Burkhard Bilger writes about the choice of his German parents to move to Oklahoma after WWII, where his father took a job at a university:
“Oklahoma had its own version of the history [my parents] had left behind. The Nuremberg Race Laws were based on Jim Crow codes passed in the United States after the Civil War and still widely enforced when my parents arrived."
“By 1937, forced sterilization was legal in thirty-two states. [Charles] Davenport set up a laboratory at the Carnegie Institution that kept index cards on nearly a million ordinary citizens and advocated for strict immigration laws and sterilization of the unfit. "
Today in Labor History August 10, 1901: The U.S. Steel recognition strike by the Amalgamated Association of Iron and Steel Workers (AA) began. AA formed in 1876 and was declining significantly in size and power by 1901. Technological advances had caused significant downsizing in the steel industry, with many highly skilled workers being fired and replaced by more easily interchangeable, and more poorly trained, workers to operate the newer machines. In 1892, AA had lost the infamous Homestead strike, against Andrew Carnegie and Henry Clay Frick, in which 12 people were killed. By 1901, nearly all the major metal fabricators had joined the new U.S. Steel trust, including J.P. Morgan and Andrew Carnegie. AA saw the writing on the wall and made a last-ditch, desperate attempt to organize all the steel and tin workers before the limitless resources of the new trust could crush them. And they failed, rather quickly and spectacularly, when the strike ended on September 14, 1901.
In the aftermath of the strike, many of the socialist and anarchist union leaders, and rank and file workers, blamed Samuel Gompers (of the newish American Federation of Labor) and Johnny Mitchell (of the United Mine Workers) of being too cozy with the corporate bosses and politicians, and of selling them out. This led to increasing conflict in the following years between the more radical elements of the labor movement and the more mainstream tendencies. It slowed down the growth of the conservative AFofL and, ultimately, to Mitchell’s removal as head of the UMW, in 1908. The AA, however, grew increasingly conservative, and weaker, and by 1909 ceased to be a relevant force in the labor movement.
Today in Labor History July 22, 1892: Anarchist Alexander Berkman tried to assassinate industrialist Henry Clay Frick in retaliation for the 9 miners killed by Pinkerton thugs on July 6, during the Homestead Steel Strike. Frick was the manager of Homestead Steel and had hired the Pinkertons to protect the factory and the scab workers he hired to replace those who were on strike. Berkman, and his lover, Emma Goldman, planned the assassination hoping it would arouse the working class to rise up and overthrow capitalism. Berkman failed in the assassination attempt and went to prison for 14 years. He wrote a book about his experience called, “Prison Memoirs of an Anarchist” (1912). He also wrote “The Bolshevik Myth” (1925) and “The ABC of Communist Anarchism” (1929).
Today in Labor History July 2, 1892: Carnegie Steel locked out workers at its Homestead, PA, plant. The lockout culminated in a major battle between strikers and Pinkerton security agents on July 6. Determined to keep the plant closed and inoperable by scabs, the strikers formed military units that patrolled the grounds around the plant, and the Monongahela River in boats, to prevent access by strikebreakers and their Pinkerton guards. On the night of July 5, Pinkertons, armed with Winchester rifles, attempted to cross the river. Reports conflict as to which side fired first, but a gun battle ensued. Both sides suffered numerous deaths and injuries. Women also participated in the action. In the end, the Pinkertons gave up and surrendered. However, the governor called in the state militia, which quickly displaced the picketers and allowed the scabs in, thus ending the strike. In the wake of the bloody strike, Alexander Berkman, an anarchist, tried to assassinate Henry Clay Frick, Carnegie’s agent at Homestead.
K. Friedman wrote about the strike in “By Bread Alone” (1901). Friedman was a Chicago socialist, settlement-house worker and journalist. His novel was an early example of the transformation in socialist fiction from "utopian" to "scientific" socialism. More recently, Trilby Busch wrote about the strike in her novel, “Darkness Visible” (2012).
Wait. If I don’t want a blue check but Elon gives me one anyway, indicating I’ve paid and endorsed his gonzo system when I haven’t, isn’t this fraud under the FTC Act?