The Ludlaw Massacre is a documentary film which premiered on US television (PBS) in 2013.
The Ludlow Massacre took place in the US state of Colorado on 20 April 1914. It is a significant and deadly moment in a long-running conflict which is known as the Colorado Coalfield War.
** On one side we have the workers who worked in the coal mines and their union, the United Mine Workers of America (UMWA).
** On the other side we have the private corporation which owned the mines, the Colorado Fuel & Iron Company (known as CF & I).
The Colorado Coalfield War lasted more than one year. From September 1913 to December 1914.
This film tells us what happened before, during, and after the Ludlow Massacre of 20 April 1914.
Here is some basic information about it.
** Director: Julie Speer Jackson
** Writers: Julie Speer Jackson and Mariel Rodriguez-McGill
** Produced by Rocky Mountain PBS and the Colorado Experience
** Available on the PBS website
** Language: English
** Subtitles: English
** Run time: 28 minutes
Six persons are interviewed in the film. Here are the
names of the participants (in alphabetical order):
** Robert Butero – Region IV director, United Mine Workers of America (UMWA)
** William J. Convery – state historian, Colorado
** Vincent C. de Baca – associate professor of history, Metropolitan State University of Denver
** Tim Hawkins – archivist, CF & I Archives
** Jonathan H. Rees – professor of history, Colorado State University – Pueblo
** Dean J. Saitta – professor of anthropology, University of Denver
Archive footage is used between the talking heads. Archive footage is used to support and supplement the statements made by the participants.
In some cases, where no contemporary clip or photo is available, drawings are used.
Old photos allow the viewer to meet some of the people who played an important role in this conflict, including the following:
** Mary G. Harris Jones (1837-1930), an Irish immigrant, a union organizer, and a political activist, who is better known as Mother Jones
** Louis Tikas (1886-1914), a Greek immigrant and a leader of the strike movement, who was killed during the massacre of 20 April 1914
The Colorado Coalfield War can be divided into three stages:
The first stage
** The beginning
** From September 1913 to April 1914
The second stage
** The massacre of 20 April 1914 followed by ten days of war (21-30 April 1914)
The third stage
** The end
** From April to December 1914
How many were killed in the massacre of 20 April 1914? The answer is around 20 persons. 12 children and 8 adults, including the strike leader Louis Tikas.
How many were killed during the long conflict from September 1913 to December 1914? The evidence is not certain. Several figures are mentioned. A low figure is 69. A high figure is 199.
The Colorado Coalfield War including the Ludlow Massacre is one of the deadliest and most bitter conflicts in American history.
According to historian Thomas G. Andrews, it is the “deadliest strike in the history of the United States.”
According to historian Howard Zinn it is “the culminating act of perhaps the most violent struggle between corporate power and laboring men in American history.”
The workers had three main demands to the corporation:
# 1. A fair salary
# 2. A safe working environment in the mines
# 3. Recognition of the workers’ union
The corporation refused to accept any of these demands. The corporation regarded a union as a conspiracy which must be fought with any means possible.
The corporation used legal and illegal methods to crush the workers’ union and force the workers to back down.
Before the strike began, the workers lived in houses which were owned by the company. When the strike began, the workers were evicted. Now they were homeless. This was an attempt to force the workers to give up and surrender. But the workers did not give up so easily. They responded by setting up a village of tents.
The tents were placed in long rows. Guards hired by the company mounted a machine gun on the back of a truck and drove to the tent village. As the truck slowly drove through the tent village, the guards used the machine gun to fire on the tents, to the left and to the right. Perhaps they did not intend to kill anyone. But they certainly wanted to scare the people living in the tents.
This method was highly effective. The workers and their families were scared that the guards would aim lower next time and kill the people inside the tents.
As a precaution, several people dug a hole in the ground inside the tent which could be used as a refuge while the machine gun was firing at the tent.
In 1916, the United Mine Workers of America bought the land where the tent city once stood. Two years later, a monument was erected on this spot.
The monument shows a man, a woman and a child. On the monument the names of the 20 victims of the massacre are listed.
What was the final result of the Colorado Coalfield War and the Ludlow Massacre? Did the workers gain anything? Were any of their demands met?
The answer is no. The workers lost the strike. Their demands were not accepted by the corporation.
But the massacre was reported across the United States and the company gave itself a very bad reputation.
In the 1920s and the 1930s, politicians agreed that it was necessary to set some limits for how far a corporation was allowed to go when it wanted to exploit its workers.
Child labour was no longer allowed. An 8-hour working day was created. Unions were legal and corporations had to find a way to live with them.
What do reviewers say about this film? This question is not easy to answer. The film is listed on IMDb (under the heading Colorado Experience), but there is no rating and there are no customer reviews. The film is not available from Amazon and there are no reviews.
What do I think? In my opinion, this is an important film about an important topic.
The story of the Ludlow Massacre is a dark chapter of American history which deserves to be told, and in this film, it is done very well.
I want to go all the way to the top with this product. I think it deservers a rating of five stars (100 percent).
REFERENCES
# 1. Film and video
** Palikari: Louis Tikas and the Ludlow Massacre
(2014) (92 minutes)
** Fire in the Hole: Mine Wars of the West
Part one = 57 minutes
Part two = 57 minutes
PBS Utah, 2015
** Forgotten History: The Ludlow Massacre & the PR Machine
(Posted by Truthstream Media) (42 minutes)
(Posted on YouTube on 28 May 2022)
2. Books
** The Great Coalfield War by George S. McGovern and Leonard F. Guttridge (1972) (1996)
** Buried Unsung: Louis Tikas and the Ludlow Massacre by Zeese Papanilokas (1982) (1991)
** Blood Passion: The Ludlow Massacre and Class War in the American West by Scott Martelle (2007) (2008)
** Killing for Coal: America’s Deadliest Labor War by Thomas G. Andrews (2008) (2010)
** Violence in the West: The Johnson County Range War and the Ludlow Massacre – A brief History with Documents by Marilynn S. Johnson (2014)
** The Colorado Coalfield War by K. D. Huxman (author) and Lisa Greenleaf (illustrator) (2018)
# 3. Items available on the internet
** Jonathan H. Rees
Ludlow Massacre
The Colorado Encyclopedia
(29 September 2016)
(Last modified 31 January 2021)
** Ludlow Massacre
Topics in Chronicling America
A Research Guide
Library of Congress
*****
Mother Jones
Union organizer, political activist
(1837-1930)
*****
Louis Tikas
Leader of the strike movement
(1886-1914)
*****
The Ludlow Massacre Memorial
Erected in 1918
*****
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