Radical Coal Miners in Northeastern Pennsylvania

1
Radical Coal Minersin Northeastern Pennsylvania

• ANTHRACITE REDS

2
Radical Coal Miners
3
Pennsylvania Anthracite
4
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.

5
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.

6
New Immigrants 1880-1920

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

7
Voyage of the Immigrant Miners

• Ellis Island

8
Voyage of the Immigrant Miners

• American businessmen
• welcomed the new
• immigrantsLABOR
• What does the Statue
• say?

9
On to the Penn. Anthracite
10
Anthracite Immigrant Miners
11
Huber Breaker

• The Huber Breaker is a monumental steel structure
  designed to process and sort coal that was
  distributed throughout the US and the parts of
  the world seeking high-quality anthracite coal.
  Thirty-one remaining buildings and structures
  still exist on the site dating from 1939 to 1966.

12

• Slovak immigrant mine workers inside mine, St.
  Clair, PA (circa 1924). Extreme right John
  Slopovsky Sr. Born in Czechoslovakia (then
  Austria-Hungary), Dec. 1903. Emigrated 1912.
  Others unidentified.

13
Anthracite Slovak Miners
14
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.

15
Some Anthracite Immigrant miners were Socialists

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

16
Anthracite Miners take in the Bolshevik
Revolution in Russia

• Immigrant miners in
• NE Penn. takes sides
• some supported the
• Revolution and
• Bolshevism most
• opposed it.

17
American Communist Movement began in 1919

• Communist Labor Party
• Led by John Reed

18
Radical Anthracite Miners 1920s

• Warren Calvin
  Herbert
• Harding Coolidge
  Hoover

19
Miners live through Social Chages of 1920s

• Culture Wars of the 1920s
• A. Protestant Fundamentalism Scopes Trial
• B. Prohibition/Gangsterism
• C. New Woman Flapper
• D. Automobile Henry Ford
• E. Sports, Radio, and Movies
• F. Xenophobia Cut off of Immigration

20
Miners live thru Racism of 1920s

• Klan of 20s was a national organization
• Klan was strongest in Midwest/Indiana and had 3-5
  millions
• Klan agenda
• A. anti-black
• B. anti-Jewish
• C. anti-immigrant

• Ku Klux Klan rally in 1923

21
Communist Miners and Depression

• Radical 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

22
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

23
Anthracite District 3 of Workers Party
24
Unemployment in 1930s

• Unemployment
• was the chief
• evil of the Great
• Depression

25
The Face of the Unemployed
26
Steve Nelson Communist

• Steve Nelson was the
• Communist Partys
• Organizer the
• Pennsylvania
• Anthracite
• During much of
• the 1930s.

• Nelson in Spanish Civil War