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On this day, 12 June 2009, cleaning workers at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London working for the subcontractor ISS were called to an emergency "staff meeting," which was actually an ambush by immigration officers.The cleaners, mostly members of public sector union UNISON, had been organising for some time for better pay and conditions, and had recently successfully achieved union recognition and the London living wage. At the bogus meeting, 40 UK Border Agency officials detained the workers, then handcuffed and took away nine of them, including one worker who was six months pregnant. Workers believe the raid was in retaliation for their organising activity. Some of the workers, like Rosa Perez from Nicaragua, were deported without even being given the required 72 hours notice. One union member was flown to Colombia just 48 hours after her arrest, in the same clothes, with just £0.75 in her pocket and dumped in Bogotá, hundreds of miles from her home town.Another of the workers reportedly suffered a heart attack during the ordeal and was denied medical attention – and not even given water.Despite the deportations, the other workers kept up their fight and after various strikes and occupations by students, in 2017 they achieved their goal of being taken back in-house to be employed directly by the university.More information, sources and map: https://stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/8412/SOAS-9-deportations * If you enjoy our social media posts be sure to check out our podcasts. In our flagship longform podcast, Working Class History, we speak with participants in social movements about their experiences, and our daily mini podcast, On This Day in Working Class History, has one of our anniversaries each day. We also have a website and map containing thousands of our stories with full sources. All of our work is funded by you, our readers and listeners, on Patreon. To learn more and support us check out our links in our bio.

TIL that frequent blood donation has been shown to reduce the concentration of "forever chemicals" in the bloodstream by up to 1.1 ng/mL, and frequent plasma donors showed a reduction of 2.9 ng/mL. [source, comments]

Song of the Day 🌇🤌🏼: https://open.spotify.com/track/5GCa1hWZ40820t9nPnotpo

"Climate activists glue Cars to the street and block half of South Tyrol"

"Germans whenever inflation hits 2%"

What's Going On in the Atlantic is Off the Charts
https://neuburger.substack.com/p/whats-going-on-in-the-atlantic-is

https://redd.it/1debhgx
@failures_of_capitalism

Protests erupt as Armenia nears peace deal with Azerbaijan

Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said on Wednesday that a peace treaty with Azerbaijan was close to completion, but that his country would not accept Baku's demands that it change its constitution.

After Pashinyan made the comments, clashes broke out between police and demonstrators, the latest in a series of protests denouncing his policies, including the handing back of ruined villages to Azerbaijan, and demanding his resignation. read more

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On this day, 13 June 1936, this photograph was taken at a rally for workers launching a new ship in Nazi Germany. The man circled, defiantly folding his arms rather than perform the Nazi salute is believed to be August Landmesser, a shipyard worker who fell in love with a Jewish woman. Landmesser was later imprisoned for the relationship and drafted into the army. During his military service he was killed in action, whereas his partner was murdered in the concentration camps. Learn more about German resistance to Nazism in our podcast episodes 63-64, and 72. Listen wherever you get your podcasts, like Spotify or Apple Podcasts, or go to our website: https://workingclasshistory.com/podcast To access this hyperlink, click our link in bio then click this photo

Good idea: Ban Bottom Trawling

https://www.euractiv.com/section/agriculture-food/news/sweden-to-ban-bottom-trawling-in-territorial-waters/

Sweden is set to become the second EU country to ban bottom fishing in marine protected areas, going a step further than Greece’s April decision by banning it in all territorial waters.

Bottom trawling, a practice criticised by NGOs for impacting ecosystems, involves dragging heavy nets over the seabed, damaging ecosystems and releasing carbon into the oceans.