This is a follow up of most recent diary, my "Blackwater and the Matewan Massacre." I would like to give a tip of the hat to El Maso for giving me a crucial bit of knowledge.
The Ludlow massacre pertains to the violent deaths of 20 people during an attack by the Colorado National Guard on a tent colony of 1,200 striking coal miners and their families at Ludlow, Colorado in the U.S. on April 20, 1914. These deaths occurred after a day-long fight between strikers and the Guard. Two women, twelve children, six miners and union officials and one National Guardsman were killed. In response, the miners armed themselves and attacked dozens of mines, destroying property and engaging in several skirmishes with the Colorado National Guard.
More –
Keep in mind...
In the spring of 1912 at the height of one of the bloodiest coal mine wars in West Virginia history, a sweet-looking, grand-motherly little old lady by the name of Mary (better known as "Mother") Jones mounted the capitol steps in Charleston and made the following pronouncement:
"Unless (Gov. William E. Glasscock) rids Paint Creek and Cabin Creek of these goddamned Baldwin-Felts mine guard thugs,there is going to be one hell of a lot of bloodletting in these hills."
... that the Ludlow attack came in the "early spring" of 1914, while Matewan occurred approximately two years prior, in the "early spring" of 1912.
That won’t mean as much, if you just read the part about this being a fight between mine workers and the Colorado National Guard, but read this.
"This was the Colorado coal strike that began in September 1913 and culminated in the 'Ludlow Massacre' of April 1914. Eleven
thousand miners in southern Colorado ... worked for the
Colorado Fuel & Iron Corporation, which was owned by the
Rockefeller family. Aroused by the murder of one of their
organizers, they went on strike against low pay, dangerous
conditions, and feudal domination of their lives in towns
completely controlled by the mining companies. ...
"When the strike began, the miners were immediately evicted
from their shacks in the mining towns. Aided by the United
Mine Workers Union, they set up tents in the nearby hills and
carried on the strike, the picketing, from these tent colonies.
The gunmen hired by the Rockefeller interests -- the Baldwin-
Felts Detective Agency -- using Gatling guns and rifles, raided the tent colonies. The death list of miners grew, but they
hung on, drove back an armored train in a gun battle, fought to
keep out strikebreakers. With the miners resisting, refusing
to give in, the mines not able to operate, the Colorado
governor (referred to by a Rockefeller mine manager as 'our
little cowboy governor') called out the National Guard, with
the Rockefellers supplying the Guard's wages.
Okay, two years after the Matewan Massacre, Baldwin-Felts was still around to evict women and children from their homes. Only this time, they attacked a tent colony full of women and children.
Today, President Bush would call that "hiding behind innocent civilians." Granted, he wouldn’t give a fuck about the women and children (as evidenced by a recent veto), but...
The fact is both the Matewan Massacre and the Ludlow Massacre started with Baldwin-Felts and ended with the U.S. military. The workers didn’t get a break in either instance.
The Battle of Blair Mountain was the largest organized armed uprising in American labor history and led almost directly to the labor laws currently in effect in the United States of America. For nearly a week in late August and early September 1921, in Logan County, West Virginia, between 10,000 and 15,000 coal miners confronted state and federal troops in an effort to unionize the southwestern West Virginia mine counties. Unionization had succeeded elsewhere as part of a demographic boom that was triggered by the extension of the railroad and was characterized by unprecedented immigrant hiring and exploitation in the region. The battle was the final act in a series of violent clashes that have also been termed the Redneck War, from the color of bandannas worn by the miners around their necks for friend-or-foe identification, and the likely impetus of the common usage of the original Scottish term redneck in the vernacular of the United States.
Note: Sorry to use so many Wikipedia links, but it’s very convenient.
This is where we get to Blackwater, a private security firm with close ties to the government (and the money elite) that exist during a time where "unprecedented immigrant hiring and exploitation" is even more unprecedented than ever.
And, just to tie it all together:
Though tensions had been simmering for years, the immediate catalyst for the uprising was the unpunished murder of Sid Hatfield, police chief of Matewan, on the steps of the McDowell County courthouse in Welch in July 1921 by agents of the Baldwin-Felts private detective agency. Hatfield had been a long-time supporter of the United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) and their efforts to unionize the mines.
So, wherever Baldwin-Felts went, the U.S. Military was sure to follow, as long as quashing unions was the objective.
I ended my last diary with "History repeats." This diary, I’ll mention that the more things change, the more they stay the same.
There’s an anti-union, anti-worker, anti-American administration in office right now that has a "private security firm" working on their behalf. In fact, that same private security firm has already been deployed to New Orleans (please see the diary listed above).
Given that the war won’t last forever, how long until Blackwater goes into the union-busting massacre business? Wha
Unfortunately, that’s not a rhetorical question, because if Blackwater, a private security firm working with the government, ever gets a foothold in the United States, history shows that a massacre can't be far behind.