Working Class History

Media On this day, 27 November 1868 a detachment of US troops under the command of General Custer ignored orders to kill only warriors and massacred 103 sleeping Cheyenne in the Washita massacre.Peace-seeking Cheyenne chief Mo'ohtavetoo'o (Black Kettle) had requested permission from US colonial authorities to move his village near to Fort Cobb for protection. The request was refused, but Mo'ohtavetoo'o was reassured that if his men stayed in their villages, they would not be attacked. Just before dawn the following morning, while most of the village were asleep, the US Army attacked the village. General Custer had ordered his troops "to destroy their villages and ponies, to kill or hang all warriors, and bring back all women and children."Mo'ohtavetoo'o awoke when the attack began and lifted his hand to give a gesture of peace. He and his wife were shot dead, and their bodies ridden over by horses.In just a few minutes, the village was destroyed and hundreds of horses were shot. Rather than separate warriors, the soldiers massacred 103 people, only 11 of whom were warriors, the others being women and children. They also took 53 women and children hostage.Hearing gunfire, a detachment of Arapaho warriors came to the aid of the Cheyenne, as did some Kiowa and Nʉmʉnʉʉ (Comanche). These fighters encountered and wiped out a detachment of 17 US troops.At this point the US army withdrew with its captives. Custer was later killed by Cheyenne, Arapaho and Lakota warriors in the Battle of the Little Bighorn.Learn more about Indigenous resistance in the Americas in this book: https://shop.workingclasshistory.com/collections/all/products/500-years-of-indigenous-resistance-gord-hillTo access this link, click our link in bio # 1 then click this image

Media On this day, 27 November 1981, 300 mostly migrant women workers at the Kortex textile factory in Brunswick, Australia walked out on strike when they were furious that Textile Workers' Union officials failed to show up for a Friday meeting about their pay claim. They then made plans to picket the plant on Monday. As Monday morning came around, the women had assembled a mass picket at the plant, and marched to another nearby Kortex factory, where most workers joined them on strike. Together, speaking a mixture of Turkish, Arabic, Greek, Italian, Croatian and English, they drew up a list of demands. They wanted a pay rise, the abolition of the bonus scheme, for more tea breaks, a canteen, the right to visit the toilet freely and an end to compulsory donations for birthday gifts for the bosses. When union officials failed to call out scabs who kept working on strike, the women toughened up their picket lines, and defended themselves from police batons and hired thugs using their shoes. After 10 days, despite increasing pressure from bosses and the union to end the strike, the workers had continued to hold firm and won a significant pay rise. They returned to work and continued to build on the new sense of solidarity and power they had developed.More information, sources and map: https://stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/9952/kortex-strikeTo access this link, click our link in bio # 1 then click this image

Media Only 400 copies left! Get your daily dose of people's history with the 2025 Working Class History wall calendar while stocks last! 8.5" x 11" (22 x 28 cm), on high quality gloss paper, with an item of On this Day in history each day, alongside photographs of ordinary people who have made history accompanying each month. It also includes room for you to do your own year planning. With global shipping in our online store and proceeds help fund our work: https://shop.workingclasshistory.com/products/wch-wall-calendar To access this hyperlink, click our link in bio # 1 then click this photo

Media On this day, 26 November 1883, the formerly enslaved woman and pioneering feminist, Black emancipationist and poet Sojourner Truth died in Michigan aged 86. She was born into slavery in a Dutch-speaking community in New York, and later gave birth to five children. She escaped in 1827, and with the support of an abolitionist family, successfully sued for the return of one of her sons who had been illegally sold in Alabama. After moving to New York City, Truth became a charismatic preacher, helping enslaved people escape and advocating for abolitionism, and for women's rights, including women's suffrage. During the civil war Truth assisted the Union side, and after the war she helped people formerly enslaved in the South build new lives, often as wage workers. Truth remained active until the end of her long life, spending time in her later years campaigning for land redistribution to previously enslaved people – which was famously promised as "40 acres and a mule", but was never delivered. More information, sources and map: https://stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/9858/sojourner-truth-diesTo access this link, click our link in bio # 1 then click this image

Media On this day, 26 November 1920, the Soviet Red Army breached its agreement with the Revolutionary Insurrectionary Army of Ukraine and moved against its erstwhile allies. After the Ukrainian revolutionaries, known as the Makhnovists, had defeated both the counterrevolutionary White armies of generals Denikin and Wrangel, the Bolsheviks had no further need of them, and attempted to liquidate them.Russian troops attacked Makhnovists in Crimea and Huliaipole, arrested Makhnovist representatives in Kharkiv, summarily executed Makhnovists in Mariupol, and arrested anarchists across Ukraine.Despite Huliaipole being surrounded, rebel leader Nestor Makhno with around 200 cavalry managed to break through, defeat a Red Army cavalry unit which was advancing from Uspenivka and escape.Over the coming days, more local peasants joined the rebels, and some Red Army units defected to the Makhnovists. With his new force of around 2500, Makhno counter-attacked, routed the 42nd division of the Red Army, taking nearly 6000 prisoners, and retook control of Huliaipole.Learn more about the Russian revolution in Ukraine in these books: https://shop.workingclasshistory.com/collections/books/russian-revolutionPictured: Makhnovists during the conflict

Media On this day, 25 November 1960 three sisters – Patria Mercedes Mirabal Reyes, Minerva Mirabal Reyes and Antonia María Teresa Mirabal Reyes – were assassinated for their opposition to the US-backed Dominican dictatorship of Rafael Trujillo (content note: mention of sexual violence). They had started a group called the Agrupación Política 14 de Junio (14 June Movement), named after the date of a massacre Patria witnessed. Two of the sisters, Minerva and Maria Teresa, were imprisoned, raped and tortured on several occasions and their husbands arrested and tortured too. However, they persisted in their resistance and Trujillo decided to put an end to them once and for all. On May 18, 1960, Minerva and Maria Teresa, along with their husbands, were convicted and were sentenced to three years in prison for undermining the security of the Dominican state. In a strange gesture, on August 9, Minerva and Maria Teresa Mirabal were released by express provision of Trujillo. Their husbands, however, remained in prison. Purportedly a show of generosity, it was however part of a plan by which they would be assassinated by the Servicio de Inteligencia Militar secret police. On November 25 the sisters and Rufino de la Cruz, who was driving their jeep, were stopped by Trujillo's henchmen. They were separated and clubbed to death. The bodies were then gathered and put in the jeep, which was run off the mountain road in an attempt to make their deaths look like an accident. In honour of the women, the UN later designated 25 November International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women.More information, sources and map: https://stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/9779/mirabal-sisters-assassinated* If you find our social media posts interesting, you should check out our podcasts. Check them out, and see sources and more info on our posts, in our links in bio.

Media On this day, 25 November 1940, a bomb exploded aboard the ship SS Patria planted by the Zionist paramilitary group Haganah, killing 267 people, mostly Jewish refugees from Nazi-occupied Europe. Britain was transporting the refugees away from Palestine to Mauritius. Haganah intended to disable the ship to prevent British authorities from relocating the refugees, but the bomb caused more damage than intended, sinking the vessel and causing many deaths as well as 170 injuries. Learn more about Palestine under the British mandate in episodes 86-87 of our podcast: https://workingclasshistory.com/podcast/e86-87-class-struggle-in-palestine/To access this link, click our link in bio # 1 then click this image

Media On this day, 25 November 1941, three young Austrian boys, members of the Schlurf movement, were arrested by the Gestapo for destroying a Hitler Youth noticeboard. The Schlurfs were working-class Austrian youths who rejected Nazism, militarism, racism and the work ethic. They had long hair and listened to jazz and swing music. The boys wore sharp double-breasted suits and the girls or "Schlurf kittens" wore coloured dresses with knee-length hemlines. The Nazis campaigned against the "Schlurf menace", and many Schlurfs fought Hitler Youth in the streets. After the Allied victory, the new "democratic" authorities continued to denounce as "Schlurfs" young workers who rejected work discipline and authority. Learn more in our podcast episode 72 and its bonus episode: https://workingclasshistory.com/podcast/72-edelweiss-pirates-swing-kids/To access this link, click our link in bio # 1 then click this image

Media On this day, 24 November 1984, dockworkers in San Francisco began a boycott of South African cargo in protest against the apartheid regime.The Nedlloyd Kimberley ship arrived at pier 80, containing goods from around the world, including South Africa. Dockworkers organised in local 10 of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) refused to unload the cargo from South Africa, which included car parts, wine and steel.The month prior, local 10 had shown an anti-apartheid film at a union meeting, after which members passed a motion to boycott the next arrival of South African cargo.Workers went without their pay to continue their boycott for a total of 11 days, until a federal court injunction to do it, under the threat of fines and prison.At the time, the US government of Ronald Reagan supported apartheid South Africa, and considered the anti-apartheid resistance to be terrorists.Over the past 100 years, in addition to boycotting cargo from apartheid South Africa, local 10 members also initiated boycotts of Italian goods during their invasion of Ethiopia, Japanese goods during their invasion of China, and Israeli goods in opposition to apartheid policies in occupied Palestine.More information, sources and map: https://stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/13109/san-francisco-docks-apartheid-boycottWe spotted this story earlier today posted by Peter Cole ( @Pedro_the_ghost_pepper ). Our podcast episodes 73-74 are with Peter, on pioneering Black dockworker organiser Ben Fletcher. Listen on link in bio # 3

Media New in our online store! We have restored and cleaned up this iconic poster, published by the Industrial Workers of the World union in 1911, depicting the pyramid nature of capitalist class society.It's available as a gift or for yourself with global shipping, framed or unframed, along with lots of other reproduction historical posters. All proceeds help fund our work: https://shop.workingclasshistory.com/collections/homeware/poster?sort_by=created-descending To access this hyperlink, click our link in bio # 1 then click this photo

Media On this day, 24 November 1916, Concha Liaño, Spanish revolutionary feminist, was born in France. Joining an anarchist group aged 15, her mother beat her to get her to stop attending meetings, however her father told her mother to stop as Concha was "far more intelligent than" them. Liaño was a leading member of Mujeres Libres (Free Women), a women's group within the anarchist CNT union, to which some male union members were hostile. Liaño later recounted: "Now many years later we are accepted. Machismo, then as now, was as if genetic. That was the mentality then."Liaño played an active role in the Spanish civil war and revolution, then after its defeat escaped a French concentration camp and supported the underground resistance. She subsequently moved to Venezuela and worked for the Maracaibo airline, living until the age of 97. Learn more about the Spanish civil war in our podcast episodes 39-40: https://workingclasshistory.com/podcast/e39-the-spanish-civil-war-an-introduction/To access this link, click our link in bio # 1 then click this image

Media On this day, 23 November 1890, revolutionary Jewish artist, Lazar Markovich Lissitzky (known as El Lissitzky), was born in Pochinok, Russia.Becoming an artist, he passed the entrance exam to the art academy in Saint Petersburg, but was refused entry because Russian law under the tsar only permitted entry to a small number of Jewish students. Instead, he travelled through Europe, and developed his own style incorporating Jewish traditional typography, art, and architecture into his work.With the outbreak of the Russian revolution in 1917, Lissitzky helped design propaganda posters for the revolutionary side, including his iconic 1920 work, Beat the Whites with the Red Wedge. This poster, a play on an antisemitic slogan "Beat the Jews", called on revolutionaries (the Reds), to defeat the counter-revolutionary White armies which were trying to overturn the revolution.Producing a large volume of work until his death of tuberculosis in 1941, Lissitzky was hugely influential on the constructivist and Bauhaus artistic movements.We have reproduced his most famous poster, as well as a simplified version of the design to help fund our work. Available with global shipping in our online store: https://shop.workingclasshistory.com/collections/all/El-LissitzkyTo access this link, click our link in bio # 1 then click this image

Media On this day, 23 November 1969, leading Black Panther Fred Hampton spoke at a meeting organised by the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom at the University of Illinois. Among those in attendance was Luis Kutner, a lawyer and, according to the New York Times, co-founder of Amnesty International. Unknown to Hampton, Kutner was an informant for the FBI, who reported on the meeting to his handler, and claimed that Hampton was "ranting and raving" and said that President Nixon was "a member of the 'capitalistic establishment'" and that "Nixon must die". Kutner said that he was telling the FBI this because of "its possible violation of Federal law". A few days later, the FBI had Hampton, aged just 21, drugged and murdered in his sleep.While outlets including the Times and Chicago Tribune described Kutner as a co-founder of Amnesty International for many years, in 2020, Amnesty put out a statement denying this, although they did acknowledge that Kutner was present at the founding of the organisation, and was on its advisory board in the 1960s.Learn more about the Panthers in these books by former members: https://shop.workingclasshistory.com/collections/books/black-panthersTo access this link, click our link in bio # 1 then click this image

Media On this day, 23 November 1733 enslaved Akwamu people on the then-Danish colony of St John (now in the US Virgin Islands) launched a rebellion and killed soldiers at the Frederiksværn fort. The rebellion spread from plantation to plantation, killing enslavers and whites.But the Akwamu rebels did not plan to abolish slavery, they aimed to take over the colony, and maintain all of the non-Akwamu Africans in slavery to produce sugar and other crops for them instead of the whites. So some other enslaved people joinedthe colonists in fighting against the Akwamu.Eventually, more Danish troops arrived, and Britain, concerned about the rebellion potentially spreading to Tortola, sent a warship with more soldiers to join the fight. But the rebels ambushed the warship, wounding four British troops, and sending them fleeing.The Akwamu kept up their fight for months, until eventually, France dispatched soldiers to help the Danes, and eventually they succeeded in suppressing the revolt.Pictured: a painting of the revolt by Richard SchlechtMore information, sources and map: https://stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/7880/st-john-enslaved-revolt* If you find our social media posts interesting, you should have a listen our podcasts. Check them out, and see sources and more info on our posts, in our links in bio. There, you can also have a look at and maybe join our Patreon, which is how our work is funded.

Media On this day, 22 November 1919, the Bogalusa labour massacre took place in Louisiana. Sol Dacus, the head of a newly-formed union of Black loggers and sawmill workers in the area walked down Columbia Street, the main road through Bogulasa, the day after he had escaped a probable lynching by a white vigilante mob organised by business owners. He was accompanied by two white union carpenters, J.P. Bouchillon and Stanley O'Rourke, who were armed with shotguns to protect Dacus. The sight of white and Black workers walking together apparently enraged white racists in the town who called police. The court issued arrest warrants for the three workers, while the Great Southern Lumber Company assembled a posse of company gunmen and white vigilantes, who then confronted the union men, who had taken refuge in the headquarters of the local Central Trades and Labour Council, where there were up to four other unionists.Somehow a gunfight broke out, and within a few minutes Bouchillon and two other white union workers, Lem Williams and Thomas Gaines, were dead and O'Rourke had been fatally injured. Although Dacus himself managed to escape. While many white union members at the time embraced Jim Crow segregation laws and considered Black workers as rivals, loggers in Louisiana, like dockworkers in Philadelphia and miners in Alabama and West Virginia, were among those who fought for working class unity across all races against the employers, and faced often brutal repression from bosses, police and white racists as a result.More information, sources and map: https://stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/9513/bogalusa-labor-massacre* If you find our social media posts interesting, you should have a listen our podcasts. Check them out, and see sources and more info on our posts, in our links in bio. There, you can also have a look at and maybe join our Patreon, which is how our work is funded.

Media On this day, 22 November 1875, prominent Russian revolutionary Anastasia Bitsenko was born. She joined a socialist combat organisation in 1905, and shot a general who crushed a peasant uprising, for which she was sentenced to death. The sentence was later commuted to perpetual servitude and Bitsenko was exiled to Siberia. She was released following the 1917 February revolution, and soon was appointed as the only woman on the Soviet delegation to the peace negotiations at Brest-Litovsk, which resulted in the end of fighting on the Eastern front during World War I.Bitsenko was later arrested by the NKVD (Soviet secret police) and shot in 1938.More information, sources and map: https://stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/9511/anastasia-bitsenkoPictured: Anastasia, third from left, in Siberia in exile with comrades* If you find our social media posts interesting, you should have a listen our podcasts. Check them out, and see sources and more info on our posts, in our links in bio. There, you can also have a look at and maybe join our Patreon, which is how our work is funded.

Media On this day, 21 November 1922, Mexican revolutionary of Zapotec descent, Ricardo Flores Magón, died after months of illness and neglect in Leavenworth Prison, Kansas. An anarchist communist, Flores Magón was one of the major thinkers and activists of the Mexican revolution. He helped found the revolutionary Mexican Liberal Party, organised with the Industrial Workers of the World union and edited the newspaper, Regeneración, which was key in sparking public dissent against the dictatorship of Porfirio Díaz. One of the slogans of the paper, “Tierra y Libertad” (“Land and Freedom”), was adopted by peasant revolutionary Emiliano Zapata.Eventually, Regeneración was shut down by Mexican authorities, and Flores Magón imprisoned. So he, and numerous collaborators, eventually fled to the US and resumed their activities in exile. However, US authorities collaborated with the Díaz government, and eventually captured and imprisoned Flores Magón themselves.While in prison, Flores Magón described how he experienced the persecution of the US government, and how he felt “caught by the formidable mechanism of a monstrous machine, and my flesh may get ripped open, and my bones crushed, and my moans fill the space and make the very infinite shudder, but the machine will not stop grinding, grinding, grinding.” More information, sources and map: https://stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/9420/ricardo-flores-mag%C3%B3n-died * If you value our social media posts be sure to check out our podcasts. In our flagship longform podcast, Working Class History, we speak with participants in social movements about their experiences, and our daily mini podcast, On This Day in Working Class History, has one of our anniversaries each day. We also have a website and map containing thousands of our stories with full sources. All of our work is funded by you, our readers and listeners, on Patreon. To learn more and support us check out our links in our bio.

Media Did you know that you can do your holiday gift shopping and help support our work researching and promoting people's history in our online store? We've got loads of books, as well as reproduction historical posters, mugs, clothing and merch celebrating grassroots movements for a better world. With global shipping at https://shop.workingclasshistory.comLink # 5 in bio

Media On this day, 21 November 1920, soldiers of the Irish Republican Army assassinated 15 suspected British intelligence officers. In retaliation, policemen from the Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC) raided Croke Park stadium where a Gaelic football match was being watched by thousands of spectators. The RIC fired indiscriminately into the crowd, killing 14 people, including one of the players, Michael Hogan. 80 people were also injured.The names of the others who were killed were Jerome O'Leary, 10, William Robinson, 11, John Scott, 14, Jane Boyle, 28, James Burke, 44, Daniel Carroll, 30, Michael Feery, 30, Tom Hogan, 19, James Mathews, 48, Patrick O'Dowd, 57, Thomas Ryan, 27, James Teehan, 26, and Joe Traynor, 20.More information, sources and map: https://stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/9419/bloody-sundayTo access this link, click our link in bio # 1 then click this image

Media On this day, 20 November 1975, Spain’s right-wing dictator, General Francisco Franco, whose 1936 coup led to the Spanish civil war, died. His victory in the civil war in 1939 led to his political enemies being executed en masse, concentration and forced labour camps being set up and causing the deaths of between 150,000 and 400,000 people. Soon after his death a workers’ assembly and strike movement (pictured, right) escalated in Spain as the restoration of democracy suddenly became a realistic possibility after decades of dictatorship.Comedian Chevy Chase joked about Franco's death in the Weekend Update segment of the TV comedy Saturday Night Live every week he was on the show, reporting each week that Franco was "still dead". Chase also read a quotation from the former US president Richard Nixon, who previously said: "General Franco was a loyal friend and ally of the United States. He earned worldwide respect for Spain through firmness and fairness." This statement was juxtaposed with a photograph of Franco giving a fascist salute next to his friend and ally, Adolf Hitler.Learn more about the Spanish civil war in our podcast episodes 39-40. Find them wherever you get your podcasts or on our website: https://workingclasshistory.com/podcast/e39-the-spanish-civil-war-an-introduction/To access this link, click our link in bio # 1 then click this image