A Colorado Independent event: The Ludlow Massacre 100 years later

 
You’re Invited. The Colorado Independent is hosting a discussion on the 19th-century Ludlow Massacre and the Colorado Coalfield War. The event begins at 6:30 pm, April 10th, at the Open Media Foundation, 700 Kalamath Street, Denver, 80204.

The massacre is a landmark in the history of labor and capital in the United States. On April 20, 1914, the Colorado National Guard along with Colorado Fuel & Iron Company guards attacked a tent colony of 1,200 striking coal miners and their families at Ludlow, 50 miles south of Pueblo. Two dozen people were killed, including women and children.

Thursday’s panelists will include:

– Bob Butero, Region 4 director of the United Mine Workers Union and a third-generation Colorado miner

– Frank Petrucci, the son of a striker at Ludlow. Frank’s three older siblings died in the “death pit” at Ludlow. His mother, Mary Petrucci, escaped the fire and toured the nation with Mother Jones calling for labor reform.

– Monica Martinez-Vargas, a retired janitor and longtime member of the SEIU (Service Employees International Union). She was a lead organizer in Justice for Janitors – a movement that started in Denver and improved working conditions for janitors nationwide.

– Lauren Martens, executive director of SEIU’s Colorado State Council, will be interpreting from Spanish.

– Dave Mason, Colorado’s poet laureate and professor at Colorado College who is the author of a verse novel called “Ludlow,” which, through poetry, is one of the best pieces of historical reporting we’ve seen on the topic.

– And Wil Smith, an employment attorney in Boulder who will speak about where we as workers and Coloradans stand 100 years after Ludlow.

We hope you’ll join the conversation about this momental chapter in Colorado and U.S. history. The event is open to the public and free to our supporters.