September 10th is the anniversary of The Lattimer Massacre in 1897. On that date, a group of about 400 immigrant miners peacefully protested their pay and working conditions in the coal mines of Pennsylvania. For exercising their right to protest, they were gunned down by the local police.

Tensions between the still rather young United Mine Workers union and the oligarchs had been on the rise for weeks. The capitalists had increased the workload of dangerous jobs without increasing pay, and the mule drivers went on strike. In response, they severely beat one of the teenaged mule drivers, which widened the strike. The union demanded better working conditions and a 15% pay raise.

Being white wasn’t pure enough for the American regime. New immigrants from Eastern Europe were deemed as inferior, and were given less pay and more dangerous jobs than those from Western Europe. The union itself was fairly racist, which resulted in many of them being hired as scabs. But with work conditions worse than ever, they flipped on the oligarchs and joined the union and the strike instead.

The oligarchs ended the strike by promising a great deal of improvements. However, it quickly became clear that the company was dragging its feet and didn’t have sincere intentions of following through. About 400 unarmed immigrant miners of the UMW marched on the Lattimer mine to support the newly joined UMW workers there. The local sheriff gathered up a posse to meet them. After a morning of excitement about how many miners they would kill, upon arriving at the mine, they were slaughtered.

The murderous jackboots ended up killing 19 workers, and shooting many dozens more. The sheriff claimed self defence, although most of the miners were shot in the back. They were put on trial and unsurprisingly acquitted. The UMW did get a surge in new membership in response to these blatant violations of basic human rights. But the struggle would be long and hard. This same union was discussed previously in The Battle of Blair Mountain.