Menu
Idea

labor strikes

287
Filter by:

Filter by published date

Viewing 151–180 of 286 results. Go to first page
Demonstrators marching for a $15 minimum wage.

Memphis Sanitation Workers Went on Strike 50 Years Ago. The Battle Goes On.

Fast-food workers in the Fight for $15 movement are making the same demands sanitation workers made five decades ago.
by Cleophus Smith, Betti Douglas via The Guardian on February 12, 2018

Organized Labor’s Lost Generations

American unions have struggled to make substantial gains since the ’70s, but not for the reasons historians think.
by Gabriel Winant via The Nation on February 7, 2018

John Dewey's Experiment in Democratic Socialism

Despite his reputation as a liberal, Dewey's staunch commitment to democracy put him on a collision course with capitalism.
by Alexander Livingston, Ed Quish via Jacobin on January 8, 2018

The Strike That Brought MLK to Memphis

In his final days, King stood by striking sanitation workers. We returned to the city to see what has changed—and what hasn’t.
by Ted Conover via Smithsonian on January 1, 2018
Janitors picketing in Santa Monica in 2008.
Exhibit

Strike!

Stories about American workers who have taken collective action to demand better conditions from those who benefit from their labor.

Violence and Free Speech

Does our approach to the First Amendment need to change in the wake of this summer's violence in Charlottesville?
by Jennifer A. Petersen via Public Books on November 22, 2017

The Massacre That Spelled the End of Unionized Farm Labor in the South for Decades

In 1887, African-American cane workers in Louisiana attempted to organize—and many paid with their lives.
by Calvin Schermerhorn via Smithsonian on November 21, 2017

When Dissent Became Treason

100 years ago, war proved to be a godsend for a president with no tolerance for opposition. We would be wise to heed the lesson.
by Adam Hochschild via New York Review of Books on September 28, 2017

Strikers, Scabs, and Sugar Mongers

How immigrant labor struggles shaped the Hawaii we know today.
by Natasha Varner via Jacobin on August 22, 2017
partner

Race and Labor in the 1863 New York City Draft Riots

What sparked one of the deadliest insurrections in American history?
by Shannon Luders-Manuel, Albon P Man Jr. via JSTOR Daily on May 4, 2017
Policemen confronting a crowd of protesters

How a Revolutionary Was Born

Carl Skoglund's early life as a militant worker in Sweden prepared him for leadership in the 1934 Teamster Strikes.
by Joe Allen via Jacobin on December 21, 2015
Picture of a truck stop.

Every Which Way but Regulated: The “Free Market” Trucking Industry

No longer home to the open-road outlaws and concrete cowboys of the ’70s, becoming a trucker is now the equivalent of operating a sweatshop on wheels thanks to deregulation.
by Llewellyn Hinkes-Jones via Los Angeles Review of Books on November 25, 2014
Engraving of the 1886 Haymarket protest

When Labor Day Meant Something

Remembering the radical past of a day now devoted to picnics and back-to-school sales.
by Chad Broughton via The Atlantic on September 1, 2014

May Day's Radical History

The date of Occupy's strike has ties to the eight-hour day movement, immigrant workers and American anarchism.
by Jacob Remes via Salon on April 30, 2012
Reagan at a podium.

Winging It: The Battle Between Reagan and PATCO

The true economic legacy of the Reagan years is not tax cuts but union busting.
by Chris Lehmann via The Nation on March 21, 2012
Armed miners at the military headquarters of the United Mine Workers, in Trinidad, Colorado, the month of the Ludlow massacre.

There Was Blood

The Ludlow massacre revisited.
by Caleb Crain via The New Yorker on January 12, 2009
Apple Company store in Chongqing, China.

How American Tech Made China an Economic Superpower

"Apple in China" tells the incredible story of China’s industrial development through the lens of America’s most iconic tech giant.
by Daniel Cheng via Damage on September 9, 2025

A Supreme Court Justice Wrote the Greatest “No Kings” Essay in History

This opinion is a milestone in the rule of law and is regularly cited by conservative and liberal justices alike.
by Gerard Magliocca via Slate on July 10, 2025
African American workers march past a line of National Guards troops with bayonets fixed.

The National Guard’s History of Violent Labor Repression

Donald Trump recently deployed California’s National Guard to repress protests in LA. The National Guard has a long history of breaking up protests and strikes.
by Dana Frank via Jacobin on June 30, 2025
AFL-CIO president Lane Kirkland stands behind a podium speaking into an array of microphones.

When US Labor Backed US Imperialism

After the successful purges of leftists from unions, US labor leaders were enlisted by government officials to join in their global imperialist operations.
by Micah Uetricht, Jeff Schuhrke via Jacobin on May 26, 2025
Mark Zuckerberg, Elon Musk, and Jeff Bezos photoshopped into a picture of Gilded Age millionaires.

Enjoying the Sweet Stink of The Gilded Age in the Age of Billionaires

On sanitized depictions of the 19th century, comfort shows, and income inequality.
by Danielle Teller via Literary Hub on May 15, 2025
Cattle in pens in Chicago in 1947.

The Industry that Stayed

How meatpacking remained domestic.
by Christopher Deutsch via Clio and the Contemporary on May 12, 2025
A drawing of a strike for gay rights at San Francisco State.

Queer Transformations at San Francisco State, 1969-1974

What roles did SF State play in the broader upsurge in LGBTQ student and faculty activism in the late 1960s and early 1970s?
by Marc Stein via OutHistory on March 1, 2025
Jimmy Carter in 1980.

Jimmy Carter Was No Friend of Union Workers Like Me

As a worker in the 1970s, I looked forward to a Jimmy Carter administration. By the end of his term in office, I felt betrayed.
by Chris Townsend via Jacobin on December 29, 2024
Ku Kluz Klan imperial wizard Hiram Wesley Evans.

Making Sense of the Second Ku Klux Klan

Understanding the reemergence of the Ku Klux Klan in the early twentieth century gives insight into the roots of today’s reactionary activists and policymakers.
by Chad Pearson via Jacobin on December 22, 2024
Chinese laborers engaged to work on the American Transcontinental Railroad system.

America's First Major Immigration Crackdown and the Making and Breaking of the West

Chinese immigrants sacrificed to create America's first transcontinental railroad. Its completion contributed to a backlash that led to immigration clampdown.
by Greg Rosalsky via NPR on November 19, 2024
Crowded and brightly-lit Beale Street in Memphis.
partner

Memphis: The Roots of Rock in the Land of the Mississippians

Rising on the lands of an ancient agricultural system, Memphis has a long history of negotiating social conflict and change while singing the blues.
by Rob Crossan via JSTOR Daily on October 18, 2024
The Executive Board of UCAPAWA in 1937.

Challenging the New Deal’s “Contemptible Neglect”

In the midst of the Great Depression, one CIO union used the new administrative state to influence legislation on behalf of people considered outcasts.
by Jarod Roll via Nonsite on September 21, 2024
Crowd marches against high inflation and unemployment in 1973.

What Would Studs Terkel Make of 'Essential Workers'?

What American workers have lost since 1974 — and how some are getting it back.
by Robert Hennelly via Village Voice on August 9, 2024
Angela Davis standing at podium, speaking at Communist Party USA event.

How and Why American Communism Failed

Plus: One historian’s about-face on the Communist record.
by Ronald Radosh via The Bulwark on August 2, 2024

We Can Breathe! Anti-Fascists United

What was the Popular Front? Where did it come from, and where did its energies go?
by Gabriel Winant via London Review of Books on August 1, 2024
View More
30 of
287

Filter Results:

Suggested Filters:

Idea

Person

brought to you by
© Bunk History