On this day in 1898, the Battle of Virden began when armed members of the United Mine Workers of America (UMW) surrounded a train full of strikebreakers and exchanged fire with company guards. 13 people were killed, dozens more wounded.

After a local chapter of the UMW began striking at a mine in Virden, Illinois, the Chicago-Virden Coal Company hired black strikebreakers from Birmingham, Alabama and shipped them to Virden by train.

The company hired armed detectives or security guards to accompany the strikebreakers, and an armed conflict broke out when armed miners surrounded the train as it arrived in town. A total of four detectives and seven striking mine workers were killed, with five guards, thirty miners, and an unrecorded number of strikebreakers wounded.

After this incident, Illinois Governor John Tanner ordered the National Guard to prevent any more strikebreakers from coming into the state by force. The next month, the Chicago-Virden Coal Company relented and allowed the unionization of its workers.

“When the last call comes for me to take my final rest, will the miners see that I get a resting place in the same clay that shelters the miners who gave up their lives on the hills of Virden, Illinois…They are responsible for Illinois being the best organized labor state in America.”

Mother Jones

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  • anarcho_blinkenist [none/use name]@hexbear.net
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    25 days ago

    “chemically almost the same thing” means actually nothing. Water and hydrogen peroxide are “chemically almost the same thing.” These are not even close to the same compound, and drinking one vs the other does not have the same effect or risks interacting with your body’s biological systems.

    Don’t just look at a picture of the abstracted chemical structure and go “yup!” Talk to pharmacists and especially pharmacologists about how compounds impact your body and interact with its systems and neurotransmitters and receptors, how the compounds are are processed and broken down and through what pathways, and how those broken-down components also interact with neurotransmitters and receptors and impact your body. Just the serotonergic difference alone between these two compounds is monumental and incredibly dangerous and irresponsible to ignore, let alone the many other differences and associated symptoms and risks.

    And different routes of administration has different effects and risks with any compound, but it is the same compound and share many of the same problems — as well as even if it did not with you, in many cases can and does lead to normalizing use toward other more variously-hazardous routes too; and it is irresponsible and dangerous to hand-waive one vs the other where impressionable people might think one is fine vs the other isn’t, when they are both still meth. Your business is your business, but please consider the impacts of your actions and whether your personal experience as a user means you have expertise studied enough on on topics before speaking on them like this.


    Anyone else reading, don’t do meth. Anything you or your friends ever do choose to use, no matter what you think it is, buy testing kits and test BEFORE USING, especially these days. Even if you think you know what’s in it, you don’t and it not worth the potential forever-consequences to guess. Even then, pure MDMA can be very damaging for your brain to use with frequency on a recreational basis; the guideline I always heard was absolute maximum 3 times a year if that to be safe about it. I would honestly say no less than half a year between. You only get one brain. And always make sure you are accounting for hydration and body temperature and taking breaks from activity.

    Mixing (most things) with alcohol is very ill-advised; especially because of the aformentioned brain-strain and hydration and body temperature issues. But critically NEVER mix with antidepressants or medications with SSRI/SNRI/MAOI effects because you could die in a horrible agonizing way from serotonin syndrome. Always always always look at interactions, even with stuff you are prescribed or get over the counter. I’ve had doctors give me medicines with horrible interactions without them even being aware. And don’t take any “it’s basically/almost the same chemically” at face value. Body chemistry is insanely complicated, and two compounds looking “almost the same” is beyond gibberish when it comes to practical realities of the compounds. Water and hydrogen peroxide are “almost the same.”