anti-union violence — Bunk History

A black-and-white frame of a crowd of police officers confronting strikers - beating them with clubs.

When Unions and Police Clash: The Memorial Day Massacre You May Not Know About

Decades ago, labor protests, picketing and strikes often led to violent confrontations between activists and police, although that almost never happens today.

by Greg Mitchell via Los Angeles Times on May 27, 2023

Photo of Ella May Wiggins' five children.

The 1929 Loray Mill Strike Was a Landmark Working-Class Struggle in the US South

Murdered during the 1929 Loray Mill strike, Ella May Wiggins became a working-class martyr—and a symbol of labor’s fight to democratize the anti-union South.

by Karen Sieber via Jacobin on September 14, 2022

Sketch of workers with clubs attacking a national guardsman during the Great Railroad Strike, 1877.

The 1877 Class War That America Forgot

In 1877, one million workers went on strike and fought police and federal troops in cities across America.

by Ryan Zickgraf via Jacobin on July 3, 2022

Striking miners in Buchtel, Ohio receiving "Blackleg" workmen when returning from their work escorted by a detachment of Pinkerton's detectives

American Vigilantism

In the early 20th century, labor unrest and strike breaking were done not by the government, but by private agencies and self-appointed vigilantes.

by Michael Mark Cohen, Matthew Wills via JSTOR Daily on December 26, 2021

What Made the Battle of Blair Mountain the Largest Labor Uprising in American History

Its legacy lives on today in the struggles faced by modern miners seeking workers' rights.

by Abby Lee Hood via Smithsonian on August 25, 2021

The Massacre That Spelled the End of Unionized Farm Labor in the South for Decades

In 1887, African-American cane workers in Louisiana attempted to organize—and many paid with their lives.

by Calvin Schermerhorn via Smithsonian on November 21, 2017

Memorial Day, 1937

Eighty years ago, striking workers in Chicago were shot down by police. It transformed the course of labor rights in the US.

by Ahmed White via Jacobin on May 29, 2017

Armed miners at the military headquarters of the United Mine Workers, in Trinidad, Colorado, the month of the Ludlow massacre.

There Was Blood

The Ludlow massacre revisited.

by Caleb Crain via The New Yorker on January 12, 2009

Eugene V. Debs delivers an antiwar speech in Canton, Ohio, June 16, 1918.

The Unsung History of Heartland Socialism

The spirit of socialism has coursed through the American Midwest ever since the movement emerged, continuing to animate the political landscape today.

by Miles Kampf-Lassin via In These Times on August 30, 2024

Haymarket riot, as depicted in Harpers Magazine.

May Day is a Rust Belt Holiday

Forged in the cauldron of Chicago’s streets and factories, born from the experience of workers in the mills and plants of Detroit, Pittsburgh, and Cleveland.

by Ed Simon via Belt Magazine on April 29, 2024

Two men carrying a weakened hunger striker.

Remembering the 1932 Ford Hunger March: Detroit Park Honors Labor and Environmental History

On March 7, workers at the Ford Rouge River plant marched for better working conditions. Almost a century later, a quiet park honors their memory.

by Paul Draus via The Conversation on April 2, 2024

Chicago police pursue fleeing workers in this screenshot from the suppressed Paramount newsreel footage. An officer's gun can be seen in the foreground.

The Bloody Labor Crackdown Paramount Didn’t Want America to See

Executives feared their newsreel footage would “cause riots and mass hysteria.”

by Greg Mitchell via Mother Jones on September 4, 2023

Big Bill Haywood, Adolph Lessing, and Carlo Tresca, Paterson, New Jersey, 1913.

The Wobblies and the Dream of One Big Union

A new history examines the lost promise and fierce persecution of the IWW.

by Michael Kazin via The Nation on May 15, 2023

Police beating young people with nightsticks.

"A Trap Had Been Set for These People"

A companion to a new PBS film, "The Memorial Day Massacre," the first oral history exploring the murder of 10 workers in Chicago.

by Greg Mitchell via Between Rock and a Hard Place on May 13, 2023

Lithograph of the Haymarket riot.

Chicago Never Forgot the Haymarket Martyrs

Ever since the execution of labor radicals in 1886, reactionaries have tried to tarnish their legacy — and leftists have honored them as working-class martyrs.

by Jeff Schuhrke via Jacobin on May 1, 2023

Comedic illustration of wide-eyed Pinkerton execs drinking coffee, as they "never sleep."

The Secret History of The Pinkertons

The hidden story of a 180-year-old union-busting spy agency.

by Sam Wallman via The Nib on January 2, 2023

Republican gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake holds a news conference as she tours the U.S.-Mexico border on Nov. 4 in Sierra Vista, Ariz.

Cochise County Didn’t Used To Be the Land Of Far Right Stunts

How the rural Arizona border county embodies the political shift in much of America.

by Katherine Benton-Cohen via Made By History on December 2, 2022

A Blair Mountain coal miner with his rifle slung over his shoulder, 1921.

A Century Ago, West Virginia Miners Took Up Arms Against King Coal

In 1921, twenty thousand armed miners in West Virginia marched on the coal bosses and were met with bombs and submachine guns.

by Arvind Dilawar, Chuck Keeney via Jacobin on June 23, 2021

Talk Like a Red: A Labor History in Two Acts

It’s a simple process that recurs throughout history: workers see injustice, they organize each other, and they fight for change.

by Robin Kaiser-Schatzlein via The Baffler on January 5, 2021

The Free and the Brave

A patriotic parade, a bloody brawl, and the origins of U.S. law enforcement’s war on the political left.

by Bill Donahue via The Atavist on August 24, 2020

Black and white STFU members including Myrtle Lawrence and Ben Lawrence listen to Norman Thomas speak outside Parkin, Arkansas, on September 12, 1937. Louise Boyle / Kheel Center

When Black Sharecroppers in the South Rose Up

In the 1930s, Socialist and Communist organizers tried to help Black sharecroppers rise up against their oppressors.

by Arvind Dilawar, Nan Elizabeth Woodruff via Jacobin on July 7, 2020

The Ghosts of Elaine, Arkansas, 1919

In America’s bloody history of racial violence, the little-known Elaine Massacre may rank as the deadliest.

by Jerome B. Karabel via New York Review of Books on September 30, 2019

Elaine Race Massacre: Red Summer in Arkansas

An interactive exhibit that explores the events and consequences of the deadliest racial conflict in Arkansas history.

via Center For Arkansas History And Culture on July 29, 2019

Children bringing home remains of a bed. Coal mining camp, Scotts Run, West Virginia. (1938)

James M. Cain and the West Virginia Mine Wars

Sean Carswell looks into James M. Cain and his time reporting on the West Virginia Mine Wars.

by Sean Carswell via Los Angeles Review of Books on September 25, 2018

Black and white photograph of workers of various affiliations march together at a 1946 May Day parade in New York City, holding signs about "world labor unity."

Welcome to Operation Dixie, the Most Ambitious Unionization Attempt in the U.S.

Southern segregation, racism and a militarized police meant the plan was destined to fail.

by Meagan Day via Medium on May 8, 2018

The Pinkertons Still Never Sleep

The notorious union-busting agency has resurfaced in a telecommunications labor dispute, showing how it's adapted to the 21st century.

by Sarah Jones via The New Republic on March 23, 2018

When Dissent Became Treason

100 years ago, war proved to be a godsend for a president with no tolerance for opposition. We would be wise to heed the lesson.

by Adam Hochschild via New York Review of Books on September 28, 2017

May Day's Radical History

The date of Occupy's strike has ties to the eight-hour day movement, immigrant workers and American anarchism.

by Jacob Remes via Salon on April 30, 2012

Protesters march againts the US-backed government of El Salvador in 1985.

How US Trade Unionists Opposed the Dirty War in El Salvador

Progressive forces in US labor took a stand in solidarity with trade unionists facing murderous repression in El Salvador.

by Jeff Schuhrke via Jacobin on September 26, 2024

Jack Conroy

Jack Conroy and the Lost Era of Proletarian Literature

In the midst of the Depression, Conroy helped encourage a new generation of working-class writers.

by Devin Thomas O’Shea via The Nation on April 30, 2024

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