Railroad Strike of 1877
First truly nationwide strike, started in July.
Started in West Virginia in response to the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad (B&O) cutting wages for the third time in that year.
Striking workers didn’t allow any of the trains, mainly freight to move until this third wage cut was revoked.
More than 100,000 workers participated over the duration of the strike.
But along with federal intervention and state militia, it was squashed.
Around 1000 people were jailed, and c. 100 were killed.
However, it ended by 1 August unsuccessfully. Workers did not receive pay raises, legislation strengthened anti-unionist attitudes and state militias increased.
The Ludlow Massacre 1914
Blatant example of extreme violence by employers.
At Ludlow, Colorado, the Colorado Fuel and Iron Company employed a private security force to break up a strike called by the United Mine Workers.
When the company evicted strikers and their families from their homes, they set up camp outside the entrances of the mines.
The stand-off came to a bloody end when security guards from the private agency, equipped with a armoured car they called the ‘Death Special’ killed 20 men, women and children by shooting and setting fire to the tents.
There were a further 46 deaths in the continuing violence which lasted several months.
Mitchell-Palmer Raids 1919-20
The raids particularly targeted Italian immigrants and Eastern European Jewish immigrants with alleged leftist ties, with particular focus on Italian anarchists and immigrant leftist labor activists.
The raids and arrests occurred under the leadership of Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer, with 3,000 arrested.
Thought that the trade unionists had commie ties.