MOTHER JONES

 

Today in #LaborHistory : September 30 -- via -- www.unionist.com

70-year-old Mother Jones organizes the wives of striking miners in Arnot, Pa., to descend on the mine with brooms, mops and clanging pots and pans. They frighten away the mules and their scab drivers. The miners eventually won their strike - 1899

The Autobiography of Mother Jones

In Arnot, Pennsylvania, a strike had been going on four or five months. The men were becoming discouraged. The coal company sent the doctors, the school teachers, the preachers and their wives to the homes of the miners to get them to sign a document that they would go back to work.

The president of the district, Mr. Wilson, and an organizer, Tom Haggerty, got despondent. The signatures were overwhelmingly in favor of returning on Monday.

Haggerty suggested that they send for me. Saturday morning they telephoned to Barnesboro, where I was organizing, for me to come at once or they would lose the strike.

"Oh Mother," Haggerty said, "Come over quick and help us! The boys are that despondent! They are going back Monday."

We got into Arnot Sunday noon.

I told the men to stay home with the children for a change and let the women attend to the scabs.

http://www.marxists.org/subject/women/authors/jones/ch05.htm

Be sure to check out the whole slide presentation and extra links for more information on this extraordinary woman just click on the link below.

https://sites.google.com/site/wewerenotborntofollow2013/herstory-is-ourstory