NYC’s largest homeless youth nonprofit has spent 4 years fighting its own workers’ union. A federal judge issued an injunction and by all accounts they appear to be violating it. A contempt motion is pending. Meanwhile the workers making $18/hour are still waiting for a first contract.

In the summer of 1881, just 16 years after the end of the Civil War, a group of Black washerwomen in Atlanta, Georgia, organized one of the largest and most successful labor actions by African Americans in the 19th century.

These women performed backbreaking work. They collected laundry from white households, carried heavy loads, washed clothes by hand in iron pots over open fires, scrubbed them on washboards, boiled, rinsed, starched, ironed, and delivered them — often for as little as $4 to $8 per month. The work was exhausting, undervalued, and left many in poverty.

On July 19, 1881, 20 determined washerwomen met in a local Black church and formed the Washing Society. They demanded respect, greater autonomy over their labor, and a uniform rate of $1 per dozen pounds of laundry so no woman would be undercut. Within three weeks, their numbers swelled to 3,000 strikers through door-to-door organizing and support from Black ministers across the city.

The strike disrupted Atlanta at a critical moment — right before the International Cotton Exposition, a major world’s fair expected to bring thousands of visitors. City officials and business owners pushed back hard: strikers were arrested, fined, threatened with chain-gang labor, and faced rent increases from landlords. The local newspaper The Atlanta Constitution initially mocked them, calling them “Washing Amazons.”

Yet the women held firm. They held mass meetings, built a strike fund, and even issued an ultimatum to the mayor. In early August, they offered to pay a $25 license fee in exchange for the right to control their own work and rates.

Faced with the threat of a broader service workers’ strike (cooks, maids, and waiters were also showing support), the city eventually conceded. The washerwomen gained higher wages, greater autonomy, and a stronger collective voice.

This strike stands as a powerful early example of Black women’s labor organizing in the post-Reconstruction South — a testament to courage, solidarity, and quiet determination against overwhelming odds.

What are your thoughts on this largely overlooked chapter of labor and civil rights history?

"I Worked Hard. I Just Wanted to Be Paid Fairly." | GANGBOX: Construction Workers News Service

Support a worker fighting for his rights with your help https://www.gofundme.com/f/support-celsos-fight-for-workers-rights

Support a worker fighting for his rights with your help https://www.gofundme.com/f/support-celsos-fight-for-workers-rights

americanyawp.comOpen

This strike, in its day, was what everyone in the U.S. was talking about. The strike started on Thursday, January 11, 1912, when Polish workers at the Everett Mill walked out, after receiving their pay envelopes, yelling "short pay! short pay!" Lawrence had long be called Mill City as it had 12 large woolen and cotton mills. There were also associated mills such as the bleachery. These strikers marched from the Everett Mill to the Wood Mill and the Ayer Mill which sat just across the Merrimack River. They entered and walked through this mills encouraging non-union mill workers to strike as they too would be shorted in their pay.

The mill owners had the state of Massachusetts' Political power under their thumb which include Calvin Coolidge. The mill owners complained that there were riots happening everyday and implored that the National Guard be called out, which is what you see in my first link. But the truth was, there was not a single riot for the entire strike!

Prior to this strike, few strikes lasted longer than 7 days and 75% of all strikes came to no resolution and the strikers returned to work. The IWW had been instrumental in Schenectady NY when at the GE Plant there they started a "sit down" strike. The first ever, and they won.

The Lawrence textile strike went on from January 11 to March 14, an unheard of 64 day strike!

The IWW worked with eveyone on strike, wheather they joined the IWW or not. They saw to it that striking workers got food, though at starvation levels, to keep them going.

In late February Mrs. William Howard Taft, the President's wife, got involed and pleaded with her husband to do something. He formed a House Committee meeting where a dozen or so children, men, and women who had been strike were brought before the committee to tell their story. The link below is a transcript of those hearing. It is a must read as you will not believe what the strikers had to say.

#5 - The strike at Lawrence, Mass. Hearings before the Committee ... - Full View | HathiTrust Digital Library

May 4 is important day in the labour movement's history

This is why republicans are anti human and should be stopped and throw off a cliff at all costs. They protect businesses over humans. Also no breaks are required or necessary if you’re over 18. And work 4-12 hours. Fuck you DeSantis

https://washingtonstatestandard.com/briefs/six-months-in-wa-has-paid-unemployment-to-more-than-100-striking-workers/

Ive spent the last several months working on this video about American labor uprisings, or “Labor Wars”. The idea behind my channel is to use “dark woke” humor and meme culture to frame bleak historic facts in American (or global) history, that aren’t necessarily common knowledge, in an effort to promote class consciousness, class solidarity, and a healthy mistrust of authority and the state to working class people who aren’t familiar with these values.

I put a lot of time an effort into this video and I’d appreciate it if you could give it a watch and tell me what you think. Maybe offer me some suggestions on things I could do better, or ideas on how I could better promote class consciousness and class solidarity. Also, if you’re so inclined, I would really, really, REALLY appreciate it if you could interact with the video on the platform (like, comment more than 7 words, subscribe to the channel, share the video, etc.) to help promote the video to the algorithm to better spread the message.

https://substack.com/@haadiyakhan/note/p-205720484?utm_source=notes-share-action&r=8joq70

We tried our hardest to organize a stronger union instead I became a target of the union and management for speaking up.