Labor Unions: A History of Murder and Sabotage

[FrankRep]

http://thenewamerican.com/images/stories2011/11aFebruary/minneapolisteamstersstrike-t.001.jpg
Teamsters, armed with pipes, riot in a clash with riot police in the Minneapolis Teamsters Strike of 1934 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minneapolis_Teamsters_Strike_of_1934).



This article analyzes the history of labor union violence, and how Rep. Capuano's comments are a perfect continuation of this historical truth.


Labor Unions: A History of Murder and Sabotage (http://thenewamerican.com/index.php/history/american/6487-labor-unions-a-history-of-murder-and-sabotage)


Daniel Sayani | The New American (http://thenewamerican.com/)
28 February 2011

[moostraks]

Downtrodden, abused people will eventually lash out. While throwing stones one should be aware of the whole set of circumstances that led to unionization. I realize it is in vogue to berate unions nowadays but those who don't know history are doomed to repeat it. Both sides have been wrong through the years. Glorifying corporate greed and abuse needs to be as unfashionable as glorifying unions is here...

[dannno]

Glorifying corporate greed and abuse needs to be as unfashionable as glorifying unions is here...

That's a good point.. The other problem I had with the article is that they talked about things like violent protester actions that occurred towards police officers during protests. The problem is we have something called the first amendment, and I wasn't there, but I'd venture to guess the police may have been trying to take away their right to free speech. They may be wrong, but their speech is still supposed to be protected. And I'm sure there are instances of people destroying private property or doing negative things in the name of unions, but the ton of the article didn't sit very well with me.

[Zippyjuan]

Why were they fighting? Perhaps because of the terrible conditions they were living under. People who tried to start unions were also beaten and murdered. There was violence on both sides. Freedom of speach. Freedom to assemble. Freedom of association. And the police were called in to suppress it. Sounds like Egypt or other parts of the Middle East today or even Tienemen Square. That is not a free society.

The newly formed teamsters were obstructing access to downtown areas and the police came in to force them out. The Union was peacefully protesting. A few more facts on the incident cited in the OP (both sides were guilty of violence though it was instigated by the "police" which included "several hundred newly deputized members of the Citizens Alliance, an employer organization"):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minneapolis_Teamsters_Strike_of_1934

The strike began on May 16, 1934. The strike was remarkably effective, shutting down most commercial transport in the city with the exception of certain farmers, who were allowed to bring their produce in to town, but delivering directly to grocers, rather than to the market area, which the union had shut down.

The market was to be the scene of the fiercest fighting during the earliest part of the strike. On Saturday, May 19, 1934, Minneapolis Police and private guards beat a number of strikers trying to prevent strikebreakers from unloading a truck in that area and waylaid several strikers who had responded to a report that scab drivers were unloading newsprint at the two major dailies' loading docks. When those injured strikers were brought back to the strike headquarters the police followed; the strikers, however, not only refused to let the police into the headquarters, but left two of them unconscious on the sidewalk outside.

Open battle between striking teamsters armed with pipes and the police in the streets of Minneapolis.Fighting intensified the following Monday, May 21, when the police, augmented by several hundred newly deputized members of the Citizens Alliance, an employer organization, attempted to open up the market for trucking. Fighting began when a loaded truck began leaving a loading dock. The battle became a general melee when hundreds of pickets armed with clubs of all sorts rushed to the area to support the picketers; when the police drew their guns as if to shoot, the union sent a truck loaded with picketers into the mass of police and deputies in order to make it impossible for them to fire without shooting each other.

Other unions, particularly in the building trades, began to strike in sympathy with the Teamsters. The American Federation of Labor Central Labor Council in Minneapolis offered financial and moral support for the strike, allowing the union to coordinate some of its picketing activities from its headquarters.

The fighting resumed on Tuesday, May 22. The picketers took the offensive and succeeded in driving both police and deputies from the market and the area around the union's headquarters. Two deputies, one a member of the board of directors of the Citizens Alliance, were killed in the fighting.