Howard Zinn

1999-2000: The US university living wage campaign

Steven. — Wed, 13 Sep 2006 15:20:25 +0000

Against a background of several victories in workplace organisation in the US – notably for California cleaners, Boeing workers and Los Angeles health employees - a movement of students and university staff began coming together.

1970-1978: The US prisoners' movement

Steven. — Wed, 13 Sep 2006 14:59:41 +0000

The movement refelected the general upsurge in revolutionary activity in the US at the time

1891: Miners against prison labour

Steven. — Wed, 13 Sep 2006 13:17:04 +0000

There were eruptions against the convict labour system in the South, in which prisoners were leased in slave labour to corporations, used thus to depress the general level of wages and also to break strikes.

1839-1846: The Anti-Renter movement

Steven. — Tue, 12 Sep 2006 15:17:11 +0000

The rich had vast land holdings and the tenants paid taxes and rents. The movement grew to 10,000 men and was finally put down by a cavalry unit of 3,000 who came up from New York City.

1877: The Great Railroad Strike

Steven. — Sat, 09 Sep 2006 19:12:52 +0000

Beginning with opposition to wage cuts and poor conditions the strikes led to near-insurrections in parts of Pennsylvania. Heavy repression hit the strikers and other American workers and despite winning some concessions eventually the strikes were broken, leaving 100 dead.

1860: The Lynn shoe strike

Steven. — Sat, 09 Sep 2006 19:02:52 +0000

It was the shoemakers of Lynn, Massachusetts, a factory town north east of Boston, who started the largest strike to take place in the United States before the Civil War. Lynn had pioneered in the use of sewing machines in factories, replacing shoemaker artisans. The factory workers in Lynn, who began to organise in the l830s, later started a militant newspaper, the Awl.

1983: The US invasion of Grenada

Steven. — Sat, 09 Sep 2006 13:37:39 +0000

In the autumn of 1982, President Reagan sent American marines into a dangerous situation in Lebanon, where a civil war was raging, again ignoring the requirements of the War Powers Act as the government did with Cambodia in the Mayaguez affair.

1975: The Mayaguez Affair

Steven. — Sat, 09 Sep 2006 12:53:41 +0000

The invasion was in response to Cambodia holding the crew of an American cargo ship, with the intention of re-asserting US military dominance in the wake of its defeat in Vietnam.

1833-1849: The Dorr Rebellion

Ed — Fri, 08 Sep 2006 00:22:41 +0000

Taking the case to the Supreme Court, the precedent was then set that the Court should not meddle in politics.