When workers shot back : : class conflict from 1877 to 1921 / / edited by Robert Ovetz.

• VerfasserIn: Ovetz, Robert,
• TeilnehmendeR: Ovetz, Robert.
• Place / Publishing House: Boston : : Brill,, [2018]
• Year of Publication: 2018
• Language: English
• Series: Historical Materialism Book Series 162.
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (613 pages).

The United States looks today much like it did in the late 19th to early 20th century. Open class conflict is disappearing, strikes are becoming rare, unions are declining, corporate power is growing, and work is insecure and contingent. When Workers Shot Back: Class Conflict from 1877 to 1921 explores one of the most tumultuous times in United States history. Self-organised workers recomposed their power by devising new strategies and tactics to disrupt the capitalist economy and extract concessions. Mine, railroad, steel, and iron workers pursued a strategy of tension that sometimes erupted into militant class conflict and general strikes in which workers took over and ran a number of cities. Turning common wisdom on its head, When Workers Shot Back argues that the escalation of working class conflict drives rather than reacts to the consolidation and reorganisation of capital and economic and political reform of the state. Studying the class composition of this period illustrates why workers escalated the intensity of their tactics, even using tactical violence, to extract concessions and reforms when all other efforts to do so were blocked, coopted or repressed.

Table of Contents

Front Matter -- Copyright Page -- Introduction -- The 1877 Railroad Strike -- Suppressing a Volcano: The 1877 Railroad Strike -- ‘We Shall Consume Their Shops with Fire’: Working-Class Recomposition in the 1877 Railroad Strike -- Putting Out the Class on Fire: A New Capital Composition -- The 1894 Railroad Strike -- The Nineties Dripped with Blood: The 1894 Railroad Strike -- Government by Injunction and Bayonet: Working-Class Recomposition in the 1894 Railroad Strike -- Managing the Class Struggle: A New Capital Composition -- Revolt of the Rank and File -- The Dynamite Conspiracy: US Steel vs. the Iron Workers -- War in Europe, War on Capital: The WWI Wildcat Strike Wave -- Revolt of the Rank and File: The Steel and Seattle General Strikes -- The Redneck Army: West Virginia Mine War -- Conclusion -- Back Matter -- Bibliography -- Index.