The Independent Thinker--Critical Thinking, Activism, Dissent, Metanoia
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| Issue: Unions The Independent Thinker--Critical Thinking, Activism, Dissent, Metanoia |
| "The history of the labor movement in the United States reveals a pattern of police harassment and violence. From the earliest days of industrial conflict to today, agents of the law have defended corporate property against the interests of workers. Police have either looked the other way or actively cooperated when company goons and vigilantes attack union organizers and picketers. In recent years, in various parts of the country, police have attacked striking construction workers, farm workers, truckers, miners, meatpackers, and factory-workers, arresting and badly injuring hundreds. Many workers have been imprisoned for resisting court injunctions against strikes and pickets. In Harlan County, Kentucky, a striking coal miner was shot to death by a scab, as was a farm worker in Texas. In Elwood, Indiana, within a period of a few months, seven strikers were shot by company goons. In Wilmington, California, a striker at an oil refinery was killed and several others severely injured when a company truck crashed through a picket line. In all these instances police apprehended no one despite eyewitness evidence of the identity of the killers" (Parenti 135-6). |
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