On July 22, 1916, someone set off a bomb during the pro-war “Preparedness Day” parade in San Francisco. The bomb killed ten people and injured forty more. A jury convicted two labor leaders, Tom Mooney and Warren Billings, based on the false testimony of Martin Swanson, a detective with a long history of interfering in […]
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On October 3, 1860, 10,000 men and boys marched in a three-mile procession through Chicago. Many were immigrants from Europe, veterans of the Revolutions of 1848. They wore capes and military-style hats, and carried six-foot long torches. Some marched with guns. Others held signs with the image of a large eyeball. They were the Wide
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Louise Michel was born in Vroncourt, France on May 29, 1830. Michel was a leader of the 1871 Paris Commune and a founder of anarcha-feminism. As a child, she always empathized with the downtrodden and, particularly, with animals. Indeed, she attributed the origin of her revolt to her horror at seeing animals abused. “I used
On April 20, 1914 the Colorado National Guard and private security guards opened fire on a mining camp in the Ludlow Massacre, in Ludlow, Colorado, killing 21 people, including women, and at least twelve children. By the end of the strike, they had killed more than 75 people (over 200 from 1913-1914). Colorado Fuel and Iron Company (CF&I),
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The Battle of Blair Mountain (August 25-September 2, 1921) in Logan County, West Virginia, was the largest armed insurrection since the Civil War, and the largest labor uprising in U.S. history. 10,000-15,000 coal miners battled 3,000 cops, private cops and vigilantes, who were backed by the coal bosses. Up to 100 miners died in the
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