On This Day in Working Class History

On this day, 17 March 1916, around half of the 12,000 women working at the Armstrong-Whitworth Elswick munitions factory in Newcastle went on strike for better pay. It was the biggest strike by women arms workers during World War I to date. Authorities were taken aback by the women's "great determination and cohesion", and a Ministry of Munitions' wage tribunal was swiftly held and resolved in the workers' favour, awarding all workers a pay increase on 24 March. In the aftermath of the action, Elswick hired a "welfare supervisor", along with 40 assistants, whose job was to try to break up organisation of women workers' at the plant. The supervisor, Miss Jayne, took over all hiring and supervision of women workers, and used more middle-class and "educated" women like former teachers and university graduates to supervise the unruly workers. However, the measures had limited success as the confidence of the workers had been massively increased, and they began threatening strike action on future occasions to improve their conditions. In 1917 the women walked out en masse once more winning union recognition, tea breaks and new toilets amongst other things. Numerous other employers in Britain also recruited "welfare supervisors" at the same time to try to stop strikes by women workers, although after the war ended and many women were pushed out of the workforce once more the practice stopped.
More information, sources and map: https://stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/8905/armstrong-whitworth-women-strike

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On 16 March 1978 the Beyazıt massacre took place in Istanbul when seven students were killed and 41 injured at the University of Istanbul. 
The bomb attack targeted left-wing students. The police had been informed in advance by an intelligence officer that a bomb attack on students exiting the university was planned by right-wing nationalists, but they failed to act.
An investigation into the killings was opened but later closed due to lack of evidence. The case was reopened in 1995 but dropped after prosecutors claimed the statute of limitations had passed. However, this decision was criticised by Turkey's justice minister in 2010 who stated that the prosecutors and judges responsible would be punished. More: https://stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/7778/beyaz%C4%B1t-massacre

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On 15 March 2018 hundreds of civil servants in Andorra went on strike for the first time since 1933 in protest at proposals to reform public sector pay and conditions. In particular, the workers wanted to defend their 35 hour working week and level of pay.
80% of teachers in the principality took part in the strike, and in total around 400 workers out of 3000 total civil servants participated, including customs officers, police and prison workers. Strikers took to the streets, protested outside parliament and occupied the main government administrative building.
The strike lasted at least two days but it is not clear how it was resolved.
More information, sources and map: https://stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/7764/andorra-civil-servants-strike

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On this day, 14 March 1970, two sailors aboard the SS Columbia Eagle, carrying 10,000 tons of napalm for the US military in Vietnam, mutinied in protest at the war. Al Glatkowski and Clyde McKay had smuggled guns onto the ship which they used to hijack it and sail it to neutral Cambodia. But they never could have guessed what would happen next, as they became embroiled in a complex series of world events over which they would have no control. We spoke to Al for a podcast miniseries about the events, and this is how he recounted the start of the mutiny: "When we got the guns out to clean them, I got up and I told Clyde, 'I'll be right back. I'm going to go to the bathroom before we do this.' I looked in the mirror and I said to myself, 'You may not live through this. These may be your last few minutes.' "I will never ever be able to see or look my children in the face when they ask me, ''What did you do to stop the war, Dad?'' You will be able to say that you did your duty to stop it. You did your best to stop it.' I walked around, turned around, went out the door, got the gun and said, 'Let's move.'" Listen to Al tell his and Clyde's incredible story in our podcast episodes 21-24. Find them on every major podcast app or on our website: https://workingclasshistory.com/2019/04/09/wch-crime-columbia-eagle-mutiny/ 

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On 13 March 1920, in Germany, just hours after the far-right Kapp Putsch began and the Social Democratic government called for a general strike, workers in Sömmerda, Germany – many of whom were members of the anarchist Free Workers' Union of Germany (FAUD) – took control of their town. 
They formed an executive committee of 40 workers, disarmed the town guard, arrested the reactionary mayor, and formed a workers' militia. 
The putsch fell apart on March 17, the Social Democratic government asked for the end of the general strike on 20 March, and, after backdoor deals, the trade unions along with the Independent Social Democratic Party and Communist Party joined in calling the general strike officially over on March 22. 
The workers in Sömmerda wouldn't give up their control, so on March 24 a detachment of troops, containing many of those who had just attempted to overthrow the government a week earlier, was sent to take back the town. In the repression, around 23 workers ended up dead and 180 were imprisoned. 
More information, sources and map: https://stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/8496/s%C3%B6mmerda-commune

Our work is only possible because of support from you, our listeners on patreon. If you appreciate our work, please join us and access exclusive content and benefits at patreon.com/workingclasshistory.
See all of our anniversaries each day, alongside sources and maps on the On This Day section of our Stories app: stories.workingclasshistory.com/date/today
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If you enjoy this podcast, make sure to check out our flagship longform podcast, Working Class History