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Twin Town High (vol. 8) |
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Introduction
Wednesday 21 July @ 19:03:41 |
 by Ed Felien
The photo on the cover is not of the action that resulted in the death of two strikers. The photo was taken during the Battle of Deputies’ Run, the action that happened just before the murders. In the winter of 1934, young radicals from what was to become the Socialist Workers Party, the Trotskyist wing of the international communist movement, organized coal drivers to strike during one of the coldest winters in Minnesota history.
 The coal drivers got union recognition, and the organizers went on to organize produce drivers that worked the farmer’s market. Picket lines were tense as the strike went on into summer. The strikers got word that the Citizen’s Alliance and the Minneapolis police were going to attack the picket line. They came armed with baseball bats.
Sure enough, the Citizen’s Alliance, the police and some thugs that the police let out of jail showed up with clubs and started fighting with some of the pickets. Soon the full strength of the strikers’ reserve came out and easily drove them back. They chased them through downtown.
Two temporary deputies, a small factory owner and a goon released from jail were beaten so severely that they died from their injuries. Just a few days later, Iron Mike Johannes, the Chief of Police, sent a truck up to the picket line. It turned around. The back curtain of the truck lifted revealing a machine gun and armed police. They opened fire on unarmed men and killed two strikers. There was a funeral for one of the fallen men, Harry Ness, in which thousands participated.
At this point Governor Floyd B. Olson intervened. He called out the National Guard to maintain the picket lines (thereby protecting the gains won by the organizers) and forced both sides to sit down and negotiate a union contract. There was understandable tension between the governor and the organizers. At one point one of them yelled at Olson, “Wait ‘til the Revolution.” Olson shot back, “When the Revolution comes I’ll be a general and you won’t even be a private.”
Well, the Revolution didn’t come, though Minneapolis became a union town. The eight-hour day became the standard. Workers were paid extra for overtime. It was recognized that workers had a right to bargain collectively for decent pay and working conditions.
We have forgotten that struggle. We have forgotten that history. In 1950, at the height of union membership, 38 percent of workers in the private sector belonged to unions. Today only nine percent belong.
John Lennon said it best, “And we think we’re so clever and classless and free, but we’re all fucking peasants as far as I can see.”
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