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Today in Labor History September 22, 1934: The United Textile Workers (UTW) strike committee ordered strikers back to work, ending the largest U.S. textile strike to date. Over 400,000 workers participated, mostly women. At least 18 of them died at the hands of militias, vigilantes and police. The strike began in the south and spread up the Eastern Seaboard. The governors of North and South Carolina deputized citizens (i.e., created vigilante squads) during the first week of the strike, issuing shoot-to-kill orders against any picketers who tried to enter a mill. As a result, 14 strikers were murdered in that first week. In the second week of the strike, the governor of Rhode Island mustered the National Guard, who used machine guns against strikers armed with flower pots and headstones they had taken from a nearby cemetery. The National Guard was also deployed in Maine, New York, Connecticut and Massachusetts. In Georgia, strikers were arrested and held without charge, in World War I concentration camps. 34 strike leaders were held incommunicado.