Today's Labor History

​Click here to check out this week's Labor History Today podcast. On this week’s show: Wednesday, February 6 is the centennial of the 1919 Seattle General Strike and on today’s show you’ll hear labor historians Dana Frank and David Jepsen discuss that strike; how it challenged capitalism, how the AFL-CIO and Wobblies worked together, what solidarity looked like then and the implications of this century-old strike for workers and the movement today. Plus, Tom Zaniello on Charlie Chaplin’s “Modern Times” and Kurt Stand on Joe McCarthy’s red-baiting attacks on federal workers and unions. Chris Garlock & Ed Smith co-host; “General Strike” by Moe Shinola

Big Bill Haywood (photo) born in Salt Lake City, Utah: Leader of Western Federation of Miners, Wobblies (IWW) founder - 1869

Rosa Parks, whose refusal to give up her bus seat to a white man launched the 1955 Montgomery, Ala. bus boycott and the birth of the civil rights movement, is born in Tuskeegee, Ala. - 1913

Unemployment demonstrations take place in major U.S. cities - 1932
​
Thirty-seven thousand maritime workers on the West Coast strike for wage increases - 1937

President Barack Obama imposes $500,000 caps on senior executive pay for the most distressed financial institutions receiving federal bailout money, saying Americans are upset with "executives being rewarded for failure." - 2009

---