The Teamsters strike of 1934 was the months-long struggle in which the truckers and their allies- from the building trades to the unemployed councils- faced down the union-busting Citizens Alliance vigilantes and the murderous Minneapolis Police Department, and won the right to organize unions. After winning a strategic strike in the winter for the truckers at coal yards, the Teamsters launched a second strike in the spring which demanded recognition of the union across a broad swath of the industry, centered on Minneapolis's Warehouse District. The strike saw pitched battles between the strikers and police/Citizens Alliance forces, such as the Battle of Deputy's Run, as well as cowardly and murderous gun-wielding ambushes of strikers by the MPD, such as at Bloody Friday. It also saw the Farmer-Labor Party under Olson call in the National Guard against both labor and the strikebreakers. In the end, the union overcame opposition by the bosses, the police, the fair-weather "friends of labor" in office, and the bureaucrats of their own union's International.
It was one of several large strikes that summer which forced the hand of the Federal Government, causing the Roosevelt administration to pass the National Labor Relations Act to bring strikes into a legally regulated framework- not as a full victory to the workers, but as a concession that was meant to stop these effective, militant strikes from continuing, lest they lead to revolution.
The strike saw the formation of the Union Defense Guard, which not only defended pickets throughout the strike, but also served as an antifascist force driving the Silver Legion out of town a few years later. It was a reference point for the IWW General Defense Committee Local 14 in the 2010s, which I'm a veteran of.
The ballad is followed by Cooley's Reel and Congress reel performed by Mattie Ernst.
lyrics
Em G D
This summer’s been a hard one, Out on the picket line
Em G D
In the kitchen and infirmary they’ve also served the time
Em G D
Four months now we’ve been striking, the Teamsters and the rest
Em G D Em
Four months now we’ve been striking and they haven’t beat us yet
Chorus:
G D Em
So rise up for the union, don’t give away to gloom
Em G D
Can’t you hear the marching feet, they’re beating out their doom
Em G D
Hear the young ones crying, neither sigh nor pine
Em G D Em
We’ll see that times get better when we hold that picket line
When first that I moved out here after serving in the war
They said there’s work for every hand you never need be poor
But the winter found us standing asking work beside the wall
There’s scarce enough to go around to keep a home at all
Remember how last winter the coal yards won their share
And on that day back in May we won the market square
Now they’ve got us in the holding pens to try to keep us down
They can hold us in the stockade but they’ll never hold the town
Those Citizens Alliance boys, God damn them all to hell
Likewise to Olson’s guardsmen and the city cops as well
Who shot down Ness and Belor out on the market way
I wish I had a rifle, I would give them all the same
The winter’s coming fast now, the stores are getting thin
Each passing dawn that’s coming on we’re closer to the win
No Legion vigilantes, no knobsticks anymore
We’ll win ourselves a union town this year of ‘34
Emmett is a working class rebel musician- a union carpenter, former river deckhand, raised on a farm in central Minnesota.
With American country and blues and Irish traditional roots, he keeps the Long Memory going while singing about today's struggles. His work is rooted in social movements he's an active part of, from labor to defending the earth to fighting hate....more
Bright and skipping songs that foreground the sound of the banjo and fingerstyle guitar in music that feels timeless. Bandcamp New & Notable Oct 5, 2020
This album speaks to the continuum of African diasporic culture that is central to the vibrant canon of Americana folk music. Bandcamp Album of the Day May 29, 2020
