Today in Labor History December 1, 1912: The rustling card system was put into place by the Anaconda Mining and Smelter Company. Rustling cards verified employees’ identities and employment status. The company used spies to identify union agitators and refused them rustling cards and jobs. In 1917, the IWW called a strike at the Anaconda mines around Butte, Montana. They demanded the end of the rustling cards system, and the implementation of the 8-hour day and higher wages. Author Dashiell Hammett served as a Pinkerton strikebreaker in the Anaconda miners’ strike. However, when the Pinkertons enlisted him to assassinate Native American IWW organizer Frank Little, he refused, and quit the agency. On 4/21/1917, guards opened fire on unarmed picketers, killing one and injuring sixteen, while vigilantes lynched Frank Little. Dashiell Hammett depicted the strike in his first novel, “Red Harvest.” André Gide called Red Harvest “the last word in atrocity, cynicism, and horror.”

You can read my biography of Frank Little here: https://michaeldunnauthor.com/2024/04/05/frank-little/

You can read my essay on the Pinkertons here: https://michaeldunnauthor.com/2024/04/04/union-busting-by-the-pinkertons/

You can read my biography of Hammett here: https://michaeldunnauthor.com/2024/04/05/dashiell-hammett/

#workingclass #LaborHistory #IWW #union #strike #mining #wages #unionbusting #books #fiction #franklittle #assassination #indigenous #nativeamerican #author #writer #dashiellhammett #pinkertons @bookstadon