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Solidarietà Sotto La Terra: Italian American Community Building And Ethnic Strife In The 1913-14 Copper Country Strike, Andrew Js Santamarina

Swarthmore Undergraduate History Journal

The 1913-14 Copper Country Strike was one of the most tragic labor strikes of the twentieth century but remains largely ignored by mainstream historical research. This article analyzes the importance of ethnic strife as a central factor in the strike using the Italian community as a case study. The Italian community alongside the other Eastern and Southern European immigrant communities proved essential for empowering and organizing immigrant laborers to confront capital and reconcile ethnic tensions with Western European immigrant communities during the 1913-14 strike.