On this day in 1898, the Battle of Virden began when armed members of the United Mine Workers of America (UMW) surrounded a train full of strikebreakers and exchanged fire with company guards. 13 people were killed, dozens more wounded.
After a local chapter of the UMW began striking at a mine in Virden, Illinois, the Chicago-Virden Coal Company hired black strikebreakers from Birmingham, Alabama and shipped them to Virden by train.
The company hired armed detectives or security guards to accompany the strikebreakers, and an armed conflict broke out when armed miners surrounded the train as it arrived in town. A total of four detectives and seven striking mine workers were killed, with five guards, thirty miners, and an unrecorded number of strikebreakers wounded.
After this incident, Illinois Governor John Tanner ordered the National Guard to prevent any more strikebreakers from coming into the state by force. The next month, the Chicago-Virden Coal Company relented and allowed the unionization of its workers.
"When the last call comes for me to take my final rest, will the miners see that I get a resting place in the same clay that shelters the miners who gave up their lives on the hills of Virden, Illinois...They are responsible for Illinois being the best organized labor state in America."
Mother Jones
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Lol, I love how this style of posting is just the Ukrainian version or kids really mad their english teacher made them read a book.
How dare you make me contemplate the depths of the human condition and how someone can redeem themselves no matter the act
Lol.
The most profound and important wisdom is often "basic ass shit wrapped in whiny overwordy sentences". The strongest part of a building is it's broad, flat foundation, not the ornate carvings on it's roof.
The hardest line in all of fiction:
Guess it would be in ukrainian translation
(or why people who can read it natively talk shit about in in english)