Today in labor history July 23 Berkman shoots and stabs but fails to kill steel magnate Henry Frick

[Omaha Steve]

July 23

July 23, 1846 - Protesting slavery and the U.S. involvement in the Mexican War, Henry David Thoreau refused to pay his $1 poll tax and was put in jail by the Concord, Massachusetts, town constable. The experience moved him to write Civil Disobedience.

July 23
Anarchist Alexander Berkman shoots and stabs but fails to kill steel magnate Henry Clay Frick in an effort to avenge the Homestead massacre 18 days earlier, in which nine strikers were killed. Berkman also tried to use what was, in effect, a suicide bomb, but it didn’t detonate - 1892

Aluminum Workers Int’l Union merges with The United Brick & Clay Workers of America to form Aluminum, Brick & Clay Workers - 1981

[PetrusMonsFormicarum]

1. Berkman acted alone

much to the detriment of his union.

This is a timely story, though: Henry Clay Frick and the other moguls of his day (railroads, coal, oil, steel) were the essence of unbridled capitalism, right-wing fantasists who believed that competition was wasteful and who sought to form "trusts" as the monopolies were called. They were among the first speculators in the American financial markets, too: their actions were arguably responsible for at least two serious financial crashes.