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This Week in Peoples’ History, Sep. 3–9, 2025

Portside
A padlocked door marked "FIRE DOOR: DO NOT BLOCK"
No Job Is Worth Dying For (1991), Racist Terror in Mississippi (1875), Max Roach Lays Down the Freedom Suite (1960), ‘Never Again’ (2000), ‘They Shall Beat Their Swords Into Plowshares’ (1980)

Labor Day and May Day, Both Made in America

Jeffrey Sklansky The Conversation
The battles that birthed these labor holidays united native-born and immigrant workers in an extraordinary alliance to demand an eight-hour workday at a time when American workers toiled an average of 10 or more hours daily, six days a week.

‘Alien: Earth’ Is One of the Best Shows So Far This Year

Eric Deggans NPR
'Alien: Earth' is one of the best shows so far this year. Many classic themes recur: A modern world corrupted by corporate exploitation of average people. The question of whether technological advancements are meant to serve humans or replace them.

Fred Ross Changed Community Organizing

Peter Dreier Jacobin
Community organizer Fred Ross Sr was a key figure in progressive activism during the 20th century. He started in the 1930s farmworker camps that inspired John Steinbeck’s novels and went on to pioneer methodical tactics that transformed American orga