You..ought to be out raising hell. This is the fighting age. Put on your fighting clothes.
-Mother Jones
Thursday June 4, 1903
Phoenix, Arizona - Thousands of Copper Miners Strike Over Wage Scale
The operators' attempt to reduce wages as they conform with the eight hour law has led to a strike by several thousand miners. The strikers are led by the Western Federation of Miners. Most of the small mines of Yavapai County are being struck or are locked out. The United Verde Mine owned by Senator Clark may soon be affected due to his failure to negotiate a satisfactory agreement with the WFM during his recent visit to Arizona.
SOURCE
The New York Times
-of June 4, 1903
http://select.nytimes.com/...
The Masses
June 1913
Wednesday June 4, 1913
From The Masses: "The War in Paterson" by Jack Reed
Here Jack Reed describes his success in breaking into the Passaic County Jail during his recent visit to Paterson:
There’s war in Paterson. But it’s a curious kind of war. All the violence is the work of one side—the Mill Owners. Their servants, the Police, club unresisting men and women and ride down law-abiding crowds on horseback. Their paid mercenaries, the armed Detectives, shoot and kill innocent people. Their newspapers, the Paterson Press and the Paterson Call, publish incendiary and crime-inciting appeals to mob-violence against the strike leaders. Their tool, Recorder Carroll, deals out heavy sentences to peaceful pickets that the police-net gathers up. They control absolutely the Police, the Press, the Courts.
Opposing them are about twenty-five thousand striking silk-workers, of whom perhaps ten thousand are active, and their weapon is the picket-line. Let me tell you what I saw in Paterson and then you will say which side of this struggle is “anarchistic” and “contrary to American ideals.”
Reed was talking quietly with a group of strikers when:
Suddenly appeared a policeman, swinging his club. “Ah-h-h!” said the crowd softly.
In the article, Reed goes on to describe the courageous strikers he met in jail, his experience with the Recorder's Court, and his meeting in jail with Haywood, and Quinlan. We highly recommend the writings of Jack Reed.
Jack Reed describes his parting with the men in jail:
When it came time for me to go out I said goodbye to all those gentle, alert, brave men, ennobled by something greater than themselves. They were the strike—not Bill Haywood, not Gurley Flynn, not any other individual. And if they should lose all their leaders other leaders would arise from the ranks, even as they rose, and the strike would go on. I think of it! Twelve years they have been losing strikes—twelve solid years of disappointments and incalculable suffering. They must not lose again ! They cannot lose !
And as I passed out through the front room they crowded around me again, patting my sleeve and my hand, friendly, warm-hearted, trusting, eloquent. Haywood and Quinlan had gone out on bail.
“You go out,” they said softly. “That's nice. Glad you go out. Pretty soon we go out. Then we go back on picket-line."
SOURCE
"The War in Paterson"
-by Jack Reed
The Masses, June 1913
http://www.marxists.org/...
For further study:
The Masses archives:
http://dl.lib.brown.edu/...
The Masses, description of:
http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/...
Tuesday June 4, 2013
Bentonville, Arkansas - #Ride4Respect Caravans of #Walmartstrikers Have Arrived!
From Making Change at Walmart:
"Following Arrival of all Caravans in Bentonville, Action at Walmart’s Home Office"
What a week! After an action-packed journey, the six Ride for Respect caravans all arrived safely in Bentonville, Arkansas over the weekend. But the buses of #Walmartstrikers were not about to sit around until Friday, when Walmart’s annual shareholders meeting will take place–that’s for sure!
Yesterday morning, a group of 200 OUR Walmart members and supporters marched through the misty dawn to Walmart’s Home Office, and arrived just as the employees at the headquarters were filing into work. Quietly, the throngs of green shirts spread out in front of Home Office–many in the crowd had tape-covered mouths with “ULP strike” written across, symbolic of how many of the workers had been silenced by Walmart when speaking out on the job. But then, they removed their tape, and began to do what OUR Walmart does best!
Chants and songs about respect erupted, and together, they made their voices heard. ULP strike signs showed an array of messages about how the workers would like to see change at Walmart, regarding being treated with respect as associates and putting an end to threats and retaliation for speaking out at work.
We can’t wait to see what the #WalmartStrikers have in store for the rest of the week leading up to the Shareholders meeting, where they will carry the messages of many more Walmart workers to the executives.
Esmeralda Uvalle who works at Walmart store number 2596 in Mount Vernon, WA, gives us her story of courageous struggle here:
http://makingchangeatwalmart.org/...
"I'm tired of working my life away,
and giving somebody else all of my pay."
SIGN THIS PETITION
Stand with Walmart Workers/Petition for June 7
http://action.changewalmart.org/...
DONATE
https://donate.changewalmart.org/...
JOIN/PLAN AN EVENT
http://corporateactionnetwork.org/...
Connect with OUR Walmart
http://forrespect.org/
Solidarity,
JayRaye