The Colorado Labor Wars

Commemorating the centennial of the Cripple Creek Labor Wars, 1903-1904, this book recalls the causes and consequences of one of the eras violent labor strikes that spread throughout the Colorado mine fields. This publication contains papers contributed by the presenting authors during the June 5, 2004, symposium at Pikes Peak Library District and is intended to contribute to the scholarship regarding the events that occurred in the Cripple Creek District during the Colorado Labor Wars. Photographs include Western Federation of Miners (WFM) members who were arrested and held by the Colorado State Militia, then deported from the state as a consequence of their union affiliation. A "must read" for those interested in labor history, mining, and a time when the WFM asked, "Is Colorado in America?"

On a spring morning in 1914, in the stark foothills of southern Colorado, members of the United Mine Workers of America clashed with guards employed by the Rockefeller family, and a state militia beholden to Colorado’s industrial barons. When the dust settled, nineteen men, women, and children among the miners’ families lay dead. The strikers had killed at least thirty men, destroyed six mines, and laid waste to two company towns. Killing for Coal offers a bold and original perspective on the 1914 Ludlow Massacre and the “Great Coalfield War.” In a sweeping story of transformation that begins in the coal beds and culminates with the deadliest strike in American history, Thomas Andrews illuminates the causes and consequences of the militancy that erupted in colliers’ strikes over the course of nearly half a century. He reveals a complex world shaped by the connected forces of land, labor, corporate industrialization, and workers’ resistance. Brilliantly conceived and written, this book takes the organic world as its starting point. The resulting elucidation of the coalfield wars goes far beyond traditional labor history. Considering issues of social and environmental justice in the context of an economy dependent on fossil fuel, Andrews makes a powerful case for rethinking the relationships that unite and divide workers, consumers, capitalists, and the natural world.

Ben Hanford's The Labor War in Colorado is a gripping account of the 1913-1914 Colorado coal strike and the ensuing violence and conflict between labor unions, mine owners, and the state government. Drawing on a wide range of primary sources, including newspaper accounts, court transcripts, and personal letters, Hanford provides a detailed and compelling narrative of this pivotal moment in American labor history. This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work is in the "public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.

Please note that the content of this book primarily consists of articles available from Wikipedia or other free sources online. Pages: 46. Chapters: Pike's Peak Gold Rush, Colorado Labor Wars, Ludlow Massacre, Golden Fleece Mining and Milling Company, Leadville Miners' Strike, Uranium mining in Colorado, Cripple Creek miners' strike of 1894, Gold mining in Colorado, Silver mining in Colorado, Columbine Mine massacre, Leadville mining district, Coal mining in Colorado, Charles L. Tutt, Sr., November 1897 proclamation, Argo Tunnel, Henderson molybdenum mine, Bulkeley Wells, Colorado Silver Boom, King Coal, The Pinkerton Labor Spy, Sweet Home Mine. Excerpt: Colorado's most significant battles between labor and capital occurred primarily between miners and mine operators. In these battles the state government, with one clear exception, always took the side of the mine operators. Additional participants in Colorado's labor struggles have included the National Guard, often informally called the militia; private contractors such as the Pinkertons, Baldwin-Felts, and Thiel detective agencies; and various labor entities, employers' organizations such as the Mine Owners' Associations, and vigilante groups and employer-sponsored citizens groups, such as the Citizens' Alliance. The series of incidents that have most frequently been referred to as the Colorado Labor Wars involved a struggle between the Western Federation of Miners (WFM) and the mine operators, particularly the Cripple Creek Mine Owners' Association (CCMOA), during the period from 1903 to 1904. Like so many other fights between the miners and the owners of the mines, this was a brutal and bloody period in Colorado's history. A nearly simultaneous strike in Colorado's northern and southern coal fields was also met with a military response by the Colorado National Guard. Two scholars who studied American labor violence concluded, "There is no episode in American labor history in which violence was as...

"On April 20, 1914, in the small railroad town of Ludlow, Colorado, striking coalminers and state National Guardsmen waged a day-long battle that ended with the burning of a strikers' tent colony. The "Ludlow Massacre," as it is known, was only part of a seven-month war in which at least seventy-five people were killed. In Blood Passion, journalist Scott Martelle explores this largely forgotten American saga of coalminers rising against political and economic corruption, a fight that embraced some of the most volatile social movements of the early twentieth century."--Cover.