Today in Labor History July 10, 1894: The Pullman Rail Car strike was put down by 14,000 federal and state troops. Over the course of the strike, soldiers killed 70 American Railway Union (ARU) members. Eugene Debs and many others were imprisoned during the strike for violating injunctions. Debs founded the ARU in 1893. The strike began, in May, as a wildcat strike, when George Pullman laid off employees and slashed wages, while maintaining the same high rents for his company housing in the town of Pullman, as well as the excessive rates he charged for gas and water. During the strike, Debs called for a massive boycott against all trains that carried Pullman cars. While many adjacent unions opposed the boycott, including the conservative American Federation of Labor, the boycott nonetheless affected virtually all train transport west of Detroit. Debs also called for a General Strike, which Samuel Gompers and the AFL blocked. At its height, over 200,000 railway workers walked off the job, halting dozens of lines, and workers set fire to buildings, boxcars and coal cars, and derailed locomotives. Clarence Darrow successfully defended Debs in court against conspiracy charges, arguing that it was the railways who met in secret and conspired against their opponents. However, they lost in their Supreme Court trial for violating a federal injunction.

By the 1950s, the town of Pullman had been incorporated into the city of Chicago. Debs became a socialist after the strike, running for president of the U.S. five times on the Socialist Party ticket, twice from prison. In 1905, he cofounded the radical IWW, along with Lucy Parsons, Mother Jones, Big Bill Haywood and Irish revolutionary James Connolly. In 1894, President Cleveland designated Labor Day a federal holiday, in order to detract from the more radical May 1st, which honored the Haymarket martyrs and the struggle for the 8-hour day. Legislation for the holiday was pushed through Congress six days after the Pullman strike ended, with the enthusiastic support of Gompers and the AFL.

http://www.citucentre.org/914-congratulations-to-workers-farmers-agri-workersand-the-people-at-large-for-the-grand-success-of-the-nationwide-general-strike-on-09thjuly-2025

The 50501 groups from NC and SC are both promoting a one day #GeneralStrike on 8/1 to protest ICE.

NC #GeneralStrike August 1st. One day strike to protest ICE.

‘Desperate Times Call For Desperate Measures’: Poet Lynae Vanee Calls For A General Strike Over Trump’s ‘Big Beautiful Bill’ https://shinemycrown.com/desperate-times-call-for-desperate-measures-poet-lynae-vanee-calls-for-a-general-strike-over-trumps-big-beautiful-bill/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=mastodon #GeneralStrike #LynaeVanee #Trump #Activism #EssenceFest

. Most of your city council and school board races go uncontested. Win those seats with bold, values-driven candidates no party needed. Change starts at the roots. #Change #LocalElections #Midterms #government #GeneralStrike .

. The Matrix loves when you “don’t have time.” Because rest leads to reflection, & reflection leads to rebellion. Clear one hour. Lay flat. Think dangerous thoughts. #Rebel #TheMatrix #StandUp #GeneralStrike .

Until someone comes up with a better idea, I'm going to keep pushing for a General Strike. Outside of actual revolution, it's the only plan I see that has a chance.

#GeneralStrike
Sign the Strike Card

https://generalstrikeus.com/

Today in Labor History July 5, 1934: Two strikers were shot and killed and more than 100 were injured by San Francisco police in what came to be known as "Bloody Thursday," leading to one of the last General Strikes in U.S. history. The West Coast maritime strike lasted 84 days and spread from San Pedro, in Los Angeles Country up to Puget Sound, in Washington. One of the strike leaders in San Francisco was Harry Bridges, a former member of the IWW who had immigrated from Australia. Teamsters supported the strike by refusing to handle “hot” cargo that had been unloaded by scabs. 7-9 workers, in total, were killed during these strikes (in San Pedro, Seattle, Portland, and San Francisco); over 1000 were injured; and over 500 were arrested. In San Francisco, the National Guard, along with vigilantes, patrolled the streets with armored vehicles with machine guns mounted on them.

I used to have a neighbor who was a lifelong member of the typographical union. A really big guy named Herb, who told me that his most vivid memory of the strike was that the streets had become white from all the milk being dumped by dairy delivery drivers, in solidarity with the striking maritime workers.

The ILWU Mural General Strike Sculpture/Mural was created in 1984-86 to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the 1934 SF General Strike. The artists were Miranda Bergman, Tina Dresher, Nicole Emanuel, Lari Kilolani, James Morgan, Ray Patlán, Eduardo Pineda, James Prigoff, O'Brien Thiele, Horace Washington. The artwork now stands at the corner of Mission and Steuart Streets, in the old Rincon Hill neighborhood, the epicenter of the 1934 San Francisco Waterfront Strike and Bloody Thursday. This photo of the artwork was taken by James Prigoff, and can be found in the Found SF project: https://www.foundsf.org/Artist!_Mike_Mosher

I’ve included a close-up of the artwork in its current home, at Mission and Steuart Streets, along with a commemorative plaque (both photos by me). The plaque reads:

“In memory of Howard Sperry and Nick Bordoise, who gave their lives on Bloody Thursday, July 5, 1934, so that all working people might enjoy a greater measure of dignity and security.

Sperry and Bordoise were fatally shot by San Francisco police at the intersection of Mission and Steuart Streets, when longshoremen and seamen attempted to stop maritime employers from breaking their joint strike. Community outrage at these killings sparked a General Strike by all San Francisco unions.

The maritime strike continued through the middle of the summer, concluding with a union victory which brought decent conditions to the shipping industry and set the stage for the rebirth of a strong and democratic labor movement on the west cost.

An Injury to One is an Injury to all.”

1997 Mural of the 1934 SF General Strike, by Chuck Sperry, inside the Redstone Building, at 2926-48 16th St, in San Francisco’s Mission District. The mural depicts workers talking and reading, with a zoomed-in bubble showing the two longshoremen (Nick Bordoise and Howard Sperry) killed in the strike, lying on the pavement in a pool of blood.

The Redstone Building is also known as the Labor Temple. It has been home to numerous lefty activist organizations, including an IWW office and the now defunct pirate radio station, Radio X. The building was a center of San Francisco labor organizing for decades. In 1916, there were 54 different labor organizations based there.

Today in Labor History July 5, 1934: Two strikers were shot and killed and more than 100 were injured by San Francisco police in what came to be known as "Bloody Thursday," leading to one of the last General Strikes in U.S. history. The governor called in the National Guard to suppress the strike by the International Longshoremen’s & Warehousemen’s Union (ILWU). Police and Guard violence led to 43 injuries due to clubbing and gas, and 30 more for bullet wounds. Two chemical companies used the unrest as an opportunity to test and sell their wares. Joseph Roush, from Federal Laboratories, shot a long-range tear gas shell at the strikers. He then told his company, "I might mention that during one of the riots, I shot a long-range projectile into a group, a shell hitting one man and causing a fracture of the skull, from which he has since died. As he was a Communist, I have had no feeling in the matter and I am sorry that I did not get more."

Mike Quinn wrote about the strike in his 1949 book, “The Big Strike.” Quinn was a working-class journalist and novelist. He was an active member of the Communist Party and a writer for the ILWU.

#WorkingClass #LaborHistory #GeneralStrike #SanFrancisco #longshoremen #BloodyThursday #ilwu #riots #communism #massacre #police #PoliceBrutality #acab #writer #author #fiction #novel @bookstadon