100 Year Anniversary of the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire

Bodies of Some Who Jumped

 March 25, 2011 marks 100 years since 146 young immigrants, mostly girls and women of European-Jewish origin, jumped to their deaths or burned to death at the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire in New York City. All of the dead were ages 16-23. The factory occupied the eighth through tenth floors of the building, too high for the ladders of the fire-fighters to reach. Most of the dead worked on the ninth floor. A bookkeeper had warned the managers, who worked on the tenth floor, of the danger. They were able to escape via the roof. Those on the eighth floor could head down a stairway that proved to be inaccessible to those above. Women could not access the fire escape because they were locked in. The rationale for this was that it prevented workers from taking unnecessary breaks and pilfering materials!


Union Mourners

 As a result of the fire deaths, the factory owners were charged with manslaughter but the jury, which deliberated for less than two hours, found them not guilty. Twenty-three individual suits were filed by family members of the dead. In the end, the families were awarded just 75 dollars per life lost. After the incident, the Triangle Waist Company fell into financial decline and eventually locked its doors for good.

The movement to protect workers spread like wildfire after that disaster. Trade unions formed and membership in them grew to unprecedented levels. This union movement peaked during the 1940's, an era when strikes protesting working conditions closed down both factories and entire cities. In the US in 1945, 35.5% of workers were represented by unions. Since that time membership has steadily declined along with wages and protections.

Today working people are facing a concerted right-wing effort to drive the nail into the coffin of those hard-won rights and protections. Many, like the Triangle workers who gave their their lives. The sacrifice of so many must not be forgotten. It's a struggle as crucial and relevant today as it was 100 years ago.

Nuclear Workers in Japan Face the Greatest Danger

Nuclear Power Plant Workers

Like many of you, I've spent a large part of the last few days watching the Japanese disaster unfold. The accuracy of the picture we are getting has been called into question by some in the nuclear field as in this article by Ron Freeman, an engineer trained in Nuclear Physics. Rachel Maddow has also made reference to previous inaccurate reporting and cover-ups by the Japanese government regarding past nuclear incidents.

At this juncture, scientists are hoping for something less horrific than the Chernobyl incident. It's important to note that, while vast numbers of people are being negatively impacted by the present situation, it is the nuclear plant employees who are in the greatest danger.Their jobs will likely cost many of them their lives. Although we aren't sure exactly what is actually happening in Japan, or even whether or not the news reports are reliable, we do know that a simliar scenario is entirely possible in California where we have the same deadly combination of nuclear power plants, earthquake fault and tsunami potential.

The only optimistic note is that perhaps this disastrous event will mark the beginning of the end of the nuclear industry.

Fascism or Nuclear Holocaust?

Maybe we'll have both...Between Walker's walking all over the rights of the people of Wisconsin and the danger of meltdowns from Japan's earthquake and tsunami-damaged nuclear reactors, we are being Fukushima'd up down and sideways. Tractors driven by agricultural workers and the largest crowd ever, estimated at 180,000 protesters, descended on the Capitol in Madison and filled the rotunda. Deafening cries of "Shame! Shame! echoed throughout the building as Walker overrode the democratic process entirely to sign his "budget repair bill" into law. This demonstration was the first since that travesty of justice. Protesters were joined by the 14 renegade Democratic senators who had returned home in the misplaced hope that they could negotiate with the Dairyland Dictator. The well-mannered and patient demonstrators sang a few choruses of "We Shall Overcome."