On This Day in Working Class History

On this day, 18 September 1809, the old price riots began in the Covent Garden Theatre in London during the opening night of Macbeth in protest at increased prices at the newly reopened venue. The original theatre had burned down, and when it reopened standard ticket prices had increased from 3 shillings and sixpence to 4 shillings. After the play ended, the audience refused to leave so the owner,...

On this day, 17 September 1941, the Canadian government essentially made all strikes in "war industries" illegal. The new order further made it that if any worker went on strike contrary to the new regulations, or encouraged or incited others to strike, then they would be liable to a fine of $500, twelve months in prison, or both. More information, sources and map: https://stories.workingclasshist...

On this day, 16 September 1937, ten young migrants from Achill Island, Ireland died in a shed fire in Kirkintilloch, Scotland. A group of 26 young migrant workers, many of whom were siblings, were part of the many migrants looking for temporary work during the height of the harvest season.  The victims were from 13 to 23-years-old and slept in quarters arranged with the boys in a shed with inverte...

On this day, 15 September 1978, a strike of 11,600 workers in Sudbury, Canada, began after the mining company Inco Ltd. proposed layoffs and cuts to pay and benefits. Concessions won were a "thirty-and-out" policy (whereby workers with thirty years at the company could retire with a full pension, regardless of age) as well as most miners receiving a wage increase. Nearly 9 months in length, it was...

On 14 September 1889 a rebellion of Black miners began on Navassa Island, a US territory in the Caribbean. 137 Black workers from the US had been hired to mine guano, then a crucial agricultural fertiliser, working under 11 white supervisors. The island was completely under the management of the Navassa Phosphate Company of Baltimore, Maryland. Eventually, dangerous, racist and abusive conditions...

On this day, 13 September 1943, workers on the Belle Vue Harel sugar estate in Mauritius went on strike demanding a pay increase.  After sugar strikes in 1937, the British colonial government set up a conciliation mechanism for industrial disputes. At conciliation, two representatives of the workers agreed to a proposal from the sugar planters to end the dispute, but they did this without consulti...

On this day, 12 September 2012 (content note: sexual violence), TV channels broadcast video showing systemic torture and sexual assault of inmates in the Gldani prison number eight in Tbilisi, Georgia, resulting in mass protests.  Thousands of people took to the streets of Tbilisi that night, while friends and relatives of those imprisoned headed to the prison. Protests also erupted in other citie...

On this day, 11 September 2017, in Nairobi, Kenya, drivers for rideshare services Taxify, Little and Mondo-Ride joined Uber drivers on an indefinite strike demanding a cut in commission rates.  Earlier in the year, Uber had been forced to increase fares by 20% after a series of protests and strikes by drivers, but the increases failed to make up for a 30% reduction the firm made to try to undercut...

On this day, 10 September 1979, McDonald's workers in Dublin, Ireland ended their six-month strike and returned to work after winning a 24% pay increase and forcing the company to agree to Labour Court recommendations. More information, sources and map: https://stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/8260/dublin-mcdonald's-strikers-win-concessions Our work is only possible because of support from...

On this day, 9 September 1739, the Stono rebellion began in South Carolina, the largest uprising of enslaved people in the mainland British colonies. A literate enslaved man named Jemmy (or Cato) marched with 22 others, mostly from central Africa, brandishing a banner bedecked with the word "Liberty!" and attacked a store seizing weapons and ammunition. They planned to head to Florida, where Spani...

On this day, 8 September 1941 the Norwegian Melkestreiken (milk strike) took place against the occupying Nazi authorities. Workers arriving for work on Monday found that their already-reduced milk ration had been cut completely. Workers at a shipyard and a steelworks spontaneously walked out after breakfast, and over the next two days the stoppage spread to around 50 workplaces and 20-25,000 worke...

On this day, 7 September 1977, violent clashes took place between workers and bosses’ thugs at a machine-tool factory in Mohan Nagar, India. Workers protested against unfair deductions to wages outside the plant but were attacked by armed security guards. Local workers and passers-by joined the demonstration and the guards opened fire, triggering violent response from the crowd who burned down the...

On this day, 6 September 2008, 27,000 Boeing assembly workers went on strike over pay and outsourcing. The workers, based in Kansas, Oregon, and Washington stayed out for eight weeks, costing the company $100 million per day, until they won a 15% pay increase over 4 years, and more opportunities to challenge the company's use of outside contractors. More information, sources and map: https://stori...

On 5 September 2013 it was reported that South African workers employed in the construction of the Saint Helena airport went on strike. Reportedly, workers were unhappy with prefabricated steel huts which were to be their accommodation. It is unclear how the dispute concluded, although the airport was constructed on time and completed in 2016. More information, sources and map: https://stories.wor...

On this day, 4 September 1936, employees walked off the job at Trocadero Grill in Vancouver, demanding a wage increase. Bosses hired scabs to replace the striking workers, but customers supported the strike with a boycott. After one week, management agreed to the strikers' demands, but only four of the strikers were rehired. These four would subsequently organise the other new workers into the uni...

On this day, 3 September 1940, Uruguayan radical author and journalist Eduardo Hughes Galeano was born in Montevideo. He was imprisoned following the military coup in the country in 1973, and forced into exile in Argentina. His book Open Veins of Latin America was banned by governments in Uruguay as well as Chile and Argentina. After the US-backed military coup in Argentina, he was again forced to...

On this day, 2 September 1963 workers at Philippines Airlines walked out on strike. Within a few days, major international airlines were forced to boycott Manila airport to avoid disruption from pickets. The government of Diosdado Macapagal, which was supported by the left-wing Partido Komunista ng Pilipinas (Communist Party) and Lapiang Manggagawa (Workers Party), ordered the workers to return to...

On this day, 1 September 1974, Puerto Rican attendees at a Labour Day event in Newark, New Jersey rioted against police after years of brutality, as well as poor living and economic standards. An argument between festival goers and police escalated when an officer's horse knocked over a game table. The police department mobilized virtually its entire 1,500‐member force as hostilities and tensions...

On this day, 31 August 1972, a meeting of striking building workers in the Chester and North Wales Action Committee was held at the Bull & Stirrup pub in Chester, North West England. During this meeting, it was decided to send six coaches of striking building workers to Shrewsbury the following week to picket construction sites which hadn't yet come out on strike. That day would prove fateful...

On this day, 30 August, 1908, union officials of the United Mine Workers called off a strike by Black and white coalminers in Birmingham, Alabama, four days after the Governor sent in the army to evict the strikers' tent colony and following a violent campaign of repression. Despite this, workers attempted to continue the stoppage but they were sadly defeated. Armed thugs terrorised the strikers,...

On this day, 29 August 2016, 600 oil refinery workers on the Caribbean island of Curaçao walked out demanding a pay increase. The strike continued for over two weeks, until a general strike broke out in its support. Faced with closed schools, shops, and no electricity, the employers caved in.  More information, sources and map: https://stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/10083/cura%C3%A7ao-oil...

On this day, 28 August 1968 in Chicago, Black bus drivers in the city went on wildcat strike against their racist union, the Amalgamated Transit Workers. While 80% of drivers were Black, the union leadership was white, and did not heed the concerns of Black workers. White scab drivers kept services running in wealthier areas. In this article about the Democratic National Convention protests the sa...

On this day, 27 August 1889, the great strike of East End Jewish tailors in London began during a dockers' strike.  8,000 workers, mostly Jewish immigrants from Russia, elected a strike committee and walked out, demanding a maximum 12-hour working day (they were working 14-18 hours).  Despite the antipathy of the dockers' union leader, predominantly Irish Catholic dockers donated to the strike fun...

On this day, 26 August 1972, Falkirk FC was due to play against Montrose in a Scottish League Cup football match, but Falkirk players had gone on strike and stated they would refuse to play unless a financial penalty imposed by their manager was rescinded. Players, led by later Manchester United manager Alex Ferguson, walked out during a prior training session, after manager Willie Cunningham with...

On this day, 25 August 1921, the Battle of Blair Mountain, the largest armed rebellion in the US since the civil war, began in West Virginia. Miners and their supporters had been killed in Welch and Sharples, and other miners were being held in jail under martial law in Mingo County, the last anti-union stronghold in the southern part of the state. Thousands of striking coal miners, dubbed "rednec...