Today in Labor History August 25, 1819: Allan Pinkerton was born. He founded the Pinkerton private police force, whose strike breaking detectives (Pinkertons, or 'Pinks') gave us the word 'fink' as they slaughtered dozens of workers in various labor struggles. Ironically, Pinkerton was a violent, radical leftist as a youth. He fought cops in the streets as a member of the Chartist Movement. He had to flee the UK in order to not be imprisoned and executed. Yet in America, he became the nation’s first super cop. He created the secret service. He foiled an assassination attempt against Lincoln. He fine-tuned the art of spying on activists and planting agents provocateur in their ranks. His agents played a major role in destroying the miners’ union in the 1870s, as portrayed in my novel, “Anywhere But Schuylkill.” Later, they assassinated numerous organizers with the IWW and came within inches of successfully getting Big Bill Hayward convicted on trumped up murder charges.

Anywhere But Schuylkill will be out in early September, 2023, from Historium Press: https://www.thehistoricalfictioncompany.com/it/michael-dunn

You can read my satirical biography of Pinkerton here: https://marshalllawwriter.com/the-eye-that-never-sleeps/

#WorkingClass #LaborHistory #Pinkertons #IWW #police #SecretService #books #fiction #HistoricalFiction #AnywhereButSchuylkil #mining #coal #writer #author @bookstadon

Coming soon, “Anywhere But Schuylkill,” my historical novel about the Pennsylvania coal wars. The blue image in the background is the painting, “The Breaker Boys,” by George Luks (1925). Luks was associated with the “aggressively realistic” Ashcan School of American painting. He was also from Shenandoah, Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania, where my novel takes place, and makes a cameo appearance as a child, working in his father’s pharmacy. His father, Emil (Doc) Luks was a physician and pharmacist, and a well-known friend of the miners, often treating them for free or at discounted prices during strikes and economic depressions.

https://www.thehistoricalfictioncompany.com/michael-dunn

#WorkingClass #LaborHistory #mining #union #strike #Pinkertons #HistoricalFiction #fiction #novel #author #writer #AnywhereButSchuylkill @bookstadon

Today in Labor History July 22, 1892: Anarchist Alexander Berkman tried to assassinate industrialist Henry Clay Frick in retaliation for the 9 miners killed by Pinkerton thugs on July 6, during the Homestead Steel Strike. Frick was the manager of Homestead Steel and had hired the Pinkertons to protect the factory and the scab workers he hired to replace those who were on strike. Berkman, and his lover, Emma Goldman, planned the assassination hoping it would arouse the working class to rise up and overthrow capitalism. Berkman failed in the assassination attempt and went to prison for 14 years. He wrote a book about his experience called, “Prison Memoirs of an Anarchist” (1912). He also wrote “The Bolshevik Myth” (1925) and “The ABC of Communist Anarchism” (1929).

#WorkingClass #LaborHistory #anarchism #communism #AlexanderBerkman #prison #assassination #strike #steel #carnegie #massacre #EmmaGoldman #Pinkertons #books #writing #author @bookstadon

Today in Labor History July 11, 1892: Frisco Mine was dynamited by striking Coeur D’Alene miners after they discovered they had been infiltrated by Pinkertons and after one of their members had been shot. The striking miners belonged to the Western Federation of Miners. Prior to this, the mine owners had increased work hours, decreased pay and brought in a bunch of scabs to replace striking workers. Ultimately, over 600 striking miners were imprisoned without charge by the military in order to crush the strike.

#WorkingClass #LaborHistory #mining #union #strike #bombing #pinkertons #wfm #scabs #FriscoMine

Today in Labor History July 6, 1892: Locked out workers out at the Homestead Steel Works battled 300 Pinkerton detectives hired by Carnegie, who owned the Homestead mill. The Pinkertons were there to import and protect scabs brought in to replace striking workers. They opened fire on the striking steelworkers who defended themselves with guns and a homemade cannon. 3-7 Pinkertons and 11 union members were killed in the battle. The strike lasted for months. Court injunctions eventually helped to crush the union, protecting the steel industry for decades from organized labor. Alexander Berkman and Emma Goldman plotted to assassinate Homestead Boss Henry Clay Frick for his role in killing the workers. Berkman later carried out the assassination attempt, failed, and spent years in prison.

#WorkingClass #LaborHistory #homestead #steel #strike #carnegie #Pinkertons #prison #massacre #anarchism #scabs #AlexanderBerkman #EmmaGoldman #union #assassination

Today in Labor History July 1, 1892: Carnegie Steel locked out workers at its Homestead, PA, plant. The lockout culminated in a major battle between strikers and Pinkerton security agents on July 6. Determined to keep the plant closed and inoperable by scabs, the strikers formed military units that patrolled the grounds around the plant, and the Monongahela River in boats, to prevent access by strikebreakers and their Pinkerton guards. On the night of July 5, Pinkertons, armed with Winchester rifles, attempted to cross the river. Reports conflict as to which side fired first, but a gun battle ensued. Both sides suffered numerous deaths and injuries. Women also participated in the action. In the end, the Pinkertons gave up and surrendered. However, the governor called in the state militia, which quickly displaced the picketers and allowed the scabs in, thus ending the strike. In the wake of the bloody strike, Alexander Berkman, an anarchist, tried to assassinate Henry Clay Frick, Carnegie’s agent at Homestead.

K. Friedman wrote about the strike in “By Bread Alone” (1901). Friedman was a Chicago socialist, settlement-house worker and journalist. His novel was an early example of the transformation in socialist fiction from "utopian" to "scientific" socialism. More recently, Trilby Busch wrote about the strike in her novel, “Darkness Visible” (2012).

#WorkingClass #LaborHistory #union #strike #homestead #carnegie #socialism #Pinkertons #scabs #anarchism #AlexanderBerkman #pittsburgh #steel #fiction #books #novel #writer #author @bookstadon

Today in Labor History June 16, 1836: The London Working Men's Association was formed, launching the Chartist movement. The Chartists took their name from the People's Charter, which demanded universal suffrage for men, regardless of social class. The movement appealed to skilled workers, not the masses of unskilled laborers. They followed the utopian socialism of Robert Owen. The movement lasted from 1838 to 1857. America’s first cop, Allan Pinkerton, creator of the Secret Service & persecutor of the Molly Maguires, was a radical participant in the Chartist movement before becoming the bulldog of capitalists. While the Chartism was primarily a constitutional movement, there was a radical, insurrectionary wing. Pinkerton was a part of this wing. He fought cops, destroyed property and set fires.

You can read my biography of him, “The Eye That Never Sleeps,” here: https://marshalllawwriter.com/the-eye-that-never-sleeps/

https://youtu.be/waRwJZFoJmw?t=3

#WorkingClass #LaborHistory #chartist #Pinkertons #MollyMaguires #cop #police #PoliceState #socialism #RobertOwen #Chumbawamba

Today in Writing History May 27, 1894: Author Dashiell Hammett was born. From the age of 21-23, he worked as a Pinkerton detective and then joined the army. But he developed tuberculosis and was discharged shortly after joining. In 1920, he moved to Spokane, again to work for the Pinkertons. There, he served as a 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. His first stories were published in the early 1920s. And his 1929 novel, “Red Harvest,” was inspired by the Anaconda Road massacre, a 1920 labor dispute in the mining town of Butte, Montana, when company guards fired on striking IWW miners, killing one and injuring 16 others. Vigilantes also lynched Frank Little. André Gide called the book “the last word in atrocity, cynicism, and horror." However, Hammett was most famous for The Maltese Falcon (1930) and The Thin Man (1934). Both were later made into films. In 1937, he supported the Anti-Nazi League and the Western Writers Congress. He also donated to the Abraham Lincoln Brigade, fighting the fascists in Spain. He was a socialist and served as president of the Communist-sponsored Civil Rights Congress of New York. In 1953, he was subpoenaed by McCarthy’s anti-Communist witch hunt. And again, in 1955, he was celled to testify bout his role in the Civil Rights Congress. He was also convicted in absentia in 1932 of battery and attempted rape. He died in 1961, of lung cancer.

#WorkingClass #LaborHistory #IWW #nazis #antifascism #CivilRights #socialism #communism #Pinkertons #lynching #FrankLittle #indigenous #massacre #strike #union #author #books #fiction @bookstadon

As bad as #GamesWorkshop is, I don't know of them ever sending armed goons to anybody's house or hiring a corporate intelligence contractor that trades in their reputation as assassins of union organizers from the early 20th and late 19th century like #WOTCstaff just did. #pinkertons

You could say that the Pinkertons don't murder people very often anymore but the fact that they used to is still relevant because it informs their reputation. Buyers of their services are hiring the infamous Pinkertons to instill fear in their targets. We've essentially given corporations blank checks to use state violence and private security contractors to use violence against individuals who have inconvenienced them.

Today in labor history April 30 1886: 50,000 workers in Chicago were on strike. 30,000 more joined in the next day. The strike halted most of Chicago’s manufacturing. On May 3rd, the Chicago cops killed four unionists. Activists organized a mass public meeting and demonstration in Haymarket Square on May 4. During the meeting, somebody threw a bomb at the cops. The explosion and subsequent gunfire killed seven cops and four civilians. Nobody ever identified the bomber. None of the killer cops was charged. However, the authorities started arresting anarchists throughout Chicago.

Ultimately, they tried and convicted eight anarchist leaders in a kangaroo court. The men were: August Spies, Albert Parsons, Adolph Fisher, George Engel, Louis Lingg, Michael Schwab, Samuel Felden and Oscar Neebe. Only two of the men were even present when the bomb was thrown. The court convicted seven of murder and sentenced them to death. Neebe was give fifteen years. Parson’s brother testified at the trial that the real bomb thrower was a Pinkerton agent provocateur. This was entirely consistent with the Pinkertons modus operandi. They used the agent provocateur, James McParland, to entrap and convict the Molly Maguires. As a result, twenty of them were hanged and the Pennsylvania mining union was crushed. McParland also tried to entrap WFM leader, Big Bill Haywood, for the murder of Idaho Governor Frank Steunenberg. Steunenberg had crushed the WFM strike in 1899, the same one in which the WFM had blown up a colliery. However, Haywood had Clarence Darrow representing him. And Darrow proved his innocence.

On November 11, 1887, they executed Spies, Parson, Fisher and Engel. They sang the Marseillaise, the revolutionary anthem, as they marched to the gallows. The authorities arrested family members who attempted to see them one last time. This included Parson’s wife, Lucy, who was also a significant anarchist organizer and orator. In 1905, she helped cofound the IWW. Moments before he died, Spies shouted, "The time will come when our silence will be more powerful than the voices you strangle today." And Engel and Fischer called out, "Hurrah for anarchism!" Parsons tried to speak, but was cut off by the trap door opening beneath him.

Workers throughout the world protested the trial, conviction and executions. Prominent people spoke out against it, includin Clarence Darrow, Oscar Wilde, George Bernard Shaw, and William Morris. The Haymarket Affair inspired thousands to join the anarchist movement, including Emma Goldman. And it is the inspiration for International Workers’ Day, which is celebrated on May 1st in nearly every country in the world except the U.S.

#WorkingClass #LaborHistory #anarchism #haymarket #LucyParsons #IWW #EmmaGoldman #strike #union #8HourDay #PoliceBrutality #KillerCops #prison #DeathPenalty #Pinkertons

good morning, enjoy a crime cat.

#thecrimecats say motherfuck #wizardsofthecoast for hiring a private security firm, the labor-busting extrajudicially-murdering #pinkertons to shake down a customer. if you don't want to set a standard of corporations sending private security thugs to strong arm and intimidate people, i cannot implore you enough to never give #wotc money again.

Just heard about this messed-up #WizardsOfTheCoast #pinkertons crap…unbelievable. I hope some lawyer offers to represent this guy in a lawsuit. We talk all the time about corporations having too much power, but sending hit squads? For a mistake the COMPANY made, no less?

And before this, there was the stupid third-party D&D dust-up, too.

What kind of dystopian horror show is this? Is there a beholder running WOTC or something? Guys, YOU NEED NEW MANAGEMENT.

"The Pinkerton employees on the other hand, were less cordial to the YouTuber. Cannon told Kotaku over email that they had threatened to get the county sheriff involved if he did not return the MtG cards. They cited statures with punishments such as a $200,000 fine and up to a decade of jail time. "

https://kotaku.com/mtg-aftermath-leaks-pinkertons-wotc-magic-the-gathering-1850368923?ICID=ref_fark

#MTG #MagicTheGathering #Kotaku #Pinkertons

Today In Labor History March 27, 1904: The authorities kicked Mother Jones out of Colorado for “stirring-up” striking coal miners. Earlier in March, the authorities deported 60 striking miners from Colorado. In June, they arrested 22 in Telluride. For nearly 2 years, strikers, led by the Western Federation of Miners, were violently attacked by Pinkerton and Baldwin-Felts detectives. 33 strikers were killed. At least two scholars have said “There is no episode in American labor history in which violence was as systematically used by employers as in the Colorado labor war of 1903 and 1904.”

#WorkingClass #LaborHistory #colorado #union #strike #mining #MotherJones #WorkplaceViolence #scabs #coal #Pinkertons

Today in Labor History December 30, 1905: Governor Frank Steunenberg of Idaho was assassinated by a bomb. Steunenberg had been elected on a Populist Party "defend the working man" ticket. But then he called on federal troops to crush the 1899 miners’ strike. Authorities promptly blamed members of the radical WFM, including Big Bill Haywood. The actual assassin was Harry Orchard, a WFM union member who was also a paid informant and agent provocateur for the Cripple Creek Mine Owners’ Association. The investigation was conducted by Pinkerton agent James McParland, the same man who infiltrated the Ancient Order of Hibernians in eastern Pennsylvania and acted as an agent provocateur, leading to the wrongful executions of 20 Irish miners. After interrogation by McParland, Orchard signed a 64-page typed confession claiming that he had been hired to kill Steunenberg by the WFM leadership ("Big Bill" Haywood; General Secretary, Charles Moyer; and President George Pettibone). Superstar labor lawyer Clarence Darrow got all three WFM defendants acquitted. Orchard pled guilty and received a death sentence in a separate trial, but the sentence was commuted to life in prison. McParland also plays prominently in my novel, “Anywhere But Schuylkill,” about the period leading up to the wrongful executions of the Irish miners.

#workingclass #LaborHistory #bigbillhaywood #union #strike #wfm #Pinkertons #assassination #irish #racism #miners #historicalfiction @bookstadon