Today in Labor History December 6, 1810: Miguel Hidalgo decreed an end to slavery in Mexico. However, slavery continued in parts of Mexico until 1829, when Afro-Mestizo President Vicente Ramon Guerrero banned it again. Between the Spanish conquest of the Aztecs and 1829, over 200,000 enslaved Africans were brought to New Spain, as Mexico was known then. An estimated 1.3 million Mexicans today claim African ancestry. Guerrero had been one of the key strategists and military commanders in Mexico’s war of independence from Spain. He was also the first black president in North American history.

#workingclass #LaborHistory #mexico #slavery #Abolition #independence #president #miguelhidalgo #afromexicano #blackpresident #BlackMastodon

I actually managed to start my poetry project today! I'm going to read some sort of poem every day, recording my favorite lines + corresponding notes in a Hobonichi Weeks until I run out of space (roughly 2 years).

Today's poem was Tony Harrison's V: a monument not just to his own family's place in the world, but the economic and emotional fallout of Thatcher's Britain in the working class. Is it Leeds United? Or Leeds *united*?

youtube.com/watch?v=WPutBM7zfv…

#poetry #leeds #WorkingClass

Today in Labor History November 28, 1990: Margaret Thatcher resigned in tears after a mass non-payment of her hated poll tax forced her out of office. The tax was a flat tax, hugely unfair, charging all adults, regardless of their wealth or income, the same amount. At the height of the campaign, nearly half of all British adults, 17 million people, had refused to pay the tax. The Labour Party refused to back any protest of the tax. But Anti-Poll Tax Unions formed across the country, and there were thousands of demonstrations, many of which became riots after mounted police charged the protesters. Over 100 were injured and more than 330 were arrested in the protests.

#workingclass #LaborHistory #polltax #margaretthatcher #protests #demonstrations #directaction #anarchism #socialism #tax