Great post, Nathan. The findings of the LaFollette Committee sometimes seem lost to the ages. The same is true of the Congressional findings that supported passage of the Norris-LaGuardia Act (both men were Republicans, it should be noted).

In passing the Norris LaGuardia bill, the Republican Senate noted in its committee report employers' use of agents provacateur, i.e., thugs hired by the employer to carry out mischief under guise to blame the union. Friends, this was all the way back in 1926 or so, and the practice continues today.

excellent post nathan. in germany there is a major national holiday to commemorate two socialist activists who were shot and thrown in the river by 'pre-nazi' nationalists in the early 1920s, i believe it was. the event still draws crowds in the tens of thousands to a march in berlin. the names elude me, you are most likely familiar with what i'm talking about.

here in the united states hundreds if not thousands have been killed and injured by government and management thugs solely for trying to organize. amazing that something like the ludlow massacre and, more along what i've researched, the west virginia coal mine wars of 1919-21 are all but forgotten by our collective consciousness. in 1920 i think it was a wobblie showed up in a town in the west virginia coal fields, where fighting had been raging off and on for several months as the miners tried to organize... the wobblie was met by the sheriff as he disembarked from the train, immediately arrested for 'drunk and disorderly conduct' and thrown in the lock-up. by midnight that night he'd been shot in the jail by the sherrif's son, who said the organizer had taken a swing at him. of course, no investigation was deemed necessary. one anecdote of many, and if anyone wants i can certainly dig up the citation, but it really makes me wonder about our special breed of democracy and capitalism that such events are not seen as worthy of our memory or indicative of the problems of our system.

anyway, thanks for a post that reminds us that organizing does not just create conflict of wills between a set of workers and owners, but that many are willing to take violent action to oppress, even in this day and age. my thoughts go out to the latest victims of this system.

Luxemburg and Liebknecht, 1919. Arrested after the abortive Spartacist uprising in Berlin, murdered by the Freikorps, right-wing irregulars.

I think they're worth memorializing. nice to see those marches are still happening. at least the loony left still exists somewhere in the world.

Speaking of right-wing hypocrisy, I wouldn't hold your breath waiting for conservatives to condemn the "cultural explanation" and "media influence" behind this particular crime, or to explore how it is that we convince sixteen-year old boys that standing up for a living wage is a provocation worthy of violent retribution.

thanks for filling in the names/dates... i wouldn't go so far as to call ALL the 30,000 who showed up for the march in berlin last spring "loony," though my buddy who was there did say he found the four german youth holding pictures of stalin to be a little surreal. but the point i was trying to make was that yes, in most other parts of the world citizens are at least conscious of the atrocities committed against leftists...

hell, may 1, the real labor day, actually motivates some celebration of the efforts we have all waged together as workers in most of the world. here, we have the ludlow massacre, a similar massacre in PA, all-out warfare for several months in the mountains of west virginia, but it has truly been forgotten. why? might explain why the beating of picketers doesn't make the evening news in this day and age...

In Switzerland, last week (end November), police corps attacked, beat and arrested strickers in a package firm, and union activits that supported them near Basel (North of the country, were stands the international pharmaceutical firm Novartis). Workers stricked because they didn't want to let their work conditions destroyed by the boss. The state government (Switzerland is a federation too) didn't try to negociate and calm down the conflict. He sent the Robocops. Finally, the boss had to meet the union delagation. He must now negociate a trade between him and the workers. But the strikers remain fired.
I we don't work together, we let the bosses decide for us, against us. How long will we let this happen ?
Thank you for this blog. Pierre Genier, Swiss media union comedia (www.comedia.ch), Switzerland