In a reversal of what we usually imagine, scabs are organized from New York City and sent south to break a militant street-car strike in Richmond, Virginia. Richmond, with its rich labor history even by 1903, also had an active Socialist Party. Below is a report of their work in support of Local Union No.152 Amalgamated Association of Street Railway Employees.

‘The Class Struggle in Virginia’ from The Worker (New York). Vol. 13 No. 16. July 19, 1903.

Murder and Intimidation of Working men by Democratic Administration -Socialist Propaganda Among the Strikers.

Very little about the strike of street car workers in Richmond, Va., is being said in the outside world, so it is not generally known that martial law is practically in force. Since the strike commenced and the militia has been on the ground numerous outrages against the strikers and their sympathizers have occurred. one of the outrages being the shooting of a small boy. As the state and city are controlled by the Democratic party, a report of the strike situation in Richmond, under date of July 6, from Comrade John Catrell, a member of the Bricklayers’ Union of Richmond, is exceedingly interesting.

Comrade Catrell’s report is a graphic description of the methods being employed to defeat the strike and the manner in which the local Socialists are improving the opportunity to put the strikers in the right political track which leads to Socialism. He says:

Professional Strike-Breakers.

“There were two competing street car lines here until recently, when they consolidated and were granted franchises, for which the city had been offered $300,000. Frank Gould of New York owns the controlling interest in the consolidation. There are 627 street car men now on strike, and when the struggle began, the company failed to move a car for forty-eight hours, and since that time the service has been very poor. The company has imported strike-breakers from a detective agency in New York–Drummond’s. The leader of the strike-breakers is the notorious Farley, who makes strike-breaking a business and who claims to have a force of 2,000 men throughout the country ready to act on demand. Farley receives $2,500 a year and expenses, and his ‘professionals’ get $2.50 per day and all they are permitted to ‘knock down.’ I heard one scab say, ‘Dis was a bum trip for knocking down, didn’t have but three guys.’

“When the first car left the barns there was rioting, the tracks were torn up and the switches spiked. The local papers immediately roared and ranted for protection for the ‘sacred rights of private property.’ The militia was called out, and although martial law has not been declared, yet the police powers are being exercised and if a man makes a derogatory remark in the presence of a scab the soldiers Jump off the ears, arrest the offender, and the police justice (?) soaks him for ten dollars and sixty days.

Legalized Law-Breaking.

“Last night a man was shot to death by militiamen in Manchester, our twin city, because he refused to stop when told to halt. All the powers of the government are being used most brazenly, and all laws openly violated in the interest of the company, while the workers are being intimidated and shot down under the guise of upholding the ‘majesty of the law.’ The city council refused positively to listen to a resolution brought up by one of the councilmen demanding that the company arbitrate the strike. Class antagonism was never so clearly manifested.

“The labor organizations have rallied to the support of the street car men, and my union, the bricklayers, in which there are ten Socialists and eighty subscribers to Socialist papers out of the 150 members, has contributed $750 to the aid of the strikers, mainly through the efforts of the Socialists. The members of the city government. Including Mayor Taylor, have had their eyes opened by this fight.

“The Socialist local has made it a point to keep prominently before the unions. We have distributed thousands of papers and are taking advantage of the present situation to the utmost. This strike is simply the beginning of a general fight in this city. One of our business men, Fritz Sitterding, director of several banks, building contractor and material man and nabob of this city of 100,000 people, is president of the street railway company. Our union has boycotted his material. An alliance has resulted between the contractors and material men, to resent the ‘shameful tyranny of organized labor,’ and if the street car company wins the other labor skinners will begin operation on the other unions.

Socialists Aid the Strikers.

“The Socialist local pledged moral and financial aid, participated in a strikers’ parade, and on the following morning I went before the union and told the strikers what the Socialist Party was doing, to the undisguised chagrin of some of the so-called labor leaders who stump the city every election for the politicians. These people tried to have me shut out but the union men knew me, as I had helped to get relief for the striking miners and for the street car men of Norfolk during their strike, so the leaders’ efforts were unavailing. I have visited the union a dozen times, and each time have been called upon to speak, despite the efforts of the newspapers to scare the strikers by misrepresenting us and of the leaders to create prejudice against the Socialists.

“These same leaders were quietly engineering to have a labor party launched, but all our boys are working like Trojans and we know that this strike opens up a new era for Socialist propaganda in Richmond. I am off to address a meeting now, to which the strikers have invited me.”

Comrade Catrell requests that Socialist papers be sent him for distribution.

The Worker, and its predecessor The People, emerged from the 1899 split in the Socialist Labor Party of America led by Henry Slobodin and Morris Hillquit, who published their own edition of the SLP’s paper in Springfield, Massachusetts. Their ‘The People’ had the same banner, format, and numbering as their rival De Leon’s. The new group emerged as the Social Democratic Party and with a Chicago group of the same name these two Social Democratic Parties would become the Socialist Party of America at a 1901 conference. That same year the paper’s name was changed from The People to The Worker with publishing moved to New York City. The Worker continued as a weekly until December 1908 when it was folded into the socialist daily, The New York Call.

PDF of full issue: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/the-people-the-worker/030719-worker-v13n16.pdf