ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the Pullman strike of 1894 through the lens of Gramsci's theory of hegemonic struggle in an attempt to understand the specific mechanisms whereby the ruling class—the industrial and political elites—sought to contain and manage the very serious threat posed by working-class activism. It analyzes the discursive constructions of violence during the events of the strike and the ways in which the often brutal operation of capitalism is displaced and justified in the effort to demonize challenges to its dominance in the American economic system. As the strike reached its peak and the country began to feel its effects, the subtle work of capitalist ideology can be discerned in both newspapers' representations of striker violence and in their elision of the violence of capitalist exploitation. The acts of railroad property destruction and some physical violence against railroad personnel during the Pullman strike were not exclusively perpetrated by the striking rail workers.
