Thursday, July 26, 2007 -

To look at the viaduct at 16th and Halsted, one would never guess that it was the site of a massive and bloody battle. Part of the structure has been demolished. Weeds line the parkway on its south side. Small working class homes make way for the rapidly advancing condomania of University Village. It is an unassuming intersection where cars and buses whisk by on their way to UIC or to the fashionable yuppie gallery district of “East Pilsen.”

But in 1877, this viaduct was the focal point of a raging battle for workers rights. On Thursday, July 26, members of Little Village Environmental Justice Organization, the Industrial Workers of the World, Citizens Taking Action and other community members took part in a small march and rally to commemorate this historic battle.

The Battle happened when the bosses and their thugs attacked striking railroad workers in Chicago during the nation's first general strike — the Great Uprising of 1877. On July 26, 1877, police and mercenaries broke up a meeting of German immigrant workers at Turner Hall on Roosevelt and Halsted. By late morning of that day, 10,000 workers had assembled in the vicinity of the viaduct at 16th and Halsted. By the end of the day 30 workers lay dead.

The march last Thursday departed from Plaza Tenochtitlan on 18th, Blue Island and Loomis. We marched down 18th Street, drumming, chanting. Marchers carried signs marking the Battle, but there were also signs calling for Transit Justice at the CTA. One sign read, “No Fare Hikes, No Service Cuts, No Layoffs.”

Another simply said, “Pink Stinks” referring to the CTA’s Pink Line experiment. The Pink Line is costing the CTA up to $8 million extra per year despite the agencies claims of a financial crisis. Long time Cermak Blue Line riders have been forced to take longer trips, make more transfers, and wait longer for the few Blue Line trains that remain in the wake of the Pink.

Once at 16th and Halsted, there was a brief rally with speakers from both labor and community groups. Michael Pitula a community organizer from LVEJO gave an overview of the Great Uprising of 1877. Charles Paidock of Citizens Taking Action, spoke about Martinsburg, West Virginia. This was the small rural town where the Uprising began in wake of two 10% wage cuts and work speedups. He remarked that this event was perhaps even greater in significance than the Haymarket incident of 1886.

Labor was also present at this rally. A CTA bus driver spoke about the need for rider and driver unity on the CTA. An IWW member and transit activist spoke about the commonality between environmental struggles and labor struggles.

The rally was meant to highlight the relationship between struggles of the past and present. The strike of 1877 was a railroad strike. In 2007 Chicago faces a transit crisis with rail slow zones, discriminatory service, threatened fare hikes, service cuts, and over a 1000 CTA bus drivers facing layoffs. The railroad workers of 1877 were mostly immigrants during a time of intense xenophobia. Pilsen is an immigrant community facing persecution and gentrification today. In fact, 16th and Halsted is a gentrification hotspot. Even the political context of the two eras is ironically similar. In 1877, President Hayes lost the popular vote but won the Presidency, just as in 2000 and 2004 with Bush.

One young participant summed it up best saying, “The CTA is greedy and they want to take your money, so you better watch out.”

The rally concluded with a lighting of candles to commemorate the 30 fallen workers killed in the Battle of 1877.