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ON THE FRONT LINE, 1934

     75 years ago, in 1934, workers ran the streets of Minneapolis for two weeks. A general strike led by the Teamsters shook the city to its foundations and showed the collective power of working people fighting for justice.
     In the early 1930s, workers suffered horribly in the midst of the Great Depression. Millions were unemployed. Wages were cut to near starvation levels for those who kept their jobs so that businesses could maintain their profits. Homes were routinely foreclosed by predatory banks and people evicted from their apartments when they couldn’t pay the rent. Most workers faced a dictatorship in the workplace, with long hours, low wages, and no rights. Sound familiar?
     While initially many were stunned by the economic crisis, soon the working class began to fight back. There were mass demonstrations of unemployed demanding that the government provide jobs to all those who wanted them. Communities mobilized to prevent evictions, moving furniture back into apartments as fast as the cops could move it out.
     In Minneapolis, a small group of activists began to talk about forming a union in the coal yards, as a step toward organizing all workers in the Twin Cities. In the bitter cold Minnesota winter of January 1934, workers in the coal yards went on strike to demand a living wage, shorter hours, and the recognition of their union, so that they would no longer be subject to the dictatorship of the coal bosses. They set up mass pickets to prevent the use of strikebreakers and fought off police attempts to break the strike. After a few days, the bosses caved, and the union was recognized.
     The leaders of the strike recognized that the bosses wouldn’t give up anything out of the kindness of their hearts, or merely by seeing how reasonable the demands of the workers were. At stake were their profits, and they would do anything to hold onto them. These organizers recognized that it was only by mobilizing the collective power of the working class, not by relying on “friendly” politicians, and showing that without their labor not a single truck would move, nor factory run, that the bosses could be forced to make concessions.
     From the coal yards, organizers moved on to attempt to organize workers in the entire trucking industry in Minneapolis into Teamsters Local 574, and make Minneapolis a union town. In May, thousands of workers walked off their jobs. The entire trucking industry was shut down - not a single truck moved without union permission. Workers set up “cruising picket squads,” ready to mobilize and drive wherever a scab truck was seen to prevent scabs from making their deliveries and weakening the strike. (“Scab” = strikebreaker)
     The workers drew support from throughout the community. A women’s auxiliary was set up and played a crucial role in supporting the strike. The strikers and supporters set up their own hospital and cafeteria. They put out their own daily newspaper, The Organizer, to counter the vicious lies of the corporate media.
     The employers responded the only way they know how when their absolute power is challenged: with violence. The Citizens’ Alliance, an organization of all the wealthy citizens and employers of Minneapolis, pressured the mayor and the police to crush the strike. Its members were made “special deputies” and given the right to attack strikers. On Thursday, July 19, Police Chief Mike Johannes told cops, “We’re going to start moving goods. Don’t take a beating. You have shotguns and you know how to use them.”
     The next day, forever known as “Bloody Friday,” the cops shot down unarmed strikers as they attempted to stop a scab truck, killing 2 and wounding another 47. In the weeks before Bloody Friday, the bosses had run ads in the papers asking, “How do you like having our Minneapolis streets in the control of communists?” The Organizer, the strike newspaper, now countered: “How do you like having our Minneapolis streets in the control of murderers? … You thought you would shoot Local 574 into oblivion. But you only succeeded in making 574 a battlecry on the lips of every self-respecting working man and working women in Minneapolis.”
     Henry Ness was one of those killed, shot in the back in cold blood by the Minneapolis police. His last words were, “Tell the boys not to fail me now.”
     20,000 marched in the funeral procession, as growing numbers of workers throughout the city came to support the strike. Albert Goldman gave the funeral oration: “This struggle against oppression is no easy task. On the side of the bosses is the police, the army, the courts. The mayor of Minneapolis does not consider the lives of the strikers worth protecting. The only thing of importance to him is the bosses’ property, the bosses’ right to keep workers enslaved at low wages and in misery…. We must not fail [Brother Ness]. We must avenge his murder. This we shall do if we struggle to win this strike, if we struggle to win this strike, if we struggle to throw the exploiters off our backs and to establish a new social order in which the worker may enjoy the fruits of his toil.”
     And win they did. The employers were finally forced to cave in, despite efforts to provoke violence from the strikers so the National Guard could be used to break the strike. As the strikers wrote, “Guardsmen’s bayonets, tear gas guns or trench helmets cannot move trucks…. You need truck drivers and helpers and platform men and inside men to move trucks. And they are all in the ranks of Local 574. And that’s where they are going to stay. And under its banner they are going to win.”
     The workers emerged with union jobs, and a strong union. They paved the way toward the mass unionization drives of the 1930s, including the wave of sit-down strikes.
Today, most workers face low wages, job insecurity, discrimination, and few rights on the job, while the rich are richer than ever before. As billionaire Warren Buffett, one of the 3 richest people in the world, put it, “There's class warfare, all right, but it's my class, the rich class, that's making war, and we're winning.”
     But recently, we have seen mass protests by students and youth around the world, from Greece to Ireland to New York City. Workers have begun occupying their factories and striking against the crisis brought about by the corporations and their lust for profits, demanding a decent future.
     As Farrell Dobbs, one of the socialist leaders of the Minneapolis Teamsters’ strike, said, “The tinder of discontent begins to pile up. Any spark can light it, and once lit, the fire can spread rapidly." We in 2 Tone Runts hope to be a part of rekindling this fire, and building a movement for a brighter tomorrow. Everyday we stand on the front line.

 

To learn more about the 1934 Teamsters Strike check out these useful sources:

 

 

 Teamster Rebellion by Farrell Dobbs

 A Fighting Program For Teamsters
 A great pamphlet from the 90s which draws out the lessons from 1934 for today's union movement.