worldkey.io is one of the many independent Mastodon servers you can use to participate in the fediverse.
Discussion of Disney history, theme parks, music, movies, and related topics.

Administered by:

Server stats:

102
active users

#waterfront

0 posts0 participants0 posts today

Today in Labor History December 24, 1936: On Christmas Eve, drunk cops beat up 150 strikers on the Houston docks, sending 18 to the hospital. They were members of the Maritime Federation of the Gulf Coast. Gilbert Mers, who had dual membership in the Maritime Federation and the IWW, was their leader. Violence against dockers was rampant along the gulf coast in the 1930s. In July 1934, three black longshoremen were shot to death during a strike. In 1935, longshoremen struck along the entire gulf coast, with 14 more workers getting killed. From 1936 to 1938, 28 union members were killed and over 300 injured in strikes. Mers’ autobiography, “Working the Waterfront: The Ups and Downs of a Rebel Longshoreman,” was published in 1988, ten years before his death, at age 90. As a young man, Mers worked the docks in Corpus Christi, but went on to become President of the Corpus Christi Central Labor Council and the President of the Maritime Federation of the Gulf Coast, while remaining a dedicated dual member of the IWW throughout his life. He was part of the effort to establish an industry-wide union along the Gulf Coast states. In his autobiography, he exposes the brutality and corruption of the Texas Rangers in the 1930s-‘40s, and their use as violent, strike-breaking bullies with badges.

#workingclass #LaborHistory #IWW #GilbertMers #waterfront #longshore #texas #rangers #union #strike #unionbusting #police #policebrutality #maritime #racism #books #writer #author #memoir #autobiography @bookstadon

2 years before this linked journalism article below, I shot this photo of a #LogBoom that washed up on a beach near the Cowichan estuary. We've been dealing with industrial log boom pollution all along our coastlines in #BritishColumbia for decades. Both #BCgovernment & #LoggingIndustry have done little to change things for the better. It's irresponsible & it fucks up many ecological protected areas.

sixmountains.ca/article/5427aa

Today in Labor History July 20, 1934: Seattle police fired tear gas and clubbed 2,000 striking longshoremen during the West Coast port strike. Meanwhile, the governor of Oregon called out the National Guard to break the strike on the Portland docks. By the end of the strike, all the West Coast ports had become unionized. 1 worker died in Seattle and another died in Portland. And 2 in San Francisco. The San Francisco deaths led to a General Strike