#OtD 19 Feb 1923, the US Supreme Court decided unanimously to bar South Asians from becoming American citizens and to denaturalize those who had already done so. They didn't regain the right to become citizens until 1946 https://stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/9084/south-asians-denied-us-citizenship

#OtD 18 Feb 1925 maritime and railway workers in Mollendo, Peru, launched a general strike against the unjustified sacking of three workers at the British-owned Peruvian Corporation. A week later, the workers were reinstated https://stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/8967/mollendo-transport-strike

#OtD 15 Feb 1996 a 4-storey building collapsed in Beirut, killing 15 people. Despite objections from residents, development firm Solidere began to remove pieces of the building which led to its collapse. More information, sources and map: https://stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/7762/lebanon-building-collapse

#OtD 13 Feb 1939 the Plantation Leonora strike began amongst sugar workers in Guyana when 10 firemen went on strike against the 11.5-hour working day and requesting an extra hour's pay per day. The strike then spread https://stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/8468/plantation-leonora-dispute-begins

#OtD 12 Feb 1946 Isaac Woodard, a 26-year-old Black WWII veteran, still in uniform from being honorably discharged that day, was take to jail, beaten, and permanently blinded by police in South Carolina. https://stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/12520/isaac-woodward-beaten-by-police

#OtD 12 Feb 1970 hundreds of women textile workers at the John Collier factory in Leeds walked out on wildcat strike for pay equality with men. The union denounced the strike, but it spread until the employers agreed pay rises for women and men. More: https://stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/8388/leeds-clothing-wildcat-strike

#OtD 11 Feb 1916, Lithuanian-born Jewish anarchist Emma Goldman was arrested in New York City on charges of violating the Comstock Act, for distributing information about birth control. We've made available some of her work and merch here: https://shop.workingclasshistory.com/collections/all/emma-goldman

#OtD 10 Feb 1918, Black @iww activist Ben Fletcher was arrested by the FBI in Philadelphia on bogus charges of sedition for allegedly disrupting the war effort. He was convicted along with dozens of others, fined $30,000 and jailed for 10 years. https://workingclasshistory.com/podcast/e73-ben-fletcher/

#OtD 10 Feb 1979, striking lettuce grower Rufino Contreras was killed by a foreman in California. 4300 workers in the United Farm Workers union were on strike in Imperial Valley in a violent dispute. Authorities declined to prosecute the murderer. https://stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/8191/imperial-valley-lettuce-striker-killed

#OtD 10 Feb 2025 Israeli authorities raided 2 branches of the Palestinian Educational Bookshop in East Jerusalem. Even though censors approved all the books police claimed books contained "nationalist Palestinian themes" and arrested the owners. https://stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/13570/palestinian-bookshops-raided

#OtD 8 Feb 1887 the Dawes Act was signed into US law. It authorised the President to subdivide Native American tribal communal land into allotments for Native American individuals, thus forcing a capitalist and proprietary relationship with land https://shop.workingclasshistory.com/products/500-years-of-indigenous-resistance-gord-hill

#OtD 7 Feb 2019 George Zreik set himself ablaze at the Our Lady of Kaftoun secondary school, where his daughter attended, in the Koura district of Lebanon after a fee dispute with the management. He died a few days later from his burns https://stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/12517/lebanese-father-self-immolation

#OtD 4 Feb 1924 175 @iww members took on the Ku Klux Klan in Greenville, Maine, after KKK tried to threaten union organisers: "We are going to stick, and if the Klan wants to start something, the IWW are going to finish it". More in our podcast: workingclasshistory.com/tag/iww/