This is always a sad and bitter time
in the class struggle, to see brave workers
who had suffered and sacrificed
compelled to accept defeat.
-Elizabeth Gurley Flynn
Hellraisers Journal, Monday September 25, 1916
Virginia, Minnesota – Central Strike Committee Calls Off Strike
The Central Strike Committee, consisting of fifteen striking miners representing the strikers from the various towns along the Mesabi Range and of the Italian, Finnish, and Slavic nationalities, met in Virginia on September 17th and made the difficult decision to call off the strike of the iron ore miners. The striking miners and their families are facing the long, bitter, Minnesota winter with relief funds too meager to meet the needs of the hungry families.
The Strikers News, “Official Strike Bulletin of the Striking Iron Ore Miners of the Mesaba Range,” of September 22nd published the proclamation ending the strike which reads in part:
In rebellion against intolerable conditions we came out on strike, entirely unorganized, without funds, experience or acquaintance with one another. We were compelled to rely on the labor movement throughout the country for relief to provide bread for our wives and babies. Hundreds of our ranks as well as our organizers and speakers were arrested, and the latter group are now in jail facing a charge of murder…
We have fought all summer and have grappled with the mighty octopus the Steel Trust with all the power we possessed. But we feel it would be unwise to prolong our battle through the terrible cold of a Minnesota winter.
The proclamation pledges that the struggle will be renewed next spring, “unless conditions are so improved that it becomes unnecessary.”
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SOURCES
“The Fanned Flames of Discontent: A Solidarity-Inspired History of the Identity/Ideology, Cultural History, and Rhetorical Strategies of the Wobblies During the 1916 Minnesota Iron Ore Strike” by Gary Kaunonen
Dissertation, Michigan Technological University, 2015.
http://digitalcommons.mtu.edu/etds/944
http://digitalcommons.mtu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1947&context=etds
The Industrial Workers of the World, 1905-1917
– by Philip S Foner
International Publishers, 1965
(Chp 22: The Mesabi Range Strike)
https://books.google.com/books?id=UiScKGtes8EC
The Rebel Girl: an autobiography, my first life (1906-1926)
-by Elizabeth Gurley Flynn
International Publishers, 1973
(“Solomon’s Decision,” page 212)
https://books.google.com/books?id=JawEAQAAIAAJ
IMAGE
Solidarity, Mesabi, Get Out of the Way, by R Chaplin (Bingo), Aug 19, 1916
http://www.iww.org/node/2556
-For date and title of cartoon:
Rebel Voices: An IWW Anthology by Joyce L Kornbluh
PM Press, Mar 1, 2013
(Search: “august 19, 1916”)
https://books.google.com/books?id=sE0Qc0M61fkC
-For Ralph Chaplin as Bingo:
(+ many other sources…)
Wobblies!: A Graphic History of the Industrial Workers of the World
-by Paul Buhle, Nicole Schulman
Verso, 2005
(Search: bingo chaplin)
https://books.google.com/books?id=9ziQYFZgpBsC
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