You ought to be out raising hell. This is the fighting age. Put on your fighting clothes.
-Mother Jones
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Monday September 28, 1903
Ely, Nevada - Three Union Men Gunned Down by Superintendent
We are hearing reports that three union men have been gunned down in cold blood by a company official in Ely, Nevada. The union men were chosen by their fellow workers as a committee to present the demands of the union to the company. They were shot down and killed as they approached the office in an effort to seek a meeting. The superintendent used a Winchester rifle to murder our three unarmed brothers. The superintendent fled the scene and no attempt has been made to apprehend him.
SOURCE
The Autobiography of Big Bill Haywood
(1st pub 1929)
International Pub, 1983
Note: details of the murder of these three labor martyrs are sketchy. Big Bill Haywood does not give a date, and does not say specifically that they were with the Western Federation of Miners, although that is implied. The Company is not named, nor the type of work done. Big Bill describes this incident along with other events that took place in September of 1903. A newspaper search reveals no more information. More research needed.
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Sunday September 28, 1913
Old Segundo, Colorado - Angelo Zikos, machinist, arrested trying to collect his mail.
Angelo Zikos was arrested, a few days ago, trying to collect his mail at Old Segundo. A company guard of the Colorado Fuel and Iron Company, George Titsworth, Sr., met him just outside the office, put a revolver to his chest, called him a "son of a bitch," called him a foreigner ready to kill Americans, and accused him of an assault against another company guard.
Zikos stated that he had had nothing to do with that assault, and, he said, "I been Greek citizen, American citizen, I been square for any country...I don't be afraid of revolver. Go ahead. Shoot."
Titsworth took Zikos into custody and held him in the company office for identification. The guard who had been beaten came into the office and said, "That is the man."
Zikos vehemently denied the charge, stating that this guard had known him for five years, and knew full well that he was "a square man," not "a trouble man."
Zikos was told to leave the area and invited to take a job offer in New Mexico or Utah rather than to stay in the strike zone. He was told that they would be sorry to see him arrested again or maybe even killed.
Zikos replied:
I refuse all that, I have to remain here in Segundo. I have to see this business out.
Angelo Zikos is not a member of the United Mine Workers of America, but he is, perhaps, judged by the company gunthugs to be too closely associated with the many Greek miners who are proud members of the U. M. W. of A.
SOURCE
Buried Unsung
Louis Tikas and the Ludlow Massacre
-by Zeese Papanikolas
U of Utah Press, 1982
Photo from:
"Early Greek Immigrants"
-by Helen Zeese Papanikolas
Utah Historical Quarterly V.22 #2
http://historytogo.utah.gov/...
(This is not a photo of Zikos, used as a stand in for him.)
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Saturday September 28, 2013
From Labor Notes: Labor and Union Groups Join Moral Mondays in North Carolina
In a recent article, Ajamu Dillahunt dicusses the participation of labor and union groups in North Carolina's Forward Together Movement. Led by the North Carolina NAACP, activist have rallied for "Moral Monday" protest in Raleigh for many weeks now. There have been almost 1,000 arrests. Working people can be proud that labor and union groups have gotten on board, as Dillahunt describes:
..United Electrical Workers Local 150, a pre-majority union for public employees, and Black Workers for Justice, a 32-year-old organization dedicated to workplace and community organizing, put out the call for a labor delegation and theme for the third Monday.
UE, BWFJ, the Farm Labor Organizing Committee, and postal union members showed up wearing yellow wristbands. Ten were among the 47 arrested that day.
State AFL-CIO top leaders and staff attended the early mobilizations, but it was not until the eighth Monday, after the NC AFL-CIO board voted to mobilize, that member unions turned out. State Fed Secretary-Treasurer MaryBe McMillan was a speaker, along with UE 150 President Angaza Laughinghouse...
Read full article here:
http://www.labornotes.org/...
Forward Together Movement
http://www.advancementproject.org/...
North Carolina NAACP
http://www.naacpnc.org/
Black Workers for Justice
http://blackworkersforjustice.org/
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People Get Ready-Al Green
You don't need no ticket,
You just get on board.