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Hellraisers Journal – Friday August 27, 1909
Industrial War at McKees Rocks, New Castle, & Butler, Pennsylvania
From the Spokane Industrial Worker of August 26, 1909:
-from page 2
Massacre of Working People
The strike of the workers at the Pressed Steel Car plant, and at McKees Rocks, New Castle and Butler, Pa., near Pittsburg, is being fought by the employers and their troops with all the brutally and outrage which remind one of Homestead and the other slaughter pens of America. In addition to numerous outrages on the part of the employers’ troops, on August 22, 10 strikers were killed buy the militia, who opened a volley fire on the crowd of men, women and children. Four of the bloodthirsty soldiers were killed in the fight. They, at least, will never kill any more strikers. The account of the affair, while distressing, is a reminder that the fighting spirit of the workers is not dead, and that the working people are realizing that they have no rights to life, liberty, or the pursuit of happiness, unless they have the power themselves to enforce those rights. It is not for the parlor, kidglove revolutionist to preach meekness and “peaceful methods” to these brave workers who are fighting for their lives and to protect the honor of their families, nor for other working people to lay down hard and fast rules for those who are goaded and stung by tyranny and oppression……
It has taken untold tears and bloodshed to prove that the working class must unite as a class. The I. W. W. is the hope of those who detest bloodshed, and who, not deluded by reliance on the laws of the enemy, are still able to recognize that industrial control includes military control, and that the supreme court of society is in the world’s bread-basket.
The principal speaker at a mass meeting at Indian Mound on August 15 was the general organizer of the I. W. W., Wm. E. Trautmann. There were over 8,000 present at this meeting. The account of this meeting will be found in an extract from an employing class paper, the Pittsburg Post, on pages 1-3 of this paper [page 2 of August 16th edition, see newsclip]. This fight is against the United States Steel Corporation-an industrial union of employers. It is up to the working people of American and the world to help themselves by giving money to the strikers, and publicity to the cruelties practiced on the striking workers in Pennsylvania. An injury to one is an injury to all.
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[Newsclip added is from Pittsburgh Post of August 16, 1909.]
-from page 1
INDUSTRIAL WAR IN PENNSYLVANIA
—–TO ALL SOCIALIST AND PROGRESSIVE LABOR
PAPERS, PERIODICALS, ETC.Comrades in Battle and Strife:
It ought to be superfluous to explain in detail the import of the enclosed circulars and appeals for aid.
The evidence that the members of the Amalgamated Association of Iron, Steel and Tin Workers are not the only class of workers engaged in conflict with the “United States Steel Corporation” are so convincing and irrefutable that every one is bound to see in these skirmishes the forebodings of still fiercer battles of workers against the endeavors of the Trust to degrade them down to the low stage of soulless animals.
The men and women in McKees Rocks, composed of workers of 14 different tongues, would have won their fight long ago were they fighting an individual concern. But the Pressed Steel Car Co. is listed among the properties of the Trust. And so are the car construction plants in Butler., Pa., where thousands were driven back to work by hunger and the lashes of hessians controlled by the steel corporation.
These struggles of workers against further repressions are the most encouraging signs, and bode well that the proletarians will not meekly submit. You will agree with us that the men and women, nor the children shall go about hungry while fighting these skirmishes in behalf of the whole class of the downtrodden.
Your valuable paper should therefore help in the task to procure the necessities for life for these thousands.
In publishing the appeals you are also requested to open up a collection for funds, or rather act as a receiving station for the committees, and you could rest assured that it will be highly appreciated if you would publish every day the names of contributors through the medium of your paper. Your consent to these arrangements would be announced in all meetings of strikers in this district, so that they may learn who the real supporters are in the struggles of the workers.
Believe us that we will appreciate all the co-operation you care to give us.
In behalf of the Joint Strike Committee and Relief Fund Association.
CHAS. McKEEVER,
New Castle, Pa.
ALBERT HENYEY,
McKees Rocks, Pa.———–
-from pages 1+3
FROM TIN MILL WORKERS.
New Castle, Pa., Aug. 16, 1909
To All Friends and Supporters of Workers in Revolt: Fellow Workers, Greeting:
The United States Steel Corporation declared war against the workers six weeks ago, but they little reckoned with the forces that by their action had been aroused…..
Send all contributions to Strikers’ Relief, Box 22, New Castle, Pa., and notify Albert Henyey, 23 Bouquet street, McKees Rocks, of how the contributions are to be divided between the strikers of McKees Rocks and New castle.
TIN MILL WORKERS INDUSTRIAL UNION NO. 289, I. W. W.
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-from page 3
Committee on Mass Meeting of Car Builders’ Industrial Union of America, McKees Rocks, Pa.
Secretary of Committee, Albert Henyey, 723 Bouquet St., McKees Rocks, Pa.
Resolution adopted in monster mass meeting, Sunday, Aug. 15, 1909, on Indian Mound, McKees Rocks, Pa. Ten thousand in attendance.
To the workers every where: The ringing cries and protests of workers in revolt, 10,000 of them assembled today on historic Indian Mound, should be heard by thousands around the universe….
The thousands of the Indian Mound appeal to the world to listen and to learn. To read the proceedings of coming events and prepare to fight as a class of downtrodden, for coming resistance, for the great battles against attacks by the corporations, their agencies and powerful institutions and for the last struggle for complete industrial freedom.
ALBERT HENYEY,
Secretary of the Mass Meeting.
Note: Emphasis added throughout.
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SOURCES
Quote Mother Jones, Powers of Privilege, Ab Chp III
https://www.iww.org/history/library/MotherJones/autobiography/3
Industrial Worker
(Spokane, Washington)
-Aug 26, 1909
https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/industrialworker/iw/v1n24-aug-26-1909-IW.pdf
IMAGE
IWW McKees Rocks, HdLn re Mass Mtg Indian Mound Aug 15, Ptt Pst p2, Aug 16, 1909
https://www.newspapers.com/image/86955538
See also:
Tag: McKees Rocks Pressed Steel Car Strike of 1909
https://weneverforget.org/tag/mckees-rocks-pressed-steel-car-strike-of-1909/
Tag: William E Trautmann
https://weneverforget.org/tag/william-e-trautmann/
Homestead Steel Strike 1892
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homestead_strike
James Connolly, A Full Life
A Biography of Ireland’s Renowned Trade Unionist
and Leader of the 1916 Easter Rising
-by Donal Nevin
Gill & Macmillan Ltd, Sep 19, 2006
(search: “Connolly’s last involvement”)
(search: “Car Builders Industrial Union”)
https://books.google.com/books?id=0vT4AwAAQBAJ
The Pittsburgh Post
(Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania)
-Aug 16, 1909, page 2
https://www.newspapers.com/image/86955538
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The Homestead Strike – Joe Glazer