The Minneapolis Teamsters Strike of 1934 History Discussion with Local Artist and Designer, Keith Christensen

Article by Becky Fillinger, photos provided

Keith Christensen and Hock E Aye Vi Edgar Heap of Birds at George Floyd Square, September, 2021

The Minneapolis Teamsters Strike of 1934 was a pivotal event in both local and national labor history. Commemorative events around the 90th anniversary are in the planning stages. We spoke to Keith Christensen a Minneapolis artist and designer, about the history around the strike and a new exhibit “In Union, Native Engagements” which highlights the role of Native Americans in the 1934 strike and many other social change movements. 

Q: The 1934 Minneapolis Teamsters Strike made international headlines and showed other unions the way forward for decades to come. Could you please give our readers a synopsis of the strike and outcomes?

A: In 1934 a cloud enveloped the country during the Great Depression. Poverty, hunger, and fear blanketed the most vulnerable. Many were unemployed and those who did have jobs suffered with very meager wages. The haze created hopelessness, and many felt powerless. There wasn’t a path out of the gloom. Tension was in the air. Class resentment was growing.

In 1934 Minneapolis was under the control of the Citizens’ Alliance, an employers’ group that effectively banned unions. The city was an open-shop system; employers would not recognize unions. Workers were fired on whims and for any effort to organize when they tried to negotiate for better conditions. However, the General Drivers Local 574 of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters (IBT) organized workers of the trucking industry into an industrial union. This was a trade union that combined all workers, both skilled and unskilled, in the transportation industry. 

Do Not Dance, Nature Calls, (design for print) inkjet on canvas, 3’x 7’, 2022 Hock E Aye Vi Edgar Heap of Birds and Keith ChristensenWhen employers refused to recognize the union, its leaders called a strike. The details of the strike are complex as well as dramatic. The strikers endured a brutal police force, a hostile press, and resistance from the parent union. They published their own strike newspaper The Organizer to inform the public of the strike’s aims and to keep workers informed of developments. They gained the support of other unions and cultivated favorable public opinion. The strike had a contingent called the Women’s Auxiliary that helped feed strikers and nurse the injured. After the police violently attacked the strikers, the women marched on City Hall to protest the brutality. Thousands attended the funeral procession of strike martyr Henry Ness. 

The police and the National Guard were called in to guard trucks driven by scabs. The Citizens’ Alliance activated their local militia. The strikers countered with effective picketing and stoppage of commerce. Conflict escalated daily throughout May and reached a peak late in the month at the city market, where strikers clashed with police, who were trying to break the strike. Hundreds were involved in the battle that raged on violently for two days. Many were injured and several were killed. It was called the “Battle of Deputies Run” because the police and deputies were forced to flee. However, things changed when on July 20, 1934 police staged a revenge ambush, where scores of strikers were shot and two died from their wounds. The day became known as Bloody Friday. The strike continued even with the leaders arrested and imprisoned by the National Guard. It finally ended because of the strikers’ persistence, compelling President Franklin Roosevelt to step in and stop the turmoil. The President’s representatives pressured the banks by threatening to call in federal loans and so forced the employers to agree to a settlement. The strike ended on August 21, 1934. Minneapolis became a union town. The Truckers’ Strike marked a turning point in state and national labor history, opening the way for enactment of laws acknowledging and protecting workers’ rights.

Q:  How did the Teamsters Union break the strong anti-union Citizen’s Alliance? 

A:  They fought like hell. They knew what they were up against: an entrenched system that brutally suppressed workers. They won by having a strong, disciplined leadership and an amazing solidarity of the rank-and-file union members. They used tactics such as having school boys ride motorcycles throughout the city on the lookout for scab drivers trying to break the strike. They gained support of farmers by allowing them to sell produce during the shutdown. Local historian Bill Milikan has written a great book on this: Union Against Unions, The Minneapolis Citizens Alliance and Its Fight Against Organized Labor, 1903–1947. It’s the first book-length study of the Citizens Alliance, a union of Minneapolis business owners, detailing their use of financial and political power, as well as propaganda and brute force, in their campaign against organized labor.

Q:  What commemorative events are planned for the 90th anniversary? 

A:  The 90th anniversary will be in 2024. I’m sure there will be a street festival with music and speakers as well as a picnic. It will be a time to celebrate the success of the strike but just as importantly to relate to the present. As in the past there will be representatives speaking from union organizing campaigns and social justice groups. Descendants of the strike will be there to honor their relatives. It will take place in an election year and so there will be heightened interest in dealing with political issues and advocating for beneficial policies. The group Remember 1934 is a collective that advocates for equity as well as democracy. The problems of the world, starting with climate change, need to be addressed through a process of engagement by workers and all people.  

Q:  Can you tell us more about In Union, Native Engagements? How were Native Americans involved in the 1934 strike? Will the exhibit come to Minneapolis? 

A:  In Union, Native Engagements is an exhibition and book project that affirms the value of Native roles in social change. It has three components: the past, personal and present. The collaborative artwork is connected to family and the fight for rights. The book provides the facts of Native engagement in the historic Minneapolis Truckers’ Strike, a family’s participation in a union and the water protectors, an Indigenous-led environmental movement. The intention is to show a larger meaning of solidarity. We believe that the political problems need collective action as a solution in order for all people to survive.

Rebellion Leader Emanuel (Hap) Holstein, (design for print) inkjet on canvas, 3’x 7’, 2022 Hock E Aye Vi Edgar Heap of Birds and Keith ChristensenEdgar (Hock E Aye Vi Edgar Heap of Birds) and I have known each other since meeting in NYC in the mid 80’s and working together on various projects. I’m lucky to know him, he is an amazing person and artist. He was aware of my ongoing involvement with the Remember 1934 collective and the game project I created about the strike called Game Turn. I shared with him that at least two participants were Natives. He thought that was remarkable and felt that Natives have been so marginalized that they weren’t “a part of anything”. Edgar created monoprints that used expressive, personal letterforms. It included the names of the two strikers, Emanuel Gustav “Hap” Holstein and Ray Rainbolt. He also provided his word art about his union member father Charles Heap of Birds and a piece about protests. I created portraits and images that related to his work. We then had banners printed that combined our images.

This project is an attempt to use artistic means to convey the stories of individuals who were more than figures of a dead history. Its purpose is to connect the past to the present, demonstrating, as one point to another, that Natives were engaged in social change then and are doing so now. Indigenous people fought collectively before as they do today.

The IAM Union in Wichita, Kansas provided some meaningful support for a Cheyenne-Arapaho family in a time of estrangement and stress. It also was the means for connecting with other workers and the way to share power. The personal and granular view of a union household is recalled by Hock E Aye Vi Edgar Heap of Birds. 

Mike Alewitz knew some of the participants in the 1934 strike and shares his perspective on what the strike means today and going forward. 

The water protectors are changing the world. The pipeline protests in tribal lands in Minnesota are a recent manifestation of an intense political, social, and cultural activism. They have been led by Indigenous groups that include the Honor the Earth organization co-founded by Winona LaDuke. She contributes her views asserting that Native values are needed to transform the ecosystem. Filmmaker Keri Pickett shares her understanding of the issues with photographs of the protests. Macalaster professor and artist John Kim writes about the participants’ messaging and how it relates to international cultural action. And art historian Yates McKee makes connections between the artists’ work, the historical context, and the ongoing movement.

We plan on exhibiting the project at the Open Source Gallery in Brooklyn, NY, from February 11-March 24th. Edgar and I will attend the opening on February 11th and plan on participating in a podcast that will be broadcast shortly thereafter. We do hope that this exhibition and book project will be presented in this area soon. It is tied very directly to Minnesota and I know many here would like to see it because of its relevance.

Q:  How may we learn more and stay up to date with news around the 1934 Strike? 

A:  The Remember 1934 collective has established a website called Handing History Onward that will provide information about the strike commemoration.

See more on the IN UNION exhibition here.

The book, IN UNION, is available on Amazon.com.