75 years ago today, sit-down strikers held off police at Fisher
Body No. 2 in the 'Battle of the Running Bulls' FLINT, Michigan
-- Striking General Motors workers battled Flint police at GM's
Fisher Body No. 2 in a bloody night of fighting and a turning
point in the Sit-Down Strike 75 years ago today. Known as the
"Battle of the Running Bulls," the night of rioting, tear gas
and shootings left at least 28 injured and triggered the
mobilization of the National Guard by Gov. Frank Murphy the next
day. "On Jan. 11, violence began outside of Fisher Body 2 when
company police shut off the heat, locked the gate to the plant
and removed the ladder used to supply food to the strikers,"
according to the book "The Flint Sit-Down Strike of 1936-37:
Witnesses and Warriors." "When the sit-downers forced the gate
open, the company police called in the Flint police for help and
they responded with tear gas and bullets," the book says.
Picketers and bystanders outside Fisher 2 turned over county
Sheriff Thomas Wolcott's poli