Category Archives: History

This Week in History: The Strike at McKees Rocks

Posted on July 15, 2011 by Katie

by K. Wilson On July 13, 1909, the long-suffering immigrant workers in the riveting department of the Pressed Steel Car Company plant at McKees Rocks, Pennsylvania, approached the company offices with a list of grievances. They were rebuffed, so they … Continue reading →

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Outlines of a History of Community

Posted on May 25, 2011 by Scott

 by S. Myers In What Is Community? we defined community as – shared administration of shared resources. We illustrated this by the example of the agricultural village. While this was the predominant form of community that capitalism initially came into … Continue reading →

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Tales from the Class Struggle: Christine Ellis

Posted on May 8, 2011 by Katie

Here we present an autobiographical essay in which Christine Ellis describes her upbringing and her experiences as an organizer in the Midwestern United States during the 1930s. This essay is the first chapter of the book Rank and File: Personal Histories by Working-Class Organizers, edited by Alice and Staughton Lynd (1973). Continue reading →

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This Week in History: May Day and the Haymarket Affair

Posted on April 30, 2011 by Katie

This week marks the 125th anniversary of the events that turned May 1 into International Workers’ Day. Continue reading →

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Solidarity Unionism II: What Went Wrong?

Posted on April 4, 2011 by Katie

The half century from 1900 to 1950 was the formative period of industrial unionism. It was also a time of disappointed radical hopes. Continue reading →

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This Week in History: The Paris Commune

Posted on March 28, 2011 by Katie

This week marks the 140th anniversary of the proclamation of the Paris Commune. Continue reading →

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This Week in History: The Great Southwest Railroad Strike

Posted on March 4, 2011 by Katie

This week marks the 125th anniversary of the Great Southwest Railroad Strike of 1886. Continue reading →

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This Week in History: The Springtime of Peoples

Posted on February 22, 2011 by Katie

This week in February 1848, events in Paris set off a wave of uprisings and revolutions across Europe, the so-called ‘Springtime of Peoples’. Continue reading →

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