Joe Colbert, a veteran militant miner, union officer, and leader of the Progressive Miners of America in Franklin County, Illinois is assassinated picking mushrooms near his home on the morning of August 17, 1932.

‘Joe Colbert–Labor’s Martyr’ by Gerry Allard from The Militant. Vol. 5 No. 36. September 3, 1932.

It was back in 1927, during the great, national strike, when the coal miners of the United States were making a gallant fight for the preservation of their union, that I first met Joe Colbert. That was an early September morning when 1500 strikers had gathered at Old Ben number 15 near West Frankfort, and persuaded the miners of that mine not to return to work under the separate agreement policy that would desert the heroic miners of Pennsylvania and Ohio and inevitably wreck our union. Joe was there for the first time actively participating in the affairs of his union. From then on he became a constant fighter for a more militant union until the morning he was assassinated by a guard from the mine where he was employed.

Colbert had been a trip rider in the mines and his missing right hand was the credential to prove that he had gone through the mill. The injury left a stub, above the wrist but still his youth and robust health permitted him to work on the conveyors of the Chicago, Wilmington Franklin Coal Company.

In 1926 we elected Joe the president of our local union, for his courage and his constant struggle against the operators’ abuse of conditions, endeavored him in the heart of his fellow men. Later he served in the capacity of Financial Secretary, then served three years as recording secretary and Pit Committeeman of our local in which capacity he served until his death. He was also Auditor of Sub-District number 9, United Mine Workers of America.

I had occasion to serve with Colbert on several committees. Acting on our local union’s resolution committee for the International Convention held last January. Colbert stood by a militant program and led the fight for the re-ognition of the Soviet Union and against the Criminal Syndicalism law. Some of the most constructive resolutions, numbering 36 in all, were presented to the International Convention by our delegation. Colbert collaborated with me in the presentation of these resolutions. During the district scale committee negotiations we were delegates and side by side we fought for an energetic program of struggle against the fakers within our union and the coal operators.

During my expulsion from the United Mine Workers of America for my activities in the National Miners Union Colbert almost single handed struck Orient number 1 in solidarity with Mine 2, over an equal division of work. The strike took place during the rank and file movement in which Colbert played a constructive part. Colbert and Ansbury held the strike intact for weeks. And not until the operators had brought into play the Federal government, which arrested every active foreign-born miner were they able to break the strike for which seven Communists are now facing long prison sentences on the charges of violating the Criminal Syndicalist laws.

Colbert had become known throughout the mining regions. His courage, tenacity and leadership had developed thousands of friends throughout the coal fields of the state. At the same time he had aroused the enmity of the coal operators and their agents–the fakers within the Unite Mine Workers of America.

A Fateful Conversation

Returning home from the Benld conference of a week ago, where Colbert and I had again acted as delegates from our local union, we stopped at a filling station on the outskirts of West Frankfort. There we observed James Sutton Company guards with shot-gun in hand. The following interesting conversation took place between Joe and the mine guard. “Where are you going with that?” Joe queried.

“Goin’ to look for rabbits”, was the cynical reply.

“I assume that there will be plenty around here pretty soon”, Joe asserted.

“What are you fellows going to do?”, the killer asked.

“We are going to strike every mine in Illinois until they give us an honest count.” Joe countered.

“Well, you fellows better not come out there,” was the threatening re-joinder of the gunman.

“We will be out there in spite of all your army, there is nobody going to tell the Illinois miners to work under conditions that they never had an opportunity to decide upon”, were Joe’s last remarks as we went on.

The following morning deputy sheriffs arrested me and threw me into the county jail along with a student body that I was accompanying. That night I was released and the following conversation took place between myself and the states attorney:

“You had better not stay at home tonight”, stated the S.A.

“Who is to tell me where I am to go and where to stay?”

“Well, I am merely telling you what I know, they are going to kill you and some other leaders of this movement if you do not watch yourself”, said the S.A.

“This industrial war could not be any worse than a military war; if war was declared I would not be consulted as to whether I would go or not, therefore I refuse to be told what I shall do in a fight that determines the very life of thousands of my men”, I answered.

“At any rate, I am telling you what I know,” was the answer.

“Very well, since you, as the leading authority in this county tell me that my life is in danger I demand a permit to carry a gun for my protection,” he replied.

“Can’t do that, I am disarming people,” was the last response of the state’s attorney.

Threats Fulfilled

The next morning I learned that the threats were not bluffs. Joe was murdered with a full shot-gun lead right through his heart. Joe had gotten up early and was busily engaged picking mushrooms in the pasture near his home. He was accompanied by his father who had gone out to stake a cow. At 15 minutes of six, an open touring car appeared, the driver got out and called for Joe. Joe turned and started toward them. He no doubt recognized the three men in the car. When he arrived ten feet from the car, the gunman opened fire shattering his manly chest piercing his heart. Joe died almost instantly with a faint smile.

Joe’s wife, Frankie ran out on her porch and the killers laughed openly in her face as her husband lay crumbled to earth.

The murder of Colbert by the gunman of the coal operators is part of the program of the Lewis-Walker-Edmundson combine in the attempt to force a wage cut down the throat of the Illinois coal miners. They feared Colbert because of his bravery and influence. It was necessary in their desperation to stop the rank and file movement from taking hold of the union for the movement threatens to engulf them forever for the miners–therefore desperate men use desperate tactics.

The death of Joe Colbert will be avenged. We, the militant miners of Illinois, pledged in mass funeral of 15,000 strong that we will carry the fight to the bitter end. Joe Colbert is dead but the things that he fought for will be realized as long as there is a breath of life left in the militant working class movement.

-GERRY ALLARD.

The Militant was a weekly newspaper begun by supporters of the International Left Opposition recently expelled from the Communist Party in 1928 and published in New York City. Led by James P Cannon, Max Schacthman, Martin Abern, and others, the new organization called itself the Communist League of America (Opposition) and saw itself as an outside faction of both the Communist Party and the Comintern. After 1933, the group dropped ‘Opposition’ and advocated a new party and International. When the CLA fused with AJ Muste’s American Workers Party in late 1934, the paper became the New Militant as the organ of the newly formed Workers Party of the United States.

PDF of full issue: https://www.marxists.org/history/etol/newspape/themilitant/1932/sep-03-1932.pdf