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I just posted the below on my Union's discussion group. ******************************************************************* The locale was Chicago, at the Republic Steel plant. The date was Memorial Day, 1937 during a demonstration against what was called "little steel". The below quote was from the "St. Louis Post Dispatch", describing a Paramount newsreel film which was never released. "... Those who saw it were shocked and amazed by scenes showing scores of
uniformed police firing their revolvers pointblank into a dense crowd of men, women and
children, and then pursuing and clubbing the survivors unmercifully as they made frantic
efforts to escape.
The impression produced by those fearful scenes was heightened by the sound record which
accompanies the picture, reproducing the roar of police fire and the screams of
victims....
A vivid close-up shows the head of the parade being halted at the police line. The
flag-bearers are in front. Behind them the placards are massed. They bear such devices as
'come on Out, Help Win the Strike;' 'Republic vs the People' and 'CIO'. Between the
flag-bearers is the spokesman, a muscular young man in shirt sleeves, with a CIO button
in the band of his felt hat....
Then suddenly, without apparent warning, there is a terrific roar of pistol shots, and
men in the front ranks of the marchers go down like grass before a scythe. The camera
catches approximately a dozen falling simultaneously in a heap. The massive roar of the
pistol shots lasts perhaps two or three seconds.
Instantly the police charge on the marchers with riot sticks flying. At the same time
tear gas grenades are seen sailing into the mass of demonstrators, and clouds of gas rise
over them. Most of the crowd is now in flight....
In a manner which is appallingly businesslike, groups of policemen close in on those
isolated individuals : They go to work on them with their clubs.
In several instances, from two to four policemen are seen beating one man. One strikes
him horizontally across the face, using his club as he would wield a baseball bat.
Another crashes it down on top of his head, and still another is whipping him across the
back.
These men try to protect their heads with their arms, but it is only a matter of a second
or two until they go down. In one such scene, directly in the foreground, a policeman
gives the fallen man a final smash on the head, before moving on to the next job". .... a
girl, not more than five foot tall, who can hardly weigh more than 100 pounds ... she is
seen going down under a quick blow from a policeman's club, delivered from behind. She
gets up and staggers around. A few minutes later she is seen being shoved into a patrol
wagon, as blood cascades down her face and spreads over her clothing.
The camera catches a husky, middle-aged, bareheaded man, cornered by the police. Cut off,
he decides to run directly through them, to run the gauntlet of the flying clubs. He is
surprisingly agile as he twists and dodges. The scene is bursting with a frightful sort
of drama. Will he make it? The suspense is almost intolerable to those who watch. It
begins to look as if he will get through. But no! The police in front have turned around
now, and are waiting for him. Still trying desperately he swings to the right. He puts
his hands up, and is holding them high above his head as he runs.
It is no use. There are policemen on the right. He is cornered. He turns, still holding
high his hands. Quickly the blue-coats close in, and the night sticks fly--above his
head, from the sides and from the rear. His upraised arms fall limply under the falling
blows, and he slumps to the ground in a twisting fall, as the clubs continue to rain on
him....
Ensuing scenes are hardly less poignant. A man shot through the back is paralyzed from
the waist. Two policemen make him try to stand up, to get into a patrol wagon, but when
they let him go, his legs crumple, and he falls with his face in the dirt.... A man over
whose white shirtfront the blood is spreading perceptibly, is dragged to the side of the
road. There is plain intimation he is dying...there is continual talking, but it is
difficult to distinguish anything, with one exception--out of the babble there rises this
clear and distinct ejaculation: "God almighty!'"
Here's a good reference website: http://www.kentlaw.edu/ilhs/republic.htm
Here a quote, taken from the Union's BBS: "It takes one generation to earn it, the second
generation to benefit by it, and the third generation to squander it, and die broke"
We're somewhere between the second generation and the third generation.
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