Gladiator rebellions and bread strikes: ancient Rome’s labor unions revealed

In her new book Strike, Sarah Bond explains how Roman workers banded together – much like labor organizing today

Labor Day has come around again, and workers’ rights are now center stage in North America. Canadian railworkers nearly brought trade to a juddering halt in a dispute with rail firms. Kamala Harris and Donald Trump are courting union members as they fight for the White House even as union leaders call the Republican nominee a union-busting “scab”.

These political efforts to appease, control and pacify the working class and labor movements span human history as a new book argues that it is the first book on the labor movement in the Roman empire.

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