Hellraisers Journal: From International Socialist Review: “Victory at McKees Rocks” by Louis Duchez, Part II

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Quote EVD to McKees Rocks Strikers, Aug 25, Butler PA Ctzn p1, Aug 26, 1909———-

Hellraisers Journal – Sunday October 10, 1909
Louis Duchez on Victory of McKees Rocks Strikers, Part II

From the International Socialist Review of October 1909:

IWW McKees Rocks, Victory by L Duchez, ISR p289, Oct 1909

[Part II of II.]

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On August 15th, the I. W. W. advertised a mass meeting to be held on Indian Mound. Large posters printed in five different languages were displayed. Eight thousand men attended the meeting—nearly all strikers, and many railroad men and trade unionists and laborers from Pittsburg.

William E. Trautman first addressed the meeting in English and German, after which the men were parcelled off in lots. Nine different nationalities were spoken to—besides these two—and to each man his own tongue.

To Ignatz Klavier, a Polander and member of the Socialist Party who speaks five languages fluently, much credit is due for enlightening the McKees Rocks strikers on the principles of industrial unionism. It was Klavier who, during the second week of the strike, brought out clearly the distinction between the A. F. of L. and the I. W. W. He was ably assisted by Henyey, a Hungarian, and Max Forker, a German.

A wonderful spirit of solidarity was shown by the trainmen of the Pittsburg, Ft. Wayne and Chicago and on the Pittsburg and Lake Erie roads—the only railroads running into McKees Rocks, when the trainmen refused to haul scabs to the plant. This is the first time in the history of labor troubles in the United States that this has been done. This was another example of the tactics of industrial unionism directly due to I. W. W. propaganda and education. Not only did the railroad men lend their aid to the strikers but the crews on the two company steamers, “The Queen” and “The Pheil,” refused to haul the scabs. This also is due to the work of the Unknown Committee and the great wonderful spirit of solidarity that is spontaneously stirring the wage slaves of the world. Even the school children of “Hunkeytown” refused to attend school until the strike was settled.

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Hellraisers Journal: Louis Duchez on Strikes Ongoing in McKees Rocks, Butler & New Castle, Pennsylvania, Part II

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Quote Mother Jones, Powers of Privilege, Ab Chp III———-

Hellraisers Journal – Saturday September 4, 1909
“The Strikes in Pennsylvania” by Louis Duchez, Part II

From the International Socialist Review of September 1909:

McKees Rocks Strike, Indian Mound Meeting, ISR p193, Sept 1909—–

[Steel Trust Bulls and Pennsylvania Cossacks]

The steel trust “bulls” and “Pennsylvania Cossacks” were rushed in by the hundreds to club the laborers to death. One poor Hungarian while on the run was shot twenty-four times in the back. Comrade J. W. Slayton has the coat and every bullet hole shows up. The victim is lying in the hospital at the point of death. Another one, an Italian, looked through a knot hole in the fence surrounding the company’s property and two “bulls” ran out with drawn revolvers. One of them kept him covered while the other beat him so badly that he had to be dragged away by his fellow strikers and carried to the hospital. It would take volumes to relate in all its detail the brutality and boldness and lawlessness of the Pressed Steel Car Company.

It is no wonder that the country was aroused over the matter. No one with human feeling and a cent to give could refrain from offering it to the poor, starving men and children and sick women, who were treated a thousands times worse than the serfs of the Middle Ages or the black chattel slaves of the South.

In Butler the strikers were treated about the same as in McKees Rocks. Before the “Cossacks” came all was quiet, aside from the fact that the company “bulls” did everything to start a riot.

When the “Cossacks” came into town, naturally, the striking men and their families would crowd along the main streets. Hundreds of them got out in the middle of the streets of the little village of Lyndora, the Standard Steel Car Company’s town, and the mounted constabulary rushed into them without warning.

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Hellraisers Journal: Louis Duchez on Strikes Ongoing in McKees Rocks, Butler & New Castle, Pennsylvania, Part I

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Quote Mother Jones, Powers of Privilege, Ab Chp III———-

Hellraisers Journal – Friday September 3, 1909
“The Strikes in Pennsylvania” by Louis Duchez, Part I

From the International Socialist Review of September 1909:

McKees Rocks Strike, PA Strikes, ISR p193, Sept 1909

Letter I, ISR p193, Sept 1909

T is impossible to treat this subject fully within the space allowed. The writer will simply present a few of the more important facts gleaned from a study of conditions as they exist at McKees Rocks, Butler and New Castle.

At McKees Rocks fifty riveters of the “erection department” of the Pressed Steel Car Company’s plant came out on strike. The others remained at work. Half of those fifty returned the next day—the other half were discharged. The following day one-third of the force in the “passenger car department” walked out and they returned to work twenty-four hours later. About half of those were “fired.” On the third day half of the force of the “Pennsylvania porch department” walked out.

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Hellraisers Journal: From the Spokane Industrial Worker: News of McKees Rocks Strike: “Massacre of Working People”

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Quote Mother Jones, Powers of Privilege, Ab Chp III———-

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

IWW McKees Rocks, HdLn re Mass Mtg Indian Mound Aug 15, Ptt Pst p2, Aug 16, 1909The 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.]

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