Gotta Go Down and Join the Union (1976)
FEBRUARY 4 IS THE 50TH ANNIVERSARY of the 1976 release of Union Maids, a superb hour-long documentary about working and union organizing. Labor Notes, the monthly newsletter, has published this short description of the film, which I can’t improve upon, so I won’t try.
“If you’re going to work, and there’s a union, join it. No matter what kind it is. Any union is better than none. And if there isn’t one, then organize one.” So opens Union Maids, establishing the tone of this oral history of woman-led labor organizing in Depression-era Chicago.
“Union Maids weaves together the personal stories of radical rank-and-file organizers Kate Hyndman, Stella Nowicki, and Sylvia Woods—who, after experiencing the daily exploitation of domestic life, set out to build race, gender, and class solidarity in the workplace.
“Interviewed in their late 60s and early 70s, the women reflect with pride and clarity on their 1930s experiences agitating for safety measures in packinghouses, textile mills, and stockyards, how they educated their fellow workers to avoid yellow-dog contracts (where employers made new hires pledge not to join a union), and the power of downing tools when the bosses ignored their demands for better pay or a slower pace.
“In stunning archival footage, we get to see the vibrant character of the new Congress of Industrial Organizations, which was opening its arms to radicals, women, immigrants, and workers of color while the American Federation of Labor remained dedicated to cultural conservativism and craft unionism.
“Union Maids, directed by Jim Klein, Julia Reichert and Miles Mogulescu, is an ode to the class war of nearly a century ago and the women who led their co-workers into battle and emerged victorious.
“Stream for free on Kanopy with a public library card, or on YouTube.” https://labornotes.org/about
The Ferguson Brothers Lynchings on Long Island (1946)
FEBRUARY 5 IS THE 80TH ANNIVERSARY of an arrest for disorderly conduct that ended with two unarmed African-American men shot dead and a third wounded by a White policeman in Freeport, a suburb of New York City on Long Island. In the days after the killings, there were widespread protests and calls for the arrest of the police officer on manslaughter charges.
Members of the large Black community in Freeport, along with the National Lawyers Guild, the Congress of Industrial Organizations, and many more area residents joined together to form the New York Committee for Justice in Freeport, which held a mass meeting in Manhattan to demand the appointment of a special prosecutor to conduct a new, unbiased, investigation of the killings.
As a result of the public dissatisfaction with the failure to prosecute the responsible police officer, in July New York Governor Thomas Dewey agreed to take action, but he refused to appoint a special prosecutor. Instead he appointed the chairman of the New York State Board of Social Welfare to investigate the matter and report back to him.
The new inquiry did almost nothing to satisfy the widespread calls for justice in the case. The way the new hearings were conducted made it very unlikely that they would reach any new conclusion. After the Board of Social Welfare chief reported as much, the governor ignored the cries for justice and refused to appoint a special prosecutor. For more about the case and a link to Christopher Verga’s book, The Ferguson Brothers Lynchings on Long Island: A Civil Rights Catalyst, visit https://www.zinnedproject.org/news/tdih/ferguson-brothers-killed-by-police-on-long-island/
Autherine Lucy Didn’t Know the Meaning of ‘Quit’ (1956)
FEBRUARY 6 IS THE 70TH ANNIVERSARY of the largest, most violent U.S. demonstration against the racial integration of public schools to occur since the U.S. Supreme Court’s 1954 decision in Brown v. Board of Education.
The riotous demonstration took place on the campus of the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa in 1956. Its objective was to prevent the attendance of Autherine Lucy, the first person of color ever admitted to any public educational facility in the state that was not designated as being for Blacks only.
On her second day of classes in Tuscaloosa, a crowd of more than a thousand people, not by any means all of them students, surrounded the Education Building where Lucy was taking a class. They threw rocks and bottles and promised to kill her as soon as they could. Lucy was convinced she would die that day if no one came to her aid. Someone called the police, and an officer managed to sneak her into a patrol car and get her off campus. Days later, university administrators suspended Lucy, both “for her own safety” and “for the safety of other students.”
A month later, Martin Luther King, Jr., delivered a sermon about Lucy’s harrowing experience, in which he said, “As soon as Autherine Lucy walked on the campus, a group of spoiled students led by Leonard Wilson [who later became the leader the West Alabama (White) Citizen’s Council] and a vicious group of criminals began threatening her on every hand. Crosses were burned. Eggs and bricks were thrown at her. The mob even jumped on top of the car in which she was riding. Finally the president and trustees of the university of Alabama asked Autherine to leave for her own safety and the safety of the university.”
King continued, “The next day after Autherine was dismissed the paper came out with this headline: 'Things are quiet in Tuscaloosa today. There is peace on the campus of the University of Alabama.' Yes, things were quiet in Tuscaloosa. yes there was peace on the campus, but it was peace at a great price. It was peace that had been purchased at the exorbitant price of an inept trustee board succumbing to the whims and caprices of a vicious mob. It was peace that had been purchased at the price of allowing mobocracy to reign supreme over democracy.”
Eventually the University came up with an excuse to permanently expel Lucy, but 20 years later the expulsion order was officially annulled. Never a quitter, Lucy enrolled in the University’s graduate school of education, where she earned an M.A. in 1992. In 2010, the University erected a clock tower to honor her. https://www.crmvet.org/tim/timhis56.htm#1956lucy
Baby Doc Throws In the Towel (1986)
FEBRUARY 7 IS THE 40TH ANNIVERSARY of a huge U.S. Air Force C-141 cargo jet’s departure from Haiti’s main airport, carrying Jean-Claude Duvalier, who had just resigned Haiti’s presidency, to exile in France. Duvalier’s departure, along with more than a score of family members and close associates, in addition to tons of valuables and expensive vehicles, marked the end of 28 years of Duvalier rule that began with Jean-Claude’s father, Francois, in 1957.
Jean-Claude’s government fell after more than a year-and-a-half of growing popular rebellion, which was widely supported by the impoverished Haitian masses and also by more affluent social sectors, including a growing part of the country’s influential Catholic hierarchy.
Duvalier’s kleptocratic government had been forced to depend increasingly on terror – mass arrests, broad-daylight government-sanctioned murders and mysterious disappearances of regime opponents – so much so that his circle of supporters was in danger of vanishing.
One of the last straws that led to the regime’s downfall was a general strike, of both employers and workers, which had largely paralyzed the capital, Port-au-Prince, for nearly a week. https://nvdatabase.swarthmore.edu/content/haitians-overthrow-regime-1984-1986
Tell Us How You Really Feel! (1911)
FEBRUARY 8 IS THE 115TH ANNIVERSARY of the unveiling of a war memorial on the lawn of the Hillsborough County courthouse in downtown Tampa, Florida. The year was 1911, and the memorial was for the Civil War, which had ended 45 years previously. The monument, a 40-foot marble cenotaph, still stands outside the courthouse.
As part of the dedication ceremony, the area’s elected prosecutor, whose office was in the courthouse, spoke, saying “The South stands ready to welcome all good citizens who seek to make their homes within her borders. But the South detests and despises all, it matters not from whence they came, who, in any manner, encourages social equality with an ignorant and inferior race.” [sic]
There was nothing peculiar about such an event in 1911. The vast majority of monumental Civil War memorials were created after 1895. https://encyclopediavirginia.org/entries/lost-cause-the
Free and Fearless (1941)
FEBRUARY 10 IS THE 85TH ANNIVERSARY of the first edition of the amazingly successful anti-Nazi newspaper Het Parool, published daily during World War 2 in Nazi-occupied Amsterdam. Despite the fact it was illegal and the target of unrelenting Nazi persecution, Het Parool, which means The Password or The Motto, achieved a circulation of approximately 100,000 in 1944.
When the war ended, Het Parool continued to be published. It was, for years, the second largest newspaper in the Netherlands. https://www.republicofamsterdamradio.com/freeandfearless
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