One of the most violent assaults by state and employers against workers took place in Lattimer, Pennsylvania (USA) in 1897. A major uprising and strike of 10,000 coal miners ended with the killing of 19 workers.
Layoffs, wage cuts, rising rents in the shacks where miners lived next to the pits, hostility toward immigrant workers – Poles, Czechs, Germans, Lithuanians – and above all, the complete absence of safety for their lives.
The miners rose up, demanding solutions and humane conditions. The employers, backed by the authorities, responded with bullets, drowning in blood one of the largest mobilizations in the history of the labor movement.