re: #304 oaktree

Yep. Strikes are a industrial game of brinkmanship. Hurt everyone’s income (including the local economy in general) and see who blinks first. And there is a long history of union-related violence especially in the coal and steel industries. (Ref: A Pinkerton spy is the hero of the Doyle story _The Valley of Fear_)

The gun-waving escalating to physical violence gives me a vibe of the proto-men in _2001_ howling at each other over use of the waterhole.

When you look at the history of strike related violence, the body count is mostly the strikers and their families. Pinkerton didn’t play around and they were willing to shoot a lot of people to make a point. When you look into the Ludlow Massacre, the Colorado national guard opened fire on families (a number of women and children were shot or burned to death) and three captured miners were beaten and shot to death.

en.wikipedia.org