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 ๏ฌnal 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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Links To Resources (Aid and Theory):
Aid:
Theory:
- โค๏ธFoundations of Leninism
- โค๏ธAnarchism and Other Essays
Talking with my girlfriend about being a communist (mostly working back to how i got there) and making the breakthrough that the biggest problem is making sense of some ideas in a way liberals dont think about is essentially Platoโs Cave.
Being a leftist is Platoโs Cave all the way down.
I love playdough but I think you spelt it wrong
this is why The Matrix works so well when interpreted through a communist lens