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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This came out too easily and got long and I dont wanna do badposting in the mega
"Unwashednocturnalbird you are logging on what do you do?"
"I BadPost"
"Roll your shitpost skill target 3"
"2 successes and a critical fail."
"ok that is a bad post."
"Doomereconomist there is a post with a slightly optimistic view what do you do"
"I use my recent economics articles to deboonk"
"roll your economics skill target 4"
"3 successes"
"Communismwillwin how do you respond to to the Deboonk?"
"Use my copy of Das Kapital to highlight the ideological flaws in economics articles with materialist analysis"
"Ok roll your ML Theory Skill target is 6"
"is that 6 before or after the -2 for my complete works of Marx"
"before so target 4"
"3 Successes and a critical fail"
"Communismwillwin begins formulating a materialsit analysis of Doomereconomist's economics articles but when she switches tabs to get a quote from her copy of Das Kapital she accidentally clicks on Unwashednocturnalbird's Badpost. It has spawned a wild Struggle Session. Both of you roll a save vs Bait target 4 to not get drawn in"
"Well so much for my deboonk I got 1 success and 2 critical fails"
"Communismwillwin?"
"with my -2 from collected works of Marx I got 8 successes"
"Woah... that is impressive. You switch to the correct tab and get the quote and finish your analysis. You admit that perhaps your outlook its a bit on the hopeful side but that optimism is a necessity or depression will kill us all. You then switch to the bad post and diffuse the entire struggle session with a single quote."