Christmas Eve, 1913

This is a Christmas story you probably won’t hear retold during those sleek holiday shopping advertisements or around the flush tables of Don Blankenship or other mining company executives. Because this is the supposed season of joy, you may never have heard about Christmas eve in Calumet, Michigan in 1913. Perhaps it’s best to let Woody Guthrie tell it first:

Up on northern Michigan’s Upper Peninsula copper belt, seventy-five people — the brunt of them women and children — were crushed to death in the staircase of the Italian Hall where they had gathered for a holiday party organized by the Women’s Auxiliary of the Western Federation of Miners. It was the height of the 1913-1914 Copper Strike. Someone — historians of the disaster believe it was mine management, newspapers of the time variously describe the man as drunk, bearded, and “maudlin” — yelled “Fire!” (there was no fire) and the ensuing stampede crushed those who could not exit from the blocked doors at the bottom of the second floor stairwell. Readers of the New York Times awoke on Christmas morning to the gruesome details:

The grown persons trampled the children under foot and dozens of the smaller children were killed at the first onrush of the crowd. One man was seen to stoop to pick up his little girl, only to be pushed forward with such great force that he fell on her and crushed her to death. A woman who seized three small boys were crushed with them as she sought to shelter them in her arms.

Images such as this filled the newspapers:

Rereading the New York Times story this morning, of course, reminded me of 34-year-old Jdimytai Damour, a temporary worker at a Wal-Mart store in Valley Stream, New York who was crushed to death on the “Black Friday” shopping day in 2008. (For those of you who don’t remember the story, you can watch Amy Goodman and Juan Gonzalez’s coverage of the story on Democracy Now! here.)

Both of these stories — the Christmas Eve Massacre of 1913 and the Black Friday Wal-Mart killing of Jdimytai Damour — remind us of the price paid by immigrant families and migrant workers during these short days when, across America, the halls are said to be decked with holly and chestnuts are supposedly roasting on open fires.

This holiday season, let us remember Jdimytai Damour, the victims of the 1913 Calumet massacre, and all the other workers and workers’ families whose lives were unnecessarily lost while engaged in labor (including those in the global mining sector whose deaths continue to be documented at <coalmountain.wordpress.com/category/mine-disasters/>).

* * *

For interested readers, a list of those who died on December 24, 1913, along with their age, gender, and nationality, appears below. Other versions of this list can be found here.

1.	Lempi Ala	12 years	Female	Finnish
2.	Herman Alla	60 years	Male	Finnish
3.	Sanna L. Aaltonen	39 years	Female	Finnish
4.	Syvia Altonen	3 years	Female	Finnish
5.	Wilama Altonen	9 years	Female	Finnish
6.	Will Biri	7 years 11 mo	Male	Finnish
7.	Ivana Bolf	9 years 4mo	Female	Croatian
8.	Katarine Bronzo	21 years	Female	Italian
9.	Victoria Burcar	.9 years 4 mo	Female	Croatian
10.	Joseph Butala	.7 years 8 mo	Male	Slovenian
11.	Nick Cvetkovich	33 years	Male	Croatian
12.	Jenny Giacoletto	9 years 10 mo	Female	Italian
13.	Katarina Gregorich	10 years 10 mo	Female	Croatian
14.	Edwin Heikkinen	7 years	Male	Finnish
15.	Eino Felpus O. Heikkinen	10 years 5 mo	Male	Finnish
16.	Eli Issac Heikkinen	9 years 5 mo	Male	Finnish
17.	Ina Isola	33 years	Female	Finnish
18.	Tilma Isola	5 years 4 mo	Female	Finnish
19.	Barbra Jesic	25 years	Female	Croatian
20.	Rosie Jesic	5 years 6 mo	Female	Croatian
21.	Uno Jokepil	13 years	Male	Finnish
22.	Anna E. Kalunki	9 years 7 mo	.Female	Finnish
23.	Brida Liisa Kalunki	42 years	Female	Finnish
24.	Efia P. Kulunki	8 years	Female	Finnish
25.	Johan Emil Kiemaki	7 years	Male	Finnish
26.	Katarina Karich	7 years	Female	Croatian
27.	Kristina Klarich	11 years	Female	Croatian
28.	Mary Klarich	9 years	Female	Croatian
29.	Johan Hendrik Koskela	10 years	Male	Finnish
30.	Anna Kotajarvi	4 years	Female	Finnish
31.	Anna Kotajarvi	39 years	Female	Finnish
32.	Mary Krainatz	11 years	Female	Croatian
33.	Hilja K Lanto	5 years	Female	Finnish
34.	Maria G. Lanto	40 years	Female	Finnish
35.	Sulo Rubet Lauri	8 years	Male	Finnish
36.	Mary Lesar	13 years	Female	Slovenian
37.	Rafael Lesar	2 years 6 mo	Male	Slovenian
38.	Arthur Lindstrom	12 years	Male	Unknown
39.	Lydia Johanna Luoma	10 years	Female	Finnish
40.	Alfred J.W. Lustic	7 years 9 mo	Male	Finnish
41.	Elina Manley	26 years	Female	Finnish
42.	Wesley M. Manley	4 years	Male	Finnish
43.	Ella E. Mantanen	8 years	Female	Finnish
44.	Mathias E. Mantanen	10 years	Male	Finnish
45.	Y.H. Mantanen	13 years	Male	Finnish
46.	Agnes Mihelchich	7 years	Female	Croatian
47.	Elizabeth Mihelchich	5 years	Female	Croatian
48.	Paul Mihelchich	9 years	Male	Croatian
49.	Walter Murto	9 years	Male	Finnish
50.	Edward Emil Myllykangas	7 years	Male	Finnish
51.	Johan W. Myllykangas	10 years	Male	Finnish
52.	Abram Niemela	24 years	Male	Finnish
53.	Maria Elizabeth Niemela	22 years	Female	Finnish
54.	Annie Papesh	6 years	Female	Slovenian
55.	Mary Papesh	14 years	Female	Slovenian
56.	Kate Petteri	66 years	Female	Finnish
57.	Saida M. Raja	10 years	Female	Finnish
58.	Terresa Renaldi	12 years	Female	Italian
59.	Elma W. Ristel	6 years	Female	Finnish
60.	Emilia Rydilahti	16 years	Female	Finnish
61.	Heli Rydilahti	13 years	Female	Finnish
62.	John Saari	5 years 11 mo	Male	Finnish
63.	Elida Saatio	11 years 9 mo	Female	Finnish
64.	Mary Smuk	5 years	Female	Slovenian
65.	Antonia Staudohar	7 years	Female	Croat/Slov
66.	Elisina J. Taipalus	6 years	Female	Finnish
67.	Sandra M. Taipalus	4 years	Female	Finnish
68.	Edward Richard Takola	9 years	Female	Finnish
69.	Lydia E. Talpaka	10 years	Female	Finnish
70.	Kaisa G. Tuippo	45 years	Female	Finnish
71.	Mamie Tuippo	10 years	Female	Finnish
72.	Hilja Wualukka	8 years	Female	Finnish
73.	Johan Peter Westola	48 years	Male	Finnish