Reply #42: A brief overview of our extremely violent labor history

[Richard_Myers]

Thanks for posting this, Omaha Steve.

I'm a union guy (40+ years), a former factory worker, and a self-educated labor historian. I live in Colorado, and happen to be fairly active in the effort to keep the Ludlow memory alive. My website includes the story of the vandalism, as well as the unveiling of the repaired monument:

http://www.rebelgraphics.org/ludlow.html

and,

http://www.rebelgraphics.org/ludlow_second_century.html

(photos!)

I suggest, however, that the Ludlow strike, while a fairly dramatic account due to the deaths of women and children, is in no way an extraordinary event in U.S. labor history. Nor is it significant for that reason alone. The strike lasted for more than a year and, from start to finish, resulted in the deaths of about eighty people. One of the most historically significant episodes during the strike was the Ten Days War, which occurred in the immediate aftermath of the massacre.

In brief, thousands of union miners intent on revenge armed themselves with .30-30 Winchester rifles and drove the Colorado National Guard out of cities and mining camps, from Pueblo south. The union miners burned tipples and mine buildings, annihilated scores of mine guards, occupied Trinidad and surrounding communities, and were skirmishing for Walsenburg. In many areas, after months of inflicting insult and abuse on the strikers, the National Guard simply turned tail and ran, no doubt fearing the pay-back. Other miners crossed over from New Mexico, and five thousand miners in Wyoming were mobilizing to cross into Colorado when the U.S. Army intervened.

The Ludlow strike was the second bloodiest civil insurrection since the Civil War. (More died in the Great Railway Strike of 1877.) But a recent discussion that i participated in included twenty or so *other* strikes considered by some labor historians as more notable than Ludlow.

The earlier post mentioned the Death Special (a machine-gun equipped armored car). That wasn't unique by any means. During the Paint Creek/Cabin Creek Strike in West Virginia, the coal company equipped a armored train (the Bull Moose Special) with a machine gun, then shot up a miners' community to punish the miners for striking.

But there's also West Virginia's Battle of Blair Mountain, which was the largest single civil insurrection. That's been in the news again this year -- did you know that a military style campaign conducted by more than ten thousand unionized World War I veterans intent on revenge crossed the state into Mingo County, drilling and marching in formation? They were seeking revenge after chief of police Sid Hatfield (portrayed in the movie Matewan) was murdered in cold blood on the courthouse steps by coal company detectives.

Did you know that six thousand women -- sisters, wives, mothers and daughters of striking miners, called by newspapers an "Army of Amazons" -- terrorized strike-breaking miners in Kansas, and after being confronted by three companies of bayonet-wielding militia, the women surrounded the militia's camp in the middle of the night, taunting the "college boys" to go home?

Or that the Colorado National Guard was intent on murdering strike breakers to justify their call-up, but settled for shooting up mine buildings during the Cripple Creek Strike, knowing that the union would be blamed?

How about the fact that the abrupt mass murder of unarmed union pickets standing peacefully on their strike lines was a common tactic for breaking strikes?

Or that union miners in Idaho high-jacked a train, loaded it up with hundreds of boxes of dynamite, and blew up a quarter of a million dollar mill to express their anger at the company?

Here is a link to an overview of violence against unions. One of the most difficult challenges in writing this was the decision about which vital historical accounts to leave out. (There's a companion article about violence committed *by* unions):

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-union_violence#Different_types_of_violence

Lotta history here, folks. Glad to see there's some interest.

best wishes,
richard myers