Today in Labor History Apr 4 MLK assassinated supporting striking AFSCME sanitation workers, more

[Omaha Steve]

I'm an AFSCME member. This is special to me. It is wonderful to see labor having rallies today across the nation to honor this man of peace, and labor leader honored.

April 4


April 4, 1907 - The first issue of The Labor Review, a "weekly magazine for organized workers," was published in Minneapolis. Edna George, a cigar packer in Minneapolis, won $10 in gold for suggesting the name “Labor Review.” The Labor Review has been published continuously since then. For more information, visit www.minneapolisunions.org and click on the link to the Labor Review Archive Project.


Unemployed riot in New York City’s Union Square - 1914

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., is assassinated in Memphis, where he has been supporting a sanitation workers’ strike. In the wake of this tragedy, riots break out in many cities, including Washington, DC - 1968

And this: April 4, 1968 - The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., was assassinated while in Memphis supporting striking AFSCME sanitation workers.

Some 1,700 United Mine Workers members in Virginia and West Virginia beat back concessions demanded by Pittston Coal Co. - 1989

And this: April 4, 1989 - The United Mine Workers scored one of the few wins for the labor movement in the 1980s. Some 1,700 UMWA miners employed a plant occupation, mass picketing, civil disobedience, a corporate campaign, and other tactics to achieve a major victory in a 9-month strike against contract concessions proposed by Pittston Coal Co.

Labor history found here: http://www.unionist.com/today-in-labor-history & here: http://www.workdayminnesota.org/index.php?history_9_04_04_2011

[defendandprotect]

1. Trust everyone here knows that MLK, Jr. was assassinated by a conspiracy ....

involving our government -- Hoover/FBI --

and that it is likely that James Earl Ray was just another patsy -- certainly

he didn't shoot MLK, jr. -- and if he knew anything of the plot he was unable

to protect himself. Ray, himself, wrote a very interesting book -- and his

brother a few years ago also made a lot of things clearer.