....made by the American labor movement during the past 100 years. This is a complete reversion back to the period when the voice of labor was stifled by coercion, violence and murder:
<snip>
The Ludlow massacre was the death of about 20 people during an attack by the Colorado National Guard on a tent colony of 1,200 striking coal miners and their families, at Ludlow, Colorado on April 20, 1914. This attack was the culmination of a day-long fight between strikers and the militia in which 17 strikers or their family members, three Guardsmen and one bystander were killed.
This was the bloodiest event in the 14-month Colorado Coal Strike of 1913-1914. The strike was organized by the United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) against the Rockefeller-owned Colorado Fuel & Iron Company as well as the Rocky Mountain Fuel Company (RMF) and the Victor-American Fuel Company (VAF). Ludlow, located 12 miles (19 km) northwest of Trinidad, Colorado, is now a ghost town. The massacre site is now owned by the UMWA, which erected a granite monument in memory of the striking miners and their families who died that day.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ludlow_Massacre<snip>
Timeline of labor issues and events <selected sample of events>
May 1886 (United States)
Bay View Tragedy -- About 2,000 Polish workers walked off their jobs and gathered at St. Stanislaus Church in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, angrily denouncing the ten hour workday. The protesters marched through the city, calling on other workers to join them. All but one factory was closed down as sixteen thousand protesters gathered at Rolling Mills. Wisconsin Governor Jeremiah Rusk called the state militia. The militia camped out at the mill while workers slept in nearby fields. On the morning of May 5th, as protesters chanted for the eight hour workday, General Treaumer ordered his men to shoot into the crowd, some of whom were carrying sticks, bricks, and scythes, leaving seven dead at the scene, including a child.<2><3>
The Milwaukee Journal reported that eight more would die within twenty-four hours, adding that Governor Rusk was to be commended for his quick action in the matter.
6 July 1892 (United States)
Homestead Strike -- Pinkerton Guards, trying to pave the way for the introduction of scabs, opened fire on striking Carnegie mill steel-workers in Homestead, Pennsylvania. In the ensuing battle, three Pinkertons surrendered; then, unarmed, they were set upon and beaten by a mob of townspeople, most of them women. Seven guards and eleven strikers and spectators were shot to death.<4>
11 May - 10 July 1894 (United States)
Pullman Strike -- A nation-wide strike against the Pullman Company begins with a wildcat walkout on 11 May after wages are drastically reduced. On 5 July, the 1892 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago's Jackson Park was set ablaze, and seven buildings were burned to the ground. The mobs raged on, burning and looting railroad cars and fighting police in the streets, until 10 July, when 14,000 federal and state troops finally succeeded in putting down the strike, killing 34 American Railway Union members. Leaders of the strike, including Eugene Debs, were imprisoned for violating injunctions, causing disintegration of the union.<4>
10 September 1897 (United States)
Lattimer Massacre -- 19 unarmed striking coal miners and mine workers were killed and 36 wounded by a posse organized by the Luzerne County sheriff for refusing to disperse near Hazleton, Pennsylvania. The strikers, most of whom were shot in the back, were originally brought in as strike-breakers, but later organized themselves.
12 October 1902 (United States)
The Anthracite Coal Strike -- Fourteen miners were killed and 22 wounded by scabherders at Pana, Illinois.<2> The miner get to raise their wages 10% higher and 9-hour day.
19 August 1916 (United States)
Strikebreakers hired by the Everett Mills owner Neil Jamison attacked and beat picketing strikers in Everett, Washington. Local police watched and refused to intervene, claiming that the waterfront where the incident took place was Federal land and therefore outside their jurisdiction. (When the picketers retaliated against the strikebreakers that evening, the local police intervened, claiming that they had crossed the line of jurisdiction.)
Three days later, twenty-two union men attempted to speak out at a local crossroads, but each was arrested; arrests and beatings of strikebreakers became common throughout the following months, and on 30 October vigilantes forced IWW speakers to run the gauntlet, subjecting them to whipping, tripping kicking, and impalement against a spiked cattle guard at the end of the gauntlet. In response, the IWW called for a meeting on 5 November. When the union men arrived, they were fired on; seven people were killed, 50 were wounded, and an indeterminate number wound up missing.
12 July 1917 (United States)
After seizing the local Western Union telegraph office in order to cut off outside communication, several thousand armed vigilantes forced 1,185 men in Bisbee, Arizona into manure-laden boxcars and "deported" them to the New Mexico desert. The action was precipitated by a strike when workers' demands (including improvements to safety and working conditions at the local copper mines, an end to discrimination against labor organizations and unequal treatment of foreign and minority workers, and the institution of a fair wage system) went unmet. The "deportation" was organized by Sheriff Harry Wheeler. The incident was investigated months later by a Federal Mediation Commission set up by President Woodrow Wilson; the Commission found that no federal law applied, and referred the case to the State of Arizona, which failed to take any action, citing patriotism and support for the war as justification for the vigilantes' action.
19 May 1920 (United States)
The Battle of Matewan. Despite efforts by police chief (and former miner) Sid Hatfield and Mayor Cabel Testerman to protect miners from interference in their union drive in Matewan, West Virginia, Baldwin-Felts detectives hired by the local mining company arrived to evict miners and their families from the Stone Mountain Mine camp. A gun battle ensued, resulting in the deaths of 7 detectives, Mayor Testerman, and 2 miners. The movie Matewan is based on the event.
Baldwin-Felts detectives assassinated Sid Hatfield 15 months later, sparking off an armed rebellion of 10,000 West Virginia coal miners at "The Battle of Blair Mountain," dubbed the Redneck war and the "the largest insurrection this country has had since the Civil War." Army troops later intervened against the striking mineworkers in West Virginia.<7>
1934 (United States)
The Electric Auto-Lite Strike. In Toledo, Ohio, two strikers were killed and over two hundred wounded by National Guardsmen. Some 1300 National Guard troops, including included eight rifle companies and three machine gun companies, were called in to disperse the protestors.
30 May 1937 (United States)
Police kill 10 and wounded 30 during the "Memorial Day Massacre" at the Republic Steel plant in Chicago.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_labor_issues_and_events<snip>
Labor American Labor 1830s-Present
http://www.u-s-history.com/pages/h1678.html
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