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Americans vs Oligarchs [1]
['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']
Date: 2025-01-24
By 1877, the oligarchs who owned the railroads (who were often referred to as robber barons) had seen their profits threatened by the economic depression in the wake of the Panic of 1873, and they had been systematically reducing the wages of the railroad workers; an average of 45% in a few short years. Jobs were scarce. This precipitated the Great Railroad Strike of 1877, where tens of thousands of workers protested in cities across the country, leading to violence as police, private militias and federal troops tried to shut down the protests. The worst of the violence occurred in Pittsburgh.
On July 21, National Guard members bayoneted and fired on rock-throwing strikers, killing 20 people and wounding 29.[17] Rather than quell the uprising, these actions infuriated the strikers, who retaliated and forced the National Guard to take refuge in a railroad roundhouse. Strikers set fires that razed 39 buildings and destroyed rolling stock, including 104 locomotives and 1,245 freight and passenger cars. On July 22, the National Guard mounted an assault on the strikers, shooting their way out of the roundhouse and killing 20 more people on their way out of the city. After more than a month of rioting and bloodshed in Pittsburgh, President Rutherford B. Hayes sent in federal troops as in West Virginia and Maryland to end the strikes. — en.wikipedia.org/…
I don’t admire, condone or call for the violence of 1877. What I do admire is the passion, the drive and the energy. These were Americans, trod upon by oligarchs, who mobilized in the tens of thousands to fight for their rights, for fairness, for a chance to provide for their families, to have a responsive government.
We no longer use the term “robber baron,” but we have the modern analogue, the tech barons or “broligarchs.” They don’t monopolize our transportation, but our information, and they intend to own our government. If we could harness the passion of our ancestors, maybe we could boycott X, Metta, the Washington Post, the LA Times and force them to change or shut down. Maybe we could pry our country back from the grasp of the billionaires. We don’t even have to throw rocks or set fire to buildings and cars.
Billionaires at Trump’s Inauguration
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