Minneapolis and Organized Labor
An overlooked yet intriguing story
Q
In our fraught political climate, organized labor (or at least the tactics of organized labor) has seen a surge in attention, not just domestically but internationally. After all, the methods of the organized labor movement—namely the strike—have the potential to bring economies to a standstill and thus bring not just corporations but entire governments to the bargaining table. In a reality where our state behaves openly imperialistically by supporting genocides domestically and abroad, the strike looks evermore appealing to an exasperated American left. To know what that might look like, and how it fits into our collective history, it is a good idea to hone our focus towards our local community of Minneapolis and its place in the labor movement across history.
The easiest and most obvious place to start is the 1934 General Strike, something I myself only became aware of over the past year and only learned even more about within the past few months. Many, it seems, are in my boat, not knowing or knowing very little about this pivotal moment in the midst of the Great Depression. It was a moment where workers in Minneapolis won the right to organize through collective action—despite violent state (and corporate) repression. The months-long strike (with some minor pauses) was led, in part, by members of the Communist League of America. This fact was widely known at the time, and motivated severe backlash from the opponent Citizens’ Alliance, as well as the state government. It even later caught the attention of the Silver Shirts (America’s nascent fascist organization of the era), who would have to be driven out by force by union workers in 1938. Over the course of the strike, many were injured, and some were even killed at the hands of police and anti-union forces. One may rightly ask, “why isn’t such an influential moment in Minneapolis history more widely taught?” This, I believe, is tied to that simple fact of high-profile communist involvement with the strike. With the consequences of Cold War Red Scare propaganda and curricula still weighing heavily on us, it stands to reason that such an event would be omitted for its heavy red involvement.
Of course, this is but speculation on my part, and if you’ll allow me a little more, I’d like to turn our attention back to the present. The present where we see renewed calls for a general strike in response to the genocide in Palestine and in response to ICE’s presence and brutal tactics. These calls, however, don’t manifest in a significant or lasting way and usually last about a day—with a heavy emphasis on individuals and what to and not to consume. What changed? What’s lacking? The astute reader might have picked up on where I’m going with this. What’s lacking is organized labor; these calls for “calling out of work” for a day, and to not shop at all this day or that (small businesses okay though!) lack any real teeth because they lack the backing of the collective. There’s an expression I’ve heard once: “A boycott is only as strong as the class behind it.” I think this phrase applies tenfold in the context of a general strike. How can you have a general strike without the backing of the unionized workforce? Where is this unionized workforce? Union rates nationwide are down to just 10 percent!
This shouldn’t deter us though, as even at the beginning of the 30s they had experienced a downturn in unionization compared to the decade before. It’s clear to me that if we want the stopping power that ‘34 had, we need the backing of a unionized workforce, and for that, there needs to be an actual unionized workforce.
Minneapolis has a long history with the organized labor movement, going back almost one hundred years. With the necessity of returning power to the hands of the people becoming increasingly urgent, we need to look back upon this history, learn from it, and harness it so we can forge a brighter future.