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Now available for everyone! Our latest podcast episode about the history of the revolutionary union the Industrial Workers of the World in Canada is now public. We speak with historian and author Mark Leier about the union’s organising work amongst loggers, miners, road and railroad construction workers, First Nations dock workers and more. Listen to it wherever you get your podcasts, or go to our website: https://workingclasshistory.com/2021/05/17/e52-the-iww-in-canada/

On this day, 18 June 1984, striking workers of the National Union of Mineworkers in Britain were assaulted by 6,000 police officers at the Battle of Orgreave. The British government wanted to close 20 coal pits and lay off 20,000 workers. The resulting strike by the NUM was the largest post-World War II strike in Britain with up to 142,000 mineworkers participating. The strike lasted 51 weeks, through 3 March 1985, with no concessions to the workers. Thatcher herself called the workers “the enemy within.”

On this day, 17 June 1932, 24-year-old Italian anarchist coalminer Angelo Pellegrino Sbardellotto was executed by a firing squad in Italy, having admitted his plan to assassinate fascist dictator Benito Mussolini.

On this day, 17 June 1937, Austrian anti-fascist Katia Landau, who had travelled to Spain with her husband to fight the nationalists during the civil war, was arrested by the Soviet secret police, the NKVD. She was arrested alongside comrades like Else Honberger who had come from Germany.

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