The strikes of 1934:The rebellion in Minneapolis

[Hannah Bell]

THE HISTORY of the "Minneapolis Teamster Rebellion," as it came to be known, is packed with lessons for workers and trade unionists of any era....THE TEAMSTER Rebellion was in many ways the model of a successful strike...

...the strike was a model of democratic rank-and-file control. The union elected a 75-member strike committee of rank-and-file drivers...Every night, workers debated the next steps of their struggle at mass meetings. They distributed a daily strike newspaper, The Organizer, and ran their own hospital and kitchen (feeding 10,000 people a day) in a strike headquarters located in a garage.

"Meticulous planning" for the strike included reaching out to potential allies early on. Local 574 recognized that mass unemployment posed a threat....they might be used as strikebreakers. Local 574 organized an "unemployed section" of the union to fight for jobs and welfare benefits--and reach out to small farmers in the surrounding area.

The union also formed a women's auxiliary... "The aim," Dobbs wrote in Teamster Rebellion, "would be to draw in wives, girlfriends, sisters and mothers of union members. Instead of having their morale corroded by financial difficulties they would face during the strike...they should be drawn into the think of battle."

All this paved the way for widespread support and solidarity...For five weeks, the strikers faced down the National Guard--and on August 22, the employers finally blinked. The bosses agreed to recognize all union members, both drivers and warehouse workers...These fights paved the way for the historic victories to come across all the key industries of the U.S. economy...

The commitment of Local 574 to take the class struggle "all the way" underlines the immense potential of the working class today... As Farrell Dobbs described the "calm" before the "storm" of 1934:

"Wiseacres of the day spoke pontifically about the "passivity" of the working class, never understanding that the seeming docility of the workers at a given time is a relative thing. If workers are more or less holding their own in daily life and expecting that they can get ahead slowly, they won't tend to radicalize.

Things are different when they are losing ground and the future looks precarious to them. Then a change begins to occur in their attitude, which is not always immediately apparent. The tinder of discontent begins to pile up. Any spark can light it, and once lit, the fire can spread rapidly."

http://socialistworker.org/2009/09/29/rebellion-in-minneapolis

[Selatius]

1. Today, workers are losing ground, and things are looking precarious.

"Then a change begins to occur in their attitude, which is not always immediately apparent."

I think that's starting to happen already.

"The tinder of discontent begins to pile up."

Soon, there will be enough tinder. It is piling up as we speak.

[HamdenRice]

2. What? WSWS was crazy enough for you? Now its uber factional splinter socialist worker?