Textile Workers' Strike (1934)
Mon Sep 03, 1934
Image: Striking textile workers come up against state troopers in 1934 [libcom.org]
On this day in 1934, a strike involving 400,000 textile workers from all across the U.S. began, the largest strike in U.S. history at the time. Striking workers faced violence from the state, private guards, and deputized vigilantes.
The strike was national in scope - textile workers from New England, the Mid-Atlantic states, and the U.S. Southern states, all participated in the Textile Strike of 1934, which lasted twenty-two days.
In part due to the labor reforms of the Roosevelt administration, union membership had grown greatly in the months leading up to the strike. In February 1933, the United Textile Workers (UTW) had no more than 15,000 members. By June 1934, they had grown to 250,000 members, half of whom were cotton mill workers.
On September 3rd, thousands of workers took the streets in Gastonia, North Carolina to form a parade celebrating Labor Day. The next day, approximately 20,000 out of the 25,000 textile workers in the county were out on strike. Hundreds of thousands of textile workers across the country soon followed suit.
Strikers faced violence from state police, private citizens, and private guards for the mills. South Carolina Governor Ibra Blackwood announced that he would deputize the state's "mayors, sheriffs, peace officers and every good citizen" to maintain order. Accordingly, dozens of protesting workers were killed as martial law was declared and private guards fired into crowds across the country.
Results of the strike were mixed, but workers in the South fared particularly badly. Thousands of striking mill workers did not return to the mills and many were blacklisted. Some union officials claimed victory despite worker demands not being met.
Southern mill workers in particular were extremely bitter at the union and its officials for calling off the strike and putting their faith in government boards, when the employers had yet to concede anything.
- Date: 1934-09-03
- Learn More: en.wikipedia.org, libcom.org.
- Tags: #Labor.
- Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org
