On this day in Labor History the year was 1971.
That was the day that the state police stormed Attica Correctional Facility in New York.
Four days earlier the inmates had taken over the prison.
One guard was killed.
The guards were members of AFSCME Council 82.
The prisoners demanded improvements to their brutal living conditions in the overcrowded prison.
Police retook most of the prison.
But the inmates held guards hostage in Cell Block D.
One of the prisoners, Elliot James Barkley explained the takeover.
“We are men. We are not beasts and we do not depend to be beaten or driven as such. The entire prison populace, that means each and every one of us here, have set forth to change forever the ruthless brutalization and disregard for the lives of the prisoners here and throughout the United States.”
When the state police stormed the prison they dropped tear gas from helicopters.
They fired 3,000 rounds, firing on the prisoners and hostages indiscriminately.
They killed 29 inmates and 10 hostages.
The police claimed the prisoners had killed the hostages.
They also accused the inmates of committing atrocities against the guards.
Public outrage swelled against the inmates, including racially-charged hate directed at the black prisoners.
But autopsies proved that all those killed had been felled by police bullets.
Attica became rallying cry for those concerned about prison conditions.
It has been referenced by many in movies andsongs, including John Lennon’s Attica State
July 3 - The New Deal Against Sit-Downs
July 2 - A Foul Blot Upon the Labor Movement
July 1 - The Po-Boy is Born
June 30 - Convict Lease System Ends in Alabama
June 29 - Fighting Insurmountable Odds
June 28 - Harry Bridges Act Signed into Law
June 27 - Founding of the IWW
June 26 - Milwaukee Transit Workers Join the ‘34 Strike Wave
June 25 - Congress Pushes for Wartime Labor Repression
June 24 - Striking Against Taft-Hartley
June 23 - Legislating Labor’s Destruction
June 22 - A Long Road to Victory
June 21 - Miners Push Back Against Starvation Wages
June 20 - UAW Wins a First Contract at Ford
June 19 - The Fight to Free the Hawaii Seven
June 18 - The Battle of Ballantyne Pier
June 17 - IWW Strikes Studebaker
June 16 - Debs Rails Against War in Canton
June 15 - Violence Erupts in the Valley of Steel
June 14 - Miners Bolster SWOC with Solidarity Strike
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