The Time I Was Busted by an Alabama State Trooper——in Maryland?
For George Corley Wallace, his 1972 Presidential campaign swing through Maryland was one seriously bad trip. He was met by riots in Hagerstown and Frederick, by loud counter demonstrations at Wheaton Plaza and Capital Plaza near DC and was seriously wounded by gunfire in Laurel. And me? I managed to get myself arrested by an Alabama state trooper ——in Maryland no less.
Although mostly forgotten now, Wallace was the Halley’s Comet of the neo-confederate universe in the 1960’s, trailing a constellation of stars and bars behind him. As governor of Alabama he stood in front of the schoolhouse door at the University of Alabama in 1962 in an unsuccessful attempt to prevent its desegregation by black students.
At his 1963 gubernatorial inauguration he vowed,”Segregation Now. Segregation Tomorrow! Segregation Forever!” When segregation was outlawed by the 1964 Civil Rights Act, he changed his rhetoric to the racial coded language that has inspired generations of Republican politicians from Richard Nixon to Newt Gingrich. Read more
Occupy Transit! Transit Workers and the Occupy Movement Team Up
Calling mass transit “a genuine civil rights issue,” the Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU), which represents transit workers across the nation, joined with the Occupy Movement, community organizations and transit riders to demand a revitalization of our transit systems. Citing such problems as “older vehicles, deferred maintenance and longer wait times for overcrowded buses and trains,” the ATU was also critical of service cuts and higher fares which have hit working class riders the hardest.
ATU national president Larry Hanley was inspired to ally ATU with the Occupy Movement when he learned of a proposal from Occupy Boston for a national day of protest around transit issues. Occupy Boston had issued this statement:
“In Boston and in cities around the country, our hard-won and necessary transportation systems are under attack. Their viability is being threatened by savage cuts and fare hikes in a calculated push toward privatization by corrupt and unresponsive politicians and their corporate benefactors.”
On April 4, the ATU led demonstrations in 15 American cities to draw attention to today’s transit crisis.
The ATU wants our mass transit systems to better serve the needs of poor people so that they can get to jobs and enter the mainstream of society. April 4 was the anniversary of Dr. King’s assassination and ATU leaders made a point of calling public transit “a human right” and quoting from Dr King’s speeches. Dr. King began his career as a civil rights leader by leading the Montgomery Bus Boycott which sought public transit equality for all people.
In Newark ATU leader Ray Greaves warned that $100 million in planned budget cuts will affect commuters who don’t use public transit because the cuts will put more cars on the road resulting in worse traffic jams as “gas prices are going through the roof.”
Here in Chicago between 75-100 ATU activists, Occupy Chicago members and transit riders gathered in front of the Chicago Transit Authority headquarters for a scheduled 6pm rally. As the CTA Green Line rumbled overhead every few minutes, ATU members passed out orange “Occupy Transit” T-shirts and signs supporting public transit.
ATU International Vice-president Javier Perez(photo below) congratulated CTA workers for the excellent job they did in the 2011 blizzard, something even the Chicago Tribune acknowledged. But as Perez pointed out, the Tribune failed to mention that these were unionized employees. It seems that when unionized employees respond courageously and competently in emergencies, their union status is forgotten.
Perez went on to criticize the U.S. Congress for its ‘kick the can down the road” attitude toward transit funding. As an example he raised the issue of CTA maintenance employees who are forced to work in rat infested garages. At that point CTA workers raised a chorus of cheers. Perez made it clear that the ATU is tired of politicians and corporate leaders blaming public employees for city budget crises and he strongly stated his opposition to selling off public assets.
The issue of selling off public assets is a critical issue for Chicago public transit. Recently Mayor Rahm Emanuel announced a massive 7 billion dollar package of infrastructure initiatives that had been largely cobbled together from previous proposals. What alarmed some longtime City Hall observers was Emanuel’s emphasis on “public-private” partnerships which they see as merely a back door method of privatization. Chicagoans are still reeling from the public-private leasing of the city’s parking meters which raised drastically parking rates while enriching Chicago Parking Meters LLC for the next 75 years. The Emanuel proposal includes private-public deals for transit infrastructure upgrades.
Members of Citizens Taking Action, a CTA riders organization, expressed their opposition to such deals in a leaflet passed out at the Occupy Transit rally. Charles Paddock, secretary of the group was quoted as saying:
”Public transit is a central municipal service, and we don’t put money into a fare box to make some guy rich. I foresee three things happening: loss of control by the city, increased or added fares and diminished service. You might want to add corruption on a scale never seen before. And once it’s done, there’s no going back. Sometimes these deals are for contracts lasting 99 years.”
A CTA rider makes her views clear
Jan Rodolfo of National Nurses United spoke passionately about how public transit connects us all, how it gets us to our jobs and school, how extended families are often spread across a distance and rely on public transit to come together. It also helps build communities and allows for different communities to connect.
“Public transportation is no less important than the veins and arteries that bring blood and oxygen to our bodies. And to say that we are going to cut off a neighborhood or a community is like cutting off circulation to a limb and that is totally unacceptable.”
Jan Rolofo of National Nurses United
Karen Louis, President of the Chicago Teachers Union echoed Rolofo’s concern about schools and education while pointing out that the thousands of transit workers have children in the Chicago Public Schools and that teachers and transit workers will always stand together.
Missing from the April 4 ATU message about public transit was how our dependence upon the automobile is an environmental disaster. Automobile pollution is deadly. A 2008 study done in Southern California showed that car pollution killed more people than car crashes. Public transit takes cars off of the road which makes a huge public health difference. This could improve even more as we move toward sustainable energy generation. Indeed, sustainable public transit is crucial for limiting the dangers of climate change as well.
Hopefully ATU members will raise their voices at the upcoming April 22 Earth Day and show how their work is part of a liveable and breathable environment.
Hey Rahm Emanuel: Libraries Are Sacred Spaces
Filed under: Books, Society & Economy, U.S. Politics, Unions
“I received the fundamentals of my education in school, but that was not enough. My real education, the superstructure, the details, the true architecture, I got out of the public library. For an impoverished child whose family could not afford to buy books, the library was the open door to wonder and achievement, and I can never be sufficiently grateful that I had the wit to charge through that door and make the most of it.” –Isaac Asimov (American author with hundreds of books to his credit)
Probably the best known library of all time was located in Northern Africa. The great library at Alexandria in Egypt was, before its destruction, one of the ancient wonders of Mediterranean civilization. Containing thousands of scrolls, it was the Library of Congress for its day. Its destruction did not come in a single tragic fire, but several, and even historians can’t agree how many fires burned and who set them alight. There was also scroll deterioration plus the inevitable thefts and losses. For the Library of Alexandria, it was death by a thousand cuts.
How much information and imagination was lost? We’ll never know.
For the Chicago Public Library system, its deterioration is proceeding with death by a thousand budget cuts, cuts coming from Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s office on the 5th floor of City Hall, following up on cuts made by his predecessor Hizzoner Richard M. Daley. Libraries are especially important in working class communities where people have less income and where educational opportunities are generally more limited.
Mayor Emanuel doesn’t think that Chicago’s working class deserves a great library system, even though working class people built the city that he now rules. Rahm comes from the world of Wall Street where one’s worth is measured in stock options, derivatives, credit swaps and margin calls, not the blood, toil, tears, sweat and imagination it takes to build a great city.
Contrary to cheap and degrading media stereotypes, working class people do have an intellectual life and libraries are an important part of that. Adults check out books, take out DVD’s and do research. Kids go to story hours, check out books and do school projects. Reading makes people smarter, stimulates their imagination and is an important form of recreation.
Libraries serve as community centers where local residents can hold meetings to explore their hobbies, discuss the latest books they are reading and plan social action around community issues. They serve as employment centers for people looking for jobs and for individuals who seek to improve their occupational skills. Libraries also do outreach to schools and other community institutions. They provide shelter for the homeless.
Here is how one librarian on Chicago’s impoverished West Side describes their job:
I was the only librarian on staff in my branch and there were a lot of elementary school students there working on projects. I helped one boy find biographical information on Descartes. He had been looking at an article on Wikipedia and said he couldn’t really understand it. I showed him how to find kid-friendly articles in SIRS Discoverer. Another boy was in with his uncle and grandmother, doing a report on the seven continents. After working with them for a few minutes, I realized that the adults with him couldn’t read. I was able to help him find all the answers he needed in an almanac … I have helped people create resumes, fill out online job applications, find information about health and legal matters, search for jobs and apartments. I have suggested great age-appropriate kids’ books for parents who look around at all the children’s books and don’t know where to begin. As an avid reader, I find it easy to recommend books to adults who are simply looking for something interesting to read. And librarians are doing these same things every day in every neighborhood of Chicago. —from the Go Librarians
Rahm’s attack on Chicago libraries came down in October of 2011. His cuts included reduction of library hours, the loss of 363 full-time positions, and the closing of libraries on Monday and Friday mornings for a grand total of 10 million dollars in “savings”.
Chicago library users and library workers began organizing immediately. On October 31, protestors gathered in front of the Mayor’s office for a massive story hour accompanied by singing and chants. Some of the parents, library workers and kids were in their Halloween costumes.The group also delivered a petition to the Mayor.
The October 31 story hour and read-in
Stay-at-home mom Amber Cregar put it this way,” There’ll be no more programming for me and my child. It’ll just be a place that warehouses books and computers.”
Megan Russell, a library student, decried the cuts by saying, “The effect will be horrendous for both children and people that cannot afford Internet and cannot afford books.”
The October Mayors Office Protest
Girl Scout Troop 51178 joined the library protests at the West Side Roosevelt Branch in November, holding their own Occupy-style demonstration outside of the library. Ten year old Girl Scout Charlotte Manier, who hopes to become a fashion designer, said this,”Our library has already cut hours. It would only be open a couple of hours a day if they cut anymore. A lot of kids depend on the library for research. Computers are fine, but they will never completely replace neighborhood libraries.”
Girl Scout Troop 51178
These actions were followed up by January 2012 read-ins outside of branch libraries that were closed on Monday mornings. This action was supported by Occupy Chicago’s Labor Outreach Committee and many community groups. People driving by honked their horns in support. In communities where gang violence has spread fear among residents, libraries are islands of calm, a point that was made by library worker Norma Sotelo who said,”It’s a safe haven for people who don’t have much.”
AFSCME Local 1215, the union that represents the library staff, collected over 500 letters in support of libraries and delivered them to the Mayor’s Office on the morning of March 22, 2012. The Mayor had rescinded some of the worst cuts by then, but that is typical Rahm. He presents an outrageous proposal and then backs off a little to appear reasonable. How reasonable? Well, when a city aide came out to collect the letters, someone asked if the Mayor would actually see them. The aide answered,” Possibly.” Since Rahm does most of his listening to the financial barons of LaSalle Street, this came as no surprise to the assembled workers and their supporters. That’s democracy Chicago-style.
Service Employees add their support
The American Federation of State County and Municipal Employees(AFSCME) has been instrumental in the battle to save Chicago’s public library system. Since that union represents Chicago library workers, it obviously wants to save its members’ jobs and improve their working conditions, but there is also a deeper purpose. Most people go into library work because they love reading and have a burning desire to share knowledge and imagination. They are workers on a mission, a mission for reading and study that has been part of the American labor movement since its earliest beginnings.
City aide receives the letters. He later commented
that the Mayor might “possibly” look at them
The pre-Civil War American labor movement called for free public education and supported the development of public libraries. Libraries that were designed to teach apprentice and journeymen mechanics appeared as early as the 1820’s. The National Trades Union newspaper called upon its 1830‘s readers to use their leisure time to read books and to ensure that their families did the same. In 1834, a national trade union convention in NYC demanded the establishment of free public libraries “for the use and benefit of mechanics and workingmen.”
There were avid readers among the female mill workers in New England, one of whom remarked that she had come to work the mills of Lowell MA because of the town’s public library. Sarah Bagley, mill worker and founder of the Lowell Female Labor Reform Association spoke of the reading rooms and lyceums (public lecture halls) that were available. The Lowell Female Labor Reform Association helped lead strikes and campaigns for the 10 hour day in the 1840’s. What good were lyceums and libraries if workers did not have the time and energy to listen and read?
After the abolition of slavery, freed African Americans demanded equal access to education. Slaves were normally prevented from learning to read so this included basic literacy classes. The newly formed Freedman’s Bureau(1865-1870) did its best to provide books and facilities for schools. Along with the efforts of Black Southerners themselves, schooling for black children in the South rose from 10% in 1870 to 40% in 1890. Actual public libraries were rare in the South until the 20th century and once established, were generally segregated.
The Enoch Pratt Free Library in Baltimore, Maryland ( a former slave state), was something of an exception as it was open to all races from its beginning in 1886. The first library designed specifically for African- Americans living under Jim Crow was a 1904 small room in a segregated black school in Henderson, Kentucky. The segregated libraries for Black Southerners were usually not well-funded. It took the 1960′s civil rights movement and multiple sit-ins at all-white Jim Crow libraries before library services became available to all Americans on an equal basis.
The post Civil War period century saw a rapid expansion of public libraries. The National Labor Union called for the establishment of “workmen’s lyceums and free reading rooms” in 1866. The Chicago-based Workingman’s Advocate demanded a public library well in advance of the the 1873 Chicago Public Library opening in an abandoned water tower. The labor movement played a significant role in getting public libraries for such cities as Buffalo NY and Washington DC.
When the fiercely anti-union steel magnate Andrew Carnegie began giving grants for public libraries, it opened up a debate within the 19th century labor movement that showed how libraries were part of the ongoing class conflict between capital and labor. Eugene Debs, the radical leader of the American Railway Union leader decried Carnegie’s efforts, calling them basically a PR stunt to clean up Carnegie’s bad image saying this:
“We want libraries and we will have them in glorious abundance when Capitalism is abolished and workingmen are no longer robbed by the philanthropic pirates of the Carnegie class. . . Then the library will be, as it should be, a noble temple dedicated to culture and symbolizing the virtues of the people”– quoted by Sparane
American Federation of Labor leader Sam Gompers was more welcoming:
“Yes, accept his [Carnegie’s] library, organize the workers, secure better conditions and, particularly, reduction in hours of labor, and then the workers will have the chance and leisure in which to read books” – quoted by Sparane
These differing views showed how libraries became contested terrain. Whose interests were they to serve? It’s true that spokespeople for the upper class wanted libraries as a form of social control, hoping to avoid the class war they associated with Europe. The American Library Association even published a 1896 article that said:
“Laboring men could not discriminate between their own real interest and such sham reforms as are brought before them by their so-called labor leaders.” – quoted by Sparane
But for labor leaders, libraries were essential to a democratic republic where working class people could gain knowledge and expand their imaginations so they could build a better society for themselves and their children. Librarians became involved with the Worker Education Movement of the 1920’s which sought to do exactly that. The first library union was started in 1916 at the Library of Congress, but large scale successful unionization of librarians did not begin until the labor revolts of 1930’s and then really took off with the social upheavals of the 1960’s.
With the protections offered by unionization and civil service rules, librarians are in a better position to resist political attacks and irrational censorship. They can then ensure that all members of the community have their library needs properly served.
Given today’s ongoing economic crisis, working class people, especially working class people of color, need libraries more than ever. Public education is under constant attack, as corporate interests work to reduce it to a vast rote-learning factory “measured” by testing companies with no real interest in imagination and critical thinking. Colleges and universities are viewed by corporate interests as little more than vocational training centers and product research labs. The increasingly monopolized mass media is well on its way to becoming a shotgun marriage of Big Money and Big Lies.
I’m trying not to sound too dramatic here, but library workers really are on the front-lines against this rising tide of ignorance, mediocrity and mendacity. Some will say that working class people no longer need libraries because they have the Internet. Well I hate to break it to you, but a lot of people are too poor to afford Internet access and broadband Internet connections are scarcer than hens’ teeth in rural areas and small towns. As for e-books, have you looked at the lending restrictions that many publishers slap on them? And what happens when the electricity gets cut off? At least people can read printed books by the light of day.
And guess what, how does one sift through all of those thousands of hits on a Google search? It’s nice to have a trained librarian nearby to help make sense of it all.
OK, so here’s my library story. As a child I lived in segregated working class Glenmont, Maryland until my parents moved to a “better” neighborhood when I hit my teens. It was the 1950‘s: virulent naked racism, social repression, male supremacy, ferocious religiosity, red-scare Cold War politics and a widespread public distrust of intellectuals who were derisively termed “eggheads”.
Every week I rode my bike down the sidewalk of Georgia Avenue toward the Wheaton Library 2 miles away. It wasn’t much to look at, just another dingy storefront in a nondescript suburban shopping strip, but it meant the world to me.
To the left as I entered the library were the science fiction shelves where the books of Robert Heinlein, Arthur C. Clark, Isaac Asimov, Andre Norton etc. took me on travels through space and time. I met beings from other worlds who made our minor human racial and ethnic differences seem so insignificant. Behind those sturdy wooden shelves were the science and nature books where I learned about evolution, ecology, relativity, atoms, molecules, stars and planets. Nearby was the history section with its Landmark Books: so much human history, so many freedom struggles, so many scientific and technical discoveries, so little time to read about them all. Next to that stretched the regular fiction section with its stories about sports, animals, sailors and adventures in places I could never visit on my bike or even in my parents’ Chevy when they took me on weekend excursions.
That crowded little branch library opened my eyes and mind to possibilities beyond the tract homes of Glenmont and the threadbare airless world of 1950’s dominant culture with its intolerance and narrow view of humanity.
I later spent 25 years as a teacher in the working class neighborhoods of West Side and South Side Chicago. I know damned well how important libraries were to the students I taught. Many were immigrants or the children of immigrants and like the immigrant Isaac Asimov whom I quoted at the beginning, they had their dreams too.
Obviously some were less enthused about libraries than others, but I think that even those kids who didn’t much like libraries, at least learned to respect their existence and importance. I have yet to see a single Chicago working class person pick up a sign and protest against libraries in their community.
Attacks on libraries are attacks on the minds of hard working decent people. So when Rahm Emanuel goes on the offensive against libraries, he’s getting on “the fightin’ side of me” (to quote Merle Haggard).
Rahm is famous for his incurable public potty mouth, so I’ll send him a message in a language that even he can understand, “Rahm, libraries are sacred spaces. Show some fucking respect.”
Sources Consulted
Library cuts threaten working class access to culture by Esme Choonara
Public Libraries and Social Class by John Pateman
Library Service to Unions: A Historical Overview by Elizabeth Hubbard
Overdue Notice: Defend Our Libraries by Antonino D’Ambrosio
Encyclopedia of African American History Paul Finkelman, editor
Service to the Labor Community: A Pubic Library Perspective by Ann Sparanes
‘There’s a Ripple Effect’: A Chicago Librarian Speaks Out About Cutbacks by Joe M. and Kari Lydersen
Girl Scouts protest library cuts
Letters to Rahm Demand Restoration of Library Hours, Staff By Aaron Krager
Library lovers speak out for Chicago’s public libraries!
Patrons want Chicago library hours fully restored
Restore library hours and staff!
The Public Versus Publishers: How Scholars and Activists are Occupying the Library by Barbra Fister
How libraries help the unemployed by allpurposeguru
The Social Worker and the Massacre: A Chicago Labor Story
May 30th 1937: Thirty-one year old Hull House social worker Guadalupe “Lupe” Marshall stood amongst the crowd in front of Sam’s Place on a warm afternoon. Approximately 1500 people were there to rally support for Chicago steel workers. Marshall was researching Mexican workers in the labor movement. Formerly a popular Southeast Side Chicago dance club, Sam’s Place had become a strike headquarters for the young CIO Steel Workers Organizing Committee (SWOC). Hull House was the Chicago settlement house founded by Jane Addams and Ellen Gates Starr.
A march to the gates of the Republic Steel plant was scheduled to begin shortly. Workers at Republic Steel, Youngstown Sheet and Tube, Inland Steel and Bethlehem at Johnstown had been on strike for a week. Their goal was union recognition and a decent life in the middle of the worst depression this country has ever known. The strike was known as the “Little Steel” strike because the larger steel companies like US Steel had already peacefully agreed to recognize the SWOC and sign union contracts.
Marshall had come to the USA from Mexico in 1917 and was active in the Mexican-American civil rights movement and the communist organized Popular Front, a coalition of many organizations. A mother of 3, she mingled with the kids cavorting about eating popsicles and women dressed in their Sunday best.
There were speeches, including the reading of a statement made by Chicago Mayor Kelly that the workers had the right to peacefully picket. Marshall planned to return to Hull House after the demonstration to oversee the play she was producing. She never made it.
When the rally ended people began walking across an open field toward the Republic Steel plant: men, women and children. Marshall first accompanied a young writer who had originally invited her, but she soon found herself with a group of singing women toward the front of the crowd. Some women had brought their children.
At around 4:30 pm, about 250 yards from the plant gates, they were met by phalanx of Chicago police who blocked their path. As the people behind her pressed forward, Marshall was pushed up against a cop named Higgins who called her dirty name. She heard a tense discussion between the police and SWOC organizers. Behind her marchers shouted,” Mayor Kelly said it was all right to picket.” The police were slapping their hands with their billy clubs. A cop pulled out his revolver.
She heard a sound like a thud behind her. Other accounts say that someone had tossed a tree branch. Then came the thunder of police gunfire. She turned and saw people lying on the ground, some with blood on their backs. She stood there stunned, not wanting to run across the backs of the dead and wounded.
What came to be known as the Memorial Day Massacre had begun.
Below is the testimony of Lupe Marshall given under oath to the U.S. Senate Committee on Education and Labor chaired by Senator Robert La Follette
———————————-
Senator LA FOLLETTE. Were you successful in your efforts to get away from the police?
Mrs. MARSHALL. No; I was not. After I evaded these policemen that were immediately in front of me . . . . I was aware that my head was bleeding. I noticed that my blouse was all stained with blood, and that sort of brought me to, and I started walking slowly toward the direction from which a policeman had just clubbed an individual, and this individual dragged himself a bit and tried to get up, when the policeman clubbed him again. He did that four times.
Senator LA FOLLETTE. When he was on the ground?
Mrs. MARSHALL. While he was trying to get up. Every time he tried to get up the policeman’s club came down on him. Then he took him by the foot and turned him over. When the man finally fell so he could not move, the policeman took him by the foot and turned him on his back, and started dragging him. As he turned over, I noticed that the man’s shirt was all blood stained here on the side, so I screamed at the policeman and said, “Don’t do that. Can’t you see he is terribly injured?” And at the moment I said that, somebody struck me from the back again and knocked me down. As I went down somebody kicked me on the side here, a policeman kicked me on the side here.
Senator LA FOLLETTE. How can you be sure they were policemen?
Mrs. MARSHALL. Well, I could see from the sides. I could not identify the particular policemen that did it, but I could see their uniforms, and I could see the edges, the ends of the clubs from the side of my eyes.
Senator LA FOLLETTE. How much do you weigh, Mrs. Marshall?
Mrs. MARSHALL. I weigh 92 pounds now. I weighed 97 when this happened.
Senator LA FOLLETTE. And how tall are you?
Mrs. MARSHALL. 4 feet 11.
Senator LA FOLLETTE. Go ahead.
Mrs. MARSHALL. So, after he kicked me I tried to get up, and they hit me three times across the back, and then somebody picked me up and took me to the patrol wagon. As we were walking along to the patrol wagon I noticed men lying all over the field. Some of them were motionless. Some were groaning, but nearly all of those that were lying down had their heads covered with blood, and their clothing was stained with blood. They took me to one patrol wagon, and as I was walking toward it the policeman is dragging me by the arm. As I was walking toward it, one man that I presumed was a newspaper reporter asked my name…
Mrs. MARSHALL. …and I said “Lupe Marshall”, and I gave him my address as quickly as I could, and I was about to give him my telephone number when he twisted me around and he said, “Come on, get going!” And as we approached the patrol wagon I noticed that it was full, so they said, “No, we can’t get her in there.”
———————————-
An empty patrol wagon pulled up and Marshall was shoved in so hard that her face was smashed against the grating of the window at the front of the wagon. Then police began picking up the men lying on the ground, some of whom had obvious bullet wounds. The cops tossed them into the patrol wagon like sacks of potatoes. Marshall got up and did what she could for the wounded in the police wagon. One man died in her arms despite her desperate ministrations. She became hysterical and screamed at the cop who was in the back of the wagon:
“I hope you get the medal for this.” I said, “Your children and your wife must be very proud of you.” And he says, “I didn’t do that”, he says,“I wouldn’t do that. I am just doing here what I can for you now. I am trying to help you as much as I can. That is all I have to do, is to see that you get medical care now”, he says, “But I wouldn’t do that.” And as he said that I noticed the tears rolling down his eyes. —from the testimony of Lupe Marshal before the La Follette Committee”
The cop and the social worker had found a common humanity amidst the horror of one-sided class war. After a seemingly endless ride around the city, Lupe Marshall and the 16 wounded men she was tending made it to Burnside Hospital. When she arrived she told the shocked nurse on duty that more wounded could be expected. Since there were not enough doctors and nurses to handle the casualties, Marshall grabbed a pitcher of water and some table napkins and applied compresses even as a cop tried to stop her. When she tried to telephone her family and the phone numbers from men in the police wagon, she was ordered to put down the phone. A plainclothes detective from downtown arrived:
“I imagine it was from downtown, since that was the only place where they had detectives—came in, and made a terrible noise. He screamed at these policemen that were standing at the doorway there. He said, “Who the hell ordered this (such and such) shooting?” He swore at them, and the other fellows started to answer, but the policeman that had been advised to watch me—one policeman had been assigned to watch me—said, “Shut up your mug! They are not all dead yet”—and he went like this (indicating) to me, motioning to me.”—from the testimony of Lupe Marshal before the La Follette Committee
Marshall was among the last to be treated. Her kindly doctor was concerned that the head injury may have been a bullet graze and not a police club wound. While waiting for X-Rays she was constantly harassed for more information despite her state of shock at what she had just experienced.
10 marchers were killed and 90 were injured, 30 of them by bullet wounds. About 15% of the wounded were permanently disabled. The police officers had 32 minor injuries and 3 that required hospitalization. None of the police injuries were inflicted by the marchers, but by cops who tripped over obstacles, or were hurt in other ways amidst the confusion.
The deaths were also the beginning of the end for the Little Steel strike. The smaller towns of the Little Steel strike had became virtual fascist dictatorships with bloody repression meted out to anyone who resisted the companies. If you lived through the the civil rights era of the 1960‘s, think Birmingham and Selma. When the SWOC realized that the strike had been defeated, members were told to go back to work without a contract. The total strike casualties were 18 dead workers and many hundreds injured, some seriously. Observers sympathetic to the SWOC asked if the new organization had really been prepared for the strike.
In those days before YouTube, FaceBook, blogging, online alternative media, Amy Goodman and Bill Moyers, it was much easier for the Little Steel companies to “control the narrative” that was presented to the public. In the wake of the Memorial Day Massacre in Chicago, the Chicago Tribune described the peaceful march on Republic Steel as red rioters who had assaulted the police and “lusted for blood”. Other newspapers followed suit in blaming the strikers, even if in less lurid terms. Paramount Pictures had a cameraman that day who recorded nearly the whole event. That film was suppressed for many years to keep the truth from leaking out. Public opinion turned against the strikers.
Labor historian Les Orear & eyewitness Sam Evett present some of that Paramount footage.
President Roosevelt commented on the Little Steel violence as a “plague on both your houses.” He said this even though the worst bloodshed came from the companies and their refusal to bargain was a violation of the new National Labor Relations Act passed in 1935. A Coroner’s Jury declared the killings to be “justifable homicide”.
There was hardly a whisper of public criticism of Little Steel from Wall Street or even from US Steel which had peacefully agreed to work with the union. It was as if the captains of industry were waiting to see if the CIO might be crushed once and for all. It was a case of violent civil disobedience by Corporate America.
Little Steel was represented by Republic’s President Tom Girdler (photo on right). Girdler had a well deserved reputation for ruthless ambition. After taking over the ailing Republic Steel in 1925 he burned through the companies cash modernizing plants and introducing new technology. By buying up other companies and applying hard-nosed business tactics, he hoped to monopolize light steel manufacturing where Republic excelled and had his eye on heavy steel as well.
To prepare for the SWOC, Girdler amassed an arsenal including thousands of rounds of ammo, tear gas bombs, clubs, revolvers, automatic weapons and high powered rifles. There is no record of him hiring a team of high powered negotiators. He vowed,”I’ll go back to the farm and dig potatoes before I sign with the C.I.O.” After the news reached him of the Memorial Day Massacre at the Chicago gates of Republic Steel, he expressed no contrition and offered no condolences.
It was corporate gangsterism, worse than than the 1927 St. Valentine’s Day Massacre perpetrated by the Al Capone mob. The Memorial Day Massacre was the killing not of rival mobsters, but of American working people.The Capone mob’s violent exploits became the source of movies, TV shows and books. The Memorial Day Massacre is hardly remembered outside of labor circles. It seems that not all gangster legends are created equal.
Despite his staunchly anti-union “principles”, Girdler acquiesced to a collective bargaining agreement in 1942 that included back pay and vacation money for workers fired after the Little Steel strike. Girdler had been under pressure from the War Labor Board. He also wanted Republic to get in on lucrative on government defense contracts. He remained with Republic Steel until his retirement in 1956.
A World War II poster honoring Tom Girdler
What about Lupe Marshall, who showed so much courage during that terrible Memorial Day, and who bravely testified before the La Follette Committee? She was charged with communism and faced deportation under the McCarran-Walter Act of 1952. Marshall’s association with communists was no secret as the Communist Party was a prominent member of the Popular Front, a Depression era coalition that she belonged to and which met at Hull House during the those years. There is no evidence that she had done anything illegal or was a threat to national security, but it was the McCarthy period and any left-wing associations (former or present) were suspect.
Tom Girdler, the man who had declared war on American steel workers, continued to enjoy his life as a wealthy man. Lupe Marshall fled to Jamaica with the help of friends, becoming an exile after over 30 years in the USA. She never returned and passed away in 1985.
After the Little Steel Strike, labor relations in the USA remained antagonistic, but have not resulted in such mass bloodshed again. Did Corporate America learn to put away the gun in its clashes with organized labor and those opposed to corporate domination? Not really. US companies operating abroad continued to ally with gangster terrorism, supporting US government intervention against pro-labor governments and labor movements, especially in Latin America: Guatemala, Chile, Brazil, Argentina, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua and Uruguay being some examples.
The campaign against communist Cuba after it nationalized US companies nearly touched off World War III.
Today US corporations continue to be charged of violent crimes. The Coca-Cola company has been implicated in the murder and torture of trade unionists in Columbia. Victims of Columbian rightwing paramilitary violence accuse the Drummond mining company of hiring death squad members to kill and torture. Drummond is now in US federal court facing these charges. Chiquita has admitted making payments to Columbian rightwing terrorists and is being sued by their victims in US federal court. Both Chevron and Shell have been cited for violent crimes by residents of the Niger Delta in Nigeria who were protesting environmental destruction and labor abuses.
The international justice system has proven to be woefully inadequate for dealing with this type of crime. But then no one was ever prosecuted for the May 30, 1937 Chicago shootings either.
As I write these words, American citizens are becoming more alarmed by the militarization of our domestic police forces and the increasing power that corporations hold over our political process. Could we see more Memorial Day Massacres here in the USA? I would not dismiss the possibility.
Sources Consulted
The Mexicans in Chicago by Louise Kerr
Labor Rights are Civil Rights by Zaragosa Vargas
Latinas in the United States by Vicky Riuz and Virginia Sánchez Korrol
“The Man . . . Died on My Lap”: One Women Recalls the Memorial Day Massacre of 1937 Testimony before the U.S. Senate Committee on Education and Labor (1937)
Big Steel, Little Steel and the CIO by Benjamin Stolberg
Labor’s New Millions by Mary Heaton Vorse
The Memorial Day Massacre by Daniel J. Leab
Memorial Day Massacre of 1937 Offers Stark Reminder: Media Usually Side With Corporations, Police by Roger Bybee
Chicagoist Flashback: Memorial Day Massacre of 1937 by Chuck Sudo
The Memorial Day Massacre of 1937 (Video) edited by the Illinois History Society
The 1937 Memorial Day Massacre: ‘We don’t want fascism in America’ by Chris Mahin
Memorial Day Massacre by the Illinois Labor History Society
An Occurrence at Republic Steel By Howard Fast
They Remember Girdler by Howard Fast
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