Which Side are you on?

One of the saddest things about modern day America is how little people know and are taught about the American labor movement. The long and proud tradition of American labor gave us so many blessings that we take for granted. Things like weekends, 8-hour workdays, safety regulations, minimum wage and so much more all came from the brave actions of striking workers and muckraking activists from long ago. I thought that to celebrate Labor Day, we should take a look at some key moments from the rich history of American organized labor.

Coal mining in West Virginia was a very big industry, but the wages were tiny, the work was dangerous, and housing was scant. Many workers were living in special company towns that were owned and operated by the mine owners, they were paid in special company currency called “scrip” that couldn’t be used anywhere else. Unionizing was hard as the companies would often crack down violently on union activity.

This culminated in late August 1921, when miners in Logan County, West Virginia who were affiliated with the United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) union marched towards the coal companies in nearby Mingo County. Hoping to secure better working conditions. They were armed and over ten thousand strong. Local police and deputized citizens clashed brutally with the miners around nearby Blair Mountain in what was the largest uprising since the American Civil War.

Dozens of miners were killed, and ultimately the miners were unsuccessful in their goal of improving their situation. Eventually, the federal government sent troops in to stop the miners. Many of the miners were veterans of the First World War, and they didn’t feel comfortable taking up arms against the government. Their enemy was the greedy mine companies.

Even though the miners did not end up achieving their goals, the impact of the battle was far from nothing. Much of the West Virginian public were sympathetic to the mine workers and the lessons learned from the battle led greater unionization down the line.

Similar events would happen in Harlan County in nearby Kentucky. Just like in West Virginia, more and more miners wanted to join unions, and just like in West Virginia, doing so often led to them losing their livelihoods and their homes. On May 5th, 1931, hired thugs were harassing union members outside Evarts, Kentucky. A shot was fired and before long, 4 people had lost their lives.

The next day, soldiers were called in, and they broke up the strikes. Throughout the next decade, sporadic violence continued in Harlan between union workers and local lawmen. New deal legislation that was passed a few years later protected the right of workers to unionize, but that didn’t stem the violence. The popular left wing anthem “Which Side Are You On?” was written by the wife of a labor organizer in response to the violence. It puzzles me why poorer folks in Appalachia use the Confederate battle flag as a symbol of pride when they have a proud history of workers standing up for what’s right. Appalachians have a lot to be proud of.

Stepping away from Appalachia for a bit to the beautiful mountains of Colorado. Just like West Virginia and Kentucky, Colorado was known for coal mines. But unlike the mines back east that were mostly run by smaller local companies, these mines were run by big companies such as the Colorado Fuel and Iron Company which was owned by the rich Rockefeller family. This time, along with deputized civilians, the mine companies had the state militia to break up strikes.

Despite efforts from the United Mine Workers union and from well known activists such as Mother Jones, the mines remained not unionized. Strikes continued and workers and their families had been evicted from company housing as a result. Evicted miners in Ludlow, Colorado had set up a tent town for them in their families. Then, on April 20th, 1914, Colorado National Guard troops opened fire on the town. They burned it to the ground. Around 21 people died, including workers, guardsmen, women, children and union leaders. After further retaliatory violence, the UMW eventually pulled out.

Conditions for the miners were horrendous, like with the Appalachians, they were paid in company scrip, bought company goods, and lived on company land. They were essentially serfs in all but name. Hundreds of miners died on the job in accidents.

Then the Industrial Workers of the World, also known as the Wobblies, picked up where the UMW left off. The wobblies were organizing a strike to protest the imminent execution of two Italian anarchists in Massachusetts named Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti. Thousands of workers joined them including over 10,000 miners from Colorado.

Representatives from the various Colorado mines meant with the wobblies to come up with demands for the bosses, among these was a daily wage of $7.50 which would be around $131 today. Around 8,400 miners were walking out from around 113 mines across the state. Only 13 scab mines were still in operation. One of these was the Columbine mine, located north of Denver in the company town of Serene, Colorado.

The mine was owned by a woman named Josephine Roche. She had been a supporter of the unions and had ordered the strikers at the Columbine mine to be served coffee and donuts. On November 21, 1927, five hundred miners along with their families walked to the gates to the town. They were carrying no weapons, only 3 US flags. They were met by several heavily armed Colorado Rangers who informed them that they would not be allowed into the town. The Rangers asked who their leader was, to which the miners informed them that they were all leaders.

Ultimately they sent miner Adam Bell, along with a flag bearer to request access to the town where their children were currently attending school. Mr. Bell was hit in the face with a baton and a guard tried to take the flag from the flag-bearer. Tear gas was fired with one volley of it hitting a woman directly in the back. Mr., Bell got up and shouted “Let’s go!” and lead an assault on the gates. He was surrounded and beaten unconscious. A woman named Elizabeth Beranek, who was one of the flag-bearers attempted to protect him with her flag. The police beat Mrs. Beranek severely.

Hundreds of strikers engaged in combat with the rangers and successfully got over the gate, the rangers had retreated into the town. A man named Jerry Davis picked up one of the flags and led miners into the town. Then the rangers opened fire on the miners with their machine guns. Ultimately, 6 miners, including Jerry Davis, would perish. The flag Mr. Davis was carrying was shot seventeen times. Violence continued for a few months after the massacre, including the murders of two wobblies on January 12th, 1928. But they didn’t die in vain, among other wins for the strikers, wages were increased statewide, in southern Colorado, miners began receiving one dollar a day for their labor, norther miners received 50 cents.

So why am I telling you this? Well, I feel that the history of labor in America is very underappreciated. These brave men and women struggled and died for things we take for granted like weekends, time off, breaks, good wages, and so much more. We live in a time when we can work and live. Our lives don’t need to center on our jobs, we don’t live in company towns or get paid with company cash. But we take these things for granted.

A mere 10 percent of workers in the US, as of 2022, are currently unionized according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Only 10 percent. Workers of the past were able to achieve this progress because they were united. They marched and bled in solidarity for the workers of their time and for their children. I, for one, am grateful for the rights I have as a US worker because of their sacrifice. I hope, in this time of increasingly lax child labor laws, Amazon’s questionable policies, and other affronts on American labor, we can once again come together and demand our rights. Join a union if you can, because united we will stand and divided we will fall.

Thanks so much for reading this! I highly recommend you research more about the history of US labor. There’s so much more to the story than just the few events that I wanted to share today. Hope everyone has a great Labor Day!

Hood, Abby Lee. “What Made the Battle of Blair Mountain the Largest Labor Uprising in American History.” Smithsonian.com, 25 Aug. 2021, www.smithsonianmag.com/history/battle-blair-mountain-largest-labor-uprising-american-history-180978520/.

YouTube, The Great War, 13 Aug. 2021, https://youtu.be/ZcEWndZlAe4. Accessed 23 July 2023.

“Remembering Bloody Harlan.” Parallel Narratives, 7 July 2023, parallelnarratives.com/remembering-bloody-harlan/.

Muffin, Patrick. “Blood on the Coal-Colorado Strike of 1927.” Blood on the Coal-Colorado Strike of 1927, 18 Sept. 2013, patrickmurfin.blogspot.com/2013/10/blood-on-coalcolorado-strike-of-1927.html.

United States, Department of Labor. Union Members Summary – 2022.