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 final 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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  • SoylentSnake [he/him, they/them]@hexbear.netEnglish
    13·
    1 month ago

    trite point among fellow travelers, but you argue lesser evilism between the two fascist parties domestically volcel-kamala angry-place nobody panics

    argue lesser evilism for world superpowers amerikkka xi-reactionary-spotted everyone loses their minds! joker-che

    like seriously, whether you think you can even coherently call states “evil or not” it’s a really easy calculus: there are two options, no hypothetical idealized third one, one is a mix of good and bad outcomes some-controversy one results in purely bad and destructive outcomes amerikkka ofc you root for the first one, it shouldn’t be a hard calculus (same applies to ussr-cry when it still existed). completely leaving aside nuances about whether china is socialist or not, how critical critical support should be, etc etc etc etc it’s really not that fucking complicated even if you know zero theory and don’t have opinions on building socialism/how to build socialism/whether we should build socialism.

    way, way more ideological space between the competing superpowers than between the demonrat$ and rethugliKKKans too. god i hate arguing with liberals man it’s so often not worth it.