See other Editorial Articles
Title: This weekend marks the anniversary of the most brutal confrontation in the history of the American labor movement, the Battle of Blair Mountain.
Source:
[None]
URL Source: [None]
Published: Aug 26, 2012
Author: Alan Grayson
Post Date: 2012-08-26 10:38:35 by tom007
Keywords: None
Views: 130
Comments: 7
Dear thomas: This weekend marks the anniversary of the most brutal confrontation in the history of the American labor movement, the Battle of Blair Mountain. For one week during 1921, armed, striking coal miners battled scabs, a private militia, police officers and the US Army. 100 people died, 1,000 were arrested, and one million shots were fired. It was the largest armed rebellion in America since the Civil War. This is how it happened. In the Twenties, West Virginia coal miners lived in "company towns." The mining companies owned all the property. They literally ran union organizers out of town - or killed them. In 1912, in a strike at Paint Creek, the mining company forced the striking miners and their families out of their homes, to live in tents. Then they sent armed goons into that tent city, and opened fire on men, women and children there with a machine gun. By 1920, the United Mine Workers had organized the northern mines in West Virginia, but they were barred from the southern mines. When southern miners tried to join the union, they were fired and evicted. To show who was boss, one mining company tried to place machine guns on the roofs of buildings in town. In Matewan, when the coal company goons came to town to take it upon themselves to enforce eviction notices, the mayor and the sheriff asked them to leave. The goons refused. Incredibly, the goons tried to arrest the sheriff, Sheriff Hatfield. Shots were fired, and the mayor and nine others were killed. But the company goons had to flee. The government sided with the coal companies, and put Sheriff Hatfield on trial for murder. The jury acquitted him. Then they put the sheriff on trial for supposedly dynamiting a non-union mine. As the sheriff walked up the courthouse steps to stand trial again, unarmed, company goons shot him in cold blood. In front of his wife. This led to open confrontations between miners on one hand, and police and company goons on the other. 13,000 armed miners assembled, and marched on the southern mines in Logan and Mingo Counties. They confronted a private militia of 2,000, hired by the coal companies. President Harding was informed. He threatened to send in troops and even bombers to break the union. Many miners turned back, but then company goons started killing unarmed union men, and some armed miners pushed on. The militia attacked armed miners, and the coal companies hired airplanes to drop bombs on them. The US Army Air Force, as it was known then, observed the miners' positions from overhead, and passed that information on to the coal companies. The miners actually broke through the militia's defensive perimeter, but after five days, the US Army intervened, and the miners stood down. By that time, 100 people were dead. Almost a thousand miners then were indicted for murder and treason. No one on the side of the coal companies was ever held accountable. The Battle of Blair Mountain showed that the miners could not defeat the coal companies and the government in battle. But then something interesting happened: the miners defeated the coal companies and the government at the ballot box. In 1925, convicted miners were paroled. In 1932, Democrats won both the State House and the White House. In 1935, President Roosevelt signed the National Labor Relations Act. Eleven years after the Battle of Blair Mountain, the United Mine Workers organized the southern coal fields in West Virginia. The Battle of Blair Mountain did not have a happy ending for Sheriff Hatfield, or his wife, or the 100 men, women and children who died, or the hundreds who were injured, or the thousands who lost their jobs. But it did have a happy ending for the right to organize, and the middle class, and America. Now let me ask you one thing: had you ever heard of this landmark event in American history, the Battle of Blair Mountain, before you read this? And if not, then why not? Think about that. Courage, Alan Grayson
Post Comment Private Reply Ignore Thread
Top • Page Up • Full Thread • Page Down • Bottom/Latest
#1. To: tom007 (#0)
And we have good people here on 4um that have nothing but hatred for any and all unions and union members. past or present. Again as late as the 1930s, Henry Ford had many men shot and killed for having the gall for asking for more money, FOR MORE WORK. Many men died, no one was ever punished and Henry Ford was an icon of American capitalism. No, we were never taught that episode of American "history" either. Side note Tom...FOR THOSE INTERESTED, THE MOST DANGEROUS MAN to American workers IN AMERICAN POLITICS IS.....RAND PAUL............
I know all about Matewan. It was turned into a pretty good movie.
I sense a disturbance in the farce. Much gnashing will ensue.
Read above what the "law" had to say about five men being shot and killed for Henry Ford. It is a warning of what will most likely happen again in this country in the near future.
I have serious problems with Rand Paul. I see him as Kool-Aide offered to the Ron Paul types. Sadly many are drinking it. Does anyone honestly believe that the global elites whose wealth and power depend on manipulation of the global chess board would leave something like the Presidency up to chance?
I started looking at Rand Paul last winter. Reading what was available, for and against, most attention to what HE HAD TO SAY. If the Pauls do NOT pull off something for Rand from Oromney, I suspect in two years he will be gone, just like Bill Frist. Recall how Frist was being touted as presidential material???? All of a sudden he was gone and long forgotten. For those of us at the lowest point of the social order, we pay attention when any one in the political world says we have no rights.
No, we were never taught that episode of American "history" either. And the so called "Colorado militia" was in the 1890's Rockafellers (sp) private army who machine gunned a striking bunch of miners and their families living in tents at Lufton Colorado. Slavery was never outlawed in reality in America. I'm not so sure he isn't gone already. but otherwise I would agree. Does anyone honestly believe that the global elites whose wealth and power depend on manipulation of the global chess board would leave something like the Presidency up to chance?
Now let me ask you one thing: had you ever heard of this landmark event in American history, the Battle of Blair Mountain, before you read this? And if not, then why not? Think about that.
#2. To: Cynicom (#1)
#3. To: Turtle, tomoo7, Phant2000 (#2)
Prosecutor Harry S. Toy convened a grand jury to investigate the violence. At the end of June, they completed their investigation and issued their report. They said "After hearing many witnesses on both sides of the matter, this grand jury finds no legal grounds for indictments. However, we find that the conduct of the demonstrators was ill-considered and unlawful in their utter disregard for constituted authority. We find, further, that the conduct of the Dearborn City Police when they first met the demonstrators, though well intended, might have been more discreet, and better considered before they applied force in the form of tear gas. However, we believe that the said police discharged what they conscientiously considered to be their sworn duty as law enforcing officials, alike when they intercepted the rioters at the city's limit, using tear gas and in the critical and violent situation which ensued employing gunfire to protect life and property, which were then manifestly in danger."
#4. To: Cynicom (#1)
Side note Tom...FOR THOSE INTERESTED, THE MOST DANGEROUS MAN to American workers IN AMERICAN POLITICS IS.....RAND PAUL............
#5. To: farmfriend (#4)
Sadly many are drinking it.
#6. To: Cynicom (#1)
Many men died, no one was ever punished and Henry Ford was an icon of American capitalism.
"Satan / Cheney in "08" 
#7. To: Cynicom (#5)
If the Pauls do NOT pull off something for Rand from Oromney, I suspect in two years he will be gone, just like Bill Frist.
Top • Page Up • Full Thread • Page Down • Bottom/Latest