Nonviolent Movements Achieve Social Change Essay

Even in booming communities such as the city of Pullman that George Pullman started back in 1880, even encountered violence and riots. Due to an economic depression in 1893, over half of the workers of this company had to be fired, while the rest had their pay checks majorly cut. This made them very angry since they were now unable to pay rent in Pullman or support their lifestyles. This caused an official strike in the year 1894, where workers were led by Eugene Debs, the creator of the failed Industrial Workers of the World union. Pullman resisted from negotiations, motivating the laborers to start boycotting train cars as part of the American Federation of Labor. Unfortunately, strikes began turning violent again as army troops were required

The Great Railroad Strike was the country’s first major strike. The strike and the violence it created paused the country's commerce and led governors in ten states to activate 60,000 militia members to reopen rail traffic. The strike would be broken within a few weeks, but it helped spark a movement for later violence in the 1880s and 1890s, including the Haymarket Square bombing in Chicago in 1886, the Homestead Steel Strike near Pittsburgh in 1892, and the Pullman Strike in 1894.

In the article This day in Labor history: June 26, 1894 by Erik Loomis talks about the American railway union that Eugene Debs led, which was known as a nationwide boycott in solidarity with their member from Pullman, Illinois The actions led a minor strike turn into one of the major labor actions within the nation, this finished when President Grover called the united states military as a private army for the railroads which ended the strike

Craft unions had been representing small groups of skilled workers since before the Civil War, but most unions never hoped to have a compelling authority over the economy. Also, during the unstable times of the years of recession in the 1870’s unions encountered superfluous public opposition. “The “Molly Maguires” in the anthracite coal region of Western Pennsylvania” were the most predominantly frightening to middle class Americans. (Brinkley 412) The Molly Maguires were a radical employment establishment that occasionally benefited from using brutality and seldom used murder as a tactic in their disputes with coal operators. Enthusiasm toward the group diminished alongside the panic that engrossed the United States for the duration of the railroad strike of 1877, which commenced when the eastern railroads declared a ten percent income cutback and escalated into something close to a class feud. Strikers argued rail service from Baltimore to St. Louis, demolished equipment, and rampaged in the streets of Pittsburgh and other metropolises. State armed forces were requested, and in July President Hayes demanded federal troops to overpower the complaints. Eleven campaigners died and forty were injured in a divergence involving workers and militiamen in Baltimore. In Philadelphia, twenty people were also killed when troops had to open fire upon “thousands of workers and their families who were attempting to block the railroad crossings” (Brinkley 412). Over one hundred people died in total before the strike came to an end numerous sorrowful weeks after it began. Conclusively America’s first major labor conflict was the great railroad

When strikes would occur, the government took an anti-labor stance in response to the public outcry against the labor-based extremism and violence. The Pullman strike of 1894 was a strike where blood was shed forcing a government reaction. Eugene Debs, the leader of the American Railway Union, led 40,000 Pullman workers in a strike that caused rail traffic to cease in the west. This affected the flow of mail, which is a federal offense. When federal government used special deputies to deliver the mail, violence of previously unseen proportions broke loose. The New York World in 1894 reported that the strike was like a "war against the government and society." The strike only caused controversy and did not help any employee.

The extremely violent nature of the Pullman Strike led by ARU caused the public to protest strikes, especially against the newcomers who were working in the railway industries (Winston). After the successful Great Northern Railway strike, the ARU participate in the Pullman Strike, demanding the rollback of the recently reduced wages (Winston). During the Pullman Strike, the mobs burned and looted railroad cars (Winston). The strikers were mostly composed of foreign workers since railway industries provided harsh working conditions, so only new immigrants accepted the jobs (Winston). Furthermore, the Pullman Palace Car Company hired primarily black strikebreakers, attempting to initiate racism of the strikers (Winston). Most notably, local presses associated the strikers as anarchists and communists who came from foreign countries, while highlighting the racist behaviors of the strikers (Winston). Consequently, American citizens started to associate labor movements as the actions of foreign communists and anarchists to overthrow their country (Winston). Also, the association which came from the Pullman strike indirectly contributed to the cause of the Red Scare (Winston). The public believed that the violent actions were attempts of Communists to overthrow America to establish a communist state (Winston). Since Eugene Debs led the American Railway

Many decisions had to be made when approaching discrimination and segregation; many wanted this to end. The debate on what was best to approach the dangers of fighting for what you believed was weighed down to two options; violent protests or nonviolent protests. In the graphic novel titled “March” written and experienced by John Lewis himself with designs by Nate Powell, depicts the struggles of civil rights and the fight to earn it. The novel goes off to show mostly nonviolent protests, but outside of the novel during the 1960’s depicts and describes a different approach; Violent and free Protests. Two of the most impactful civil rights leaders Malcolm X and Stokely Carmichael despised the clean and peaceful protests as they thought it was

Pullman Strike was a nationwide railroad strike in the United States. George Pullman cut his railroad workers wages in regards of economic depression. The workers organized a strike, but soon enough they realized they needed additional help. Famed labor union Eugene V. Debs helped to establish an organization to create a national movement. After the railroad workers resorted to destructiveness it gained favor, which, it was brought to the attention of the attorney general. The Pullman Strike is widely seen to have reached the maximums because of George Pullman’s uncompromising and unsympathetic attitude towards his employee’.

When their wages were lowered but their rent stayed the same, they knew something had to give. To retaliate, workers started the Pullman strike in 1894. Other strikes included the Great Railroad Strike of 1877, which resulted when railroad companies cut their wages, and the Homestead Strike, which came about in 1892 over demands for increased production. There was also the Haymarket Riot in 1886 as a result of police brutality from a

All through history governments and empires have been overthrown or defeated primarily by the violence of those who oppose them. This violence was usually successful however, there have been several situations, when violence failed, that protesters have had to turn to other methods. Non-violent protesting never seemed to be the right course of action until the ideology of Mohandas Gandhi spread and influenced successful protests across the world. Non-violent methods were successfully used, most notably, by Mohandas Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Jr., and Nelson Mandela.

The Pullman Strike was an effect to the Pullman Palace Car Company hit a depression and cut workers’ wages 25-40 percent while keeping the rent and housing prices the same. Many of the workers joined the American Railroad Union. Debs, socialists that followed Karl Marx’s classless society, backed up the workers which resulted in them being jailed. The strike is an example of a secondary labor boycott. The workers cut off the town from food and goods. President Cleveland ordered troops to break up the strike. The federal courts issued an injunction

Civil Disobedience Civil disobedience: “Refusal to obey civil laws in an effort to induce change in governmental policy or legislation, characterized by the use of passive resistance or other non-violent means” (Houghton, 2000). Although this definition seems broad enough to cover any aspect of a discussion, there is still much to be said about the subject. Martin Luther King wrote a fifty paragraph letter about the timeliness and wisdom in such an action, while Hannah Arendt managed to squeeze her definition into six (extra long) paragraphs regarding Denmark and the Jews. But, regardless of the fact that people relate this topic in

Can a social movement be fundamentally flawed? Most people would answer “yes,” pointing to National Socialism or the Ku Klux Klan. However, few would consider the German New Left to epitomize a flawed social movement. According to history professor Dagmar Herzog, they should. Throughout her publication Sex After Fascism, Herzog disputes this central argument of the New Left: “Numerous New Leftists argued directly that sexuality and politics were causally linked; convinced that sexual repression produced racism and fascism, they proposed that sexual emancipation would further social and justice” (2). Although the baby boomers equated sex with anti-fascism, presuming that the Nazis had created the sexually repressive environment, Herzog argues that the repressive environment was actually established in reaction to National Socialism. The most homicidal regime in history was more sexually liberal than the New Left conceived (3). What Herzog overlooks, however, is that not all baby boomers succumbed to this fundamental misconception, as evidenced by the 1974 feature film Ali: Fear Eats the Soul. Written and directed by Rainer Werner Fassbinder, the film depicts a romance between Emmy—who’s an elderly German widow—and the title character—who’s a Moroccan guest worker. Throughout Ali, Emmy faces prejudice for being in an interracial relationship, but as film theorist Thomas Wartenberg argues, the film is far from sympathetic to the elderly widow. In fact, Fassbinder’s film

Nonviolence doesn't deny the existence of conflict - conflict of one kind or another will probably always be present in human society - but it does show that no conflict has to be dealt with using violence. Throughout the history of the U.S., civil disobedience has played a significant role in many of the social reforms that we all take for granted today. The Women's Suffrage Movement lasted from 1848 until 1920, when thousands of courageous women marched in the streets, endured hunger strikes, and submitted to arrest and jail in order to gain the right to vote. The Civil Rights Movement, led by Martin Luther King, Jr. and others, included sit-ins and illegal marches which weakened segregation in the south. The abolition of slavery, including Harriet Tubman's underground railway, giving sanctuary, and other actions which helped to end

A phenomenon which has remained constant throughout history is the evolution of society. This persistent phenomenon helps to constantly reshape society. Helping mold it into a suitable form that caters to the needs of those who inhabit it. The evolution of society may take years, if not decades, to occur. However, during certain moments in history, society has undergone rapid change in short periods of time. These rapid periods of change are often caused by undesirable events that influence the general population to revolt and act against those in control of society. Often motivating the mobilization of the public in great numbers to protest . Frequently, the main objectives of these protests are to improve upon aspects of society or to revise the state of society entirely. Generally, in hopes of promoting society’s development to the benefit of the masses. These large-scale gatherings of the population to alter society for the better are known as Social Movements. These movements help to gather vast numbers of like-minded individuals who wish to change the methods used to operate society. Often these movements target those in positions of power, in hopes of influencing them to act upon the state of society. Social movements themselves have occurred frequently throughout the history of society. Some movements succeed, influencing power holders into action in regards to the condition of society, achieving their main purpose. Other movements; however, seldom procure enough