A deputized posse illegally kidnapped and deported over a thousand striking mine workers from Bisbee, Arizona on July 12, 1917, and dumped them in New Mexico: an event that became known as The Bisbee Deportation. 

The action was orchestrated by Phelps Dodge, the major mining company in the area, which provided lists of workers and others who were to be arrested to the Cochise County sheriff, Harry C. Wheeler. Those arrested were taken to a local baseball park before being loaded onto cattle cars and deported 200 miles to Tres Hermanas; a 16-hour journey through desert without food and with little water.

In this episode, Arion, Rebecca and Olly explain how the IWW Union became both popular and feared in Bisbee; consider how the American involvement in World War One changed the context for the workers on the Mexican border; and examine the intentions of the ‘Citizens Protective League’... 

Further Reading:

#US #1910s #Protest

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The Retrospectors are Olly Mann, Rebecca Messina & Arion McNicoll, with Matt Hill.

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