Today in labor history May 31 (“systematic exploitation of the defendants’ alien blood)

[Omaha Steve]

May 31


May 31, 1921 - The trial of Sacco and Vanzetti began in Dedham, Massachusetts. The anti-worker, anti-immigrant tone of the proceedings was set in Judge Webster Thayer’s opening remarks. Attorney Felix Frankfurter, an observer of the proceedings and later a U.S. Supreme Court justice, said the court engaged in “systematic exploitation of the defendants’ alien blood, their imperfect knowledge of English, their unpopular social views and their opposition to the war . . .”

For more on the Sacco and Vanzetti case and the activism it inspired, go to http://www.msu.edu/course/mc/112/1920s/Sacco-Vanzetti/sacvan.htm and http://www.monthlyreview.org/mrzine/yates211206.html

Rose Will Monroe, popularly known as Rosie the Riveter, dies in Clarksville, Ind. During WWII she helped bring women into the labor force - 1997