Radical Coal Minersin Northeastern

Pennsylvania

ANTHRACITE REDS

Radical Coal Miners

Pennsylvania Anthracite

Radical Tradition in the Anthracite• Molly Maguires , secret

organization of Irish-Americans in the anthracite mining districts of Pennsylvania.

• Its name came from a woman who led an extralegal, antilandlord organization in Ireland during the 1840s, and its membership was drawn from the Ancient Order of Hibernians, an Irish-American fraternal society.

Molly Maguires• The movement arose to

combat the oppressive industrial and living conditions.

• Since the police and the forces for law and order were entirely controlled by the mine owners, the Molly Maguires often resorted to intimidating or murdering the police.

• For several years, especially from c.1865 to 1875, the Molly Maguires dominated the mining industry of NE Pennsylvania.

Socialist Labor PartyDaniel DeLeon and US Socialism

Socialist Party: Eugene Debs

•Democratic Socialism

IWW: Industrial Workers of the World• Syndicalism:

Working class revolution by the union on the job site

New Immigrants: 1880-1920

• Major immigrant groups to the US and NE Penn.• Italians• Jews• Slavs

Voyage of the Immigrant Miners

Ellis Island

Voyage of the Immigrant Miners

American businessmenwelcomed the newimmigrants…LABORWhat does the Statuesay?

On to the Penn. Anthracite

Anthracite Breaker BoysThe Abuse of Child Labor

Working Conditions in the Mines Low Pay and Long Hours

• Most anthracite miners worked a 10 hour day before the 1902 Strike.

• A miner could earn between $40 and $80 a month depending on how many tons were mined.

Immigrants bring Radical Politics to the New World with them

• Ferdinando Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti were two Italian-born American laborers and anarchists, who were tried, convicted and executed via electrocution on August 23, 1927 in Massachusetts for the 1920 armed robbery and murder of two payroll clerks.

• Today, their execution is considered by some to be a miscarriage of justice.

Some Anthracite Immigrant miners were Socialists

• Thousands of anthracite miners voted for Socialists like Eugene Debs and Norman Thomas.

Anthracite Miners take in the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia

Immigrant miners inNE Penn. takes sides: some supported theRevolution and Bolshevism; mostopposed it.

American Political SpectrumLeft: Progressives, Liberals, Socialists

Values: Equality, Democracy, Community, Social Justice

Progressive Era [1900-1917]

New Deal/Fair Deal [1932-1952]

Great Society [1960s]

Obama Era [2008- ? ]

American Political SpectrumRight: Old Right, New Right, Neo-Conservatives, Paleoconservatives

Values: Tradition, Self-Reliance, Individualism, Market-Capitalism, Inequality

American Communist Movement began in 1919

• Communist Labor Party• Led by John Reed

Two US Communist Parties

Communist PartyVs.

Communist Labor Party

Who would be recognized by the Communist International in Moscow?

1921 Merger: Workers Party

• In 1921, acting on orders from Moscow, the CLP and CP merged to form the Workers (Communist) Party.

Scholarship: US CommunismThe Cold War School of Historians: John Earl Haynes

The Revisionist School of Historians: Maurice Isserman

Academic Journal of US Communism

• Published by the Tamiment Institute and Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives at New York University

Historical Research into Communism

Communist Miners and DepressionRadical immigrant miners

supported Soviet leaders. Lenin/Stalin

Third Period Communism[Radical Program] A. Organize the

Unemployed B. Fight white racism

and for civil rights C. Form separate

Communist Unions in all industries [dual unionism]

Communist Dual Union: NMU • AFL miners union was the

United Mine Workers of America or the UMW led by John L. Lewis

• The Communist dual union was the National Miners Union

Anthracite: District 3 of Workers Party

Unemployment in 1930s

Unemploymentwas the chiefevil of the GreatDepression

The Face of the Unemployed

Steve Nelson: Communist

Steve Nelson was the Communist Party’s Organizer thePennsylvaniaAnthraciteDuring much of the 1930s.

• Nelson in Spanish Civil War