Today in Labor History July 26, 1894: President Grover Cleveland created a Strike Committee to investigate the causes of the Pullman strike and the subsequent walkout by the American Railway Union, led by Eugene Debs. After four months, the commission absolved the strikers and placed the blame entirely on Pullman and the railroads for the conflict. Roughly 250,000 workers participated in the strike. And an estimated 70 workers died, mostly at the hands of cops and soldiers. To appease workers, the government came up with a new holiday, Labor Day, to commemorate the end of the Pullman Strike. However, President Cleveland had other interests in creating the new holiday. Rather than rewarding workers, his goal was to bury the history of the Haymarket Affair and the radical anarchist and socialist history of the labor movement by choosing any day other than May 1 as the new national labor holiday.

#WorkingClass #LaborHistory #pullman #strike #railroad #EugeneDebs #socialism #LaborDay #haymarket #anarchism #union #PoliceBrutality #PoliceMurder #police

Today in Labor History July 10, 1894: The Pullman Rail Car strike was put down by 14,000 federal and state troops. Over the course of the strike, soldiers killed 70 American Railway Union (ARU) members. Eugene Debs and many others were imprisoned during the strike for violating injunctions. Debs founded the ARU in 1893. The strike began, in May, as a wildcat strike, when George Pullman laid off employees and slashed wages, while maintaining the same high rents for his company housing in the town of Pullman, as well as the excessive rates he charged for gas and water. During the strike, Debs called for a massive boycott against all trains that carried Pullman cars. While many adjacent unions opposed the boycott, including the conservative American Federation of Labor, the boycott nonetheless affected virtually all train transport west of Detroit. Debs also called for a General Strike, which Samuel Gompers and the AFL blocked. At its height, over 200,000 railway workers walked off the job, halting dozens of lines, and workers set fire buildings, boxcars and coal cars, and derailed locomotives. Clarence Darrow successfully defended Debs in court against conspiracy charges, arguing that it was the railways who met in secret and conspired against their opponents. However, they lost in their Supreme Court trial for violating a federal injunction.

By the 1950s, the town of Pullman had been incorporated into the city of Chicago. Debs became a socialist after the strike, running for president of the U.S. five times on the Socialist Party ticket, twice from prison. In 1905, he cofounded the radical IWW, along with Lucy Parsons, Mother Jones, Big Bill Haywood and Irish revolutionary James Connolly. In 1894, President Cleveland designated Labor Day a federal holiday, in order to detract from the more radical May 1st, which honored the Haymarket martyrs and the struggle for the 8-hour day. Legislation for the holiday was pushed through Congress six days after the Pullman strike ended, with the enthusiastic support of Gompers and the AFL.

#WorkingClass #LaborHistory #railway #strike #union #EugeneDebs #socialism #anarchism #IWW #massacre #SCOTUS #prison #GeneralStrike #boycott #afl #haymarket #conspiracy #MotherJones #LucyParsons #BigBillHaywood #Revolutionary

Today in Labor History June 27, 1905: The Industrial Workers of the World (AKA IWW or the Wobblies) was founded at Brand's Hall, in Chicago, Illinois. The IWW was a radical syndicalist union, that advocated industrial unionism, with all workers in a particular industry organized in the same union, as opposed by the trade unions typical today. Founding members included Big Bill Haywood, James Connolly, Eugene V. Debs, Lucy Parsons, and Mother Jones. The IWW was and is a revolutionary union that sought not only better working conditions in the here and now, but the complete abolition of capitalism. The preamble to their constitution states, “The working class and the employing class have nothing in common.” They advocate the General Strike and sabotage as two of many means to these ends. However, sabotage to the Wobblies does not necessarily mean bombs and destruction. According to Big Bill Haywood, sabotage is any action that gums up the works, slowing down profits for the bosses. Thus, working to rule and sit-down strikes are forms of sabotage. The IWW is the first union known to have utilized the sit-down strike. They were one of the first and only unions of the early 20th century to organize all workers, regardless of ethnicity, gender, nationality, language or type of work (e.g., they organized both skilled and unskilled workers).

There are lots of great books about the IWW artwork and music. The Little Red Songbook. The IWW, Its First 50 Years, by Fred Thompson. Rebel Voices: An IWW Anthology, by Joyce Kornbluth. But there are also tons of fictional accounts of the Wobblies, too. Lots of references in Dos Passos’, USA Trilogy. Red Harvest, by Dashiell Hammett, was influenced by his experience working as a Pinkerton infiltrator of the Wobblies. The recent novel, The Cold Millions, by Jess Walter, has a wonderful portrayal of Elizabeth Gurly Flynn, during the Spokane free speech fight.

#WorkingClass #LaborHistory #anarchism #iww #LucyParsons #BigBillHaywood #MotherJones #EugeneDebs #union #strike #GeneralStrike #DirectAction #sabotage #Revolutionary #book #novel #writer #fiction #author @bookstadon

#Schiff is more #EugeneDebs than any fash45 could fathom - anyone who gives a tiny bit of themselves for others will never be understood by the fash who are jealous and empty like their god

Today in Labor History June 20, 1893: Eugene Debs formed the American Railway Union (ARU), one of the first unions to organize by industry and regardless of race (along with the Knights of Labor and IWW). Within a few months the union was leading an 18-day strike against the Great Northern Railroad, successfully forcing management to reverse three wage cuts, despite the fact that the nation was in the midst of a terrible depression. The victory set the union on a remarkable course in which it averaged 2,000 new members a day. Debs was jailed during World War I for making antiwar speeches. He ran for president from jail, as a socialist, and won 4% of the vote. Debs was also a founding member of the IWW, in 1905. The photograph shows union leaders who were jailed during the 1894 Pullman Strike, including Debs.

#WorkingClass #LaborHistory #strike #union #EugeneDebs #socialism #IWW #railroad #prison #WorldWar1 #antiwar

Today in Labor History June 16, 1918: Eugene Debs delivered his famous Canton, Ohio anti-war Speech. America was at war with Germany, at the time, and radicals were being routinely rounded up and jailed. The new Espionage Act was being used to prosecute people for their opposition to the war and Deb’s speech was used to make the case that he had violated the Act. He was convicted and sentenced to 10 years in prison. He ran for president while imprisoned, winning 3.4% of the vote. Debs was a socialist and a founding member of the radical labor union, the IWW.

In the speech he said, “The master class has always declared the wars; the subject class has always fought the battles. The master class has had all to gain and nothing to lose, while the subject class has had nothing to gain and all to lose — especially their lives… the working class who fight all the battles, the working class who make the supreme sacrifices, the working class who freely shed their blood and furnish the corpses, have never yet had a voice in either declaring war or making peace. It is the ruling class that invariably does both. They alone declare war and they alone make peace.”

#WorkingClass #LaborHistory #antiwar #prison #EspionageAct #EugeneDebs #socialism #IWW #potus #WorldWar1 #FreeSpeech #repression

@romanalanwrites #EugeneDebs, an American hero and, so far, the only American who has campaigned for president from a jail cell.

Today in Labor History June 15, 1917: President Woodrow Wilson signed the Espionage Act into law. The law targeted leftist, anti-war and labor organizations, especially the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), which was virtually destroyed because of the arrests and deportations of its members. When Eugene Debs spoke against the draft in Canton, Ohio, he was arrested and sentenced to 10 years in prison. He ran for president from prison in 1920, winning nearly 1 million votes (3.4% of the total). The government used the law to arrest anarchists Emma Goldman and Alexander Berkman and deport them to the Soviet Union. They used the law against the Rosenbergs, whom they executed. They also used it against Daniel Ellsberg, whose “Pentagon Papers” were published by the NY Times 50 years ago this week. The Espionage Act is still on the books and was used recently to prosecute Chelsea Manning and Edward Snowden.

#WorkingClass #LaborHistory #espionage #censorship #repression #PoliceState #antilabor #IWW #EugeneDebs #EmmaGoldman #anarchism #socialism #leftist #ChelseaManning #EdwardSnowden

Reaching the ending of the book and of the story; I have now encountered more details about how Lucy Parsons influenced as well as feuded with Emma Goldman and Eugene Debs. Lucy was not into the whole free love thing, while Emma Goldman was. Obviously Debs, who did presidential runs, was not as dismissive of the potential of the ballot box to bring about change as Lucy the radical anarchist was.

The author repeatedly criticizes Lucy for giving short shrift to the plight of African-American laborers--but also repeats this error. Indeed, one element I feel the book lacks is detailed descriptions of the working conditions of the people Lucy was fighting for, even as it recounts her fiery oration on that same subject.

#History #LaborHistory #Anarchy #Anarchism #Socialism #LucyParsons #EmmaGoldman #EugeneDebs

The workers struck in 1894, after a 25% wage-cut, and they complained that they could no longer afford to eat and feed their families, so George Pullman fired them all. The workers struck, led by #EugeneDebs. Pullman argued that the strike violated the Sherman Act. The Supreme Court voted 9:0 for Pullman, ordered the strike called off, and put Debs in prison.

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Today in Labor History April 13, 1894: The Great Northern rail strike began in Helena, Montana. It quickly spread to St. Paul. The strike was led Eugene V. Debs, president of the American Railway Union. Workers succeeded in shutting down most of the critical rail links. Consequently, the owners gave in to nearly all of the union’s demands. The successful strike led to thousands of rail workers joining the new union.

#WorkingClass #LaborHistory #union #strike #EugeneDebs #railroad #solidarity

Listening to Its Ok to Be Angry About Capitalism by #BernieSanders I recommend it! It’s nice to hear him talk about #EugeneDebs and other fighters for our rights

The question is, at what point are enough people going to have a breaking point in terms of their own #economic plight? At what point will they say enough is enough? When that happens, is a #TeaParty type enough or [Senator Robert M.] La Follette or #EugeneDebs type enough?”

— The World As It Is: Dispatches on the Myth of Human Progress by #ChrisHedges
https://a.co/h6b9zsg

#books #bookstodon #quotes #USA #UnitedStates

Eugene Debs on James Connolly's murder by the British #EugeneDebs #JamesConnolly #Landlordism https://jacobin.com/2022/03/eugene-debs-james-connolly-murder-irish-revolt

"To achieve the genuine freedom to which we are entitled as human beings, we cannot be satisfied with political democracy alone—especially at a time when democracy itself is under fierce attack. We need economic democracy every bit as much as we need political democracy.

The only way to get it is by breaking the shackles of the old thinking that says there is no alternative to unfettered capitalism."

#Capitalism #Labor #Unions #EugeneDebs #BernieSanders

https://www.thenation.com/article/society/bernie-sanders-angry-about-capitalism/

E intanto corre, corre, corre la locomotiva…della guerra di classe https://www.carmillaonline.com/2023/03/15/e-intanto-corre-corre-la-locomotiva-della-lotta-di-classe/ #Federazioneferroviariapanellenica #ferrovieristatunitensi #Ferrovierigiapponesi #movimentazionemerci #ferrovieriitaliani #ferroviericoreani #GrandeDepressione #ScioperodiPullman #GiorgioSacchetti #MovimentoOperaio #JeremyBrecher #panicodel1873 #Segnalazioni #JoshuaClover #Interventi #EugeneDebs #Ferrovieri #StatiUniti #InMarcia!

Today in Labor History March 7, 1942: IWW cofounder and anarchist labor organizer Lucy Parsons died on this date in Chicago, Illinois. Lucy Parsons was part African American and part Native American. Her mother had been a slave. In 1871, she married Albert Parsons, a Confederate soldier, in Waco, Texas. Soon after, they were forced to flee due to racism, moving to Chicago. There they participated in the Great Upheaval of worker rebellions that swept across the U.S. in 1877. They were also active in the movement for the 8-hour day and other worker movements. In 1887, the authorities executed Albert, along with several other anarchists, for the Haymarket bombing, even most hadn’t been present at the bombing. In 1905, Lucy Parsons cofounded the IWW, along with Eugene Debs, Mother Jones, Big Bill Haywood and others. In 1915, she organized the Chicago Hunger Demonstrations. They were so effective that they pushed the AFL, the Socialist Labor Party and the Hull House to participate. In 1925, she participated in the International Labor Defense, which defended workers, communists, the Scottsboro Nine and others.

#LaborHistory #WorkingClass #LucyParsons #IWW #haymarket #anarchism #communism #racism #rebellion #8HourDay #MotherJones #EugeneDebs #execution #BigBillHaywood

Today in Labor History February 27, 1875: Eugene V. Debs became a charter member and secretary of the Vigo Lodge Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen. By 1880, he had become the grand secretary of the union and editor of the Locomotive Fireman’s Magazine. He later led the bitter Pullman strike. After that, he cofounded the IWW and ran for President of the US as a socialist while in prison.

#WorkingClass #LaborHistory #socialism #potus #EugeneDebs #union #strike #prison

#SocialistSunday, Evening Edition:
Happy Socialist Sunday, my friends. I will follow back all like-minded Socialists and other folks who believe in #Socialist principle noted in the attached Eugene Debs meme. Nighty night, my darlings. 😘 💚 😴
#Humanity
#Socialism
#Socialists
#Humanism
#EugeneDebs
#Compassion
#SocialistsAreCool
#SocialistsAreHot
#SocialistsAreSexy
#SocialistsAreSpicy

#SocialistSunday, PM Edition:
Happy Socialist Sunday, my friends. Today, I will follow back all like-minded Socialists and others who believe in all #Socialist principles noted in the attached Eugene Debs meme. So, my darlings, let's get this party started. 😘
#Humanity
#Socialism
#Socialists
#Humanism
#EugeneDebs
#Compassion
#SocialistsAreCool
#SocialistsAreHot
#SocialistsAreSexy
#SocialistsAreSpicy