Memories of Maryland

For Labor Day, here is an updated and expanded version of a column from this time last year. I went to high school (well, three of the six years) in a stretch of rural Maryland that's only twelve miles wide, in between Pennsylvania and West Virginia.In fact, my school was on the banks of the Potomac River, so West Virginia was just across the river. I mention this because in 1877, the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad company cut wages in the midst of a depression. Although there were yet no unions, workers in Martinsburg, WV, (a bike ride from my school- a lengthy one, but possible with the inspiration of a young woman named Rhonda) began a protest on July 14th.It quickly spread to Maryland and Pennsylvania and involved 100,000 workers at its height. It was known as the Great Upheaval at the time but became known as the Great Railroad Strike of 1877. It lasted 52 days, killed over 100 people, and was put down by unofficial militias and the National Guard. Less than 20 miles from the trailer park I lived in, a two-month long war involving 100K people occurred and I never heard of it until I readA People's History of the United Statesby Howard Zinn decades later. This is only possible because we live in a nation in which the interests of big business and cooperations are considered over those of the working class at every opportunity. We have movies likeWall Street, The Wolf of Wall Street, Moneyball, Jerry McGuire,yet movies about the working class and unions are increasingly rare. The most recent I can think of in 1979'sNorma Rae, although I am sure there are others. There is no doubt that in popular culture and in education, unions are downplayed. This is in spite of the fact that unions gave us 40-hour weeks, three day weekends, holidays, eliminated child labor, minimum wage etc. Remember feudalism is capitalism and that's where we would be if not for the efforts of thousands of union workers who organized and fought wars for years. The Great Upheaval began when the railroad cut wages by ten percent in order to raise dividends by ten percent. This blatant thievery led workers in West Virginia to block the train tracks. The governor sent in militia to break the protests, and a protester was killed. President Hayes sent federal troops (which B & O charged the government for transporting), and the protest was ended. It swiftly moved to Cumberland and then Baltimore. In Baltimore, the citizens of the city were sympathetic to the strikes, and the federal troops had to fight their way through the streets, killing ten civilians and wounding twenty-five. They were eventually trapped in Camden Yards, and the government had to send in 2,000 National Guard and 600 marines to rescue them. Protests also arose in Albany, Syracuse, Buffalo and Pittsburgh. On July 21st, twenty civilians were killed by federal troops in Pittsburgh and another twenty-nine wounded. This caused the strikers to retaliate in a riot that burned down 39 buildings and destroyed thousands of railroad cars. In Reading, PA, the National Guard shot sixteen civilians. Fourteen people were killed in the nearby town of Shamokin and fifty in Scranton. On July 24thin Chicago, demonstrations drew 20,000 people. At the Battle of the Viaduct, another twenty people were killed. Eighteen people were killed in East St Louis. In the aftermaths of these protests, railroads realized that ruinous pay cuts didn't actually save money. New political parties were formed across the country. Labr rights became an issue for both major parties and the Bureau of Labor was formed. The Posse Comitatus act was passed to prevent federal troops from participating in protest suppression. And yet, it is important to note that much of the anti-union activity was by civilian militias. The American people were always deeply ambivalent about organized labor and the entire labor movement was almost another Civil War. Of course, the Great Upheaval was only the beginning. In 1892, workers protesting pay cuts began a strike, perhaps the first major organized strike in the United States. The union wanted a small increase and the company, Carnagie Steel, responded with a 22% cut. The company locked out workers and workers surrounded the plant and patrolled the Monongahela River in riverboats to prevent strikebreakers. The company attempted to send 300 Pinkerton agents in by river. At 2:30 AM, thousands of workers responded to the alarm, leading to a riverfront battle that killed several and the capture of all the Pinkertons. As an aside, this battle would make one hell of a movie. Eventually, federal troops broke the strike and the Amalgamated Association of Iron and Steel Workers ceased to be a force in American politics. In 1894, folks were killed in the Pullman Strike. The Coal Wars lasted from 1890-1930, mostly in Appalachia with some significant action in Colorado. All West Virginia was company towns, where detectives kept people sympathetic to unions away. The Pint Creek-Cabin Creek Strike, the Matewan Massacre and the Battle of Blair Mountain all involved heavy losses. Blair Mountain was the largest uprising in American History aside from the Civil War as more than 7,000 strikers fought 3,000 troops. Today, legal battles about whether the site of the battle should be recognized as a federal monument are still ongoing. There are a hundred other battles. There are names like Samuel Gompers, Eugene Debs, Mother Jones, Phillip Randolph and Ceaser Chavez. I learned none of this in school. The issue is that Americans have always been split about unions. Everywhere above, where I wrote about militia or Federal Troops, those were usually volunteers who held anti-union sentiments. Media and courts in the United States were usually anti-union, as the simple oft-expressed canard demonstrates: every newspaper has a business section but none of them have a labor section. Labor rights hit their peak a long time ago in the U.S. and have definitely been on a downhill slide since Ronald Reagen broke an air traffic control strike by firing 6,000 controllers. Most labor battles I listed above resulted in losses for the union in money, membership, and political power. How many great movies do you know about war and the military? How many great songs? How many books, TV shows, comics? Now, ask yourself the same question about labor. Sure, there are some, but it is a vast gulf. And yet, who did more for you? No American military action has protected your freedom since WW II (and I would argue that even then, your freedom wasn't at stake). Not one military action that anyone reading this was alive for was in defense of your freedom, only your interests. We cannot have a sporting event without someone saying, 'thanks to the troops who allowed us to have the freedom to play this game today.' But there is NOTHING that has happened with the military in our lifetimes that would have stopped a game. Perhaps, one could argue that the Afghanistan War was in defense of freedom, but one could also argue that 9-11 wouldn't have happened without previous military interventions. Unions, on the other hand, gave you freedom. They gave you the ability to go to school instead of working in a mine when you were eight. They gave you weekends. They gave you holidays. They gave you health care and pensions. They gave you a forty-hour work week. But military sentiment is approaching all-time highs while union sentiment seems to be in a perpetual doldrum. Part of this is no doubt due to a Department of Defense public relations program that spends over $750 million dollars annually, about 65% of the total spent by the United States's government on advertising. All our attitudes towards the military are, to use a favorite phrase, examples of creeping fascism. We worship the military and ignore the labor leaders who fought for our rights and for those of our neighbors. I am not demeaning the military. It's necessary but there needs to be a balance, and I yearn for an America where the names of Emma Goldman and Joe Hill are as well-known as those of George Patton or Douglas MacArthur and where Labor Day is as venerated as Memorial Day. Read a Lot. Don't Die. is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.