The recent videos of the tea-bagger goons disrupting the congressional town hall meetings remind me of those black and white photos of the Auto-lite strike in 1934 here in Toledo. Some 200 workers were injured and two were killed as the owners of the plant hired goons to break up this historic strike of workers who demanded better wages and working conditions.
Hired goons were also sent by Henry Ford to his factory in Detroit to quell the strikes in his plants. The history of "leg breaking goons" had to do with the formation of labor unions, and the violence that caused by the early Ford Motor Company private security upon peaceful labor union organizers.
Today, we have yet another set of goons hired by the insurance companies, not wielding clubs, but rather yelling down any decent discussion that may have ensued at these meetings. The only difference is in the type of violence.
A goon is a goon.
The goon-factor didn't work in Detroit or Toledo. Hopefully, neither will the modern-day insurance company goons.
