On This Day: Mary Harris “Mom” Jones, Irish-born American union organizer dies
Mary Harris Jones, recognized generally as ‘Mom Jones,’ died on November 30, 1930, on the age of 93.
Jones was born in Co Cork – the precise date of her delivery is unknown – and was baptized in Cork Metropolis’s St. Mary’s Cathedral on August 1, 1837. The Irish immigrant went on to be named one of many world’s prime revolutionaries for main the struggle for staff’ rights.
Mom Jones, as soon as described as “essentially the most harmful girl in America,” was a number one labor activist who was born in Shandon within the Insurgent County, Co Cork. Essentially the most well-known feminine labor chief of the nineteenth century, Jones battled all through her practically 100 years for youngsters’s and staff’ rights.
In September 2015, Jones was named among the many world’s prime ten revolutionaries by The Guardian alongside Ernesto Ché Guevara, Mahatma Gandhi, and 1916 Easter Rising chief James Connolly.
Ger O’Mahony, organizer of the annual Spirit of Mom Jones Pageant in Co Cork mentioned on the time: “As certainly one of simply two girls and the one particular person born in Eire named in The Observer listing, it’s clear that she is rising forcefully from the shadows of historical past to take her rightful place alongside James Connolly as an inspirational determine within the worldwide labor motion.”
Mom Jones biography
As a teen, Jones and her household had been compelled to flee from their native Co Cork on the top of The Nice Starvation. They first ventured to Canada earlier than settling within the US.
Regardless of shedding her husband and her 4 kids to the yellow fever epidemic in Memphis in 1867, after which shedding all the things she owned within the nice Chicago fireplace of 1871, Jones turned to the Knights of Labor and devoted her life to bettering life for working folks.
From 1871, and for over a 40-year interval, she immersed herself in righting the wrongs confronted by American miners and campaigning for the abolition of kid labor below her mantra, “Pray for the lifeless and struggle like hell for the dwelling.”
Upton Sinclair, a pal to Mom Jones, wrote of her: “All around the nation she had roamed and wherever she went, the flame of protest had leaped up within the hearts of males; her story was a veritable Odyssey of revolt.”
Jones is now memorialized by means of the non-profit investigative publication “Mom Jones.”
Mom Jones (US Library of Congress, Public Area)
Labor activist Mom Jones
Jones was concerned within the nice railroad strike of 1877 in Pittsburgh and the strikes that led to the Haymarket riot in Chicago in 1886.
She additionally wrote “The New Proper” in 1899 and the two-volume “Letter of Love and Labor” in 1900 and 1901, earlier than concentrating her efforts on miners. She turned an organizer for the United Mine Staff’ Union of America and marched in Coxey’s unemployed military in 1894.
At a exceptional 83 years of age, she was imprisoned and sentenced to twenty years in jail (though finally pardoned) for her roles in strikes in West Virginia and continued to actively manage miners proper into her 90s, earlier than her dying in 1930.
Decided and robust to the final, when as soon as launched as a “humanitarian,” Jones argued, “I’m not a humanitarian, I’m a hell-raiser.”
“Her fiery oratory, her management qualities, her ardour for labor rights, her opposition to youngster labor and her utter fearlessness towards oppression mark out Mom Jones as a real insurgent and an thrilling and colourful girl in whom all Cork folks and Irish folks might be extraordinarily proud,” continued O’Mahony.
Jones was additionally a main affect on Irish republican and socialist chief James Connolly, one other entry to the listing of the world’s prime ten revolutionaries. The pair met within the early twentieth century whereas they had been each actively campaigning for labor rights within the US.
Mom Jones (US Library of Congress, Public Area)
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Mom Jones quotes:
“Pray for the lifeless and struggle like hell for the dwelling.”
“I am not a humanitarian, I am a hell-raiser.”
“My handle is like my footwear. It travels with me. I abide the place there’s a struggle towards incorrect.”
“I’m not afraid of the pen, or the scaffold, or the sword. I’ll inform the reality wherever I please.”
“God almighty made girls and the Rockefeller gang of thieves made the women.”
“Sit down and browse. Educate your self for the approaching conflicts.”
“Reformation, like training, is a journey, not a vacation spot.”
“I’ve by no means had a vote, and I’ve raised hell throughout this nation. You do not want a vote to boost hell! You want convictions and a voice!”
“My lecturers handled me as a diamond within the tough, somebody who wanted smoothing.”
“In the event that they wish to grasp me, allow them to. And on the scaffold I’ll shout, Freedom for the working class!”
Right here, the one recognized recording of Mom Jones’s voice:
*Initially revealed in September 2015, up to date in November 2024.
