Little Falls Strike

Industrial Unionist, Volume 1, Issue 1, 1 February 1913, Page 4

Little Falls Strike

Details are to hand of a strike at Little Falls, U.S.A. Fifteen hundred workers in the knitting mills revolted against similar condijjpns to Lawrence. A reduction of hours had been legislated by the ! , State, but. as in Lawrence, the bosses met this by cutting the pay and ispeed-ing-np. The slaves came out! spontaneously. and appealed so the I.WAV. The endless chain picket line was soon got moving, but la free speech fight was brought abolut by the police pulling speakers old' the soap box as they were addressing the strikers. The Socialist Mayor of the town was fined £lO ,andl sent to jail for refusing to paV; ht* declared that he would rot iiji jawl before he would stop street sipca I.Aig 1 . The strike was going very quietly, but this did not suit the bosses,'so a riot” was started, and &omej arrests were made. Later the police and scabs burst into a ball where the Strike Committee was holding a meeting. Women on the committee were knocked about; furniture, musical instruments, and the framed I.W.W. charter were broken, and the strike committee were arrested. AVomen pickets and boys were also arrested and thrown into filthy cells ; some of them were visited at night and beaten by the police; the spirit of the strikers remained unbroken, however.

The “respectable” citizens held a meeting of protest against the presence of the 1.W.W., and they unanimously voted approval of the “firmness and moderation” of the police.—Reads like Waihi.

It isn’t any use sitting around with, your hands in your pockets keeping the seat warm and watching the other fellow do things; it won’t bring you any nearer to industrial freedom.

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The Industrial Unionist is edited and managed by a committee of five actual wage-workers, who receive no remuneration for their services to the paper or to the organisation. Editors: F. Hanlon and A. Holdsworth; business manager. W. Murdoch; committeemen, T. Woodward and P. Short.

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