The Pressed Steel Car Strike of 1909 was an American labor dispute which ran from July to September in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The strike was triggered on July 10th, a payday on which many workers were shorted by the Pressed Steel Car Company.
The strike began on July 13th, and grew to include more than 8,000 workers, 3,000 of whom were also from the Standard Steel Car Company. By the next day, 500 cops began working to protect strikebreakers and evict strikers from company houses. The New York Times called the immigrant workforce "savages" and "illiterate foreigners".
Management refused to speak with the workers' representatives and James Rider, manager of the Pressed Steel Car Company, responded to their strike by hiring Pearl Bergoff, a notorious owner of a strike-breaking paramilitary force.
The workers were joined by members of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), including founders William Trautmann and "Big Bill" Haywood, as well as "Smiling Joe" Ettor.
The walkout drew national attention when, on this day in 1909, a bloody battle took place between strikers, private security agents, and the Pennsylvania State Police. The violence began after strikers boarded a trolley to search for scabs and they were confronted by an armed deputy, who opened fire. In the fighting that followed, between 12 and 26 people were killed.
The strike was settled on September 8th when Pressed Steel Car agreed to a wage increase, the posting of wage rates, and ended abuses in company housing practices. This labor dispute would be a precursor to the Great Steel Strike of 1919.
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CW: poly drama.
spoiler
I am having a pregnancy scare with a short term partner. I am not sure how to handle this in the best case scenario and this all is less than ideal. We have been talking and she was into poly for fun, and now that it is for real she is not as into the poly idea. So, I didn't do enough homework on several levels. I am thinking about the future and it is difficult with just how wildly few people in my life I am able to talk to about such a major situation. Not to be a communist about stuff but I think monogamy was invented to enforce the patriarchy and it is upheld to reinforce white supremacy. I know we poly people are supposed to say that if you are monogamous it's fine for you. However it isn't. That is just residual liberalism in the blood. The same way sharing the means of production is good, sharing the resources of your life and loving eachother is good. I get that I am super weird for feeling this way, but the math is clear.
please do
I dunno. My brain is vibrating in all ten dimensions at the moment so I don't know. Do you feel my analysis of the nuclear family is off base?
Are you sure monogamy enforces patriarchy? I feel like men having multiple wives (which I believe was the norm before widespread monogamy) is much more patriarchal. A single man gets the attention of multiple women but the women have to share
I think monogamy is a religious/Christian thing that spread due to European colonization
Yes, on an equal playing field women have more discretionary power. It is only through patriarchy and men pushing women that freedom is used against them. Pretty much every upstanding revolutionary org has held the same position