The Homestead Strike: Then & Now

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The Homestead Strike

Anarchism is a complex political idea that fights for freedom against oppressive governments and wants equality for all. The main goal of anarchism is to create a society where everyone is free and equal without an oppressive ruling State leering over the heads of its people. The main focus of many anarchistic thoughts come from labor disputes. Not only the State but also greedy capitalists who treat their workers unfairly is a big part of the anarchistic fight. Many anarchists are pacifists who condone violence unless it is absolutely necessary, and others think that a headfirst revolution is the best way to go. The Homestead Strike, also known as the Homestead Massacre, was a labor dispute, with anarchistic roots based on better pay for the workers at the Homestead Steel Mill owned by Andrew Carnegie.

            The steel mill, located in Homestead Pennsylvania, was home to around 3,800 workers where 800 of them were part of a union called Amalgamated Association of Iron and Steel Workers (AA). Carnegie, who supported labor causes, hired a man named Henry Frick to control production of the mill. He was an opponent to unions and worked with Carnegie to get rid of the union of the mill. When the union contract was set to expire, Frick broke contract, refused to meet their demands, and a strike occurred. A more detailed timeline of the entire event can be seen below at the bottom of the document. Frick, with the help of Pinkerton Detective Agency, and the Pennsylvania state militia, was able to break up the strike resulting in 12 deaths on both sides, the deadliest labor union dispute in history. The result was a loss for the union.

            By the end of the strike, the town of Homestead gave up their support for AA after the bloody battle and an attempted assassination of Frick. It got too bloody and too violent for anyone to handle. In the resulting years, the steel industry faced an economic depression which got back to normal in 1897. AA shrunk over the years and in 1936 was taken over by the Steel Workers Organizing Committee. The result also led to 26 states passing laws banning hired help intervening in labor disputes. In Homestead there are a lot of memorials remembering what happened from plaques to museums. In 1999 the Bost Building where the AA headquarters were was designated a national historic landmark and is now a museum for the strike and for the history of steel mills in Pennsylvania. A railroad bridge over the Monongahela River is named Pinkertons landing bridge, two sites were each designated with a Pennsylvania state historical marker: the site where Pinkerton attempted to land, and the two adjoining cemeteries of St. Mary’s and Homestead where the remains are of six of the seven Carnegie Steel Company workers that were killed, the Pinkerton landing site was also named a Pittsburgh History and Landmarks Foundation Historic Landmark. The pump house where the gunfight occurred remains as a museum and meeting hall. There are several historical markers as well as a metal commemorative sign with the US Steel logo that reads “In honor of the workers”. This strike was an important part in the history of the labor union and is taught in many U.S. history classes throughout the states.

            The Homestead Strike is an excellent example of anarchism being used to achieve a better life. Even though it did not work it shows a lot about the State and its workers. A capitalist mindset is all about the money and what Frick was trying to do was cut down the wages of these workers to make more money for himself and Carnegie. When people are in positions of power and abuse it to harm others is the exact thing that anarchists are trying to fight. Anarchism is about fighting back against this power even when they seem like the underdogs. Learning about this strike and the political ideology of anarchy is an amazing way to understand more about our government and the impact of an oppressive rule.

Timeline

  1. 1876
    1. Amalgamated Association of Iron and Steel Workers (AA) was formed.
  2. 1881
    1. Henry Clay Frick is put in charge of Homestead Steel Works.
  3. January 1 – March 20, 1882
    1. AA went on their first strike with Pittsburg Bessemer Steel Works and won.
  4. July 1 – July 12, 1889
    1. AA went on second strike with same plant and won but at a cost.
  5. February 1892
    1. AA and Frick go into contract renewal negotiations.
  6. April
    1. Pinkerton National Detective Agency was hired by Frick to provide security to the plant.
  7. June 28
    1. In preparation for the next day, Frick locked the doors to part of the mill.
  8. June 29
    1. No agreement was reached so Frick locked the rest of the plant down from the union. He guarded the plant with water cannons and barbed wire fences.
    2. Frick breaks contract by locking the plant down a day early.
  9. June 30
    1. The strike started after AA said the company broke contract by locking workers out a day early.
  10. July 1
    1. The contract expired.
  11. June 30 – July 3
    1. Union and nonunion workers both put up picket lines, established shifts, talking to other strikers, but, the entire town was getting shut down and so many people were getting kicked out.
    2. During this time they gained the support of the rest of the town to aid them in any strike work needed.
  12. July 4
    1. Frick requested that Sheriff William H. McCleary intervene to allow supervisors into the plant.
  13. July 5
    1. McCleary and 11 officers told strikers to stop, they said no and sent the deputies off.
    2. At 10:30 pm Pinkerton agents were given rifles and stationed 5 miles below Pittsburg on the Davis Island Dam on the Monongahela River.
  14. July 6
    1. 2:30 am
      1. Some strikers went down there to see the Pinkertons, and a few shots were fired.
      2. AA blew a whistle drawing thousands of people to the plant.
    2. 4:00 am
      1. The Pinkertons try to land.
      2. The strikers and their families tore down the fences that were surrounding the plant keeping them out.
  • They started shooting at each other for about 10 min with deaths on both sides.
  1. 6:00 am
    1. The strikers start setting up a barrier and getting people around the area ready to be a part of the attack on Pinkertons.
    2. The Pinkertons start to retreat.
  2. 8:00 am
    1. Pinkertons try to go back after retreating earlier.
  3. 9:00 am
    1. AA president William Weihe requests a meeting with Frick, but he refuses.
  4. 10:00 am
    1. McCleary asked Governor Pattison for help he refused.
  5. 10:50 am
    1. More fighting on both sides. Gunfire, fist fighting, fire, and more.
  6. 12:00 pm (ish)
    1. A sniper shot a medical student a part of the Pinkertons.
    2. McCleary asked again for help and the governor said no.
  7. 2:00 pm (ish)
    1. Strikers tried to set water on fire with oil to burn the barges and get the Pinkertons out.
  8. 3:00 pm
    1. McCleary asks again for help.
  9. 4:00 pm
    1. Weihe asked for the strikers to let the Pinkertons surrender but they wanted to keep going.
  10. 5:00 pm
    1. The Pinkertons surrendered.
    2. As the agents were escorted out of town they were shouted at and harassed.
  11. 10:15 pm
    1. McCleary and Weihe talked and agreed to a transfer process of the Pinkerton agents.
  12. At some point throughout the day Governor Pattison tells his state militia to get ready but not do anything yet.
  1. July 7
    1. 12:30 am
      1. A special train took McCleary, AA officials, and town officials to Pittsburgh.
    2. 10:00 am
      1. The Pinkertons took a train from Pittsburgh out of town and were not charged with murder per the request of the strikers.
    3. Telegram was sent to the governor Pattison saying that law and order were restored.
      1. That was a lie.
    4. July 9
      1. Union officials went to Harrisburg to talk with Pattison to talk about safety of the plant.
    5. July 12
      1. 9:00 am
        1. The state militia gets into a union-controlled Homestead.
        2. The strikers tried to make good with the troops, but it did not work.
  • Troops surrounded the plant and the strikers all over the city.
  1. 10:00 am
    1. Company officials were back in their offices.
    2. The company soon brought in strike breakers and restarted the mill.
  2. July 13
    1. Frick hired a lot of new black workers to start working at the mill.
  3. July 15
    1. The furnaces turned on and production started.
      1. Strikers tried to stop it but militia killed a few people and drove them off again.
    2. Racial tensions between nonunion White and Black workers started.
  4. July 16
    1. AA appealed to Whitelaw Reid, republican candidate for Vice President, to talk to Frick about reopening negotiations.
    2. Frick refused.
  5. July 18
    1. Homestead was placed under martial law.
  6. July 22
    1. Race war between nonunion Black and White workers in the Homestead plant broke out.
  7. July 23
    1. Alexander Berkman, a NY anarchist, plotted to assassinate Frick with his lover Emma Goldman.
      1. He had no former connection to Homestead or the strike.
    2. He shot and stabbed Frick, but Frick survived somehow, and Berkman got 22 years in prison.
    3. The assassination was the final collapse for the strike.
  8. August 12
    1. The company announced that 1,700 men were working at the mill, and everything was at full capacity.
    2. The union agreed to go back to work, the strike failed, the union collapsed.
      1. There was still a bit of striking and the union didn’t officially go back to work until the fall.
    3. October 13
      1. The strike collapsed to its last people and the militia finally left after occupying the town for 95 days.
    4. November 20
      1. AA voted to return to work.
    5. February 1893
      1. Murder charges were brought to Carnegie Company officials, and AA officials but both parties agreed to drop the murder charges on one another.

Bibliography

Homestead strike. (2024). In Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Homestead_strike&oldid=1203844938

Homestead Strike | Summary & Significance | Britannica. (2024, March 18). https://www.britannica.com/event/Homestead-Strike

Homestead Strike—Summary, Causes & Impact. (2021, April 28). HISTORY. https://www.history.com/topics/industrial-revolution/homestead-strike

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