* History the superstructure
does not want you to know about.The 1920s were a decade of incredible wealth for the U.S. ruling class. National income rose from $60 billion in 1922 to $87 billion in 1929. The index of industrial production reached a record high in June of 1929.
Despite the strong economy, it was clear that U.S. capitalism was not designed to benefit the workers on whom it depended. The increase in profit and productivity did not prompt businesses to expand their workforce. Depressed farm prices pushed millions of farmers into the cities to look for work. Unprecedented prosperity and high unemployment existed side by side throughout the decade.
The fact that such little wealth had trickled down to the workers who actually produced it did not deter economists and journalists from trumpeting the 1920s economy as proof that capitalism had overcome the cyclical crises and depressions that had besieged it over the last century.
Yet in 1929, on Oct. 24 the stock market crashed on infamous "Black Thursday." Unemployment immediately shot up. The number of workers laid off or fired rose to 2.5 million within two weeks. Official estimates on the number of unemployed show an increase from 429,000 in 1929 to 4,065,000 in January 1930. The number reached 12 million by 1932.
A wave of evictions hit the country as millions of jobless workers were forced into the streets by landlords who had happily profited off their rent payments before the stock market crash.
More than 200,000 evictions occurred in 1930 in New York City alone. Millions more would occur throughout the country over the next decade.
In the Bronx evictions were met with strong resistance when police and marshals attempted to force tenants from the buildings. Hundreds of protestors fought the police hand-to-hand and with sticks and stones when the officers would attempt to remove furniture from the buildings.
The outnumbered police barely held their line while waiting for reinforcements as the crowds battled them under the direction of Communist Party organizers. Reports from the New York Times indicate the women, who outnumbered the men, were the most militant, were more likely to battle the police and took the most arrests. In each case, huge numbers of foot and mounted police, marshals and moving men had to be dispatched. The capitalist court system assisted the landlords in attempting to break the strike by approving mass evictions and ordering injunctions against picketing.
By David Hoskins