• mountainriver@awful.systems
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    5 days ago

    I started thinking about when Emma Goldman’s partner Alexander Berkman tried to kill a 19th century robber baron who had sent in Pinkerton to murder workers into ending a strike.

    One can make an argument about the economic conditions creating the condition’s for what the anarchists back then called “the propaganda of the deed”. But that isn’t where I am going. Instead let’s look at the aftermath.

    From an assassination perspective, the quality of the assassination was lacking. Also, Wikipedia (my bold):

    Frick was back at work within a week; Berkman was charged and found guilty of attempted murder. Berkman’s actions in planning the assassination clearly indicated a premeditated intent to kill, and he was sentenced to 22 years in prison.[5] Negative publicity from the attempted assassination resulted in the collapse of the strike.[19]

    In other words, today’s robber barons gets less sympathy than the O.G. kind. That’s a bit interesting.

    • zbyte64@awful.systems
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      5 days ago

      Berkman’s case had the perception of doing something violent to end a strike. UHC is pure retribution (for now). It hits differently.