General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsUS Workers Were Once Massacred Fighting for the Protections Being Rolled Back Today
On April 20, 1914, the Colorado National Guard and a private militia employed by the Colorado Fuel & Iron Company (CF&I) opened fire on a tent camp of striking coal miners at Ludlow, Colo. At least 19 people died in the camp that day, mostly women and children.
A century later, the bloody incident might seem a relic of the distant past, but the Ludlow Massacre retains a powerful, disturbing and growing relevance to the present. After a century of struggling against powerful interests to make American workplaces safer and corporations responsive to their employees, the US is rapidly returning to the conditions of rampant exploitation that contributed to Ludlow.
Thats especially true in mining, where a coordinated union-busting campaign, the corporate capture of federal regulatory agencies, and widespread environmental degradation leave coal miners unsafe and mining communities struggling to deal with the massive environmental impact of modern mining practices.
A century ago, miners led the fight for workers rights. The Gilded Age of the late 19th and early 20th centuries was a period of great upheaval for the American working class. For decades, the United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) had worked to organize the nations coal miners. Its success often hinged on whether the government helped mining companies crush strikes or protected workers. In 1897, deputies in Luzerne County, Pa., killed 19 striking miners in the Lattimer Massacre. But five years later, when Pennsylvania miners struck again, President Theodore Roosevelt intervened on their behalf, providing them with a partial victory. Roosevelts actions, while hardly indicative a new pro-labor federal government, reflected a growing belief that labor deserved a fair shake.
http://billmoyers.com/2014/04/23/us-workers-were-once-massacred-fighting-for-the-protections-being-rolled-back-today/
AuntPatsy
(9,904 posts)2naSalit
(86,323 posts)RKP5637
(67,086 posts)of humanity today has no grasp of technology than being consuming sheep and hence easily controlled by by current and emerging technologies.
Thinkingabout
(30,058 posts)members. I walked and worked to get benefits and working conditions for all workers. It has slipped out of our hands. I did not fight the fight early union members fought, they did the really hard work, left us with a way to go, we have lost that path.
daleanime
(17,796 posts)BrotherIvan
(9,126 posts)It's been nothing but a goldmine for capitalists in this country. In Europe, it hasn't taken hold as much and that is why you see a lot more and more effective striking. Workers believe they deserve fair pay and good benefits including family leave and generous vacation. They believe they deserve health care and education. They also, much to my surprise, feel they have a voice of dignity and will stand up for themselves which I haven't seen in this country for decades. In this country, workers often don't take their vacation and give loads of free overtime in the misguided belief that running on the master's wheel makes one any more valuable.
Then there is the whole campaign to revere and adore the rich & famous. The reality TV no talents driving Lamborghinis and wearing designer clothes (while also busting the union for actors and crew) was like a double sundae with a billion cherries on top. That has worked quite well for them and is now becoming the most effective US export in their effort to create as much self-loathing in the working classes as possible. Rich = good, generous, beautiful and brilliant. Poor = stupid, bad, unlucky, moochers. Then they can get the working class to hate union members (such as teachers) and wholeheartedly support criminal plutocrats like Rmoney. They must titter in their champagne and six-figure scotch to see the curs tearing each other apart. What else could someone who has everything want?
Chiquitita
(752 posts)Enthusiast
(50,983 posts)The goal has been to make people equate wealth with virtue.
BrotherIvan
(9,126 posts)of that idea. Why we even get treated to defending the WH inviting scions' offspring to lunch because it's so special that wealth hoarders get to decide where to put their money rather than paying taxes for the benefit of the dirty lower classes. Or how wonderful that Buffet, with untold billions, decides to slum it with a burger from DQ. The masters of the universe get great PR even around here.
BrotherIvan
(9,126 posts)He's such a great guy! Too bad he's pushing Monsato into Africa, destroying public education, and making sure his buddies and the companies he's invested in make scads of $$ on his "charitable" endeavors. Bow down ingrates!
mountain grammy
(26,598 posts)BrotherIvan
(9,126 posts)Only fools don't get it. But sometimes, it's better to keep your mouth shut. Thankfully, I'm self employed now that the jobs in my industry (film & television) raced to the bottom in wages thanks to Reality TV& union busting. If we don't start speaking up now, we will be fighting over third world wages.
liberal from boston
(856 posts)K&R!!! Well said Brother Ivan!!!
BrotherIvan
(9,126 posts)RKP5637
(67,086 posts)remaining benefits and fair working conditions are left were brought to them by unions. I was never in a union, but I always had a great respect for unions and what they enabled for vast numbers of workers.
I've always been struck by how many office type workers, for example, think unions are beneath them or whatever. Some of the most run over workers today are office workers and middle management. They have blinders on, they just don't get it, they just don't seem to get what sheep they are. They think HR will protect and help them, what a cruel joke they place on themselves.
Some companies might be OK, but IMO a vast majority of companies F over employees, because employees have no representation in major decisions. Even the US gov. often fails to help employees and in fact often emboldens employees' overlords to F over employees.
countryjake
(8,554 posts)mopinko
(69,990 posts)it always pissed me off that my ex walked by the haymarket square all the time, but still refused to work a 40 hour week. or stick up for his reports who needed to do so.
blkmusclmachine
(16,149 posts)bvar22
(39,909 posts)It is no longer being taught in our schools.
Sadly, even the Democratic Party Leadership no longer mentions role of the LABOR Movement in our country.
High school textbooks shortchange kids by excluding labor history
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/09/07/1014314/-High-school-textbooks-shortchange-kids-by-excluding-labor-history#
Our children and grandchildren will be forced to fight all these battles again.
Those who do NOT know History
are destined to repeat it....
Comrade Grumpy
(13,184 posts)jtuck004
(15,882 posts)create the history of the owner movement going forward, because that's what the IWW, Mother Jones, and others were fighting for. The ONLY ones who makes the real and long-lasting decisions are the owners and they told their members that while fighting against those where were allied against them: business, government, and the Business Unions like Gompers AFL.
After all these decades of death and destruction and sacrifice we are facing about 2/3 of this country getting poorer economically as we speak while a very few amongst the others are doing quite well, and nothing on the horizon for the next 30 or so years looks to be much different, barring some stupid revolution by a pissed off mob of tens of millions of people that has no idea where it is headed. Or perhaps a big famine or biological attack or pandemic.
Most decisions that last and are meaningful are made by owners. Maybe it's time we learn from our history and do what those old union figures were tryihng to do, teach everyone how to become owners of the assets, instead of just leaving that up to the wealthy and their families. Because they don't make stupid excuses like "not everyone can be an owner". They train their people anyway. If they fail, they fail, otherwise they make decisions for the rest of us.
I see no reason why everyone shouldn't have at least that advantage in education. Same curriculum and same guarantee of a safe home life with parents that are financially secure and decently educated (we have a LOT of catching up to do in the Adult Education department)- the government could step in and provide that as easily as they provide banksters their ill-gotten gains.
Seems if it's good enough for the wealthy (who pay for it with OUR labor) I don't see why we don't use OUR labor to pay for this for ourselves. Because the alternative, not doing something different than we are doing, is to face at least 3 decades of increasing inequality with nothing effective changing it, and nothing to stop it that except disasters.
So not only do I agree that it needs to be brought back, I think maybe we should live some of the lessons it will bring us.
KittyWampus
(55,894 posts)tactics and politics.
Considering how many in entertainment industry are in unions, you'd think there'd be a more creative push behind pro-Unionization.
L0oniX
(31,493 posts)This book is well worth reading. Zinn like Moyers and I might add Chomsky are gold IMO.
A NOTE AND A DISCLAIMER.
The Note: This great book should really be read by everyone. It is difficult to describe why it so great because it both teaches and inspires. You really just have to read it. We think it is so good that it demands to be as accessible as possible. Once you've finished it, we're sure you'll agree. In fact, years ago, we would offer people twenty dollars if they read the book and didn't think it was completely worth their time. Of all the people who took us up on it, no one collected.
TinkerTot55
(198 posts)...times a gazillion.
Knowledge IS Power. If only there could be a marriage of Labor History and social media. It's the younger generations that aren't familiar with how far we had come, and how fast that's all slipping away.
Octafish
(55,745 posts)...near-zero coverage, other than the denigration of organized labor.
Business and Finance, however, get all the ink in the world.
Part of a plan.
Curmudgeoness
(18,219 posts)and it puts me in awe of the workers who fought so hard for the simplest of rights.
It wasn't just the killings. It was the beatings. It was law enforcement and politicians doing the company's business in putting down the workers. It was workers who were on strike for years. FOR YEARS. Can you even imagine it?
freebrew
(1,917 posts)Wells Fargo and Pinkertons, etc. Goons working for private interests - enforcers.
Donald Ian Rankin
(13,598 posts)There are plenty of good reasons to support workers' rights.
That other people made sacrifices for them in the past is *not* one of them.
"The sacrifices of the past must be honoured" is a piece of idiocy that keeps conflicts going all over the world - Northern Ireland being the example closest to my doorstep.
WillyT
(72,631 posts)cantbeserious
(13,039 posts)eom
Populist_Prole
(5,364 posts)Such as "Well unions were necessary maybe way back in the olden days but......." and then proceed to downplay the need for them now - And yet: Then proceed to cast their lot with corporatists that unabashedly try to take us in the direction of the gilded age by rolling back all the gains made.
atreides1
(16,066 posts)I guessed they die for nothing, then!
99Forever
(14,524 posts)TBF
(32,004 posts)should be taught in every school. Unfortunately the new Libertarian class is making all of our gains ancient history (and I say "our" because I was one of those kids painting strike signs w/her dad in the 70s - he worked in a small factory in the midwest).
dotymed
(5,610 posts)I know, firsthand the ways that Union membership vastly improve your (and your family's) lives. I struggled for over a decade in my chosen trade. I made decent money as a bridge carpenter but without health insurance (4 kids), no retirement or other benefits it was still a struggle.
The Union changed (and continues to) all of that. People must wake-up, tell their bought and paid for (by their bosses)
"representatives" to go to hell and Unite to insure a future for themselves and their families.
This is just another chipping away at workers rights. Soon there won't be any left. At that point, you are all serfs with no rights.
All of the people who died and suffered to insure they and future generations would be able to collectively bargain for their
futures are being erased at this moment.
We will have to go through this again unless you are satisfied with table scraps and no hope for your children.
Ironically, those brave Union fighters improved conditions for all workers. Conversely, with no organized threat to keep the oligarchs somewhat in check, even the non-Union workers will lose what little (compared to 1st world workers) was gained
among American workers, because of the bravery and forethought of those Union organizers.
Because of our numbers (workers, Americans) still have an option. UNITE over our common ground and demand equality.
"They" have divided and conquered us for so long that most buy into the B.S. With the unbelievable technology "they" are using to control and scare us, this fight will become harder by the day.
STOP TAKING THIS SHIT. UNITE WITH THE ENEMY OF OUR ENEMY. Hell, we hold our nose to vote..think about it.
KittyWampus
(55,894 posts)stonecutter357
(12,693 posts)Petrushka
(3,709 posts)mountain grammy
(26,598 posts)and learned about Ludlow from us.. we visited the memorial with her when she was in 6th grade. When she told her class about the visit and what it meant, none of them had ever heard of Ludlow. I don't think the teacher had ever heard of Ludlow.
Well. at least we educated a few Coloradans about our history.
leftstreet
(36,098 posts)madfloridian
(88,117 posts)No one is taking up for these unions now except teachers.