To some 100 years seems a long time, but when you are approaching 84, it doesn't seem that far back. It was 100 years ago in 1917, that Frank Little was brutally murder, by what was probably collusion between the American mine owners and the US state. Frank's crime, he stood steadfast in organising and supporting striking miners, and was out spoken against America's entry to WW1. He advocated that the people of America should fight capitalism, not German workers. His life is an example of just how vicious the system of capitalism is, and how the state will always come down on the side of big business against the desires and aspirations of the ordinary people.
This extract is from Freedom Socialist, Voice of Revolutionary Feminism:
Legendary labor leader Frank Little was assassinated 100 years ago to stop him from doing what he did best – organize workers. His life was defined by an unshakable conviction that you had to fight tooth and nail for the working class.Learning the hard way that capitalism was brutal, vicious and unforgiving, he threw himself into organising against this callous savage system. He paid dearly for his dedication to his class, the ordinary people, suffering beatings and eventual a horrible sadistic brutal death.
Little was a child when his parents joined thousands who jumped at the chance of grabbing 160 acres in the 1889 Oklahoma Land Rush. An extended drought, coupled with a global economic crisis, made keeping a family farm difficult to impossible for many. As the Populist Party wrote in its 1892 Omaha Platform, “The fruits of the toil of millions are boldly stolen to build up colossal fortunes for a few. ... From the … prolific womb of governmental injustice we breed two great classes — tramps and millionaires.”
By the time Little was twenty, he abandoned farming and followed his brother Walter to California where they mined for a living. Little discovered mine owners had only one objective — the acquisition of excessive profits in any way possible. They paid miserable wages. They spared every expense that might have made this work safer. They overworked the miners, squeezing out every last ounce of blood and sweat.
Read the full article HERE:
His last days. In 1917, Frank Little travelled to Butte, Mont., to help the miners striking against the powerful Anaconda Mining Corporation. Tensions were high. Miners were waging a militant strike, furious about the recent Speculator Mine fire that killed 168 men. Additionally, the Russian Revolution, along with the U.S. entry into World War I that same year, had prompted a ferocious pro-war, anti-communist campaign by the U.S. government and big business.
Though crippled as the result of a vicious attack in Texas, Little vigorously supported the Butte miners and continued to speak out against U.S. workers joining the war effort. He urged workers to “fight the capitalists but not the Germans.” On the night of Aug. 1, six men kidnapped him from his boarding house room. They roped him to the bumper of their car, dragged him across cobblestone streets and then hanged him above the railroad tracks with a note pinned to his chest, “First and last warning.” No one was ever convicted of this heinous crime.
On Aug. 8, 1917, one week after his murder, ten thousand people filled the streets of Butte for Montana’s largest funeral procession in history. They knew who was on their side, who had put his life on the line. The city fathers forced mourners to carry the U.S. flag in the procession. But once away from the city, the flag disappeared, leaving only the IWW banner to honor this brave Wobbly’s life. On his tombstone is carved, “Slain by Capitalist Interests for Organizing and Inspiring His Fellow Men.”
