More On Illinois Politics

I recently interviewed Rosemary Feurer, Professor of History at Northern Illinois University. As noted on the university website, she is an expert on "labor issues and conflict within the context of U.S. capitalist development during the late nineteenth and twentieth century."

Here is Feurer's take on the downstate Illinois politics in the early 20th century:

"The political landscape in those small mining towns was so much more diverse than we can imagine in the present. They would be exposed to a variety of parties, from the Socialist Party, the Communist Party, the Socialist Labor Party. The Socialist Party sent in organizers and were very successful in organizing for Socialist candidates from the early 1900’s right up through the 1930’s."

She adds: "In some of these towns, that meant that the other parties (the Democrats and Republicans) had to do things to get workers to listen to them. And one of those things I should add that was really critical was they said, 'We will make sure the sheriff doesn’t break up your picket line. We will make sure if we’re elected as the judge that you’re not going to get an injunction.' So the Democratic and the Republican parties both had to listen. And so workers made those parties respond even if the third parties didn’t win, it had a very important effect that was tangible for miners."

Please take time to read Rosemary's book, Radical Unionism In The Midwest, 1900-1950 which was published in 2006. You can read more about this book here.




Prof. Feurer is also a documentary filmmaker. Here is the link to her project on the Virden Massacre and her recent film on the life of Mother Jones. Laura Vasquez collaborated on both of these projects.