1877 Saint Louis general strike

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The first American general strike, the 1877 Saint Louis general strike, was organized by the Workingmen's Party, a Marxist organization. This small faction transformed, through speeches and organization, a strike among railroad workers into a strike by thousands of workers in several industries for the eight-hour day and a ban on child labor. This strike collapsed after four days due to disorganization on the part of its leaders, lack of food for the strikers, and the arrest of those leaders by police and militiamen. The strike did not accomplish its main goals, though it may have achieved incremental gains for labor.

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described by historian Zachary Shrag^{[citation needed]}