Plaque marks historic1934 strike

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“Pickets returned to the Minneapolis Warehouse District on Saturday, nearly 81 years to the day after a strike there turned violent when police shot 67 truck­ ers, killing two and sparking the city’s labor move­ ment,” journalist Steven Montemayor reported in the Minneapolis Star Tribune on July 18.

“Their cause this time: To remember the events of July 20, 1934, by dedicating a plaque on the side of the Sherwin Williams building on 3rd Street N., where striker Henry Ness was killed by officers. ... ‘How many slugs did they say he had put in him?’ Gail Mar­ tinsen asked her sister, Nadine Ness, as they stood on the corner where their grandfather was shot.”

Minneapolis Labor Review editor Steve Share told his readers (LR, July 2015), “Two hundred-plus people gathered in the warehouse district in downtown Min­ neapolis July 19 for a ceremony unveiling a plaque to mark the spot where Minneapolis police opened fire July 20, 1934 on unarmed striking members and sup­ porters of Teamsters Local 574.

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SOCIALIST ACTION Closing news date: Aug. 5, 2015 Editor: Michael Schreiber Canada Editor: Barry Weisleder designed, and laid out entirely by volunteer labor.

Name Address City State Phone E-mail “‘The strikes also set the stage for the organization of over-the-road drivers throughout an 11-state area, transforming the Teamsters into a million-plus-mem­ ber union in a few years,’ according to Dave Riehle, a local labor historian who is one of the leaders of the Remember 1934 Committee.”

The plaque was installed by the Remember 1934 Committee with the support of the 11,000-member Teamsters Local 120 and other donors, including the Minneapolis Regional Labor Federation, AFL-CIO. “Welcome to a sacred place,” said Bob Kolstad, master of ceremonies and member of the Remember 1934 Committee and Teamsters Local 320. “We believe the plaque we are unveiling today is the first public monu­ ment to the labor movement in Minneapolis.”

Descendants of 1934 strikers, including Donna Se­ verson, held signs featuring photos of relatives who participated in the 1934 strikes. Severson said her father, Don Severson, and her uncle, Jack Maloney, were strike participants. “I think it’s great that they’re finally recognizing the strike, what it did for Minne­ apolis—because you don’t learn about it in school,”

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[email protected] • Minneapolis/St. Paul: (612) 8021482, [email protected] • New York City: (212) 781-5157 • Philadelphia: [email protected] eral secretary-treasurer emeritus of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters. Keegel came out of what is now Teamsters Local 120, the successor local to the former Teamsters Local 574, which waged the strike.

Keegel said he got to know veterans of the 1934 strike when he first became a Teamster in 1959. “These guys, they were proud that they stood up and fought that battle. … They had nothing. They were coming off the greatest depression in the history of this country. … Those strikers fought for respect and dignity.”

The crowd included current members of Teamsters Local 120. “I was proud to drive the Teamsters truck to the event here today,” said Rick Mulcahy, Wyoming, Minnesota. “These guys all came together, worked, spilled blood to get workers’ rights.”

“We have weekends off, we have breaks, we have lunch, we have fair wages—within reason,” Nadine Ness said. “[Many] don’t understand what got them there. They are standing on the shoulders of heroes and they don’t know it. And I think this plaque helps in that direction, to show these were amazing people, and look at what they did.”

The plaque was designed by well-known public art­ ist Keith Christensen. n • Portland, Ore.: (503) 233-1629 [email protected] • Providence: [email protected] (401) 592-5385 • Salem, Ore.: [email protected] • San Francisco Bay Area:

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