You ought to be out raising hell. This is the fighting age. Put on your fighting clothes.
-Mother Jones
Friday June 3, 1903
Colorado City, Colorado - Smeltermen Resume Strike
More than a two months ago, Charles H. Moyer, President of the Western Federation of Miners, agreed to call off the strike of the smeltermen at the Standard Mill. Moyer then agreed to give MacNeill until May 18 to rehire the smeltermen who had been fired for joining the Western Federation of Miners. MacNeil continues to ignore the agreement, and today the smeltermen resumed their strike. It remains to be seen whether or not the metal miners will strike once more in support of the smeltermen.
SOURCE
Roughneck
The Life and Times of Big Bill Haywood
-by Peter Carlson
NY, 1983
See Also:
Hellraisers
-of May 21, 1903
Thursday July 3, 1913
Paterson, New Jersey - Elizabeth Gurley Flynn Speaks to the Jury
Elizabeth Gurley Flynn
IWW Organizer
Elizabeth Gurely Flynn testified before the jury this past Tuesday defending herself against charges of inciting to riot which could land her in the state prison for seven years. She stated that she is 22 years old and the mother of a son who is 3 years old, that she lives at 511 E. 134th Street in New York City, and that she has been an I.W.W. organizer since age 16. She has been in Paterson without a break working on behalf of the silk strikers for the past 4 months. Concerning the speech at Turn Hall on Feb 25th, she made this statement:
I spoke for twenty minutes or half an hour. I at first pointed out to the strikers how necessary it was that all of the silk workers should go on strike and how necessary it was for them to organize themselves into one big union instead of splitting up into many small ones. I called their attention to the fact that the Doherty mill strikers were out because of the four-loom provision, but that they had no chance to win unless all of the mills were organized.
I told them that the strike had been called at a favorable moment since it began just when that at Lawrence, Mass., had been won. I told them that the strikers
of Lawrence won because of careful and thorough picketing and I advised them to emulate their example. I did urge them to try to persuade the workers who were still in the mills to strike but I cautioned them to do this in a peaceful way by appealing to them as friends, and I added that it was entirely unnecessary to use any means other than peaceful and logical persuasiveness
I may add that I also told them to keep their hands in their pockets while picketing...I certainly advised as strongly as I could against violence in all its forms and that is the gist of the speech that I made on that day.
SOURCE
The New York Times
-of July 2, 1913
http://select.nytimes.com/...
Wednesday July 3, 2013
From The Nation: Josh Eidelson Reports on Strike by Federally Contracted Workers
Federally contracted workers staged a walk-out yesterday in Washington D.C. They are protesting "wage theft." The article includes this important update:
...In a letter sent to President Obama today, seventeen congressional Democrats urge executive action on contracting standards. Citing meetings with workers as well as Demos' report, the representatives call the capital "the visible epicenter of federal collusion with vendors and contractors that pay low wages to their employees at federal sites." "Although these contractors enjoy the prestige and get revenue at prime federal locations," they write, "the federal government washes its hand of these workers, leaving them with exploitative wages."
The signatories, including CPC Co-Chairs Keith Ellison and Raul Grijalva, Chief Deputy Democratic Whip Jan Schakowsky, and freedom ride veteran John Lewis, ask the president to "take immediate action." "A working group of federal agencies," they write, "could extricate the federal government from its complicity in denying these workers decent wages and benefits."...
Read entire article here:
http://www.thenation.com/...
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Who gets the cream?
We're always the last when the cream is shared out
For the worker is working when the Fat Cat's about.
The Workers Song by Dropkick Murphys