People have been fightin’ over this bitch since ancient times, dog.
How many graves we standing on? Think about all the wisdom and science and money and civilization it took to build these machines. And the courage of all the men who came here, and the love of their wives and children that was in their hearts.
And all that hate, dog. All the hate it took to blow these mother-fuckers away.
It’s destiny, dog - white man’s gotta rule the world.“
On this day, 16 June 1982, the Bradford 12, all members of the United Black Youth League on trial for preparing to defend their community from fascists, were acquitted of all charges in a landmark case.
They had been arrested for preparing a cache of petrol bombs to protect themselves from fascists who had been active in the area, carrying out racist attacks. One of the defendants, Tariq Mehmood, defended himself in court, and along with the other defence lawyers they laid bare mass police negligence with regards to defending Asian and Afro-Caribbean communities from racist attacks. The not guilty verdicts effectively established the rights of Black and Asian communities to self-defence.
The trial also saw a nationwide campaign for the activists’ release with their comrades declaring “The politicians and police have failed us. Our youth are our only protection. […] Now they have been taken away from us. We must not fail them. We must fight to bring them back. They have defended our community. We must now defend them.”
At that time in Britain, racists considered all people of colour as “Black”, so Afro-Caribbean, Asian and other activists of colour formed the idea of “political Blackness” to try to build unity against racism.
Learn more from Tariq Mehmood in our podcast episodes 33-34: https://workingclasshistory.com/2019/09/18/e28-29-asian-youth-movements-in-bradford/
Pictured: the defendants celebrate the verdict outside the court https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=645677417605477&set=a.602588028581083&type=3
UPS has reached an agreement with the Teamsters union to equip its iconic brown delivery trucks with air conditioning for the first time for new units.
The agreement, announced by UPS on Tuesday, comes as the delivery giant and the International Brotherhood of Teamsters negotiate the terms of a new contract for more than 330,000 U.S. employees. (source)
Unions work, unionize.
people need to understand that UPS drivers have had to deliver all your packages without any air conditioning while their trucks bake in the sun
the Teamsters had to threaten a massive national strike for UPS to even consider this to be included in contracts
