From The Labor History Archives -In The
80th Anniversary Year Of The Great San Francisco, Minneapolis And
Toledo General Strikes- A Lesson In The History Of Class Struggle
COMMUNISTS AND THE GENERAL STRIKE
By Leon Trotsky
The signal for a review of the
international tasks of Communism was given by the March 1921 events in Germany.
You will recall what happened. There were calls for a general strike, there
were sacrifices by the workers, there was a cruel massacre of the Communist Party,
internally there were disagreements on the part of some, and utter treachery
on the part of others. But the Comintern said firmly: In Germany the March
policy of the Communist Party was a mistake. Why? Because the German Party
reckoned that it was directly confronted with the task of conquering power. It
turned out that the task confronting the party was that of conquering not
power, but the working class. What nurtured the psychology of the German
Communist Party in 1921 that drove it into the March action? It was nurtured by
the circumstances and the moods which crystallised in Europe after the war.
In 1919 the German working class
engaged in a number of cruel and bloody battles, the same thing happened in
1920, and during the January and March days of 1920 the German working class
became convinced that heroism alone, that readiness to venture and to die, was
not enough; that somehow the working class was lacking something. It began to
take a more watchful and expectant attitude towards events and facts. It had
banked in its time upon the old Social Democracy to secure the socialist
overturn.
The Social Democracy dragged the
proletariat into the war. When the thunders of the November 1918 revolution
rolled, the old Social Democracy begins to talk the language of social
revolution and even proclaimed, as you recall, the German republic to be a
socialist republic. The proletariat took this seriously, and kept pressing forward.
Colliding with the bourgeois gangs it suffered crushing defeats once, twice and
a third time. Naturally this does not mean that its hatred of the bourgeosie or
its readiness to struggle had lessened, but its brains had meanwhile acquired
many new convolutions of caution and watchfulness. For new battles it already
wants to have guarantees of victory.
And this mood began to grow
increasingly stronger among the European working class in 1920-22 after the
experiences of the initial assault, after the initial semi-victories and minor
conquests and the subsequent major defeats. At that moment, in the days when
the European working class began after the war to understand clearly, or at
least to sense that the business of conquering state power is a very
complicated business and that bare hands cannot cope with the bourgeoisie—at
that moment the most dynamic section of the working class formed itself into
the Communist Party.
But this Communist Party still felt
as if it were a shell shot out of a cannon. It appeared on the scene and it
seemed to it that it needed only shout its battle-cry, dash forward and the
working class would rush out to follow. It turned out otherwise. It turned out
that the working class had, upon suffering a series of disillusions concerning
its primitive revolutionary illusions, assumed a watch-and-wait attitude by the
time the Communist Party took shape in 1920 (and especially in 1921) and rushed
forward. The working class was not accustomed to this party, it had not seen
the party in action. Since the working class had been deceived more than once in
the past, it has every reason to demand that the party win its confidence, or,
to put it differently, the party must still discharge its obligation of
demonstrating to the working class that it should follow and is justified in
following the party into the fires of battle, when the party issues the
summons. During the March days of 1921 in Germany we saw a Communist
Party—devoted, revolutionary, ready for struggle—rushing forward, but not
followed by the working class. Perhaps one-quarter or one-fifth of the German
working class did follow. Because of its revolutionary impatience this most
revolutionary section came into collision with the other four-fifths; and
already tried, so to speak, mechanically and here and there by force to draw
them into the struggle, which is of course completely out of the question.
In general, comrades, the
International is a wonderful institution. And the training one party gives to
another is likewise irreplaceable. But generally speaking, one must say that
each working class tends to repeat all the mistakes at the expense of its own
back and bones. The International can be of assistance only in the sense of
seeing to it that this back receives the minimum number of scars, but in the
nature of things scars are unavoidable.
We saw this almost the other day in
France. In the port of Havre there occurred a strike of 15,000 workers. This
strike of local importance attracted the nation-wide attention of the working
class by its stubbornness, firmness and discipline. It led to rather large contributions
for the benefit of the strikers through our party's central organ, L 'Humanite:
there were agitational tours, and so on. The French government through its
police-chief brought the strike to a bloody clash in which three workers were killed.
(It is quite possible that this happened through some assistance by anarchist
elements inside the French working class who time and again involuntarily abet
reaction.) These killings were of course bound to produce great repercussions
among the French working class.
You will recall that the March 1921
events in Germany also started when in Central Germany the chief of police, a
Social Democrat, sent military-police gangs to crush the strikers. This fact
was at the bottom of our German party's call for a general strike. In France we
observe an analogous course of events: a stubborn strike, which catches the
interest of the entire working class, followed by bloody clashes. Three
strikers are killed. The murders occurred, say, on Friday and by Saturday there
already convened a conference of the so-called unitarian unions, i.e., the
revolutionary trade unions, which maintain close relations with the Communist
Party; and at this conference it is decided to call the working class to a
general strike on the next day. But no general strike came out of it. In
Germany during the (so-called) general strike in March there participated
one-quarter, one-fifth or one-sixth of the working class. In France even a
smaller fraction of the French proletariat participated in the general strike.
If one follows the French press to see how this whole affair was carried out,
then, comrades, one has to scratch one's head ten times in recognising how
young and inexperienced are the Communist parties of Western Europe. The Comintern
had accused the French Communists of passivity. This was correct. And the
German Communist Party, too, had been accused prior to March of passivity.
Demanded of the party was activity,
initiative, aggressive agitation, intervention into the day-to-day struggles
of the working class. But the party attempted in March to recoup its
yesterday's passivity by the heroic action of a general strike, almost an
uprising. On a lesser scale, this was repeated the other day in France. In
order to emerge from passivity they proclaimed a general strike for a working
class which was just beginning to emerge from passivity under the conditions of
an incipient revival and improvement in the conjuncture. How did they motivate
this? They motivated it by this, that the news of the murder of the three
workers had produced a shocking impression on the party's Central Committee and
on the Confederation of Labour. How could it have failed to produce such an
impression? Of course, it was shocking! And so the slogan of the general strike
was raised. If the Communist Party were so strong as to need only issue a call
for a general strike then everything would be fine. But a general strike is a
component and a dynamic part of the proletarian revolution itself.
Out of the general strike there
arise clashes with the troops and the question is posed of who is master in the
country. Who controls the army—the bourgeoisie or the proletariat? It is
possible to speak of a protest general strike, but this is a question of utmost
importance. When a dispatch comes over the wires that three workers have been
killed at Havre and when it is known that there is no revolution in France
but, instead, a stagnant situation, that the working class is just beginning to
stir slightly out of a condition of passivity engendered by events during the
war and post-war period—in such a situation to launch the slogan for a general
strike is to commit the geatest and crudest blunder which can only undermine
for a long time, for many months to come, the confidence of the working masses
in a party which behaves in such a manner.
True enough, the direct
responsibility in this case was not borne by the party; the slogan was issued
by the so-called unitarian, that is, revolutionary trade unions. But in reality
what should the party and the trade unions have done? They should have
mobilised every party and trade union worker who was qualified and sent them
out to read this news from one end of the country to the other. The first thing
was to tell the story as it should have been told. We have a daily paper,
L'ffumanite, our central organ. It has a circulation of approximately 200,000—a
rather large circulation, but France has a population of not less than 40
million. In the provinces there is virtually no circulation of the daily
newspaper, consequently, the task was to inform the workers, to tell them the
story agitationally, and to touch them to the quick with this story. The
-second thing needed was to turn to the Socialist Party, the party of Longuet
and Renaudel with a few questions—no occasion could have been more
propitious—and say: "In Havre three worker strikers have been killed; we
take it for granted that this cannot be permitted to go unpunished. We are
prepared to employ the most resolute measures. We ask, what do you
propose?"
The very posing of these questions
would have attracted a great attention. It was necessary to turn to Jouhaux's
reformist trade unions which are much closer to the strikers. Jouhaux feigned
sympathy for this strike and gave it material aid. It was necessary to put to
him the following question: "You of the reformist trade unions, what do
you propose? We, the Communist Party, propose to hold tomorrow not a general
strike but a conference of the Communist Party, of the unitarian revolutionary
trade unions and of the reformist trade unions in order to discuss how this
aggression of capitalism ought to be answered."
It was necessary to swing the
working masses into motion. Perhaps a general strike might have come into it. I
do not know; maybe a protest strike, maybe not. In any case it was far too
little simply to announce, to cry out that my indignation had been aroused,
when I learned over the wires that three workers had been killed. It was
instead necessary to touch to the quick the hearts of the working masses. After
such an activity the whole working class might not perhaps have gone out on a
demonstrative strike but we could, of course, have reached a very considerable
section. However, instead there was a mistake, let me repeat, on a smaller
scale than the March events. It was a mistake on a two by four scale. With this
difference that in France there were no assaults, no sweeping actions, no new
bloody clashes, but simply a failure; the general strike was a fiasco and by
this token—a minus on the Communist Party's card, not a plus but a minus.
(From the Report on the Fifth
Anniversary of the October Revolution and the Fourth World Congress of the
Communist International. Moscow, October 20th 1922)
At the Minneapolis City Market
‘The Battle of Deputy Run’
From the inception of the organization work in connection with the General Drivers strike, it was correctly estimated that our strategic position was the so-called central market place. This takes in an area of approximately six square blocks. It is bounded on the one whole side by the railroad tracks, which are the team tracks where practically all of the market produce is unloaded.
In concentrating on the market, we were guided by the fact that the food situation, especially at this time of the year, was the real point to attack. At the start of the strike this strategy was not so apparent. But on the second and third days, it became plainly visible that the perishable food supply was running low and that the market bosses were going to attempt some drastic action to move their perishable foods.Through our connections in the market houses it was learned that on Saturday morning there was to be a concerted effort to make deliveries. The strike committee held a conference and it was decided that we would relieve some of our forces from positions where there was not so much activity and hold them in reserve. It developed that although we had a little skirmish on that day, a serious threat was not made for any wholesale delivery.
The market situation was watched closely and, after waiting for Sunday and Monday to pass, we learned through unquestionable sources, that the big offensive was to be made Tuesday about eleven o’clock. This information was received about midnight Monday. Immediate action became compulsory. ‘Concentrate the Pickets’, was the slogan. ‘Cruising squads’ of pickets were dispatched, motorcycle riders roared out, street car motormen and conductors on the owl cars carried the word to our pickets at outlying points, telephones and other messengers were utilized for the mobilization of every available picket.
Soon the outlying positions were deserted except for a skeleton picket line. The pickets came pouring in to strike headquarters, thousands of the tired but eager fighters, anxious to defend their rights with their lives if necessary. Tons of food had been prepared and was waiting for these fighters; but it seemed that it was hardly touched, so anxious were these workers for the job to be done.
No raised voices; no milling; quietly questioning each other: ‘Where do we go? When do we start?’ The word goes from the dispatcher to the microphone announcer in the big strike headquarters: ‘Start moving!’ Then trucks lined up. Noiselessly they were pushed into place. Next order: ‘Fill the trucks!’ Like one man these eager fighters filled the trucks to capacity.
In code the drivers only were given the destination. ‘Move out!’ Motors roared and in an instant three hundred pickets were on their way to a destination, unknown then, that was to make new history for the American workers.
Adjacent to the market and on one of the border streets, Labor Headquarters is located. Into this hall holding about two thousand men our pickets were concentrated. A skeleton patrol was sent to patrol the market streets and to report any move to start delivery. Word quickly comes back: hundreds of special deputies, special police and harness bulls armed with clubs and guns, squad cars of police with sawn-off shot guns and vomiting gas. Quietly the pickets patrolled the streets, curiosity seekers hurling curses at the hired strikebreakers. A truck starts to move, our pickets jump to the running boards and demand that the scab driver stop. A hired slugger raises his club and slashes at a picket. Down the picket drops as if dead. The fight is on. Phone rings at the concentration hall: ‘Send the reserves!’ Orderly, but almost as if by magic, the hall is emptied. The pickets are deployed by their leaders to surround the police and sluggers. The police raise their riot guns but the workers ignore and rush through them. ‘Chase out the hired sluggers’, is their battle cry. The cowardly sluggers take to their heels and run. The police and strikers use their clubs freely. Many casualties on both sides. The workers have captured the market!
A Striker
A Lesson in ‘Law and Order’
Minneapolis, 28 May – The magnificent struggles of the truck drivers, particularly the battle in the market Tuesday morning, 22 May, the ‘Battle of Deputies Run’, will be permanently engraved in the minds of the Minneapolis working class.
This fight in which the strikers routed over 1500 police and special deputies is full of meaning for the future. Coming as it did after a week of lesser fights, it shows the capacity of the workers, once aroused, for determined struggle. It reveals their resourcefulness, courage and intelligence.Step by step in this l0-day strike the workers learnt that ‘law and order’, ‘constitutional rights’, ‘liberty and justice’, ‘right to organize’ were hollow phrases used by the bosses to keep them in ignorance and subjection. No sooner did they learn than they swiftly translated these lessons into militant action, not individual action but organized action. The whole record of the strike is a record of the transformation of workers to whom the idea of unionism was new, into resolute experienced fighters, who have successfully fought their class enemy, the bosses, and know the value of organization and militant leadership.
In the first days of the strike a holiday spirit prevailed. There were no serious clashes with police nor any determined effort on the part of the bosses to move trucks. The sentiment of the men was for peaceful picketing and Law and Order. Many had illusions about the impartiality of the cops and the press.
But on Friday the bosses began their offensive. Cops began to arrest pickets by the dozens. A few trucks under heavy police guard pierced the picket lines. The yellow press began to denounce the strikers, who were trying to get decent living conditions for themselves and their families, as lawless elements. Abuse was heaped upon them by all the agencies of the Citizens Alliance. The workers began to realize the seriousness of the struggle and settled down in real earnestness to the task confronting them.
Meanwhile the police chief, at the behest of the bosses, began to round up the ex-crooks, murderers, and all the scum of the city, including gentlemen from the social register, and made them special deputies, to preserve ‘Law and Order’.
The first real fight occurred Saturday morning in the market, when 500 pickets battled with their bare fists, trying to prevent 600 cops and deputies armed with clubs and blackjacks from moving two trucks. The cops succeeded in getting the trucks through, but only after bitter fighting in which the unarmed strikers gave a good account of themselves, sending many cops to the hospital.
Sunday was comparatively quiet. The men were thinking hard and learning fast.
Early Monday morning hundreds of pickets assembled at the market armed with clubs, rubber hose, and other improvised weapons. They were no longer a mass of strikers, they were soldiers obeying orders from their captains. Police attempted to disperse the pickets and the fight was on. The strikers rushed the cops, who went down like nine-pins. After considerable fighting the cops drew their guns and threatened to fire. The workers showed their defiance. But the cops had had enough and asked the pickets to drop their clubs, saying that they would drop theirs. The strikers were not fooled by this and stood their ground. No trucks moved that day.
At dawn Tuesday, hundreds of cops and special deputies began to pour into the market until there were over a thousand. They were concentrated at strategic points. Later the strikers began to arrive by truckfuls. Thousands of sympathetic onlookers lined the streets. The strikers moved with military precision, maneuvering skillfully for vantage points. Their plan was to catch the cops from the rear and divide their forces. Many reserves were stationed in the Central Labor Headquarters nearby.
As the morning wore on, there were numerous skirmishes that heralded the battle to come. Just about noon the fight started, when a deputized female attempted to club a woman picket. The plucky woman seized a club from a picket at her side and stretched her flat. With a roar that was heard for blocks, the strikers swept away the specials and cops. The specials made no effort to stem the tide but turned and fled, tossing away their clubs and badges as they ran. Many were cornered in stalls and blind alleys and laid out three deep. Clubs swung everywhere as the fighting pickets surged irresistibly through the rows of stalls smashing down all opposition. Several truckloads of deputies attempting to escape were surrounded and transferred to the mounting casualty list. In desperation the regular cops drove their cars into the ranks of the strikers in a vain effort to stop them. Ambulances worked overtime taking away the specials.
Within half an hour the strikers had complete control of the market. The cops and deputies were completely licked. More than 50 special cops were injured, two of whom died subsequently. A few pickets were hurt. No further efforts were made to move the trucks. The bosses agreed to recognize the union.
William Kitt
Women Active on firing line
When the General Drivers’ Union made a strong appeal to the wives of their members to aid in every way possible, they met with a response they had not dreamed of. Women came to Strike Headquarters, ready and willing to do any kind of work assigned them. Girls trained in office work took over the routine work. Others gave their heart and soul to the feeding of hungry droves of men.
Women pickets took up the cause on the line of battle. Three of our women were seriously injured in riots with police. One’s life was despaired of for several days. Another was taken to the hospital with a very seriously fractured ankle. She is at present confined to her bed, and will be there for some time to come.Still another was so badly beaten in the Tribune riot that all old operation lesion opened up, and there is danger of internal hemorrhages. Still another was beaten across the arm with a billy. She is still carrying her arm in a sling.
Another interesting angle to this situation was brought out when sympathizers began to offer their services. One young woman, a graduate of the University who had specialized in sociology came down to offer her services. She felt that the power of the women had not even been felt in this class struggle. A young couple, friends of the other girl, offered their services. Using these three as an advisory council, the officers of the auxiliary started to raise money.
A committee, composed of Mrs. Grant Dunne as president of the auxiliary and Mrs. Farrell Dobbs, as secretary, these three friends, and two other women not connected with the union, met at four o’clock one afternoon. The next night at midnight the auxiliary had in its Commissary Relief Fund, $416.70. The necessity of feeding the families of the men on strike until they would again be able to draw wages was brought home to us very forcibly during the last few days.
The newspapers of Minneapolis, being the instrument of the Citizen’s Alliance, were muzzled to such an extent that no news in favor of the strikers was ever published. To attempt to counteract this state of affairs, the women organized a mass demonstration. We marched from the Auditorium on Grant and 14th Streets straight down Nicollet Avenue. Led first by four women carrying our banner, followed by about 500 women, many of them sympathizers, we broke every traffic rule in Minneapolis. Crowds gathered along the sidewalk and followed the procession to the court house.
We marched straight to the mayor’s office. A committee entered to present our demands upon the mayor or his emissary – Mr. Guise. The gentlemen were not in. in fact Mayor Bainbridge was in his usual position – home in bed ill. Mr. Guise would be in by 2 p.m. It was then about 12:30. The committee decided to wait.
The women, quiet and orderly during the whole proceedings, suddenly were infuriated by something. Inquiry disclosed that the chief of police had thought it smart to parade a batch of his special deputies down the same corridor the women were waiting in. Only quick thinking on the part of the committee saved those deputies from being very badly hurt.
The mayor’s secretary arrived in surprisingly short time. The committee waited upon him. They got just what they expected – nothing. The demands were the immediate removal of Chief Johannes, the removal of all special deputies, and no further interference with pickets. The committee then left. The crowd was addressed by Frieda Charles, and dispersed in an orderly fashion.
In closing let me emphasize again. Let your women work in this class struggle. Their place is right along side of the men, shoulder to the wheel, fighting for their birthright. The Women’s Auxiliary of General Drivers’ Union No.574 has set an example which we hope will be followed by the working class women throughout the nation.
Auxiliary Member
Role of the League in Strike
Minneapolis – Serious and militant workers confronted with the necessity of advancing their demands for a better standard of living, have the problems of organization, program and leadership before them from the very first. In the Minneapolis drivers’ strike thousands of workers came to the union for very definite reasons. First: the union is a mass organization. Second: it had to its credit the achievement of the Coal Yard Workers’ strike. Third: its leadership had been tested.
The Communist League has always followed the policy in the trade unions of working with all progressive forces to be found in the organizations. Its trade union policy has been proved in action. Today there stands, confronting the bosses, a mighty union which organized the picket line that fought off and routed the police and the armed bands of the Citizens Alliance.The entire labor movement has been aroused. Every union in the city has been strengthened. The recruiting of workers into the organizations is going forward all along the line. The forces of reaction have been dealt a powerful blow. Tens of thousands of workers stand up today, proud to have been a part of the smashing drive.
The Minneapolis Branch of the Communist League bears considerable responsibility for this achievement. It is well known that its members have been active in the trade unions for a long period of years. It has not pressed forward for place or prestige alone. The League members have at all times acted in accord with the real interests of the union. The program adopted has been submitted to the rank and file from time to time. Proposals, suggestions, criticisms have been welcomed. The League has given its best to the union and to the strike. It is willing to accept its part of the blame for any mistakes that may have been made. We think they were very few. Such errors can and will be made good.
Just as the League accepts responsibility for mistakes that it may make, it insists upon a calm and careful appraisal of its work in the union and the strike. In short we ask the workers to judge us for the work done and for policies and programs proposed.
The real work of Communist militants in the trade unions consists in putting forward correct proposals, fighting for their acceptance; then, by diligent and patient effort, rallying the advanced workers to carry these proposals into action.
That the League membership played an active part in the strike is shown not only by the fact that our comrades were in leading positions in the strike committee. It is also shown in the part played on the picket line where every man and woman available from our ranks was placed. In the work of organizing for the strike our comrades took a leading part. This alone was the work of months. At the headquarters, both before and during the strike, our members found their places in the kitchen, in the office, in the picket line, at various tasks too numerous to mention.
That the unions and other workers’ organizations came forward with material and moral support was due, in no small measure, to the efforts of our comrades. Handicapped by the stigma attached to Communism by the false and reactionary policy of the ‘Official’ Communist Party (the Stalinists), we have relied upon the judgment of the thinking militants in the trade unions to learn to know and to support a true Communist trade union policy. The Communist League has never asked that the advanced workers in the unions accept our political opinions in order that we may find a place in the work of the movement. We have never demanded any special privilege. We have taken our places there in order to render whatever services we had the ability to render.
A new period has opened up in the class struggle in America. The workers’ organizations must be prepared for new and greater tasks. The capitalists are more ruthless and stubborn than ever. They are better organized and financed, they have centralized their already powerful chambers of commerce. The unions must also find better forms of organization, change completely the old outlook, and put forward a new and militant leadership. This is becoming more and more apparent to the workers.
The League long ago recognized this truth, and with its numerically small forces, has moved deliberately but confidently toward the great task of reconstruction. This work, necessary for the very life of the workers’ movement, is not the easy and simple task that many workers imagine it to be. It requires the devotion and sacrifice of all workers who see and understand that fighting unions are the need of the hour.
The Minneapolis Branch of the Communist League asks those workers who believe as we do, or who have the desire to learn more about our views, to join the League. To become part of the International Communist movement. To help in the vast work of building a new revolutionary party in America. A Communist Party worthy of the name, a party of workers that will be also a section of the Fourth International.
Striker
The Story of Minneapolis
Today I want to talk about the famous Minneapolis strikes of 1934.
The drivers and all the workers employed in the truck transportation industry at that time enjoyed miserable conditions which existed throughout the history of Minneapolis prior to 1934. When the economic crash came the misery was intensified.In the produce market area it was common practice for drivers and helpers to start work at 2 or 3 a.m. and continue work until 6 p.m. They were low paid and sometimes had to work seven days without any extra pay. If complaints were made they were fired.
The workers in trucking, and most other industries, were not unionized before 1934 and had to accept whatever conditions employers imposed. Many strikes were called between 1922 and 1934, and all suffered defeat. Minneapolis was known all over the country as the worst scab town.
In the early 1920s the bosses started the open-shop drive. They formed the Citizen’s Alliance whose only aim was to keep Minneapolis non-union. The bosses were successful in carrying out this program up to 1934. In fact, they were confident that no one could ever lead a drive to unionize the city.
V.R. Dunne, Miles Dunne, Grant Dunne, Harry DeBoer, George Frosig (who was vice-president of Local 574), and myself worked in the same coal yard. We held meetings in the early part of 1933 to discuss and plan a program for organizing the coal industry. If that test case was successful we would proceed with the rest of the trucking industry.
We all recognized that the trucking industry was the most powerful and also the most difficult in dealing with strikebreakers because scabs have to operate on the street. We had great strength in numbers and understood the task of organizing. We therefore picked the coal industry as the starting point. This industry was strategic because of Minnesota’s sub-zero winters.
We were convinced the employer would never recognize the union without a bloody battle. Consequently we made all possible preparations and were extra careful to proceed legally – appearing before the Central Labor Union, the executive board of the drivers union, and the Teamsters’ Joint Council. The response from these bodies was to throw a wet blanket over our proposal.
Some made statements like, ‘The drivers know where we are, why don’t they come and join us?’ This attitude was discouraging but we still went on with our plans, confident of victory if we prepared properly.
Workers’ committees from various companies drew up a contract of demands. And when we presented this contract to the employers, they, as we had expected, refused to meet with us. We then called an open meeting of all workers to present the results of our efforts. When the leaders of the AFL found out about this meeting and the possibility of a strike – a rumor had been spreading throughout the industry – they ganged up on us in mass, preventing us from taking any action. About 500 to 600 coal drivers present at this meeting tore up their union books and littered the union headquarters with the pieces.
The only action taken was a motion to hold a special meeting Sunday at 2 p.m., predicated on the fact that no business agent then would come out on Sunday and interfere with us. This proved to be strategically correct. Between Friday and Sunday all our forces were in motion to bring out all the coal workers to this meeting. The meeting was packed and a motion passed to strike on Monday morning at 5 am and to set up a strike committee.
Success
After a three-day strike we were victorious. No one could get a pound of coal without a doctor’s prescription. The success of this strike caused a sensation among the drivers and workers.
A mass meeting was organized in a big theatre for the purpose of inaugurating a real campaign to unionize other trucking industries. The meeting was well advertised and a capacity crowd filled the place. Organizational preparations were carried out for about two months. The famous committee of one hundred was made up of representatives from all sections who became involved in the strike. This committee had full authority to decide on all questions. Contracts of demands were presented to the employers. There was one answer received – a flat no.We appealed to the Teamsters’ International Union for a strike sanction and strike benefits. We received the command to continue negotiations. Knowing that the International would never endorse a strike, we still – for the sake of the ranks – sent another appeal explaining the employer’s attitude in refusing to meet with the union committee. The answer again was: proceed to negotiate.
This procedure caused a delay of action For at least a month. But it was well worth the time in order to prepare the workers for the coming strike. It became plain that a big battle was unavoidable. The issue would be recognition of the union. The outcome of this battle could not be predicted.
All the preparations for the strike began to be made. Regular charts were made up of the main highways and streets for picketing. Instructions for the picketing captains were drawn up. Registration of all available vehicles for service on the picket line, installation of a loud-speaking system in the strike headquarters everything was done according to plan.
Early one morning in May 1934 the strike started. The workers responded practically 100 per cent. The employers were caught by surprise at the response of the workers. The methods used by them were nothing new – the use of police and deputizing of every reactionary man equipping them with weapons to beat and arrest the pickets. During the first days dozens of strikers had been arrested and beaten up in a most brutal manner. Sixteen women had been beaten unconscious after being lured into an alley where an attempt was being made to deliver newspapers.
We organized rehearsals, padded our caps with cardboard and proceeded to hit one another on the top of the head. If it hurt the first time some more padding was applied until the blows became painless.
The daily newspapers carried screaming articles warning the public not to appear in the market area on such and such a day as violence was prevalent and some innocent bystander might get hurt.
Two days after the women were beaten up an attempt was made to open the market with scabs. The morning when this happened all radio stations had their speaking equipment on the roof of buildings to broadcast the intended movement of trucks. Instead they had to broadcast the Battle of Deputy Run.
The story of Deputy Run is known all over the country, in fact all over the world. It meant that 1500 deputies and 500 uniformed police, under the pressure of the strikers’ superior force, had to run for their lives. One deputy, a prominent open-shop employer, fell dead on the battlefield. Another died a few days later. Many others went hospitals.
Governor Floyd B Olsen then intervened, demanding a 48-hour truce, and during this time no trucks were to move. Both sides accepted this truce proposal. During these 48 hours we were in continual negotiations; union representatives in one room and employers in another, and the governor as a go-between.
After many hours of negotiations, a contract with recognition of the union and a small increase in wages was presented. The big question at issue at that time was our right to represent truck drivers, helpers, and inside workers working for each employer. This issue was scuttled, and finally a paragraph, very ambiguous in wording, was accepted with the guarantee of the governor that it meant the right of the union to deal for all the mentioned classifications. On this basis the strike ended after ii days.
The whole working class in the city was jubilant over the great victory. But in the first meeting called to negotiate a definite contract, the employers refused to recognize our union as the bargaining agent for the inside workers. The strike was again set in motion.
Now the employers really set to work. They placed full-page ads in all the city dailies. A vicious red-baiting campaign was carried out by the newspapers, picturing the leaders as ‘Trotskyist-Communists’ intending to make a revolution in Minneapolis instead of building the union. It became necessary to meet all these slanders by issuing a daily paper to present the position of the union.
Shotguns
The strike hit with solid ranks. All transportation stopped and the city again looked like a Sunday. This time the employers proceeded to arm the police with rifles and sawn-off shotguns loaded with slugs. Many dummy deliveries were made under very heavy police protection, such as medical supplies to a hospital or groceries to an old peoples’ home. The aim was to get the pickets involved in trying to stop them and use this as an excuse for shooting the pickets. But deliveries could be made to these institutions without interference.
The strike went on for weeks without much action. One morning a report came in that an attempted delivery was planned in the wholesale grocery area and that the police, with shotguns, were there to protect the drivers. Pickets were dispatched and when they attempted to stop the delivery the police opened fire and shot down 52 pickets, killing two. This day has become known as Bloody Friday. At the funeral of Henry Ness, one of the pickets killed on Bloody Friday, an estimated 50 000 people marched four abreast and tied up all city traffic for hours.Two government mediators were attempting to settle the dispute on any terms. They finally gave us a proposal providing for recognition on the ‘inside workers’. The union accepted but the employers turned down this agreement. The governor then declared martial law.
Early one morning the military surrounded the strike headquarters with machine guns and took it over. Bill Brown, Ray Dunne, Miles Dunne were thrown into a stockade. Attempts were made during that day to call in second-ranked leaders and settle the strike. They refused to meet until the headquarters and the leaders were released.
Finally, after eight weeks of hardship and suffering a settlement was agreed on which provided for all the important issues that the union had been battling for.
In brief, these are some of the highlights of events during the strikes of 1934.
Carl Skoglund
The Office of the ANC Chief Whip welcomes the resolution of the National Assembly at its sitting last night calling for the immediate release and freedom of the remaining members of the Cuban Five. The Cuban Five are five Cuban men who were accused by the United States government of committing espionage and conspiracy against the United States of America, and as such were imprisoned since 12 September 1998. Two of the five men, René González and Fernando González, have since been released, in 2011 and 2014 respectively.
