"Radical action must be taken to do away with the efforts of arrogant and selfish greed on the part of the Capitalist." - President Teddy Roosevelt, Progressive Republican, Progressive Party founder
Wednesday, Nov 12:
On this day in 1924 Ellis Island closed as immigration entry point. The island still served as a detention and deportation center until 1954. Germans soldiers were imprisoned there and later union members who had been falsely accused of Communism during the shameful McCarthy era. Today Ellis Island houses an immigration museum. -1924
“Chainsaw Al” Dunlap announces he is restructuring the Sunbeam Corp. and lays off 6,000 workers, half the workforce. Sunbeam nearly collapsed due to Friedman style downsizing policies used under Dunlap’s leadership that cost investors billions of dollars. -1996
Thursday, Nov 13:
Butte Montana: A Western Federation of Miners strike is crushed by massive government intervention and the militia who sided with the greedy Capitalists over the workers. The miners were striking for fair pay and less deadly working conditions. The WFM was a so-called “radical” organization co-founded by Butte union miners who were tired of dying in the mines as wage slaves; it played a key role in the founding of the IWW. -1914
Oil, Chemical and Atomic Workers Union activist Karen Silkwood is killed in a suspicious car crash on her way to deliver documents to a newspaper reporter during a investigation of the Kerr-McGee plutonium processing plant in Oklahoma. All her documentation of safety violations mysteriously disappeared from the wreck. -1974
Friday, Nov 14:
Trade unions form the Federation of Organized Trades and Labor Organizations, later becoming the AFL. Under the leadership of Samuel Gompers and Peter McGuire, the AFL became the most influential labor organization in the nation. -1881
Sen. Joe McCarthy (R-WI), right-wing lunatic, alcoholic and shame of the nation, born on this day. McCarthyism destroyed the lives of thousands of good Americans and union members by falsely accusing everyone of Communism. McCarthy stomped on civil liberties and the exercise of freedoms with impunity for his political and personal gain until he was censured by the Senate. (McCarthyism and Red-Baiting were in fact used by Republican Sen. Steve Daines (MT), during his 2014 campaign to smear his opponent) -1909
Saturday, Nov 15:
New York City IWW headquarters were destroyed by agents acting under US Attorney General Palmer in his continuing persecution of union “militants” and "radicals". The Palmer raids were part of the first U.S. Communist witch hunt (Red Scare), starting well before the more well-known McCarthy purges. Government agents illegally break into union buildings, homes, meeting halls, arresting without cause or charges. This was also when J. Edgar Hoover cut his baby teeth. -1919
4 workers killed and one injured during a hazardous chemical (methyl mercaptan) leak at a DuPont industrial plant in suburban Houston. DuPont had ignored safety standards to increase shareholder profits. -2014
Sunday, Nov 16:
Ravensdale coal mine explosion kills 31 workers, Washington State. The mine was well known for excessive coal dust and dangerous working conditions. -1916
A county judge in Punxsutawney, Pa., grants an injunction requested by the Clearfield Bituminous Coal Co. forbidding strikers from speaking to strikebreakers, posting signs declaring a strike is in progress, or even singing hymns. Union leaders termed the injunction “drastic”. -1927
Monday, Nov 17:
Martin Irons dies near Waco, Texas. He joined the Knights of Labor and in 1886 led a strike of 200,000 workers against the Jay Gould-owned railroads. The strike was crushed, Irons was blacklisted and he died broken-down and penniless. Said Mother Jones: "The Capitalist class hounded him as if he had been a wild beast." -1900
Dr. Ben Reitman, free speech champion, died on this day. Reitman served as a doctor and participated in numerous IWW Free Speech fights across the country (including Missoula), getting beaten, tarred and feathered, branded with "I.W.W.", sodomized, tortured and jailed for his troubles. He also wrote the book, Boxcar Bertha. -1942
Tuesday, Nov 18:
Seattle printers refuse to print all anti-labor ads in newspapers. -1919
Organization of General Motors workers begins with Atlanta sit-down strike. -1936
This Week in Labor History is compiled by Kevin D. Curtis
