Centralia Dead March is a documentary novel based on the struggle of a radical union to establish better working conditions and solidarity among lumbermen, miners, railroad and migrant workers during the early part of this century. Wesley Everest, Ray Becker, Bert and O.C. Bland, Loren Roberts and Eugene Barnett lived and worked around Centralia, Washington and were active in the Wobblies, the International Workers of the World. Because of its doctrine of worker unity, its stand against racist hiring practices and its call for militant tactics, the I.W.W., the most feared union among the ruling classes, was subject to massive arrests and numerous court actions. When the I.W.W. led the northwester woods out on strike during the First World War because wages had dropped while production increased, they were branded "traitors" in the local papers. On November 11, 1919, during the first Armistice parade, a mob of Centralia "patriots" raided the union hall. In the conflict, three soldiers were shot by workers defending their property; Everest was beaten, castrated, and hanged from a bridge; and seven workers--including Becker, the Blands, Roberts, and Barnett--were sentenced to from 25 to 40 years. Centralia Dead March recreates these historical events and examines the long-term consequences of the violence and repression.

Centralia Dead March

Literature & Fiction

Churchill, Thomas

United States

Curbstone Books

<p>A true story based on the lives of Gene Viernes and Silme Domingo, their assassination and the trial that followed. Viernes and Domingo, Filipino-American cannery union organizers, were only twenty-nine at the time they were murdered. They had spent ten years reforming cannery workplaces, where bosses and mob-related union foremen were highly resistant to change. Both college educated activists, they angered many inside and outside the Filipino community because of their forceful, open fight for union reform and against the corruption taking place in the Philippines under the Marcos regime.</p>

Triumph over Marcos: A Story Based on the Lives of Gene Viernes & Silme Domingo, Filipino American Cannery Union Organizers, Their Assassination, and the Trial That

Biographies & Memoirs

Community & Culture

Open Hand Pub Llc

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