Anti-Systemic Protest

The company belongs to the people who invest in it-----not to its employees, suppliers, nor the locality in which it is situated.

Anthropologists, sociologists, historians,and political scientists attribute protests to the expansion of the capitalist world system. For that reason they term these antisystemic protest (Amin et al. 1990).

All of the anti-systemic movements emerged out of a rejection of the injustices of the existing world-system, the capitalist world economy.

So again, capitalism requires:

• constant change
• new modes of production
• new organizations of labor
• expansion of markets
• new technology

Today, we look at protests that claim that the culture of capitalism has had a detrimental effect on their lives and the lives of others.

Question:
The anti-systemic protest did nothing to set the agenda for reforms.
True or False

Anti-systemic protests include:

• civil rights
• gay rights
• women's rights
• indigenous rights
• environmental reform

Give me an example of a protest in the environment.

Example:
A man now has been living in a tree for over a year to prevent the Pacific Lumber Co. from cutting the tree down.

Protests of Labor:
The Coal Miners

St. Clair PA, a coal mining town and the mining conditions led to labor protests & the efforts of mine owners to stop it.

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In the 1820's and 1830's, investors put lots of money in land thought to yield high profits in coal.

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• And, constructing pumps to drain the water in the shafts

Each mine employed 200-300 people and work was divided into 2 groups.
a. above ground
b. below ground

Question:
Who were the lowest level workers in the mines & where did they work?

Boys, 8-12 yrs. old, all who worked the ventilation doors that controlled airflow
underground.

Who was next?

Teenage boys who drove the mules that pulled the carts filled with coal, also underground.

After the teenage boys?

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• miners' helpers
• contract miners who were paid by the amount of coal they loaded

On the top of the underground were:
# craftsmen
#blacksmiths
#pump men
All were underground jobs

Question:
What did the mine boss and the fire boss do?

Inspected the mines each morning to ensure that they were safe from methane gas produced by the coal, falling rocks, and flooding

Question:
Who worked above ground?

slate pickers who picked debris from the coal.....they were as young as 4 years old

Higher up were the engineers, machinists, and teamsters

Question:
What were the reasons for the frequent interruptions during the mining?

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• accidents
• breakdowns
• flooding
• over production

Question:
Why was coal mining not profitable in St. Clair PA?

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• The geology of the area
• Frequent accidents

Coal mining is dangerous.....cave-ins, flooding, conveyor best accidents, & explosions

Question:
How did the explosions happen?

A combination of methane gas and oxygen.....
There were zero safety standards at that time, the accident and death rates were appalling.

Fact:
A mine worker had less than an even chance of surviving for 12 years working in the mines, and he could expect to be killed or crippled for life in 6 years.

Tell me about health issues of mine workers

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• black lung disease
• miners died at very young ages (some as young 35)

The first regional strike occurred in 1858, when low coal prices resulted in wage cuts. The sheriff called the militia & men were arrested for rioting.

Who were the Molly Maguires?

An Irish 19th century secret society, best known for their activism among Irish American coal miners in Pennsylvania, who fought the oppressive mine owners..

Members of the Mollies were accused of murder, arson, kidnapping and other crimes.

Question:
Why and how did the Molly Maguires begin?

...the mine owners without one single exception had refused over the years to install emergency exits, ventilating and pumping systems, or to make provision for sound scaffolding. In Schuylkill County alone 566 miners had been killed and 1,655 had been seriously injured over a seven year period...

In sum,
in 1869, the Pennsylvania legislature passed safety legislation, but 5 months later a mine explosion killed 108 people, most of whom were asphyxiated by gas while waiting to be rescued because there was no escape tunnel.

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"The company belongs to people who invest in it---not to its employees, suppliers, nor the locality in which it is situated."