Tag: Marciionas Petkus

WE NEVER FORGET: Fellow Worker Marciionas Petkus Who Gave His Life in Freedom’s Cause at Philadelphia on February 21, 1917

Janet RayeWe Never Forget
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Pray for the dead
and fight like hell for the living.
-Mother Jones

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WNF, Marciionas Petkus, Philadelphia, Feb 21, 1917

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FW Marciionas Petkus
Martyr of the Philadelphia Sugar Workers’ Strike of 1917

WNF, FaG, M. Petkus, IWW, Philadelphia Feb 21, 1917

By February 21 of 1917 the strike at the Franklin and McCahan sugar refineries had been on for several weeks. At about 5:30 p. m. that afternoon, police were escorting scabs home from the plants when they were met by strikers and their wives, led by Florence Sholde who threw pepper into the faces of the scabs and police.

Wobbly Historian Bob Helms picks up the story:

The crowd grew and the confrontation escalated into a pitched battle of bricks and pistol shots, involving hundreds of union supporters. FW Sholde was arrested for inciting to riot (police agents supposedly had spotted her earlier in the day urging militant action at a meeting), and scores of people were injured on both sides, but Martin Petkus was killed by a single bullet in the chest and fell across a railroad track….

The news reports say that he was one of the striking Franklin workers, that he was “known among them as a giant of strength and courage,” and that the police found an IWW membership card in his pocket. He was recognized by all as a leader, and accordingly his funeral was a formidable event.

Petkus’ body lay in state at the Lithuanian National Hall (still standing), which was the headquarters of MTW IU #510 at that time, and on February 26th he was carried to St. Casimir’s Lithuanian Catholic Church, a dozen or so blocks away, with a crowd of about 10,000 accompanying his casket. Little girls wearing red dresses sold red carnations to union supporters.

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

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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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
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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.]

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Mass Funeral Held in Philadelphia for I. W. W. Martyr, Marciionas Petkus” →

Hellraisers Journal: Food Riots in New York & Philly as Mothers Refuse to Maintain Good Public Order While Children Starve

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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When half a million mothers
in the richest city
in the richest country in the world
feel the pinch of hunger
as they are feeling it here now
nothing can prevent trouble.
-Mother Jones

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Hellraisers Journal, Friday February 23, 1917
New York, New York – Mother Jones to Aid in Demand for Food

Food riots have broken out in New York City and in Philadelphia as the working-class women of those cities refuse to maintain proper civic order while they watch their children starve. In Philadelphia, police opened fire, killing one man and seriously wounding another. The police, as usual, claim that the workers fired first, and the word of the police has been printed as fact by the kept press of the nation.

Mother Jones is now in New York City to support the working-class women in their demand for food at prices that they can afford. She was interviewed by a reporter in her room at the Union Square Hotel.

From the New York Tribune of February 22, 1917:

“Mother” Jones To Head
Parade of 10,000
—–

Will Take Delegation to President
if Mayor Fails, She Declares
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Mother Jones, UMWJ, Feb 10, 1916

“Mother” Jones, aged strike leader of Colorado fame, will lead an army of 10,000 East Side woman to the city Hall next Saturday afternoon, she declares. She will ask Mayor Mitchel “just what he proposes to do” about the food shortage in New York. If his proposals are unsatisfactory she will take a delegation of “starving women” to Washington on Sunday and lay the case of New York’s poor before the President.

“Mother” Jones arrived in this city yesterday to “help the food strike along.” In her room at the Union Square Hotel last night the aged labor leader made her plans known somewhat reluctantly. Publicity, she said, might result in them being “blocked”

[She said:]

But they can’t hold this movement back. When half a million mothers in the richest city in the richest country in the world feel the pinch of hunger as they are feeling it here now nothing can prevent trouble. I came here to try to prevent it, though, and I shall do everything possible.

On Saturday I’ll lead all the women who’ll follow me down to the Mayor. More than ten thousand will go. We’ll put the matter up to him and ask for action. If he won’t give us action, some of us will go to Washington and ask the President.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Food Riots in New York & Philly as Mothers Refuse to Maintain Good Public Order While Children Starve” →