Today in Labor History February 4, 1921: A massacre at San Gregorio, Chile, left 565 nitrate miners dead. 1920 was a year of brutal repression of the workers movement. Many locals were burnt down, many agitators murdered, workers sent to prison. Prior to the San Gregorio massacre, the Chilean IWW led a three-month strike protesting the export of grain during a food shortage. Four years later, the Chilean government murdered another 500 saltpeter miners and family members in the Marusia massacre.

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