Today in Labor History January 22, 1890: The Knights of Labor Trade Assembly No. 135 and the National Progressive Miners Union merged to form the United Mine Workers of America. Their initial goals were improved mine safety, independence from company stores, and collective bargaining. In 1898, they won the 8-hour day. By the 1930s, the UMW had over 800,000 members. However, their history was filled with bloody strikes. On April 3, 1891, deputized members of the National Guard killed at least 10 striking UMW members in the Morewood massacre. The cops killed 19 striking UMW members in the Lattimer Massacre, September 10, 1897. Eight UMW members and five private detectives died in the Battle of Virden, in October 1898.
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Today in Labor History January 5, 1970: Kenneth Yablonski, son of United Mine Workers reform candidate Joseph "Jock" Yablonski, discovered the bodies of his father, mother and sister. Assassins had murdered them on December 31, 1969, on orders from UMW President Tony Boyle. The authorities later arrested Boyle and convicted him for the murders.
Today in Labor History November 1, 1919: Over 400,000 miners across the country went on strike. The strike took place in the wake of World War I, and the ongoing Red Scare, in which the authorities were rounding up, imprisoning and deporting thousands of suspected communists, anarchists and radicals. There was also a major steel strike already under way. The mine owners accused the miners of Bolshevism and claimed they were being funded by Lenin and Trotsky. Ultimately, the strike succeeded in winning wage gains for hundreds of thousands of unionized miners. However, conditions for nonunion miners continued to deteriorate, leading to another strike, the following year, in West Virginia. In this strike, the mine owners used private cops to terrorize and murder striking miners, leading to the Matewan Massacre (1920), and the Battle of Blair Mountain (1921), the largest armed insurrection since the Civil War, and the largest labor uprising in U.S. history. Miners also struck in July, 1919, to protest the imprisonment of IWW labor activist Tom Mooney, wrongly convicted for the San Francisco Preparedness Day Parade bombing, and for higher wages to keep up with the post-war inflation. This time, their own union opposed the strike, leading to wild cat actions across the country. Insurgent miners took over the United Mine Workers (UMW) convention in Cleveland, even though union officials tried to exclude rebellious locals. The UMW was so concerned with suppressing wildcat strikes and dissension among their ranks that they even supplied scabs to help mine owners put down the wildcat strikes.
Read my article about about the Matewan Massacre and the Battle of Blair Mountain here: https://michaeldunnauthor.com/2024/04/14/the-battle-of-blair-mountain/
Read my article about Tom Mooney here: https://michaeldunnauthor.com/2024/05/19/tom-mooney-and-warren-billings/
#workingclass #LaborHistory #mining #coal #union #strike #umw #matewan #massacre #communism #anarchism #prison #deportation #redscare #scab
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Today in Labor History May 10, 1887: UMW organizer Ginger Goodwin was born on this date. He was also a socialist and anti-war activist. In 1918, he was murdered by a private cop. His assassination, along with outrage over World War One conscription, inflation, low wages, and censorship of the socialist media, sparked Canada's first General Strike, in Vancouver. Goodwin said that workers of one country should not be employed to kill workers of another country because of capitalist conflict. “War is simply part of the process of Capitalism,” he said. “Big financial interests will reap the victory, no matter how the war ends.”
The Ballad Of Ginger Goodwin
Ginger Goodwin is a name you don't often hear or see.
They don't say a word about him in our country's history.
He was a labour leader and he wouldn't go to war.
"While the army breaks our strikes at home, its strikers I'll fight for."
In Trail back in the summer of 1917.
Ginger fought against conscription even though he was class D.
But when he led a miners' strike to spread the eight hour day
Conscription checked him out again and found he was class A.
Ginger hid from cops and soldiers in the hills near Cumberland.
Miners brought him food and sheltered him, they knew he was their friend.
So the bosses hired special cops when their power was at stake.
Dan Campbell murdered Goodwin at the head of Comox Lake.
The whole damn town of Cumberland turned out for the funeral hike.
Vancouver's workers shut her down for a one day general strike.
Soldiers back from foreign wars then attacked the labour hall.
Both the bosses and the workers knew who caused the Czar's downfall.
You can still see Ginger's grave along the road to Cumberland.
He didn't win no medals and no one understands.
Don't tell me that a hero has to die in foreign lands.
We lost heroes here in labour's wars and they all had dirty hands.
#workingclass #LaborHistory #generalstrike #union #umw #gingergoodwin #policebrutality #police #canada #censorship #freespeech #wages #inflation #GeneralStrike #vancouver #antiwar #classwar #solidarity #folkmusic #labormusic
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