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• The Economic panic of 1873 -‐ Unemployment riots and the violence in the coalfields were a prelude to the Great Railroad Strike of 1877 (also known as the Great Upheaval)
• Significance: Strikers seized the naGon’s most important industry – railroads. General strike stopped all acGvity in a dozen major ciGes. Striking workers took over social authority in communiGes across the naGon. Before being suppressed -‐ crowds defeated or won over the police, state miliGas and even federal troops.
Prior to the strike • Railroad employers were engaging in a wage cuts throughout the industry. As an example – One months prior Pennsylvania Railroad cut wages which resulted in protests.
• Brotherhoods of Engineers, Conductors, and Firemen inGmidated by management -‐ made no effort to combat the cuts.
• Angered by the union’s lack of spine – workers formed a new secret organizaGon – The Trainmen’s Union
• Company spies reported the existence of the new organizaGon. The Company responded by ordering the terminaGon of all men belonging to “the Brotherhood or Union.”
• Workers called for a strike set for June 24, 1877 – company fired strike commi\ee – local lodges panicked – strike failed.
• On July 16, 1877 – A strike broke in a li\le railroad town – MarGnsburg, West Virginia in response to a 10% cut (2nd cut in eight months, 3rd in a year) in wages by the BalGmore and Ohio Railroad (B&O).
• Men gathered in protest – uncoupled the engines. No train would move unless wages were reinstated.
• Strike spread all over the B&O with engineers, brakemen, conductors and firemen
• Only freight targeted – passenger and mail cars conGnued to operate
• 70 engines – 600 freight cars piled up in MarGnsburg • Governor ordered in guards – but the miliGa commander turned his troops around ader arriving in town.
• The strike quickly spread to various ciGes and states in northeast – east of the Mississippi but soon hit the Midwest, Texas, Louisiana and California.
Maryland • Strike spread to Cumberland, Maryland stopping freight and passenger traffic
• Maryland governor called in the 5th and 6th regiments of the NaGonal guard – clashes between miliGa and ciGzens and striking workers resulted in the miliGa opening fire on the crowds killing 10 and wounding 25.
• Crowd damaged engines and train cars-‐ burned porGon of strain staGon • MiliGa remained trapped in in train yard in Cumberland for several days unGl the President (ader pleading from B&O) sent federal troops and Marines to BalGmore to restore order
Maryland • Troops man the railroads and were able to break through the strike line but the populaGon of the surrounding area came to the aid of the strikers – Unemployed and striking boatmen on the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal – stoned with trained forcing it to stop and proceeded to a\ack the troops.
• In Cumberland, Maryland a train was met by a crowd of boatmen and railroad men who swarmed trains – uncoupled the cars. The train got away it was met again in Keyser, West Virginia – ran onto a sidetrack and troops were removed by force.
• Troops man the railroads and were able to break through the strike line but the populaGon of the surrounding area came to the aid of the strikers – Unemployed and striking boatmen on the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal – stoned with trained forcing it to stop and proceeded to a\ack the troops.
• In Cumberland, Maryland a train was met by a crowd of boatmen and railroad men who swarmed trains – uncoupled the cars. The train got away it was met again in Keyser, West Virginia – ran onto a sidetrack and troops were removed by force.
Pennsylvania • Pi\sburgh -‐ site of worst violence • Thomas Alexander Sco\ of Pennsylvania Railroad – considered the first robber barons – strikers should be given “a rifle diet for a few days and see how they like that kind of bread.”
• July 21 – miliGa bayoneted and fired on rock-‐throwing strikers killing twenty and wounding twenty-‐nine.
• This infuriated strikers who set fire to 39 building and destroyed 104 locomoGves and 1,245 freight and passenger cars.
• July 22 – miliGamen mounted an assault on strikers – killing 20 more people
• Philadelphia – strikers ba\led with miliGa and set fire to much of the city center
• Reading – engineers were already in strike against Reading Railroad since April 1877 – Sixteen ciGzens were shot by state miliGa.
• Shamokin Uprising – July 25 – 100 men and boys – mostly coal miners – marched to the Reading Railroad Depot in Shamokin, Penn. – looted the depot. Mayor – who owned coalmines – formed a vigilante group and killed several people.
• August 1, 1877 – vigilante commi\ee of 200 opened fired into a crowd of unarmed, striking miners killing three and wounding several others.
• Over the next month, there were constant riots and shooGngs. Then President Rutherford B. Hayes sent in federal troops to end the fighGng. Many more ciGes were subject to the violence of the strike, and costs of damage were in the billions.
Blame Game • The strike was blamed on several factors • Xenophobia: German agitators • Idle hand: Illinois governor Shelby Cullom: “the vagrant, the willfully idle, was the chief element in all the disturbances”
• Communism: New York World: the hands of dominated by the devilish spirit of communism
Impact: • Many states enacted conspiracy laws • States formed new miliGa units • NaGonal guard armories were constructed in major ciGes in order to be\er respond to another labor uprising
Knights of Labor • An organizaGon commonly associated with the Great Upheaval is the Knights of Labor
• Officially known as the Noble and Holy Order of the Knights of Labor • Founded on December 28, 1969 as a secret society – founded by seven member of the Philadelphia tailors’ union.
• Slogan “An injury to One is the Concern of All”
• PosiGons • Called for the aboliGon of wage slavery – cooperaGves of producers; • Equal pay for equal work; • AboliGon of child and convict labor; • Bureaus of labor staGsGcs; • Graduated income tax; • 8-‐hour day; • Government ownership of railroads and the telegraphs; • Supported industrial unionism – believed that trade unions needed to give
way to labor organizaGon that organized on a much broader basis • Fought to organize all workers into one big union – skilled and unskilled -‐
women and immigrants, black and white. • Except Asian populaGon. Excluded Asians from membership. Saw Asian
workers as a threat to job security. Supported Asian Exclusion Act.
• KOL originally denounced strikes – arguing that the exisGng economic system could only be changed peaceably.
• Leadership was vocally opposed socialism, anarchism and radicalism but slowly became a hotbed of radicalism (Daniel DeLeon from SLP, Albert Parsons from Haymarket)
• Membership tended to be more militant and radical than its membership
• As the organizaGon grew it began to launch and win its own strikes • Union Pacific Railroad strike – 1884 • Wabash Railroad strike – 1885
Year Strike Loca:ons Par:cipants
1881 471 2,928 129,521
1882 454 2,105 154,671
1883 478 2,759 149,763
1884 443 2,367 147,054
1885 645 2,284 242,705
1886 1,411 9,891 499,489
Knight of Labor -‐> Haymarket Affair
• The success of the strikes inspired hundreds of thousands of workers to join
• Just one year the organizaGons ballooned from 100,000 (1885) to 700,000 (1886) – with these workers brought further militancy and radical thought
• A dying organizaGon – FederaGon of Organized Trade and Labor Unions – made a call at their December 1885 conference for a general strike for the eight-‐hour day set for May 1st, 1886
• KOL leadership actually opposed the strike and suggested that each assembly should have the members write a shirt essay on the eight-‐hour quesGon
• Membership responded to the call organizing acGons in the regions despite the protest of naGonal leadership
• Membership exploded – February 1886 over 515 new locals of the KOL were organized
• Leadership concerned that this new militant type of worker “was not the quality the Order sought for in the past” halted the establishment of charters for 40 days in order to squash the growth.
Knight of Labor -‐> Haymarket Affair
• The success of the strikes inspired hundreds of thousands of workers to join
• Just one year the organizaGons ballooned from 100,000 (1885) to 700,000 (1886) – with these workers brought further militancy and radical thought
• A dying organizaGon – FederaGon of Organized Trade and Labor Unions – made a call at their December 1885 conference for a general strike for the eight-‐hour day set for May 1st, 1886
• KOL leadership actually opposed the strike and suggested that each assembly should have the members write a shirt essay on the eight-‐hour quesGon
• Membership responded to the call organizing acGons in the regions despite the protest of naGonal leadership
• Membership exploded – February 1886 over 515 new locals of the KOL were organized
• Leadership concerned that this new militant type of worker “was not the quality the Order sought for in the past” halted the establishment of charters for 40 days in order to squash the growth.
Knight of Labor -‐> Haymarket Affair • The heart of movement was in Chicago – KOL, trade unionist, anarchist – all supported the Eight-‐Hour AssociaGon
• Employers concerned about the mobilizaGon – formed military bodies. Local authoriGes with business leaders formed the CiGzens AssociaGon of Chicago – to form a plan in case intervenGon was needed. Business leaders purchased machine guns for the NaGonal Guard in case it was needed. • May First – over 340,000 workers parGcipated in acGons in support of the 8-‐hour day; 30,000 workers went out on strike in Chicago. No incident or violence took place. By the next day 60,000-‐80,000 workers were walking picket lines demanding the eight-‐hour day
• May 3rd – Clash between police and striking workers (1,400 on strike since February) at the McCormack Harvester factory – police opened fire killing four and wounding many others.
• The city was outraged – Anarchist through their publicaGon Arbeiter-‐Zeitung issued a circular in both German and English calling for arms and a rally at the Haymarket Square the following day. Ader much reconsideraGon they alter the call – taking out the reference to arms.
1,500-‐3,000 workers came to the rally. Story: At 10 pm – Mayor Harrison – leaves seeing that there was no violence. Sam Fielden ending his speech as Capt. John Bonfield (known as “the clubber”) starts moving with 180 police. Bomb thrown by unknown assailant – one officer (Degan) killed. Seven died later. Police open fire. Unknown number of civilian killed by shots, over 200 injured.
• ReacGon – Police targeted both radicals and labor leaders
• No less than 50 supposed radical hangouts were raided
• Hundreds of labor radicals and anarchists filled the jails
• Nine men charged with the crime. Charged not because the State believed they did it, but because of their ideas. And because they were leaders of the movement.
• Media convicted them before the trial even began.
• August Spies, Adolph Fischer, Albert Parsons George Engel – sentence to be Hanged
• Sam Fielden and Michael Schwab – Sentence to be hanged but commuted to life
• Oscar Neebe – 15 years • Louis Lingg – Sentenced to be hanged but commi\ed suicide.
1893 – Governor Altgeld pardoned the remaining prisoners staGng that: • “The record of this case show that
the judge conducted the trial with malicious ferocity…’ also that every ruling throughout the long trial on any contested point, was in favor of the State; and further, that page ader page of the record contains insinuaGng remarks of the judge… with the evident intenGon of bringing the jury to his way of thinking… it is urged that such ferocity of subservience is without a parallel in all history.”
Effect of incident: • Red Scare – fear of the red flag of
anarchism (image of the bomb throwing radical reinforced)
• A\ack on labor movement • Knights of Labor looses membership
in mass – slowly declines in power
“The day will come when our silence will be more Powerful than the voices you are thro\ling today.”
-‐ August Spies
American Federation of Labor • The creaGon of the AFL is rooted in three men – Adolph Strasser, Ferdinand Laurrell and Samuel Gompers (all members of the Cigar Makers’ InternaGonal Union)
• During the 1880s the three argued for a new form of unionism – called “New Unionism” which they implemented with the CMIU
• While each men early on in their lives advocated for a form of socialism they argued that it was necessary to create Idea a sound and pracGcal labor organizaGon.
• Gompers: “Trade Unionism had to be put upon a business basis in order to develop power adequate to secure be\er working condiGons.”
• Highly centralized control – internaGonal having complete authority of the locals.
• IniGaGon fees and high dues – along with a system of sick and death benefits
• Strikes were used to enforce a demand for trade agreement • RejecGon of “nonsense” about producers’ self-‐employments, a cooperaGve commonwealth and any other utopian goals.
• PracGcal methods of higher wages and shorter hours
• In 1883 – Samuel Gompers was elected as president of the FederaGon of Organized Trade and Labor Unions
• The organizaGon was in a bi\er rivalry with the KOL – raiding, different vision of unionism (skilled<-‐>unskilled, Bread and Bu\er<-‐>Social vision)
• Ader the Haymarket affair – the FederaGon of Organized Trade and Labor Unions and Knights of Labor a\empted to resolve conflict. Several meeGng were held to see if the two organizaGon can find a sense of unity.
• When no success could be achieve a call was made for a conference on December 8, 1886 in Columbus Ohio. 42 delegates from 25 orgs, 13 naGonal unions, 12 local and city labor councils came together. They dismantled the FOTLU and formed the American FederaGon of Labor with the New Unionism model. Union was restricted to skilled workers.
• Principles of the AFL • Strict recogniGon of the autonomy of each trade • ExecuGve council handles naGonal affairs with no power to interfere with member union affairs.
• Unity of labor was promoted through educaGon and moral suasion
• Establishment of State and Central labor councils • Major emphasis on economic acGon • Return to crad unionism but with business model.