Today in Labor History June 22, 1914: Anarchists, intending to bomb the Rockefeller Mansion, accidentally blew up the Ferrer Center for anarchist education, killing three anarchists and putting a temporary end to the Modern School. They had been seeking revenge against Rockefeller’s Standard Oil for the Ludlow Massacre (4/20/1914), in which Colorado National Guards and private cops, hired by Rockefeller, attacked a tent colony of 1,200 miners and their families, killing 21, including women and children. The private cops were from the Baldwin-Felts Detective Agency, same ones involved in the Matewan Massacre in West Virginia. From September 1913 through end of May, 1914, up to 200 people had died in the Colorado Coalfield War, including 37 cops, soldiers and private detectives fighting for the coal companies, making it one of the deadliest strikes in U.S. history.
Today in Labor History June 3, 1910: U.S. anarchists formed the Francisco Ferrer Association in Harlem, one year after the wrongful execution of anarchist educator Francisco Ferrer in Spain. The organization founded libertarian socialist schools throughout the U.S. based on the principles of Ferrer’s Modern Schools. The American Modern Schools were designed to counter the discipline, formality and regimentation of traditional American schools. Regular working-class people ran the schools for the children of workers. They sought to abolish all forms of authority, including educational, with the goal of creating a society based on free association and free thought. They emphasized learning by doing, as well as crafts and reading. They avoided rigid curricula, rote memorization and regimentation, as well as rewards and punishments. They also believed that learning was a life-long process that never ended. Therefore, parents and other adults were encouraged to participate in the operation of the schools and to attend evening and weekend lectures. Some of the speakers at these lectures included Clarence Darrow, Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, Jack London, Upton Sinclair, and Man Ray. The schools also served as cultural centers for the promotion of revolutionary unionism, free speech, sexual liberation, and anti-militarism. Read my full article on the anarchist roots of the Modern School Movement: https://michaeldunnauthor.com/2022/04/30/the-modern-school-movement/
Today in Labor History May 31, 1905: The Spanish anarchist Alexander Farras threw a bomb into a procession headed by French President Loubet and the King Alphonso XIII of Spain. The leaders were not hurt, though several people were wounded. Farras was never caught. Four other anarchists were arrested, tried and acquitted. Then, the following year, again on May 31, anarchist Mateo Morral made another attempt on King Alphonso XIII. He hid a bomb in a bunch of flowers and threw it at the King during his royal wedding. Because he worked in Modern School’s publishing house and was a friend of Francisco Ferrer (the founder of the first Modern Schools), Ferrer was later arrested and imprisoned as an accomplice. You can read my complete history of Ferrer and the Modern School movement here: https://michaeldunnauthor.com/2022/04/30/the-modern-school-movement/
Today in Labor History April 21, 1782: Friedrich Froebel was born. Froebel was a German pedagogue who coined the term “kindergarten.” He also produced the first educational toys, known as Froebel Gifts. Froebel was one of the first to recognize of the importance of activity and play in early childhood (Freiarbeit, or free work). Thus, to Froebel, kindergarten was not simply a poetic “garden” of children. It was literally a garden for them to observe and interact with the natural world. His kindergartens were suppressed by the Prussian government for their supposed denigration of religion and politics. He rejected the notion of original sin and promoted and practiced the coeducation of boys and girls. He also felt children should be able to grow and develop without the influence of arbitrary political and social priorities. These ideas endeared him to anarchist educators like Francisco Ferrer and others in the Modern School movement. (You can my complete article on Ferrer and the Modern School movement here: https://michaeldunnauthor.com/2022/04/30/the-modern-school-movement/
Today in Labor History April 20, 1914: the National Guard and private cops opened fire on a mining camp during a strike in Ludlow, Colorado, killing 21 people, including women, and at least twelve children. By the end of the strike, they had killed over 200 people. Colorado Fuel and Iron Company (CF&I), owner of the mine, had recently testified before Congress for its role in strike-breaking. The investigations that followed placed the blame for the massacre on CF&I, which was run by John D. Rockefeller Jr., the richest man in U.S. history, (worth $410 billion in 2022 dollars.)
Colorado miners were dying on the job at a rate of more than 7 deaths per 1,000 employees. Workers were paid by the ton for coal that they extracted, but weren’t paid for so-called “dead work” like shoring up unstable roofs and tunnels. This system encouraged miners to risk their lives by ignoring safety precautions and preparations so that they would have more time to extract and deliver coal. Miners also lived in “company towns” where the boss not only owned their housing, and the stores that supplied their food and clothing, but charged inflated prices for these services. Furthermore, the workers were paid in “scrip,” a currency that was valid only in the company towns. So, even if workers had a way to get to another store, they had no money to purchase anything. Therefore, much of what the miners earned went back into the pockets of their bosses.
During the assault on the Ludlow camp, they opened fire on strikers and their families with machine guns, and set fire to the camp. Many of the “National Guards” were actually goons and vigilantes hired by Rockefeller to intimidate the miners. And the private cops were from the Baldwin-Felts Detective Agency, the same company that later participated in the Matewan Massacre, and the Battle of Blair Mountain, in West Virginia.
In the wake of the Ludlow Massacre, Alexander Berkman (a former lover, and friend, of Emma Goldman) helped plan the assassination of Rockefeller at the New York Ferrer Center, home to the anarchist Modern School. However, the bomb exploded prematurely, killing three anarchists. (Berkman had previously served 14 years in prison for attempting to assassinate Henry Clay Frick because of his responsibility for the massacre of seven striking steelworkers during the Homestead Strike, in 1892.)
Today in Labor History March 29, 1951: Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were convicted of conspiracy to commit espionage. They were executed at Sing Sing in 1953. The Rosenberg’s sons, Michael and Robert Meeropol (adopted by Abel Meeropol, the composer of “Strange Fruit,”), maintained their parents’ innocence. However, after the fall of the Soviet Union, decoded Soviet cables showed that their father had, in fact, collaborated, but that their mother was innocent. They continued to fight for the mother’s pardon, but Obama refused to grant it. The Rosenberg’s sons were among the last students to attend the anarchist Modern School, in Lakewood, New Jersey, before it finally shut its doors in 1958.