The labor world. [volume] (Duluth, Minn.) 1896-current, 1921-02-19

the labor movement in the work we
have under way in compiling his
tory of our organization, we ran
across several times a History OF
Strikes" from the dim. past of pre-
historic days to the middle of tbs
nineteenth century, says Frank Duffy,
general secretary of the United
Brotherhood of the Carpenters and
Joiners. Thinking this history would
be Of interest to our members. we
herewith publish It:
Strikes Of working people for bet
ter pay. better conditions in life, and
possibly for less hours of labor, are
almost as old as the world itself. In
fact labor organizations may be said
to have had their birth in strikes.
The world of human thought, so far
as the workingman is concerned, has
changed but little during 5000 years.
In times Of trouble men of the same
trade or calling are naturally brought
together for mutual protection, and
whether the strike succeeds or fails,
the foundation for a trade union is
often laid.
The trade union is the most ancient
form of labor organization known.
The first laws written for trade unions
were by Scion.
The first strike, we are told, oc-
Cured about thousand years before
the time of Christ. This was The
strike Of Helots. or slave-labor, Of
Sparta, during the reign of Agis I.
No account is given of the demands
Of the Helots, but the strike was evil
IDENTIFY successful. judging by the
pains taken by their masters to in
veigle the workers or slaves into
fancied security, resulting in the
slaughter of some 1000.
The next great strike Of which his
tory speaks, occurred about 400 years
before Christ, when 10000 Grecian
Workmen, principally miners of Laur-
iun, struck for raise in wages from
tic to 18c a day. Possibly, also, the
employment Of convicts in the mines
at that time was a source Of trouble.
The strike failed, but it ruined the
Athenian government.
Farmers struck in B. c., 619, and
the Roman army under the praetor,
M. Acilius GlabrO, came very near
suffering defeat at their hands. It is
evident a kind of farmers alliance
existed at that period, the uprising
being simultaneous over a large ex-
tent of territory.
Many strikes occurred during this
period among mechanics, the failure
of one which sent 1000 workmen as
slaves to the mines to wear "chains
not less than ten pounds in weight
but in none of the strikes is shown
any personality, or labor agitator as
the cause. The earliest known of this
much abused parsonage was probably
Hesiod. author Of work and Days"
who live about a hundred years
before Christ. Just prior to and for
years after the birth of Christ, how
ever, the labor agitator came forward
and stamped his individuality upon
The movement. Thus Caius and Ii
berius Gracious, the instigators Of the
Agrarian agitation-on legislative
lines-fell beneath the batons of the
aristocrats; Eunus led the great work
ers' strike in Cicily, which lasted ten
years. Aristonicus led a revolt of the
| working people in Asia.
Another strike occurred at the
Laurium mines of Greece B. c. 1873
and a. thousand WOrkmen were cru.
Gifted for taking part in it.
During the same year At workmer
went on strike in Rome and att.
empted to burn the city. Following
this came general strikes and lnsur.
rections in several Roman cities. A
species of home-soldiers or militia
were called out, and suppressed the
strikers, executing over 1000 and i'm.
p4isoning as slaves, in quarries, some
10000 men and women.
The first labor congress was hello
in the temple Of Palikoi, near SYRIA.
cuse, in Sicily, about one hundred
years before Christ, and while small
affair, it resulted in a general strike
all instruction, and gathering Of al
army of $4,000 men under Salviu.
and 10000 men under Athenson, wht
for several years won victory, bu
were finally defeated and the labor
army exterminated. -.
IN The great strike Of gladiators under
!. spsalr Spar a.:s which. like most others