Hellraisers Journal: Italian Woman Killed in Lawrence as Strikers Gathered at Mills at Closing Time on Monday January 29th

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Lawrence Anna LoPizzo Killed, Jan 29, 1912

Hellraisers Journal – Wednesday January 31, 1912
Lawrence, Massachusetts – Woman Shot and Killed During Strikers’ Demonstration

From The Boston Daily Globe of January 30, 1912:

HdLn Woman Killed in Lawrence Anna LoPizzo, Bst Glb p1, Jan 30, 1912HdLn Warrant Issued for Ettor at Lawrence, Bst Glb p1, Jan 30, 1912
——

From The New York Call of January 30, 1912:

WOMAN SLAIN BY SHOT IN LAWRENCE
STRIKE EXCITEMENT
———-

[…..]

LAWRENCE, Mass., Jan. 29.-After a two hours’ demonstration, during which the woolen and cotton mill strikers had full control of the streets of this city, there was a clash between the police and militia on one side and about 1,000 strikers near the Everett mills just before 6 o’clock to night.

The affray resulted in the killing of an Italian woman, who was standing on the sidewalk, the stabbing of Patrolman Oscar Benoit and sore heads for many of the strikers, who were finally put to flight.

The woman killed was the victim of senseless shooting by an unknown individual, who seemed to be taking great joy in firing revolver bullets into the ground on the opposite side of Union street from the woman. It is claimed that neither the police nor militiamen fired a shot during the battle and it is believed that the woman was killed by a bullet which glanced off a stone in the street.

[…..]

[Emphasis added.]

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Italian Woman Killed in Lawrence as Strikers Gathered at Mills at Closing Time on Monday January 29th”

Hellraisers Journal: Joe Ettor Addresses Mass Meeting on Behalf of Lawrence Textile Strikers at Boston’s Faneuil Hall

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Quote Joe Ettor re John Golden, Lawrence Strike n Revolution, Bst Glb p4, Jan 27, 1912—————

Hellraisers Journal – Monday January 29, 1912
 Boston, Massachusetts – Joe Ettor Speaks on Behalf of Lawrence Strikers

From The Boston Daily Globe of January 27, 1912:

ETTOR SPEAKS IN FANEUIL HALL
———–

Lawrence Strike Leader Joe Ettor, Bst Glb Morn p2, Jan 16, 1912

Joseph J. Ettor was the star of the great meeting in the interest of the Lawrence strikers which was held last evening in Faneuil Hail under the auspices of the socialist party of Boston. His picturesque looks and his vivid description of conditions in Lawrence contributed in part to the applause which greeted him. 

This man differs in appearance from any labor leader that has ever been seen in this part of the world before. He has a face on him which at first impresses you as being feminine, but which becomes masculine and full of expression when he talks. His skin looks as soft as a girls and his eyes are as black as coals.

More than $200 was taken up in a collection for the benefit of the strikers. The hall was crowded, though not uncomfortably so, and the rather large force of policemen found nothing to do but listen. There was a band of music, which kept the crowd entertained until 8:20, when a great cheer went up as the red Socialist flag and the American flag were borne up the center aisle and behind them came Ettor, James P. Carey and a number of people who were to sit on the platform.

The meeting was called to order by George D. Hall, who said he had personally visited all the textile cities in New England and had found nowhere more miserable conditions than existed in Lawrence.

———-

Woman Striker Speaks.

Miss K. S. Hanscom, one of the Lawrence strikers, addressed an audience for the first time and found a little difficulty in expressing herself. But she was so deeply impressed with the thing she wanted to say that she found no difficulty in making herself understood. She wanted to express first her admiration for the courage of the poor people who went out on strike, but more especially for the Italian women who were the first to walk out of the Wood Worsted mill. The average wage of most of the men and women, she said, was $5 a week, and they were compelled to do three and four times more work than formerly. The weavers and spinner do not average $9 a week.

Chairman Hall announced that the Boston Socialist Club proposed through a committee of 300 to collect by means of a house-to-house campaign clothing and funds for the strikers.

———–

Ettor Speaks of Wood.

Joseph J. Ettor was loudly cheered when he was introduced and it took considerable protesting with his hand to stop the applause.

This evening I was an conference with Mr. William M. Wood and he assured me that while I represented 20,000 workers he had 14.000 investors. Some of  them live on the Riviera. (Laughter).

[Continued Ettor with a laugh:]

That’s way off in Russia, I guess. You see the capitalist class know no East nor West, nor any other boundary.

The important thing today is that 20,000 mill workers of Lawrence are out on strike. The other side has done all in its power to crush out every effort that has been made by these people in the past to express themselves. The one who made a complaint was always made the victim of oppression by bosses and superintendents.

———-

Learn They Are Not Slaves.

An attempt is being made to bring the workers back to the mills, that they may be able to weave their lives into cloth on the old terms. John Golden with Billy Woods, say that in Lawrence we have no strike-we have a revolution. Well, where it is a question of life and death it is sure a revolution.

Twelve days ago the strikers were slaves, with nobody to speak for them-slaves attached to the looms who did not dare to raise their heads. All that has been changed in 12 days. These people have discovered that they are not slaves to superintendents or agents of mills.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Joe Ettor Addresses Mass Meeting on Behalf of Lawrence Textile Strikers at Boston’s Faneuil Hall”

Hellraisers Journal: Textile Workers at Lawrence, Massachusetts, Stage Walk-Out Due to Short Pay; Italians Lead the Way

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you tube—————

Hellraisers Journal – Sunday January 14, 1912
Lawrence Textile Workers Stage Walk-Out Due to Short Pay

From the Boston Evening Transcript of January 12, 1912:

Bst Eve Tp p1, Jan 12, 1912

 Special to the Transcript:

Lawrence, Jan. 12-The mill district of this city was thrown into a state of great excitement today by a riotous outbreak on the part of about five hundred Italians, who left their work at the Wood, Ayer and Washington mills of the American Woolen Company because they objected to a reduction of two hours pay a week under the workings of the new 54-hour law. Before the trouble ended several persons had been injured, none seriously, a number of girl operatives had fainted and six arrests had been made by the police. The mill agents hastily looked things over and found that so many operatives had quit work through fear of the angry Italians that it was decided to close down the Wood and Ayer mills at once. The Washington mills and those of the Lawrence Duck Company, to which the disturbance extended, were kept in operation, although 800 operatives at the Washington mills and 400 at the duck mills stopped work after the riot. As the Wood mill employs 6000 hands and the Ayer mill 3500, nearly 11,000 operatives were idle this afternoon.

Just what effect today’s rioting will have on the general situation is problematical. Some of the mill agents expressed the opinion that it might make the more responsible operatives realize the dangers which would accompany a general strike and thus might make it easier to reach an amicable agreement. The union leaders were not prepared this afternoon to make any statements as to their probable attitude, but it was evident that the disturbances today had produced a sobering effect. No formal meeting of union workers had been called early this afternoon, but it was generally expected that such meetings would be held very soon to discuss the situation and decide what action would be taken. The mill agents intimated that they would open all the mills tomorrow as usual, including the Wood and Ayer mills. How many of their operatives will be on hand to go to work cannot yet be foretold. The six men arrested will appear in court tomorrow.

Two hundred operatives at the Pacific Mills quit work this afternoon, the majority of whom were employed in the examining room. At the Farwell bleachery, School Committeeman John Breen addressed a band of Syrians, this afternoon, and succeeded in inducing them to disband. About fifty Farwell bleachery employees quit work this afternoon on account of the wage reduction. 

[…..]

Amazing Mixture of Races in Mills
———-

Forty-Five Languages Spoken Within a Mile Radius–Only Chicago and Fall River Have as Large a Per Cent Foreign-Born–Foreign Labor Mostly Unskilled

Within a mile radius of the mills are spoken forty-five languages, including their sub-divisions, and there are people living within this area representing fifty-one different countries of Europe, Asia and Africa. It is safe to say that there are more languages spoken within the Wood or Washington mills than in any one spot of equal size in the world. Whereas Lawrence covers an area of seven and a quarter square miles, the races represented live within two square miles of area, the congested district being close to the mills. And Lawrence presents unique conditions in that all the different nationalities live close together, as many as six and seven distinct races often living in one tenement block. While in the larger cities, as in New York and Chicago, there are more races represented, they are also more widely scattered, being grouped in sections. In Lawrence they all live together even as they work together. Only Chicago and Fall River has as large a percentage of foreign-born citizens to their population as has Lawrence.

One is also impressed by the number of women in excess of men passing along the streets. The foreign-born element of women in Lawrence is thirty per cent greater than that of the men, making the town a force in the dubbing of New England a weary girl-congested land, whereas, in other countries where there are large foreign-born percentages to the population, it often happens that the men are in excess of the women of their races in the ratio of four to one.

As in Pittsburgh and the Pennsylvania mining districts, Lawrence is again exceptional in that the women of the Slavic and Finnish races and those speaking the Romance languages often come here and obtain work in the mills, leaving their husbands at home with the young children. Many Italian and Syrian women are at work, aiming to bring their husbands and families later, such economic conditions being made possible by the fact that seventy per cent more woman are employed in the mills than men

[…..]

[Emphasis added.]

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Textile Workers at Lawrence, Massachusetts, Stage Walk-Out Due to Short Pay; Italians Lead the Way”

Hellraisers Journal: Mary Heaton Vorse on Lockout of Amalgamated Clothing Workers: “In the Employment Bureau”

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Rose Schneiderman Quote, Stand Together to Resist Mar 20, NY Independent p938, Apr 1905———–

Hellraisers Journal – Sunday January 9, 1921
New York, New York – Mary Heaton Vorse Reports from Employment Bureau

From the Oklahoma Leader of January 3, 1921:
(Note: the leader is a member of Federated Press.)

IN THE EMPLOYMENT BUREAU
—–

BY MARY HEATON VORSE

ACW Lockout Strike 1920 to 1921, Girls Picket, NY Dly Ns p1, Dec 15, 1920
New York Daily News
December 15, 1920

In the employment bureau of the Amalgamated [Clothing Workers of America] on East Tenth street, groups of women gather every morning. There are bareheaded women, and smart, well dressed women, who look as if they had just stepped off Fifth avenue. In the same room Sicilian peasants meet and talk with advanced workers of Tuscan descent.

Labor contests are lost and won in such little groups. Put a dozen of them together and you have the temper of the people. It is not what people shout for in big meetings that always counts most, it’s what they say at home or among themselves in slack moments on gray, rainy mornings, waiting in the employment bureau.

Out of the murmur and talk a voice cuts with corroding sharpness: “Children! I haven’t any children! Children break strikes. The worker’s children make it easy for the employers to tramp us. The workers are afraid because they are afraid for the children. Look at our Sicilian women who have a baby every year. How terrible a strike is for them! Babies are scab makers and strikebreakers for a worker! I’ll not have babies to live wretched like me! Let the rich people have the children! Let the employers’ children do the work!

The revolt in this woman was a hot blue flame. It never went out. It was a spirit like this that had taken the factories in Italy. With that example before her, what a scorn she had for the American workers.

“The people in this country lie down for the bosses to walk on. My husband he’s just come back from Italy. The workers here make me ashamed-when a policeman waves a club at a crowd they run; there it takes fifty guards to capture thirty workers.”

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Mary Heaton Vorse on Lockout of Amalgamated Clothing Workers: “In the Employment Bureau””

Hellraisers Journal: The World Tomorrow: “Sacco and Vanzetti” by Mary Heaton Vorse – A Visit to Dedham Jail

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Quote EGF, re Sacco at Dedham Jail, Oct 1920, Rebel Girl p304———-

Hellraisers Journal – Wednesday January 5, 1921
Dedham, Massachusetts – A Visit with Nicola Sacco, Gallant Fighter

From The World Tomorrow of January 1921:

Sacco and Vanzetti

By MARY HEATON VORSE

Ad Sacco n Vanzetti Defense, Liberator p2, Jan 1921WE drove through the sweet New England towns on our way to the jail in Dedham , where Nicola Sacco has been sitting for six months , deprived of all occupation, waiting his trial.

He is accused of having killed two men on April 15th and having made off in an automobile with $ 18,000 from the pay roll of the Slater and Morrill Shoe Plant in South Braintree. Labor is again on trial in Massachusetts.

Bartolomeo Vanzetti is also accused of this crime. But he is not in Dedham Jail because he has already begun serving a fifteen year sentence in Charlestown. On December 24th, 1919 , there was an attempted hold-up in Bridgewater of another shoe company. No arrests were made-not until May 5th, 1920. There were eighteen people who swore an alibi for Vanzetti. Eighteen people testified that on the afternoon and evening of December 24th Vanzetti was selling eels in Plymouth, for eels on Christmas Eve are to Italians what turkeys are to us on Thanksgiving. These witnesses knew Vanzetti very well, for he was a fish peddler in Oldtown, where they lived. But the testimony of these eighteen people did not count with the American jury. There were three people who identified Vanzetti as the man whom they had seen six months before driving in an automobile, from which shots were fired in Bridgewater. One of the women who identified Vanzetti was blind in one eye. But their identification convicted him.

As for Sacco, not one of the people brought in to identify him swear that this was the man they saw shooting, yet he is held without bail.

But Sacco and Vanzetti are offenders of another sort than criminal offenders. They have both taken an active part as labor leaders among the Italians. Not only were they gallant fighters, both of them, but they were inconveniently holding meetings about Salsedo– Salsedo, who went crazy—maybe—and on May 1st jumped from the fourteenth floor window of the Post Office Building in New York City, where he had been illegally detained by the Department of Justice agents for months—the only man who died in Mr. Palmer’s great May Day revolution. Among the Italians there is a ghastly suspicion that Salsedo did not jump-anyway, it was mighty inconvenient having young men holding meetings about him.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: The World Tomorrow: “Sacco and Vanzetti” by Mary Heaton Vorse – A Visit to Dedham Jail”

Hellraisers Journal: International Socialist Review: Fighting Garment Workers of Chicago by Robert Dvorak, Part II

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Rose Schneiderman Quote, Stand Together to Resist Mar 20, NY Independent p938, Apr 1905———-

Hellraisers Journal – Wednesday January 4, 1911
Chicago, Illinois – Garment Workers Strike Continues, Part II

From the International Socialist Review of January 1911:

Chg Garment Workers Strike Police v Strkrs crpd, ISR Cv Jan 1911

BY ROBERT DVORAK

[Part II of II.]

The most admirable and contagious strike meetings were held in thirty-seven various halls in the city and money was pouring in from all parts of the country, with letters of encouragement and promise of further aid when another blow, again from union headquarters, once more nearly demoralized the strikers.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: International Socialist Review: Fighting Garment Workers of Chicago by Robert Dvorak, Part II”

Hellraisers Journal: From International Socialist Review: Class War in Irwin Coal Field by Thomas F. Kennedy, Part II

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Quote Mother Jones, Brutal Ruling Class, Cnc Pst p7, May 31, 1910———-

Hellraisers Journal – Friday September 23, 1910
Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania – Cossacks Terrorize Irwin Coalfield Strike

From the International Socialist Review of September 1910:

PA Miners Strike, HdLn Class War by TF Kennedy, ISR p141, Sept 1910

Cossacks vs. “Black Hundreds.”

Brutal as the state constabulary have shown themselves on numerous occasions the testimony on all sides is overwhelming that compared with the thugs and bums engaged as deputies by the coal companies the State Police are gentlemen.

One of the odd developments is the cordial dislike of the State Police for the deputies. The State Police are not backward about declaring that practically all of the rioting and killing has been caused by the deputies. You must understand that economic interests are at the bottom of this feeling of these two forces for each other. The rank and file of the Police get $60.00 a month and board, no matter what is doing. When all is quiet they get their pay for patroling some country road on a well groomed saddle horse. If there must be a strike they would much rather see a nice quiet orderly one where there are no riots.

But the deputies are in a different boat. If all were quiet they would have no occupation. So to make their jobs secure they must keep something doing all the time. They explode a charge of dynamite under the corner of an unoccupied house, fire a lot of shots some night or when they meet an unarmed striker on the highway slug him or arrest him. When there is any real duty to perform, when there is a batch of strike breakers expected who must be prevented from talking to the strikers the first thing they do is fill up with whiskey. At one hotel where a bunch of them stopped, six drinks of whiskey in their stomachs and a half pint in their pockets was the regular ration, before going out on any special duty.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: From International Socialist Review: Class War in Irwin Coal Field by Thomas F. Kennedy, Part II”

Hellraisers Journal: The Nation: Mary Heaton Vorse on Civil Liberty, Steel Strikers and Pennsylvania Cossacks

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Quote MHV Immigrants Fight for Freedom, Quarry Jr p2, Nov 1, 1919———-

Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday November 18, 1919
Pennsylvania Cossacks, Steel Strikers, and Civil Liberty

From The Nation of November 15, 1919:

Civil Liberty in the Steel Strike

By MARY HEATON VORSE

GSS, PA Cossacks in Clairton, Lt Dg p10, Oct 4, 1919

THE steel strike has been marked by the orderliness of the strikers on the one hand, and on the other by the sweeping denial of their civil rights, and by the brutality of that extraordinary body of men, the State Constabulary of Pennsylvania. When one states that in Homestead, for example, there was a reign of terror, that men were beaten for no cause and chased down the street into strange houses; that men and women were arrested and fined for no cause and their fines remitted under promise that they would go back to work; and that posters fomenting race hatred are even now in current circulation in the steel mills, the statements sound fantastic. Let the documents, however, speak for themselves. One may choose almost at random from a wealth of material. The cases cited are not isolated; town after town had its own story of terrorism to tell.

In spite of Judge Gary’s statement to the contrary, men were persecuted and dismissed for union activities.

Not only were such methods used to discourage the men from organizing, but the rights of free speech and free assembly were denied them. No meetings were allowed in Farrell, Monessen, and Donora. In McKeesport people were arrested while attending a meeting and fined excessively. Rabbi Wise was refused a permit to hold a meeting in Duquesne, the burgess of this town remarking with naive truth: “Jesus Christ couldn’t hold a meeting in Duquesne.” Since September 22 [the date the Steel Strike began] no meetings have been allowed in Pittsburgh except at the Labor Temple. The strike in that city is unpopular with the authorities. Because the sheriff does not like Mr. Foster, he arbitrarily takes away the workers’ civil liberties, though at no time has there been even a suggestion of disorder in Pittsburgh.

Before the strike was actually in progress, the State Constabulary was called in and an extra police force of 5,000 was deputized in Allegheny County alone. Among these deputies were Negro strike breakers—in the towns of Donora and Monessen—and this during a time when an epidemic of race riots had swept the country.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: The Nation: Mary Heaton Vorse on Civil Liberty, Steel Strikers and Pennsylvania Cossacks”

Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts & Doings of Mother Jones for September 1919, Part I: Arrested for Organizing Steel Workers at Duquesne, Pennsylvania

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Quote Mother Jones, Kaiser n Steel Barons, Clairton PA Aug 10, Ptt KS Wkrs Chc p5, Sept 5, 1919———-

Hellraisers Journal –Wednesday October 29, 1919
Mother Jones News for September 1919, Part I
Duquesne, Pennsylvania – Mother Jones Arrested for Organizing Steel Workers

From the New York Sun of September 8, 1919:

RAID ENDS MEETING OF STEEL WORKERS
—–
Mother Jones and Other Organizers
Seized in Duquesne.
—–

Special Dispatch to THE SUN.

PITTSBURG, Sept. 7.-Duquesne was the scene of much excitement on the part of the police and union organizers this afternoon when Police Chief Thomas Flynn and a squad of patrolmen appeared at an open air meeting at Linden and River avenues, where more than 1,000 steel workers had assembled, and arrested four labor organizers, including “Mother” Jones, the veteran organizer, and forty steel workers. The organizers were charged with holding a public meeting without a permit and the workmen were charged with illegal congregating. After staying in the Duquesne police station four hours they were released on forfeits for a hearing to-morrow.

Mother Jones n WZF Couple of Reds, Chg Tb p120, Oct 26, 1919
Mother Jones with William Z. Foster

The organizers arrested besides “Mother” Jones were William Z. Foster, secretary of the national committee for organizing iron and steel workers; J. L. Beaghen, president of the Pittsburg Bricklayers Union, and an American Federation of Labor organizer, and J. M. Patterson, vice-president of the Brotherhood of Railway Car Men.

The organizers said the meeting was being held on a vacant lot, the owner of which had given permission.

———-

[Photograph added.]

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts & Doings of Mother Jones for September 1919, Part I: Arrested for Organizing Steel Workers at Duquesne, Pennsylvania”

Hellraisers Journal: From United Mine Workers Journal: Mary Petrucci Unveils Ludlow Monument on Memorial Day

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Quote Mary Petrucci, Joe's Little Hammer, NY Tb p7, Feb 4, 1915
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hellraisers Journal, Friday June 7, 1918
Ludlow, Colorado – Magnificent Monument Unveiled on Memorial Day

The unveiling described:

Mary Petrucci, on tour, May 1914

Mrs. Mary Pertucci [Petrucci], who lost three of her children in the massacre, unveiled the monument while the great crowd of miners and sympathizers paid their silent respect to the memory of the dead.

On the barren plain where once stood the humble tent colony of the Ludlow strikers, the monument towers, an impressive landmark. Down through the years that are to come it will mark the scene of a dastardly crime. More eloquently than any spoken word it will tell the tragic story of the poor murdered women and the innocent babes of Ludlow who died for democracy.

[Photograph added.]

United Mine Workers Journal of June 6, 1918:

Ludlow Memorial Dedicated, UMWJ, June 6, 1918

Details:

Ludlow Memorial Dedicated, Detail, UMWJ, June 6, 1918

—–

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: From United Mine Workers Journal: Mary Petrucci Unveils Ludlow Monument on Memorial Day”