Working Class History

Description

History is not made by kings, politicians, or a few rich individuals—it is made by all of us. From the temples of ancient Egypt to spacecraft orbiting Earth, workers and ordinary people everywhere have walked out, sat down, risen up, and fought back against exploitation, discrimination, colonization, and oppression.

Working Class History presents a distinct selection of people’s history through hundreds of “on this day in history” anniversaries that are as diverse and international as the working class itself. Women, young people, people of color, workers, migrants, Indigenous people, LGBT+ people, disabled people, older people, the unemployed, home workers, and every other part of the working class have organized and taken action that has shaped our world, and improvements in living and working conditions have been won only by years of violent conflict and sacrifice. These everyday acts of resistance and rebellion highlight just some of those who have struggled for a better world and provide lessons and inspiration for those of us fighting in the present. Going day by day, this book paints a picture of how and why the world came to be as it is, how some have tried to change it, and the lengths to which the rich and powerful have gone to maintain and increase their wealth and influence.

This handbook of grassroots movements, curated by the popular Working Class History project, features many hidden histories and untold stories, reinforced with inspiring images, further reading, and a foreword from legendary author and dissident Noam Chomsky.

Sujets

• Social History
• Histoire
• History

Informations

• Publié par: PM Press
• Date de parution: 01 décembre 2020
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781629638393
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 5 Mo

Extrait

This ingenious archive of working class history, organized as an extended calendar, overflows with both little and better-known events. Reading through the text, the power, fury, and persistence of the working class struggles shine. Working class is broader than unions and job struggles; rather, it includes all emancipatory acts of working class people, be they Indigenous peoples fighting for land rights, African Americans massively protesting against police killings, anticolonial liberation movements, women rising up angry, or mass mobilizations worldwide against imperialist wars. It is international in scope, as is the working class. This is a book the reader will open every day to recall and be inspired by what occurred on that date. I love the book and will look forward to the daily readings.
-Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, author of An Indigenous Peoples History of the United States (Beacon Press 2015)
One thing most people in the world have in common-whatever our gender, race, age, culture, or condition-is that we have to work for a living, and most of us have to work for someone else. That means either we have to obey their will or find ways to resist it. This book provides a panoramic compendium of that resistance. I ve been studying and writing about labor history for more than half a century, but I ve never even heard about most of these thousand or more strikes, uprisings, and protests from around the world-or about the violence that was so often used against them. I ve found this book an easy and fun way to fill that gap.
-Jeremy Brecher, author of Strike! 50th Anniversary Edition (PM Press 2020)
The Working Class History project has hit upon a novel way to communicate our shared history to a new generation of budding radicals and working class revolutionaries and, with this book, presents centuries of solidarity and rebellion in an easily digestible (and endlessly engrossing) catalogue of dissent. They make it clear that today s victories build upon yesterday s struggles, and that to push forward into the liberated, equitable future we want, we must remember how far we ve come-and reckon with how much further there is to go.
-Kim Kelly, journalist and labor columnist at Teen Vogue
A perfect present for busy activists. Just a few minutes a day is all it takes to learn fascinating and often poignant facts about working class history. As I ve come to expect from our friends at Working Class History, the content is global, diverse, and clear, bringing to our attention our history, which has so often been ignored, neglected, or misrepresented. Buy a copy for yourself too!
-Mike Jackson, cofounder of Lesbians and Gays Support the Miners
I ve learned so much from reading Working Class History . It s a fountainhead of vital and inspiring information about the international class struggle and a crucial antidote to the twenty-first-century post-truth right-wing media blitz 2 4/7 assault on our senses. It s important to have revolutionary heroes and knowledge of past struggles to inspire the rebel souls of the future. Long may Working Class History inspire!
-Bobby Gillespie, lead singer of Primal Scream
Working Class History is essential reading for those seeking awareness of people who made history in efforts and events meant to create a better world.
-John O Brien, Stonewall rebellion participant, Gay Liberation Front cofounder
How do I love Working Class History ? Let me count some of the ways! This collection lets us honor our dead and fight for the living. It allows us to go on romantic revolutionary dates. It is a daily inspirational affirmation, yet with substance. It reminds us to be brave and bold, and that much is always possible even in the bleakest of times. The book is love embodied, making you want to embrace each and every rebel ancestor.
-Cindy Milstein, author of Paths Toward Utopia (PM Press 2012)
In a time when the historical consciousness of grassroots Americans often seems headed for oblivion, this book is vitally important. Pick a day of the month, turn to the corresponding page, and find one or more no-nonsense synopses of historical moments when ordinary folk engaged in extraordinary struggles, often with extraordinary results. The editors bare-bones approach is refreshingly utilitarian, their unwavering focus on the power of the people to compel constructive change inspiring. Working Class History is an essential reference.
-Ward Churchill, author of Wielding Words Like Weapons: Selected Essays in Indigenism, 1995-2005 (PM Press 2017)
No radical should be without this exhilarating reminder that ordinary people have dared to struggle, often won, and remade our world in the process. Read it, reread it, and fight on.
-Sasha Lilley, host of Against the Grain
This indispensable daybook of the class struggle provides a storehouse of history from below, which when consulted on the day steadies us and readies us for the morrow.
-Peter Linebaugh, author of The Incomplete, True, Authentic, and Wonderful History of May Day (PM Press 2016)
Conventional histories treat discussion of class war as irrelevant or pass . Working Class History puts class struggle front and center. Activists, scholars, students, journalists, and the public will find its precise documentation of decades of struggle invaluable.
-Dan Georgakas, coauthor of Detroit: I Do Mind Dying: A Study in Urban Revolution (Haymarket Books 2012)
Working Class History is of enormous benefit, especially since it denotes events, organizations, and individuals on a particular day of the year. What a wonderful concept, and it should be of special benefit for those interested in the struggles of working class people in their fight for freedom and justice.
-Herb Boyd, former member of the League of Revolutionary Black Workers, author of Black Detroit: A People s History of Self-Determination (Amistad 2017)
This is an unusual and fascinating book. Working Class History tells the collective tales of the imagination and energy of working class rebels, as well as showing the price paid by working class people who resisted and subverted the demands of labor and capital.
-Andrej Gruba i , professor of anthropology at CIIS-San Francisco, coauthor of Wobblies and Zapatistas (PM Press 2008) and Living at the Edges of Capitalism: Adventures in Exile and Mutual Aid (University of California Press 2016)
Capitalist society does not encourage information or ideas that contradict its purpose. Working class history is not taught in our schools for this reason. Often it is lost and forgotten. Working Class History have listened for these stories, researched and documented them, and now presents them for us to witness and cherish in the light of our reality. This book provides fuel for our souls, and for this I thank the editors.
-Al Glatkowski, Vietnam Veterans Against the War, Columbia Eagle mutineer
By recounting day-to-day struggles, the editors of this important book concretely reveal that social progress is the legacy of centuries of people s blood, sweat, and tears. While billionaires may today claim ownership of humanity s vast social wealth, the events detailed here reveal the outlines of a better future.
-George Katsiaficas, author of The Global Imagination of 1968: Revolution and Counterrevolution (PM Press 2018)
Working Class History is a wonderful global collection of stories of fierce workers resistance and rebellion that comes at a critical time, as power s policies worldwide continue to consolidate obscene wealth for the few on the backs of workers and the environment. This collection challenges the dominant histories and the splashy headlines of the self-made industry titans to reveal the narrative of international exploited workers who refused to obey, fighting instead against great odds for their basic rights and dignity and ultimately for workers collective liberation.
-scott crow, author of Black Flags and Windmills: Hope, Anarchy, and the Common Ground Collective (PM Press 2014)

Working Class History: Everyday Acts of Resistance Rebellion
2020 Working Class History
This edition 2020 PM Press
All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in critical publications or reviews, no part of this book may be reproduced, used, or stored in any information retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise in any manner without prior written permission from the publisher.
ISBN: 978-1-62963-823-2 (print)
ISBN: 978-1-62963-839-3 (ebook)
Library of Congress Control Number: 2020934730
Cover by Michael Oswell
Interior design by briandesign
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
PM Press
PO Box 23912
Oakland, CA 94623
www.pmpress.org
Printed in the USA.
Contents
FOREWORD
Introduction
Acknowledgments
January
February
March
April
May
June
July
August
September
October
November
December
POSTSCRIPT
REFERENCES
INDEX
Foreword
Noam Chomsky
My personal engagements with social movements have been mostly with anti-war mobilization and resistance and with solidarity movements globally, in Latin America, Asia, and the Middle East. But apart from these, from childhood the movements that I ve found truly inspiring have been workers struggles. I grew up during the Great Depression, and vivid childhood memories range from security forces violently attacking women picketing a textile plant to the crucial role of union membership in the lives of my (mostly unemployed) extended family. And, at barely a step removed, as a child I followed closely the leading role of militant union activist