Today in Labor History July 22, 1916: Someone set off a bomb during the pro-war “Preparedness Day” parade in San Francisco. As a result, 10 people died and 40 were injured. A jury convicted two labor leaders, Thomas Mooney and Warren Billings, based on false testimony. Both were pardoned in 1939. Not surprisingly, only anarchists were suspected in the bombing. A few days after the bombing, they searched and seized materials from the offices of “The Blast,” Alexander Berkman and Emma Goldman’s local paper. They also threatened to arrest Berkman.

In 1931, while they were still in prison, I. J. Golden persuaded the Provincetown Theater to produce his play, “Precedent,” about the Mooney and Billings case. Brooks Atkinson of the New York Times wrote, "By sparing the heroics and confining himself chiefly to a temperate exposition of his case [Golden] has made “Precedent” the most engrossing political drama since the Sacco-Vanzetti play entitled Gods of the Lightening... Friends of Tom Mooney will rejoice to have his case told so crisply and vividly."

#WorkingClass #LaborHistory #SanFrancisco #bombing #anarchism #union #labor #AlexanderBerkman #prison #EmmaGoldman #playwright #theater #writer #author @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 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 April 3, 1891: Deputized members of the National Guard fired on immigrant strikers in the Morewood massacre, in Pennsylvania. They killed at least ten workers and injured dozens more. The workers were organized with the new United Mine Workers, and were fighting Henry Clay Frick, the same industrialist responsible for the massacre at Homestead the following year, and the man who anarchist Alexander Berkman attempted to assassinate, also in 1892.

#WorkingClass #LaborHistory #massacre #anarchism #AlexanderBerkman #HenryClayFrick #strike #umw

Today In Labor History March 26, 1918: American anarchist Philip Grosser wrote about being tortured in the prison on Alcatraz Island, while serving time there for refusing to serve in World War I. By 1920, he was the only draft resistor still serving time at Alcatraz. Alexander Berkman referred to him as "one of [my] finest comrades."

#WorkingClass #LaborHistory #anarchism #PhilipGrosser #AlexanderBerkman #alcatraz #prison #torture #WarResistance #wwi

Review of Prison Memoirs of an Anarchist by Alexander Berkman by Marius Mason:

https://www.anarchistfederation.net/marius-mason-some-thoughts-on-alexander-berkmans-prison-memoirs-of-an-anarchist-by-an-imprisoned-anarchist/

#MariusMason #AlexanderBerkman

„Wer nicht begreift, wie ein Mensch auch das Letzte restlos für eine Sache einstellen kann, die für ihn den ganzen Wert des Lebens umfasst, wird einen Charakter wie Berkman nie verstehen.“ #RudolfRocker on #AlexanderBerkman, 1936. #Anarchismus

Next book on #anarchism and #history of anarchism is in the works. Short #biography of #AlexanderBerkman for all #histodon followers and other interested readers is soon ready & this book will, of course, also be published in full #OpenAccess https://www.hentrichhentrich.de/buch-alexander-berkman.html Stay tuned for updates here #AnarchistStudies

Paul Auster e i fantasmi della guerra civile americana 2.0 https://www.carmillaonline.com/2022/08/10/la-metafisica-delle-guerre-civili-americane-paul-auster/ #AlexanderBerkman #JaylandWalker #RoseHawthorne #guerrecivili #TedKaczynski #DonaldTrump #EmmaGoldman #NicholasRay #WaltWhitman #Interventi #Recensioni #PaulAuster #StatiUniti #JamesDean #Occidente #Unabomber #KarlMarx #4luglio #Chicago #NewYork #guerra