The working class has served as an integral part of our capitalist society; as the building blocks, and producers of the goods that supply and support our country, the working class and working poor have faced many struggles to gain working rights. The histories of labor movements in the United States are often silenced from the mainstream culture; while we take our current union laws for granted, long forgotten are the bloody battles that took place to secure these rights. The ideological issues facing our modern day working class have shown to stem from the same socially constructed ideals that existed during past labor wars, such as the Colorado Coal Strike. The Coal Strike of 1913-1914 culminated in the Ludlow Massacre; this event showed how media coverage played off of cultural stereotypes of the working class and resulted in the raised consciousness among the strikers. The way the strike was presented to the public was shrouded in cultural symbology of poverty, and through these very symbols the strikers formed an identity of solidarity.
The Ludlow Massacre took place during one of the most violent labor struggles in United States history; while the strike ultimately ended after fourteen months it is remembered as a victory for the union, United Mine Workers of America (Walker, p. 67), and as a site of remembrance for the lives lost for the right to unionize. The Southern Colorado Coal fields were a great source for the coal used in railways and was a heavily industrialized area. They acted like self sustained cities, the power the companies had over the miners live was widespread. The most profitable coal operation was owned by the Rockefeller’s Colorado Fuel and Iron Company, despite the deplorable conditions of the min...
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...oncerning poverty displayed during the Colorado Coal Strike has stayed with United States culture, and shows little signs of leaving. Through this strike solidarity erupted in the working class; by using their clothes to display support for the working class yet simultaneously linking themselves to one another. This type of solidarity has been seamlessly erased from our cultural narrative, through silencing, these battles not only from textbooks, but primarily from perpetuating stereotypes that only prove to divide.
Works Cited
Chicone, S.J. "Respectable Rags: Working-Class Poverty and the 1913-14 Southern Colorado Coal Strike." International Journal of Historical Archaeology. 15.1 (2011): 51-81. Print.
Walker, Mark. "The Ludlow Massacre: Class, Warfare, and Historical Memory in Southern Colorado." Historical Archaeology. 37.3 (2003): 66-80. Print.
McMurtry, Larry. 2005. Oh What a Slaughter: Massacres in the American West: 1846-1890. 10th Ed. New York, NY: Simon and Schuster.
The video “La Raza de Colorado: El Movimiento” and the exhibit “El Movimiento” at UNC’s Michener Library chronicle the struggles and triumphs of Mexican Americans in Weld County and throughout the state of Colorado. Visitors of the exhibit can see different graphics and pictures posted on the walls depicting many of the important events such as the protests against Kitayama farms in the 1960’s which aimed at improving working conditions and pay, especially for women. Not only were farm workers being exploited, but factory workers lacked appropriate conditions as well, to help with this, several groups such as United Farm Workers, Brown Berets and Black Panthers organized a united front in order to launch strikes and boycotts against offending farms, factories and businesses which oppressed and exploited minority workers. Another source of dissent was the Vietnam war. Minority groups felt that White America was waging a war against colored
There are many ways in which we can view the history of the American West. One view is the popular story of Cowboys and Indians. It is a grand story filled with adventure, excitement and gold. Another perspective is one of the Native Plains Indians and the rich histories that spanned thousands of years before white discovery and settlement. Elliot West’s book, Contested Plains: Indians, Goldseekers and the Rush to Colorado, offers a view into both of these worlds. West shows how the histories of both nations intertwine, relate and clash all while dealing with complex geological and environmental challenges. West argues that an understanding of the settling of the Great Plains must come from a deeper understanding, a more thorough knowledge of what came before the white settlers; “I came to believe that the dramatic, amusing, appalling, wondrous, despicable and heroic years of the mid-nineteenth century have to be seen to some degree in the context of the 120 centuries before them” .
middle of paper ... ... Socially, the changes that occurred within the coal mining community were dramatic. Because solidarity was necessary for them to be successful, everyone regardless of race, gender, and prior socioeconomic status became equal.
The Depression hit the steel industry with a blowing force massively cutting hours and wages and the silence echoed through the mills with massive layoffs leaving them empty for months at a time. Entering the mill was like walking through a “deserted city” and “Leaving them was like coming out of a tomb.” (p.269). With the blame being placed on the rich and powerful because of the outspoken way they were handling the devastating hit to the mills, the worker became very upset sparking the movement for a union.
In the late nineteenth century, many European immigrants traveled to the United States in search of a better life and good fortune. The unskilled industries of the Eastern United States eagerly employed these men who were willing to work long hours for low wages just to earn their food and board. Among the most heavily recruiting industries were the railroads and the steel mills of Western Pennsylvania. Particularly in the steel mills, the working conditions for these immigrants were very dangerous. Many men lost their lives to these giant steel-making machines. The immigrants suffered the most and also worked the most hours for the least amount of money. Living conditions were also poor, and often these immigrants would barely have enough money and time to do anything but work, eat, and sleep. There was also a continuous struggle between the workers and the owners of the mills, the capitalists. The capitalists were a very small, elite group of rich men who held most of the wealth in their industries. Strikes broke out often, some ending in violence and death. Many workers had no political freedom or even a voice in the company that employed them. However, through all of these hardships, the immigrants continued their struggle for a better life.
Moody, John. The Railroad Builders: A Chronicle of the Welding of the States. New Haven, CT: Yale UP;, 1921. Print.
The Pullman Strike of 1894 was the first national strike in American history and it came about during a period of unrest with labor unions and controversy regarding the role of government in business.5 The strike officially started when employees organized and went to their supervisors to ask for a lowered rent and were refused.5 The strike had many different causes. For example, workers wanted higher wages and fewer working hours, but the companies would not give it to them; and the workers wanted better, more affordable living quarters, but the companies would not offer that to them either. These different causes created an interesting and controversial end to the Pullman strike. Because of this, questions were raised about the strike that are still important today. Was striking a proper means of getting what the workers wanted? Were there better means of petitioning their grievances? Was government intervention constitutional? All these questions were raised by the Pullman Strike.
In 1916, Everett, Washington was facing severe economic difficulty. There was ongoing confrontation between business and commercial interests and labor and labor organizers. The laborer had numbers of organized rallies and speeches on the street. These were opposed by local law enforcement, which was firmly on the side of the business. On May 1, 1916 the Everett Shingle Weavers Union went on strike. The strike was settled quickly in favor of the mills owner, but one. This is when the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) or “Wobbies” became involved and the trouble began. Many members of the IWW saw this to be an opportunity to organize and provide support for the strikers. When IWW organizer and speaker James Rowan arrived on Everett June 31, 1916, Everett became home to IWW newest “Free-Speech Fight”. Everett employers clashed with IWW stubbornness. On the corner of Hewitt and Wetmore, IWW’s speakers chose to speak. At first the speakers would get arrested and get released. Members were paid one dollar by the union for every day they were in jail. Everett jails were kept busy and Snohomish County Sheriff Donald McRae quickly became frustrated. McRae’s next solution was to arrest the speakers and send them to Seattle, instructing them not to return to Everett.
Coal mines in these times were glorified death traps and collapsed. Often. Workers or their families were basically never compensated for anything, and even when they took things to court, essentially no court was sympathetic toward any coal miner or their family, and if their father or brother died, they were on their on for the rest of their life, often then forcing child boys to work if they weren’t already. Also, not many workers spoke proper english in the mines, so they could not read instruction signs, and by misuse of equipment, killing themselves and/or other
In the early 1950’s America was on the cusp of great change. The fight for equal rights for minorities and women was just over the horizon, a movement that would explode in the 1960’s creating lasting social change within the United States. The miners of Zinc Town, USA, and their families, were a part of this movement. The miners, who were largely of Mexican descent, felt that the working conditions were unsafe and not on par with that of Anglo’s employed at different mines. The miners wives tolling day after day without sufficient plumbing and proper sanitation, felt that their issues were just as important and should be included in the demands of the miners union. Salt of the Earth (1954) looks at the miners strike through
Some two dozen people, including miners' wives and children, were killed. The chief owner of the mine, John D. Rockefeller, Jr., was widely criticized for the incident. The massacre, the culmination of a bloody widespread strike against Colorado coal mines, resulted in the violent deaths of between 19 and 26 people; reported death tolls vary but include two women and eleven children, asphyxiated and burned to death under a single tent. The deaths occurred after a daylong fight between militia and camp guards against striking workers. Ludlow was the deadliest single incident in the southern Colorado Coal Strike, which lasted from September 1913 through December 1914. The strike was organized by the United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) against coal mining companies in Colorado. The three largest companies involved were the Rockefeller family-owned Colorado Fuel & Iron Company (CF&I), the Rocky Mountain Fuel Company (RMF), and the Victor-American Fuel Company (VAF). In retaliation for Ludlow, the miners armed themselves and attacked dozens of mines over the next ten days, destroying property and engaging in several skirmishes with the Colorado National Guard along a 40-mile front from Trinidad to Walsenburg. The entire strike would cost between 69
Coal mining in the 1920s was extremely difficult job in which miners endured many challenges and hardships. The 1920’s safety was not on everyone’s mind. It was as if the miners were just tools to be used. The equipment the miners used was a marvel for its time, as it was just the start to a technological advancement. Miners faced hardships such as low wages, long hours, and the difficulty of the work conditions.
The mills, which were part of the steel industry that produced the steel to build the foundation of the Brooklyn Bridge, were filled with unskilled immigrant worker’s with no say in politics. In Out of This Furnace, Bell shows a particularly gruesome element of working in the mills when he explains that the management of the mills pressured the steelworker to act a certain way in politics. Very few laborers had political rights, and those that did knew the consequences of going against the companies say. “Mike had registered as a Republican—anything else would have been suicidal – but had determined to vote for Eugene Debs, the Socialist. He knew the risk. Should he be found out – and that the company had ways of learning how a man had voted nobody in Braddock doubted – he would be fired (Bell, 189-190). This concept reinforces the idea that big businesses were a large part in politics and they often manipulated immigrant’s political rights and freedoms to get what they want. Another way companies stripped men of political freedom is they gave union workers less hours, thus earning a lower wage. Dobie, who was one of Bell’s characters who recognized that he needed to organize and gain recognition for steel workers, was put on two or three day weeks for doing so. This caused a major cut in Dobie’s pay, which would have been problematic and inconvenient. In other cases of strikes and labor organizing there had been men left dead, thrown in jail, and fired from their jobs. “The Homestead union leaders were arrested, charged with murder, riot and conspiracy. A notice was put up giving the men ten days to return to work, on company’s terms. Very few accepted the offer. The company sent eviction notices to all “striking” tenants of company houses (Bell, 43)” This combination of poor working conditions and lack of political freedom
The Progressive Era was a time of great optimism because Progressives believed that human nature was malleable, and while rapidly reforming society was challenging, it was attainable. They strived to transform American youth through educational reform, which encouraged students to become participants in democracy, and the playground movement, which transformed their leisure to combine “release and control.” (McGerr 112) The “permanent lesson”(McGerr 129) of the anthracite coal strike in 1902 was that there was a growing need for cooperation between unions and employers to end class conflict. However, this lesson was undone as Progressive leaders failed to win more than a handful of protections. Another challenge for the Progressives was the