18-11-2010, 11:37 PM
Ed Jewett Wrote:John Kowalski Wrote:Matewan massacre, May 19,1920.
Ludlow massacre, April 20, 1914.
John
I posted a thread on similar events in which statist power was brought to bear against the people (or labor) and there may be more candidates in that list. Certainly if you are going to include the Matewan massacre, you must also note the Battle of Blair Mountain, recently the focus of an attempt to note that site/event historically but which remains something that some would wish forgotten. It is memorable to me if only because early forms of US military air power under Billy Mitchell were brought to bear (flying out of the same airfield which sent the combat air patrol for DC out into the Atlantic on 9/11), and it is the origin of the term "redneck".
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OMG I can't believe I never heard of the Battle of Blair Mountain Ed. Thank you! It's huge:
"The Battle of Blair Mountain was the largest open class war in US history, and was the second largest overall armed insurrection next to the US Civil War. For five days in late August and early September 1921, in Logan County, West Virginia, between 10,000 and 15,000 coal miners confronted an army of police and strikebreakers backed by coal operators in an effort to unionize the southwestern West Virginia coalfields. Their struggle ended only after approximately one million rounds were fired,[1] and the US Army intervened by presidential order."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Blair_Mountain
Americans are never ever ever taught any labor history because they don't want us to know how central it is to politics, economics and history. It's the real reason for the demonization "Communists." Rich greedy industrialists want cheap (ideally free, i.e., slaves) labor and that's the unadorned bottom line.
Man oh man, coal miners and unions and company thugs. It's just endless. From what I understand those hapless Chilean miners wouldn't have been trapped if they were not scabs and were members of the miners worker's union which refused to work in that mine because it was known to be unsafe.
Ed Jewett Wrote:John Kowalski Wrote:Matewan massacre, May 19,1920....
Ludlow massacre, April 20, 1914.
John
This is a lovely idea which I hope gets well fleshed out to become our very own calendar (including graphics, videos, DPF and other links, and perhaps more), complete with automatic e-mail distribution to all members (and others?) for printing and posting in their favorite extensions and educational venues.
Kudos to the ideators and executrices ...
Thanks again Ed. I appreciate your encouragement and ideas.
The whole point is to assemble the puzzle pieces so the picture and patterns are apparent. Input on ways to do that is most appreciated.