Class War, USA

Brandon Weber (1963-2020) wrote for The Progressive, Upworthy, Big Think, and many other online publications, where wrote extensively on labor history and current events. He also was a union activist for more than 30 years.

Table of Contents





Foreword





Introduction











Joe Hill









Labor’s Best-Known Songwriter Refused to be Buried in the State of Utah











Lowell, Massachusetts









America’s Very First Union of Working Women











The Atlanta Washerwomen’s Strike









African American Women with the Power to Call a General Strike—in 1881











Pullman









Former Slaves Were Hired to Staff Pullman Box Cars Because They “Knew How to Be Servile” So They Formed a Union











Chicago









The Haymarket Massacre of 1886 and the Pullman Strike of 1894: Chicago Was the Center of Both Struggles, and Things Got White-Hot











Eugene Debs









The Carnegies and Rockefellers Tried to Silence Debs with Jail Time. That Didn’t Stop Him











Colorado’s Mining Frontier









Cripple Creek, 1894, and Ludlow, 1913: Two Very Different Battles, and Both Were Shocking











Triangle Shirtwaist Fire









One Hundred Twenty-Three Young Women Who Went to Work One Day in a New York Factory Never Came Home. It Changed Our Country Forever











Christmas Eve, 1913









Fifty-Nine Children Died on Christmas Eve, 1913, and It Broke Hearts Around the World











Christmas Truce









These Soldiers Were Thought to Be Enemies, but They Played Soccer and Celebrated Christmas Eve,1914, Together











The Battle of Blair Mountain









It Ended When Federal Troops Were Called Against Thirteen Thousand Miners It Was “Civil War in the Hills”











Tulsa, Oklahoma









Ever Heard of “Black Wall Street”? There’s a Reason You Might Not Have











Bonus Army









The Great Depression Left WWI Vets with the Short End of the Stick, They Weren’t Going to Sit Back and Take It











The Minneapolis General Strike of 1934









It Began with Truck Drivers Who Wanted a Union. They Became Teamsters











Sitting Down, Striking Flint









These Images Might Look Like Some Lazy Workers, Up to No Good But They’re Actually Heroes











The Battle of the Overpass









A PR Disaster for Ford Motor Company that Kick-Started the UAW











“Rosie the Riveter”









Remember the “Rosie the Riveter” Image Pretty Much Everybody Knows? (Ahem)











United Farmworkers









That Time When 14 Million Americans Stopped Eating Grapes, Because Farmworkers Asked Them To











The Stonewall Rebellion









A Civil Rights Battle for the Times











Wildcat









In 1970, Postal Workers Suddenly Walked off the Job. The Nation, the Union, and Even President Nixon Were Caught by Surprise











Attica









What Actually Happened at Attica in 1971 Is Still Largely Kept Hidden—but Clues and Facts Are Coming Out Even Now











The Watsonville, California, Cannery Strike









This Is What Solidarity Looks Like











UPS









Those Packages Won’t Move Themselves: Big Brown Versus the IBT











The Fight for $15









The Long Game, and Why It’s Part of Labor’s Future











Woody Guthrie









Why Several Verses of “This Land Is Your Land” Are Usually Left Off When It’s Taught in School





Index