On this day in labor history, the year was 1934.
That was the day known as the “Battle of Deputies’ Run.”
The Minneapolis Teamsters strike was in full swing.
For three days, the city was peacefully paralyzed.
The wealthiest had kept the city an open shop for decades through their ‘Citizens’ Alliance,’ and now assembled an army of strikebreakers.
Strikers had been seriously injured on Saturday the 19th at the City Market.
They fought police and deputized ‘specials’ in an attempt to keep produce trucks from moving out.
Later that evening, flying pickets were ambushed in Tribune Alley after having been dispatched by an agent provocateur.
Strikers were beaten mercilessly, including several from the women’s auxiliary.
The sight of the bloodied women enraged strikers.
Another fierce confrontation was inevitable.
Hundreds of strikers waited at the Central Labor Union near the Market until Monday, when scab trucks were expected.
Fighting continued throughout the morning.
No trucks moved.
Hundreds of women marched to the mayor’s office demanding, “Take your hired thugs away!”
Anti-union violence so outraged building tradesmen that 35,000 walked off the job in sympathy.
Electricians, painters and ironworkers all reported to strike headquarters.
Then, on this day, that Tuesday, the decisive battle began.
Tens of thousands amassed in the Market on the side of the Teamsters, as ‘deputies’ would attempt to move the produce trucks out.
Strike leader Farrell Dobbs noted, “It became a free-for-all.”
The police stayed back as strikers and deputies battled it out until finally, the deputies dropped their clubs, turned tail and fled.
Union forces cleared the Market of every last scab, cop and deputy.
Historian Bryan Palmer notes, “An intense and deadly confrontation was over in short order. And it left the union in command.”
February 21 - The First Female Telephone Operator
February 20 - Angelina Grimke is Born
February 19 - Philly Street Car Workers Spark General Strike
February 18 - Anti-Slavery Begins in America
February 17 - Standing Up By Sitting Down
February 16 - The Wisconsin Uprising Begins
February 15 - The Uprising of the 20,000 Comes to a Close
February 14 - Kansas City Laundresses Walk Off the Job
February 13 - Martial Law Declared to Crush the UAW
February 12 - The NAACP is Founded
February 11 - Cutting Corners on Safety at Sequoyah I
February 10 - Forty-Three Workers Buried Alive
February 9 - Organizing Bloody Harlan
February 8 - Butte Copper Miners Join the 1919 Strike Wave
February 7 - Strike at Cripple Creek
February 6 - Philly Garment Workers Win!
February 5 - The Fight for Craft Governance
February 4 - Solidarity on the Coast
February 3 - Anti-Trust Injunctions Used Against Labor
February 2 - The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo
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