Today in Labor History September 28th, 2023

 

IWW Demonstration

The International Workingmen’s Association is founded in London.  It was an international organization trying to unite a variety of different left-wing, socialist, communist and anarchist political groups and unions.  It functioned for about 12 years, growing to a membership declared to be eight million, before being disbanded at its Philadelphia conference in 1876, victim of infighting brought on by the wide variety of members’ philosophies. – 1864

Federal agents arrested 165 Wobblies (members of the Industrial Workers of the World) for their resistance to World War I. Over 300 IWW leaders were arrested in September and their offices raided throughout the country. Of course, their real crime was continuing to engage in labor strikes and slowdowns, despite the war propaganda. – 1917

On September 28, 1781, General George Washington, commanding a force of 17,000 French and Continental troops, begins the siege known as the Battle of Yorktown against British General Lord Charles Cornwallis and a contingent of 9,000 British troops at Yorktown, Virginia, in the most important battle of the Revolutionary War.