A dynamite bomb destroyed a portion of the Llewellyn Ironworks in Los Angeles

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.workdayminnesota.org/history/12/25



December 25, 1910

A dynamite bomb destroyed a portion of the Llewellyn Ironworks in Los Angeles, where a bitter strike was in progress. In April 1911, James McNamara and his brother, John McNamara, secretary-treasurer of the International Association of Bridge and Structural Iron Workers, were charged with the two crimes. James McNamara pleaded guilty to murder and John McNamara pleaded guilty to conspiracy. James McNamara was sentenced to life in prison at San Quentin; he died there in 1941.

[Comrade Grumpy]

1. Oh, those Wobblies! Probably shouldn't talk about 'em on DU.

[nadinbrzezinski]

2. Wobblies!!!!

have a wonderful holiday

[Comrade Grumpy]

3. Role of the Wobblies:

http://www.academia.edu/3678270/The_1910_Bombing_of_the_Los_Angeles_Times_Building_and_Architectural_Rhetoric


On October 1, 1910, a bomb exploded in the Los Angeles Times building, killing twenty people. It was called “the crime of the century.” The bombing marked the climax of anescalating battle between the antiunion politics of the Los Angeles Times and a series of strikes agitated by members of the IWW. Conflicts between militant strikebreakers “schooled” by the Los Angeles Times and radical unionization made LosAngeles noted as “the bloodiest arena in the Western World for Capital and Labor.” Harrison Gray Otis, president of the Los Angeles Times, was a veteran of the Civil War, and he had formerly been a conservative politician. Otis made it his mission to expand the financial success of the Los Angeles Times as well as toforward conservative political platforms.

Otis and the Los Angeles Times were not simply providers of printed information; they were key players in the rising political tensions in Los Angeles. Furthermore, while competing Los Angeles newspapers were unionized, Otis vehemently resisted unionization within theinstitution of the newspaper company by advocating an “open shop” newspaper company which allowed (essentially mandated) non-union workers to work for the institution. After the bombing of the Los Angeles Times building, Otis became known for the phrase, “You’re eitherwith me or against me.” This phrase conveys his sense of power not only over his ownindustry, but over politics.

The Los Angeles Times became notorious for hand-pickingRepublican candidates, and even for using hand signals to control political leaders by telling them how to vote in the Los Angeles City Council. Otis declared the bombing “one of the worst atrocities in the history of the world,” and he proceeded to “mobilize every influential institution in the city behind [the bombing.] The most powerful of these was the corrupt Los Angeles Police Department, which promoted a culture of brutality, secretiveness, and racism.”