9.28 Thoughts

Should the union rep be the motivator or the channel with which to funnel grievances?

The miners understand the immediate hardships and have a veiled notion about what it takes to achieve success. It would be understandable, then, for them to channel their aggression about this injustice in any possible way, even in biting the hand that feeds. I felt overwhelmed with the stories of hardship, but needed the miners to understand their connection organically rather than have me tell them.
Only then, could I secure the support needed for an effective strike...

Company Spy

Trying to get the people rallied for the Union. Start of everyone is sitting in a line looking up to were the speaker will be. The chamber is totally dark, crowd noise in the background, this forces the speaker to have to be very loud. During the speech, the spy will come up behind a listener and put a cloth over their head, to signify that they have been removed. At the end of the speech the lights come up and only one person is left uncovered.

Speaker-Would they go down into the pit themselves, do ye think? Say after me, They would Not!

People-They would not!

Speaker- Would they dress in silks and laces, do ye think?

People-They would not!

Speaker-Would they have such fine soft hands, do ye think?

People-They would not!

Speaker-Would they hold themselves too good to look at ye?

People-They would not!

Speaker-If only ye'd stand together, they'd come to ye on their knees to ask for terms! But ye're cowards, and they play on your fears!

Speaker-Will ye'll stand by the Union? Yes or no?

People-Yes!

Speaker-Ye'll swear?

People-Yes/we'll swear!

Speaker-Do you swear? I can't hear you!

People-We swear!

Speaker-Ye'll not let them break ye! Ye'll not let them frighten ye!

People-No! No!

Speaker-What?

People-No!

Speaker-Stand by your word, men! Stand by it! 'Tis the one chance for your wives and childer!

Light come up, sound stops.
Speech from King Coal.

Journal for 28 September 2010

I loved the first partner experience. The feeling of "marching" and not really knowing what's happening. Hearing the yell, "Run down the women," got my heart pumping. The front of the march pushing back and the people in the back not knowing what was happening felt like the real thing.
The second partner exercise was interesting. I like how they had two speakers speaking at the same time, one from the miners perspective and one from the companies perspective. I like how they made it so that we could walk around them while they were talking.
The third partner exercise was very intense. I like how they put us in a "tent" and did not say anything. I liked how they waited a good 2 to 3 mins. before the guns fired. Our reaction in the tent was interesting to watch, the guns started firing, scared a few of us, than we decided to get on the floor. The effect of the fire on the outside of the tent was great.

Journal for 9/28

The Union exercise was scary. I was honestly hesitant. I had strong motivation for the strike but once I was in the scene I realized I had SO much to lose. I mean, yea our lives suck now - but at least we have income, a place to live, food on the table. With a strike....you lose all of that. I felt like some of the men in the exercise were taking it so lightly - but they weren't only risking their own lives, they were risking their family's lives as well. What are their wives and children going to do if they get killed - where will they go? I also found myself grow cold when the boys tried to bully me - I understood the hardships just as well as they did, but just because it sucks now that does not mean that a strike or a union will give us change for the better. Because the decision was so deep and hard, when we made it there was no sense of joy, just fear and grim determination - the exact same attitude I came into the meeting with.

The feelings I experienced were not as I suspected. And I am really fascinated in how so much fear led to so much determination for the strike - and I am curious about the times that were full of hesitancy. Who convinced these men and how? How did their wives feel? How much sheer will power does it take to make that kind of decision? Its easy to look back and say "they had to strike." But I am interested in showing the 3-dimensionality of making such a strong decision.

Life out of Balance

I watched Koyaanisqatsi today, a 1975 experimental documentary showcasing industrialization, commercialization, and destruction throughout the world.

A free streaming version is available through google video at http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=5539613947839465921#

The reason I bring this up is because of the final quote at the end of the movie:

"If we dig precious things from the land, we will invite disaster."

Koyaanisqati is the hopi term for "a state of life that calls for another way of living."

This doesn't parallel the lives of the miners, does it? My thoughts exactly.

“THE DEATH SPECIAL”

STRIKER 1

Do you see it?

STRIKER 2

How do you see something so black in all this darkness?

STRIKER 1

It come every night. Every night, up and down those tracks… with that damn gun!

STRIKER 2

Guns they ain’t never fired.

STRIKER 1

Not yet.

STRIKER 2

You see anything?

SOUND of APPROACHING RAILCAR.

STRIKER 1

Shhhh! I hear it.

STRIKER 2

Keep the lights down!

STRIKER 1

It’s getting closer!

The SOUND grows in intensity and then passes.

STRIKER 2

It’s past.

STRIKER 1

It didn’t fire.

STRIKER 2

Thank God!

STRIKER 1

We’re safe.

The SOUND of the RAILCAR returns.

STRIKER 2

It’s coming back!

SOUND intensifies and then cuts to silence.

END

-Brian and Leroy

Is it just me? Or is this historically biased...

http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/5736/

union call for strike

going to bessemer archives in the a.m. ...any questions/info you need me to track down? Laura

Rockerfellow Idea

Here is a good post to show shine a light onto Rockefellers' thinking.

http://books.google.com/books?id=wiQDAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA459&lpg=PA459&dq=capital+and+labor+john+j+stevenson&source=bl&ots=CD-PqgQeCH&sig=X6zM3XcH2C6wJ3kKG2RtGwGvqAM&hl=en&ei=ZqCJTNTqCYz2tgPUxtDQBA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result#v=onepage&q=capital%20and%20labor%20john%20j%20stevenson&f=false

Here's the link to the raw video footage: http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=LudlowProject#p/u/2/VPIw34AS0i0

-Brian

Performance Piece - Emily and Jacob

Discovery of the Death Pit

A Red Cross worker pokes around the ruins of Ludlow, looking for hotspots.

Worker: The sickening smell of death spreads across, as spasms create devilish curses filling the blackened air with hatred. The coal has made beasts of men and victims of children.

The scraping of the bed frame. The worker runs to investigate.

Mary’s hand exits the pit. Worker helps her out; she is coughing and wheezing. In one arm – her dead baby. Worker recoils, they make eye contact.

Mary: Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free. Yearning for breath in a war of suffocation. Suffocating rights, compassion, humanity. As the pollution seeps in, lighting their souls into flame, their smoke creeps through. Creeps through the door, through the canvas, through the floor and through my mother’s arms. Because I am but a huddled mass, yearning to breathe free.

Incident & Moment

Incident: As stated in a previous post, the incident will be the start of the strike, directly following the convention of union organizers and leaders of the various ethnic groups mining in S. CO


Moment in Time: September 23rd, 1913. The 1st day of the official strike. 

Denver Express reporter Don McGregor, who covered the strike and became a strong advocate for the miners, described the scene that day as an "exodus of woe, of a people leaving known

fears for new terrors, a hopeless people seeking new hope, a people born to suffering

going forth to new suffering." (Beshoar 1942:63)

90-95% of the 12,000 Colorado miners responded to the call for strike. The production slowed to a trickle. (Long 1989:273)

A bitter fall storm blew into the region as the strike date drew near, and on 23 September trains of wagons piled high with miners' household belongings streamed out of the coal camps. Some planned to leave the region for the duration of the strike, others headed for temporary shelter in nearby towns, and still others for the tent colonies being erected by union organizers throughout the region. Families and individual miners

carrying their possessions struggled on foot through freezing rain, snow, and mud to reach shelter. Wagons became bogged down in the rutted roads. (Reckner 2009:163)

Death Special

I am intrigued by the use of the Death Special. This was obviously used to intimidate the strikers. Could this be a reason that the strikers were on edge, Death Special would go by and the troops would fire into the tents. What went through the minds of the strikers, the minds of troops?

Resources:
Killing For Cole, Rendezvous With Shame, The Great Field War, http://www.du.edu/ludlow/cfhist.html, http://cobar.org/index.cfm/ID/581/dpwfp/Historical-Foreward-a...

Research Help?

Hey guys, I am really struggling on researching the Red Cross workers. I can't even find their names anywhere, much less any information. All I have are the pictures.

Have any of you stumbled across anything in your research, or have an idea of where I can look?

Emily

Moments/Incidents

The ones I am most drawn to out of what is posted here...

Incident - Louis Tikas in the mines, Moment - leading the strike (Sinjin)
I like that this incident takes place in the mines and that the moment takes
place leaving the mines. Theatrical, I love the idea of staging in the mine
because of the enclosed space, the danger and the light. I know when I was
in a mine I hated it because it was so cramped and the air was so damp and
dirty and the light was atrocious. I would be really theatrical interested
in re-creating this for an audience.

Incident - The official union announcement, Moment - the day after (Ryan)
I like Ryan's suggestion of comparing the day after the union announcement
with the day after the massacre. I think it offers a lot of possibilities
narrative-wise. EX: Going back and forth between both days so we almost
don't know which one chronologically came first.

From the posts of moments on the blog the one that most resonates with me is Em’s. The thought of coming upon the scene and viewing the aftermath a day later is gruesome and the fact that there are lots of photographs makes it even more powerful.

I’ve only been able to read five of the moments so I don’t know if someone has already stated this one but I am also intrigued by the mysterious death of Louis Tikas as a moment within the incident.

Sources: Killing for Coal, Colorado Coal Field War Project, A Rendezvous with Shame, our own photographs, artifacts and experiences in Ludlow, and our archivist.

After visiting the site I am even more intrigued with being in the earth and out of the earth; light and shadow. I still like the metaphor of burned tents and charred posts jutting from the earth like ribs of a carcass.

I can see the set as tents onto which we can project images or use for shadow play. I can also see putting the entire audience inside a tent.

History is not clear. It is always seen through something. We can only interpret from the shadows left behind.

-Brian

Here are my monologues:

You crawl and invade me and leave me hollow. You’ve pulled me inside-out, stripped me of what has been a part of me since… I can’t even remember now. Never a thought for me. Never a gesture. Never a gift in return for what you have taken. And now… now your hatred has spilled over and it has infected your own. You crawl from me to wrap hands around each other’s necks; citing, “cruel and inhumane treatment!” To me, all human treatment is cruel. Now you strip each other and pull your own insides out. Now you are hollow. And it makes me happy. Empty but happy. You lie on top of me stripped of what has been with you longer than you can remember. Days pass, and your still silent. Then, they dig into me again and put you here with me to sleep; forever. Perhaps, this is your gift – in return for what you have taken from me.

-The earth to the humans two days after the massacre.

It was a long time ago now. But I remember them growing every day as the clanging of their machines grew. Soon, the mountainside shivered with their dynamite. I watched with my mother and my father as a mine became a village and a village became a town. But that is how things go. Then, one day the mountain stopped its shivering and the people left their town. That’s when rumor began to spread, as if it were gospel, that there were blood to be spilt. I watched on the hilltop each day; close enough to hear and see, yet far enough too. I watched the set up their tents that shone in the sun like snowy peaks. Early, one morning came the distant “crack!” like a firework. It was followed by many more. We knew it had started. Plumes of rifle smoke drifted in the breeze followed later by the sound it had made. Faint voices traveled too, but were swallowed by the war. As the sun dimmed on the peaks of the tents, a new light came from within. Fire spread through the colony and burned throughout the night. By morning, there was nothing but charred wooden stakes like ribs on a carcass. We knew it was over.

-Pueblo Woman speaking to a researcher seventy-two years after the incident.

You should have been there! Atop Water Tank Hill it seemed I could see forever. Straight lines! – it was the way I think… and from here, everything was a straight line. As the sun rose, it warmed me. I felt myself expanding. When you’re made into something for a specific purpose anything else… well, is not that purpose. Anticipation can get even the best of them! Some can be so overwhelmed by the moment, they freeze up! Not me. Not today. I don’t really remember much before, but after… nothing but the purest explosion! True was my aim as I launched into the camp. Split air! Torn matter! Never stopping till I was shrapnel. I don’t remember hitting any lamp, but I remember the fire. I had done that. I felt the squeeze and I had done that!

-The Machine Gun recounting to unspent ammo shortly after the incident.

-Brian

Incident: January 21st, 1914. Mother Jones is held captive at the hospital and
a group of women from two counties has formed to protest. On the corner of
Commercial Street and Main they come face to face with General John Chase and
and his mounted cavalry.

Moment in time: The General picks himself off the ground as the crowd of women
laugh at him.

Louis Tikas Taking the Greeks

I find myself interested mostly in the lives of the miners inside the mines in the months and days leading up to the labor strike. I feel as though a good place to start, in this respect, is with Louis Tikas. I want to track his story as he entered the mines, worked, and left.

Moment: The leading of 63 soldiers into the strike.


Sources like Buried Unsung, Labor and Freedom and The Coal Strike of 1913 - An Interpretation (also, hopefully, some of the NY Times and other news sources cited)



Also, I found this website, they looked at the class struggle through Ludlow and the strike:

http://www.scribd.com/doc/3480341/An-Archaeology-of-Labor-Research-on-Ludlow-and-the-191314-Coal-War

I have not yet been able to research any specific stories about this incident, but I am mainly motivated by the pictures. I found TONS of pictures of the Red Cross the morning after - these combined with the picture of the pit, really incredibly fascinate me. I am going to start researching the workers and see if anyone heard their story. This was also highly motivated by that painting: Ludlow Massacre.

Incident: A dusky dawn, scattered with ash, covered in a thick layer of smoke and fear, the Red Cross workers slowly, silently and awfully discover and explore the happenings of the day before.

Moment in Time: The approach to a big, scarred hole in the ground – the discovery of the horror inside.

-Emily

The first death related to the strike: Robert Lee

The moment in time i want to focus on is in bold.

On the second day of the strike, sometime around 12:00 pm, Tom Larius and a few other Greek strikers left the Namino saloon in Segundo where they had been talking. They were heading back to the strikers’ encampment when they got to the new company bridge that had just been built to allow scabs easy access to the mines. The bridge, usually guarded by CF&I gunmen, had been left unattended. Since no one was there, Tom Larius and his fellow strikers decided to tear the bridge down. They hadn’t gotten far in there progress before Robert Lee was notified and rushed to the bridge on horse back, taking his rifle with him.
When he got there, he shooed the strikers away by butting his horse against them until they started walking away. Lee continued herding them off as if they were cattle, following them on horseback. About 200 yards past the bridge, the miners turned and surrounded Lee’s horse. Lee pulled out his rifle to fire, but before he was able to, Larius raised his shotgun, fired, and tore Lee’s jugular vein out of his throat. Larius and the miners took off into the shrub and disappeared amidst gunfire from company guardsmen who had heard the gunshot.



Blood Passion by Scott Martelle
Buried Unsung: Louis Tikas and the Ludlow Massacre by Zeese Papanikolas
(I could only find two sources on this at the moment)

My Choice: The Day After the Union Convention

All mineworkers are hereby notified that a strike of all the coal miners and coke oven workers in Colorado will begin on Tuesday, September 23, 1913 . . . We are striking for improved conditions, better wages, and union recognition. We are sure to win.

The official union announcement, signed by Doyle, Hayes, Lawson, & McLennan

I wish to explore the initial excitement and fervor of the start of the strike, possibly to later contrast it with the morning after Ludlow's massacre.  

Colorado Coal Field Project Website

You may already have seen this, but if not, here's a link to DU's Colorado Coal Field Project website:

CCFP website

Bev Allen

Up n' Running

Hey everyone,

As far as I can tell, everyone should have been invited from our class, and is able to post into this blog. If I need to make any changes or invite a different account, please let me know.

This should be a good resource for everyone to be able to see a glimpse of where everyone is at, share comments and feedback, and keep each other updated on our individual progress throughout the week.

Let me know if you need anything else.


Cheers,

Ryan