“The picture accompanying the A. Philip Randolph quote (6/25) is an echo of Claude McKay's poem," writes Steve Shapiro. "If We Must Die" was published in the July 1919 issue of The Liberator. McKay wrote the poem as a response to mob attacks by white Americans upon African-American communities during Red Summer. If we must die, let it be not like hogs Hunted and penned in an inglorious spot, While round us bark the mad and hungry dogs, Making their mock at our accursed lot. If we must die, O let us nobly die, So that our precious blood may not be shed In vain; then even the monsters we defy Shall be constrained to honor us though dead! O kinsmen! we must meet the common foe! Though far outnumbered let us show us brave And for their thousand blows deal one deathblow! What though before us lies the open grave? Like men we'll face the murderous, cowardly pack, Pressed to the wall, dying, but fighting back! photo by Seymour Kattelson, courtesy National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution “When we can't dream any longer we die.” The women's rights activist and radical was born in Lithuania on June 27, 1869. She came to the U.S. at age 17. This week’s Labor History Today podcast: SCOTUS bans LGBTQ workplace discrimination; Queer history of the UAW. Last week’s show: Painters join Black Lives Matter protests; the history of black police in America; Race and Rebellion. June 27 The Industrial Workers of the World, also known as the "Wobblies," is founded at a convention in Chicago. The Wobblie motto: "An injury to one is an injury to all." - 1905 Congress passes the National Labor Relations Act, creating the structure for collective bargaining in the United States - 1935 A 26-day strike of New York City hotels by 26,000 workers – the first such walkout in 50 years – ends with a five-year contract calling for big wage and benefit gains - 1985 A.E. Staley locks out 763 workers in Decatur, Ill. The lockout was to last two and one-half years – 1993 June 28 Birthday of machinist Matthew Maguire, who many believe first suggested Labor Day. Others believe it was Peter McGuire, a carpenter - 1850 President Grover Cleveland signs legislation declaring Labor Day an official U.S. holiday - 1894 The federal government sues the Teamsters to force reforms on the union, the nation's largest. The following March, the government and the union sign a consent decree requiring direct election of the union's president and creation of an Independent Review Board - 1988 June 29 What is to be a 7-day streetcar strike begins in Chicago after several workers are unfairly fired. Wrote the police chief at the time, describing the strikers’ response to scabs: "One of my men said he was at the corner of Halsted and Madison Streets, and although he could see fifty stones in the air, he couldn't tell where they were coming from." The strike was settled to the workers’ satisfaction - 1885 An Executive Order signed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt establishes the National Labor Relations Board. A predecessor organization, the National Labor Board, established by the Depression-era National Industrial Recovery Act in 1933, was struck down by the Supreme Court - 1934 IWW strikes Weyerhauser and other Idaho lumber camps - 1936 Jesus Pallares, founder of the 8,000-member coal miners union, Liga Obrera de Habla Esanola, is deported as an "undesirable alien." The union operated in northern New Mexico and southern Colorado - 1936 - David Prosten Union City Radio: 7:15am daily WPFW-FM 89.3 FM; click here to hear today's report Union City Radio: Your Rights at Work: Thu, June 25, 1pm – 2pm WPFW 89.3 FM or listen online Hosts: Chris Garlock and Ed Smith; call in at 202-588-0893 Guests: Erin Hatton, Coerced: Work Under Threat of Punishment; Sonte DuCote, Community Services Agency Executive Director All of Us: Out + Essential Town Hall: Thu, June 25, 4pm – 5pm Via Zoom; RSVP here Returning To Work (WAMU panel discussion): Thu, June 25, 5pm – 6pm Online: RSVP here Ally Schweitzer hosts Deborah Berkowitz, Worker Safety and Health program director at the National Employment Law Project, Dyana Forester, president of the Metro Washington Council AFL-CIO and political and community affairs director for UFCW Local 400 and Daniel Katz, senior staff attorney at the Washington Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights and Urban Affairs Defunding the Police: What Does This Mean? Thu, June 25, 5pm – 7pm Via Zoom; Join UFCW Local 1994 President Gino Renne and a panel of experts. RSVP to Shalonda Colbert [email protected]. DC Excluded Workers Rally: Mon, June 29, 9:30am – 10:30am Freedom Plaza, Washington, DC DC Labor Town Hall with Robert White Mon, June 29, 3pm – 4pm Zoom; register here photo: 32BJ SEIU members demonstrated yesterday at the U.S. Capitol; their employer -- Eulen -- is forcing workers to reapply for their old jobs at DCA. photo courtesy 32BJ SEIU Twitter feed. Metro Washington Council and Community Services Agency staff are teleworking; reach them at the contact numbers and email addresses here. Latest DC-area labor news, delivered daily: tell a friend and help build our Union City! |