lemmy_irl
this post was submitted on 09 Jan 2026
1273 points (97.6% liked)
Comic Strips
21060 readers
2672 users here now
Comic Strips is a community for those who love comic stories.
The rules are simple:
- The post can be a single image, an image gallery, or a link to a specific comic hosted on another site (the author's website, for instance).
- The comic must be a complete story.
- If it is an external link, it must be to a specific story, not to the root of the site.
- You may post comics from others or your own.
- If you are posting a comic of your own, a maximum of one per week is allowed (I know, your comics are great, but this rule helps avoid spam).
- The comic can be in any language, but if it's not in English, OP must include an English translation in the post's 'body' field (note: you don't need to select a specific language when posting a comic).
- Politeness.
- AI-generated comics aren't allowed.
- Adult content is not allowed. This community aims to be fun for people of all ages.
Web of links
- !linuxmemes@lemmy.world: "I use Arch btw"
- !memes@lemmy.world: memes (you don't say!)
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
It's a shame they don't teach in school just how hard unions and the workers of America had to fight to get the rights we think of as default today.
They went to literal war with their companies and the government multiple times. Look up the Coal Wars, look up the Haymarket affair, look up Matewan, look up Lucy Parsons. We have a long history of worker's rights, but since WW2 the ruling capitalists learned not to give the working class too many ideas to get too uppity.
We are well overdue for this kind of activity again.
There is a reason they don't teach it.
They don't want it to happen again.
Also how Redneck and Luddite became a slur through propaganda spread by the elites.
They taught it in my (public) school. Sometimes I think a lot of people just aren't paying attention in class.
Sometimes I think a lot of people just aren’t paying attention in class.
Or...in a country as big as the US there are many differing levels of education depending on where the school is located and how rich the zip code is.
Some people may have been taught this and others weren't.
Education is a privilege, and if you got a good one, you're lucky.
I was in AP US History so yes we talked about Pinkerton battles and all that, but it really falls on deaf ears for high schoolers. Once you become an adult and participate in the workforce, we should have to learn it again. America needs to celebrate its socialist and worker's rights cultures, but it doesn't by design.
I wasn't taught past WWII in public high school.
This was for an AP US History class, so the teacher was teaching to the test... And of course, whoever controls the test controls what's taught.
That is completely by design. If kids were taught what actually drives change then...
No the kids are given distractions and fed propaganda and brain rot.
I find it "funny" that most of the world celebrates labor/workers day on May 1st to commemorate the Chicago protest to fight for 8-hour shifts and workers rights but in the US they don't even talk about it.
Labor Day in the US was chosen kinda arbitrarily to fall between independence Day and Thanksgiving Day
The history of that is pretty straightforward:
- In 1886, the Chicago labour unions organized for protests on May 1 to demand an 8 hour day
- On May 3rd strikers tried to confront strike breakers, police fired into the crowd of strikers, killing some
- An anti-police, anti-big-business rally was organized for the next day in Haymarket Square
- The May 4th rally was mostly peaceful, but there were police standing by
- At 10:30 the police moved in en masse to break up the rally
- As the police advanced, someone (it was never determined who) threw a homemade bomb into the path of the advancing police, killing 1 and injuring many
- There was a huge gun fight, involving some protesters and a lot of police, many more people were killed, including police, many shot by their own fellow cops
- The bomb throwing was blamed on the anarchists, the anarchist leaders were rounded up, found guilty in quick and massively unfair show-trials, and hanged
- There was massive backlash against the unions and the anarchists, and the cause of the 8 hour work day was massively set back
- Labour unions kept fighting for an 8 hour day, and decided to keep the May 1st date for their actions, with the first being 4 years later on May 1, 1890, but this time it was international, with strikes in Europe, Central and South America
- As a movement representing workers, communist parties around the world adopted May Day as a significant day
- After WWII, the US was in full-on anti-communist mode, and May Day came to be seen as a communist holiday, so they moved it to September 1st and made May 1st "Loyalty Day" instead.
Edited to add: the only really confusing part about the whole thing is the names. One of the main guys involved was named "Spies", and another peripheral figure was named "Most". That makes it really confusing when you get phrases like "Most thought hat..." or "Spies believed..."
And that is deliberate
Does China celebrate or even acknowledge the Tiananmen Square Massacre? Same thing
I hear so many excuses from Americans about how they can't protest their Nazi regime because they have bills to pay and it's hard and the government has guns and how it won't change anything anyway.
They have no idea how hard all of these people fought to give them the things they have today. They faced all the same problems and they succeeded.
Yeah I agree mostly, but also it is actually a different time in many ways. The same problem and solution are still there and the American public should do more, but there are some significant differences.
Uh, wait, we didn't have much of those fights here but have better worker protections than all of America. How did this happen in central europe? Did we just at some point agree, it would be good? Or is it a swap-over from US?
Great question, and I'm also curious. Something worth researching.
Praise be to unions
We got weekends because of collective action, Unions are an example of collective action (when formed and utilized correctly).
damn, truth.
I've been working weekends for forty years, and I've never worked less than six days a week.
Sad. But unfortunately normal in many places around the world. We need more unions.
Sounds like you should organize a union
Hello fellow mexican individual, or is it chinese?
Enjoy the comic in its spirit and work on
That's US. American exceptionalism!
TUIF!
Now kiss
view more: next ›