On this day in Labor History the year was 1819.
That was the day at Allan Pinkerton was born in Glasgow, Scotland.
His father was a policeman, who died while Allan was a boy.
This left the family in poverty.
As a young man he became involved in the Chartism movement.
This reform movement hoped to expand the political rights of the working class in Great Britain.
Allan had to flee his homeland to avoid arrest because of his involvement.
This led him to Chicago.
It is a great historic irony that Allan Pinkerton came to the United States because of his involvement in a working class cause.
Today Pinkertons are often considered some of the greatest armed foes against unionism in US labor history.
In Chicago, Pinkerton became involved in law enforcement and then formed his own detective agency.
The Pinkerton National Detective Agency made its name working against railway thefts.
But it became most notorious for opposing the labor movement.
Pinkerton spies infiltrated labor meetings for company owners, worked as hired guns to stop union organizing and protected strike breakers.
Pinkerton died in 1884, and passed the agency to his sons.
During the 1890s there were more Pinkertons and reserves than the standing army of the United States.
One of the most famous battles between Pinkertons and workers occurred at the 1892 strike against Carnegie steel in Homestead, Pennsylvania.
There Seven workers and two Pinkertons were killed.
The event inspired a song by William W. Delaney.
The lyrics include the lines, “God help them tonight in their hour of affliction, Praying for him whom they’ll ne’er see again, Hear the poor orphans tell their sad story, “Father was killed by a Pinkerton Man.
December 29 - The Day Work Was Made Safer
December 28 - Heroes in Space
December 27 - Musicians Fight Back
December 26 - Garment Workers Rise Up
December 25 - Debs Released; Real Gift is His Message
December 24 - A Christmas Eve Beating for Striking Workers
December 23 - The High Cost of Low Wages
December 21 - Red Scare Deportations Begin
December 20 - THE UNION IS DISSOLVED!!!
December 19 - Solidarity Gets the Goods!
December 18 - No More Beer
December 17 - Unraveling Anti-Japanese Hysteria
December 16 - No Justice, No Bagels!
December 15 - Troops Put Down the Mother’s March
December 14 - Another Hard Fought Victory
December 13 - The Beginning of the End of Apartheid
December 12 - We Disaffiliate!
December 11 - Right to Work is a Lie!
December 10 - August Spies is Born
December 9 - The Cordiner Doctrine
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