Working Class History

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#OtD 22 Jul 1965 postal workers in Montréal and Vancouver walked off the job on a wildcat strike, which spread to over 30 cities across Canada. At 10,000 strong, it was one of the largest wildcat strikes in Canadian history, and it ended victoriously stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/9486/p…

#OtD 22 July 1886 the brewery workers' union fighting against working hours of 16-18 per day won all of its demands. They won free beer, a union shop, freedom to live anywhere (not just in the brewery itself), a 10-hour day, 6-day week. shop.workingclasshistory.com/collections/al…

#OtD 22 Jul 2005 Brazilian commuter Jean Charles de Menezes was killed by armed London police at Stockwell tube station. Despite being restrained, he was shot seven times in the head and once in the torso. No officers faced charges related to his death stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/9487/j…

#OtD 22 Jul 2017 Rashan Charles, a 20-year-old Black British man, died shortly after being taken to hospital after being held down by police and a passerby in a shop in Dalston, East London. Protests against the killing followed stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/9490/r…

#OtD 22 Jul 2005 civil servants in Tonga went on strike for pay rises. The strike incapacitated the government and grew to include many other public sector employees, resulting in the most significant challenge to the island's monarchy in its history stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/9488/c…

#OtD 22 Jul 1920 government forces raided the Santiago, Chile, headquarters of the revolutionary Industrial Workers of the World union. It was trying to break a 3-month-long @IWW strike aimed at preventing the export of cereals during a domestic famine stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/9483/c…

#OtD 22 Jul 1932 Errico Malatesta, Italian anarchist militant and theorist, London ice cream seller, mechanic and member of the Naples section of the International Working Men's Association, died after six years of fascist house arrest at the age of 78 stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/7864/e…

#OtD 22 Jul 1971 during a dispute between Ford management and the militant shop steward John Dillon in Liverpool, UK, the Angry Brigade blew up the home of Ford's managing director, William Batty, in Essex. Learn more about the group in our podcast: workingclasshistory.com/2018/03/07/epi…

#OtD 22 Jul 2011 neo-Nazi Anders Breivik killed 77 and injured 242 in separate bomb and gun terrorist attacks in Norway. Many of those killed were children at a Labour Party Youth camp, murdered as he screamed "You are going to die today, Marxists!" stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/9489/n…

#OtD 22 Jul 1913 after German parliament approved a huge military bill, Rosa Luxemburg gave a speech saying that parliamentarianism wasn't enough to defend workers and that political mass strikes were a vital weapon in our arsenal. More by and about Rosa: shop.workingclasshistory.com/collections/al…

#OtD 22 Jul 1895 musician August Agbola O'Browne, the only Black person believed to have participated in the anti-Nazi Warsaw uprising of 1944 was born in Lagos, Nigeria. He fought under the codename "Ali" in the Iwo battalion, and later moved to Britain stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/9481/a…

#OtD 22 Jul 1962 British fascist Oswald Mosley tried to hold a rally in Trafalgar Square but was forced to call it off after he and his followers were attacked by a massive crowd of anti-fascists. More info in the bonus podcast episode to this miniseries: workingclasshistory.com/2020/02/17/e35…

#OtD 22 Jul 1946 actor and activist @mrdannyglover was born. The son of two postal workers, Glover took part in the longest student strike in US history at SFSU in 1968, worked with the Black Panthers, and has shown active support in many struggles since stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/9484/d…

📣 New Podcast! "22 July 2005: Tonga civil servants strike" on @Spreaker #black #history #tonga spreaker.com/episode/22-jul…

#OtD 21 Jul 1978 a wildcat strike of thousands of US postal workers in several cities broke out for improvements to their contracts, lasting four days. Management fired 125 workers in revenge, though many were reinstated after years of campaigning stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/9390/u…

#OtD 21 Jul 1915 Herbert Burden of the Northumberland Fusiliers was executed at 17 years old for desertion. He had lied about his age to enlist, and was the youngest soldier executed by the British Army. He was granted a parliamentary pardon in 2006 stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/9384/h…

#OtD 21 Jul 1936 this iconic photo of 17-year-old socialist Marina Ginestà was taken by Hans Gutmann after the start of the Spanish civil war. She was a journalist and translator who was given the rifle to pose with. She survived the war. More in our pod: workingclasshistory.com/podcast/e39-th…

#OtD 21 Jul 1919 workers in Arequipa, Peru, formed a committee to fight against the rapidly rising cost of living. When their demands were not met, they launched a massive general strike in early October. After eight days, workers won pay increases stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/9385/a…

#OtD 21 Jul 2001 Italian police in Genoa raided the Armando Diaz school and brutally beat the protesters staying there. The victims were then arrested and tortured by officers, who were never punished stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/9391/i…

#OtD 21 Jul 1905 Polish socialist and independence activist Stefan Alexander Okrzeja was executed for carrying out a bomb attack on Russian imperial police in Praga, Warsaw, which killed one and injured three stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/9383/s…