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The 1913 Italian Hall Massacre by Subversive Historian Gabriel San Roman

Exactly ninety-five years ago on this day in people’s history the Italian Hall Massacre occurred. On December 24th, 1913, seventy-three people were killed including sixty-two children at a Christmas party held by the Western Federation of Miners. Struggling for union recognition in a months-long strike against the Calmet and Hecla Mining Company in Michigan, the Miners and their families had gathered for the holiday festivities when they were thrown into a panic as someone yelled “fire!” in the crowded hall. The identity of the culprit was never uncovered, but WFM leader Charles Moyer held the anti-union Citizens Alliance organization responsible. Prior to publicly implicating them, the Alliance had offered money to miner families affected by the travesty under the condition that they be publicly exonerated. With Moyer’s refusal, members of the organization kidnapped and shot him.

Folk singer Woody Guthrie immortalized the history with his song “1913 Massacre,” where he sang, “The piano played a slow funeral tune, and the town was lit up by a cold Christmas moon/ The parents they cried and the miners they moaned/ See what your greed for money has done”

For Uprising, this is your truth professa’ saying it’s no mystery why they conceal our history!