On This Day in Working Class History

On this day, 3 April 1967 construction firm Myton, assisted by the police and the construction workers' union National Federation of Building Trades Operatives, attempted to bring in a scab workforce to replace unofficial strikers who were demanding reinstatement of victimised worker activists on the Barbican site in London. The strikers had been out for 6 months, and were threatened with expulsion from their union (which would also cost them jobs in closed shop sites). A union official who tried to support the workers was sacked by the union. Still the workers held out for over 7 more months against the employers, the unions and the police but were eventually forced to give in. 
More information and sources: https://stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/10152/myton-buses-in-barbican-scabs

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On this day, 2 April 1863, a group of women, having been refused an audience with the governor John Letcher, took to the streets of Richmond, Virginia to protest food shortages, hoarding, and the spiralling inflation in the Confederate capital. The march soon turned into a riot with government warehouses, grocery stores, and commercial establishments attacked and raided. Chants of “bread or blood” and “we celebrate our right to live — we are starving!” were reported by various eyewitnesses. Troops, deployed by the authorities, then threatened to fire upon the protestors, causing them to disperse, and over sixty women and men were arrested and tried for their participation in the riot.
More information, sources and map: https://stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/9152/richmond-bread-riot

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On this day, 1 April 1949, 6,000 workers in 11 breweries in New York City walked out on strike for a pay increase, better staffing and a 35 hour working week instead of 40. The strike lasted 2 1/2 months, and massively slashed beer production in New York, previously the capital of the production in the country, causing Wisconsin to overtake it. The drought of local brew meant that beers from the Midwestern United States managed to penetrate the market for the first time, with Blatz becoming briefly popular. They eventually won most of their demands, and a reduced working week of 37 1/2 hours.
More information, sources and map: https://stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/8037/new-york-brewery-strike

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On this day, 31 March 2009, around 40 workers in the Caterpillar factory in Grenoble, France stormed their bosses' offices and kept four of them hostage, demanding better severance packages for workers being laid off. 
Over 700 French Caterpillar workers were being made redundant. 
The action was successful, and the company increased its pot of redundancy money by €1.5 million: leading to an average payout of €80,000 per worker. 
More information, sources and map: https://stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/10383/caterpillar-bossnapping

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On this day, 30 March 1976, a general strike and mass protests were launched in Palestine and by Palestinian citizens of Israel in protest at the Israeli government seizing large amounts of land owned by Palestinians in Galilee in order to construct Jewish settlements and military facilities. 
A solidarity strike took place in most Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon. There were widespread clashes with security forces, and six unarmed demonstrators were shot by police and the military, with around 100 people wounded and hundreds of others arrested. 
The protests, and anger at the repression galvanised a sense of Palestinian solidarity in the area, and sparked greater agitation for Palestinian rights. 
While the expropriation plan was successful in proportionately reducing the Arab population of Galilee from 92% down to 72%, significant expropriations of land in the area largely ceased in the 1980s. 
30 March is now commemorated annually in Palestine and by Palestinians in Israel as Land Day with demonstrations and general strikes. 
More information, sources and map: https://stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/10311/general-strike-in-palestine

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See all of our anniversaries each day, alongside sources and maps on the On This Day section of our Stories app: stories.workingclasshistory.com/date/today
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