This Day in Labor History: May 21, 1968. The Poor People’s Campaign began setting up its encampment in Washington, D.C., called Resurrection City. This was Martin Luther King's last campaign. It did not succeed without his leadership, but would have been difficult to pull off anyway. Let's chat!

"I am a billionaire and all I want is to fellate Donald Trump"

This Day in Labor History: May 20, 1926. The Railway Labor Act passed Congress, a law written by rail brotherhood lawyers in order to settle constant rail strikes. This is what Biden used to settle the rail conflict from a few years ago. Let's talk about this and put Biden in context too!

This Day in Labor History: May 19, 1920. The Matewan Massacre took place in the small town of Matewan, West Virginia. Let's talk about this key moment of the West Virginia Mine Wars, made famous by the great John Sayles film!

After reading this🧵on Karen Silkwood's murder, consider attending next month's conference celebrating the life & legacy of Tony Mazzocchi, the labor leader with whom Karen was working when she died. At the conference, we will discuss & plan ways to strengthen the worker safety & health movement.

Wall Street is a great movie about the 80s of course but it is damaged by the fact that Charlie Sheen and Daryl Hannah are both bad actors with no chemistry.

This Day in Labor History: May 18, 1979. A jury found for Karen Silkwood’s estate in her plutonium exposure case. Unfortunately, she had died in a car accident five years earlier that was likely a murder orchestrated by her employer enraged by her exposing their toxic legacy!!!!

This worked out pretty well www.splendidtable.org/story/2020/0...

This Day in Labor History: May 17, 1933. Rep. Robert Houghton, a North Carolina Democrat, introduced H.R. 5755 into the House. This would become the National Industrial Recovery Act, the first comprehensive attempt to fix the economy of the Great Depression through national planning!

This Day in Labor History: May 16, 1934. Truckers in Minneapolis went on strike in an action that would lead the way for the Teamsters to represent truckers across the nation and help lay the groundwork for the organization of industrial workers across the nation during the 1930!!!

According to my Itunes, I have not listened to Red Headed Stranger since May 30, 2024. How is that possible? Time to fix that problem right now.

This Day in Labor History: May 15, 1984. 5,000 sugar workers around the town of Guariba, Brazil went on strike. This little known moment of worker resistance happened because of the terrible working conditions in an industry taking on increased global importance and capital investment by the 80s!!

This Day in Labor History: May 14, 1889. Coal workers meet with Kaiser Wilhelm to settle a strike that had brought 100,000 coal workers off the job in Germany’s Ruhr Valley. This was the largest coal strike in German history!

This Day in Labor History: May 13, 1874. A man in New York named Charles Walker was arrested for working his dog on a cider press. This is a chance to talk about the labor history of animals!

Our history AND our present show repeatedly that a substantial share of the white working class, when given the opportunity to choose between racial politics and class politics, choose racial politics every time. It is the acme of foolishness to pretend this isn't true.

This Day in Labor History: May 12, 1878. Catharine Beecher died. Let's discuss the importance of Beecher’s 1841 book Treatise on Domestic Economy, its influence on housework for middle class women, and the general rise of housework as a modern middle class phenomenon that transformed the nation!

This Day in Labor History: May 10, 1913. White gold miners in the Transvaal region of South Africa went on strike in one of the first major strikes in that nation’s history and also one where workers allowed their racial interests to trump their class interests!!!

Turns out Bobby Cox was still alive

This Day in Labor History: May 9, 1949. Mob thugs assassinated International Ladies Garment Workers Union organizer William Lurye in a blatant effort to keep New York garment trade shops union-free. Let's talk about how mobs took over unions because the cops didn't care if they killed organizers!

I like this building

This Day in Labor History: May 8, 1970. Unionized construction workers attacked an anti-war march in the wake of the Kent State shooting a few days before. The so-called Hard Hat Riot was the worst of the American labor movement in action, a part of organized labor that is very real today.

This Day in Labor History: May 6, 1882. President Chester Alan Arthur signed the Chinese Exclusion Act. Although not often seen by the general public as part of our labor history, the Chinese Exclusion Act was the first legislative victory for organized labor in this country. Sad, but true.

This Day in Labor History: May 5, 1886. The Wisconsin National Guard opened fire on strikers in Milwaukee fighting for the 8-hour day, killing 7 workers. Let's talk about the Bayview Massacre and the state crushing of the 1886 8-hour day strikes!

The real reason for my 2027 Pulitzer will be revealed with my Giuliani obituary.

Where's my Pulitzer for labor history posts?

This Day in Labor History: May 4, 1926. Workers in the United Kingdom started a general strike to protest the terrible actions against the nation’s striking coal miners. 1.7 million workers walked off the job, shutting down the British economy. It failed, but was a major challenge to capitalism!

Only in Idaho does Turning Points still matter. Because Idaho. www.npr.org/2026/04/30/n...

Are the fucking Sixers actually going to win this? Really?

You don't fucking say.

They say the Kentucky Derby is the Most Exciting 2 Minutes in Sports. Not sure about this claim. But it does last 2 minutes, I will grant you that.

Of course none of the 6 justices who voted for Jim Crow are white southerners

The major radio show I ever did was Lopate. That was even in-studio. In between segments, he told me how much he actually didn't trust unions. Uh, ok.

I have completed my obituary for Alan Dershowitz. That's 72 completed obits to run at the proper time. May they run soon.

Vermont remains great and completely ridiculous at the same time

I'm not a huge pop harmonies guy, so the charm of the Beach Boys has always mostly been lost of me. But the other thing about this group is that it was made up of the worst people in the world, each competing to be more horrible than the next. www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

I gave a May Day talk yesterday for the Primo Maggio event in Barre, Vermont. It's in the old Socialist Labor Party hall. The building even still has SLP logo carved into it!!

I had a long interview at Mother Jones yesterday about general strikes, the state of labor, and lots of other stuff, so check it out if you like my labor history threads!! www.motherjones.com/politics/202...

This Day in Labor History: May 2, 1968. A small wildcat strike at a Chrysler plant in Detroit led to the creation of the Dodge Revolutionary Union Movement. This merging of Black Power and leftist unionism challenged the United Auto Workers leadership as much as it did the auto industry!!!

Sigh, but also, it is what it is, labor law is so totally captured by corporations that it's just damned tough.

That's URI Dropout Candace Owens

Well, if you insist

I have a lot of thoughts about labor, the general strike, what's going on today, and lots of other things on May Day!!! www.motherjones.com/politics/202...

This Day in Labor History: May 1, 2010. A group of 1,000 subcontractors from India and Nepal laboring in Iraq working for the U.S. military occupation went on a violent rampage against their terrible living conditions!!!! Let's talk about contract military labor on this May Day!

Happy May Day!! I have an article with my 20 favorite leftist films in The Nation. Check it out! www.thenation.com/article/cult...

I have a fun article for the nation--The 20 Best Films for May Day! Enjoy some solidarity movies!! www.thenation.com/article/cult...

April 30, gotta turn the damn heat on!

This Day in Labor History: April 30, 1894. Coxey’s Army, a rag-tag group of unemployed Americans, marched into Washington, D.C., demanding federal jobs for the unemployed. Of course, the forces of order demanded his arrest! Let's talk about this early protest for jobs!

A year before, in El Monte CA, a raid found Thai garment workers in a sweatshop. They were smuggled into the US and forced to work. “I want to visit you but can’t because they won’t let us go anywhere” a worker wrote to their friends in Thailand. americanhistory.si.edu/explore/exhi...

This Day in Labor History: April 29, 1996. Charles Kernaghan of the National Labor Committee testified before House Democrats on Labor Committee that he had discovered sweatshop labor on Kathie Lee Gifford branded clothing in Honduras. Let's talk about the anti-sweatshop movement!