*Labor’s Untold Story- Reclaiming Our Labor History-The "Molly Mcguires" And The 19th Century Irish -American Struggle For Trade Unions

Click On Title To Link To A Wikipedia Entry For The Molly Maguires. Note, as always, with these entries on this site there can be problems with facts and political perspective.

Every Month Is Labor History Month.

This commentary is part of a series under the following general title: Labor’s Untold Story- Reclaiming Our Labor History In Order To Fight Another Day-And Win!

As a first run through, and in some cases until I can get enough other sources in order to make a decent presentation, I will start with short entries on each topic that I will eventually go into greater detail about. Or, better yet, take my suggested topic and run with it yourself.

On The Molly Maguires- A Word -And A Song

The tale of the famous “Molly Maguires” of the Pennsylvania coal field in the period immediately after the American Civil War is another in the seemingly endless stories of the Irish Diaspora triggered by the ruthless policy of the bloody English imperialists, who come what may, refused to part with their colony until forced to by the Irish national liberation fighters of the early 20^th century. One can read the Molly Maguire story as one of the first attempts in the post-Civil War period to organize an industry-wide labor union in the coal industry, including its oaths and secrecy. One can also read it as a story of labor confronted by the consolidation of capitalism in the extractive industries linked up to the carrying trade of the railroads and financed by stockholders here and in Britain. Finally one can read the story as a police procedural, highlighting the role of the infamous Pinkerton Detective Agency and its founder Alan Pinkerton in bringing some of the alleged leaders of the Mollies to trial and execution on behalf of the railroad and coal bosses. That is the route the author of the book under review has taken.

While some of the story as presented is tiresome, repetitive and overly written it nevertheless has a few points that can help us understand the history of that turbulent period in the foundation of the ‘robber baron’ period of American history.  One point is a rather good description, using the Reading Railroad and its president as a case study, of how the railroads, backed by finance capital, the banks, consolidated the coal industry by breaking the individual operators, buying coal land on the cheap and by manipulating supply and demand which ultimately broke the local miners union of which the Mollies were a small part. Another point is how the mainly English capitalists of the area aggravated the already existing antagonisms between ethnic groups to their benefit in a classic example of their ‘divide and rule’ policy. Finally, the story points outs out the key role that privately-employed detective agencies, private police and ultimately state and federal troops played in bringing about the early defeats in the American labor movement (and continue to do so today). As stated above it you want the tale of the police roundup of some none too savory elements in the Mollies read this book. If you want to get a better picture of what the Mollies meant as part of the Irish Diaspora in America and as part of the hard-pressed and poorly organized early American labor movement look elsewhere.       

 

*Songs To While Away The Class Struggle By-The Dubliners' "The Molly Maguires"

Click on the title to link a YouTube film clip of the Dubliners performing The Molly Maguires.

In this series, presented under the headline Songs To While Away The Class Struggle By, I will post some songs that I think will help us get through the “dog days” of the struggle for our communist future. I do not vouch for the political thrust of the songs; for the most part they are done by pacifists, social democrats, hell, even just plain old ordinary democrats. And, occasionally, a communist, although hard communist musicians have historically been scarce on the ground. Thus, here we have a regular "popular front" on the music scene. While this would not be acceptable for our political prospects, it will suffice for our purposes here. Markin.
******
THE DUBLINERS THE MOLLY MAGUIRES LYRICS

Make way for the Molly Maguires
They're drinkers, they're liars, but they're men
Make way for the Molly Maguires
You'll never see the likes of them again

Down the mines no sunlight shines
Those pits they're black as hell
In mud and slime they do their time
It's Paddy's prison cell
And they'll curse the day they travelled far
And drowned their tears with a jar

(Chorus)

Backs will break and muscles ache
Down there there's no time to dream
Of fields and farms, of women's arms
Just dig that bloody seam
But they'll break their bodies underground
Who'll dare to push them around

*Films to While Away The Class Struggle By-"The Molly Maguires"

Click On Title To Link To A Wikipedia Entry For The Molly Maguires. Note, as always, with these entries on this site there can be problems with facts and political perspective.

Recently I have begun to post entries under the headline- “Songs To While Away The Class Struggle By”-that will include progressive and labor-oriented songs that might be of general interest to the radical public. I have decided to do the same for some films that may perk that same interest under the title in this entry’s headline. In the future I expect to do the same for books under a similar heading.-Markin


DVD Review

The Molly Maguires, Sean Connery, Richard Harris, directed by Martin Ritt, 1978

In a post in this space In The Time of The "Robber Barons" And The Early American Union Movement- The Molly Maguires, dated February 21, 2007, reviewing a book about these early labor militants, The Molly Maguires, Wayne Broehl, Jr., Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Ma, 1964, I hit the high points that I want to make about the Molly Maguires here and that are reinforced by this commercial film effort starring Sean Connery as a leader of the Irish coalminers in the Pennsylvania coal fields of the 1870’s, the age of the American “robber baron” capitalists, their “Gilded Age”. This film is also directed by 1950s “blacklisted’ director Martin Ritt (director of the Woody Allen film on the blacklist, The Front) so he has a feel for telling labor’s story (and providing some very naturalistic cinematography, as well). I will make additional points about the film below the repost:

“The tale of the famous “Molly Maguires” of the Pennsylvania coal fields in the period immediately after the American Civil War is another in the seemingly endless stories of the Irish diaspora triggered by the ruthless policy of the bloody English imperialists, who come what may, refused to part with their colony until forced to by the Irish national liberation fighters of the early 20th century. One can read the Molly Maguire story as one of the first attempts in the post-Civil War period to organize an industry-wide labor union in the coal industry, including its sectionalism, political immaturity and oath-bound secrecy. One can also read it as a story of atomized labor confronted by the consolidation of capitalism in the extractive industries linked up to the carrying trade of the railroads and financed by stockholders here in America and in Britain. Finally one can read the story as a police procedural, highlighting the role of the infamous Pinkerton Detective Agency and its founder Alan Pinkerton in bringing some of the alleged leaders of the “Mollies” to trial and execution on behalf of the railroad and coal bosses. That is the route the author of the book under review has taken…”

“Another point to make is how the mainly English capitalists of the area aggravated the already existing antagonisms between ethnic groups like the Irish, Welsh and Germans (and later the various Slavic groups) to their benefit in a classic example of capitalist “divide and rule” policy. Finally, the story points out the key role that privately-employed detective agencies, private police and ultimately state and federal troops played in bringing about the early defeats in the American labor movement (and continue to do so today as about one billion dollars a year is spent on keeping unions out or keeping them docile in the United States, one need only think of Wal-Mart)…..”

Sean Connery as a no-nonsense, level-headed, driven, militant labor leader of the benighted Irish Pennsylvania coalminers works here. (Of course, he also “worked” as British super-spy James Bond, but we will let that pass.) Jack (Connery’s role) tasks are not easy ones as he has to keep the younger hotheads in line, deal with the “peelers” (police), deal with planning some kind of strategy that will get labor out from under the thumb of the greedy, very greedy, coal and rail bosses who will stop at noting to break the union efforts. But most of all, and what forms the dramatic tension of the film, Jack has to deal with one James McFarland (played by Richard Harris), a willing, no, a more than willing, labor “fink” who is sent in by the bosses to round up the local labor leaders, and in the end settle scores in the only way that the “robber barons” really liked- execute the leaders. (Remember also “robber baron” Jim Fisk’s old saying-“I will hire one half of the working class to kill the other half.”). Well, in the end they got old Jack, but you know he fought them tooth and nail. We could use a few more Jacks and a few less labor skates these days as we fight the one-sided and uphill class struggle.

*In The Time of The "Robber Barons" And The Early American Union Movement- The Molly Maguires

Click on the title to link to a "YouTube" film clip of Pete Seeger performing the classic coal country song "Which Side Are You On?"

BOOK REVIEW

THE MOLLY MAGUIRES, WAYNE BROEHL, JR., HARVARD UNIVERSITY PRESS, CAMBRIDGE, MA. 1964

The tale of the famous “Molly Maguires” of the Pennsylvania coal fields in the period immediately after the American Civil War is another in the seemingly endless stories of the Irish diaspora triggered by the ruthless policy of the bloody English imperialists, who come what may, refused to part with their colony until forced to by the Irish national liberation fighters of the early 20th century. One can read the Molly Maguire story as one of the first attempts in the post-Civil War period to organize an industry-wide labor union in the coal industry, including its sectionalism, political immaturity and oath-bound secrecy. One can also read it as a story of atomized labor confronted by the consolidation of capitalism in the extractive industries linked up to the carrying trade of the railroads and financed by stockholders here in America and in Britain. Finally one can read the story as a police procedural, highlighting the role of the infamous Pinkerton Detective Agency and its founder Alan Pinkerton in bringing some of the alleged leaders of the Mollies to trial and execution on behalf of the railroad and coal bosses. That is the route the author of the book under review has taken.

While some of the story as presented here by this author is tiresome, repetitive and overly written it nevertheless has a few points that can help us understand the history of that turbulent period in the foundation of the "robber baron" capitalist period of American history. One point is a rather good description, using the Reading Railroad and its president as a case study, of how the railroads, backed by finance capital-the banks, consolidated the coal industry by breaking the individual operators, buying coal land on the cheap and by manipulating supply and demand which ultimately broke the local miners union of which the Mollies were a small part.

Another point is how the mainly English capitalists of the area aggravated the already existing antagonisms between ethnic groups, like the Irish, Welsh and Germans (and later the various Slavic groups) to their benefit in a classic example of capitalist ‘divide and rule’ policy. Finally, the story points out the key role that privately-employed detective agencies, private police and ultimately state and federal troops played in bringing about the early defeats in the American labor movement (and continue to do so today as about one billion dollars a year is spent on keeping unions out or keeping them docile in the United States, one need only think of Wal-Mart). As stated above it you want the tale of the police roundup of some none too savory elements in the Mollies read this book. If you want to get a better picture of what the Mollies meant as part of the Irish diaspora in America and as part of the hard-pressed and poorly organized early American labor movement look elsewhere. I will review other books on this subject and these times later.