Pray for the dead
and fight like hell for the living.
-Mother Jones
Hellraisers Journal, Friday March 9, 1917
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania – 10,000 March to Honor Fellow Worker
From the Industrial Worker of March 3, 1917:
GUNMEN ATTACK PICKETS, KILL AND INJURE
———-(Special Wire to the Industrial Worker)
Philadelphia, Pa., February 27.-In its fourth week the sugar workers’ strike here finds the five thousand workers more determined than ever. The I. W. W. longshoremen and men on the boats plying out of Philadelphia have refused to handle sugar, or transport it to other ports where it would be handled. The picket lines are getting bigger every day. The wives and daughters of the strikers are also on the picket line.
On February 21 the police charged the strikers and shot Martinus Petkus (Marciionas Petkus, age 28) to death and wounded several others. There have been many arrests and strikers are being clubbed every day on the picket line.
The sugar workers of New York and New Jersey are also out on strike. One of the results has been an increase in the price of sugar, which has soared to twenty-five cents a pound.
The sugar companies are getting desperate.
The funeral of Martinus Petkus occurred here today. Over ten thousand people were in line, including over five thousand Industrial Workers of the World. The Tailors’ Union of the I. W. W. declared a holiday to attend the funeral.
Funds are needed to carry on this fight. Act, and act now! W. T. Nef, 800 Parkway Bldg, Philadelphia, Pa.
———-
[Photograph added.]
SOURCES
Industrial Worker
(Seattle, Washington)
-Mar 3, 1917
https://libcom.org/files/Industrial%20Worker%20(March%203,%201917).pdf
Name: Marciionas Petkus & age: 28
From grave marker at Find-a-Grave
https://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=16019775
IMAGE
WNF, Marciionas Petkus, IWW, Funeral Phl Eve Ldg Feb 26, 1917
https://www.newspapers.com/image/162305689/
See also:
“A Wobbly Martyr’s Grave” by Bob Helms
https://libcom.org/library/wobbly-martyrs-grave-bob-helms
Internationale
This is the British Version of the Internationale. IWWs of that day were more likely to sing the Internationale as translated by Charles Kerr, but sadly have been unable to find Kerr’s version sung anywhere online.
https://books.google.com/books/reader?id=KJ_VAAAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcover&output=reader&source=gbs_atb&pg=GBS.PA383
http://www.library.arizona.edu/exhibits/bisbee/docs/027.html