You ought to be out raising hell. This is the fighting age. Put on your fighting clothes.
-Mother Jones
`````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````
Sunday September 20, 1903
Cripple Creek, Colorado - Emil Peterson, shot at by Military Officer, files affidavit.
Emil Peterson, while attempting to escape from the clutches of the Mine Owners yesterday, was shot at by Lieutenant Hartung of Company B. Peterson's escape attempt was successful, and, later in the day, he made the following affidavit before Abby C. Colwell, Notary Public of Teller County. Peterson's statement was backed up by the affidavits of two witnesses, Carl Hanson and E. D. Whitney.
I [Emil Peterson, duly sworn] am twenty-four years of age. I reside in Denmark: that is my native land. I came to America February 23, 1903. I then went to Fairchilds, Wis. I am not an American citizen. At Fairchilds the Lester Lumber Company paid only $26 per month. On the 8th of September I went to Duluth to get work. At Duluth B. B. Gilbert & Co., labor agents, 5 South avenue, west, employed me to go to work in the Colorado gold mines. I was to get from $3 to $5 per day to fire boilers in the mine.
I was shipped here from Duluth. Mine owners of Cripple Creek advanced me $18 for car fare. The company would pay this if we contracted to work a month. About seventy-five men were shipped from Duluth. I don't know how many quit on the way. Others joined at St. Paul, making near 150 altogether. I think that about eighty of these, of whom only five had ever worked in a mine, arrived last night, Friday, September 18.
B.B. Gilbert & Co. told us there was no strike in Cripple Creek. They had a newspaper in the office, saying: "No strike in gold camp; all men go to work." At Colorado Springs we discovered there was a strike. Men with spectacles on who said they were mine lessees met us in Colorado Springs and came on with us. I stayed last night at the Rhodes house with a party of ten. We took breakfast and then went to a building near where the shooting occurred. Here there were many others. The men were lined up and an officer said; "Come on, boys, go to work." I said out loud in [Swedish?], "don't go to work." I started to run and he fired at me with a pistol I ran zigzag to avoid the bullet. He fired once. I got away.
paragraph breaks added
SOURCE
The Cripple Creek Strike
-by Emma F Langdon
(Part I, 1st pub 1904)
NY, 1969
Note: While I was in Virginia at Camp Solidarity in 1989, during the UMWA's strike against Pittston, I heard a similar story from a union organizer who was also visiting the Camp. I regret that I don't remember what union he was from. He told how his uncle, an Italian immigrant, was shipped into West Virginia to work. When he arrived the uncle found that there was a strike on. He resisted going to work, but was beaten and threatened with prison. Prison would be for the debt of traveling expenses, and violating the contract to pay it back by working in the mines. The uncle was forced to work as a strikebreaker under armed guards.
With Emil Peterson's sworn statement, we get a chance to hear about this practice directly from a worker as he was experiencing it. Let this testimony stand for the thousands who found themselves far from home and similarly exploited.
``````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````
Saturday September 20, 1913
Hancock, Michigan - First Imported Strikebreakers Arrive By Train From New York
Thirty-one imported strikebreakers arrived in Hancock yesterday courtesy of the Quincy Mining Company. The came by train from New York City where they were recruited by the Austro-American Labor Agency. Thirty-seven began the journey, but six deserted along the way, and it appears that fourteen more have now deserted and joined the Western Federation of Miners.
Parade of Striking Miners
Hancock, Michigan
They now find themselves in debt to the company for the sum of $24.50 paid on their behalf for transportation, and they are expected to reimburse the company this amount over the next six months by working nine-hour days at $2.50 per day. The men say that they were brought into the Copper Country of Michigan under false pretenses, and some of them have signed sworn affidavits stating such. They had no idea that there was a strike on in the area until the train was boarded by soldiers at Houghton.
SOURCE
Rebels on the Range
-by Arthur W Thurner
MI, 1984
``````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````
Friday September 20, 2013
From Labor Notes: Memorial Conference For Jerry Tuker, Master Troublemaker
In an article published today by Labor Notes, Jane Slaughter remembers Jerry Tucker who passed away eleven months ago and will be honored at the St. Louis Labor Conference which is being held October 11-13:
Eleven months ago the labor movement lost Jerry Tucker, my friend since the ’80s. Jerry had a bad ticker, and I always worried it would fail him, and us, but it was pancreatic cancer, the same villain that felled Tony Mazzocchi, that carried Jerry off...
I always remember Jerry’s turns of phrase. All there was to organizing, he said, was “you call a meeting and you make a list.” And then you get “more hands on the plow.”
Next month people who learned so much from him, and a new generation that wants to, will gather in his hometown to build the struggles Jerry was part of and spent his life leading. We’ll honor Jerry, yes, but it’s a conference for action—as he would have insisted.
Read full article here:
http://www.labornotes.org/...
Although very ill, Jerry addressed the the 2012 Labor Notes Conference by video:
At the 2012 Labor Notes conference Jerry Tucker received a Troublemaker's Award for his lifetime of rabble-rousing.
Register for the conference
& also read more about Jerry Tucker here:
http://stllaborconference.com/
More remembrance of Brother Tucker
& a discussion of his famous "inside strategies."
http://www.labornotes.org/...
``````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````
Which Side Are You On-Billy Bragg
Well, I'm bound to follow my conscience
And I'll do whatever I can.
But it will take much more than a union law
To knock the fight out of a working man.
Which side are you on, boys,
Which side are you on
-Florence Reese & Billy Bragg