June 15, 1900: The original American Railway Union's final conclave begins in Chicago. The new organization, Social Democracy of America, is openly courted by delegates from the Socialist Labor Party following its quick and decisive repudiation of utopian colonization schemes.[5]
October 4, 1900: At the close of the first national meeting of Social Democracy of America, the organization ratifies a general endorsement of industrial unionism, as the first step towards an eventual union with the Socialist Labor Party.
May 1, 1901: The Socialist Labor Party organizes small pro-labor, anti-war demonstrations in its strongholds in New York, Chicago, Pittsburgh and San Francisco. While there are minor clashes with the police, the demonstrations fail to gain much public attention.
June 14, 1901: Social Democracy of America votes to dissolve the organization and its meager assets into relevant sections of the Socialist Labor Party and the Socialist Trade and Labor Alliance.
October 1, 1901: Victor Berger and other dissidents from the now defunct Social Democracy of America hold their first convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where they form the Social Democratic Party of America.
January 6, 1902: The American Railway Union is reassembled as a member of the Socialist Trade and Labor Alliance. Eugene Debs returns as national chair during the reorganization period.
April 17, 1902: Following the firing of 17 union employees at the Bunker Hill Mine in Idaho, 250 workers affiliated with the Western Federation of Miners occupy and demolish a mill at the mine. Following a major bribe by the United Mineowners, the National Guard is deployed by the Governor to Coeur d'Alene. After a violent confrontation, over 1,000 miners and their families are herded into makeshift prisons. Many will never be charged, and won't be released from the concentration camps for many months.
June 1,1902: The Socialist Labor Party's 10th National Convention begins in New York City, to review the integration of the Social Democrats into the party organization.
June 18, 1902: At the close of the SLP's 10th National Convention, the leadership of Daniel DeLeon and Henry Kuhn concede to ARU president Eugene Debs' proposal for increased parity between the STLA and the party administration.
June 19, 1902: The Newsboys Strike begins in New York. Delegates from the SLP National Convention, inspired by the impressive initiative of the all children Newsboys Union, agree to help the child laborers organize their strike.[6]
June 24, 1902: The use of brutal strikebreaking tactics on the Newsies begins to backfire, as the Newsies begin selling working-class alternate press cleverly disguised as more famous newspapers, which bring full exposés of Hearst and Pulitzer's brutal tactics.
July 5, 1902: The Western Federation of Miners adopts a socialist platform, calling for collective, worker control of the means of production, and a program of industrial unionism to further that end.
August 21, 1902: The Newsboys Strike ends, with the recognition of the union, and a return to the pre Spanish-American war bundle price of 50¢. The Newsies will join the STLA by the end of the year.
October 10, 1902: Samuel Clemens, alias Mark Twain, has a chance meeting with young, up-and-coming writer Jack London in San Francisco. Clemens, a newly baptized anti-imperialist, befriends the young Socialist Labor activist, though he remains steadfastly opposed to joining the party.
November 8, 1902: New York state office elections: the Socialist Labor candidate Benjamin Hanford makes the parties best run yet for the office, winning close to 30,000 votes, approximately 2.5% of the total.
February 18, 1903: The US Attorney-General brings a suit against the Northern Securities Company, a railroad trust, under the Sherman Anti-Trust Act, in order to allay middle class outcry over the very public machinations of the schemers of the trust. In private, the President has expressed his support to the owners of the trust.
May 2, 1903: The Coal Strike of 1903. 150,000 miners in the anthracite coal fields of western Pennsylvania from United Mine Workers of America go out on strike, demanding shorter hours, higher pay and increased control over their workplaces.
June 2, 1903: The Coal Strike deepens as maintenance and clerical workers affiliated with the mines join the strike in solidarity.
July 10, 1903: The Rolling Mill Mine disaster in Jonestown, Pennsylvania kills over 100 miners.
August 1, 1903: The Coal Strike: The owners appeal to the federal government for aid in defeating the strikers, as the Pennsylvania National Guard is not sufficient to maintain security of the mines and suppress the strike. Coal stockpiles have been exhausted, and by now, the entire coal field has joined in the strike.
November, with the beaten unionists agreeing to return to work in exchange for modest pay cuts and a chance to keep their jobs.
November 30, 1903: The leadership of the United Mineworkers of America, radicalized by what they saw as the blatant betrayal of the people by the government, push for the adoption of a socialist platform at the next union national convention.
February 11, 1904: The Oxnard Strike of 1904 becomes the first time in U.S. history that a labor union is formed from members of different races.\
May 1, 1904: The Socialist Labor Party's National Convention begins in Chicago. The convention nominates Eugene Debs and William Wesley Cox to run on the party's presidential ticket.
June 1, 1904: The Butte Copper Strike begins in protest over low wages and the firing of known union leaders from the mine. The strike, jointly coordinated by the Socialist Labor Party local and the Western Federation of Miners, quickly shuts down the city's crown jewel industry.
October 11, 1904: In spite of sporadic violence, the Butte Copper Strike ends with a minor victory for the miner's union. While they fail to achieve all of their goals, the union wins pay raises and and a reinstatement of fired workers.
November 23, 1904: Colorado Governor James Hamilton Peabody dispatches the state militia to the town of Cripple Creek to quash a miner's strike. The Colorado Labor Wars begin.
January 31, 1905: The American Federation of Labor faces its first major reversal, the product of campaigns waged by employers for “open shops.” The employer and government back push starts with a legal injunction against United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners.
March 14, 1905: The Supreme Court delivers it's verdict in Northern Securities Co. v. United States, 193 U.S. 197: The Sherman Antitrust Act is overturned as an unconstitutional overstretch of the federal government's authority to regulate interstate commerce due to a violation of the takings clause of the Fifth Amendment. The 5-4 decision represents a major blow to progressives in both major parties.January 31: The American Federation of Labor faces its first major reversal, the product of campaigns waged by employers for “open shops.” The employer and government back push starts with a legal injunction against United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners.
June 6, 1905: The First Industrial Congress of the STLA opens in Chicago, to promote a national industrial union federation. At the Congress, the Western Federation of Miners amalgamates with the United Mine Workers, joining the STLA. With swelling membership, the STLA can, for the first time, stand as a legitimate alternative to the reformist AF of L.
August 14, 1905: In the final vote before the Congressional Recess, a revised antitrust bill fails 40-44. The bill, tailored to attempt to pass the Supreme Court's scrutiny following the overturn of the Sherman Antitrust Act, withers under criticism that it will still fail to pass legal muster.
