The
ANNOTICO Report
The Italian
American Experience is often viewed through a telescope that focuses
mostly on the Urban Experience.
The Italian
American Experience was FAR more Multi Regional, Multi Task/Industry than
generally thought.
More
research is deserved for the Vintners, Fishermen, and Farmers of
California, Railroad Workers of the Great Plains and the Rockies,
the Produce Purveyors of New Orleans, Indentured Servant Row Crop Laborers in
the South, and the Coal Miners of Pennsylvania and the West, among so many
others.
A
Commemorative Ceremony Sunday, September 3, 2006 will honor a few of those
Miners of the West, who worked under atrocious conditions, and the more than
200 Italian Miners who lost their lives in Phelps Dodge Coal Mine
Explosions in Dawson New Mexico.
Our
gratitude is extended to Professor Alessandro Trojani
of the University of Florence, who leads a project researching the Italian
presence in the American West, sponsored by the Italian Consulate in Los Angeles.
Following
the Press Release below, is a Web Site dedicated to Dawson,NM.
Unfortunately, in it's
original form it sounds like it was written by Phelps Dodge, and attempts to
paint the Company as a great Philanthropy, rather than the rapacious,
exploitive, cruel, heartless, robber baron, so common at the turn of the
Century.
As an
example, Later in the 50's and
again in the 80s Phelps Dodge "wrote" the book on
"breaking unions" with paid "thugs"
as documented in "How (Phelps Dodge) Recast Labor-Management
Relations in America"
by Jonathan D. Rosenblum. (See below)
Currently (as of
6/06) Phelps Dodge top
institutional shareholder are Barclays Global Investors (Whose Largest
Shareholder is Lazard Freres,
controlled by Rothschilds) and Atticus Capital
(controlled by Rothschilds). That should tell
you something.
For an
accurate portrayal of Coal Operators attitude toward "human fodder",
See Below: John Sayles' film "Matewan", for instance, recalls the typical effort by
coal operators in the 1920s to bring immigrants of one nationality and race to
scab on the strikes of another.
Thanks to
Anthony Ghezzo
Ceremony
to honor Italian immigrants who perished in Dawson, New Mexico mine
explosion
Diego Brasioli, Consul General of Italy in Los
Angeles, the Dawson New Mexico Association and the Honorable Gino
Bucchino, member of Italian Parliament, representative for North and Central America will attend the historic commemorative
ceremony.
They will
be honoring the more than 200 Italian immigrants who lost their lives during
two catastrophic mine explosions on October 22, 1913 and February 8, 1923 at
the Phelps Dodge coal mine in Dawson,
N. M.
To
commemorate the sacrifices made by these men and their families, Italian
officials will place a plaque at the Dawson
Cemetery. The bronze
engraved plaque was donated by the National Italian American Foundation.
The story
of Dawson was completely unknown in Italy until it was discovered by Professor
Alessandro Trojani of the University
of Florence, who leads a project,
sponsored by the Italian Consulate in Los
Angeles, researching the Italian presence in the
American West.
The
ceremony will take place during a reunion of some 600 descendants of the
deceased and former residents of Dawson, many of
whom have arrived from Italy,
and other countries such as China,
Poland, Germany, Greece,
Great Britain, Finland, Sweden,
Mexico, and Yugoslavia.
Their
ancestors worked together to dig the coal that once fueled an area equal to
one-sixth of the United
States. Dawson was one of the nation's most important mining cities but was abandoned in
1950. It was home to more than 7000 residents.
Phelps
Dodge attempts to use this occasion, in a bold and embarrassing attempt to
picture themselves as a benevolent company when the housing and store
was a disparate "ploy" to attract workers to a god forsaken place. and to "counter" strikes in progress at other
nearby locations.
The
ceremony will take place at the Dawson
Cemetery, Dawson, N.M.
on Sunday, September 3, 2006 with the ceremony beginning at 1 p.m.
DAWSON, NEW
MEXICO (Edited for Accurracy)
There never was a
town like this before, and there never will be again!
In 1901 the Dawson coal mine opened and a
railroad was constructed from Dawson
to Tucumcari and the town was born. Then in 1906, the Phelps Dodge company bought the mine...Then disaster struck, not once,
but twice. On October 22, 1913 at 3:10 P.M., an explosion in the mine killed
263 minors plus two rescuers. Then on February 8, 1923 at 2 P.M., another
explosion killed 120 men. Surprisingly though, the town didn't die, but rather went on until the mine was closed
down in 1950. When the mine closed, Phelps Dodge sold the whole town, buildings
and all, to be carried off to other locations. Today, the cemetery is the main
thing to see at Dawson.
..Mining was a dangerous business -- the best of coal mines being
squalid, hot, dark holes permeated with black dust. Even if the miners escaped
the constant dangers of cave-ins and explosions,their life expectancy was sharply reduced by
"black lung" and other affects of the sooty mine air. From time to
time a miner would fall into a pit or die in the collapse of a seam, and the
company built cemetery slowly began to fill.... Miners from Italy and all over
the world.The miners worked together to dig the coal
that fueled an area equal to 1/6 of the United States and Dawson grew into a
company town of about 9,000.
Phelps
Dodge like other Corporations at the turn of the Century, were ruthless in
exploiting miners, and ignored all reasonable safety recommendations,and "bought"
the politicians who established No or Low Standards, which were rarely enforced
by the State Inspectors. Therefore, Dawson was doomed to
suffer a series of tragedies that shadowed its history to the end. During this
period, Dawson suffered its worst catastrophe on Wednesday, October 22, 1913,
only two days after the mine's
inspection by the New Mexico Inspector of Mines. That morning 284 miners
reported to work at Stag Canyon Mine No.2. Work went on as usual until a little
after three p.m. when the mine was rocked by a huge explosion that sent a
tongue of fire 100 feet out of the tunnel mouth shaking the homes in Dawson two miles away.
Relief
and disaster crews were rushed from neighboring towns. Striking miners in Colorado ceased
picketing and offered to form rescue teams. Working around the clock, rows of
bodies were brought to the surface. The distraught wives and family members
clogged and impeded the operations around the mouth of the mine. Only 23 of the
286 men working in the mine were found alive. Two of the rescuers were
themselves killed by falling boulders in the shaft. Mass funerals were
conducted for the victims and row upon row of graves dug, making it necessary
to extend the cemetery far up the hill. The cemetery was marked by white iron
crosses and the burials continued for weeks. It was the second worst mine
disaster of the century. Investigators determined that the explosion had been
caused by an overcharged blast in a dusty pillar section of the mine. Dynamite,
not a permitted explosive, was being used. The Bureau of Mines allowed certain
types of explosiv! es, but blasting was to be conducted only when all
miners were evacuated and water sprays were to be used to settle the coal dust.
These rules had obviously been ignored. Safety measures were heavily increased
after the disastrous explosion and subsequent accidents were comparatively
minor with few fatalities. The mining continued and in 1918, the Dawson mines reached
their peak production of over four million tons of coal.
But
tragedy hit Dawson
again on February 8, 1923, at about 2:20 PM, in Stag Canyon Mine No.1. When a
mine train jumped its track, it hit the supporting timbers of the tunnel mouth,
and ignited coal dust in the mine. There were 123 men in the mine at the time.
Many women who lost husbands in the earlier disaster waited anxiously for their
sons to appear out of the smoke. Early the next morning two miners who had been
in an isolated section of the mine walked out. They were the only survivors.
The cemetery was extended once again and more white crosses took their place in
the cemetery.
Dawson continued for almost
three decades, with sons following their fathers into the mines. But gradually
railroads began to convert to diesel-electric locomotives, while natural gas
and heating oil replaced coal as the fuel to heat homes. There was a brief
resurgence of mining during World War II, but after that, it was clear coal was
a fuel of the past. On April 30, 1950 the mine was shut down. The announcement
meant the death of the company town. Phelps Dodge sold the whole town,
buildings and all, to a salvage company in Phoenix. The giant coal washer was shipped
piece by piece to Kentucky
and several houses were moved out and relocated. The company safe ended up in
the Phelps Dodge headquarters in Bisbee,
Arizona, where it is still
displayed at the mining museum. Over the next dozens of years, ranchers
operating Phelps Dodge's Diamond
D" ranch occupied the few dwellings remaining.
Over
350 white iron crosses in the Dawson
Cemetery mark the graves
of those who perished in the mining disasters. The cemetery, a deeply moving
site, is now the only part of Dawson
still open to the visitor. These silent sentinels, some with individual names
and some unmarked, are poignant reminders of the tragic deaths of the victims,
and, more importantly, their lives.
For a while, Dawson had been forgotten by New Mexico until
two brothers Dale and Lloyd Christian went on an expedition in 1991, when they
saw the uncared for and abandoned cemetery, and notified the New Mexico
Office of Cultural Affairs that was unaware that the cemetery even existed.
Although very few cemeteries are placed on the National Register, the Dawson Cemetery
was added on April 9,1992.
http://dawson.vps.it/
Copper Crucible: How the
(Phelps Dodge)
Arizona Miners'
Strike of 1983 Recast Labor-Management Relations in America (ILR Press Books)
by
Jonathan D. Rosenblum
From
Library Journal
Rosenblum, a lawyer and a
journalist, gives an eyewitness account of the dramatic and ultimately unsuccessful
1983 strike by mostly Chicago miners in small Arizona mining towns
against the Phelps Dodge company, all told against the
backdrop of the uneasy relations between the company and the mine-workers' unions going back to 1903. Rosenblum
contends that Phelps Dodge's move to
hire permanent replacements for the strikers marked a fundamental change in
American labor-management relations, giving employers an effective weapon for
breaking lawful strikes. The discussion of the strike's
larger consequences is calm and thoughtful. Suitable for
academic libraries with labor union and industrial relations collections.
Reviewer: Jim Grant "The Progressive" - Top 500 Reviewer
This book focuses
on the destruction of individuals'
lives when they cross paths with a powerful corporation, Phelps Dodge, when
that company has the leverage to do so. During WWII, Phelps Dodge saw an
opportunity to bust their unions and aided by labor law, labor law officials,
and law enforcement departments did so. This book is weakest in putting this
entire episode in a larger perspective.What is
missing is any broad attempt to frame this labor conflict in context of the
political understandings and power of the American working class in general.
Why are the anti-labor biases of labor law officials, judges, and law
enforcement officials tolerated in this country? Do most working people support
these biases? Do they not know that they exist or consider them to be
irrelevant? Do they support union-busting? If not, are they powerless to elect
pro-worker Congressmen and change! labor laws? Union
actions and community understandings take place in these unanswered contexts.
The book shows the obvious capability of a company with an extreme
anti-union animus to carry out its will.
"MATEWAN"
.........a Film Documentary by John Sayles (Matewan, West Viginia-1920)
Italian immigrants led
by Fausto (Joe Grifasi),
and Black miners led by "Few Clothes" Johnson (James Earl Jones)
are brought into town by the Stone Mountain Coal Co, to break a Strike with
these "scabs". However, the Italians and Blacks quickly realize that
their "hearts" are with, and join the strikers,
that is answered with a Massacre of the Miners.
Synopsis
"You
want to be treated like men? You want to be treated fair? Well, you ain't men to the
coal company, you're equipment. They'll use you till you wear out or you break down or
you're buried alive under a slate
fall and then they'll get a new one,
and they don't care what color it is
or where it comes from."
It is
1920 and the mining towns of West
Virginia are owned and operated by the coal
companies. The men are paid by the tonnage of coal they can load, and the
companies keep the rate down by importing scab labor, blacks from the South and
immigrants fresh off the boat. One such town is Matewan.
And when the miners of Matewan go on strike, they
have no idea that their action is going to put the town on the map.
The
miners of Matewan are at the end of their ropes. The
Stone Mountain Coal Company has brought in Italian immigrants, and now proposes
to cut the men's wages. Led by Sephus Purcell (Ken Jenkins), the local miners walk out.
The company is not slow to respond. To a hostile reception from the local men,
a group of black miners arrive in town, among them a giant of a man whose
ragged appearance has earned him the name "Few Clothes" Johnson
(James Earl Jones.) On the train with them is another newcomer, Joe Kenehan (Chris Cooper), former "wobblie"
and now a union organizer.
Joe
takes a room in the boarding house run by Elma Radnor (Mary McDonnell), whose
young son Danny (Will Oldham) is a miner and a lay preacher. Joe sets up a
clandestine meeting at the restaurant owned by C. E. Lively (Bob Gunton), who is sympathetic to the miners' cause. Few Clothes, who has quickly realized that
the coal company intends to exploit the black miners, joins the meeting and
speaks his mind. The local men are hostile, until Joe takes charge and strikes
a deal - if the scabs will walk out of the mine, they'll
be accepted into the union as brothers.
Now the
company brings in two strike-breakers from the hated Baldwin-Felts detective
agency, Hickey (Kevin Tighe) and Griggs (Gordon
Clapp), who commandeer rooms at Elma's
place. Toting their guns, Hickey and Griggs are soon at work, trying to evict a
family from the miners' camp. They
are faced down by Matewan's
police chief Sid Hatfield (David Strathairn) and
Mayor Cabell Testerman (Josh Mostel.)
The
Italians and blacks debate the pros and cons of fighting the company and
joining the union. But a confrontation seems inevitable when, under heavy
guard, they are forced to run a gauntlet of strikers to enter the mine. But in
the face of the company's guns, Few
Clothes and the Italian leader Fausto (Joe Grifasi), throw down their picks
and the other men follow their example. The strike is now solid. Forced to
leave company housing, the local men, blacks and Italians set up a tent camp in
the hills. A night ambush by company men sparks the miners' code of revenge, and Joe once again has to try to
defuse a violent situation. While the miners are in town planning retaliation,
Joe is left virtually alone to face Hickey and Griggs and their men as they
harass the women and children left in the tent camp. A family of 'hill people,'
mountain men who have had their land stolen by the coal company, arrive just ! in time to save Joe and
chase the Baldwins
away.
Despite
Joe's warning that violence will
only serve the company's cause, some
of the miners - including Danny and his friend Hillard
(Jace Alexander) - set off to sabotage the mine. But
they have been betrayed. There are ambushed by company men. Sephus
sees that the traitor is C. E. Lively but is so badly wounded that he can't reach the men to warn them. Using a simple local
girl, Bridey Mae (Nancy Mette),
who has taken a shine to Joe, C.E. frames Joe with "evidence" that he
is actually in cahoots with the strike-breakers. The strikers fall for it and
Few Clothes is detailed to dispose of Joe.
Danny,
however, has overheard Hickey and Griggs talking about the ruse. Though they
discover him and threaten to kill him and Elma if he tells what he knows, he is
able to use his sermon at the church to reveal the truth to the miners. Joe is
saved, seconds before Few Clothes is about to execute him. The miners exact
revenge on C.E. by burning down his restaurant but he escapes across the river
to Kentucky.
The union strengthens and spreads its influence, and the company decides to
raise the stakes. As Danny and Hillard try to steal
coal for the camp, Hillard is caught by the Baldwin agents. Danny watches, horrified, as Griggs
coldly slits Hillard's
throat. The company men see Hillard's
murder as their chance to bring the confrontation to a head. A
squad of professional strike-breakers, "gun thugs," are
brought into town to carry out the evictions Sid Hatfield has forbidden. As
they stalk down the main str!
eet, they are confronted by
Sid and Cabell, in a last-ditch attempt to uphold the law.
Joe
tries to intervene but the fuse is lit and he is powerless to prevent a bloody
battle. In what came to be known as the Matewan
Massacre, many men are killed - miners, Baldwin
agents, Mayor Cabell Testerman. And
Joe Kenehan, union man.
"They
got you fightin'
white against colored, native against foreign...when you know there ain't but two
sides in the world - them that work and them that don't.
That's all you got to know about the
enemy."
Joe Kenehan lies buried in the West Virginia hills, but young Danny Radnor,
coal miner and preacher, lived to spread the gospel of the union.
http://www.johnsaylesretro.com/
body-matewan-synopsis.html
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