A day late with this one, but it should not be forgotten. Our history is written in the blood of heroes, brutally shed by the defenders of capitalism.
Forming a union where there was no union has always been a very dangerous activity. Through the years many have paid dearly for such a humanitarian desire. Some severely beaten, some brutally killed, all in the name of capital.
August 1st. marks one such brutal killing in America, the vicious beating and lynching of IWW organiser Frank H. Little in 1917.
In early July 1917, Little arrived in Butte, Montana, to help organize a copper miners' union and lead a miners' strike against the Anaconda Copper Company. In the early hours of August 1, six masked men broke into Little's hotel room.[1] He was beaten and taken to the edge of town where he was lynched from a railroad trestle.[1] A note with the words "First and last warning" was pinned to his chest, along with the initials of other union leaders, and the numbers 3-7-77 (a vigilante code famously used by the vigilance committee of Virginia City, Montana).[1]
It was widely believed that Pinkerton agents were involved, but no serious attempt was made by the police to apprehend Little's murderers. His funeral procession was followed by thousands as he was laid to rest in Butte's Mountain View Cemetery.
