Martial law, labor, globalization and...

[Ed Jewett]

Martial law, labor, globalization &

[size=12]the Baldwin-Felts phenomenon



[/SIZE][/FONT] What follows is the result of reflection and research after several Internet discussions about martial law (sometimes in the context of the outbreak of the pandemic-du-jour) and the prospect of protests at the forthcoming G-20 meetings in Pittsburgh, PA …

[See “Free Speech in Pittsburgh: A Test”
by Ron Jacobs, August 28th, 2009
http://dissidentvoice.org/2009/08/free-spe...tsburgh-a-test/ and
“Go to Pittsburgh, Young Man, and Defy Your Empire”
by Chris Hedges, August 31, 2009
http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/2009..._defiance/ ]


In Pittsburgh, “Expected participants in protests include peace, environmental, labor and social justice organizations.” http://www.thomasmertoncenter.org/g20action.htm


“Alternate events will include a Peoples' Summit (not a protest) at the beginning of the week leading up the summit, followed by tent cities, demonstrations and other summits. Preceding the summit, there will be an alternative conference on Tuesday called Freedom Conference 2009 that stresses grassroots solutions and free-market approaches. During the first day of the Summit the Pittsburgh G-20 Resistance Project will hold a march and a day of direct action. On the second day there will be Peoples' March and rally in downtown Pittsburgh. See http://www.webcitation.org/5jc5Q3suJ

For example: The National Council For Urban Peace, Justice & Empowerment is organizing a response to the G20 Summit. The purpose is to elevate discussion of the G20 beyond the narrow aspects of the health of financial markets, to addressing problems such as poverty, housing, employment, education, climate change, urban infrastructure, health care, economic development and other issues pertinent to the survival of disadvantaged peoples as part of the long-term answer to the viability of countries.”

“Security will be coordinated by the Pittsburgh Police working in conjunction with the United States Secret Service. It is estimated that 4,000 police officers have been requested, and the city currently only has 900 police officers. The Pennsylvania State Police have committed more than 1,000 officers for the downtown event, including SWAT, helicopter, mounted, undercover, bicycle and motorcycle officers. Allegheny County has had 75 officers specifically trained by and inbedded into the Pittsburgh Police Bureau for the event since June. New York City and Baltimore have committed some officers, as well as Pittsburgh suburbs. All officers regardless of department will be under the command of the Pittsburgh Bureau of Police and the Secret Service for the event days.”



This should lead immediately to the question as to why the presence of those interested in peace, the environment, labor issues, social justice, housing, employment, health care and the survival of disadvantaged peoples should be met with phalanxes of local, state and other authorities, but we don’t want to give away the ending on the first page.

In addition, numerous articles have been written about preparations by the US government for the imposition of martial law with a typical reaction that “it couldn’t happen here” or “no police or military personnel would ever use force against US citizens”.


One response:

“martial law makes one roll their eyes
the boy who cried wolf redux and redux and redux

the word does not even mean anything important

so what if someone is told to stay in their homes
if the house across the street is burning, i wouldn't want to be running into it either”


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A reminder:

“The first rule of propaganda is this:

If you can slide your premises past the people, you’ve got them…. “

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The thesis:

Indeed, it has happened here, and police and military personnel have used force against US citizens… indeed, arrested them, hurt them, imprisoned them, and killed them.

Here’s a bit of the history, and a bit of the modern day:

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The Lattimer massacre http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lattimer_massacre

The Lattimer massacre was an incident in which a sheriff's posse killed nineteen unarmed immigrant miners and wounded scores more. On September 10, 1897 at the Lattimer mine near Hazleton, Pennsylvania, men under the authority of the Luzerne County sheriff fired on a peaceful labor demonstration made up of mostly Polish, Slovak, and Lithuanian anthracite miners. This incident stands not only as the largest massacre of Central Europeans in the United States, but also as a turning point in the American labor movement…. The municipal governments in Luzerne County were essentially under the control of the local mining companies. Sheriff James Martin declared a state of civil disorder, which allowed him to deputize a posse of 87 men, most of whom were locally-born Protestants. They were armed with Winchester repeating rifles loaded with, it is reported, metal-jacketed bullets giving the rounds greater penetration, and shotguns loaded with buckshot..".[1] The posse was ordered to "use whatever means necessary to quell the strikes."[2] Reportedly, some of the deputies were intent on more violent confrontation with the strikers. While on a streetcar headed for Lattimer with the sheriff and his comrades, one deputy was overheard saying "I bet I drop six of them when I get over there."[3] When the demonstrators reached Lattimer, they were met again by the Sheriff and a semicircle of about 60 armed deputies. The sheriff again ordered the crowd to disperse, but this only served to raise the tension to a boiling point. The halted march had resulted in confusion, compounded by the fact that many of the marchers spoke different languages.


When an unidentified member of the posse (unevidenced accusations later fell on the sheriff)[citation needed] reportedly yelled "Fire!" and "Give two or three shots!", the posse opened fire on the strikers, killing 19. Fourteen Poles, four Slovaks, and one Lithuanian were killed. About 40 more of the demonstrators were wounded, at least six of whom later died of their wounds. Exact figures regarding the wounded are uncertain, because many were afraid to seek treatment at the local hospital. The posse fired about 150 rounds, equivalent to emptying nine of the 16-round Winchesters.”
See also
Freedom to Assemble and the Lattimer Massacre of 1897

by Kenneth C. Wolensky
http://www.hsp.org/default.aspx?id=1253
[URL="http://www.hsp.org/default.aspx?id=1253"]
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”Lawrence was the first time large numbers of unskilled, immigrant workers had followed the leadership of the IWW John Golden, president of the United Textile Workers denounced the strike as 'revolutionary' and 'anarchistic' and unsuccessfully tried to take the leadership of the strike away from the IWW and into the hands of the AFL in order to break it up. Failing this, the AFL offered token words of support to the strikers.

Less than a week later, dynamite was found in several places around Lawrence, and the press was quick to lay blame to the strikers. However, a local undertaker was arrested and charged with planting the explosives in an attempt to discredit the workers. He was fined $500 and released, President Wood of the American Woollen Company was implicated in the plot, but cleared by the court although he could not explain why he had made a recent large cash payment to the undertaker.”

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the Ludlow massacre http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ludlow_massacre[/FONT]


“One of history's most dramatic confrontations between capital and labor….”



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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XDd64suDz1A
Woody Guthrie


“The UMWA decided to focus on the CF&I because of the company's harsh management tactics under the conservative and distant Rockefellers and other investors. As part of their campaign to break or prevent strikes, the coal companies had lured immigrants, mainly from southern and Eastern Europe and Mexico. CF&I's management purposely mixed immigrants of different nationalities in the mines to discourage communication that might lead to organization…. Most miners also lived in "company towns," where homes, schools, doctors, clergy, and law enforcement were provided by the company, as well as stores offering a full range of goods that could be paid for in company currency, scrip. However, this became an oppressive environment in which law focused on enforcement of increasing prohibitions on speech or assembly by the miners to discourage union-building activity. Also, under pressure to maintain profitability, the mining companies steadily reduced their investment in the town and its amenities while increasing prices at the company store so that miners and their families experienced worsening conditions and higher costs. Colorado's legislature had passed laws to improve the condition of the mines and towns, including the outlawing of the use of scrip, but these laws were rarely enforced. In leasing the tent village sites, the union had strategically selected locations near the mouths of the canyons, which led to the coal camps for the purpose of monitoring traffic and harassing replacement workers. Confrontations between striking miners and replacement workers, referred to as "scabs" by the union, often got out of control, resulting in deaths. The company hired the Baldwin-Felts Detective Agency to help break the strike by protecting the replacement workers and otherwise making life difficult for the strikers.
Baldwin-Felts had a reputation for aggressive strike breaking. Agents shone searchlights on the tent villages at night and fired bullets into the tents at random, occasionally killing and maiming people. They used an improvised armored car, mounted with a M1895 Colt-Browning machine gun that the union called the "Death Special," to patrol the camp's perimeters. The steel-covered car was built in the CF&I plant in Pueblo from the chassis of a large touring sedan….

Over 400 strikers were arrested, 332 of whom were indicted for murder. Only one man, John Lawson, leader of the strike, was convicted of murder, and that verdict was eventually overturned by the Colorado Supreme Court. Twenty-two National Guardsmen, including 10 officers, were court-martialed. All were acquitted, except Lt. Linderfe who was found guilty of assault for his attack on Louis Tikas. However, he was given only a light reprimand.”


New York Times' account of the massacre - April 21, 1914
“The Ludlow camp is a mass of charred debris, and buried beneath it is a story of horror imparalleled [sic] in the history of industrial warfare. In the holes which had been dug for their protection against the rifles' fire the women and children died like trapped rats when the flames swept over them. One pit, uncovered [the day after the massacre] disclosed the bodies of ten children and two women.”


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"(Matewan) has played not only an essential role in the formation of our culture and values, but to the industrialization of the United States. For it was places like Matewan...that a 'line in the sand' was drawn. Where the demand was made that human dignity, and decency, be recognized in the industrial workplace."
--Congressman Nick J. Rahall


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the battle of Blair Mountain
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Blair_Mountain

“Though tensions had been simmering for years, the immediate catalyst for the uprising was the unpunished murder of Sid Hatfield on the steps of the McDowell County Courthouse on August 1, 1921. Hatfield, the police chief of Matewan, was murdered by agents of the Baldwin-Felts private detective agency. He had been a long-time supporter of the United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) and their efforts to unionize the mines…. The first skirmishes occurred on the morning of August 25. The bulk of the miners were still 15 miles away. The following day, President Warren Harding threatened to send in federal troops and Army Martin MB-1 bombers. After a long meeting in the town of Madison, the seat of Boone County, agreements were made convincing the miners to return home. However, the struggle was far from over. After spending days to assemble his private army, Chafin was not going to be denied his battle to end union attempts at organizing Logan County coal mines. Within hours of the Madison decision, reports came in that Sheriff Chafin's men were deliberately shooting union sympathizers in the town of Sharples, West Virginia just north of Blair Mountain — and that families had been caught in crossfire during the skirmishes. Infuriated, the miners turned back towards Blair Mountain, many traveling in other stolen and commandeered trains.

By August 29, battle was fully joined. Chafin's men, though outnumbered, had the advantage of higher positions and better weaponry. Private planes were hired to drop homemade bombs on the miners. On orders from the famous General Billy Mitchell, Army bombers from Maryland were also used to disperse the miners, a rare example of Air Power being used by the federal government against US citizens. A combination of gas and explosive bombs left over from the fighting in World War I were dropped in several locations near the towns of Jeffery, Sharples and Blair. “


“The term redneck was also used in The West Virginia Coal Miners March (1921) or the Battle of Blair Mountain when coal miners wore red bandannas around their necks to identify themselves as seeking the opportunity to unionize.[7]”

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See also “History and Violence of the Appalachian Coal Strikes”
oak.cats.ohiou.edu/~ak832196/esp/HRM.doc

and do a little homework about the history at Hawk’s Nest.

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“The only thing that counts is the enthusiasm with which [/FONT]
the worker ruins his health for a few meager crumbs.”[/FONT]


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Sidebar … Update in the modern era
from El Cabrero at http://goatrope.blogspot.com/2009/09/labor-daze.html

“Labor Day in southern West Virginia traditionally means the United Mine Workers District 17 celebration in Racine in Boone County, which has traditionally drawn hundreds of workers, family and community members and any number of current or aspiring politicians.

This year's event had some competition, as anyone paying attention to what's going on in this state knows. Massey Energy CEO Don Blankenship, who has probably done more than anyone else in this state to damage the labor movement--and the UMWA in particular--spent God knows how much money on a "Friends of America" concert/propaganda event that featured Ted Nugent, Hank Williams Jr. and Fox "News" celebrity Sean Hannity.

The bushes were beaten to draw thousands of people to attend this free event on an old strip mine site in Holden in Logan County.

The aim of the event was to oppose any kind of proposed actions aimed at addressing climate change, which after all couldn't possibly be true because that might inconvenience the coal industry. Also targeted were any measures that might regulate or tax the industry. All things progressive came under attack as well.

[/FONT] Nugent is reported to have once invited President Obama to "suck on my machine gun."

Nice...

By the way, the WV Chamber of Commerce, International Coal Group, the WV Coal Association and other such groups also co-sponsored the event. The extent to which Nugent speaks for them is unclear.

The irony of union busters pretending to protect American workers would make a cat laugh. On the other hand, Blankenship has suffered some setbacks lately in his attempts to influence state elections and court decisions so this may be the latest strategy. Here's hoping this one works as well as the last few.

Anyway, I attended the UMWA event as usual. Even without the bells and whistles, it was a good crowd. I had to walk about half a mile to get there. It was also nice to see that a large number of state elected officials, including Gov. Manchin, Congressman Nick Rahall, Treasurer John Perdue, Secretary of State Natalie Tennant, House Speaker Rick Thompson and many delegates and senators not only attended but stayed all day.

UMWA president Cecil Roberts have his usual barn burning speech. My favorite part was when he said he received a call earlier in the week from Gov. Manchin asking if he was going to the Blankenship event. When Roberts said no, Manchin said that in that case he didn't have a ride and wouldn't be able to go either.”

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The Haymarket affair http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haymarket_Riot

“I knew from experience of the past that this butchering of people was done for the express purpose of defeating the eight-hour movement."

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The Everett Massacre http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Everett_Massacre

The Everett Massacre (also known as Bloody Sunday) was an armed confrontation between local authorities and members of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) union, commonly called "Wobblies", which took place in Everett, Washington on Sunday, November 5, 1916. The tragic event marked a time of rising tensions in Pacific Northwest labor history. … On November 5, 1916, about 300 members of the IWW met at the IWW hall in Seattle and then marched down to the docks where they boarded the steamers Verona and Calista which then headed north to Everett…. Local business interests, knowing the Wobblies were coming, placed armed vigilantes on the dock … As with previous labor demonstrations, the local business had also secured the aid of law enforcement, including the Snohomish County sheriff Donald McRae, who had targeted Wobblies for arbitrary arrests and beatings…. At the end of the mayhem, 2 citizen deputies lay dead with 16[5] or 20 others wounded, including Sheriff McRae. The IWW officially listed 5 dead with 27 wounded, although it is speculated that as many as 12 IWW members may have been killed. There was a good likelihood that at least some of the casualties on the dock were caused not by IWW firing from the steamer, but on vigilante rounds from the cross-fire of bullets coming from the Edison.[7] The local Everett Wobblies started their street rally anyway, and as a result, McRae's deputized citizens rounded them up and hauled them off to jail.[8] As a result of the shootings, the governor of the State of Washington sent companies of militia to Everett and Seattle to help maintain order.[8] There have been many efforts to find the IWW, a self-described radical union, at fault for the violence. However,


...historians Philip Taft and Philip Ross have pointed out in their comments on violence in labor history that "IWW activity was virtually free of violence... It is of some interest to note that a speaker who advocated violence at a meeting at the IWW hall in Everett [Washington] was later exposed as a private detective."[9]


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The Palmer Raids http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palmer_Raids

The Palmer Raids were a series of controversial raids by the United States Department of Justice and Immigration and Naturalization Service from 1919 to 1921 on suspected radical leftist citizens and immigrants in the United States, the legality of which is now in question. The raids are named for Alexander Mitchell Palmer, United States Attorney General under Woodrow Wilson…. In 1916, Wilson warned of:

Hyphenated Americans (who) have poured the poison of disloyalty into the very arteries of our national life. Such creatures of passion, disloyalty and anarchy must be crushed out.[1]

On June 15, 1917, Congress passed the Espionage Act. The law set punishments for actions interpreted as acts of interference in foreign policy and espionage - including many activities that would be seen by contemporary standards as dissent, such as the publication of magazines critical of the government. The act authorized stiff fines and prison terms of up to 20 years for anyone who obstructed the military draft or encouraged "disloyalty" against the U.S. government. After two anarchist radicals, Emma Goldman and Alexander Berkman, continued to advocate against conscription, Goldman's offices at Mother Earth were thoroughly searched, and volumes of files and detailed subscription lists from Mother Earth, along with Berkman's journal The Blast, were seized. As a Justice Department news release reported:

A wagon load of anarchist records and propaganda material was seized, and included in the lot is what is believed to be a complete registry of anarchy's friends in the United States. A splendidly kept card index was found, which the Federal agents believe will greatly simplify their task of identifying persons mentioned in the various record books and papers. The subscription lists of Mother Earth and The Blast, which contained around 10,000 names, were also seized.

Congress also passed a series of immigration, anti-anarchist, and sedition acts (including the Sedition Act of 1918 and the Anarchist Exclusion Act) that sought to either criminalize or punish (through deportation) advocacy of the violent overthrow of the government or desertion from the armed forces, defiance of the draft, or membership in anarchist or revolutionary organizations.

In 1919, the U.S. House of Representatives refused to seat Socialist representative Victor L. Berger from Wisconsin because of his socialism, German ancestry, and anti-war views….

In 1919, [J. Edna Hoover] was put in charge of a new division of the Justice Department's Bureau of Investigation, the General Intelligence Division. By October 1919, Hoover's division had collected 150,000 names in a rapidly expanding index. Using this information, starting on November 7, 1919, BOI agents, together with local police, orchestrated a series of well-publicized and violent raids against suspected "radicals" and foreigners, using the Espionage Act of 1917 and the Sedition Act of 1918. Palmer and his agents were accused of using torture and other illegal methods of obtaining intelligence, including informers and wiretaps….

On May 28, 1920, the American Civil Liberties Union published a report entitled Report of the Illegal Practices of the United States Department of Justice which carefully documented unlawful Departmental authorization of the arrests of suspected radicals, illegal entrapment by agent provocateurs and unlawful incommunicado detention. The report was signed by prominent lawyers and law professors, including Felix Frankfurter, Roscoe Pound and Ernst Freund. Palmer was called before the House Rules Committee and strongly defended his actions and that of his department, saying "I apologize for nothing that the Department of Justice has done in this matter. I glory in it."[13][14]”

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more to come...