On this day in 1919, the United Mine Workers (UMW) initiated a nationwide strike of more than 400,000 coal miners, demanding better wages and a 30-hour week. The U.S. declared the strike illegal while the media smeared workers as communists.

U.S. Attorney General, A. Mitchell Palmer, the same individual behind the infamous Palmer Raids, declared the strike illegal by invoking the Lever Act, a wartime measure that made it a crime to interfere with the production or transportation of necessities.

The law had never been used against a union before, and in fact American Federation of Labor (AFL) founder Samuel Gompers had been promised by President Woodrow Wilson that the Lever Act would not be used to suppress labor actions.

The strike was subject to Red Scare propaganda: coal operators made false charges that Lenin and Trotsky had ordered the strike and were financing it, and some of the press repeated those claims. Others used words like "insurrection" and "Bolshevik revolution". Because of this propaganda and the Attorney General's injunction against the strike, the UMW called the strike off on November 8th.

Many workers ignored this order, however, and the strike continued for over a month, with a final agreement being reached on December 10th. Workers won a 14% wage increase and the creation of an investigatory commission to mediate wage issues.

The US miners' strikes, 1919-1922 - Jeremy Brecher :workerworker

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  • AntiOutsideAktion [he/him]
    ·
    11 months ago

    Electric ranges should have weight sensors such that they shut off if you leave them on accidentally

    • ratboy [they/them]
      ·
      11 months ago

      For whatever reason this has become a big problem for me as I've gotten older, you're brilliant!

    • Commiejones [comrade/them, he/him]
      ·
      11 months ago

      This is pretty brilliant. Heat does affect the reliability and durability of most weight sensors but that's a minor technical thing.

      • AntiOutsideAktion [he/him]
        ·
        edit-2
        11 months ago

        How can this possibly be brilliant. How old are electric stoves.

        Please for the love of god don't make what I am the bar for brilliant. Do you have any idea? You'll kill us all.

        • Commiejones [comrade/them, he/him]
          ·
          11 months ago

          Even a dummy can combine 2 simple ideas that nobody else has before. You think the chili chees dog was made by a culinary genius? The idea is brilliant not you. :P

          • AntiOutsideAktion [he/him]
            ·
            edit-2
            11 months ago

            No fuck you I'm owning my level of awareness. If you couldn't figure out that was a good idea that's your fault. I am brilliant. If that's the bar then someone needs to clear it.

      • AntiOutsideAktion [he/him]
        ·
        11 months ago

        Hard disagree. If you want to admire the beauty of spartan aesthetics, recognize that's distinct from something that's supposed to be living 24/7 among children, old people, pets and stoners.

        • YearOfTheCommieDesktop [they/them]
          ·
          edit-2
          11 months ago

          its not about aesthetics, I could give a shit, its just like, idk I'm all about safety, but I also want a stove that just works, and doesn't have electronics that just bake themselves and die after 5 years, planned obsolescence style. I don't feel like the two are incompatible. We're humans, things don't have to be completely smooth-edged fail-safe, foolproof for us to live with them. I don't want to live in a padded room just because I could slip and fall and crack my skull on the floor. I don't want devices that do unexpected dangerous things by default or like, fail catastrophically and burn your house down, but an appliance doing its normal thing is fine. It doesn't burn down your house if it gets left on, it just sits there and stays hot as instructed.

          If you want to solve a much bigger safety issue with stoves, stop making glass-top stoves where you can't easily, visibly tell if they're hot or not (and they present a solid surface for pets to step on). Or ban unvented gas stoves, or any number of other issues.

          Auto-shut-off whenever you pick up the pan sounds good, except for all the times that it isn't (I can't be the only one picking up pans while I cook), or when the weight sensor or its support electronics breaks. if you just make it a switch, then that's still 4 more wear items/moving parts that will go out over time minimum. If you make it a digital sensor that's even worse. And what's the minimum weight threshold?

          And frankly, a burner that heats up on its own when you set something on it is more dangerous than a visibly screaming hot burner just sitting there. children, old people, pets and stoners mostly have vision and heat perception, so a hot burner is pretty obvious, while a cool burner that has been left on and so will start heating up when said stoner carelessly sets a bag of tortillas on it, that's not obvious, and will start on fire while the stoner might not even be looking. Sure, don't set stuff on the stove is always good advice but its gonna happen eventually, I'd rather have it be obvious than a delayed-effect.

          • AntiOutsideAktion [he/him]
            ·
            11 months ago

            It's better a safety feature needs to be repaired every five years than someone's hand.

            • YearOfTheCommieDesktop [they/them]
              ·
              edit-2
              11 months ago

              if this was a serious issue (not convinced) and didn't have potential drawbacks that are worse for human safety than the problem it's purported to solve I'd be all for it, but it literally would create situations that are more dangerous than what it's supposed to solve

              Regardless, I guess I'm not opposed to them being offered, if leaving the stove on is something people really struggle with, but there's plenty of valid reasons it isn't/shouldn't be standard equipment