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This Week in People’s History, Oct. 24–30

Portside
Image of a rally calling for an increased minimum wage
Minimum wage mandated (in 1938), City water comes to Boston (1848), Anyone know Choctaw? (1918), London says, Victory to the N.L.F! (1968), Good-bye to Penn Station (1963), Europe says No to nukes (1983), Mars attacks (1938)

How the UAW Broke Ford’s Stranglehold Over Black Detroit

Paul Prescod Jacobin
In the early 1900s, Ford Motor Company commanded strong loyalty from Detroit’s black workers. But the United Auto Workers broke Ford’s stranglehold through patient organizing, cementing an alliance that would bear fruit for decades.

Never Again Means Never Again – for Anyone

Damon Silvers Reprinted from: Friday's Labor Folklore
To Marek Edelman "never again" meant "never again for anyone." It was a statement of human solidarity, not a license to commit mass murder of those you fear or wish to dispossess.

Beyond the Myth of Rural America

Daniel Immerwahr The New Yorker
Its inhabitants are as much creatures of state power and industrial capitalism as their city-dwelling counterparts.

The Great Amazon Heist Takes the Piss out of a Terrible Company

ALEX N. PRESS Jacobin
In his new special taking on Amazon, prankster Oobah Butler gets a job at a fulfillment center, films the brutal working conditions, and sells a drink made of Amazon drivers’ pee on the company’s platform. Amazon isn’t happy with his work.