The most famous female labor activist of the nineteenth century, Mary Harris Jones—aka “Mother Jones”—was a self-proclaimed “hell-raiser” in the cause of economic justice. She was so strident that a US attorney once labeled her “the most dangerous woman in America.”
Born circa August 1, 1837 in County Cork, Ireland, Jones immigrated to Toronto, Canada, with her family at age five—prior to the potato famine with its waves of Irish immigrants.
She first worked as a teacher in a Michigan Catholic school, then as a seamstress in Chicago. She moved to Memphis for another teaching job, and in 1861 married George Jones, a member of the Iron Molders Union. They had four children in six years. In 1867, tragedy struck when her entire family died in a yellow fever epidemic; she dressed in black for the rest of her life.
Returning to Chicago, Jones resumed sewing but lost everything she owned in the Great Chicago Fire of 1871. She found solace at Knights of Labor meetings, and in 1877, took up the cause of working people. Jones focused on the rising number of working poor during industrialization, especially as wages shrunk, hours increased, and workers had no insurance for unemployment, healthcare or old age.
Jones first displayed her oratorical and organizing abilities in Pittsburgh during the Great Railroad Strike of 1877. She took part in and led hundreds of strikes, including those that led to the Haymarket riot in Chicago in 1886. She paused briefly to publish The New Right in 1899 and a two-volume Letter of Love and Labor in 1900 and 1901. A beloved leader, the workers she organized nicknamed her “Mother Jones.”
Beginning in 1900, Jones focused on miners, organizing in the coal fields of West Virginia and Pennsylvania. For a few years, she was employed by the United Mine Workers, but left when the national leadership disavowed a wildcat strike in Colorado. After a decade in the West, Jones returned to West Virginia, where, after a violent strike in 1912-1913, she was convicted of conspiracy to commit murder. Public appeals on her behalf convinced the governor to commute her twenty-year sentence. Afterward she returned to Colorado and made a national crusade out of the tragic events during the Ludlow Massacre, even lobbying President Woodrow Wilson. Later, she participated in several industrial strikes on the East Coast between 1915 and 1919 and continued to organize miners well into her nineties.
Despite her radicalism, Jones did not support women’s suffrage, arguing that “you don’t need a vote to raise hell.” She pointed out that the women of Colorado had the vote and failed to use it to prevent the appalling conditions that led to labor violence. She also considered suffragists unwitting dupes of class warfare. Jones argued that suffragists were naïve women who unwittingly acted as duplicitous agents of class warfare.
Although Jones organized working class women, she held them in auxiliaries, maintaining that—except when the union called—a woman’s place was in the home. A reflection of her Catholic heritage, she believed that men should be paid well enough so that women could devote themselves to motherhood.
In 1925, she published her Autobiography of Mother Jones. She is buried in the Union Miners Cemetery in Mount Olive, Illinois.
“I’m not a humanitarian, I’m a hell-raiser.”
Mother Jones
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Mood
I came out as bi to my (Dr.) partner recently, but I’m too chickenshit to tell anyone else in my life. So, to all my supportive online hexbears I say: I am bi!
Tyty
hell yeah!
Tyvm!
Hell yea
Aww yeee
Ay the gym and this dude took off all his clothes apart from his underwear and is just posing and looking at himself in the mirror. This has been going on for at least 10 minutes
Johnny bravo ass behavior
.world is rolling out an automated Media Bias Fact Check bot lmfao.
truly the most embarrassing instance
Reddit 2, by all accounts. It’s peak lib.
I’m glad at least that they make this shit so obvious.
Lol even if you’re lib that site is worthless. It tags every centrist source as left-wing.
Almost like they’re trying to turn people to the right
Having principles is bias and bias is unacceptable, regardless of the facts. Dutifully reporting that the Nord Stream 2 pipeline just did that is objective and factual, trustworthy reporting.
X.world ass mfs
“I am considered a Bolshevik, and a Red and an I.W.W., and a radical, and I admit to being all they’ve charged me with. I’m anything that would change monied civilization to a higher and grander civilization for the ages to come. And I long to see the day when labor will have the destination of the nation in her own hands, and she will stand a united force, and show the world what workers can do.” - Mother Jones
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remember nerds, if you want to be in the nerd call you can always ask
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No current struggle session discussion here on the new general megathread, i will ban you from the comm and remove your comment, have a good day/night :meow-coffee:
Mogged by pax
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under socialism, you won’t have to go all the way to japan in order to go to one of those tiny ass bars that have a maximum occupancy of 6
Removed by mod
no, i want to go to a bar where there’s only 3 other patrons
This is so funny because what on Earth could you possibly reply to get modded?
Before the permaban:
Banned positivesoymilkworkershostel [they/them] from the community labour
reason: 1984
expires: in 2 days
i don’t even remember. some ridiculous nonsense about tiny japanese bars being bourgeois or something
The pizza slaves on the bourgeois app are bringing you vegan pizza and you’re laughing
They were saying the the only allowable food/drink establishments were gigantic cafeterias
Removed by mod
log onto Twitter and TERFs are frothing at the mouth to forcemasc a cis woman like damn practice your kinks consensually if nothing else
Venezuela election is a choice between literally 0% hitler and 99% hitler and lesser evil libs support 99% hitler
just wanted to post something maybe get a couple up bears see a couple notifications after work idk
@[email protected] hates their job but finally got an offer for a different place to perform wage slavery. @[email protected] is also not giving any notice because they hate their employer
hell yeah, happy do it you
every time I interact with Twitter I’m reminded how miserable of a place it is, actual zone but not even only because of the rancid politics. it’s just filled with full-time haters
I hate printers I hate printers I hate printers
In the future where socialism has won, we still won’t get printers to work
Old tablets will be refurbished to be used as a paper substitute.
Welcome back Ea-nāṣir
Funniest kid on the bus just said skibidi and then when his mum said sth about pilates he replied pila tes nutz. The kids are alright
Not a fan of vaping, but I heard a kid (they’re probably like 20, I’m just old) walking by say they “missed their penjamin franklin” today and I cracked a smile.
Hell yeah go kid
> participates in olympic boxing
> gets punched once
> won’t stop crying about it
Can you believe she’s a cop?
Second date is this Sunday. The first one went really well, I think. We both seem pretty hyped for each other.
We text each other daily and have talked for at least 7 hours via voice chat since we matched last Thursday