Tag: Providence RI

Hellraisers Journal: Pawtucket, Rhode Island: Police Fire Riot Guns at Textile Strikers, One Killed, Many Wounded

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Mother Jones, Pray for dead, ed, Ab Chp 6, 1925—————

Hellraisers Journal – Friday February 24, 1922
Pawtucket, Rhode Island – Police Fire on Strikers, One Killed, Several Wounded

From the New York Evening World of February 21, 1922:

PAWTUCKET, R. I.. Feb. 21.-One man was killed, two were seriously wounded, and six persons were hurt when the police used riot guns today on a crowd of 1,000 person who gathered at the plant of the Jenckes Spinning Company, where a strike is in progress. The guns were brought into play when several patrolmen had been knocked down after the arrest of three strike sympathizers.

The dead man is Juan D’Assumpcau [Joseph Assuncao, Jose D’Assunpcao]  of Valley Falls. Tony Regoss and Joseph Diaz of this city were taken to hospitals in a critical condition.

Mayor Robert A. Kenyon witnessed the shooting. He had arrived at the gates of the plant early in the morning to observe the crowd that has customarily gathered to watch working operatives enter the mill. The Mayor, believing that there was danger in the crowd, read the riot act. He then told the patrolmen to be careful and calm but to do their duty and to “shoot if necessary. ” 

[…..]

[Machine Guns at Natick]

NATICK, R. I., Feb. 21,-While striking textile workers and sympathizers jammed the streets of this village to-day mounted cavalry troops and police kept strict patrol, forcing the throngs to keep moving, Hundreds of children, each bearing a tiny American flag, swelled the ranks of the strike sympathizers. There was no cheering, and in spite of the size of the crowd and the tenseness of the situation there was little noise.

A machine gun detachment of the 103d Field Artillery mounted guns at the mills involved in the strike, and a company of field artillery formed the patrol.

[Machine Guns at Providence]

PROVIDENCE. Feb. 21.-The conflict at Pawtucket was followed by an increase in the militia forces called to aid the civil authorities. Two troops of cavalry, a machine gun detachment and a Coast Artillery Company, all acting as infantry, patrolled the Pawtucket valley villages of Pontiac and Natick, maintaining order where riotous outbreaks occurred last night.

While the military were trying to maintain order in the mill districts, mediators of both State and Federal jurisdictions were sitting here with representatives of the union organizations of strikes and mill managements to learn their views on a suggestion for arbitration of the differences.

Two of the mill corporations have formally announced that the issues-a wage reduction of 20 per cent, and, in some instances, an increase of working hours from forty-eight to fifty-four were not such as could be ironed out by arbitration.

—————

[Emphasis added.]

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Hellraisers Journal: Elizabeth Gurley Flynn on Tour in New England; Speaks in Providence and Buffalo

Janet RayeElizabeth Gurley Flynn
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You ought to be out raising hell.
This is the fighting age.
Put on your fighting clothes.
-Mother Jones

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hellraisers Journal, Sunday March 29, 1908
Providence, Rhode Island – Miss Flynn Speaks to Textile Workers

From The Industrial Union Bulletin of March 28, 1908:

The Flynn Lectures

EGF, ab Sept 1907, LOC

Enclosed find clipping from Providence Journal giving report of Miss Elizabeth Gurley Flynn’s lecture. The Providence Tribune printed her picture and a full column report of the meeting, but the editor’s fine Italian hand shows clearly throughout the article; it is evident that in his opinion the kind of talk dealt out by Miss Flynn is not good reading, unadulterated, for readers of the Tribune. This was the bumper meeting of a series of lectures run every Sunday evening by Textile Union 530, I. W. W. The first one, with Organizer Thompson as speaker, drew a large audience, and it grows larger at every meeting, rain or shine. The last meeting taxed the seating capacity of the hall. The speakers are limited to an hour and a quarter, after which the floor is thrown open for questions and remarks, with a five-minute limit, and no one is given the floor twice until all who wish to speak are done. There is no doubt that it is this feature of the meetings that draws the crowd. As speakers we have had, so far, two professors from Brown University, a lawyer with “radical” ideas, a high school principal who believes in Socialism, a couple of single-taxers, two Socialist party men, Frank Bohn, who gave a fine lecture, “The Working Class in American History,” and Miss Flynn. I understand that Organizer Thompson is on the docket for next Sunday, with the “Materialistic Conception of History” as the subject.

The following is from the Providence Journal:

Miss Elizabeth Gurley Flynn addressed a large gathering in Textile Hall, Olneyville square, last evening under the auspices of Textile Local 530 and spoke on “Industrial Unionism.” Her coming had been the topic of discussion of local textile workers for several days and the hall was filled in spite of the disagreeable weather. She was received with enthusiasm. After her address several of those present plied her with questions and there was a general debate on the labor question.

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Hellraisers Journal: Thousands of Undesirable Citizens Prepare to March in Haywood-Moyer Protest Parades

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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You ought to be out raising hell.
This is the fighting age.
Put on your fighting clothes.
-Mother Jones
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hellraisers Journal, Friday May 3, 1907
From the Montana News: Organized Labor Plans Protests

Massive protests parades in support of the officials of the Western Federation of Miners, now imprisoned in Boise, Idaho, will take place this weekend in New York City and in Boston. This week’s Montana News describes the preparations now underway:

Undesirable Citizens
—–

Action Taken by Organized Labor to
Resent the Insult of Roosevelt
and to Insure Justice

HMP, Undesirable Citizen, Walker 3, AtR, Apr 20, 1907

“Undesirable citizens” clubs were started throughout the country yesterday. In Chicago members of the Moyer-Haywood conference prepared to order a supply of buttons for organized working men bearing the Words: “We are undesirable citizens.”

This is intended to amalgamate the men branded by President Roosevelt as “undesirable citizens” and show that the men be puts such a brand on are really the men who do the world’s work, the men who always stand as a class for lofty measures in public life and progress of the human race.

In New York plans are made to place 100,000 badges on the men who will parade in protest against the mine owners’ conspiracy to hang Mover, Haywood and Pettibone.

The New York Plan.

New York.—The executive committee of the Moyer and Haywood protest committee called off its expedition to the White House. In a statement the committee declared: “Only the respect in which we hold the presidential office restrains us from characterizing Roosevelt’s assertion by the term which the incumbent of that office so frequently employs—’an in famous lie.'”

The committee of three named to call upon Roosevelt will read a report at the next meeting of the organization Sunday morning. An order was placed today for 10,000 buttons bearing the inscription:

We are undesirable citizens. Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Thousands of Undesirable Citizens Prepare to March in Haywood-Moyer Protest Parades” →