1 July 1919: Prohibition strike planned
On this day, 1 July 1919, prohibition of the sale of alcoholic drinks stronger than 2.75% in the United States was due to come into force. Hundreds of thousands of workers in New York and New Jersey had voted to strike on this day if the law was enforced. They wore pins declaring "No beer no work".
Strike action was called off by union leaders, and prohibition was eventually introduced the following year.
We have reproduced the workers' original artwork to help fund our work: https://shop.workingclasshistory.com/collections/no-beer-no-work
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Speaker 1: On this day in working class history, the first of July.
On the first of July nineteen nineteen, prohibition of the
sal of alcoholic drinks stronger than two point seventy five
percent in the United States was due to come into force.
Speaker 2: Hundreds of thousands of.
Speaker 1: Workers in New York and New Jersey had voted to
strike on this day if the law was enforced. They
wore pins and sang songs declaring no beer, no work,
but the strike action was called off by union leaders
and prohibition was eventually introduced the following year. We have
reproduced the worker's original artwork of this movement to.
Speaker 2: Help fund our work. Check it out in the link
on the show notes.
Speaker 3: And the sources maps and all of our anniversaries each
day check out the on this Day section of our
stories app at stories Stop workingclasshistory dot com, and if
you've our work, support us at patroon dot com slash
working class History.
Speaker 1: Links in the show notes theme music by
Speaker 2: See You Tomorrow, Hm