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Anti-union violence

Anti-union violence is physical force intended to harm union officials, union organizers, union members, union sympathizers, or their families. It is most commonly used either during union organizing efforts, or during strikes. The aim most often is to prevent a union from forming, to destroy an existing union, or to reduce the effectiveness of a union or a particular strike action. If strikers prevent people or goods to enter or leave a workplace, violence may be used to allow people and goods to pass the picket line.

Strike, Stanisław Lentz, 1910

Violence against unions may be isolated, or may occur as part of a campaign that includes spying, intimidation, impersonation, disinformation, and sabotage.[1] Violence in labor disputes may be the result of unreasonable polarization, or miscalculation. It may be willful and provoked, or senseless and tragic. On some occasions, violence in labor disputes may be purposeful and calculated,[2] for example the hiring and deployment of goon squads to assault strikers.

Incidents of violence during periods of labor unrest are sometimes perceived differently by different parties. It is sometimes a challenge to ascertain the truth about labor-related violence, and incidents of violence committed by, or in the name of, unions or union workers have occurred as well.

History edit

The practice of workers organizing, and meeting resistance for organizing, dates to antiquity.[3] The first known individual killed by authorities for labor activities is likely Cinto Brandini, executed with nine others in 1345 Florence for attempting to organize woolcombers.[4]

According to a study in 1969, the United States has had the bloodiest and most violent labor history of any industrial nation in the world.[5] Mass labor violence in the U.S. peaked in the early 20th century and has largely subsided since the 1940s. But the deadly suppression of labor unions on a large scale persists into the new century, in the 2012 Marikana killings in South Africa, in the ongoing assassinations of trade union members in Colombia, and the South Korean government's response to Korean Confederation of Trade Unions protests.[6]

Causes edit

Since unions are organized to achieve collective bargaining power to begin with, most union conflicts have been motivated primarily by economic issues (wages, working hours, safety conditions, work rules, etc.),[7] and have engaged antagonists (employers, hired strikebreakers, replacement workers, local law enforcement) with economic goals in mind. In some instances, however, other causes emerge.

Race edit

 
French cartoon of the Rand Rebellion in South Africa, 1922

The 1887 Thibodaux massacre in Louisiana, the 1899 Pana riot in southern Illinois, and the 1911 Queen & Crescent killings in Kentucky and Tennessee are three examples of deliberate campaigns of murder against organized black workers in the American south, the first committed by landowners, the other two by white competitors.

In South Africa the 1922 Rand Rebellion also had underlying racial causes, taking on the slogan "Workers of the world, unite and fight for a white South Africa!",[8] before their strike grew to a small-scale rebellion at the cost of 200 lives. The behavior of South African police in the 1946 African Mine Workers' Union strike is said to have led to the formation of the Northern Rhodesian African Mineworkers' Union in 1949 as a cornerstone of the anti-apartheid movement.[9]

Political power edit

As with race, for some incidents there is no clear distinction between anti-union violence and political suppression. Polish labor unions were centrally involved in workers' uprisings and/or general strikes that challenged the sitting governments in 1905, 1923, and 1937. In a similar way the strike of Asturian miners in 1934, put down by right-wing Spanish government forces with great loss of life, amounted to an insurrection through work stoppage, not an economic labor action. Unions continued to play a political and military role in the subsequent Spanish Civil War.

Along with Franco in Spain, other totalitarian regimes in Europe brought their labor unions under government control, violently when necessary. After coming to power as chancellor in January 1933, Adolf Hitler declared May Day a national holiday, then on May 2, 1933, unexpectedly moved to outlaw labor unions as part of the Nazi "synchronization" process. Major unions such as the Allgemeiner Deutscher Gewerkschaftsbund were raided that day, their accounts seized, and their leaders (Gustav Schiefer, Wilhelm Leuschner, Erich Luebbe) arrested and sent to concentration camps. (The bodies of four murdered trade union officials in Duisburg were only found a year later, in April 1934.)[10] Every worker in the nation was then compelled to join the single party-controlled union, the German Labour Front. Similar coercive violence was exercised against labor unions in conquered nations, as in the Netherlands in 1941.[11]

Types of violence edit

Some anti-union violence appears to be random, such as an incident during the 1912 textile strike in Lawrence, Massachusetts, in which a police officer fired into a crowd of strikers, killing Anna LoPizzo.[12]

Anti-union violence may be used as a means to intimidate others, as in the hanging of union organizer Frank Little from a railroad trestle in Butte, Montana. A note was pinned to his body which said, "Others Take Notice! First And Last Warning!" The initial of the last names of seven well-known union activists in the Butte area were on the note, with the "L" for Frank Little circled.[13][14]

Anti-union violence may be abrupt and unanticipated. Three years after Frank Little was lynched, a strike by Butte miners was suppressed with gunfire when deputized mine guards suddenly fired upon unarmed picketers in the Anaconda Road Massacre. Seventeen were shot in the back as they tried to flee, and one man died.[15]

Other anti-union violence may seem orchestrated, as in 1914 when mine guards and the state militia fired into a tent colony of striking miners in Colorado, an incident that came to be known as the Ludlow Massacre.[16] During that strike, the company hired the Baldwin Felts agency, which built an armored car so their agents could approach the strikers' tent colonies with impunity. The strikers called it the "Death Special". At the Forbes tent colony,

"[The Death Special] opened fire, a protracted spurt that sent some six hundred bullets tearing through the thin tents. One of the shots struck miner Luka Vahernik, fifty, in the head, killing him instantly. Another striker, Marco Zamboni, eighteen ... suffered nine bullet wounds to his legs... One tent was later found to have about 150 bullet holes..."[17]

Sometimes, there is simultaneous violence on both sides. In an auto workers strike organised by Victor Reuther and others in 1937, "[u]nionists assembled rocks, steel hinges, and other objects to throw at the cops, and police organized tear gas attacks and mounted charges."[18]

There have been cases where violence has been perpetrated or encouraged by agents of management, intending it to be blamed on the union.[19]

Violence by country edit

Europe edit

 
Depiction of the 1902 Belgium general strike, by Henri Meurnier
Belgium
Russia
United Kingdom
  • on 17 May 1869, a labor action of Welsh colliers (forcibly delivering the mine's new operator to the police station) developed into The Mold Riot, a confrontation between a mob of 1500 workers and citizens, versus King's Own Royal Regiment. When pelted with stones, the King's Own fired into the crowd, killing four
Spain

Repression an violence against the Spanish labour movement was widespread during various of the 19th and 20th century political regimes:

Spanish Restoration (1876–1931):

  • On 4 January 1888, in the Plaza de la Constitución of Minas de Ríotinto (Province of Huelva, Andalusia) around 200 people were shot dead by two companies of the Spanish Army when they protested for better wages and the end of the emission of toxic fumes in the mines. Protestors were mainly workers of the local mines, led by anarchist Maximiliano Tornet. The massacre lasted only 15 minutes and the bodies of the dead were probably buried under the slag of some mine in the region.[20]
  • On 31 May 1901 the Guardia Civil shot striking workers in the city of A Coruña, killing 8.[21][22]
  • On 7 March 1916 Guardia Civil and a unit of the Spanish Army opened fire at a crowd of striking workers in La Unión, killing 7 and injuring 16.[23][24][25]

Second Spanish Republic (1931–1936):

  • On 5 January 1932 a group of workers, organized by the socialist union UGT strike in a shoe factory in the Riojan town of Arnedo. Guardia Civil broke the strike and killed 11 workers during a protest, part of the strike, in the local Plaza de la República.[26]

Spanish Civil War and Early Francoism (1936–1963):

  • A brutal campaign of repression against union members was unleashed during the White Terror (known in Spain as Represión franquista). A large portion of the 150,000-400,000 deathly victims of the terror were members of the two main unions at the time: UGT and CNT. Both organizations were almost destroyed by this mass campaign of repression.

Late Francoism (1963–1975):

  • 3 workers were killed by the Armed Police during a construction strike in the city of Granada.[27]
  • The 10 of March 1972 2 workers (Amador Rey and Daniel Niebla, members of the clandestine union CCOO) were killed by the Armed Police in the city of Ferrol. Another 16 were injured by bullets, 160 workers were fired, 101 arrested, 60 incarcerated and 54 fined with between 50,000 and 250,000 pesetas. 10 March is officially commemorated in Galicia as Day of the Galician Working Class.[28][29]

Spanish Transition (1975–1983):

Sweden
  • in the Ådalen shootings of May 1931, Swedish military forces opened fire against labour demonstrators in the Swedish sawmill district of Ådalen, killing five people, including a young woman

North America edit

 
Río Blanco strike, 1907
United States

Historically, violence against unions in the United States has included attacks by detective and guard agencies, such as the Pinkertons, Baldwin Felts, Burns, or Thiel detective agencies; citizens groups, such as the Citizens' Alliance; company guards; police; national guard; or even the active duty military.[34] In the book From Blackjacks To Briefcases, Robert Michael Smith states that during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, anti-union agencies "spawned violence and wreaked havoc" on the labor movement.[35] According to Morris Friedman, detective agencies were themselves for-profit companies, and a "bitter struggle" between capital and labor could be counted upon to create "satisfaction and immense profit" for agencies such as the Pinkerton company.[36] Harry Wellington Laidler wrote a book in 1913 detailing how one of the largest union busters in the United States, Corporations Auxiliary Company, had a sales pitch offering the use of provocation and violence.[37]

During the Lattimer massacre, nineteen unarmed immigrant coal miners were suddenly gunned down at the Lattimer mine near Hazleton, Pennsylvania, on September 10, 1897.[38][39] In the Colorado Labor Wars, martial law was imposed by the Colorado National Guard in order to put down striking miners. A study of industrial violence in 1969 concluded, "There is no episode in American labor history in which violence was as systematically used by employers as in the Colorado labor war of 1903 and 1904."[5] In 1914, mine guards and the state militia fired into a tent colony of striking miners in Colorado, an incident that came to be known as the Ludlow Massacre.[16] During that strike, the company hired the Baldwin Felts agency, which built an armored car so their agents could approach the strikers' tent colonies with impunity. The strikers called it the "Death Special". In 1917, union organizer Frank Little was hanged from a railroad trestle in Butte, Montana, with a note pinned to his body which carried a "warning" to other labor activists.[40][14] In 1927, during another coal strike in Colorado, state police and mine guards fired pistols, rifles and a machine gun into a group of five hundred striking miners and their wives in what came to be called the Columbine Mine Massacre.

By the early 1900s, public tolerance for violence during labor disputes began to decrease. Yet violence involving strikebreaking troops and armed guards continued into the 1930s.[35] Legislation related to employer strategies such as violent strike breaking would have to wait until after World War II.[41] Beginning in the 1950s, employers began to embrace new methods of managing workers and unions which were still effective, but much more subtle.[41]

Canada

Rosvall and Voutilainen were murdered for their pro-union efforts resulting in the authorities in Thunder Bay conducting a major cover up in an attempt to conceal the truth. Thunder Bay remains a hot bed of anti-union violence against pro-union individuals resulting in Thunder Bay being labelled the Capital of Anti-union Violence of Canada.

Mexico
  • the Cananea strike of organized mine workers in June 1906, and the Río Blanco strike of unionized textile workers in January 1907, became two linked symbols of the corruption and civil repression of the administration of Mexican president Porfirio Díaz. They became "household words for hundreds of thousands of Mexicans".[43]

Central and South America edit

Argentina
Bolivia
Chile
Colombia
see main article Trade unions in Colombia
El Salvador
  • Estimates of the number of labor union members killed in the four first years of the Salvadoran Civil War (1979–1983) range from 3,000 to 8,000.[47] The 2004 murder of a visiting Teamsters organizer from New Jersey brought international attention to the country's "long record of hostility to union labor".[48]
Venezuela
  • As of 2010, some 75 union organizers and union members had been killed in the prior two years, according to figures compiled by the Catholic Church. New unions flourishing under the Chavez administration challenged established unions for lucrative memberships. One common tactic was public assassination.[49]

Africa edit

South Africa

Asia edit

Cambodia
  • Chea Vichea, leader of the Free Trade Union of Workers of the Kingdom of Cambodia (FTUWKC) was shot in the head and chest while reading a newspaper at a kiosk in Phnom Penh on January 22, 2004.[51] He had been dismissed by the INSM Garment Factory (located in the Chum Chao District of Phnom Penh), as a reprisal for helping to establish a trade union at the company.
India
  • Shankar Guha Niyogi, a leader of the Mukti Morcha union movement in the Indian state of Chhattisgarh was killed in Bhilai, on September 27, 1991,[52] allegedly by a hired assassin, in the middle of a major dispute about the regularisation of workers' contracts in the steel and engineering industries. The alleged assassin and two industrialists were convicted of his murder but released on appeal; their release is itself now subject to appeal.
Philippines

Labor unions were heavily repressed during Ferdinand Marcos' rule over the former US colony.[53] Colonization by the US, in turn, is a historical factor that has greatly influenced the country's ideological leanings and steered its cultural preferences.[54] Sam Gindin wrote that "the Philippines remains a dangerous place to be a union organizer."[53]

Australasia edit

Australia
New Zealand
  • Only three people have been killed in New Zealand's industrial history: Fred Evans, killed in 1912 in the Waihi miners' strike, Christine Clarke, the wife of a picketing worker struck by a car on New Year's Eve 1999,[56] and the victim of a suitcase bomb was left in the foyer of the Trades Hall in Wellington, 27 March 1984.[57] The Trades Hall was the headquarters of a number of trade unions, and it is most commonly assumed that they were the target of the bombing, although other theories have been put forward. Ernie Abbott, the building's caretaker, was killed when he attempted to move the suitcase, which is believed to have contained three sticks of gelignite triggered by a mercury switch.[58] To this day, the perpetrator has never been identified. Those elements of the New Zealand Police responsible for preventing and investigating such crimes were headquartered in the building across the street.

See also edit

References edit

  1. ^ Robert Michael Smith, From Blackjacks To Briefcases — A History of Commercialized Strikebreaking and Unionbusting in the United States, 2003, p. 87
  2. ^ Robert Hunter, Violence and the labor movement, Macmillan, 1914 (1919 version), page 318
  3. ^ John Romer, Ancient Lives; the story of the Pharaoh's Tombmakers. London: Phoenix Press, 1984, pp. 116-123 See also E.F. Wente, "A letter of complaint to the Vizier To", in Journal of Near Eastern Studies, 20, 1961 and W.F. Edgerton, "The strikes in Ramses III's Twenty-ninth year", Journal of Near Eastern Studies, 10, 1951.
  4. ^ James C. Docherty, Sjaak van der Velden (2012). Historical Dictionary of Organized Labor. Scarecrow Press. p. xxv. ISBN 9780810879881. Retrieved 18 April 2016.
  5. ^ a b Philip Taft and Philip Ross, "American Labor Violence: Its Causes, Character, and Outcome," The History of Violence in America: A Report to the National Commission on the Causes and Prevention of Violence, ed. Hugh Davis Graham and Ted Robert Gurr, 1969.
  6. ^ Lee, Hyun (12 November 2015). "South Korea Labor Strikes Back". Foreign Policy in Focus. Retrieved 18 April 2016.
  7. ^ Lalor, John Joseph (1890). Cyclopaedia of Political Science, Political Economy, and of the Political History of the United States, Volume 3. C. E. Merrill & Company. p. 816. Retrieved 18 April 2016.
  8. ^ "South Africa Conflict in the 1920s - Flags, Maps, Economy, Geography, Climate, Natural Resources, Current Issues, International Agreements, Population, Social Statistics, Political System". workmall.com.
  9. ^ Naicker, M. P. . Archived from the original on 2016-05-05.
  10. ^ Gregor, Neil (2000). Nazism. Oxford University Press. p. 296. ISBN 9780192892812. Retrieved 19 April 2016.
  11. ^ Warmbrunn, Werner (1963). The Dutch Under German Occupation, 1940-1945. Stanford University Press. p. 136. ISBN 9780804701525. Retrieved 19 April 2016.
  12. ^ William Dudley Haywood, Autobiography of Big Bill Haywood, 1929, page 249
  13. ^ Melvyn Dubofsky, We Shall Be All: A History of the Industrial Workers of the World, University of Illinois Press Abridged, 2000, pages 223-224
  14. ^ a b Peter Carlson, Roughneck, The Life and Times of Big Bill Haywood, 1983, pages 17, 248-249
  15. ^ Mary Murphy, Mining cultures: men, women, and leisure in Butte, 1914-41, University of Illinois Press, 1997, page 33
  16. ^ a b Zinn, H. "The Ludlow Massacre", A People's History of the United States. pgs 346–349
  17. ^ Scott Martelle, Blood Passion, Rutgers University Press, 2008, page 98
  18. ^ Nelson Lichtenstein, Walter Reuther: the most dangerous man in Detroit, University of Illinois Press, 1997, page 101
  19. ^ Robert Hunter, Violence and the labor movement, Macmillan, 1914 (1919 version), page 317
  20. ^ Chastagnaret, G. (2017). Humos y sangre: Protestas en la cuenca de las Piritas y masacre en Riotinto. 1877-1890. Universidad de Alicante.
  21. ^ Pereira, D., Cequiel, U. B. D., & Vázquez, B. M. (2010). Síntese histórica do movemento obreiro galego: das orixes até 1984. Fundación para o Estudo e Divulgación da Cuestión Social e Sindical en Galiza. p. 72
  22. ^ Macho, A. M. (2008). Apuntamentos para un estudo da historia da violencia entre as clases traballadoras da Galicia urbana (1890-1936). Guerra, violencia e conflitividade na historia, (19), 177.
  23. ^ Egea Bruno, P. M. (1986a). El distrito minero de Cartagena en torno a la Primera Guerra Mundial (1909-1923). Ediciones de la Universidad de Murcia. pp. 393-403. ISBN 84-768-4019-5.
  24. ^ Egea Bruno, P. M. (1986b). Movimiento obrero en la sierra de Cartagena (1875-1923). Anales de Historia Contemporánea (Universidad de Murcia) (5): 123-144. ISSN 0212-6559.
  25. ^ Langa Nuño, Concha (2014). La guerra llega a Andalucía. La combatividad de la prensa andaluza. Andalucía en la historia (Sevilla: Centro de Estudios Andaluces) (45): 36-40. ISSN 1695-1956.
  26. ^ Casanova, J. (2007). República y guerra civil (volumen 8 de la colección Historia de España dirigida por Joseph Fontana y Ramón Villares). Madrid, Crítica Marcial Pons.
  27. ^ Ruiz, R. M. (1996). La significación histórica de la huelga de la construcción de Granada (21-29 de julio de 1970). In Futuro del sindicalismo (pp. 15-44). Diputación Provincial de Granada.
  28. ^ Lago Peñas, P. (2010). La construcción del movimiento sindical en sistemas políticos autoritarios: las comisiones obreras de Galicia (1966-1975). Universidade de Santiago de Compostela. Servizo de Publicacións e Intercambio Científico.
  29. ^ Santalla, M.; Bouza Allegue, J. M.; Dobarro, C. (1996). Ferrol: los sucesos de marzo de 1972. Fundación Luís Tilve. ISBN 978-84-921045-1-2
  30. ^ (in Spanish) "Masacre del 3 de marzo en Vitoria-Gasteiz (1976)", Library and Documentation Center of the Artium Museum, Vitoria-Gasteiz.
  31. ^ (in Catalan) Lluís DANÈS: Llach, la revolta permanent, Mediapro / Bainet Zinema, 2006.
  32. ^ (in Spanish) "Lakua homenajea a los trabajadores tiroteados por la Policía Armada en 1976", El Mundo, 3 March 2012.
  33. ^ Víctimas del tres de marzo.
  34. ^ Robert Michael Smith, From Blackjacks To Briefcases — A History of Commercialized Strikebreaking and Unionbusting in the United States, 2003, p. 12.
  35. ^ a b Robert Michael Smith, From Blackjacks To Briefcases — A History of Commercialized Strikebreaking and Unionbusting in the United States, 2003, p. xvi.
  36. ^ The Pinkerton Labor Spy, Morris Friedman, Wilshire Book Company, 1907, pp. 21–22.
  37. ^ Harry Wellington Laidler, Boycotts and the labor struggle economic and legal aspects, John Lane company, 1913, pages 291-292
  38. ^ Anderson, John W. Transitions: From Eastern Europe to Anthracite Community to College Classroom. Bloomington, Ind.: iUniverse, 2005. ISBN 0-595-33732-5
  39. ^ Miller, Randall M. and Pencak, William. Pennsylvania: A History of the Commonwealth. State College, Penn.: Penn State Press, 2003. ISBN 0-271-02214-0
  40. ^ Melvyn Dubofsky, We Shall Be All, A History of the Industrial Workers of the World, University of Illinois Press Abridged, 2000, pages 223-224
  41. ^ a b Robert Michael Smith, From Blackjacks To Briefcases — A History of Commercialized Strikebreaking and Unionbusting in the United States, 2003, p. xvii.
  42. ^ "New Pamphlet of Canadian Labour Martyrs". International Workers of the World Canada. Retrieved 19 April 2016.
  43. ^ The Cambridge History of Latin America, by Leslie Bethell, Cambridge University Press, 1986, page 66
  44. ^ Asociación de Familiares de Detenidos Desaparecidos y Mártires por la Liberación Nacional (Bolivia), Fundación Solón, and Capítulo Boliviano de Derechos Humanos, Democracia y Desarrollo. Informe sobre las desapariciones forzadas en Bolivia. La Paz: ASOFAMD, 2008. p. 20
  45. ^ ILO, 16 June 2000, Special ILO Representative for cooperation with Colombia to be appointed by Director-General[permanent dead link]
  46. ^ International Trade Union Confederation, 11 June 2010, ITUC responds to the press release issued by the Colombian Interior Ministry concerning its survey
  47. ^ Almeida, Paul D. (2008). Waves of Protest: Popular Struggle in El Salvador, 1925-2005. University of Minnesota Press. p. 179. Retrieved 18 May 2016.
  48. ^ Sullivan, Kevin (2 December 2004). "Slaying of U.S. Labor Organizer Opens Old Wounds in El Salvador". Washington Post. Retrieved 18 May 2016.
  49. ^ Ferero, Juan (2 August 2010). "In Venezuela, Rise of Labor Unions Turns Deadly". National Public Radio. Retrieved 15 May 2016.
  50. ^ Naicker, M. P. . Archived from the original on 2016-05-05.
  51. ^ "Kingdom of Cambodia: The killing of trade unionist Chea Vichea". Amnesty International. 2004-12-03. from the original on 15 April 2009. Retrieved 2009-04-14.
  52. ^ . Tehelka. 2007-07-14. Archived from the original on 2008-02-24. Retrieved 2009-04-14.
  53. ^ a b Gindin, S. (2016). Beyond Social Movement Unionism. Jacobin, 22, 95.
  54. ^ "Most Filipinos are pro-American, and so am I — Pia Wurtzbach". GMA News Online. Retrieved 2021-06-21.
  55. ^ Huxley, John (20 May 2006). "Deadly riot: record set straight". Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 17 April 2016.
  56. ^ "Service to mark death of union 'martyr'". Manwatu Standard. 26 March 2014. Retrieved 18 April 2016.
  57. ^ Talia Shadwell (2014-03-27). "Wellington's unsolved Trades Hall mystery". The Dominion Post.
  58. ^ Minchin, William (2005)

anti, union, violence, physical, force, intended, harm, union, officials, union, organizers, union, members, union, sympathizers, their, families, most, commonly, used, either, during, union, organizing, efforts, during, strikes, most, often, prevent, union, f. Anti union violence is physical force intended to harm union officials union organizers union members union sympathizers or their families It is most commonly used either during union organizing efforts or during strikes The aim most often is to prevent a union from forming to destroy an existing union or to reduce the effectiveness of a union or a particular strike action If strikers prevent people or goods to enter or leave a workplace violence may be used to allow people and goods to pass the picket line Strike Stanislaw Lentz 1910Violence against unions may be isolated or may occur as part of a campaign that includes spying intimidation impersonation disinformation and sabotage 1 Violence in labor disputes may be the result of unreasonable polarization or miscalculation It may be willful and provoked or senseless and tragic On some occasions violence in labor disputes may be purposeful and calculated 2 for example the hiring and deployment of goon squads to assault strikers Incidents of violence during periods of labor unrest are sometimes perceived differently by different parties It is sometimes a challenge to ascertain the truth about labor related violence and incidents of violence committed by or in the name of unions or union workers have occurred as well Contents 1 History 2 Causes 2 1 Race 2 2 Political power 3 Types of violence 4 Violence by country 4 1 Europe 4 2 North America 4 3 Central and South America 4 4 Africa 4 5 Asia 4 6 Australasia 5 See also 6 ReferencesHistory editThe practice of workers organizing and meeting resistance for organizing dates to antiquity 3 The first known individual killed by authorities for labor activities is likely Cinto Brandini executed with nine others in 1345 Florence for attempting to organize woolcombers 4 According to a study in 1969 the United States has had the bloodiest and most violent labor history of any industrial nation in the world 5 Mass labor violence in the U S peaked in the early 20th century and has largely subsided since the 1940s But the deadly suppression of labor unions on a large scale persists into the new century in the 2012 Marikana killings in South Africa in the ongoing assassinations of trade union members in Colombia and the South Korean government s response to Korean Confederation of Trade Unions protests 6 Causes editSince unions are organized to achieve collective bargaining power to begin with most union conflicts have been motivated primarily by economic issues wages working hours safety conditions work rules etc 7 and have engaged antagonists employers hired strikebreakers replacement workers local law enforcement with economic goals in mind In some instances however other causes emerge Race edit nbsp French cartoon of the Rand Rebellion in South Africa 1922The 1887 Thibodaux massacre in Louisiana the 1899 Pana riot in southern Illinois and the 1911 Queen amp Crescent killings in Kentucky and Tennessee are three examples of deliberate campaigns of murder against organized black workers in the American south the first committed by landowners the other two by white competitors In South Africa the 1922 Rand Rebellion also had underlying racial causes taking on the slogan Workers of the world unite and fight for a white South Africa 8 before their strike grew to a small scale rebellion at the cost of 200 lives The behavior of South African police in the 1946 African Mine Workers Union strike is said to have led to the formation of the Northern Rhodesian African Mineworkers Union in 1949 as a cornerstone of the anti apartheid movement 9 Political power edit As with race for some incidents there is no clear distinction between anti union violence and political suppression Polish labor unions were centrally involved in workers uprisings and or general strikes that challenged the sitting governments in 1905 1923 and 1937 In a similar way the strike of Asturian miners in 1934 put down by right wing Spanish government forces with great loss of life amounted to an insurrection through work stoppage not an economic labor action Unions continued to play a political and military role in the subsequent Spanish Civil War Along with Franco in Spain other totalitarian regimes in Europe brought their labor unions under government control violently when necessary After coming to power as chancellor in January 1933 Adolf Hitler declared May Day a national holiday then on May 2 1933 unexpectedly moved to outlaw labor unions as part of the Nazi synchronization process Major unions such as the Allgemeiner Deutscher Gewerkschaftsbund were raided that day their accounts seized and their leaders Gustav Schiefer Wilhelm Leuschner Erich Luebbe arrested and sent to concentration camps The bodies of four murdered trade union officials in Duisburg were only found a year later in April 1934 10 Every worker in the nation was then compelled to join the single party controlled union the German Labour Front Similar coercive violence was exercised against labor unions in conquered nations as in the Netherlands in 1941 11 Types of violence editSome anti union violence appears to be random such as an incident during the 1912 textile strike in Lawrence Massachusetts in which a police officer fired into a crowd of strikers killing Anna LoPizzo 12 Anti union violence may be used as a means to intimidate others as in the hanging of union organizer Frank Little from a railroad trestle in Butte Montana A note was pinned to his body which said Others Take Notice First And Last Warning The initial of the last names of seven well known union activists in the Butte area were on the note with the L for Frank Little circled 13 14 Anti union violence may be abrupt and unanticipated Three years after Frank Little was lynched a strike by Butte miners was suppressed with gunfire when deputized mine guards suddenly fired upon unarmed picketers in the Anaconda Road Massacre Seventeen were shot in the back as they tried to flee and one man died 15 Other anti union violence may seem orchestrated as in 1914 when mine guards and the state militia fired into a tent colony of striking miners in Colorado an incident that came to be known as the Ludlow Massacre 16 During that strike the company hired the Baldwin Felts agency which built an armored car so their agents could approach the strikers tent colonies with impunity The strikers called it the Death Special At the Forbes tent colony The Death Special opened fire a protracted spurt that sent some six hundred bullets tearing through the thin tents One of the shots struck miner Luka Vahernik fifty in the head killing him instantly Another striker Marco Zamboni eighteen suffered nine bullet wounds to his legs One tent was later found to have about 150 bullet holes 17 Sometimes there is simultaneous violence on both sides In an auto workers strike organised by Victor Reuther and others in 1937 u nionists assembled rocks steel hinges and other objects to throw at the cops and police organized tear gas attacks and mounted charges 18 There have been cases where violence has been perpetrated or encouraged by agents of management intending it to be blamed on the union 19 Violence by country editEurope edit nbsp Depiction of the 1902 Belgium general strike by Henri MeurnierBelgiumthe Belgian general strike of 1902 was led by the coal miners of Liege lasting 10 to 20 days and killing about 12Russiain the Lena massacre hundreds of striking goldfield workers were killed by tsarist government forces in northeast Siberia near the Lena River on 17 April O S 4 April 1912 The 1962 Novocherkassk MassacreUnited Kingdomon 17 May 1869 a labor action of Welsh colliers forcibly delivering the mine s new operator to the police station developed into The Mold Riot a confrontation between a mob of 1500 workers and citizens versus King s Own Royal Regiment When pelted with stones the King s Own fired into the crowd killing fourSpainRepression an violence against the Spanish labour movement was widespread during various of the 19th and 20th century political regimes Spanish Restoration 1876 1931 On 4 January 1888 in the Plaza de la Constitucion of Minas de Riotinto Province of Huelva Andalusia around 200 people were shot dead by two companies of the Spanish Army when they protested for better wages and the end of the emission of toxic fumes in the mines Protestors were mainly workers of the local mines led by anarchist Maximiliano Tornet The massacre lasted only 15 minutes and the bodies of the dead were probably buried under the slag of some mine in the region 20 On 31 May 1901 the Guardia Civil shot striking workers in the city of A Coruna killing 8 21 22 On 7 March 1916 Guardia Civil and a unit of the Spanish Army opened fire at a crowd of striking workers in La Union killing 7 and injuring 16 23 24 25 Second Spanish Republic 1931 1936 On 5 January 1932 a group of workers organized by the socialist union UGT strike in a shoe factory in the Riojan town of Arnedo Guardia Civil broke the strike and killed 11 workers during a protest part of the strike in the local Plaza de la Republica 26 Spanish Civil War and Early Francoism 1936 1963 A brutal campaign of repression against union members was unleashed during the White Terror known in Spain as Represion franquista A large portion of the 150 000 400 000 deathly victims of the terror were members of the two main unions at the time UGT and CNT Both organizations were almost destroyed by this mass campaign of repression Late Francoism 1963 1975 3 workers were killed by the Armed Police during a construction strike in the city of Granada 27 The 10 of March 1972 2 workers Amador Rey and Daniel Niebla members of the clandestine union CCOO were killed by the Armed Police in the city of Ferrol Another 16 were injured by bullets 160 workers were fired 101 arrested 60 incarcerated and 54 fined with between 50 000 and 250 000 pesetas 10 March is officially commemorated in Galicia as Day of the Galician Working Class 28 29 Spanish Transition 1975 1983 in the Vitoria massacre 5 striking workers were killed by the Armed police 30 31 32 and another two people were killed in the protests against police violence after the incident one in Tarragona and another in Basauri 33 Swedenin the Adalen shootings of May 1931 Swedish military forces opened fire against labour demonstrators in the Swedish sawmill district of Adalen killing five people including a young womanNorth America edit nbsp Rio Blanco strike 1907United StatesMain article Anti union violence in the United StatesSee also List of worker deaths in United States labor disputes Historically violence against unions in the United States has included attacks by detective and guard agencies such as the Pinkertons Baldwin Felts Burns or Thiel detective agencies citizens groups such as the Citizens Alliance company guards police national guard or even the active duty military 34 In the book From Blackjacks To Briefcases Robert Michael Smith states that during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries anti union agencies spawned violence and wreaked havoc on the labor movement 35 According to Morris Friedman detective agencies were themselves for profit companies and a bitter struggle between capital and labor could be counted upon to create satisfaction and immense profit for agencies such as the Pinkerton company 36 Harry Wellington Laidler wrote a book in 1913 detailing how one of the largest union busters in the United States Corporations Auxiliary Company had a sales pitch offering the use of provocation and violence 37 During the Lattimer massacre nineteen unarmed immigrant coal miners were suddenly gunned down at the Lattimer mine near Hazleton Pennsylvania on September 10 1897 38 39 In the Colorado Labor Wars martial law was imposed by the Colorado National Guard in order to put down striking miners A study of industrial violence in 1969 concluded There is no episode in American labor history in which violence was as systematically used by employers as in the Colorado labor war of 1903 and 1904 5 In 1914 mine guards and the state militia fired into a tent colony of striking miners in Colorado an incident that came to be known as the Ludlow Massacre 16 During that strike the company hired the Baldwin Felts agency which built an armored car so their agents could approach the strikers tent colonies with impunity The strikers called it the Death Special In 1917 union organizer Frank Little was hanged from a railroad trestle in Butte Montana with a note pinned to his body which carried a warning to other labor activists 40 14 In 1927 during another coal strike in Colorado state police and mine guards fired pistols rifles and a machine gun into a group of five hundred striking miners and their wives in what came to be called the Columbine Mine Massacre By the early 1900s public tolerance for violence during labor disputes began to decrease Yet violence involving strikebreaking troops and armed guards continued into the 1930s 35 Legislation related to employer strategies such as violent strike breaking would have to wait until after World War II 41 Beginning in the 1950s employers began to embrace new methods of managing workers and unions which were still effective but much more subtle 41 CanadaWith casualties as one indication of its national history a union pamphlet published in 2006 counted a total of 24 Canadian Labour Martyrs since 1903 a number that includes Joseph Mairs of the Vancouver Island War of 1912 1914 coal miner Albert Goodwin killed in 1918 miner Bill Davis of Nova Scotia namesake of the William Davis Miners Memorial Day and the 1929 case of Rosvall and Voutilainen in Thunder Bay Ontario 42 Rosvall and Voutilainen were murdered for their pro union efforts resulting in the authorities in Thunder Bay conducting a major cover up in an attempt to conceal the truth Thunder Bay remains a hot bed of anti union violence against pro union individuals resulting in Thunder Bay being labelled the Capital of Anti union Violence of Canada Mexicothe Cananea strike of organized mine workers in June 1906 and the Rio Blanco strike of unionized textile workers in January 1907 became two linked symbols of the corruption and civil repression of the administration of Mexican president Porfirio Diaz They became household words for hundreds of thousands of Mexicans 43 Central and South America edit Argentinaapproximately 1 500 striking rural workers were shot and killed by the Argentine Army in the Patagonia Uprising between 1920 and 1922Boliviagovernment forces killed at least 19 striking mine workers in the Catavi Massacre of December 1942 the workers themselves counted 400 dead popular protests against the November 1 1979 coup d etat of Alberto Natusch Busch protests led by the Central Obrera Boliviana COB trade union confederation were met with violence from the military Perhaps 100 were killed but the new government was overthrown within two weeks 44 Chilethe Santa Maria School massacre was a massacre of striking nitrate miners with wives and children committed by the Chilean Army in Iquique Chile on December 21 1907 The number of victims has been estimated at 2 000Colombia see main article Trade unions in ColombiaColombia has been identified as one of the most hazardous for present day labor unionists 45 According to the International Trade Union Confederation over 2800 unionists were killed between 1986 and April 2010 46 The Banana massacre 1929 Isidro Gil a leader of the National Union of Food Industry Workers at the Bogota Colombia bottling plant of the Coca Cola company who was shot dead at the plant on December 5 1996 Four other leaders of the union have been killed since 1994 as have other union leaders in Colombia El SalvadorEstimates of the number of labor union members killed in the four first years of the Salvadoran Civil War 1979 1983 range from 3 000 to 8 000 47 The 2004 murder of a visiting Teamsters organizer from New Jersey brought international attention to the country s long record of hostility to union labor 48 VenezuelaAs of 2010 some 75 union organizers and union members had been killed in the prior two years according to figures compiled by the Catholic Church New unions flourishing under the Chavez administration challenged established unions for lucrative memberships One common tactic was public assassination 49 Africa edit South Africathe 1922 Rand Rebellion expanded from a strike into a small scale rebellion at the cost of 200 lives and the events of the 1946 African Mine Workers Union strike indirectly led to the development of the anti apartheid movement 50 The 2012 Marikana MassacreAsia edit CambodiaChea Vichea leader of the Free Trade Union of Workers of the Kingdom of Cambodia FTUWKC was shot in the head and chest while reading a newspaper at a kiosk in Phnom Penh on January 22 2004 51 He had been dismissed by the INSM Garment Factory located in the Chum Chao District of Phnom Penh as a reprisal for helping to establish a trade union at the company IndiaShankar Guha Niyogi a leader of the Mukti Morcha union movement in the Indian state of Chhattisgarh was killed in Bhilai on September 27 1991 52 allegedly by a hired assassin in the middle of a major dispute about the regularisation of workers contracts in the steel and engineering industries The alleged assassin and two industrialists were convicted of his murder but released on appeal their release is itself now subject to appeal PhilippinesLabor unions were heavily repressed during Ferdinand Marcos rule over the former US colony 53 Colonization by the US in turn is a historical factor that has greatly influenced the country s ideological leanings and steered its cultural preferences 54 Sam Gindin wrote that the Philippines remains a dangerous place to be a union organizer 53 Escalante massacre Mendiola massacre Negros killings 2021 Calabarzon raidsAustralasia edit Australiaa striking stevedore was killed by police in the 1919 Fremantle Wharf riot Fremantle Western Australia one striking union worker was killed outright and forty wounded by gunfire when police shot into a crowd in the 1929 Rothbury riot New South Wales described as the bloodiest event in national industrial history 55 New ZealandOnly three people have been killed in New Zealand s industrial history Fred Evans killed in 1912 in the Waihi miners strike Christine Clarke the wife of a picketing worker struck by a car on New Year s Eve 1999 56 and the victim of a suitcase bomb was left in the foyer of the Trades Hall in Wellington 27 March 1984 57 The Trades Hall was the headquarters of a number of trade unions and it is most commonly assumed that they were the target of the bombing although other theories have been put forward Ernie Abbott the building s caretaker was killed when he attempted to move the suitcase which is believed to have contained three sticks of gelignite triggered by a mercury switch 58 To this day the perpetrator has never been identified Those elements of the New Zealand Police responsible for preventing and investigating such crimes were headquartered in the building across the street See also edit nbsp Organized labour portalLabor spies Union busting Union violence Strikebreaker List of worker deaths in United States labor disputes Anti union organizations in the United StatesReferences edit Robert Michael Smith From Blackjacks To Briefcases A History of Commercialized Strikebreaking and Unionbusting in the United States 2003 p 87 Robert Hunter Violence and the labor movement Macmillan 1914 1919 version page 318 John Romer Ancient Lives the story of the Pharaoh s Tombmakers London Phoenix Press 1984 pp 116 123 See also E F Wente A letter of complaint to the Vizier To in Journal of Near Eastern Studies 20 1961 and W F Edgerton The strikes in Ramses III s Twenty ninth year Journal of Near Eastern Studies 10 1951 James C Docherty Sjaak van der Velden 2012 Historical Dictionary of Organized Labor Scarecrow Press p xxv ISBN 9780810879881 Retrieved 18 April 2016 a b Philip Taft and Philip Ross American Labor Violence Its Causes Character and Outcome The History of Violence in America A Report to the National Commission on the Causes and Prevention of Violence ed Hugh Davis Graham and Ted Robert Gurr 1969 Lee Hyun 12 November 2015 South Korea Labor Strikes Back Foreign Policy in Focus Retrieved 18 April 2016 Lalor John Joseph 1890 Cyclopaedia of Political Science Political Economy and of the Political History of the United States Volume 3 C E Merrill amp Company p 816 Retrieved 18 April 2016 South Africa Conflict in the 1920s Flags Maps Economy Geography Climate Natural Resources Current Issues International Agreements Population Social Statistics Political System workmall com Naicker M P The African Miners Strike of 1946 Archived from the original on 2016 05 05 Gregor Neil 2000 Nazism Oxford University Press p 296 ISBN 9780192892812 Retrieved 19 April 2016 Warmbrunn Werner 1963 The Dutch Under German Occupation 1940 1945 Stanford University Press p 136 ISBN 9780804701525 Retrieved 19 April 2016 William Dudley Haywood Autobiography of Big Bill Haywood 1929 page 249 Melvyn Dubofsky We Shall Be All A History of the Industrial Workers of the World University of Illinois Press Abridged 2000 pages 223 224 a b Peter Carlson Roughneck The Life and Times of Big Bill Haywood 1983 pages 17 248 249 Mary Murphy Mining cultures men women and leisure in Butte 1914 41 University of Illinois Press 1997 page 33 a b Zinn H The Ludlow Massacre A People s History of the United States pgs 346 349 Scott Martelle Blood Passion Rutgers University Press 2008 page 98 Nelson Lichtenstein Walter Reuther the most dangerous man in Detroit University of Illinois Press 1997 page 101 Robert Hunter Violence and the labor movement Macmillan 1914 1919 version page 317 Chastagnaret G 2017 Humos y sangre Protestas en la cuenca de las Piritas y masacre en Riotinto 1877 1890 Universidad de Alicante Pereira D Cequiel U B D amp Vazquez B M 2010 Sintese historica do movemento obreiro galego das orixes ate 1984 Fundacion para o Estudo e Divulgacion da Cuestion Social e Sindical en Galiza p 72 Macho A M 2008 Apuntamentos para un estudo da historia da violencia entre as clases traballadoras da Galicia urbana 1890 1936 Guerra violencia e conflitividade na historia 19 177 Egea Bruno P M 1986a El distrito minero de Cartagena en torno a la Primera Guerra Mundial 1909 1923 Ediciones de la Universidad de Murcia pp 393 403 ISBN 84 768 4019 5 Egea Bruno P M 1986b Movimiento obrero en la sierra de Cartagena 1875 1923 Anales de Historia Contemporanea Universidad de Murcia 5 123 144 ISSN 0212 6559 Langa Nuno Concha 2014 La guerra llega a Andalucia La combatividad de la prensa andaluza Andalucia en la historia Sevilla Centro de Estudios Andaluces 45 36 40 ISSN 1695 1956 Casanova J 2007 Republica y guerra civil volumen 8 de la coleccion Historia de Espana dirigida por Joseph Fontana y Ramon Villares Madrid Critica Marcial Pons Ruiz R M 1996 La significacion historica de la huelga de la construccion de Granada 21 29 de julio de 1970 In Futuro del sindicalismo pp 15 44 Diputacion Provincial de Granada Lago Penas P 2010 La construccion del movimiento sindical en sistemas politicos autoritarios las comisiones obreras de Galicia 1966 1975 Universidade de Santiago de Compostela Servizo de Publicacions e Intercambio Cientifico Santalla M Bouza Allegue J M Dobarro C 1996 Ferrol los sucesos de marzo de 1972 Fundacion Luis Tilve ISBN 978 84 921045 1 2 in Spanish Masacre del 3 de marzo en Vitoria Gasteiz 1976 Library and Documentation Center of the Artium Museum Vitoria Gasteiz in Catalan Lluis DANES Llach la revolta permanent Mediapro Bainet Zinema 2006 in Spanish Lakua homenajea a los trabajadores tiroteados por la Policia Armada en 1976 El Mundo 3 March 2012 Victimas del tres de marzo Robert Michael Smith From Blackjacks To Briefcases A History of Commercialized Strikebreaking and Unionbusting in the United States 2003 p 12 a b Robert Michael Smith From Blackjacks To Briefcases A History of Commercialized Strikebreaking and Unionbusting in the United States 2003 p xvi The Pinkerton Labor Spy Morris Friedman Wilshire Book Company 1907 pp 21 22 Harry Wellington Laidler Boycotts and the labor struggle economic and legal aspects John Lane company 1913 pages 291 292 Anderson John W Transitions From Eastern Europe to Anthracite Community to College Classroom Bloomington Ind iUniverse 2005 ISBN 0 595 33732 5 Miller Randall M and Pencak William Pennsylvania A History of the Commonwealth State College Penn Penn State Press 2003 ISBN 0 271 02214 0 Melvyn Dubofsky We Shall Be All A History of the Industrial Workers of the World University of Illinois Press Abridged 2000 pages 223 224 a b Robert Michael Smith From Blackjacks To Briefcases A History of Commercialized Strikebreaking and Unionbusting in the United States 2003 p xvii New Pamphlet of Canadian Labour Martyrs International Workers of the World Canada Retrieved 19 April 2016 The Cambridge History of Latin America by Leslie Bethell Cambridge University Press 1986 page 66 Asociacion de Familiares de Detenidos Desaparecidos y Martires por la Liberacion Nacional Bolivia Fundacion Solon and Capitulo Boliviano de Derechos Humanos Democracia y Desarrollo Informe sobre las desapariciones forzadas en Bolivia La Paz ASOFAMD 2008 p 20 ILO 16 June 2000 Special ILO Representative for cooperation with Colombia to be appointed by Director General permanent dead link International Trade Union Confederation 11 June 2010 ITUC responds to the press release issued by the Colombian Interior Ministry concerning its survey Almeida Paul D 2008 Waves of Protest Popular Struggle in El Salvador 1925 2005 University of Minnesota Press p 179 Retrieved 18 May 2016 Sullivan Kevin 2 December 2004 Slaying of U S Labor Organizer Opens Old Wounds in El Salvador Washington Post Retrieved 18 May 2016 Ferero Juan 2 August 2010 In Venezuela Rise of Labor Unions Turns Deadly National Public Radio Retrieved 15 May 2016 Naicker M P The African Miners Strike of 1946 Archived from the original on 2016 05 05 Kingdom of Cambodia The killing of trade unionist Chea Vichea Amnesty International 2004 12 03 Archived from the original on 15 April 2009 Retrieved 2009 04 14 Now a Hero Then a Hero Tehelka 2007 07 14 Archived from the original on 2008 02 24 Retrieved 2009 04 14 a b Gindin S 2016 Beyond Social Movement Unionism Jacobin 22 95 Most Filipinos are pro American and so am I Pia Wurtzbach GMA News Online Retrieved 2021 06 21 Huxley John 20 May 2006 Deadly riot record set straight Sydney Morning Herald Retrieved 17 April 2016 Service to mark death of union martyr Manwatu Standard 26 March 2014 Retrieved 18 April 2016 Talia Shadwell 2014 03 27 Wellington s unsolved Trades Hall mystery The Dominion Post Minchin William 2005 Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Anti union violence amp oldid 1177530234, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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