On this day in 1898, the Battle of Virden began when armed members of the United Mine Workers of America (UMW) surrounded a train full of strikebreakers and exchanged fire with company guards. 13 people were killed, dozens more wounded.
After a local chapter of the UMW began striking at a mine in Virden, Illinois, the Chicago-Virden Coal Company hired black strikebreakers from Birmingham, Alabama and shipped them to Virden by train.
The company hired armed detectives or security guards to accompany the strikebreakers, and an armed conflict broke out when armed miners surrounded the train as it arrived in town. A total of four detectives and seven striking mine workers were killed, with five guards, thirty miners, and an unrecorded number of strikebreakers wounded.
After this incident, Illinois Governor John Tanner ordered the National Guard to prevent any more strikebreakers from coming into the state by force. The next month, the Chicago-Virden Coal Company relented and allowed the unionization of its workers.
"When the last call comes for me to take my ο¬nal rest, will the miners see that I get a resting place in the same clay that shelters the miners who gave up their lives on the hills of Virden, Illinois...They are responsible for Illinois being the best organized labor state in America."
Mother Jones
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have you tried talking to people of your preferred gender?
No, there is nowhere around here to go and try that where women might actually be receptive to it. Plus I'm really just not good at talking to people and making a good first impression (though I'd try to fix that if I thought any women would actually be receptive to me approaching them)
Social skills are skills that are trained like any other, that's some high grade self sabotage fam
I know, but there's nowhere to train them. Just an endless number of places where you go to spend money and nobody wants to be bothered. And nobody ever approaches me either.
Start by flirting with elderly ladies. They know you're not serious and are hardened from decades of practice.