Tweet

This Thread may be Removed Anytime!

Twitter may remove this content at anytime! Save it as PDF for later use!

More from @ErikLoomis

Erik Loomis

@ErikLoomis

28 Sep

This Day in Labor History: September 28, 1874. The U.S. military defeated the Comanche in Palo Duro Canyon, south of modern Amarillo, Texas, largely by stealing their horse herds. Let's talk about how American conquest of the tribes was also the end of a long history of work!

This forced the Comanche to the reservations where they had refused to live by taking away the technology that defined their lives and their work.

This was essentially the end of an entire way of labor for the Comanche and indicative of the importance of work to the conquest of Native Americans.

Read 43 tweets

Erik Loomis

@ErikLoomis

27 Sep

This Day in Labor History: September 27, 1922. The Sentinels of the Republic formed as a conservative organization to defeat labor reform. Let's look at how these horrible right-wingers defeated the Child Labor Amendment to the Constitution.

It first targeted the Child Labor Amendment proposed to the Constitution. This successful attempt to defeat even the most basic labor reforms demonstrates how rich corporate and conservative interests in the United States can defeat labor reform

Understanding this is as central to our labor history as any victorious strike, if a whole lot less inspirational.

Read 40 tweets

Erik Loomis

@ErikLoomis

23 Sep

This Day in Labor History: September 23, 2002. California governor Gray Davis signed the California Family Rights Act, the first paid family leave law in American history. It ain't much, but it's about as good as it gets in the USA. Let's talk about it!

This relatively small but still significant increase in the American safety net is a symbol of just how limited the American welfare state is and how difficult it is to even come to close to matching that of other western nations.

The United States is the only industrialized nation to not offer mothers any paid leave when they have a child. This is totally bonkers. But nonetheless, it reflects the deep misogyny and pro-capitalist beliefs that have infected this nation from its beginning.

Read 29 tweets

Erik Loomis

@ErikLoomis

22 Sep

This Day in Labor History: September 22, 1919. Steel workers go on strike. The strike was a complete disaster, demonstrating both the anti-union mentality of post World War I and the terrible infighting in American labor that got in the way of organizing. Let's talk about it!

The struggle to organize steel had gone on for years by 1919. The Amalgamated Association of Iron and Steel Workers had won an early contract with Homestead Steel but that was crushed by Andrew Carnegie in 1892.

The union nearly won another big strike in 1901, but failed in the end. By World War I, the AA was a shell of the militant organization it once was, yet also demanded exclusive representation in the steel mills.

Read 34 tweets

Erik Loomis

@ErikLoomis

19 Sep

This Day in Labor History: September 19, 1945. 24 fired female employees of the Lindstrom Tool and Toy Company in Bridgeport, Connecticut picketed outside the factory in protest of their firing. Let's talk about how women factory workers in World War II wanted to keep working!

Our memory of women workers during World War II is one of women bravely going into industrial work during the war to replace men, personified by the “We Can Do It” poster that claims to be Rosie the Riveter.

This is, of course, NOT Rosie the Riveter, but in fact an anti-union poster from Westinghouse rediscovered decades later. So, you know, enjoy your anti-union tattoo or whatever.

Read 35 tweets

Erik Loomis

@ErikLoomis

18 Sep

This Day in Labor History: September 18, 1873. The firm of the railroad monopolist and financier Jay Cooke collapsed, sparking the Panic of 1873. This sparked the first global depression in the history of industrial capitalism. Let's talk about what this did to workers!

It was a precursor of the long history of upheavals from corrupt capitalism spawning protest movements that eventually shook the nation to its core and finally, after many decades, caused meaningful reforms to help protect workers from economic shocks.

The Civil War created the conditions for the rapid growth of industrial capitalism. But it did not create the corruption that would come to dominate the Gilded Age.

Read 36 tweets

Share this page!

Erik Loomis

Try unrolling a thread yourself!

More from @ErikLoomis

Erik Loomis

Erik Loomis

Erik Loomis

Erik Loomis

Erik Loomis

Erik Loomis

Did Thread Reader help you today?

Like this author's thread?