Hellraisers Journal: Mass Funeral Held in Philadelphia for I. W. W. Martyr, Marciionas Petkus

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Pray for the dead
and fight like hell for the living.
-Mother Jones

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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
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(Special Wire to the Industrial Worker)

WNF, Marciionas Petkus, IWW, Funeral Phl Eve Ldg Feb 26, 1917

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.

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[Photograph added.]

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Hellraisers Journal: Bloody Strike in Bayonne Broken; American-Born Workers Abandon Foreign-Born Brothers

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MJ Quote Solidarity

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Hellraisers Journal, Monday October 23, 1916
Bayonne, New Jersey – Strikers Return to Work Defeated

BAYONNE STANDARD OIL STRIKE BROKEN

The arrival in Bayonne, on October 18th, of the Federal Mediators, John A. Moffitt and John A. Smythe from the Department of Labor, proved to be of no benefit to the strikers’ cause. The strike was broken by the defection of the American workers who abandoned their foreign-born fellow workers and returned to work on October 19th. The foreign-born workers, mostly Polish speaking, were forced to give up the fight for a living wage on Friday October 20th.

From the New York Call of October 21, 1916:

Ryan Walker on Bayonne, NY Call, Oct 21, 1916

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Hellraisers Journal: Mrs. Mary Petrucci of Ludlow, “There is sorrow in our hearts..but there is no dishonor.”

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

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Hellraisers Journal: Thursday February 4, 1915
From the New York Tribune:
-Mary Petrucci Remembers Her Four Little Children

WE NEVER FORGET

The Petrucci Children, Lucy, Joe, Bernard, Baby Frank, 1913
The children of Mary and Thomas Petrucci
Who lost their lives in Freedom’s Cause
Lucy, Joe, Barnard, and Frank
Mary Petrucci, on tour, May 1914
Mary Petrucci

Once again, Mrs. Mary Petrucci has come east from the coal camps of southern Colorado to give testimony about the long struggle of the miners there. It was during this struggle in Freedom’s Cause that she and her husband lost all four of their children. The eldest, six-year-old Bernard, grew sick last March and died in the Ludlow Tent Colony after the militia refused to let Mary take him to a doctor in Trinidad. The three other children Joe-4, Lucy-2, and the baby, Frank-6 months, were murdered in April by the gunthug militia during the Ludlow Massacre. All three children were suffocated when the militia set the tent on fire over their heads as they sought shelter in the cellar beneath the floor, hiding from machine gun fire.

Mrs. Petrucci has come to New York accompanied by another miner’s wife, Mrs. Margaret Dominiski. Their testimony before the Commission on Industrial Relations will be thoroughly covered by Hellraisers over the next few days. Today we wish to present a long interview with Mary Petrucci conducted by Lucy Huffaker for the “Woman’s Varied Interests” section of the Tribune. Mary Petrucci hopes that by telling the story of her little children, their sacrificed lives will count toward the betterment of workers everywhere. During the interview, she stressed that she and her husband are still strong for the union despite their terrible loss. She concluded the interview with this statement:

But you’re not to think that we could do any differently another time..We are working people-my husband and I-and we’re stronger for the union than we were before the strike. We’ve paid-I guess you’ll admit and everybody will-that we’ve paid a pretty big price for our belief. I don’t know just how any man and woman can do more than have their children, all their children, taken from them, do you? But we’re not ‘scabs.’ We never have been and we never will be. There is sorrow in our hearts, and there always will be, but there isn’t any dishonor.

I can’ have my babies back..But perhaps when everybody knows about them, something will be done to make the world a better place for all babies. At least, I like to think so. It is the only thing which gives me any comfort.

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