4 Jan, 2021 memo from #ChrisMiller, then acting #DefSec requiring “personal authorization” for DC #NationalGuard to employ riot control agents & other tactics on #Jan6. Then he was MIA for hours while the Capitol was under siege.
Today in Labor History May 4, 1970: Ohio National Guards murdered four students at Kent State University. They also injured nine others, including one who was permanently paralyzed. During the massacre, they fired 67 rounds in 13 seconds at the unarmed crowd. The students were protesting the U.S. invasion of Cambodia. With the current wave of student protests against the Israeli genocide in Gaza, the government’s response is looking sickeningly similar to its response to student protests in the early 70s: Violent repression, use of chemical agents, snipers on rooftops. If the vitriolic rhetoric of politicians and pundits continues, another student massacre seems imminent.
What emerged in 2 interviews w/ #Trump, & conversations w/more than a dozen of his closest advisers & confidants,were the outlines of an imperial presidency that would reshape #America & its role in the world. To carry out a #deportation operation designed to remove >11M people from the country…he would be willing to build migrant detention camps [#ConcentrationCamps] & deploy the #US#military…
He is weighing #pardons for all of his supporters accused of attacking the Capitol on #Jan6, >800 of whom have pleaded #guilty or been #convicted by a jury. He might not come to the aid of an attacked #ally in Eur or Asia if he felt they weren’t paying enough for its defense. He would gut the US civil service, deploy the #NationalGuard to US cities as he sees fit, close the WH #pandemic-preparedness office, & staff his Admin w/acolytes who back his false assertion the 2020 election was stolen.
Today in Labor History April 23, 1968: Students took over the administration buildings at Columbia University, in New York, and shut down the university. They were protesting the Vietnam war. Today, as in right now, students have been occupying parts of campus, in protest of the Israeli war on Gaza, and in support of a free Palestine. One of their demands is university divestment from Israeli businesses. Over a hundred students have already been arrested already. Yesterday they ordered all classes to be taught online. Arrested and suspended protesters included the daughter of Congressional representative Ilhan Omar, who claims she is now homeless, as a result. In response to the arrests, dozens more encampments and occupations sprung up on college campuses across the U.S. Yale locked its gates to the public. Police arrested faculty at NYU. Meanwhile, the ADL and rightwing Trump supporters Josh Hawley and Tom Cotton have been calling for the National Guard to be deployed to college campuses. And rightwing Zionist union leader, Randi Weingarten (of the American Federation of Teachers), who shook hands with admirers of the Ukrainian fascist and antisemite Stepan Bandera in Ukraine in 2022, denounced the Columbia protesters as “antisemites.”
Today in Labor History April 12, 1934: The Toledo (Ohio) Auto-Lite General Strike began on this day. Initially, 6,000 workers struck for union recognition and higher pay. In late May, there was a five-day battle between the strikers and 1,300 members of the Ohio National Guard. The militia fired on workers. They shot tear gas, which the workers threw back at them. They attacked with bayonets and the workers retaliated with bricks, injuring several soldiers. The “Battle of Toledo,” left two strikers dead and more than 200 injured. The strike lasted for two months and resulted in a win for the union. It was one of the most important labor struggles of the 20th century. During that same spring, there were also General Strikes in San Francisco and Minneapolis.
Today in Labor History April 3, 1891: Deputized members of the National Guard fired on immigrant strikers in the Morewood massacre, in Pennsylvania. They killed at least ten workers and injured dozens more. The workers were organized with the new United Mine Workers, and were fighting Henry Clay Frick, the same industrialist responsible for the massacre at Homestead the following year, and the man who anarchist Alexander Berkman attempted to assassinate, also in 1892.
The biggest challenge in 2024 is to get enough people to actually listen to what Trump and those around him are openly, consistently, and explicitly promising to do once they get back to power.
It is utterly deranged, and discounting it as just rhetoric would be a disaster.
and if we weren't keeping the local #MAGA cops of every major city #police department fully paid and well-trained at things like destroying #homeless encampments then the neighboring state's #NationalGuard wouldn't stand a chance, but #liberal governors and mayors are doing exactly that
Today in Labor History February 8, 1919: A General Strike occurred in Butte, Montana against a wage cut. Inspired by the Seattle General Strike, members of the IWW and the Metal and Mine Workers Union, Local 800, organized Soldiers’, Sailors’ and Workers Councils to lead the strike. Streetcar workers joined in, shutting down transportation for 5 days. Soldiers, returning from World War I, joined the pickets. Montana’s governor called in the National Guard. They bayoneted 9 workers. The workers ultimately called off the strike out of fear that there would be fatalities.