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Wet-nurse strike in Chicago, 1937.

No Money, No Milk

Black wet nurses made a show of militance in 1937.
by Dana Frank via Hammer & Hope on July 23, 2024
Two men carrying a weakened hunger striker.

Remembering the 1932 Ford Hunger March: Detroit Park Honors Labor and Environmental History

On March 7, workers at the Ford Rouge River plant marched for better working conditions. Almost a century later, a quiet park honors their memory.
by Paul Draus via The Conversation on April 2, 2024
Conference of Studio Unions' months-long strike against Hollywood studios in 1945.

How Hollywood’s Black Friday Strike Changed Labor Across America

A 1945 union vs. studios battle set off broad right-wing hysteria—its lessons should resonate today.
by Gerald Horne, Anthony Ballas via Zócalo Public Square on November 9, 2023
Display selling nuts

“Girls, We Can’t Lose!”: In 1930s St Louis, Black Women Workers Went on Strike and Won

During the Great Depression, St. Louis's Funsten Nut Factory was racially divided. But Black workers went on strike — and got their white coworkers to join them.
by Devin Thomas O’Shea via Jacobin on November 8, 2023
UAW workers at a strike event.

Revaluing the Strike

Rather than viewing strikes as a last-resort bargaining tactic, the labor movement must embrace them as engines of political transformation.
by Erik Baker via Jewish Currents on September 27, 2023
United Auto Workers members at a rally.

UAW Strikes Built the American Middle Class

Today’s strikers are seeking to renew the broadly shared prosperity that earlier UAW work stoppages created.
by Harold Meyerson via The American Prospect on September 18, 2023
Woman strikers marching past vandalized factory building.

The Autoworker Strikes That Changed America

The first UAW strike was in the 1930s. Over the next century, the union amassed significant power while demanding higher wages, better benefits and protections.
by Dan Rosenzweig-Ziff via Washington Post on September 16, 2023
Strikers outside Walt Disney Studios in 1941.

Disney Animators Strike During WWII Changed the Company — and Hollywood

The 1941 strike, following the spectacular success of “Snow White,” stunned Walt Disney and rattled his now-storied company.
by Francine Uenuma via Retropolis on September 4, 2023
Black and white photo of the dressmaker union on strike

Strike Waves Across the US Seem Big, but the Number of People on Strike Remains Historically Low

Many of the reasons for strikes now mirror the motives that workers had for walking off the job in decades past.
by Judith Stepan-Norris, Jasmine Kerrissey via The Conversation on August 24, 2023
Colorful abstract art

The Writers’ Strike Opens Old Wounds

The deep roots of the latest WGA strike.
by Kate Fortmueller via Los Angeles Review of Books on May 19, 2023
Inflatable rat known as "Scabby" in midtown New York City in 2019.

Scabby the Rat Is an American Labor Icon. Why Are His Manufacturers Disowning Him?

The frightening character who appears amid US union disputes can be traced back to a single factory, which wasn’t unionized.
by Tarpley Hitt via The Guardian on March 9, 2023
1877 political cartoon of a skeleton descending on a railroad, reading "the rioters' railroad to ruin."

Strikers, Octopi, and Visible Hands: The Railroad and American Capitalism

The railroad company remains a site for Americans to grapple with key questions about the nature of American capitalism.
by Scott Huffard via Clio and the Contemporary on December 20, 2022
Illustration depicting workmen and firemen dragging a fireman and engineer from a Baltimore freight train during the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad strike.

The Railway Labor Act Allowed Congress to Break the Rail Strike. We Should Get Rid of It.

Congress was able to break the rail strike last week because of a century-old law designed to weaken the disruptive power of unions.
by Nelson Lichtenstein, Andrew Yamakawa Elrod via Jacobin on December 7, 2022
Engraving of an attempt to start a freight train, under a guard of U.S. marshals during the great railway strike of 1886.

Historians' Letter to President Biden About Looming Railroad Strike

More than 500 historians signed onto this letter of support for the demands of railway workers.
on November 30, 2022
Lithograph of federal troops crushing an 1877 rail strike.

Freight-Halting Strikes Are Rare, and This Would be the First in 3 Decades

Some rail unions are resisting government pressure to accept a new employment contract, but history suggests the authorities will keep the trains running.
by Erik Loomis via The Conversation on November 22, 2022
Photo of Ella May Wiggins' five children.

The 1929 Loray Mill Strike Was a Landmark Working-Class Struggle in the US South

Murdered during the 1929 Loray Mill strike, Ella May Wiggins became a working-class martyr—and a symbol of labor’s fight to democratize the anti-union South.
by Karen Sieber via Jacobin on September 14, 2022
International Women's Day marchers in San Antonio hold signs celebrating Emma Tenayuca.

The Militant Passion of Emma Tenayuca

84 years ago this week, this Mexican American labor organizer led one of the largest strikes in Texas history—and was arrested and blacklisted for her trouble.
by Kim Kelly via The Nation on February 1, 2022
Health care workers on strike, holding picket signs.
partner

Are We Witnessing a ‘General Strike’ in Our Own Time?

W.E.B. Du Bois defined the shift from slavery to freedom as a “general strike” — and there are parallels to today.
by Nelson Lichtenstein via Made By History on November 18, 2021
Illustration of picket signs coming out of a coffin.

Picket Lines in the Graveyard

A history of cemetery workers' strikes.
by Kim Kelly via Protean on October 31, 2021
African American Women in Industry, 1939-1945.

Black Women, Sanderson Farms, and the Strike for Better Conditions

Derrion Arrington explains the strike against Sanderson Farms in Laurel, Mississippi.
by Derrion Arrington via Black Perspectives on October 4, 2021
Phil Wiggins performs at the Blair Mountain Centennial. | Rafael Barker, collection of the WV Mine Wars Museum.

The Singing Left

At a recent commemoration of the Battle of Blair Mountain in West Virginia, songs of struggle took center stage.
by Kim Kelly via The Baffler on September 21, 2021
Front-page photo of James E. Shepperson from the Black newspaper, the Seattle Republican, on Oct. 26, 1900.

How Wyoming’s Black Coal Miners Shaped Their Own History

Many early Wyoming coal towns had thriving Black communities.
by Brigida R. Blasi via High Country News on January 28, 2021
An illustration of a miner breaking off a piece of the star in the style of the "Hamilton: An American Musical" logo.

Talk Like a Red: A Labor History in Two Acts

It’s a simple process that recurs throughout history: workers see injustice, they organize each other, and they fight for change.
by Robin Kaiser-Schatzlein via The Baffler on January 5, 2021
Drawing of head of lettuce

The Lettuce Workers Strike of 1930

Uniting for better wages and working conditions, a remarkably diverse coalition of laborers faced off against agribusiness.
by Elizabeth E. Sine, Matthew Wills via JSTOR Daily on November 27, 2020

When the Seattle General Strike and the 1918 Flu Collided

The first major general strike in the United States coincided with the last major pandemic. Here’s the full story.
by Cal Winslow via Jacobin on May 1, 2020
Disney animators on strike, 1941.

Animators Brought a Guillotine to the Disney Labor Strike in 1941

It wasn’t simply a static symbol – the “blade” actually moved.
by Matt Novak via Paleofuture on November 26, 2019
Flint, Michigan sit-down strike.

The 1936 Sit-Down Strike That Shook the Auto Industry

Over 136,000 GM workers participated in the strike in Flint, Michigan that became known as 'the strike heard round the world.'
by Erin Blakemore via HISTORY on September 17, 2019

Reviving the General Strike

Organizers seeking to spark far-reaching work stoppages in the United States can invoke a powerful fact: It has happened before.
by Mark Engler via The Nation on September 1, 2019
United Mine Workers on a picket line.

The Past and Future of the American Strike

A new book tells the history of America through its workplace struggles.
by Richard Yeselson via The Nation on March 21, 2019
Railway strike of 1886.

Why Strikes Matter

On the history (and future) of class struggle in America.
by Erik Loomis via Literary Hub on October 3, 2018
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