Working Class History

Media On this day, 20 September 1961, 22 unions representing workers at Ford motors in the UK decided to initiate strike action in protest at an attack on workers' tea breaks. Management had offered a pay increase and 40-hour week if workers gave up their 10-minute morning tea break, and instead drank tea while they worked. The offer was unanimously rejected, and unions began steps towards the first official all-out strike of all unionised workers at Ford in Britain.However, when management came back with an offer to just reduce the length of tea breaks to 5 minutes, the union officials agreed, without consulting the workers. So the workers began a guerrilla campaign of on-the-job action: instead of one person collecting cups of tea for their whole team, each worker lined up individually and made sure to pay with large notes so they had to be given a lot of change – this often dragged out the tea break to 30 minutes or more. Later they simply began sitting down and taking a 10-minute break in defiance of management's instructions.By March the following year management caved in and reinstated the previous 10-minute break, however they did so while declaring "This means no victory for either side". The journal, Solidarity for Workers' Power, reported that: "the Ford workers found this comment strange, for it was certainly not a defeat for the men who defied both management and unions and 'sat it out' for 10 minutes every morning."We have produced mugs and other items commemorating workers' struggles for tea breaks to help fund our work. Check them out here: https://shop.workingclasshistory.com/collections/all/tea To access this hyperlink, click our link in bio then click this photoPictured: Ford workers discussing the strike

Media On 19 September 1952, musician, producer and former Black Panther, Nile Rodgers was born in New York.As a teenager, Rodgers joined the Harlem group of the Black Panther Party (BPP), after moving to the left during the turbulent events of the 1960s. Rodgers told Huck Magazine: “I started out as a peacenik hippy, and from that, I got more and more politicised, more and more radical. Finally, one day the national guard beats you up, and you say, ‘Wait a minute, I didn’t do anything.’”Rodgers rapidly became a section leader of the BPP due to his martial arts skills. He later recounted to the Guardian newspaper:“The day I became a Panther, I had to stand security for Sister Betty Shabazz, Malcolm X’s widow. Very first day!”Rodgers also explained what being part of the organisation meant in practical terms: “being a Panther was making breakfast, fixing people’s houses, washing the streets. That’s what we really did.”The same drive which motivated Rodgers’ activism, influenced his musical career:“When I grew up, it felt like the beginning of the women’s movement, the gay movement, the civil rights movement ramping up. I’ll never forget when I walked into a disco for the first time… and saw gay people, Latin people, Asian people, Black people and white people all dancing and having a blast. I remember thinking to myself, ‘Wow, this is more political than anything I’d ever been involved in, more than anything I’d ever seen.’ The whole concept on any movement I’d been in was to bring people over to your side. I walked into a disco and saw all these disparate people getting along, within about an hour, I knew I wanted to be a part of that.”At the time, like many young people, Rodgers was very optimistic: “I thought America would become this beautiful utopian place. Of course, it never happened.” Learn more about the Panthers in these books by former members: https://shop.workingclasshistory.com/collections/books/black-panthers To access this hyperlink, click our link in bio then click this photo

Media On this day, 19 September 1893, following two decades of struggle, women in Aotearoa/New Zealand won the right to vote in parliamentary elections. Māori and working class women had played an important role in the women's suffrage movement, and the right to vote was achieved by all, not just white women or property owners like in some countries.Meri Te Tai Mangakāhia (pictured) was an important Māori women’s rights activist at the time, who delivered an address to the Māori Parliament (Kotahitanga) calling for women’s right to vote, and argued that: “There are many women who are knowledgeable of the management of land where their husbands are not.” She also suggested that as many petitions to the Queen by male leaders had gone unanswered, “Perhaps the Queen may listen to the petitions if they are presented by her Māori sisters, since she is a woman as well.”Māori women won the right to vote in the Kotahitanga in 1897.More information, sources and map: https://stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/9148/all-women-in-nz-win-right-to-vote * If you enjoy our social media posts be sure to check out our podcasts. In our flagship longform podcast, Working Class History, we speak with participants in social movements about their experiences, and our daily mini podcast, On This Day in Working Class History, has one of our anniversaries each day. We also have a website and map containing thousands of our stories with full sources. All of our work is funded by you, our readers and listeners, on Patreon. To learn more and support us check out our links in our bio.

Media On this day, 18 September 1974, Flora Sanhueza Rebolledo, Chilean teacher and anarchist died as a result of the torture she suffered at the hands of the right-wing regime of general Augusto Pinochet. She was 63. Earlier in life she travelled to Spain in 1935 and took part in the social revolution during the civil war which began the following year. After the fascist victory, she fled to France, where she was interned as a political prisoner until 1942. Sanhueza Rebolledo returned to Chile and, inspired by working class cultural associations of the earlier part of the century, she founded Ateneo Libertario Luisa Michel in Iquique for female weavers. Given the fact that this was during the dictatorship of Gabriel Gonzalez Videla and there was right-wing persecution of anarchists and communists, much of her work virtually took place in hiding. In 1953 it opened its door to children of working women too, changing its name to the Escuela Libertaria Luisa Michel (named after Paris communard and anarchist Louise Michel). At its peak, it had more than 70 regular students, but it closed its doors in 1957. Sanhueza Rebolledo was arrested and tortured following Pinochet's US-backed coup. Placed under house arrest, she subsequently died as a result of the injuries she sustained under torture. More information, sources and map: https://stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/9057/flora-sanhueza-rebolledo-dies-from-torture * If you value our social media posts be sure to check out our podcasts. In our flagship longform podcast, Working Class History, we speak with participants in social movements about their experiences, and our daily mini podcast, On This Day in Working Class History, has one of our anniversaries each day. We also have a website and map containing thousands of our stories with full sources. All of our work is funded by you, our readers and listeners, on Patreon. To learn more and support us check out our links in our bio.

Media On this day, 18 September 1990 during the Kanesatake resistance (also known as the Oka crisis), Canadian soldiers and Québec police attempted to invade the Kahnawake reservation. Kanyen'kehà:ka (Mohawk) First Nations people had been attempting to block the construction of a golf course and housing on their ancestral land since July 11.On September 18 Canadian colonial forces landed on Tekakwitha Island and attempted to invade the reservation, but were met by hundreds of Kanyen'kehà:ka people who resisted them. Soldiers fired tear gas and warning shots with live bullets, and struck people with rifle butts, but Kanyen'kehà:ka people fought back with rocks.After seven hours of fighting, the police and soldiers were forced to retreat by helicopter. 75 Kanyen'kehà:ka people were injured, as were 22 soldiers.Learn more about Indigenous resistance in the Americas in episodes 88-89 of our podcast: https://workingclasshistory.com/podcast/e88-89-indigenous-resistance-since-1992/ To access this hyperlink, click our link in bio # 1 then click this photo

Media On this day, 18 September 1944, Donato Carretta, who had until recently been the governor of Rome's Regina Coeli prison during the Nazi occupation of the Italian capital, was attacked by a crowd of people and thrown into the River Tiber, where he drowned.Caretta had decided to turn up at the trial of Pietro Caruso, Nazi-occupied Rome's chief of police, who had ordered the arrest of all the city's Jews and been complicit in the Ardeatine massacre of 335 anti-fascist partisans. Regina Coeli was where many Roman Jews were subsequently imprisoned and many of those killed in the Ardeatine massacre had also been prisoners there.Upon spotting Carretta, the crowd (many of whom were relatives of those executed) were overcome with rage at his presence: they overpowered police and dragged Carretta out of the court, beating him as they went. After being thrown into the Tiber and drowning, his body was taken to his old jail, tied to a railing, and left there.Learn more about the Italian resistance to fascism in our podcast episodes 77-80: https://workingclasshistory.com/podcast/e77-80-italian-resistance/To access this hyperlink, click our link in bio then click this photo

Media On this day, 18 September 1944, Donato Carretta, who had until recently been the governor of Rome's Regina Coeli prison during the Nazi occupation of the Italian capital, was attacked by a crowd of people and thrown into the River Tiber, where he drowned.Caretta had decided to turn up at the trial of Pietro Caruso, Nazi-occupied Rome's chief of police, who had ordered the arrest of all the city's Jews and been complicit in the Ardeatine massacre of 335 anti-fascist partisans. Regina Coeli was where many Roman Jews were subsequently imprisoned and many of those killed in the Ardeatine massacre had also been prisoners there.Upon spotting Carretta, the crowd (many of whom were relatives of those executed) were overcome with rage at his presence: they overpowered police and dragged Carretta out of the court, beating him as they went. After being thrown into the Tiber and drowning, his body was taken to his old jail, tied to a railing, and left there.Learn more about the Italian resistance to fascism in our podcast episodes 77-80: https://workingclasshistory.com/podcast/e77-80-italian-resistance/To access this hyperlink, click our link in bio then click this photo

Media We have added a bunch of great books to our online store on how to organise in our workplaces and communities to fight for a better world. We've got organising guides, accounts of organising, and looks at strategies to fight and win. With global shipping. Check them out at https://shop.workingclasshistory.com/collections/all/organising To access this hyperlink, click our link in bio # 1 then click this photo

Media We have added a bunch of great books to our online store on how to organise in our workplaces and communities to fight for a better world. We've got organising guides, accounts of organising, and looks at strategies to fight and win. With global shipping. Check them out at https://shop.workingclasshistory.com/collections/all/organising To access this hyperlink, click our link in bio # 1 then click this photo

Media On this day, 17 September 1849, legendary abolitionist Harriet Tubman and her brothers, Ben and Henry, escaped from slavery in Maryland. After the escape, Ben and Henry decided to go back, which essentially made Tubman return as well. But, not long later, Harriet Tubman escaped once more and travelled to Philadelphia. In the years following her escape, she worked tirelessly to save money to return and free more enslaved people: rescuing around 70 people in 13 missions through the underground railroad. Tubman later helped John Brown recruit fighters for an insurrection at Harpers Ferry. During the civil war, Tubman became the first woman to lead an armed attack during the conflict, playing a leading role in the Combahee River raid in which over 750 enslaved people were rescued. Later in life, Tubman remained active active in the women's rights movement until her death in 1913.More information, sources and map: https://stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/8941/harriet-tubman-escapes-slavery * If you enjoy our social media posts be sure to check out our podcasts. In our flagship longform podcast, Working Class History, we speak with participants in social movements about their experiences, and our daily mini podcast, On This Day in Working Class History, has one of our anniversaries each day. We also have a website and map containing thousands of our stories with full sources. All of our work is funded by you, our readers and listeners, on Patreon. To learn more and support us check out our links in our bio.