Working Class History

Our limited edition 2027 wall calendar is out now. Just 800 copies, with a historical entry for every day and photos of ordinary people who made history. Global shipping, and your purchase supports people's history research: shop.workingclasshistory.com/products/wch...

#OtD 27 Oct 1995 human rights activist Jaswant Singh Khalra was killed in police custody in India. He had been visiting villages documenting extrajudicial killings of Sikhs by the Indian state, attracting widespread support stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/9960...

#OtD 27 Oct 1962 during the Cuban missile crisis, 2nd-in-command Vasili Arkhipov of the Soviet submarine B-59 refused his captain's order to launch nuclear torpedos against US warships. This avoided setting off a likely superpower nuclear war stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/9958...

#OtD 27 Oct 2005 two Black youths in a Paris suburb were killed by electrocution while fleeing from police. Anger at police violence and harassment, poverty and racism boiled over, and weeks of rioting broke out across the country stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/9961...

New daily podcast: 27 October 1948: NYC brewery strike grows

#OtD 26 Oct 1881 communist Indigenous activist Dolores Cacuango was born in Ecuador. She took part in several strikes and uprisings, the landless and indigenous movements, and fought against sexual abuse of Indigenous women by hacienda bosses stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/9863...

#OtD 26 Oct 1913 Catalan anarchist Josep Ester i Borrás was born. He fought the fascists during the Spanish civil war, then with the French resistance against the Nazis, and was imprisoned in Mauthausen concentration camp but survived WWII stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/9864...

#OtD 26 Oct 1977 health authorities sent police and managers into Hounslow hospital, which had been occupied and run by its workers since March against closure. They cut phone lines and pulled patients from their beds into waiting private ambulances stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/9866...

#OtD 26 Oct 1983 the Northwood and Pinner hospital in the UK was occupied by its workers in protest at its proposed closure. They then ran the hospital themselves collectively and eventually won, and it stayed open for a further 25 years stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/9867...

#OtD 26 Oct 1977 8000 cotton workers in Kanpur, India, surrounded their factory, locking the bosses inside after their wages were not paid. They then placed gas cylinders on the roof and threatened to start blowing things up. After 54 hours they won stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/9865...

New daily podcast: 26 October 1983: Northwood and Pinner occupation

#OtD 25 Oct 1882 German anarchist Johann Most was released from Clerkenwell Prison in London after spending a year and a half there doing forced labour for praising the assassination of Tsar Alexander II by Russian revolutionaries stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/9781...

#OtD 25 Oct 1983 the US invaded the Caribbean island of Grenada, ostensibly to protect US citizens but really to assert its dominance over the region. More information, sources and map: stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/9784...

#OtD 25 Oct 1929 Spanish anarcho-syndicalist and an editor of La Protesta, Emilio López Arango was assassinated in Buenos Aires. The main suspect was Severino Di Giovanni, an Italian anarchist whose bombings had been criticised in La Protesta stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/9782...

New daily podcast: 25 October 1983: Hayes Cottage Hospital occupied

#OtD 25 Oct 1983 the Hayes Cottage Hospital in England was occupied by its workers in protest at its proposed closure the following week. The workers then ran the hospital themselves until the government caved in. It remained open until the 90s stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/9783...

#OtD 24 Oct 1924 Italian anarchist Ernesto Bonomini was tried for killing a leading Italian fascist to avenge the victims of fascism. After his 8 year sentence, he traveled to Spain to join the revolution and continue to fight against fascism stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/9689...

#OtD 24 Oct 1975 90% of women in Iceland went on general strike for equality with men. Working women stayed home, and house workers refused to cook, clean and look after children. Today Iceland has the lowest gender inequality in the world stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/9692...

#OtD 24 Oct 1940 the 40-hour work week came into effect in America under Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938, the result of decades of militant working-class struggle and organisation stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/9690...

#OtD 24 Oct 2007 up to 35,000 sex workers were on strike in Bolivia in protest against police harassment. The women, who had organised a union, also refused to undertake mandatory STD testing until police stopped their harassment stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/9694...

New daily podcast: 24 October 1975: La Tondeña strike

#OtD 23 Oct 2009 a public park in Madrid was made to remember Maria Luz Nájera, a left-wing student killed by police during a protest against the fascist murder of a bricklayer in 1977. Neighbours and relatives spent 11 years campaigning for the space stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/9608...

#OtD 23 Oct 1956 a spontaneous nationwide revolt broke out across Hungary which saw thousands organise themselves into workers' councils and militias demanding not a transition to capitalism but rather a socialism controlled by the working class itself stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/9607...

#OtD 23 Oct 1901 a general strike broke out in Rosario, Argentina, in response to the police killing of anarchist migrant worker Cosme Budislavich during a sugar refinery strike stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/9603...

#OtD 23 Oct 1903 English anarchist-communist John Turner was arrested after his lecture in NYC. He was the first person deported from the US for violation of the 1903 Anarchist Exclusion Act. After prison, he made bail and was sent home to England stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/9604...

#OtD 23 Oct 1850 the first National Women's Rights Convention in the US took place in Massachusetts, to win equal rights. The speakers included women's rights and anti-slavery activists like Frederick Douglass and Sojourner Truth stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/9601...

#OtD 23 Oct 1874 German left communist Otto Rühle was born. Chairman of the Dresden Workers and Soldiers Council in the German Revolution and later KAPD delegate to the Comintern, he also wrote the famous pamphlet 'The Revolution Is Not a Party Affair' stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/9602...

#OtD 23 Oct 1948 the United Brewery Workers union claimed most of its wildcat striking members in NYC would return to work the next day, supposedly to keep up the morale of bosses. The strike continued while police ensured the safe transport of beer stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/9606...

#OtD 23 Oct 1937 the @IndustrialWrkr paper announced the death of @IWW member, sailor and Spanish civil war volunteer Heinrich Bortz, from Germany. He escaped from a concentration camp and joined the Durruti Column International Battalion and was KIA stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/9605...

New daily podcast: 23 October 1913: Bristol University Suffragette arson

#OtD 22 Oct 1921 workers at the Castleconnell fisheries in Ireland went on strike, then occupied their workplace and formed a soviet (workers council). Police and vigilantes tried to evict the strikers, but the workers held out until Dec when they won stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/1263...

#OtD 22 Oct 1935 British colonial authorities declared a state of emergency on the Caribbean island of St Vincent to repress a rebellion against high prices to benefit sugar interests stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/9518...

#OtD 22 Oct 1945 over 2700 railway workers in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe, then a British colony, went on strike. Within days, 8000 workers were out. Soon, workers won better pay and sick leave, and the abolition of the racist "Supervisor of Natives". More: stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/1141...

#OtD 22 Oct 1972 feminists in Vancouver, Canada founded SORWUC - the Service, Office and Retail Workers' Union of Canada. They sought to represent workers in marginalised, low-paying, largely female-dominated sectors stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/9520...

#OtD 22 Oct 1966 the most notorious prisoner in England, Soviet double-agent George Blake was broken out of jail by left libertarian peace activists (who didn't support the USSR at all) in an amusing and very "DIY" fashion stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/9519...

#OtD 22 Oct 1889 over 600 women tailors in Leeds, UK, walked out on strike against the harsh system of fines and deductions. The strike lasted six weeks and ended in defeat, but over time concessions were made to the workers. More info: stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/9516...

#OtD 22 Oct 1905 30k workers in Chile rose up against poverty & price hikes. Police were overwhelmed so the rich formed a "white guard" to begin massacring workers. After 250 dead, the rebellion subsided but the workers' movement continued to grow stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/9517...

New daily podcast: 22 October 1921: Castleconnell fisheries strike

#OtD 22 Oct 1902 Black British boxer and communist, Len Johnson, was born in Manchester. Newspapers said it was "tolerably certain" that he would become UK champion, but he was barred because of the rule that contestants had to have two white parents stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/1122...

#OtD 21 Oct 1929 anarchist, feminist, sci-fi and fantasy novelist Ursula K. Le Guin was born in Berkeley, California. We have made available some of her little-known works in our online store. Check them out here: shop.workingclasshistory.com/collections/...

#OtD 21 Oct 1935 in the evening, the prison in Kingstown, St Vincent, was stormed by demonstrators protesting against the high cost of living, and they liberated 10 prisoners stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/9430...

#OtD 21 Oct 1956 Mau Mau rebel leader Dedan Kimathi was captured by British forces in Kenya, marking the effective end of the anti-colonial uprising 4 years and 1 day after the declaration of the state of emergency to crush the rebellion stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/9433...

#OtD 21 Oct 2016 video game voice actors in the US went on strike through their union @SAGAFTRA against 11 video game developers. After 340 days they won improvements including better pay and transparency about roles. More info, sources and map: stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/9436...

#OtD 21 Oct 1970 the first women's liberation demonstration took place in Japan in Tokyo, kickstarting the feminist movement in the country. The women were demanding legalisation of the contraceptive pill and opposing any prohibition of abortion stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/9435...

#OtD 21 Oct 1935 the St Vincent labour rebellion began on the British-occupied Caribbean island when workers protesting against high prices in the capital, Kingstown, were fired on by police stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/9431...

#OtD 21 Oct 1894 after a jailer murdered anarchist prisoner, Francois Briens, on the Salvation's Islands prison camp in French Guiana in September, anarchist prisoners revolted and avenged their comrade stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/9425...

#OtD 21 Oct 1948 brewery workers achieved concessions after over a week on wildcat strike against the sacking of 21 drivers. It appears that these drivers were reinstated. The union then ordered its members back to work but the strikers refused stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/9432...

#OtD 21 Oct 1920 the battle of Cheongsan-ri began in Manchuria, in which the Korean Independence Army under the command of anarchist general Kim Jwa-jin (pictured) wiped out an entire division of the Japanese Imperial Army stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/9427...

#OtD 21 Oct 1905 during the Russian Revolution, railway workers began a strike which quickly developed into a general strike in St Petersburg and Moscow. Within five days, nearly all trains in the country had stopped stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/9426...