32-568: Harry Simms Sheriff J. H. Blair The Harlan County War , or Bloody Harlan , was a series of coal industry skirmishes, executions, bombings and strikes (both attempted and realized) that took place in Harlan County, Kentucky , during the 1930s. The incidents involved coal miners and union organizers on one side and coal firms and law enforcement officials on the other. The Harlan County coal miners campaigned and fought to organize their workplaces and better their wages and working conditions. It
64-708: A candidate who ran on a pro-union platform. The Kentucky National Guard was once again called in on December 8, 1934, requested by UMW organizers who had been threatened by bosses and deputies. The troops promptly escorted the union men to the county line. As national political support for the NIRA dwindled, capital gained the upper hand, and when the United States Supreme Court struck down the legislation's pro-union National Recovery Administration portion, shops with union presence in Harlan dwindled from eighteen to one. Where
96-518: A group of deputies, enraged at a public celebration of the Wagner Act, dispersed the crowd by beating several miners. The year 1935 proved to be turbulent, even for Harlan; troops were deployed to maintain order in the county three times. On September 29, troops were dispatched on behalf of the miners for the first time in the Harlan County War, the governor referring to the beatings and harassment at
128-536: A report called Harlan Miners Speak: Report on Terrorism in the Kentucky Coal Fields . The Dreiser Committee also discovered the labor folk singer Aunt Molly Jackson and her younger half-brother Jim Garland , putting them on a tour of 38 states to raise funds for the strikers. Florence Reece, wife of organizer Sam Reece, wrote the labor standard "Which Side Are You On?". California labor activist Caroline Decker first became involved in union activities during
160-553: A union. On February 16, 1931, to maximize profits, the Harlan County Coal Operators' Association cut miners' wages by 10%. Reacting to the unrest created within Harlan's impoverished labor force, the United Mine Workers of America (UMW) attempted to organize the county's miners. Employees who were known by their bosses to be union members were fired and evicted from their company-owned homes. Before long, most of
192-570: The Battle of Evarts . The miners lay in ambush for cars delivering materials to strikebreakers and shot at them. Three company men and one striker were killed in the exchange. The Kentucky National Guard was called in. The strikers expected protection but upon replacing deputized mine guards, the National Guard broke the picket lines instead. On May 24 a union rally was tear-gassed and Sheriff Blair rescinded county members' right to assemble. By June 17,
224-705: The Communist Party USA as the party for socialism in the United States and operates as the Party's youth wing . Although the name of the group changed a number of times during its existence, its origins trace back to 1920, shortly after the establishment of the first communist parties in the United States. On November 14, 2015, the CPUSA's National Committee voted to suspend funding to the Young Communist League and
256-617: The "new" AYD were held by former members of the YCL. National Executive Secretary of the AYD at the time of its October 1943 launch was Carl Ross, the former head of the YCL for a period of more than five years. The CPUSA reestablished a youth organization in 1949 as the Labor Youth League , which dissolved in the dissension following the Hungarian Revolution of 1956 and the 20th Congress of
288-465: The Communist Party. As a YWL leader, Nat Ganley (then still using his birth name Nat Kaplan) summarized the difference between his communist group and others by stating: "Let us remember that is it mainly on this point that we differ from the old form of child organization – the worker's Sunday schools. We are not only preparing the child for future participation in class struggle–we are leading
320-429: The Harlan County Coal Operators' Association, were run as open shops from October 27, 1933 – March 31, 1935. An open shop allows union membership but does not mandate it. Wages at these mines came into step with the rest of the nation. Despite headway by the unions, the battle for Harlan County between labor and capital continued. Sheriff Blair was voted out of office in 1933 and died in 1934, replaced by T. R. Middleton,
352-523: The Harlan County War, when she and her sister participated in relief activities for striking miners. The 1976 documentary film Harlan County, USA , winner of the 1977 Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature , focuses on similar labor violence of the 1970s but refers to the 1930s violence as context. (Florence Reece appears in the film.) The 2000 television movie Harlan County War starred Holly Hunter . Harry Simms (labor leader) Harry Simms Hersh (December 25, 1911 – February 11, 1932)
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#1732844297561384-514: The NIRA had been toothless in Harlan, the Wagner Act of 1935 proved itself a far greater thorn in the side of Harlan County's mine operators. It outlawed yellow-dog contracts , company unions , blacklists and discrimination on basis of union activity, all tactics employed by coal companies. While coal interests across the nation fell into step with the new legislation in 1935, Harlan was as resistant to federal meddling as it had ever been. On July 7,
416-633: The National Office. On October 17, 1943, the YCL convened in national convention in New York City, passed a resolution dissolving itself, and immediately reconvened under a new organizational name, the American Youth for Democracy (AYD). This predated a similar move transforming the adult Communist Party, USA into the "Communist Political Association" by seven months. The change of names proved to be strictly semantic, as all important positions within
448-423: The National Office. The basic unit of organization was the "group" consisting, ideally, of from five to ten members and meeting at least every other week. Groups elected their own captains to coordinate their activities with the center. Multiple groups were parts of a "section" of up to five groups; multiple sections were part of a "sub-district," which was in turn a subdivision of the regular geographic "districts" of
480-589: The UMW, opening several soup kitchens in the county. Their attempts at strikes, while weak in surrounding counties, were utter failures in Harlan, where only a fraction of the workforce walked out in 1931 and 1932. Several events broke the NMU's foothold, local labor organizers, many of them clergy, learned of the Communist leadership's animosity toward religion and denounced the organization, Young Communist League organizer Harry Simms
512-490: The YWL was the "branch," consisting of at least five but no more than one hundred and fifty members. Two or more branches in a single large city were to form a "City Central Committee" to coordinate their activities, and all units were to be part of the regular array of districts used by the adult party. The initiation fee was 25 cents and dues 25 cents per month, with all initiation fees and 10 cents of every month's dues going to support
544-484: The child in the class struggle now!" The founding convention of the YWL was held in Brooklyn , New York from May 13 to 15, 1922, held appropriately enough at Finnish Socialist Hall. Oliver Carlson delivered the keynote speech to the thirty regular and five fraternal delegates. Carlson claimed a presence for the nascent YWL in forty-six cities and a membership of "at the very least," 2,200. The basic unit of organization of
576-540: The discussions and decisions of the 3rd World Congress of the Communist International and its February 1922 special conference. The convention adopted a constitution and a program for the YCL, as well as a resolution delineating the relationship of the youth league with the adult party. A governing National Executive Committee of five members was elected. The initiation fee to join the YCL was 50 cents and dues were 25 cents per month, receipted with stamps issued by
608-673: The hands of the mine guards as "the worst reign of terror in the history of the county." He protected the miners despite the fact that a bomb had killed Harlan County Attorney Elmon Middleton several weeks earlier. Author and activist Theodore Dreiser conducted an investigation under the auspices of the National Committee for the Defense of Political Prisoners (NCDPP) of the American Communist Party. With contributions by John dos Passos , Samuel Ornitz and others, Dreiser produced
640-623: The last mine had returned to work. No concessions were given by the mine operators and UMW membership plummeted. In the wake of the UMW failure, the Communist National Miners Union (NMU) made a brief play for Harlan County. Though most workers felt disillusioned with organized labor, the NMU's radical ideology gained some support and ten local lodges sprang up before the Harlan County NMU was officially chartered. The smaller but more passionate NMU made greater relief efforts than
672-530: The next day. He was memorialized in a ballad, "The Death of Harry Simms" by Aunt Molly Jackson and Jim Garland , and his funeral service at the Bronx Coliseum attracted a crowd of some 20,000 people. The folk singer Pete Seeger popularized "The Death of Harry Simms" after learning it from Jim Garland at the Newport Folk Festival in the 1960s. Tao Rodriguez Seeger has performed a cover version of
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#1732844297561704-520: The official party periodicals. This did not mean that there was no national convention of the organization. The founding convention of the YCL was held early in May 1922, apparently in Bethel, Connecticut . It was a small and low key gathering, including just fourteen delegates from four of the Communist Party's twelve national districts. The gathering heard a report from Max Bedacht of the adult party dealing with
736-483: The organization was subsequently dissolved. In 2019, at the 31st party convention, the organization was re-established. As early as 1920, a skeleton of a "Young People's Communist League" was in existence. This minuscule, largely paper organization sent a fraternal delegate to the 2nd Convention of the United Communist Party, held at Kingston, New York from December 24, 1920, to January 2, 1921. A report
768-584: The remaining workforce had gone on strike in solidarity. Only three of Harlan's incorporated towns were not owned by mines, hungry and evicted workers and their families sought refuge in them, primarily in the town of Evarts. They found sympathy there with spurned politicians and business owners who wished to see the company stores vanish. At the peak of the first strike, 5,800 miners were idle and only 900 working. The strikebreakers were protected by private mine guards with full county deputy privileges, who were legally able to exercise their powers with impunity outside
800-570: The song with the Allegro Youth Orchestra. Songs Young Communist League USA The Young Communist League USA ( YCLUSA ) is a communist youth organization in the United States. The stated aim of the League is the development of its members into Communists, through studying socialism and through active participation in the struggles of the American working class . The YCL recognizes
832-524: The walls of their employers. They operated under Sheriff J. H. Blair, a man who made his allegiance to the mine owners clear, "I did all in my power to aid the operators ... there was no compromise when labor troubles swept the county and the 'Reds' came to Harlan County". The citizens of Harlan, for their part, lost any illusions they may have held about impartiality in law enforcement. Songwriter Florence Reece reported, Sheriff J. H. Blair and his men came to our house in search of Sam – that's my husband – he
864-571: The worker. I'm one of them and I feel like I've got to be with them. There's no such thing as neutral. You have to be on one side or the other. Some people say, 'I don't take sides – I'm neutral.' There's no such thing. In your mind you're on one side or the other. In Harlan County there wasn't no neutral. If you wasn't a gun thug, you was a union man. You had to be. Strikers exchanged gunfire with private guards and local law enforcement; strikebreakers were set upon and beaten. The most violent attack by mine workers occurred on May 5, 1931, and became known as
896-401: Was a nearly decade-long conflict, lasting from 1931 to 1939. Before its conclusion, an unknown number of miners, deputies and bosses would be killed, state and federal troops would occupy the county more than half a dozen times, two acclaimed folk singers would emerge, union membership would oscillate wildly and workers in the nation's most anti-labor coal county would ultimately be represented by
928-591: Was an American labor leader from Springfield, Massachusetts . He was sent by the National Miners Union to Harlan County, Kentucky during the Harlan County War to organize the mine workers there. On February 10, 1932, Simms was shot near Brush Creek in Knox County, Kentucky by a sheriff's deputy who also worked as a mine guard for the local coal company. Simms died of his wound at Barbourville Hospital
960-746: Was delivered by this delegate on the youth situation in America and the convention at this time first decided to establish a serious youth section, to be called the Young Communist League. The resolution passed by the convention pledged the UCP would provide its youth section assistance by helping to produce and distribute its literature, by helping to gain control of existing units of the Independent YPSL and organizing them into communist groups, by helping to organize new units, by providing it financial assistance, by lending it speakers and teachers, and by allotting it space in
992-636: Was killed in Harlan and the American Red Cross and local charities, who had been unwilling to take sides in a labor dispute, began giving aid to blacklisted miners who were unemployable as the NMU's financial troubles necessitated the closing of its soup kitchens. Under the auspices of the National Industrial Recovery Act , which promoted the right to organize one's workplace and outlawed discrimination and firing based on union membership, approximately half of Harlan's coal mines, those in
Harlan County War - Misplaced Pages Continue
1024-453: Was one of the union leaders. I was home alone with our seven children. They ransacked the whole house and then kept watch outside, waiting to shoot Sam down when he came back. But he didn't come home that night. Afterward I tore a sheet from a calendar on the wall and wrote the words to ' Which Side Are You On? ' to an old Baptist hymn, 'Lay the Lily Low'. My songs always goes to the underdog – to
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