On this day in labor history, the year was 1934.
That was the day National Guard troops in Minneapolis raided Teamsters local 574 headquarters.
Over 150 were arrested, including top strike leaders Bill Brown and the Dunne Brothers, who were imprisoned in military stockades.
Troops also seized union records and files.
Then they raided the Central Labor Union, seizing records and forcing out dozens of area labor leaders.
Teamsters had been battling the trucking bosses and the Citizens Alliance throughout the spring and summer in what would be a turning point for industrial organizing.
Finally, drivers agreed to a tentative settlement on the 25th, but the bosses rejected any deal, refusing to negotiate with ‘Reds.’
Farmer-Labor Party Governor Floyd Olson declared martial law the next day.
4,000 troops arrived, issuing unlimited military permits to scab drivers.
By month’s end, over 7,500 scab trucks were rolling throughout the city!
Local 574 challenged the martial law: they demanded that peaceful picketing and open-air meetings be reinstated; they wanted troops withdrawn from the city; and they wanted all truck movement halted for 48 hours.
When Olson rejected these demands, a mass rally was called for the 31st to mobilize strike support.
25,000 turned out to the Parade Grounds, cheering strike leader Bill Brown, who declared, “the Farmer-Labor Party is the best strikebreaking force our union has ever gone up against!”
Historian Bryan Palmer notes the loudest and longest applause was reserved for Albert Goldman, who thundered, “If we submit without a struggle, then we deserve the fate of submissive slaves. We cannot, we dare not, submit. We call upon the workers, organized and unorganized, to clench their fists, shout defiance of the bosses, and struggle until victory or death.”
December 23 - The High Cost of Low Wages
December 21 - Red Scare Deportations Begin
December 20 - THE UNION IS DISSOLVED!!!
December 19 - Solidarity Gets the Goods!
December 18 - No More Beer
December 17 - Unraveling Anti-Japanese Hysteria
December 16 - No Justice, No Bagels!
December 15 - Troops Put Down the Mother’s March
December 14 - Another Hard Fought Victory
December 13 - The Beginning of the End of Apartheid
December 12 - We Disaffiliate!
December 11 - Right to Work is a Lie!
December 10 - August Spies is Born
December 9 - The Cordiner Doctrine
December 8 - The American Federation of Labor is Founded
December 7 - Strong Arming Goldminers
December 6 - Breaking Through the Racial Divide
December 5 - Striking in Solidarity
December 4 - Organizing to End Slavery
December 3 - Learning & Labor at Oberlin
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