I saw something on twitter earlier today, though I don't recall who wrote it, that said "If you don't let us dream we won't let you sleep."

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Meet the private security force the banksters have hired to oppress you, they're literally the same guys who used to beat up your great-grandparents when they began the American Labor movement over a century ago.

If you're not familiar with The Pinkertons, they were the Blackwater of the late 19th and early 20th century, an armed and often violent private security force for the Robber-Barons and industrialists of the Gilded Age used to keep striking workers in their place.

I shit you not, history repeats itself . . .

After evictions and arrests from Manhattan’s Zuccotti Park to London that began last year, the movement against income inequality and corporate abuse will regain strength, said Brian McNary, director of global risk at Pinkerton Consulting & Investigations, a subsidiary of Sweden’s Securitas AB. (SECUB) He works with international financial firms to “identify, map and track” protesters across social media and at their assemblies, he said. The companies gather data “carefully and methodically” to prevent business disruptions. bloomberg.com

Employers don't always accept a workers' strike calmly. They can try to fight back against the union, sometimes through lawsuits and legislation, sometimes with violent thugs. Some employers used companies that offered strikebreaking services, such as the Pinkerton Detective Agency. Former cooper Allan Pinkerton started the infamous agency in the mid-1800s [ref]. Although it usually engaged in standard crime-stopping detective work, they discovered there were profits to be made as strikebreakers. Many other companies were soon offering similar services, but strikebreakers were usually called Pinkertons. A strikebreaking crew was essentially an armed mob of mercenaries. They reported to the picket lines to escort scab workers into the business, or to intimidate the strikers. The crew also acted as guards to prevent strikers from damaging company property. In the 1800s and early 1900s, conflicts between striking workers and Pinkertons often grew bloody. money.howstuffworks.com

Want some history on the Pinkertons? Here are the basics . . .Funny how 'crime-stopping private detective work" kind of sounds like impersonating a police officer when you say it that way . . .

"essentially an armed mob of mercenaries" this statement sums up the banksters, the GOP and the Pinkertons all in one.

More below the fold . . .