Today in labor history. January 12 Novelist Jack London is born. His classic definition of a scab—someone who would cross a picket line and take a strikers job: After God had finished the rattlesnake, the toad, the vampire, He had some awful substance left with which He made a scab. A scab is a two-legged animal with a cork-screw soul, a water-logged brain, a combination backbone of jelly and glue. Where others have hearts, he carries a tumor of rotten principles - 1876 2015.01.12history-working.words(Working Words: Punching the Clock and Kicking Out the Jams: Jack London had a gift for language. Here you’ll find the words of gifted rock stars, poets, filmmakers, activists, novelists, and historians about the daily grind. From the folk anthems of Bob Dylan and Woody Guthrie to the poems of Walt Whitman and Amiri Baraka; from the stories of Willa Cather and Bret Lott to the rabble-rousing work of Michael Moore, and from the White Stripes’ “The Big Three Killed My Baby” to Eminem’s “Lose Yourself,” this great collection touches upon all aspects of working-class life.) Seattle Mayor Ole Hanson orders police to raid an open-air mass meeting of shipyard workers in an attempt to prevent a general strike. Workers were brutally beaten. The strike began the following month, with 60,000 workers walking out in solidarity with some 25,000 metal tradesmen - 1919 President Roosevelt creates the National War Labor Board to mediate labor disputes during World War II. Despite the fact that 12 million of the nation’s workers were women—to rise to 18 million by war’s end—the panel consisted entirely of men - 1942 From unionist/today-in-labor-history-95 1) Jack London (John Griffith) (1876-1916), photo by Arnold Genthe. Source: jacklondon
Posted on: Tue, 13 Jan 2015 00:57:47 +0000
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