The topic of strikes sticks out the most from chapter three and is still relevant to today. In 1886, the Haymarket Affair, or Chicago "Red Scare," took the lives of civilians and
police officers with several men being arrested and executed. In late 2011, police had to forcibly remove people from Occupy Wall Street movements all over the country. This movement lead to thousands of arrests, hundreds of injuries, and more than thirty deaths. Both the "Red Scare" and the Occupy movements all involved people who were fighting for rights they should receive as workers.
The "Red Scare" took place in Chicago, the day after a nationwide strike, when a group of strikers who were demanding an eight hour work day were interrupted by a bomb thrown by an unknown person. The bomb killed seven police officers, four civilians, and injured more than seventy others. Eight men were arrested with the conspiracy, however, the person who threw the bomb was never found. Four of those eight men were executed after their trials.
The Occupy movement, which started in New York as Occupy Wall Street, was started to protest social and economic inequality, greed, corruption of corporations. The Occupy movement was noted for their nonviolence, however, the police soon got violent with the protestors. Their slogan, and main reason for the strikes, soon became "We are the 99%" meaning that they are not the top 1% of income holders. Although this may have been the main reason for their protests, it soon lead to many other reasons such as homelessness, student debt, and the "lack of fairness" in our society. The top 1% make thousands more than the other 99% and there are hundreds of people living on the streets, and students with debt that they will be paying for the rest of their lives.
With these two events together, past and present, it shows how society and the people in this country never really change. It may have changed with the details of what we were fighting for, but we were still fighting for equality among the people in this country.
I would have never thought to compare these two events together from the past and the present. They are very much alike. It seems that in both cases the police too got violent injuring even more people. It is very sad that for groups of people to be heard something has big as a nationwide strike has to go on. Many people are victims of these events and innocent people lose their lives just because they wanted to be heard. One would think that we as American people could see these warning signals, and that events and tragedies like these could be put to a stop. There has to be a better way to get word out there, that would not end up a huge bloody mess. I do agree with you though when you say that society will never change. I believe individuals can change, but unless something huge happens it will not change.
ReplyDeleteThis was great. I could not have agreed more with the two topics you decided to compare. They have scary similarities and are very real. Much like kelsey i agree that society will never change on this topic simply because the working class will always be the majority because if they were the minority how would any work get done to satisfy the masses?
ReplyDeleteYou have really good details and really great comparisons. I don't think I would have ever thought to compare the two things. The one thing I do really agree with was that society will never change which is something that I think too. The only way that society will change is if people will change which is possible. Great job!
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