 of our podcast: https://workingclasshistory.com/podcast/e91-92-south-korea-1987/

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On this day, 15 August 1911, prison vans containing 90 of those convicted for involvement in the Liverpool transport general strike were attacked as they made their way down Vauxhall Road to Walton Jail. The convoy was being escorted by 32 men from the cavalry unit the 18th Hussars, yet bottles and bricks were thrown at the soldiers and rioters grabbed the reins of the horses. The Hussars opened fire on the crowd and two men were killed. On the corner of Hopwood Street and Vauxhall Road, John Sutcliffe, 20, a carter, was shot twice in the head. A docker, Michael Prendergast, 29, was shot in the chest at close range by a soldier. Three other men suffered gunshot wounds during the fighting. 
More information, sources and map: https://stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/8645/liverpool-strikers-shot

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On this day, 14 August 1886 50 women and girls working in the L Candee Rubber Boot Company factory in New Haven, Connecticut, walked out on strike over excessive working temperatures. The New York Times reported that the women: "complained that the heat of the room was unendurable, and insisted that the windows must be opened. The Superintendent refused to open the windows for fear of damage to the stock from a mist which hung over the city. Then the girls picked up their bonnets and left the shop."
More information, sources and map: https://stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/7748/l-candee-rubber-heat-strike

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On this day, 13 August 1937, striking workers were massacred at the Union Flacq Sugar Estate in Mauritius. Primarily Indian labourers on sugar plantations on the island, then a British colony, had been organising for better pay, and police were being used to intimidate workers and break strikes.
Workers on the Union Flacq estate were unhappy about low pay, poor quality food rations and inadequate hospital treatment. They went on strike, and on August 13, strikers were violently attacked by police, killing four and wounding six.
In response to the killings, protesters set fire to sugarcane fields, and protests continued around the island for two weeks. Following a Commission of Enquiry into the incident, the British colonial government legalised labour unions, and set up an official framework for collective bargaining between workers and employers.
More information, sources and map: https://stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/7741/mauritius-strike-massacre

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On this day, 12 August 1887, pioneering Colombian socialist and women's rights advocate María Cano, known as the "Flor del trabajo" ("Labour flower"), was born in Antioquia. At the time, women in Colombia could not hold most jobs, participate in elections, or even spend their own money.
Cano was from a middle-class family, but came into contact with lots of people regularly at her local library, and began to support people living in poor neighbourhoods. At the age of 38 she became a socialist, and a leading activist in the Socialist Revolutionary Party, which made her the first woman political leader in the country. She toured widely, wrote agitational texts and gave fiery speeches to huge crowds of mining, oil and banana workers. She was placed under police surveillance, repeatedly arrested and security forces occasionally opened fire to disperse her audiences.
Following a strike of banana workers in 1928 which was violently crushed that December, Cano was jailed for conspiracy, despite not having been present. She was subsequently purged from her Party as an "adventurist", but she continued her outreach work and strike solidarity until the end of her life in 1967.
More information, sources and map: https://stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/8368/mar%C3%ADa-cano-born

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On this day, 11 August 1958, civil rights activists in Wichita, Kansas won a key early successful sit-in protest against segregated lunch counters. Black students and young people sat at the counter in the Dockum's Drug Store in rotating shifts of 30 minutes to 2 hours, blocking sales and facing down police and racist harassment for 23 days until they won. After this victory, sit-ins spread rapidly across the Jim Crow states and desegregated many eateries. 
More information, sources and map: https://stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/8272/dockum's-drug-store-sit-in-wins

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On this day, 10 August 2005, the Gate Gourmet dispute began in London. British Airways (BA) had outsourced its airline meal production, primarily by Asian women workers, to Gate Gourmet, who cut wages and conditions. Planning on worsening conditions further, they brought in hundreds of agency workers to do the work of the permanent employees. Seeing agency workers in their usual posts, the workers assembled in their canteen to discuss and protest at what was happening. Gate Gourmet then sacked over 700 of the workers. BA baggage handlers then walked out on a wildcat sympathy strike, shutting Heathrow airport completely for 48 hours. But their union, the Transport and General Workers' Union (TGWU), ordered them back to work. And although the sacked workers set up picket lines, TGWU officials reached an agreement with bosses for some of the workers to be reinstated on the inferior terms and conditions which the workers had opposed in the first place. Many of the workers fought on until April the following year, but the union refused to make their action official, and they were eventually defeated. 
More information, sources and map: https://stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/8178/gate-gourmet-dispute

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On this day, 9 August 1979, the women workers of the YH wig making company in Seoul, South Korea, occupied the headquarters of the opposition New Democratic Party in protest at the closure of their employer. 
The workers had gone on strike against the proposed closure, but to no avail, so they attempted to escalate their protest. 
However, the US-backed military dictatorship instead sent 2,000 riot police to attack the 187 women and evict the occupation. One woman, Kim Kyung Sook, was killed by police, while the union leaders were arrested and the other workers sent home by bus. 
While unsuccessful, the violent repression of the workers provoked mass anger, which was a major contributing factor to uprisings breaking out in Busan and Masan later that year.
Learn more about this period of Korean history in our podcast series: https://workingclasshistory.com/tag/south-korea/

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On this day, 8 August 1883, over 3,000 people attended a benefit ball and concert for striking telegraphers in New York's Madison Square Garden. A procession of 800 striking workers, mostly employees of Western Union fighting for equal pay for men and women and an eight-hour day, were led into the ballroom by John Mitchell and Minnie Swan, who had emerged as key organisers of the strike in the city. They were serenaded by local regimental bands who had volunteered to play. The strike was later defeated, although Mitchell and Swan became romantically involved during the dispute and were subsequently married.

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