Labour revolt
A labour revolt or worker's uprising is a period civil unrest characterised by strong labour militancy and strike activity. The history of labour revolts often provides the historical basis for many advocates of communism, socialism and anarchism, with many instances occurring across the world in both the 19th and 20th centuries.
Labour revolts in France
The Canut Revolts in Lyons, France were the first clearly defined worker uprising of the Industrial Revolution. The First occurred in November 1831 and was followed by later revolts in 1834 and 1848. Following the closure of the national workshops after the 1848 revolution in Paris, there was an uprising in Paris involving 100,000 insurgents involved in a three-day battle with the army, volunteers and reserve forces.
The Paris Commune in France (1871) is hailed by both anarchists and Socialists as the first assumption of power by the working class, but controversy of the policies implemented in the Commune helped the split between the two groups.
Labour revolts in the United States
The Great Railroad Strike of 1877 and the 1877 Shamokin Uprising occurred in the United States.
The Battle of Blair Mountain in Logan County, West Virginia, USA (1921) was the largest organised armed uprising in American Labour History, and had a major impact on labour legislation in the United States.
Labour revolts in Russia, Germany and Eastern Europe
The Revolution of 1905 in led to the creation of the Saint Petersburg Soviet or worker's council which became the model for most Communist Revolutionary Activity. The Soviet was revived in the Russian Revolution and the model was repeated in the German Revolution of 1918–19, The Bavarian Soviet Republic and the Hungarian Soviet Republic.
Some revolutionary activity within the Eastern Bloc resembled Labour Revolts, such as the Uprising of 1953 in East Germany, the Hungarian Revolution of 1956, the Polish 1970 protests although many communists would dispute this as 'Counter-Revolutionary' activity.
Labour revolts in Great Britain
A Red Clydeside was a period of labour and political militancy in the city of Glasgow, Scotland between the 1910s and the 1930s. Most famously, this resulted in raising the red flag in the Battle of George Square.
Labour revolts in Spain
Labour revolts elsewhere
Some observers claimed that the protests of 1968 were part of a "revolutionary wave", with much of the activity motivated by students.
- Gwangju massacre in South Korea, 1980
- The Nghe-Tinh Revolt 1930–31 French Indochina
- Brazilian Anarchist Uprising 1917–18
- Saigon Commune, Vietnam 1945