In
the 21st. Century as the corporate bodies try to trash workers pay
and conditions, ably encouraged and supported by that millionaire
cabal sitting in the Westminster Houses of Hypocrisy and Corruption,
we should do well to remember that this is not a new phenomenon, it
has been part and parcel of this system of capitalism since its
inception. Our history is littered by brutal and cruel attacks on
our living conditions, some more brutal than others. You can pick
your era, and you will find the workers in struggle to hold onto what
meagre conditions they have, or to try to extract some sort of
improvement.
Today
marks the 100th anniversary of one of those brutal and cold blooded
attacks on workers in struggle, resulting in the murder of men, women
and children. April 20, 1914, in America saw the state and its
corporate buddies brutally attack a tent town of striking miners and
their families. The event is recorded in our history as the Ludlow
Massacre.
It
was an era of bitter struggles across the industrial world, and in
America there had been numerous strikes by miners, railroad workers
and textile workers and many others. In Colorado the miners had been
in a long struggle trying to unionise against long hours, low pay and
the mining companies continuous policy of failing to abide by labour
laws. The conditions were exacerbated by the fact the the miners had
to live in company towns, homes built and owned by the company, and
instead of “money” were paid in company tokens, called “script”,
which could only by used in company stores. In 1913 the miners took
strike action after the companies rejected seven demands from the
Union of Mine Workers of America, (UMWA). The strike action was met
with the company evicting the families from the company homes.
The
miners union, (UMWA) then leased land on which they built tent
villages for the miners and their families. By now the mine owners
had recruited an armed detective agency to protect their scab labour
and to harass the striking miners. The detective agency, (militiamen)
often fired into the tent villages. To combat this the miners dug
deep pits in the tents to protect their families. On April 20, 1914,
a combined force of National Guard, and company militiamen set up a
machine gun on the ridge over looking the tents at Ludlow. This
resulted in the miners arming themselves to protect their families.
Throughout
the day gunfire was exchanged, but many of the tent inhabitants were
able to escape to the hills. However many stayed huddle in the pits
underneath their tents. At approximately 7pm in the evening, the
state's and companies' armed thugs descended on the camp. The camp
leader Louis Tika came forward to negotiate with the Guard commander,
a Lt. Karl Linderfelt. However negotiation was not on the minds of
the Guardsmen nor the militiamen.
What happened next is described by
an eyewitness, an engineer, named Godfrey Irwin, his report states;
“Suddenly an officer raised his rifle, and felled Tikas with the
butt. Tikas fell face downward…we saw the militiamen fall back…
they aimed their rifles and deliberately fired them into the
unconscious man’s body…. it was a murder and nothing less,”
After
this cold blooded murder, the militia proceeded to spray the camp
with their machine guns then moved in and torched the tents. In one
tent four women and 11 children had been hiding in the pit of their
tent as it burned, two of the women and all 11 children suffocated in
the smoke. The final death toll is disputed, but what is certain is
at least 19 to 26 people including 11 children, died at the Ludlow
Massacre, all in the name of profit for the companies.
The
strike went on until December 1914 and so did the repression and
deaths. This is the true face of capitalism, its blood drenched hand
has stained the working class for centuries and it is not likely to
change. Only when it is eradicated will we be able to walk that road
to justice and a fair society.
