You could say that the Molly Maguires were a radical labor
organization in Pennsylvania's coal regions just after the Civil
War. I don't know the history at first hand. In any event the
Mollies were subversive -- with perhaps a front in the Ancient Order
of Hiberians which is still active today. (This underground and
above ground pattern is alleged to persist today in Ireland. It is
alleged that the IRA is the armed wing of Sein Fein.) (It is also
alleged that the British Army is the armed wing of "the loyalists" as
they are called.) Arson was a common tool in Ireland against the
landlords for centuries. The Mollies were done in by the early
Pinkerton organization and generally the Irish seem to have drifted
at that time into electoral politics in the USA.
Gene Coyle
On Apr 16, 2007, at 5:03 PM, Michael Perelman wrote:
Think of the village shoemaker & the urban printer in English
radical history. In
manufacturing, relatively skilled workers were often the leaders of
radical
organizations in the UK. Were the Irish at the forefront of
radical organizations?
In the US, my understanding was that the early Irish immigrants
tended to resort to
arson & the like as a protest rather than organizing.
Writing from relative ignorance...
In the US, matters are complicated because of the massive
immigration of workers.
On Mon, Apr 16, 2007 at 07:54:21PM -0400, Yoshie Furuhashi wrote:
About peasants, I remember a good article in an old issue of
Socialist
Register that confirms your point about the more privileged
sectors of
peasantry being more politically active, at least in the initial
stage
of social change: Hamza Alavi*, "Peasants and Revolution" (1965),
<http://socialistregister.com/socialistregister.com/files/
SR_1965_Alavi.pdf>.
Highly recommended. What's true of peasants may be also true of
educated proletarians, and there may be work that can empirically
confirm it in resource mobilization theory literature.
--
Michael Perelman
Economics Department
California State University
Chico, CA 95929
Tel. 530-898-5321
E-Mail michael at ecst.csuchico.edu
michaelperelman.wordpress.com
