‘I can hire one half of the working class to kill the other half.’ Plutocracy: Political Repression in the USA I: Divide and Rule, Jay Gould, 19th century American railroad developer, 2015
Each mining town was a feudal dominion with the company acting as lord and master … The laws were the company’s rules. ibid.
1907: The most deadly mine disaster in US history occurred when an explosion killed 361 men and boys in a West Virginia coal mine. ibid.
Accidents in American mines were double that of Germany, three times more than England. ibid.
‘Freedom from industrial feudalism … freedom from the terrorism inflicted by hired gunmen … and the struggle for liberties promised in the Bill of Rights.’ ibid. 2003 American Labor History Theme Study
In 1912 coal miners in Kanawha Country in West Virginia issued a list of demands including a shorter workday, the right to organise, recognition of a worker’s constitutional rights to free speech and assembly, an end to the blacklisting of union organisers, and alternatives to company stores. The requested pay raise would have cost the company fifteen cents per miner per day. Instead of negotiating, the company hired a private militia to break the strike. ibid.
[Mother] Jones had been declared the Most Dangerous Woman in America. ibid.
Union organisers were blacklisted and beaten. ibid.
The West Virginian mine wars were part of a broader conflict between the forces of labor and the forces of capital. A struggle that claimed the lives of thousands of American workers in the late 19th and early 20th centuries; thousands more were beaten, maimed, imprisoned, tortured and sent to early graves due to poor working conditions and dismal safety standards. ibid.
‘In all civilised countries the people fall into different classes having a real or supposed difference of interests … There will be particularly the distinction between rich and poor.’ ibid.
The ability of the wealthy to buy their way out of military services caused rage among the poor. ibid.
Irish immigrants were mocked for their accents, their religion and their overall impoverishment. They were also amongst the first ethnic groups in the United States to form labor unions. ibid.
‘You are made to hate each other because upon that hatred is rested the keystone of the arch of financial despotism which enslaves you both.’ ibid. Tom Watson, populist leader
Jim Crow laws enforced segregation and curtailed African-American voting rights. During the same time period poor white voters were also disenfranchised. ibid.
In California a genocidal campaign had reduced the indigenous population from 150,000 in 1846 to 30,000 by 1870. ibid.
The robber barons took every opportunity to bribe politicians and crush their competitors. ibid.
Congress became known as the Millionaires Club. ibid.
By 1900 something like 20% of all American workers were under the age of 18. ibid.
Police were also used to discipline the working class. In Tompkins Square New York 1874 7,000 workers protested unemployment only to be savagely attacked by police. ibid.
A spirited labor press emerged in all of the major cities. ibid.
Unions around the country were becoming increasingly militant. ibid.
‘Anarchy is on trial … Make examples of them, hang them … save our institutions, our society.’ ibid. Julius S Grinnell, prosecutor of anarchists
One in eleven steelworkers died while on the job, often from a lack of sleep. ibid.
When Chinese railroad workers went on strike in 1867 demanding higher wages, shorter working hours, a ban on whipping, and the right to quit their jobs, almost no-one came to their aid. ibid.
The New Orleans strike was emblematic of a growing spirit of solidarity between workers. ibid.
‘My friends, it is solidarity of labor we want … We must be together; our masters are joined together and we must do the same thing.’ Plutocracy II: Solidarity Forever, Mother Jones, 2016
In the late 19th century a brutal class-war was underway in the United States. And as in all wars the poor suffered the majority of casualties. ibid.
American industry had the highest job accident rate of any country in the industrialised world. ibid.
Presiding over society was a small group of industrialists and bankers nicknamed the Robber Barons. ibid.
The National Guard came to the Pinkertons’ rescue protecting strike-breakers and defeating the union. ibid.
Among the targets were the Molly Maguires … a secret society of Irish immigrants … during the 1870s, victims of perilous working conditions. ibid.
One of the most important labor struggles in the late 19th century was the Pullmen’s strike of 1894. ibid.
Chicago 1894: 12,000 US army troops were sent in to attack their own citizens. ibid.
Day of Blood at Lattimer! Lower End Mine Strike Takes a Terrible Turn … They fire on Marching Strikers with Terrible Effect … Deputies Use Rifles! … 16 killed 70 wounded. ibid. newspaper report
Working class prisoners were used as virtual slaves … More African/Americans died under the convict-leasing system than during slavery. ibid.
The link between wealth and voting rights sometimes caused unrest. ibid.
The Women’s Movement was also plagued by the same class and racial bigotries that afflicted labor unions. ibid.
‘I cannot think it probable that [working people] will be permanently contented with the condition of laboring for wages as their ultimate state. To work at the bidding and for the profit of another, without any interest in the work … is, not even when wages are high, a satisfactory state for human beings.’ ibid. John Stuart Mill
‘The IWW was openly anti-capitalist.’ ibid. Historian
Migrant workers from Mexico had become a super-exploited class. ibid.
Most of the San Diego press cheered on the violence … The vigilantes represented the bankers and merchants. ibid.
‘The insurrectional fact, destined to affirm socialist principles by deed, is the most efficacious means of propaganda … It is therefore necessary to destroy with violence, since one cannot do otherwise, the violence which denies these means to the workers.’ ibid. Erico Malatesta, 1876
‘Remember that you are fighting more than your own fight. You are fighting for the entire working class and you must stand together.’ ibid. Big Bill Haywood, IWW leader
The Lawrence Textile strike of 1912 which involved immigrants from over forty different nationalities, both men and women … Before long, police began attacking the picket lines. ibid.
‘Your violent and chaotic society always bears within it war as a sleeping cloud bears a storm.’ Plutocracy III: Class War, Jean Jaures, French socialist leader, 2017
Massive wealth inequality remained. Between the years 1800 and 1920 economic inequality in the United States increased more than a hundred-fold. ibid.
The most notorious of the battles occurred in Ludlow, Colorado, 1914 … ‘owned by the Rockefeller trust … The National Guard fired into the tents.’ The killing of their [strikers’] families caused national outrage. Protests erupted across the country. ibid.
An expression of growing working-class solidarity. ibid.
The Socialist Party was also experiencing national growth. ibid.
Joe Hill had a unique weapon in his arsenal: not just speech but song. ibid.
Another important labor Leader imprisoned under the Espionage Act was the anarchist Ricardo Flores Magon. ibid.
‘IWW stood for Industrial Workers of the World. Work, Good Wages & Respect – that’s what they wanted for the workers.’ The Wobblies, woman, 1979
At the turn of the century America was changing rapidly from a basically rural society to an urban industrial one … One of the striking features of the period was the rapid growth of the enormous corporations which began to control the basic industries. ibid.
The working class and the employing class have nothing in common. Between these two classes a struggle must go on until the workers of the world organize as a class, take possession of the earth and the machinery of production, and abolish the wage system. ibid. Preamble
‘The IWW was the only thing that was accepting Negro or black workers.’ ibid. black worker
A year after the Lawrence Strike another strike broke out in Paterson, New Jersey, 1913 … They were defeated in their demands for an eight-hour day and higher wages. ibid.
‘You either had to stop living or become a rebel.’ ibid. Woman
They would use the soapboxes as recruiting stations. ibid.
‘Rebellious slaves – that’s what we were.’ ibid. old boy