On this day in 1897, the Lattimer Massacre occurred near Hazelton, Pennsylvania when a Sheriff’s posse fired into a crowd of unarmed, striking miners, killing 19. Miners, mostly Eastern European immigrants, had been protesting for better pay and union recognition.

A week prior, over 3,000 miners had gone on strike, demanding better pay and an end to the forced use of the company store. On the morning of September 10th, approximately 400 miners peacefully marched to a newly opened coal mine in Lattimer to support a new United Mine Workers (UMW) union there.

After refusing an order to disperse by a Luzerne County sheriff’s posse, the posse fired into the crowd. Nineteen miners were killed and several dozen were wounded.

Despite the fact that sheriffs had been overhead joking about how many strikers they would kill that morning, as well as medical evidence that demonstrated miners were mostly shot in the back, the sheriff and seventy-three deputies were acquitted at trial, insisting that they were charged by the crowd.

The massacre was a turning point in the history of the United Mine Workers (UMW), who received more than 10,000 new members in the aftermath of the massacre.

Megathreads and spaces to hang out:

reminders:

  • 💚 You nerds can join specific comms to see posts about all sorts of topics
  • 💙 Hexbear’s algorithm prioritizes comments over upbears
  • 💜 Sorting by new you nerd
  • 🌈 If you ever want to make your own megathread, you can reserve a spot here nerd
  • 🐶 Join the unofficial Hexbear-adjacent Mastodon instance toots.matapacos.dog

Links To Resources (Aid and Theory):

Aid:

Theory:

now all fediverse discussion will be considered a current struggle session discussion and all comment about it are subject to be removed and even banning from the comm.

have all of you a good day/night meow-coffee

  • Zuzak [fae/faer, she/her]@hexbear.netEnglish
    22·
    1 year ago

    I watched The Death of Stalin last night dead-dove-2

    I didn’t expect it to be accurate but it was very exaggerated and over the top, even when it wasn’t for the sake of humor at all. For example, at one point in the movie, a big crowd is coming to mourn Stalin’s death, waving the Soviet flag, and the Soviet troops open fire because they’re under orders not to let anyone into the city. Someone later cites the number of 1500 dead. Obviously, that never happened, and it doesn’t really serve any comedic purpose.

    It struck me as very British and so I tried to read it as less about the actual events and more about the purely fictional image that exists in people’s heads. Pretty much all the humor is just making stuff up and then laughing at how absurd the made up stuff is. Basically it’s like if you made a movie out of the Wikipedia page for Russian Political Jokes.