No one died in #SanDiego jails in January of this year
The Sheriff still doesn't need a new billion dollar jail in Vista
No one died in #SanDiego jails in January of this year
The Sheriff still doesn't need a new billion dollar jail in Vista
Today in Labor History February 1, 1912: The Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) started the San Diego Free Speech Fight in response to a city ordinance preventing public speaking in and around the Stingaree neighborhood (now known as the Gaslamp Quarter). The authorities were trying to squelch labor and radical organizing in the multi-ethnic, working-class neighborhood, infamous for its houses of prostitution, gambling dens, opium dens and Chinese ghetto. Even as late as the 1980s, it still had a skid row feel, with its multitude of tattoo parlors, bars, sailors, junkies and fascination parlors. As a kid, I remember watching the con artists running games of 3-Card Monte on the sidewalks there.
The IWW had been active in San Diego since 1906. They organized timber workers and cigar makers, as well as workers at San Diego Consolidated Gas and Electric Company. Their strike at the power company led to the formation of a public service union, which disbanded in 1911, when many Wobblies flocked to Tijuana to join the anarchist Magonista revolution there. For more on this, read “The Desert Revolution,” by Lowell Blaisdell.
As the Free Speech fight progressed, anarchists, socialists and liberals joined the struggle, deliberately speaking in the restricted zone so that the jails would overflow. And they all demanded individual trials in order to clog up the legal system. Jail conditions were horrendous. Prisoners were crowded into the drunk tanks and forced to sleep on vermin-infested floors. Beatings were routine. 63-year-old Michael Hoy died from a police beating in jail. The IWW called on members from across the country to ride the rails to San Diego to join the fight. At least 5,000 heeded the call.
The local papers, of course, ran countless editorials attacking the radicals and glorifying the police. This encouraged vigilantes, who’d patrol the rail yards looking for incoming Wobblies. They deported many across county lines where they forced them to kiss the flag and run through gauntlets of men who beat them with pick axe handles. On May 7, the cops killed another Wobbly, Joseph Mikolash. And on May 15, vigilantes kidnapped Emma Goldman and her companion Ben Reitman, who had come to show their support. However, before deporting them, the vigilantes tarred and feathered Reitman and raped him with a cane. Ben Reitman was a physician who focused his practice on providing treatment for tramps, hobos, prostitutes and the most marginalized members of society. He also wrote the book “Boxcar Bertha.” The July 11, 1912 edition of the IWW’s “Little Red Songbook” included the song: “We’re Bound for San Diego:”
In that town called San Diego, when the workers try to talk,
The cops will smash them with a sap and tell them “take a walk.”
They throw them in a bull pen and they feed them rotten beans.
And they call that “law and order” in the city, so it seems.
#workingclass #LaborHistory #sandiego #freespeech #policebrutality #prison #IWW #anarchism #Revolution #socialism #strike #magonista #Tijuana #vigilantes #EmmaGoldman #acab #mexico #books #author #writer #fiction #nonfiction @bookstadon
Today in Labor History February 1, 1912: The Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) started the San Diego Free Speech Fight in response to a city ordinance preventing public speaking in and around the Stingaree neighborhood (now known as the Gaslamp Quarter). The authorities were trying to squelch labor and radical organizing in the multi-ethnic, working-class neighborhood, infamous for its houses of prostitution, gambling dens, opium dens and Chinese ghetto. Even as late as the 1980s, it still had a skid row feel, with its multitude of tattoo parlors, bars, sailors, junkies and fascination parlors. As a kid, I remember watching the con artists running games of 3-Card Monte on the sidewalks there.
The IWW had been active in San Diego since 1906. They organized timber workers and cigar makers, as well as workers at San Diego Consolidated Gas and Electric Company. Their strike at the power company led to the formation of a public service union, which disbanded in 1911, when many Wobblies flocked to Tijuana to join the anarchist Magonista revolution there. For more on this, read “The Desert Revolution,” by Lowell Blaisdell.
As the Free Speech fight progressed, anarchists, socialists and liberals joined the struggle, deliberately speaking in the restricted zone so that the jails would overflow. And they all demanded individual trials in order to clog up the legal system. Jail conditions were horrendous. Prisoners were crowded into the drunk tanks and forced to sleep on vermin-infested floors. Beatings were routine. 63-year-old Michael Hoy died from a police beating in jail. The IWW called on members from across the country to ride the rails to San Diego to join the fight. At least 5,000 heeded the call.
The local papers, of course, ran countless editorials attacking the radicals and glorifying the police. This encouraged vigilantes, who’d patrol the rail yards looking for incoming Wobblies. They deported many across county lines where they forced them to kiss the flag and run through gauntlets of men who beat them with pick axe handles. On May 7, the cops killed another Wobbly, Joseph Mikolash. And on May 15, vigilantes kidnapped Emma Goldman and her companion Ben Reitman, who had come to show their support. However, before deporting them, the vigilantes tarred and feathered Reitman and raped him with a cane. Ben Reitman was a physician who focused his practice on providing treatment for tramps, hobos, prostitutes and the most marginalized members of society. He also wrote the book “Boxcar Bertha.” The July 11, 1912 edition of the IWW’s “Little Red Songbook” included the song: “We’re Bound for San Diego:”
In that town called San Diego, when the workers try to talk,
The cops will smash them with a sap and tell them “take a walk.”
They throw them in a bull pen and they feed them rotten beans.
And they call that “law and order” in the city, so it seems.
#workingclass #LaborHistory #sandiego #freespeech #policebrutality #prison #IWW #anarchism #Revolution #socialism #strike #magonista #Tijuana #vigilantes #EmmaGoldman #acab #mexico #books #author #writer #fiction #nonfiction @bookstadon
@kellyromanych you may want to add #sandiego, that tag gets way more eyes
Escondido neighbors, icymi, here's another chance to stand up locally and make a specific demand to shut down this contract
LA Taco: #Escondido Quietly Accepts $67,000 Contract with DHS to Use a Firing Range to Train 200 Special Agents
Escondido neighbors, icymi, here's another chance to stand up locally and make a specific demand to shut down this contract
LA Taco: #Escondido Quietly Accepts $67,000 Contract with DHS to Use a Firing Range to Train 200 Special Agents
@kellyromanych you may want to add #sandiego, that tag gets way more eyes
Escondido neighbors, icymi, here's another chance to stand up locally and make a specific demand to shut down this contract
LA Taco: #Escondido Quietly Accepts $67,000 Contract with DHS to Use a Firing Range to Train 200 Special Agents
Pinniped Party at the pool this morning, La Jolla. Cedar Crk. falls inland, this afternoon. After being extirpated 100+ yrs ago Harbor Seals/Sea Lions got their shore back around La Jolla Cove/Children's Pool as views toward wildlife evolved. Always fun to see their antics around some of most valuable real estate in known Worlds. 11K hike to Cedar Crk. Falls w my brother in SD back-country this aftn., some flow. Not much wildish terrain left here, savor it. #climate #hiking #wildlife #sandiego
Pinniped Party at the pool this morning, La Jolla. Cedar Crk. falls inland, this afternoon. After being extirpated 100+ yrs ago Harbor Seals/Sea Lions got their shore back around La Jolla Cove/Children's Pool as views toward wildlife evolved. Always fun to see their antics around some of most valuable real estate in known Worlds. 11K hike to Cedar Crk. Falls w my brother in SD back-country this aftn., some flow. Not much wildish terrain left here, savor it. #climate #hiking #wildlife #sandiego
Hello friend!
Had a little bobcat visitor looking in one of the windows this afternoon.
Hello friend!
Had a little bobcat visitor looking in one of the windows this afternoon.
Now's the perfect time to be writing your local governments who still have a presence (and/or advertise a presence) on child sexual abuse platform X to urge them to exit X and set up a presence (preferably a publicly-owned instance) on Mastodon.
Live in #SanDiego County? Guess who's still on X. #USpol #Fediverse
Now's the perfect time to be writing your local governments who still have a presence (and/or advertise a presence) on child sexual abuse platform X to urge them to exit X and set up a presence (preferably a publicly-owned instance) on Mastodon.
Live in #SanDiego County? Guess who's still on X. #USpol #Fediverse
Live in San Diego County and have an interest in public housing & affordable housing? Housing & Community Development Services' draft 5 year plan will be up for discussion at a public hearing on March 4. They're encouraging folks to submit comment as well.
https://www.sandiegocounty.gov/content/sdc/sdhcd/nppr/plans-policies-reports.html
Happy Holidays from San Diego, CA. Here is a beautiful sunrise scene at the harbor.
Fine art prints & home decor here: https://joegiacaloneart.pixels.com/featured/sailboats-dreaming-at-sunrise-san-diego-joseph-s-giacalone.html
#sandiego #decor #wallart #fineartphotography #travel #gifts
Happy Holidays from San Diego, CA. Here is a beautiful sunrise scene at the harbor.
Fine art prints & home decor here: https://joegiacaloneart.pixels.com/featured/sailboats-dreaming-at-sunrise-san-diego-joseph-s-giacalone.html
#sandiego #decor #wallart #fineartphotography #travel #gifts
