About the Community in Conflict Cover

We are very proud to share the cover to the upcoming book, Community in Conflict: A Working-class History of the 1913-14 Michigan Copper Strike and the Italian Hall Tragedy. The book itself is the culmination of research going back almost 10 years. I (Gary) had been working with sources from the Copper Country's Finnish immigrant population, which was instrumental in bringing about the strike and also during the strike while working on a Master's at Michigan Tech and some of these sources were inevitably used in Community as well.

Aaron and I started working together on the book in 2011. His expertise in the national labor scene at that time gives Community in Conflict something that other book length histories of the strike do not provide: a national context. Workers in the Copper Country did not live in a vacuum, and national events in the labor movement and business and management relations had great impacts on local workers and their surroundings in the Copper Country. That is the "community" in Community in Conflict--we strive to paint a whole picture of the Copper Country's labor movement and not just what happened in the mines and streets of the Copper Country during the dates of the strike.

Thus, the book is a look at not only striking workers, but their families, the copper bosses, and the social and political environment in which the Copper Country's working-class lived. The back story provided in the book leads up to the great clash between labor and management that was the 1913-14 strike, and the truly tragic events at Italian Hall--mostly with regard to and using the perspective of the Copper Country's working class members.

The cover itself is a symbol of our attempt to include the personal stories of members of the Copper Country's working class. The artwork on the cover is an engaging political cartoon drawn by Konstu Sallinen, a Finnish immigrant working at the Tyomies Publishing Company in Hancock, Michigan, during the strike. Salllinen drew the cartoon in the early days of the actual strike and captured the "conflict" that was consuming the Copper Country at that time. His artwork is an artistic first person perspective on conditions from a working-class perspective.

You'll note in the Sallinen's cartoon the haggered, but determined look look on many of the strikers' faces. One striking worker is carrying a sign that reads a familiar slogan shouted during strike parades by workers. In the background the artillery of the Michigan National Guard sits ready for use, while Michigan National Guardsmen themselves stand watching strikers with guns outfitted with bayonets next to military issue tents.

We felt the image was a powerful representation of the tension and conflict simmering in the Copper Country. While we selected the image, Michigan State University Press, our publisher, employed an incredible graphic artist to select the color scheme, font, and organize the cover's layout. We feel the graphic artist did a great job and when we first received the cover to look over from the Press, Aaron had copies made and distributed them throughout St. Martin's University where he teaches.

Labor Day 1912: 100 Years Ago Today

Like this parade, which possibly occurred during Labor Day festivities in Hancock, Michigan, circa 1900, Labor Day at the turn of the century was about getting out and showing solidarity with your fellow workers. Membership in a union, such as the International Molders Union members above, often included uniforms so members could identify with other union brothers and sisters. Image courtesy of Michigan Technological University's Copper Country Historical Collections.

One hundred years ago today, thousands of working-class men, women, and children took to the streets of Hancock, Houghton, and Ontonagon to celebrate Labor Day.  Celebrated annually in cities and towns throughout the United States, Labor Day provided workers and their families with a day away from the workplace and the boss.  These parades provided unionists with their best opportunity to display their commitment to their unions, to unionism in general, as well as a pride in their crafts. Unionists sometimes wore identical uniforms or built floats that signaled their membership in a particular trade, or carried banners that proclaimed their union membership. 

The celebrations also provided workers with a chance to demonstrate their class solidarity by taking to the streets, holding mass parade, hearing pro-labor speeches, and enjoying picnics and games with their fellow workers.

Reporting on the September 2, 1912, Labor Day festivities, the Daily Mining Gazette wrote:

"Labor organizations of the Copper Country put forth their marching foot yesterday in observing Labor Day. In Hancock as well as in other cities throughout the country armies of men, the brawn of the great army of industrial toilers, observed it.  The significance of the movement, its benefits, its dangers, and its mission are questions peculiarly appropriate to yesterday and it required only one's presence at the grove to hear the speakers of the day explain in detail the meeting of Labor Day to learn what it represented. . . .  

Attendance Record Broken.  
The grove yesterday afternoon was the mecca for hundreds of copper country folk who congregated to help make the celebration a success.  There was music for dancing by the Quincy band, refreshments were served on the grounds, and an athletic program pulled off.  Yesterday's celebration may truly be said to have been the most successful in the history of organized labor in the Copper Country."

Copper Country Heritage

Once every summer one of the most unique and inspiring events happens in the Keweenaw Peninsula: the Baraga Powwow. This preservation of Ojibwa Native American culture is an incredible event for a couple of reasons: 1) it brings in thousands of people each year to the summer beauty of the Keweenaw and 2) it displays the fortitude of a people in the struggle to preserve their heritage, sometimes against seemingly overwhelming odds.

Before Europeans arrived in the Keweenaw searching for copper wealth, Native Americans occupied this beautiful and rugged land. Displaced as a result of the rush for copper, Native Americans were treated as second class citizens and placed in two government settlements on each side of Keweenaw Bay. These "reservations" included a "White" school at Assinins, where there was also an orphanage founded by Father Baraga, the Snowshoe Priest. Native American as well as "White" children were housed in the orphanage.

The Ojibwa people today, as part of the Keweenaw Bay Indian Community, carry on the cultural practices of their elders, and this ethic of cultural preservation is an amazing representation of what a subjugated people can do to maintain their heritage. The Baraga Powwow is a testament to the power of place and the perseverance of a people to preserve and protect their heritage and culture.

Working class Americans, of all backgrounds, can look to the great efforts of the Ojibwa people of Keweenaw Bay to preserve and protect the positive and powerful practices of culture. Too often working class culture is portrayed in less-than flattering ways. Often times working class "folks" are portrayed as buffoonish and unintelligent. This is not an accurate portrayal and one that is used by cultural elites in media and society to keep working class people in their place, while selling life-styles and products that are seen as somehow superior to working class realities.

A good critical examination of this phenomenon is the Class Dismissed documentary. A link to the first part of the two part documentary: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VyqXyn2O0S4.

While I think much of the documentary is right on, it has a perspective that somewhat mitigates the message. The "expert" analysis of working class media is done solely by academics in the university. Where are the working class voices outside of the academy? There is no examination of the topic by people outside of the university, and this is especially problematic, maybe ironic, in a media product examining how working class people are portrayed in the media...why not include a woman on the factory floor or a fry cook at McDonalds in the commentary?

Despite this shortcoming, the documentary does raise interesting questions about working class culture and heritage. In many ways media creates the stereotypes by which we think about our "working class," and this is a tragic mistake because media, and especially broadcast media, is owned and run by the very people that want to keep working class folks in their place.

The control of culture and heritage by outside entities is a vicious circle for certain, but one that Native Americans at Keweenaw Bay are effectively addressing in hosting such a great event as the Baraga Powwow.