Category: Civil Rights

By Keith Joseph / Rutgers SDS Member I know Jeremiah Wright… Well, I never met him, but I know his…

By Ronald W. Powell / UNION-TRIBUNE / May 1, 2008 Port workers at cargo terminals in San Diego and National…

REUTERS: “… no activity … up and down the West Coast” By Jill Serjeant and Bernard Woodall / 2:55PDT LOS…

Organizers in cities and towns around the U.S. are hoping to bring back the historical significance of May 1st in…

We have received a report – not verified – that truckers in New Jersey are taking a mass action in…

The 8-to-5 action affects 29 facilities from Seattle to San Diego. By Louis Sahagun, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer /…

by Arianna Huffington The last ten days have been among the most shameful in the history of American journalism. On…

by Bob Fitrakis & Harvey Wasserman / April 30, 2008 / The Free Press The US Supreme Court has just…

May Day was officially founded in 1886, during a Chicago strike for the eight-hour workday. In 1889, the American Federation of Labor (AFL) delegate to the International Labor Congress in Paris proposed May 1 as international Labor Day. Workers were to march for an eight-hour day, democracy and the right of workers to organize. Delegates approved the request and chose May 1, 1890, as a day of demonstrations in favor of the eight-hour day.

On a separate track, U.S. labor leaders had agitated for creation of a labor holiday years before the Chicago rally. Among them, Peter J. McGuire, a carpenter and labor union leader, had proposed his idea for a holiday honoring America’s workers at a New York labor meeting in early 1882. (Others say the “founder” of Labor Day was Matthew Maguire, a machinist who served as secretary of the Central Labor Union in New York.)”

History of May Day Bound Up In the 8-Hour Work Day Movement and the Martyrs of the “Haymarket Massacre”

The story of the Haymarket Martyrs, and their monument in Forest Home Cemetery, begins at a convention of the Federation of Organized Trades and Labor Unions in 1884. The Federation (the predecessor to the American Federation of Labor) called for a great movement to win the 8-hour workday, which would climax on May 1, 1886.

I just finished watching a CNN video (April 28, 2008) [see below] on the slave labor conditions of immigrants working…

 by Marc On Wednesday night Steve and Gayle Francis took time out of their busy schedule to speak with members…

Since late 2007, the OB Rag has sponsored a seasoned and reasoned debate about the current state and future direction…