ABSTRACT
Violence and the use of armed force have characterized the hot war on labor—violence conducted by employer-inspired vigilantes, mercenaries, and various public armed forces. Spies placed in factory jobs sent to their agencies daily detailed reports about their activities and the conversations they held or overheard; on Sundays and other nonwork days, they met and associated with employees outside the shop. The espionage agency, on behalf of employers, trafficked in munitions and tear gas, supplied employers with strikebreakers and armed men to disperse strikers, and often set up company unions to head off the organizing of legitimate ones. Violence was a specialty of the labor spy agency. While private armed forces have included mercenaries, espionage agencies, and vigilantes, public armed forces have included local and state police, sheriffs, deputies, state militia, national guard units, and all of the US armed forces with the possible exception of the air corps.
