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SAM ABRAMS

 

From Crete To Colorado

 

today I climbed to

  the source

    holy spring and chapel of

              Ayios  Antonios

 saw rare white cylcamen

 

yesterday I met the great grandson

   of Louis Tikas

            hero and martyr

of the Ludlow Massacre

I learned of as a boy

from Woody’s ballad

 
We took some cement and walled the cave up

Where you killed those 13 children inside

I said “God bless the mine workers union”

And then I hung down my head and cried.

 

early in springtime in 1914

            Rockefeller gun thugs

            Guggenheim gun thugs

            murdered strikers 

            murdered children

 

riddling the tents

a ring of machine guns

set up around the colony

 

attack anticipated

huddled in trenches

under the tents

 

night fell

tried to escape in the dark

they set fire to the tents

 

children

smothered by smoke

 

how many museums to clean the names

Rockefeller Guggenheim 

 

How many museums atone for

            Mary Valdez age 7 years

How many museums atone for

            Elvira Valdez, age 3 months

            Eulala Valdez age 8 years

How many museums for

            Joe Petrucci age 6 months

            Frank Petrucci age 2 ½ years/

            William Snyder age 11 years

            Glovira Pedegone age 4 years

            Lucy Costa age 6 years

            Onafrio Costa age 4 years

 

How many museums for

 

Louis Tikas, a leader of Greek strikers

man of high intelligence

did his utmost to preserve peace

unarmed

blows to the head from the stock of Springfield rifle

shot three times in the back

 

another spring time in Crete

2002

the driver owner of the taxi

(Mercedes beautifully maintained)

 

we exchange where-are-you-froms

 

I tell him New York City my father drove a taxi there

we agree very dangerous

he names his home province of Rethymno

 

joking I ask from Mylopotamo?

notorious for vendettas and rustlers

 

no from Argyropolis

has a famous American relative

great grandfather died leading a strike

 

then the tale

of  his great grandfather

Louis Tikas his American name

Born Elias Spantidhakis

 

when he realizes 

his passenger alongside

one of what

maybe

one in a ten thousand Americans 

who speaks some Greek

who knows some of that historia

 

know in that sense that means solidarity

that means equality that means fraternity

 

his floods of dialect

lose me pretty quick

all I can do

keep agreeing at the right pauses

catching only bits of remembered resistance

resistance to 300 years Turkish occupation

 

techniques  habits of resistance 

Louis took to Colorado

shared with Mexicanos Serbs Portagees Americans

 

till the weekend warriors of Denver

with their machine guns and cans of Kerosene

till the Pinkertons with their armored train

 

first strike in America

my grandfather…he fought…

 

conditions in the mines can easily be imagined

from some of the striking workers’ demands

enforcement of Colorado Law

an end to being paid illegally in company scrip

 

            St Peter don’t you call, I can’t come…I

            owe my soul to the company store…

 

            16 tons and what do  I get…

            another day …deeper in debt…

 

         Ludlow Memorial 

         Interstate 25 Exit 27

         from the Visitors Book

 

Here is my uncle  

            Signed/ John Slavec,  Minneapolis  Minnesota

 

Alex Smiley,

Father of Mr Reynolds and Grace Zercher

Was killed in #4 mine at Broadhead

Dec 23, 1903

Buried on Christmas day

Leaving a wife & 5 children

Received nothing for death

Of Father & Husband

He is buried at Augular

            Signed  Mr. & Mrs. John Reynolds (Smiley ) St Louis MO

                        Mrs. Grace Zercher (Smiley)

                        Mr. & Mrs. N.J. Whilson (Granddaughter of Grace Zercher (Smiley)

 

You spent so much money on the monument

Why can’t you spend a little money for a sign

Telling what happened

If it wasn’t for my grandmother

I never would have known

            Signed/ William Hall, Peabody Kansas

 

Read King Coal by Upton Sinclair and

Out of the Depths by Baron Beshoar

In any Public Library for the story of

The Ludlow Massacre

            Mrs. Harold Myers, Pueblo

 

Visited here then read

Out of the Depths and returned to pay our respects

To those who so valiantly fought and died

Here for their cause!

            Mr. & Mrs. Glen E. Meacham, Loveland

 

I appreciate the fact that my union UMW of A has erected this monument

To my fellow Coal Miners & their Loved ones.

I worked 40 years in Kentucky coal Mines.

God Bless All who died here.

            Ted J. Miller, Nicholasville, Ky

            District 19, Lynch, Ky, Local 72425

  

Our Uncle Albert Salbato’s relatives the Petruccis

Were victims of this massacre

            Signed/ Jack L.Siacca

               Nick G Siacca

                        Rick J. Siacca  Ludlow Colorado

                        And our Grandmother

               Angie J.Siacca

Written by Jack.L.Siacca age 9

 

Let us remember that this was only the beginning of our struggle.

Those responsible for the massacre of these workers still live in their grandsons

Who exploit workers in other parts of the world

Let us not be appeased with “God Bless these men.”

Let us fight so their dream will come true.

POWER TO THE PEOPLE

            Terry Head

            Marie Head

            Nora Danielson

 

I formerly lived in Las Animas County

During the period of this Tragedy

And it has always been in my mind

            J. L. Rhodes

            Director of Organization

            United Brotherhood of Carporters & Janitors of America

            (Retired)  Alpine, Texas