Labor History Commons^™

Kicking In The Copper Country: The Rise And Fall Of Early Soccer In Michigan's Upper Peninsula 1909-1914, Gabe Logan

Upper Country: A Journal of the Lake Superior Region

Near the beginning of the twentieth century, Cornish miners introduced soccer to Michigan's Upper Peninsula. They initially played informal scrimmages and friendlies until 1909 when several mining communities organized the Copper League. This began spirited competition until the Copper Strike of 1913-1914 terminated interest in the sport. Following labor hostilities, many players moved away from the Keweenaw and ended this once promising league.

Anarcho-Syndicalism In The Negaunee Branch Of The Finnish Socialist Association, Michael P. Selwa

HS 390 Primary Research Papers

Socialism reached a prominence as a movement in the United States during the early 20th century. Fueled by the machinations of industrial capitalism and labor reform, many workers, immigrants, and other individuals would arrive to the precepts of socialism, a political movement avowing to shirk the constraints of capitalism on the proletariat. Specifically, the question of why and how labor unions should function in a socialist society was a central tenet of debate within the faction of the American Socialist Party. The central question of this article is to examine why anarcho-syndicalists argued against traditional socialist reformist arguments in the …

Italian Railroad, Construction And Timber Laborers In The Lake Superior Basin And Michigan, 1880s-1920s, Russell Magnaghi

Upper Country: A Journal of the Lake Superior Region

What follows is an overview of the Italian story scattered across the Lake Superior region in the states of Wisconsin and Minnesota and the Canadian province of Ontario and finally the state of Michigan. The role of the unskilled laborer seeking work on rail lines and other construction jobs that started in the 1880s came to an end by the 1920s when railroads no longer needed large numbers of construction crews.

The narrative will begin by focusing on railroad laborers in the Lake Superior basin, but the majority of the story will be centered in the Lower Peninsula of Michigan. …

Warrioress In White: A Semiotic Analysis Of America's Joan Of Arc In The Women Of The Copper Country, Akasha Khalsa

Conspectus Borealis

Mary Doria Russell’s The Women of the Copper Country is a fictionalized historical account of the 1913 mining strike in the Keweenaw Peninsula. Significantly in this strike, a great deal of leadership was focused in the Union’s Women’s Auxiliary. In particular, one woman formed the backbone of the local movement. Known by her community as Big Annie, Anna Klobuchar Clements was the heart of the 1913 strike. Memories of her bravery linger today in the form of recorded testimonies by elderly community members, immortalization in plaques and songs, and Russell’s popular novel. Today she is remembered not as herself, not …

The Minnesota Farm-Labor Party: The Role Of Third Parties In The Americanization Of European Labor Radicals In The Great Lakes Region, Paul Lubotina

Upper Country: A Journal of the Lake Superior Region

This paper examines the political transformation of former radicals from Ethnic Socialist Parties, Industrial Workers of the World, and the Western Federation of Miners during the 1920s and 1930s, as they joined mainstream third party organizations such as The Nonpartisan League and Farm-Labor Party of Minnesota. Former resident of Copper Harbor, Michigan and mayor of Hibbing, Minnesota, Victor Power led a coalition of Americans and immigrants in a struggle to circumvent the burgeoning power of Ku Klux Klan members who dominated local government in the city, with the support of the United States Steel Corporation. This political battle between progressive …

Playing For The People: Labor Sport Union Athletic Clubs In The Lake Superior/Iron Range 1927-1936, Gabe Logan

Upper Country: A Journal of the Lake Superior Region

From 1927-1935 the United States Communist Party developed and implemented the Labor Sport Union (LSU). This athletic experiment encouraged workers to abandon paternalistic company teams, theologically inspired gyms such as the YMCA and YWCA, and withdraw their support from school sponsored athletics. Instead, workers would join the LSU, a worker controlled sporting fraternity. The LSU enjoyed support in the metropolitan centers of the Northeast and Midwest. However, it was also enthusiastically received in the rural mining and farming regions of Lake Superior. This work recounts the history of the LSU in general and its specific development in upper Michigan, northern …

No News Is Good News: Newspaper Reports Of Calumet’S Italian Hall Disaster, Allie Penn

Upper Country: A Journal of the Lake Superior Region

This paper focuses on the newspaper bias within various newspapers after the Italian Hall Disaster in Calumet, Michigan. The paper samples newspapers from Calumet, Houghton, and Hancock, the Upper Peninsula, Lower Peninsula, Midwest locations and major metropolitan areas. It uses primary resources, including interviews and the Coroner’s Inquest to evaluate the accuracy within multiple newspaper articles.

Reluctant Revolutionaries: Finnish Iron Miners And The Failure Of Radical Labor And Socialism On The Marquette Iron Range, 1900-1914, Marcus C. Robyns Ca

Book Sections/Chapters

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