minewar.org documenting the 1930's Illinois Mine War
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“We Can’t Lose”
This week marks the 78th anniversary the Wilsonville Sitdown Strike which occurred in May, 1937. I’ve written on that strike here and here. Here’s the complete image courtesy of Wayne Hinton and his website, http://hinton-gen.com/ I hope to learn which newspaper published this image during the strike.
“We will proceed…to wage a militant struggle for our rights”
Wayne Hinton, the administrator of the local history web site Wayne’s World of History and Genealogy just posted the complete text of the Constitution of District No. 1, Progressive Miners of America (PMA). Contrasting it to the constitution adopted in 1890 by the United Mine Workers of America (UMWA), there are notable similarities. Both unions demanded to […]
Les Orear Remembered
Les Orear passed away on Friday, May 30. Les was an organizer with the C.I.O.’s Packinghouse Workers Organizing Committee in the 1930’s and later served as the editor of the the United Packinghouse Workers of America newspaper. Les was proud of his work in the union and the work the UPWA had performed to realize racial equality […]
“Lewisism”
Here’s an image from the February 24, 1933 edition of The Progressive Miner. By this time wanton violence was all to common practice to disrupt the coal strike and thwart efforts of the Progressive Miners to expand the movement. And as the cartoon shows the Progressive Miners believed they knew who was responsible. […]
