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Radical Coal Minersin Northeastern
Pennsylvania
ANTHRACITE REDS
Radical Coal Miners
Pennsylvania Anthracite
Radical Tradition in the Anthracite• Molly Maguires , secret
organization of Irish-Americans in the anthracite mining districts of Pennsylvania.
• Its name came from a woman who led an extralegal, antilandlord organization in Ireland during the 1840s, and its membership was drawn from the Ancient Order of Hibernians, an Irish-American fraternal society.
Molly Maguires• The movement arose to
combat the oppressive industrial and living conditions.
• Since the police and the forces for law and order were entirely controlled by the mine owners, the Molly Maguires often resorted to intimidating or murdering the police.
• For several years, especially from c.1865 to 1875, the Molly Maguires dominated the mining industry of NE Pennsylvania.
Socialist Labor PartyDaniel DeLeon and US Socialism
Socialist Party: Eugene Debs
•Democratic Socialism
IWW: Industrial Workers of the World• Syndicalism:
Working class revolution by the union on the job site
New Immigrants: 1880-1920
• Major immigrant groups to the US and NE Penn.• Italians• Jews• Slavs
Voyage of the Immigrant Miners
Ellis Island
Voyage of the Immigrant Miners
American businessmenwelcomed the newimmigrants…LABORWhat does the Statuesay?
On to the Penn. Anthracite
Anthracite Breaker BoysThe Abuse of Child Labor
Working Conditions in the Mines Low Pay and Long Hours
• Most anthracite miners worked a 10 hour day before the 1902 Strike.
• A miner could earn between $40 and $80 a month depending on how many tons were mined.
Immigrants bring Radical Politics to the New World with them
• Ferdinando Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti were two Italian-born American laborers and anarchists, who were tried, convicted and executed via electrocution on August 23, 1927 in Massachusetts for the 1920 armed robbery and murder of two payroll clerks.
• Today, their execution is considered by some to be a miscarriage of justice.
Some Anthracite Immigrant miners were Socialists
• Thousands of anthracite miners voted for Socialists like Eugene Debs and Norman Thomas.
Anthracite Miners take in the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia
Immigrant miners inNE Penn. takes sides: some supported theRevolution and Bolshevism; mostopposed it.
American Political SpectrumLeft: Progressives, Liberals, Socialists
Values: Equality, Democracy, Community, Social Justice
Progressive Era [1900-1917]
New Deal/Fair Deal [1932-1952]
Great Society [1960s]
Obama Era [2008- ? ]
American Political SpectrumRight: Old Right, New Right, Neo-Conservatives, Paleoconservatives
Values: Tradition, Self-Reliance, Individualism, Market-Capitalism, Inequality
American Communist Movement began in 1919
• Communist Labor Party• Led by John Reed
Two US Communist Parties
Communist PartyVs.
Communist Labor Party
Who would be recognized by the Communist International in Moscow?
1921 Merger: Workers Party
• In 1921, acting on orders from Moscow, the CLP and CP merged to form the Workers (Communist) Party.
Scholarship: US CommunismThe Cold War School of Historians: John Earl Haynes
The Revisionist School of Historians: Maurice Isserman
Academic Journal of US Communism
• Published by the Tamiment Institute and Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives at New York University
Historical Research into Communism
Communist Miners and DepressionRadical immigrant miners
supported Soviet leaders. Lenin/Stalin
Third Period Communism[Radical Program] A. Organize the
Unemployed B. Fight white racism
and for civil rights C. Form separate
Communist Unions in all industries [dual unionism]
Communist Dual Union: NMU • AFL miners union was the
United Mine Workers of America or the UMW led by John L. Lewis
• The Communist dual union was the National Miners Union
Anthracite: District 3 of Workers Party
Unemployment in 1930s
Unemploymentwas the chiefevil of the GreatDepression
The Face of the Unemployed
Steve Nelson: Communist
Steve Nelson was the Communist Party’s Organizer thePennsylvaniaAnthraciteDuring much of the 1930s.
• Nelson in Spanish Civil War