On This Day in Working Class History

On this day, 15 April 1916, the newspaper of the revolutionary Industrial Workers of the World union announced the formation of its Domestic Workers Union in Denver, Colorado. 
Much of the history of the group was lost, but a fascinating letter by Jane Street, its secretary, was illegally seized by the Justice Department in 1917 and only discovered nearly 60 years later.
She was writing to another domestic worker organiser in Tulsa, Oklahoma in which she described how they organised and took action to improve pay and conditions:
"if you want to raise a job from $20 to $30. . . you can have a dozen girls answer an ad and demand $30—even if they do not want work at all. Or call up the woman and tell her you will accept the position at $20. Then she will not run her ad the next day. Don’t go. Call up the next day and ask for $25 and promise to go (and don’t go). On the third day she will say, 'Come on out and we will talk the matter over.' You can get not only the wages, but shortened hours and lightened labor as well."
More information in our podcast episode 16 about women in the early IWW: https://workingclasshistory.com/2018/12/02/e16-women-in-the-early-iww/

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On this day, 14 April 1913, workers across Belgium went on strike, after the failure of Parliament to introduce universal male suffrage, the strike, in which 700,000 workers participated, were not only able to bring many national industries to standstill but also force Parliament to immediately reconvene.
Suffrage would be granted only after World War I, but the general strike of 1913 proved to be a significant victory for the socialist movement.
More information, sources and map: https://stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/8018/belgian-general-strike

Our work is only possible because of support from you, our listeners on patreon. If you appreciate our work, please join us and access exclusive content and benefits at patreon.com/workingclasshistory.
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On this day, 13 April 1890, Black dock worker and leading Industrial Workers of the World union activist, Ben Fletcher, was born in Philadelphia. Starting work on the docks in 1910, he joined the revolutionary IWW union three years later and became the lead organiser of its Local 8 on the Philadelphia docks. At a time when most unions were racially segregated, Fletcher helped build a powerful, multiracial workers' organisation which organised a strike in 1913 and won many improvements.
In 1918, after the entry of the US into World War I, Fletcher was arrested and charged with dozens of other IWW members for supposedly hampering the war effort. Despite there being no witnesses to testify against Fletcher, he and all the others were convicted. Fletcher was sentenced to 10 years' imprisonment, after which he quipped to fellow defendant Big Bill Haywood: "The Judge has been using very ungrammatical language." When Hayward asked him "How is that, Ben?" Fletcher replied: ‘His sentences are much too long.’” 
His sentence was commuted in 1922, and he immediately returned to Philadelphia to take part in a strike for a maximum 40 hour work week.
Learn more about his life and activism in episodes 73-74 of our podcast: https://workingclasshistory.com/podcast/e73-ben-fletcher/
And you can find out even more in this book: https://shop.workingclasshistory.com/products/ben-fletcher-the-life-and-times-of-a-black-wobbly-peter-cole

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On this day, 12 April 1920, workers in Ireland launched a general strike in support of pro-independence prisoners who were on hunger strike in Mountjoy prison, Dublin. The postal service, public transport, shops, pubs and public toilets were all shut. After two days, the British government caved and released all the prisoners. More information, sources and map: https://stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/8363/ireland-general-strike

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On this day, 11 April 1960, the body of a young activist, Kim Ju-yul, was found on the beach in Masan, South Korea. The young high school student had disappeared during a protest the previous month against electoral corruption under the US-backed Rhee dictatorship. Authorities declared that his autopsy showed he had died by drowning, but protesters forced their way into the hospital where his body was being held and discovered that Kim's skull had been split by a teargas grenade which had penetrated from his eyes to the back of his head. Anger at the murder exploded across the country the following week in what became known as the April revolution which overthrew the regime. 
Learn more about South Korean history at this time in our podcast episode 51: https://workingclasshistory.com/2021/03/24/e51-jeon-tae-il-and-lee-so-sun/ 

Our work is only possible because of support from you, our listeners on patreon. If you appreciate our work, please join us and access exclusive content and benefits at patreon.com/workingclasshistory.
See all of our anniversaries each day, alongside sources and maps on the On This Day section of our Stories app: stories.workingclasshistory.com/date/today
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If you enjoy this podcast, make sure to check out our flagship longform podcast, Working Class History