page_title: Timeline of labour issues and events
section_title: 1870s
hierarchical_section_title: Timeline of labour issues and events / 1800–99 / 1870s
caption_attribution_description: English: Photograph of Alexander Campbell "Father of the Greenback Party".
context_page_description: Timeline of trade union history
context_section_description: 1870 (United States)
  The first written contract between coal miners and coal miner operators signed.
  1872 (Europe)
  Karl Marx ejects Mikhail Bakunin and the other anarchists from the International Workingmen's Association
  1873 (United States)
  In 1873 the Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen was established. In 1906 it became the Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen & Enginemen.
  13 January 1874 (United States)
  The original Tompkins Square Riot occurs in New York City. As unemployed workers demonstrated in New York City's Tompkins Square Park, a detachment of mounted police charged into the crowd, beating men, women and children indiscriminately with billy clubs and leaving hundreds of casualties in their wake.
  1874 (United States)
  Peter M. Arthur elected Grand Chief of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers.  He remained in office until his death.
  1875 (United States)
  The Molly Maguires are convicted for the anthracite coalfield murders.
  1875 (United States)
  Anthracite Coal Strike takes place.
  1876 (United States)
  Amalgamated Association of Iron, Steel, and Tin Workers founded.
  1876 (United States)
  Workingmen's Party is founded.  It later becomes the Socialist Labor Party.
  1876 (United States)
  Greenback Party is founded.
  1877 (United States)
  Cigar Makers' International Union occurred.
  1877 (United States)
  San Francisco Anti-Chinese Riots occur.
  12 February 1877 (United States)
  The Great Railroad Strike of 1877 -- U.S. railroad workers began strikes to protest wage cuts. It started in Martinsburg, West Virginia, and then spread to many other states.
  14 July 1877 (United States)
  A general strike halted the movement of U.S. railroads. In the following days, strike riots spread across the United States. The next week, federal troops were called out to force an end to the nationwide strike. At the "Battle of the Viaduct" in the Pilsen neighborhood of Chicago, between protesting members of the Chicago German Furniture Workers Union, now Local 1784 of the Carpenters Union, and federal troops killed 30 workers and wounded over 100.
  1878 (United States)
  Socialist Labor Party of America founded when the Workingmen's Party of the United States voted to change its name at its December 1877 convention.
  1878 (United States)
  Greenback Labor Party founded.
  1878 (United States)
  International Labor Union founded.
caption: Photograph of Alexander Campbell "Father of the Greenback Party"
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