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In reply to the discussion: The Brutal Suppression Of OWS Proves That The Rich & Business Will Tolerate No Dissent [View all]jtuck004
(15,882 posts)Our labor history would belie that statement. Today is actually pretty mild compared to what has gone on in our past...read some of the stuff from 1865 to 1930, it'll curl your hair if it's not curly already.
Just across the border from here the police rounded up "wobblies" and working men, put them in open pens, brutalized their wives in front of them when they would come to visit. In lots of places the police shot them, hung them, rode through crowds on horses shooting and killing women, men, children, whomever, entered houses and killed people in their beds - and that was just the overt police violence, leaving aside the far worse violence perpetrated by employers and their hired thug, rats, and assassins, often with the consent or help of law enforcement. In our fair city we passed ordinances against free speech, whereupon the police jailed protesters, turning up steam on them and then letting them freeze, where several died in the jail. They reportedly ran a brothel out of the women's side. And heck, that's just this area. There were far worse things done, all the way up to and including the Federal level.
But I agree with the spirit of your post. Given our history, it seems worse to me that this country of schooled and managed people are allowing the things that are happening today.