Article by WorldNews.com Correspondent Dallas Darling.
"The strike is the weapon of the oppressed, of men capable of appreciating justice and having the courage to resist wrong and contend for principle." -Eugene Debs speaking to striking engineers and firemen during the Pullman Railroad Strike of 1887
"Ugh! Hideous and cheap looking. I will never shop there again." -Just one of tens of thousands of online comments when Gap revealed their new logo
When thousands of people went online protesting GAP's new logo claiming they would go on strike and boycott the clothing chain, it parodied an earlier era regarding America's Labor Movement. In 1911, a fire at the Triangle Shirtwaist Company in New York City killed 146 garment workers, many of whom were young Jewish women. They were unable to escape due to the factory doors that had been locked, either to hold workers at their machines or to prevent government inspectors from entering. As the fire raged, the young women leaped to their deaths from the eighth- and ninth-story windows. What followed was the Uprising of the Twenty Thousand, a massive general strike in New York City by shirtwaist workers.(1)
Clara Lemlich, a "wisp of a girl, still in her teens," offered the resolution that turned the walkouts from several shirtwaist factories into a general strike. She remarked, "I am a working girl, one of those who are on strike against intolerable conditions. I am tired of listening to speakers who talk in general terms."(2) Most of the young strikers, between the ages of 16 and 25, battled physical and sexual harassment while marching, along with beatings and mass arrests. Yet, after three months the Uprising of the Twenty Thousand led to the basis for better working conditions, new building codes like fire escapes, and a greater interest in unionization and labor activism.
Another labor strike at a shipping port led by the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) centered around the right of workers to assemble and to practice free-speech. When authorities in Everett, Washington arrested 400 striking and picketing dock workers, a national call for assistance did not go unheard. James Rowan from Seattle was sent to organize a solidarity campaign. When he stood up to speak in public, Rowan was arrested. A free-speech fight ensued.(3) As more workers arrived by ferryboat to build-up the free-speech forces, they were immediately surrounded, arrested and imprisoned. In one battle, private security forces shot striking workers killing 5 and wounding 27.(4)
Even though the labor leaders of the IWW were put on trial for murder-which was typical for those who supported the American Labor Movement, and which the victims of State and corporate security forces were treated as the instigators-the attempt to suppress and extinguish the freedom of assembly and speech backfired. In a highly publicized trial, the IWW's achieved acquittals or dismissals of charges. This in turn, fueled the determination for other workers to seek long-sought basic reforms and rights. In the years that followed, the Everett Massacre, as it was called, produced numerous gains for the freedoms to strike and picket and for the right to publicly speak about workplace abuses and injustices.(5)
Coppied by http://article.wn.com/view/2010/10/12/From_Labor_Strikes_to_Logo_Strikes/?section=TopStoriesWorldwide&template=worldnews/index.txt
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