Good Union Men (by Bob Rossi)
This excellent work of history was written by my friend Bob Rossi. Thanks so much, Bob, for allowing me to put this up on my website. –M. Gonzales Preface This is the second in...
I Wrote a Book (A Spirit of Revolt) and Its Almost Here!
I recently wrote a book called A Spirit of Revolt: Conrado Alvillar and the Rank-and-File Wobblies of the 1927-1928 Colorado Coal Strike. It will be available from AK Press on October 13, 2026 (preorder...
May Day, 1927, Aguilar, Colorado
The following is an excerpt from my upcoming book, A Spirit of Revolt: Conrado Alvillar and the Rank-and-File Wobblies of the 1927–1928 Colorado Coal Strike (AK Press, October 2026): CLOSE THE RANKS FOR SACCO...
A Young Lords Fiesta: The Threat of a Good Example
On a recent episode of our weekly radio show History is Revolting, we discussed the events of August 23, 1969, when the Young Lords attempted to hold an “open house” and street festival at the People’s Church, their headquarters in Lincoln Park, Chicago. The group wanted to celebrate the opening of a free community daycare center that they planned to operate out of the church’s basement. Instead of granting the Young Lords a permit to close off the street to hold a block party, the city responded by dispatching hundreds of police and a helicopter that circled overhead. We present here some background information and a brief narrative about the events of that day, along with links to some interesting primary source materials.
The Fight for Lincoln Park: The Young Lords, the Black Panthers, Concerned Citizens, and the Struggle Against Urban Renewal
We recently spent three episodes of our weekly radio show History is Revolting listening to and discussing audio from an interview that Mike conducted with Richard Vission, an organizer and writer who is promoting his new novel, The Foundations of Kindness. The novel is a fictionalized account of the history he lived through as an organizer fighting against urban renewal in the late 1960s in Lincoln Park, Chicago. We present here a brief narrative that discusses urban renewal, the impact of the Black Panthers on the movement in Lincoln Park, and other topics. We also provide a variety of primary documents that correspond with this discussion.
