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Teaching American History

Teaching American History. Extractive labor images. impossible dreams for marginal people. Labor – the eight hour day Women – suffrage (the vote) Ex-slaves – real citizenship and autonomy (land) New Immigrants from Southern and Eastern Europe– a new home. Which strategy for labor?.

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Teaching American History

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  1. Teaching American History Extractive labor images

  2. impossible dreams for marginal people • Labor – the eight hour day • Women – suffrage (the vote) • Ex-slaves – real citizenship and autonomy (land) • New Immigrants from Southern and Eastern Europe– a new home

  3. Which strategy for labor? • Anarchistic Socialism (Albert Parsons, IWPA) • Cooperatives (Terence Powderly, KOL) • “More” (Samuel Gompers, AFL) • Democratic Socialism (Eugene Debs, Socialist Party) • Anarcho-Syndicalism (the IWW “Wobblies)

  4. Socialism / AnarchismAlbert and Lucy ParsonsInternational Working People’s Association • Campaigned for eight-hour day • Believed in unionism • Wanted to abolish private ownership • “Study and Rifle Clubs” • The “new science of dynamite”

  5. Just to shake things uplet's talk about Albert Parsons • Starts out as Confederate soldier • Switches to being a Radical Republican • Calls Republicans "the first labor party I joined"

  6. Life takes a bite out of A.R. Parsons • Marries Lucy Parsons (mixed Indian – Mexican – African American heritage) • Joins the Great Railroad Strike of 1877 railroad strike, demands the eight-hour day • Sees that (federal) violence decides the strike • Like the violence of the Klan in Texas • (this makes a big impression)

  7. Lucy & Albert Parsons

  8. Parsons joins everything! • Becomes Washington lobbyist for craft unions • Joins the Knights of Labor (tries to organize everybody) • Joins the International Working Peoples Association • Starts "Study and Rifle Clubs" to protect demands for the eight-hour day • Vows to defend all strikers

  9. Study and Rifle Clubsanarchism and education

  10. Haymarket – Chicago 1886 • Mayday (May 1) general strike • 700,000 workers demonstrate for the eight-hour day • Police kill several workers

  11. Protest rally against police violence • Protest rally against police violence drawsabout 1000 people • Late in the rally, about 200 protesters remain • Police wait until governor leaves, then begin to beat up the crowd

  12. Leslie's Illustrated Magazine, 15 May 1886.   A bomb mysteriously explodes near the police lines • No one claimed to have thrown the bomb • Eight immigrants are arrested • Albert Parsons escaped but turns himself in (he's the only non-immigrant arrested) • No evidence linking any of them to the bomb

  13. The Haymarket trials • Albert Parsons and four others are hung • Another defendant kills himself in jail • Three others sentenced to long prison terms (later pardoned)

  14. The (temporary) end of labor solidarity • Knights of Labor refuse to support the "Haymarket Martyrs" • American Federation of Labor does (sort of) • Labor's dreams are crushed, and union membership declines for several decades

  15. trading cards of the Haymarket Martyrs

  16. Haymarket What labor learned • The end (for awhile) of the eight-hour day movement • Don't call for sweeping social changes • Take small actions, not general strikes • Labor shrinks its dreams

  17. the Knights of Labor

  18. The beginnings of the KOL • Uriah Stephens and nine tailors • At first, a secret organization (after Masons) • Problems with Irish workers • Terence Powderly hired in 1881; drops secrecy • Changed from a craft union to an industrial union (skilled and unskilled) • Equal pay for women and African Americans • Grew to 700,000 members by 1886 • Included 95,000 African Americans • Not all-inclusive: against Chinese workers

  19. Eight-hour day No more child labor No more convict labor Progressive income tax Equal pay for equal work Government ownership of railroads and telegraphs Public lands for settlers, not speculators Cooperatives to replace wage labor Knights of Labor program

  20. CooperativesTerence Powderly and the Knights of Labor • Workers would own their own factories collectively • Factories would still compete • Not socialism (government would not own the factories)

  21. Knights of Labor – initial victories • At first, KOL opposed strikes • New members radicalized the union • Won the Union Pacific Strike of 1884 • Won the Wabash Railroad Strike of 1885 • Won Missouri Pacific Strike of 1886 (Jay Gould)

  22. Jay Gould beats the KOL, 1886 • Texas Pacific (Great Southwest) Railroad strike • “Give ‘em a rifle diet.” • “I can hire one half of the working class to kill the other half.” • KOL membership drops • KOL loses credibility with rank and file when Powderly refuses to support the Haymarket martyrs

  23. The American Federation of Labor • Craft union – skilled workers only • Most of these have served a seven year apprenticeship • Many jobs require a license • As a result, the union is largely white and male (women and people of color need not apply) • Most conservative of the labor unions

  24. American Federation of Labor (AFL)Samuel Gompers • Accepted capitalism • What does labor want? "More.“ • Wanted shorter hours, higher wages, better working conditions • Change will come through collective bargaining

  25. American Socialist PartyEugene Debs • Ex-head of American Railway Union; led 1894 Pullman Strike (smashed by federal troops) • Starts American Socialist Party, worked through elections • Diverse membership, includes many women • Wanted government ownership of big industry, vote for women, no child labor, right to strike • Change will come by winning elections

  26. The IWW (“Wobblies”)

  27. Industrial Workers of the WorldBig Bill Haywood • "The Wobblies" • Industrial union, came out of Western mining strikes • Especially big in Oregon and Washington • Used strikes, boycotts, songs, and education • Rejected political parties and elections • Change will come through a national strike and the workers will take over

  28. IWW founding conventionChicago 1905 • Big Bill Haywood • Eugene Debs • Mother Jones • Lucy Parsons (widow of Haymarket martyr Albert Parsons)

  29. Principal areas of strength • the lumber camps of the Northwest • dock workers in port cities • in the wheat fields of the central states • textiles • mining areas.

  30. Most important IWW-led strikes • Goldfield, Nevada (miners, 1906–7) • Lawrence, Massachusetts (textile workers, 1912) • Paterson, N.J. (silk workers, 1913) • Mesabi range, Minnesota (iron miners, 1916) • the lumber camps of the Northwest (1917) • The Seattle General Strike (1919) • Colorado miners (1927–28)

  31. Joe Hill of the IWW (Wobblies) • Swedish immigrant (born Hillstrom) • IWW songwriter • Framed for murder and executed • "Don't mourn – organize!"

  32. Elizabeth Gurley Flynn of the IWWthe original Wobbly "Rebel Girl" • Joined the Wobblies at age 16 • Great public speaker • Helped to organize the 1912 Lawrence, Mass. "Bread and Roses" strike • A founder of the American Civil Liberties Union

  33. What the Wobblies wanted • Against capitalism • Revolutionary union • “One big union” • Workers should own industries • Work toward a national general strike

  34. Miners Fight Back

  35. What will kill capitalism? Why is the caption in Italian?

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