This being the United States, there have been several ‘Columbine Massacres’ On November 21, 1927 in the small town of Serene, Colorado, site of the Columbine Mine, during the Industrial Workers of the World strike against the Rocky Mountain Fuel Company, I.W.W. members Jerry Davis, John Eastenes, Rene Jacques, Frank Kovitch, Nick Spanudakhis, and Mike Vidovitch were murdered by state police and mine guards opening fire into a crowd of strikers. Dozens were wounded. Reports from that day and the Communist Party statement in the massacre.

‘Colorado Police Slaughter Unarmed Strikers’ from The Daily Worker. Vol. 4 No. 267. November 22, 1927.

Kill Four, Maim Many; Women Shot Down; Martial Law Declared; “A Second Ludlow”

BOULDER, Colo., Nov. 21. Four miners were killed outright, dozens wounded, a number of women among them, when rifle and pistol fire from mine guards and state police mowed down unarmed pickets at the Columbine mine near here today.

Adam Bell, well known miner leader, Nick Skis and Z. Vickels are known killed. A number of the wounded are expected to die.

Tear gas bombs were used to break up the picket line before the massacre.

John Ruzicka was shot at many while trying to care for the wounded.

The order to fire on the pickets was given by Louis N. Scherf, chief of the State Law Enforcement Department, directly in charge of the state armed forces at the Columbine mine, acting under orders of Governor Adams.

MARTIAL LAW.

DENVER, Nov. 21. Governor Adams declared martial law in the northern coal fields today following the killing, by state police and mine guards, of four unarmed striking miners and the wounding of many more at the Columbine mine. I.W.W. leaders and local labor union officials declare that the miner pickets were entirely unarmed. It is admitted by the state authorities that not a single weapon on the killed and wounded men and women.

ANOTHER LUDLOW.

WALSENBURG, Colo., Nov. 21. The attack upon unarmed pickets by mine guards and state police, acting under instructions from Governor Adams, at the Columbine mine in the northern fields, has brought a great revival of strike activity in this district.

Hundreds of miners are coming into Walsenburg and the roads are jammed with machines carrying miners from the surrounding properties. “Another Ludlow,” is the phrase on the lips of thousands of workers here when they speak of the Columbine massacre.

***

DENVER, Cola, Nov. 21. Moving rapidly, 300 members of cavalry, tank corps, infantry and medical outfits were at the Columbine mine within a few hours following the shooting.

The troopers were equipped with automatic revolvers, rifles and machine guns.

One of the four killed was identified as Adam Bell, prominent strike leader.

Wound Women.

Several women were included among the wounded. They were struck by bullets from the large calibre revolvers of the state police.

Reports from the southern field at noon, where quiet has prevailed for more than a week in the strike, called Oct. 18, told of a series of police activities in the Aguilar camp near Trinidad. Forty persons, including three women, were arrested following fist fights between striking miners and mine guards. No shots were fired.

The coal camp near Colorado Springs was guarded by a force of thirty deputy sheriffs during a miners’ meeting.

Mobilize Troops.

Colonel Paul Newlon, adjutant general of the Colorado guard, was instructed by Governor Adams to mobilize as many guardsmen as the situation demanded. Governor Adams announced that martial law would be proclaimed in the northern coal field, giving the militia complete control of affairs there.

First Shooting.

It was the first time since the strike went into effect Oct. 18 that arms have been used by either side.

Several of the pickets injured in the pitched battle were women.

The massacre began when 500 striking miners, with a woman at their head, started their daily demonstration at the Columbine this morning. The Columbine is the only mine in the northern field that has operated daily since the strike began.

Gives Order to Fire.

Lewis N. Scherf, head of the state police, ordered the strikers to keep off the mine property. Scherf, reports said, fired his revolver twice, but the strikers continued to advance.

Following Scherf’s lead the entire constabulary force opened fire.

Strikers Unarmed.

DENVER, Nov. 21. The northern coal fields of this state now have their Ludlow.

Four pickets were killed and more than thirty, including women, injured, a number fatally, when mine guards and state police fired point-blank into unarmed strike pickets at the Columbine mine near here.

Adam Bell, well-known miners’ leader, is one of those killed.

Deliberate Provocation.

The Columbine mine management, from the very beginning of the strike, now more than five weeks old, has adopted a provocative attitude. The mine property was turned into a fortress with barbed wire entanglements and sand-bag barricades. Machine guns were mounted and Governor Adams was told by the mine officials that they intended to shoot “trespassers.”

The governor endorsed this stand by assigning national guard officers and state police at the mine to reinforce the company guards.

Following a big mass meeting at Boulder Sunday night, attended by many women, a mass picket line was organized and strikers and their families, men, women and children, marched to the Columbine mine as they have been doing daily.

“A Little Hot Lead.”

DENVER, Nov. 21. The Columbine mine where three strikers were killed and many wounded by state police and mine guards is one of the thirteen properties owned by the Rocky Mountain Fuel Company–the second largest coal mining concern in the state.

The officials of this company have been quoted as saying that they were “ready to give the I.W.W. a lesson,” and that all that was needed was “a little hot lead.”

The strike is practically 100 per cent effective in the north. In the south, where Colorado Fuel & Iron Co. properties are, it is 90 per cent effective, leaders announce.

16 Released.

R.W. Henderson, Bakersfield, Calif., attorney for the International Labor Defense and the I.W.W. General Defense has succeeded in obtaining release of 30 miners who were jailed in raids conducted by Gov. Adams’ “Special state police.” But only rank and file strikers have been released; leaders are still held.

Habeas corpus writs were obtained from Federal Judge J. Foster Symes for 8 I.W.W. leaders. These include. Roger Francezon, chairman of the I.W.W. general executive board, A.S. Embree, Paul Seidler, Kristen Svanum, C.R. Orr, Karl Clemons and A.B. Harris. The judge ordered that the men be brought to Denver within a week to be formally charged. Because the special police have transferred the I.W.W. leaders from county jail to county jail to prevent demonstrations, difficulty is experienced in locating the prisoners.

Girl Arrested.

Despite the governor’s announcement that he would welcome petitions signed by miners outlining their grievances, his special officers have thrown a girl strike sympathizer into jail for distributing petitions. She is Aurora Sampson. The girl was arrested when discovered asking Walsenburg miners to sign a petition for a conference between the miners and the operators.

Even the daily papers in the state are now recognizing the effectiveness of the I.W.W. strike. Dropping the claim the workers are returning to the mines, the papers now admit no mines are operating in the north “except the Columbine.” They quote C.F. & I. Co. officials of the Crested Butte mine in southwestern Colorado that the mine, “will be closed in definitely unless the men return to work.”

Martial Law and Murder! (Declaration of the Central Executive Committee of the Workers [Communist] Party).

Rally to the Colorado Miners! Help the Colorado
Strike! Stop the Colorado Massacre!

Martial law has been declared in Colorado! The National Guard have been called out. Four pickets have been murdered by machine gun fire. Thirty others wounded, eight of them dangerously. State troopers and armed company gunmen under the command of state officials turned machine guns on unarmed pickets. Tear-gas bombs, airplanes, machine guns, all the instruments of “civilized” warfare are being used against the striking coal miners.

The Colorado of the Rockefellers is living up to its bloody traditions. The Colorado massacre of 1914 is being repeated in 1927. Governor Adams, the democrat, is jealous of the bloody reputation of ex-Governor Ammons, the republican who directed the massacre of 1914. Open war has once more been upon the American workers and all the machinery of American government from the injunction-making courts to the armed forces, is being used against the coal miners for having dared to revolt against the tyranny of industrial serfdom.

This is more than a local labor battle. It is more than an attack on the workers of Colorado. It is more than a struggle of the coal miners.

The right to organize is at stake. The right to picket is at stake. The right to leave your job, to fight for a living wage, the right to strike is at stake.

The Colorado war on the working class is only one sector in the general front of attack on the workers all over the United States. The open-shoppers, the big employers, are determined to use the present moment for a general attack. Government by injunction, government by gunmen, government by troops, government by machine guns, government by gas bombs—such is the naked capitalist dictatorship prevailing in America. Injunctions, gunmen, state troops, national guards, machine guns, airplanes, gas—these are the modern slave driver’s whip with which American capitalism smashes strikes, breaks picket lines, and drives workers back to work.

In the face of this brutal open warfare of the big industrial barons, the Workers Party calls upon all workers, regardless of differences, to rally to the support of the Colorado strikers. In the face of government by injunction, police and troops, in Pennsylvania, in Ohio, in West Virginia, in Indiana, in Massachusetts, in New York—we call upon the entire labor movement to unite to defend the right to organize, the right to picket, the right to stop work and strike for better conditions.

In the face of democratic injunctions in New York, republican injunctions in Pennsylvania, the use of armed force under a democratic governor in Ohio, under a republican governor in West Virginia, the uselessness of the change from the Republican Ammon to the Democrat Adams in Colorado—we call upon all workers to rally to build a powerful party of labor’s own—a Labor Party, to end the two-party system in which workers vote first for a republican strike-breaker and then for a democratic strike-breaker, but always for the bosses and against our own interests.

Workers!

Rally to the Colorado miners!
Rally to the relief and defense of the mine workers of Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia!
Fight the system of injunction government!
Meet injunctions with mass violation!
Fight the industrial slavery that is being fastened by armed force upon us!
Fight against capitalist dictatorship!
Down with government by the bosses!
Fight for a workers’ and farmers’ government!

CENTRAL EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE, WORKERS (COMMUNIST) PARTY OF AMERICA.

The Daily Worker began in 1924 and was published in New York City by the Communist Party US and its predecessor organizations. Among the most long-lasting and important left publications in US history, it had a circulation of 35,000 at its peak. The Daily Worker came from The Ohio Socialist, published by the Left Wing-dominated Socialist Party of Ohio in Cleveland from 1917 to November 1919, when it became became The Toiler, paper of the Communist Labor Party. In December 1921 the above-ground Workers Party of America merged the Toiler with the paper Workers Council to found The Worker, which became The Daily Worker beginning January 13, 1924.

PDF of full issue: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1927/1927-ny/v04-n267-NY-nov-22-1927-DW-LOC.pdf