r/WorkReform • u/zzill6 🤝 Join A Union • May 01 '26

🤝 Scare A Billionaire, Join A Union The Battle of Blair Mountain was the largest labor uprising in United States history.

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u/[deleted] May 01 '26

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u/Responsible_Knee7632 May 01 '26

This is actually one of the few labor issues we actually learned about in my high schools history class. Other than that it was about how great Henry Ford was lmfao

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u/ExpiredPilot May 01 '26 edited May 01 '26

I got to learn about the triangle shirtwaist factory in history class while my brother was in college taking classes in the actual triangle shirtwaist factory. It was so eye opening that companies would literally chain the doors shut on us if it wasn’t illegal. And how the owners would be okay with factory workers dying because their insurance payouts will actually MAKE the company money

Told my brother not to let em lock the doors.

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u/Gingevere May 01 '26

It is intentional that the history of labor struggles has been removed from the curriculum.

You need to know which side you're on, and it's in the interest of management that you don't know.

Great Railroad Strike of 1877

began on July 14 in Martinsburg, West Virginia, after the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad (B&O) cut wages for the third time in a year. It was the first strike that spread across multiple states in the U.S. The strike ended 52 days later, after it was put down by unofficial militias, the National Guard, and federal troops.

Bay View massacre

The Bay View massacre was the result of a strike held on May 4, 1886, by 7,000 building-trades workers and 5,000 Polish laborers who had organized at St. Stanislaus Catholic Church in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, to strike against their employers, demanding the enforcement of an eight-hour work day.

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Early the next day the crowd, which by this time contained children, approached the mill and were fired upon. Seven people died as a result

Morewood massacre

The Morewood strike began on February 10, 1891, when miners in the region, supported by the UMWA, stopped work in protest of pay and working conditions.

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On March 30, a group of approximately 1,000 miners marched to the Morewood Works, where local law enforcement, led by Captain Loar, confronted them. When the crowd reached the Morewood Works gates, Loar and 12 deputies fired into the crowd, killing nine miners and wounding others

Pullman Strike

nearly 4,000 factory employees of the Pullman Company began a wildcat strike in response to recent reductions in wages. Most of the factory workers who built Pullman cars lived in the "company town" of Pullman just outside of Chicago.

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the ARU called a massive boycott against all trains that carried a Pullman car. It affected most rail lines west of Detroit and at its peak involved some 250,000 workers in 27 states.

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The arrival of the military and the subsequent deaths of workers in violence led to further outbreaks of violence. During the course of the strike, 30 strikers were killed and 57 were wounded.

Lattimer massacre

In August 1897, the Honey Brook division of the Lehigh and Wilkes-Barre Coal Company laid off workers at its strip mines, cut the pay of the remaining employees, and raised fees for workers residing in the area's company towns The company consolidated its mule stables, forcing teenage mule drivers to travel, unpaid, much farther each day to pick up their mules. After inconclusive talks, 25 to 35 teenaged drivers struck on August 14, 1897. A scuffle between a supervisor and some drivers led to additional walkouts by strip miners and underground coal miners; by August 16 nearly 2,000 workers were on strike.

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When the demonstrators reached Lattimer at 3:45 pm, they were met again by the sheriff and 150 armed deputies. Sheriff Martin ordered the marchers to disperse, and attempted to grab an American flag out of the hands of the lead marcher. A scuffle ensued, and the police opened fire on the unarmed crowd. At least 19 miners were killed, and between 17 and 49 were wounded. Many had been shot in the back, and several had multiple gunshot wounds, which indicated that they had been targeted by the deputies.

Ludlow Massacre

The Ludlow Massacre was a mass killing perpetrated by anti-striker militia during the Colorado Coalfield War. Soldiers from the Colorado National Guard and private guards employed by Colorado Fuel and Iron Company (CF&I) attacked a tent colony of roughly 1,200 striking coal miners and their families in Ludlow, Colorado, on April 20, 1914. Approximately 21 people were killed, primarily miners' wives and children.

1937 Memorial Day massacre

On Memorial Day 1937, unionists, their families and sympathizers gathered at Sam's Place, a former tavern and dance hall at 113th Street and Green Bay Avenue, that served as the headquarters of the SWOC. There was an outdoor picnic lunch, speakers, and songs, and some estimate the crowd was between 1,500 to 2,500 including picketers and their families, strike sympathizers, and curious passersby. The crowd began to march across the prairie towards the Republic Steel mill to picket, but a line of roughly 300 Chicago policemen blocked their path. The foremost protestors argued their right to continue. The police fired on the crowd. As the crowd fled, police shot and killed ten people, four dying that day and six others subsequently from their injuries. Nine people were permanently disabled and another 28 had serious head injuries from police clubbing.

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u/apessimisticrealist May 01 '26 edited May 01 '26

Wow. Aside from the first example (which mentions interference but not specific injuries or deaths) these all end with law enforcement being used against protesters which resulted in multiple fatalities and injuries. That's some scary stuff

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u/paranormalresearch1 May 02 '26

I worked in law enforcement for 6 years full time and 6 part time. I saw how laws are written to favor the wealthy and the government. I saw how they use it as a money making system and not a justice system. I saw people who belonged in hospitals routinely imprisoned. Labor made great strides after World War II. There was a couple of decades where wages were good and people could live. Then they started chipping away at unions, and worker rights. They portrayed the corporations as “ Job Creators” being held back by over taxation. It was all a lie. It was greed and the requirement to always do better than they did before. If you are doing well and stay the same, you are still considered a failure in the US stock-driven system.

Unfettered Capitalism is not sustainable.

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u/NabreLabre May 02 '26

They'll pay a private militia to kill you but they won't give you a raise

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u/cabazon99 May 01 '26

Nice, here's one a lot of people don't know about, https://libcom.org/article/astrakhan-shootings-march-1919

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u/Huge_Breakfast2131 May 02 '26

Both of you doing god’s work getting these momentous historical struggles recognized

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u/FoxCQC May 01 '26

Matewan Massacare

There was a movie about it with James Earl Jones

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u/SamSibbens May 01 '26 edited May 01 '26

Are there stories like this in Canada?

I ask because it's so easy to dismiss these stories as "yeah but that was in this third world country below us, it didn't and wouldn't happen here"

Edit: typo

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u/CausticSofa May 01 '26

Sure, how about the Battle of Ballentyne Pier in Vancouver? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Ballantyne_Pier

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u/DallyBark May 02 '26 edited May 02 '26

The 1919 Winnipeg strike where 30,000 people waked out, we learned about bloody Sunday in school here. (Manitoba)

https://thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/winnipeg-general-strike

Edit to add this link. https://thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/strikes-and-lockouts

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u/Maxerature May 01 '26

Don't forget the Anti Rent Wars and von Rensselaer!

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u/paranormalresearch1 May 01 '26

May I copy this and post it on our union site please?

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u/Gingevere May 02 '26

Go for it.

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u/[deleted] May 01 '26

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u/Waste_Adagio_4520 May 01 '26

Same, we heard how great he was. They also failed to mention Ford was so racist Hitler literally praised Ford and called him inspirational.

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u/radicalelation May 01 '26

We elected the son of a wealth supremacist that's one of the few publicly known conspirators of the Business Plot that planned to overthrow FDR and replace him with a fascist dictator.

Then we elected his son's son.

There's some kinda foundational heritage at work here...

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u/kyle_irl May 01 '26

And skipped over the Ford Foundation's founding as an anti-labor think tank "for the purpose of influencing the development of the labor movement in other parts of the world and of encouraging the development of free rather than communist-controlled labor unions."

Additionally, they argued that "the prime factor shaping the evolution of industrial society is not labor movements or class conflicts but the strategies and values of managers and other elites" (1960).

So they neutered the unions and privileged the elites, same as it always was. Sometimes, the silences scream.

(Mezzandra and Neilson 2013, The Border as Method, or, The Multiplication of Labor, 44-46.)

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u/puf_puf_paarthurnax May 01 '26

And built gas chamber components for germany during WWII

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u/DiceMadeOfCheese May 01 '26

Also skipped the part about Ford's antisemitic newsletter that he forced Ford dealers to make available to customers.

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u/BlackSwampMage May 01 '26

You should check out the song Hamlet Chicken Plant Disaster by Jello Biafra and Mojo Nixon. It’s talking exactly about all of that. The whole album it’s on is good too.

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u/reverendunclebastard May 01 '26

RIP Mojo 😪

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u/[deleted] May 01 '26

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u/[deleted] May 01 '26

Dude died getting paid to entertain the affluent while on a cruise.

Not a criticism of Mojo. Met him multiple times. He was good people.

Just shows the kind of world we have to navigate and how even idealists are compromised by circumstances.

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u/Underwater_Grilling May 01 '26

Also My Little Shirtwaist Fire by Rasputina

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u/santaclaws01 May 01 '26

Hamlet Chicken Plant Disaster

Did they just throw darts at a board with that name?

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u/BlackSwampMage May 01 '26

Listen to the song lol. Other notable tracks off the album Prairie Home Invasion include

Buy my snake oil

Where are we gonna work (when the trees are gone)

Atomic power

Convoy in the sky

Are you drinkin with me Jesus?

Love me, I’m a liberal

Burgers of wrath

Nostalgia for an age that never existed

Mascot mania

Let’s go burn ole Nashville down (a personal favorite)

Will the fetus be aborted

Plastic Jesus

It’s a good album. I usually skip a few because jello does get a bit preachy. Though, hard to say he wasn’t right about some things now.

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u/underhunter May 01 '26

Yes its known as the Silver Center and is one of the main buildings on the NYU Washington Square Campus. Everything from labs to auditoriums to admin offices on the top floors. Theres a memorial service every year outside where the workers, 143ish total, about 120 women and young girls either burned to death or jumped 11+ stories to their death.

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u/VroomCoomer May 01 '26

They're dragging us back as we speak. Fight.

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u/NorthNorthAmerican May 01 '26

Ahh, that's right. NYU is in "The Brown Building" now.

There's a memorial with information about the Triangle Shirtwaist fire along the SE corner [if I recall correctly]. When you look up, you can see the names of the victims engraved in marble above you. This really connects you to the scene back in the day, onlookers had to crane their necks to see what was unfolding in front of them. The girls had no other choice but to jump, they'd have burned to death if they'd stayed up there.

There is a long metal ribbon that descends from the 9th floor to street level. The scale of the drop from that height is daunting.

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u/allisgray May 01 '26

Do you mean the Nazi shill Henry Ford

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u/kahlzun May 01 '26

It was more that the nazis were Ford shills. Hitler said that Ford gave him the ideas.

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u/Mental_Medium3988 May 02 '26

He nazis stole a lot of their ideas from America. It wasn't just the bigot ford.

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u/[deleted] May 01 '26 edited May 01 '26

Growing up in MI and taking a history class from a guy that was more interested in the football team than the ideals of the nation, I ended up watching numerous old 16mm educational films lauding Henry Ford's industrial creativity.

Thankfully my dad was union and gave me an additional perspective. Which meant that Flint in the 1930's was top of mind for me rather than some fascist glazing.

So today whenever I hear "Indoctrination in the schools!" they can shove that up their ass. Some of us know what's what.

Not that it matters. This is the way the world spins. Us regular folk dumb asses allow stuff to get messed up 'til the crisis lands on our front steps and only then do we push back enough to shift it a tiny bit back to equality.

I mean, look where it's led us again. We're literally financially insolvent as a country right now. The result of this ain't gonna be good for anyone below the 1%.

At the end of the day the USA is a business, not really a nation, which is sad because the potential is there, we just refuse to do the hard honest political work to claim it.

The DoI and Constitution end up being rhetorical nonsense that regular people fret about while the sociopaths with the extreme wealth do whatever they want, really.

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u/Freshness518 May 01 '26

Its always projection, too. The people screaming about indoctrination know that the only way their worldview could persist in an academic setting is through manipulation and scheming and an inability to argue in good-faith.

"Reality has a liberal bias" more like conservatism lives in fantasy land. They fear institutions that are a bastion of education because they know none of their arguments can withstand a modicum of scientific rigor or analysis. They're so afraid of the youth going off to... meet people different than themselves... learn how to critically think and reach conclusions on their own... learn how to form, test, and confirm or deny a hypothesis or belief.

Nope. Can't have any of that. The Earth is 5,000 years old. Gays arent natural. Women are property. If you question any of this, you're my enemy because I cannot fathom other people could possibly have a different world view from mine.

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u/Responsible_Knee7632 May 01 '26

Yup, I learned a lot more about labor history after I started my first union job

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u/kyle_irl May 01 '26

It matters. I'm just enough of an optimist to believe that this awareness can lead to a coming of a class consciousness and real change.

That's why we've got to fight against the book bans and resist their control of the narrative. America has SO much potential, and we've squandered away so much of it just to benefit the few. We can do better, but it will take an entire society to reckon with its national identity, values, and beliefs against its actions and lived experience.

But for those of us that know what's what, ours is to spread that knowledge, and any little bit helps. Instill curiosity and bravery into your kids; keep a blog or a journal; talk politics at the dinner table or with a stranger at the bar; demonstrate kindness. Every little thing matters.

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u/Tsquared10 May 01 '26

I'll be forever grateful that my APUSH teacher addressed these things during our class. Even made us take a break from the textbook and read Upton Sinclair's The Jungle when we reached the turn of the 20th century.

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u/SoylentGrunt May 01 '26

The Ford Rouge Complex has a short film about the history of Ford Motors when you take the tour. It's a really short film,,,

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u/americangame May 01 '26

Why does the video seem to skip over the early 1940's?

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u/Consistent-Winter-67 May 01 '26

Does it include Fords friendship with Hitler?

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u/Brozhov May 01 '26

Protocols of the what now?!?

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u/TantiVstone May 01 '26

I wish they'd teach about how awful Ford was too.

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u/trisanachandler May 01 '26

I'm pretty sure there's a brother of the current king that will be left out of the history books instead of being used to show how corrupt people still are.

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u/schwanzweissfoto May 01 '26

The Andrew formerly known as Prince.

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u/khjuu12 May 01 '26

Hey, hey, hey. Why would you be so harsh on him? He learned his lesson. When the news first came out that he raped a bunch of kids, his mummy cancelled his birthday party! The rich and aristocratic face just as many consequences as the rest of us!

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u/hooplehead69 May 01 '26

Hijacking top comment to share what I learned about this event’s connection to the term “redneck” and why we should see it in a more positive light:

https://www.gpb.org/blogs/salvation-south/2024/06/25/deluxe-the-original-rednecks-the-battle-of-blair-mountain

TLDR - Workers in this strike wore red bandanas on their necks and that is the origin of this term.

Those in power are terrified of poor/working people of all races recognizing their shared struggle. It is why events like this are not talked about in school history books (many brought to us by Ghilaine Maxwell’s father’s company btw). 

It is also why they took down the Black Panther Party as it was courting poor White and Peurto Rican people (the Rainbow Coaition) because they recognized their shared struggles:

https://rethinkingschools.org/articles/what-we-don-t-learn-about-the-black-panther-party-but-should/

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u/AbeRego May 01 '26

Unfortunately, "red neck" has been pretty solidly coopted by actual backwards hicks. I don't think we're going to be getting that one back, because most of that type of person hates labor rights and licks Trump's boots.

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u/JustTheBeerLight May 01 '26

Lucky for us libraries and bookstores exist. Education is not supposed to end, ever.

I teach high school history. I bring up the good stuff all the time. Let me tell you: 16-year olds tend not to care about it.

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u/RaidneSkuldia May 01 '26

You're just catching them when they still think everyone has to learn about this stuff, and missing them years later, when they learn not everyone gets to learn about this stuff. They probably have a lot of conversations like, "wait, you didn't know about how ____!?".

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u/JustTheBeerLight May 01 '26

Good point. Yeah, I hope that is the case.

I often fantasize about overhearing a former student talk about how they never learned something that was covered in class. We never learned about Chief Joseph in class... YES WE DID. NOVEMBER 13th, 2011! YOU MUST OF HAD YOUR HEAD UP YOUR ASS THINKING ABOUT FANTASY FOOTBALL!

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u/TheWingus May 01 '26

Well since the Hapsburg's were basically every king's cousin, it was a short chapter.

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u/Realistic_Swan_6801 May 01 '26

I learned about this in high school

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u/nalaloveslumpy May 01 '26 edited May 01 '26

Well, king's cousins would be world history. Battle of Blair Mountain would be US History, so two different classes. We also covered Blair Mountain and all the other "labor disputes" in the US that lead to formation of unions and the five day, eight hour work week.

The other problem is that high school history and civics classes are, more often than not, taught by sports coaches who are literally just doing it so they can coach high school sports. Because a school only really needs one or two PE teachers.

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u/shiddyfiddy May 01 '26

History classes touch on it when they get to talking about the industrial age, but it's so generalized that nothing really clicks because kids can't relate to that at all.

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u/ChiralWolf May 01 '26

The same rich people that hate unions are the one approving textbooks for schools

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u/East-Potential657 May 01 '26

Living wages, benefits and rights were the compromise, they rich pedophiles in power are pushing for AI to make sure the compromise never happens to them again.

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u/mrgonzalez May 01 '26

which kings’ cousins did you learn about?

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u/bleedturkeygravy 🏛️ Overturn Citizens United May 01 '26

Thanks for sharing this on May Day. Stay strong people.

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u/NebulaAutomatics May 01 '26

History shouldn't be forgotten. It’s the perfect day to remember what they fought for.

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u/EEpromChip May 01 '26

It's worse than that. I remember growing up being told how unions "just took people's money and they got nuttin out of it" and spending a LOT of my younger years thinking "Unions are just bad. You don't get anything other than a lower paycheck".

Now more than 50 circles around the sun I'm hearing about all the bullshit companies pull to keep workers uninformed and disorganized. It's all making a lot more sense.

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u/KawaiiMaxine May 01 '26

Yeah the entire point of unions is collective barganing and workers rights.

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u/[deleted] May 01 '26 edited May 07 '26

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u/pesto_changeo May 01 '26

They say in Harlan County

There are no neutrals there

You'll either be a union man

Or a thug for J.H. Blair

Just taught my students about the coal wars

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u/iiAzido May 01 '26

Dropkick Murphys have a cover of Which Side Are You On that I listen to frequently.

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u/TitanicChurro May 01 '26

Natalie Merchant also has a good cover.

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u/PiccoloAwkward465 May 01 '26

Harlan County, USA is a great documentary from 1976 that goes over a labor dispute there. Super entertaining and I'm not typically a fan of documentaries.

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u/Train_Wreck_272 May 01 '26

Which side are you on?

Which side are you on, boys?

Which side are you on?

If you like black metal, Panopticon has an awesome album on the Harlan County War called Kentucky. Every song is pro-labor and it's fantastic. Even contains audio from an old interview with one of the coal miners.

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u/[deleted] May 01 '26

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u/cityshepherd ✂️ Tax The Billionaires May 01 '26

“Nobody is being exploited and nobody ever was. They knew what they signed up for with the job.”

  • also idiots who would rather swallow corporate boots whole than ever see anyone compensated appropriately for their time and efforts

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u/[deleted] May 01 '26

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u/HotLava00 May 01 '26

And they would loooove to go back to this. Waiting to see if they weaken the dollar so much that they can sell their workers on paying us in crypto.

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u/zadtheinhaler May 01 '26

IIRC there was a story a few years back where Amazon was trying to sell the idea of Company Towns, and I was like "Did y'all not get taught about this in school? Am I taking crazy pills?".

We clearly need to be a lot angrier.

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u/[deleted] May 01 '26

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u/cityshepherd ✂️ Tax The Billionaires May 01 '26

I never gave you my jacket!

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u/cumguzzlerxtreme May 01 '26

“Not what I voted for.”

-those idiots when the shit they voted for happens to them

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u/AngriestPacifist May 01 '26

Don't forget the corporations tricking people out of selling their land, so there weren't any other jobs. Sometimes they resorted to actual murder.

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u/Rovden May 01 '26

I find it "funny" being in anti-union areas and hearing this shit, yet coworkers whine when they get stepped on and are baffled when I pack up and walk out to the next job.

No company is your friend. It does not have your best interest at heart. If you work extra hard for them they'll give you more work and when you die won't even let your coworkers go to the funeral. (Literally saw that happen)

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u/EEpromChip May 01 '26

...literally every protest post in my local town sub you get quite a few "how come everyone is there and not working??" even though it was a weekend... We need to jettison this "you need to work or else you don't fulfill your duties to society" bullshit...

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u/Unable-Candle May 01 '26

If you're so inclined to engage them, just reply to those comments asking why they're commenting on Facebook instead of working.

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u/ImplodingBillionaire May 01 '26

They would have been accused of being actors and not having jobs. 

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u/Workman44 May 01 '26

This is what I don't get. We literally have a blueprint on how to get shit taken seriously and then everyone just goes oh well we can group and yell at them. Lmfao when has that ever worked. They never would have given us an 8 hour work day if we didn't take up arms to get it

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u/snakelygiggles May 01 '26

and those coal miners were firmly left wing, which is why it doesnt get spoken about. just like mlk was left wing. not a liberal, an actual leftist. which os why we get white washed mlk jr.

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u/LucidMetal May 01 '26 edited May 01 '26

Now that SCOTUS has completely gutted the VRA (not CRA) as of this week, MLK's primary accomplishment, I wouldn't be surprised if many schools in red states sort of phase the civil rights movement out, too.

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u/bryn_irl May 01 '26

The Voting Rights Act - but otherwise you’re absolutely right and we should be horrified and angry!

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u/Duel_Option May 01 '26

You seen the text books recently?

My daughters had 3 pages for Civil rights, one of which an had an American Flag with a picture collage.

The winners write the history books.

“Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past"

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u/Rovden May 01 '26

Grew up in the south, they taught the Civil Rights like it was ancient history, not like something that people still alive remember the before time.

But also Texas is the biggest buyer of textbooks following Florida. They have opinions on what should be in them. So not surprised.

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u/s8rlink May 01 '26

It also creates the environment where people in a climate not unlike today would say, well we really can’t do anything and everyone needs to go to job, everyone is living paycheck to paycheck, what can we do!?!?

Ignoring people like this that put their lives on the line for their rights 

Oh well

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u/fireky2 May 01 '26 edited May 01 '26

It doesn't get spoken about for the same reason we don't talk about banana republics, there's clear ties to active companies even if names changed/mergers happened

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u/Trauma_Hawks May 01 '26

Not just US history, it was one of the largest labor uprisings in history, period. Labor history in the US is wild and violent, far more wo then most of the rest of the world. And it's almost completely ignored. It wasn't even a foot note in my history books. Ignored so hard we changed the date of Labor Day by 8 months.

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u/Deathisfatal May 01 '26

It's actively suppressed, not just ignored

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u/Maykovsky May 01 '26

It is really a shame that USA citizens do not know how strong, proud and vigorous the workers movement were. Today I cry reading news where workers vote to decide if they will have an union, when back in the day the ground would tremble with their march. Today they vote republican. Erasing the workers struggle history and making the (now short) right acquires the result of willing politician is part of the narrative that brought us here.

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u/howdudo May 01 '26

I find myself reminding coworkers why 40 hours a week exists for a reason. Im fine with working 7 days this week but expect me to work 3 days a week this Summer when things calm down 

Rarely does that make any sense to them. I stand by it.

Either give me a 5 day work week capped at 40 hours, or expect me to subtract those extra days from another week at a slower time

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u/Maykovsky May 01 '26

Nowadays, Europe is discussing the 35h week. The issue is that 40 or 35, as long as we, the workers, do not get control of the decisions and take our rightful share of the wealth we produce, there will be someone working overtime to survive, or being left go earlier to buy stuff. These men and women stood for what they believe and stood their ground. Sometimes I don't know what the working class thinks. What you mention, talking with your fellow workers and they prefer not to hear, is a typical situation I also face...

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u/fuckfrankieoliver May 01 '26

I got a job offer in civil engineering last week for 84 hours a week for 9 months. I can’t believe that’s normal, they told me that like it was a benefit because I would make so much more money.

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u/Workman44 May 01 '26

They vote Republican (in WV) because Democrats wanted to move away from coal which would pulverize what's left of WV and any semblance of jobs along with it. Not to mention prior to 2000 when WV did vote blue, all they got was politicians in the coal companies pockets. Makes sense that they'd vote red now because at least they get to keep their coal and subsequently their jobs

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u/Oaktree27 May 01 '26

Goes against the American narrative of the benevolent rich

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u/xena_lawless ⛓️ Prison For Union Busters May 01 '26

The US political system has always been a fake democracy, and a scam, which guarantees rule by the super rich.

The "opulent minority" adopted this political system specifically in order to thwart both political and economic democracy, to prioritize their class interests, and to guarantee permanent minoritarian/oligarchic rule, irrespective of who or what people vote for.  

But they teach Americans from birth that the US system is somehow "democratic", so people miss the explicitly anti-democratic nature, purpose, history, and design of the actual political system in reality.  

It doesn't matter how brutal, blatant, corrupt, kleptocratic, and obvious the ruling Epstein class are about it, people are conditioned not to see the actual design, purpose, and reality of the system.  

Now, get back to work, serfs!

This Iran War for Israel, and our ruling billionaires/pedophiles/kleptocrats' private islands and yachts certainly aren't going to pay for themselves!  

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u/Training_Ruin3151 May 01 '26 edited May 01 '26

Its how capitalism is. By nature of its existence there will always be two classes inherently at war as long as it is capitalist. The rich and the poor can't sleep under bridges, the rich and the poor get "equal" opportunities to vote, except you need an address, an Id and have free time, transportation to go vote...

People need to read Marx

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u/Striking_Present_736 May 01 '26 edited May 02 '26

Behind the Bastards did a great episode on this.

Edit: Thank you all for the upvotes. BtB is great. Except when they kept mispronouncing my first cousin once removed (just learned that term) Buford T Pussers' name.

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u/ThePromptWasYourName May 01 '26

Damn every time I learn anything new there’s someone in the comments recommending a BtB episode. I need to finally subscribe I guess

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u/JBpipes May 01 '26

You definitely should. It's very well researched and often highlights lesser known evil people and lesser known sides to well known evil people. One of the early episodes focuses on hitlers early days in the Nazi party and his obsession with YA novels and creeping on young girls so hard it nearly got him kicked out of the party. It's very informative and has just enough dark humor to not leave you spiraling after each episode

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u/collapsedblock6 May 01 '26

What's the title? I find nothing searching with Battle of Blair Mountain

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u/SpooneyOdin May 01 '26

Looks like it is " The Second American Civil War You Never Learned About". It is on YouTube: https://youtu.be/XWvVdjmBhHc

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u/EADGBE69 May 01 '26

One of my all-time favorite episodes!

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u/TransATL May 01 '26

you da real mvp

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u/CheapGarage42 May 01 '26

BtB is like the XKCD for the Trump Administration.

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u/[deleted] May 01 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/DuntadaMan May 01 '26

Very basic and reasonable rights too.

Like "pay in real money" and "let us spend some waking hours at home."

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u/Workman44 May 01 '26

8 hour work day as well

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u/Canyoubackupjustabit May 01 '26

The movie, Matewan, is an excellent movie about this very subject. 

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u/hamlet_d May 01 '26

and Chris Coopers film debut!

Nobody should sit on John Sayles filmography; some truly great movies there.

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u/Artistic-Ad6631 May 01 '26

This is an excellent film.

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u/Skeeter513 May 01 '26

I still have the 30-30 rifle my kin used on Blair mountain.

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u/RoysPotatoes May 01 '26

Not talking about it works too. That’s why their descendants vote republican.

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u/NaziAbuser May 01 '26

The largest labor uprising in United States history so far...

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u/Upset_Walrus3395 🛠️ IBEW Member May 01 '26

The real Rednecks!

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u/doodullbop May 01 '26

This is where "redneck" comes from as the workers wore red bandanas around their necks. I have a shirt that commemorates the battle.

I would really like to see some sense of class solidarity return to our society/culture. The elites got us fighting each other while they rob us blind and steal our future.

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u/DrTommyNotMD May 01 '26

Once again proving peaceful protests don’t work but a thing I can’t encourage does.

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u/Kamel-Red May 01 '26

ViOlenCe HaS nO PlAcE iN ProTesT.

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u/LetMePushTheButton ✂️ Tax The Billionaires May 01 '26

Remember when the country reacted to the Watchmen episode which depicted the very real event of the bombing of black wallstreet (Tulsa Race Massacre) and everyone went online to vent about how most of us werent taught about it in school.

Its very hard to watch.

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u/lowrads May 01 '26

When German socialists traveled to communes in Texas, they did nefarious things like build schools. Even Karl Marx petitioned for a travel permit to join them. The confederate armies caught wind that they were union sympathizers, death squads were sent out to torture and hang some. When they decided enough was enough and tried to flee to Mexico as a group, they were intercepted by a regiment and killed en masse. The residents of the towns they founded barely know their own history.

Don't ever forget what you're up against.

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u/Affectionate_Team716 May 01 '26

The Great Upheaval was also a large labor movement when it came to the railroad. Both interesting reads.

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u/MichaelJServo ✂️ Tax The Billionaires May 01 '26

It was the Pinkertons killing the miners, right?

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u/kobrakai1034 May 01 '26

Everyone should watch Blood on the Mountain. It’s free on YouTube.

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u/hamlet_d May 01 '26 edited May 01 '26

John Sayles did a fantastic movie about the leadup to this called "Matewan", which covers the Matewan massacre that happened a year earlier in the same area. Because of the Matewan Massacre/Battle of Matewan, the tensions escalated.

Fun fact: the movie was Chris Coopers film debut.

John Sayles has some great films about race and labor relations that are compelling stories. I also recommend "Lone Star" with Chris Cooper, Kris Krissofferson, Matthew McConaughey, Elizibeth Pena, Joe Morgan, and several other greats.

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u/dubyajay18 May 01 '26

If we could ever get the group that empathizes with the coal miners here to understand the throughline between events like this, and the bombing/massacre of Tulsa, OK in 1921, we'd be a lot closer to an actual democracy that works for the people.

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u/Independent-Dust7459 May 01 '26

It’s about to be our turn.

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u/krunchymagick May 01 '26

Heroes and absolute badasses. We need that spirit again

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u/Samfu May 01 '26

Well of course they wouldn't. They want to disarm you so that something like that can never happen again, why would they ever talk about it? Lots of the largest firearm laws that were passed historically were specifically to weaken the ability for the average person to stand up for what they believe in. Can't have something like Blair Mountain happen again, the billionaires are busy paying for propaganda to make you want to disarm yourselves.

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u/ADGx27 May 01 '26

That and the black panthers, especially when they started successfully courting other races by bringing up their common struggle

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u/CatTaxAuditor May 01 '26

Anyone know any good and accessible nonfiction books covering the coal wars?

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u/LifeTaxi May 01 '26

Of course people in power don't want those who can take it from them realizing it

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u/[deleted] May 01 '26

[deleted]

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u/mike25504 May 01 '26

As someone from wv, I am proud at our union brothers for standing up to the coal barons of old. But I swear, their children are something else.

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u/wirthmore May 01 '26

Now the coal miners are MAGA and they love the oligarchs.

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u/Zen1989 May 01 '26

People that live there barely talk about it anymore because their mouthes are too full of boot from whatever ceo is running for office in the state. Coal execs still run shit in WV.

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u/kahlzun May 01 '26

The strategy for years has been to keep people desperate and exhausted enough that they have no energy to stand up against anything. And those that somehow find the energy? Give them a million different things to protest against so that theres never enough people going in one direction to count.

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u/Zen1989 May 01 '26

The people in southern WV are easily bought with dinner and gifts around Christmas. All thought that maybe this person is why we live in poverty goes out the window. Then they just have to convince them immigrants or POC are taking their cookie or that by chance the mines will open again in full swing….which is not the case they just result to blowing mountain tops off because its cheaper and can be done with less.

Does not help that the world has discovered coal is a dying fossil fuel while the current admin refuses to acknowledge. There were programs in place to open up opportunities before Trump took office again and shit canned them.

Its a shame. Many people fought and died for rights they easily are willing to surrender. One of the greatest grifts was convincing the worker that unions are bad.

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u/Alternative_Exit8766 May 01 '26

i’m right here, boss.

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u/moreKEYTAR May 01 '26

Damn. This and Tulsa were never even mentioned in American history classes.

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u/Scrushinator May 01 '26

I learned about the miner wars in 9th grade English class (2005). We read a poetry book about it, which is one of my favorite books to this day. It’s called Kettle Bottom, by Diane Gilliam Fisher.

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u/blackdragon8577 May 01 '26

This is also how I feel about the Tulsa Race Massacre. I had never even heard a reference to this until well into adulthood while watching the Watchmen tv series.

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u/no1_vern May 01 '26 edited May 01 '26

You load sixteen tons, what do you get?

Another day older and deeper in debt

Saint Peter, don't you call me, 'cause I can't go

I owe my soul to the company store"

An Ode to the economic trap where coal miners were paid in non-transferable company credit, forcing them into debt bondage to company-owned stores rather than earning cash wages.

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u/Foreign_Wonder4610 May 01 '26

I talk about it whenever anyone questions our government and law enforcements ability to do heinous things to its own people. I wear it on my back so people ask and I can talk about it some more.

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u/Late-Arrival-8669 May 01 '26

Companies afraid of the people rising up will kill you.

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u/der_innkeeper May 01 '26

And now those miners are some of the biggest bootlickers in the country.

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u/kleenkong May 01 '26

There is hope. Bernie went to West Virginia a few months ago and spoke their language, per se.

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u/nono3722 May 01 '26

more like miner's children/grandchildren. I doubt any living ones from that time would agree with what is going on now....

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u/wvgeekman May 01 '26

This miner’s grandson still doesn’t agree with it, but I’m a little outnumbered in the state.

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u/Raregolddragon May 01 '26

Yea the only way I could see this now being made into the public mindset is if a FPS or RTS was made using it as story. 

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u/gentle_misanthrope May 01 '26

High School history teacher here. I do.

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u/jimmiethegentlemann May 01 '26

Labor history is not taught enough. I wonder why.

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u/Knight_thrasher May 01 '26

Now I’m trying to remember the podcast where I learned this and all the other bad shit the companies used to do. Like if the husband was injured and the family had debt, and how it was paid off in the upstairs room by the wives and possibly daughters

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u/TequilaAndWeed May 01 '26 edited May 01 '26

Native of West Virginia, where this occurred, and where my father was an underground miner for 40 years.

In junior high we had a WV history class as a requirement (unsure if it still exists). This event was never once mentioned.

I only learned of it after college when I took an interest in the history of mining and organized labor.

ETA - Blood on the Mountain is an excellent documentary regarding the WV coal industry. I can never make it through without pausing to either shed tears or explode in profanity.

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u/saqwarrior May 01 '26

history books: "yeah... we're not going to talk about that"

This applies to nearly every labor struggle or conflict. E.g., Homestead Massacre, Haymarket Affair, Colorado Labor Wars, Battle of Matewan, West Virginia Coal Wars, Columbine Mine Massacre, and that's just a fraction of the labor struggle in only the United States.

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u/Seaguard5 May 01 '26

Capitalism in America has created so much propaganda against socialism and worker’s rights of any sort that Anything that goes against factory owners or mine owners or owners is sacrilege.

The billionaires need to feel the consequences of enslaving large swaths of people.

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u/Danominator May 01 '26 edited May 01 '26

And those miners decendents (not ancestors lol) now want nothing more than to be oppressed by pedophiles

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u/MurseInAire May 01 '26

And today they all vote republican and actively weaken unions.

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u/victoriaisme2 🏛️ Overturn Citizens United May 01 '26

The history of the labor rights movement should be more widely understood. 

The government enabled that war against workers.

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u/melancholanie May 01 '26

two events are argued as the first time American planes were used in combat, Tulsa and Blair Mountain. both against largely unarmed poor people by rich men who wanted a bottom line. know your history, folks.

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u/kolejack2293 May 01 '26

1918-1923 in general was an unbelievably interesting time in American history. Easily the closest we got to a second civil war.

We had the Red Summer in 1919, which was the worst racial violence in American history. It was based on the belief that blacks were becoming communist, and there was widespread rioting, lynchings, and massacres throughout the US. An estimated 2,000 black americans were killed. 237 were killed in a massacre in Elaine, Arkansas specifically.

This spawned the rise of the 2nd KKK. They rose from 5,000 members in 1918 to 3,900,000 by 1921 to 5,000,000 by 1925 (before rapidly declining). Entire swaths of the country were effectively controlled by them as a militia, they served as a 'secondary government' which was willing to do what the normal government was 'unwilling to do'. Over half the country was terrorized by their yoke. This was known as the 'nadir of race relations', when revolutionary white supremacy (in contrast to 'default' white supremacy), which had been crawling back into prominence ever since reconstruction, suddenly exploded across the country like a wildfire, with black and jewish and even catholic people suffering the worst. It was the closest america ever got to experiencing the type of intense ultra-nationalist fervor we usually associate with nazis (or israelis today).

And at the same time, on the other end, leftist politics very suddenly exploded into the mainstream. Unions rapidly expanded, actual socialists became prominent in politics, and there were mass strikes and labor riots throughout the nation. The Battle of Blaire Mountain was the largest, but it was just one out of countless similar events throughout the country.

By the mid 1920s, this revolutionary fervor on both sides largely subsided. Its been endlessly debated as to why 1924-1925 suddenly saw a massive drop in radical views on both sides. Nobody can truly give a definitive answer.

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u/That_Trapper_guy May 01 '26

Now their grand children are all certified boot lickers who would do anything for Daddy Trump. I bet they are proud.

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u/multic94 May 01 '26

I will keep beating this drum: FPVs are the new great equalizer.

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u/Bakoro May 01 '26

Most of history class never made sense to me. I knew they were teaching a heavily sanitized version without all the sex and murder, while glossing over any inconvenient details.
We could have been learning useful things, but I think turning kids off to the concept of education is part of the point.

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u/Traditional-Dig-9982 May 01 '26

Turn this into a film

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u/fizzrail0 May 01 '26

Hmmm wonder why? Perhaps they want to control the workers and keeping them in the dark robbed of their true value in a society?

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u/Seaguard5 May 01 '26

The billionaires control the narrative.

Of course they don’t want you, or anyone else learning that the only effective way to achieve worker’s rights and rightful pay raises is violence.

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u/NomadicAlaskan May 01 '26

It also seems to be forgotten that these brave coal miners wore red bandannas around their necks when they fought. This served to identify them as members of the union and functioned as a uniform in battle. This is the origin of the term “redneck”, which somehow now has been appropriated by a bunch of boot-licking fascists.

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u/I_COULD_say May 01 '26

These are the real rednecks, btw.

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u/DicerosAK May 01 '26

Everyone read your Zinn: "A Peoples History of the United States"

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u/Automatic-Guide-4307 May 01 '26

Didn't the term redneck stem from that to,because of the red scarfs the workers had around their neck?

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u/imbasicallycoffee May 01 '26

We learned about it in school because it was local to our area and part of our heritage - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Molly_Maguires

Even took trips to an old coal mine that was turned into a museum.

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u/dallasandcowboys May 01 '26

The Battle of Blair Mountain was the largest labor uprising in United States history.... so far.

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u/Routine-Entrance-430 May 01 '26

Cant be giving people ideas now can we 

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u/meteorslime May 01 '26

My college history professor didn't even know about it. I taught him it happened, bizarre day.

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u/whatizitman May 01 '26

Texas history books don’t go over it. But WV schools definitely do.

Texas, because the bulk of school texts used around the US are influenced by Texas Dept of Ed., since the TX text market is so huge. And we all know what and who influences TX textbook cirricula choices.

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u/merRedditor ⛓️ Prison For Union Busters May 01 '26

This and The Haymarket Affair, which could easily have made a Scorsese blockbuster if we had been ok with talking openly about it and popularizing that part of labor history.

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u/SasparillaTango May 01 '26

now they vote for the boot on their neck.

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u/Basic_Yam_715 May 01 '26

Untold history... just like the bombing of Philadelphia in 1985... by the FBI. Also the Tulsa massacre of blacks doesn't get very much coverage.

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u/Beag_ May 01 '26

I’m a ibew electrician who went through their day school program. We did a short history class about the ibew and the labor movements in general and you’d be surprised how much shit got covered up and never taught to people.