 "Victor, Colorado, The Scene Of The Rioting Of June 6th", c. 1904. | |
| Date | 1903–1904 |
|---|---|
| Location | Colorado, United States |
The Colorado Labor Wars were a series of labor strikes in 1903 and 1904 in the U.S. state of Colorado, by gold and silver miners and mill workers represented by the Western Federation of Miners (WFM). Opposing the WFM were associations of mine owners and businessmen at each location, supported by the Colorado state government. The strikes were notable and controversial for the accompanying violence, and the imposition of martial law by the Colorado National Guard in order to put down the strikes.
A nearly simultaneous strike in Colorado's northern and southern coal fields was also met with a military response by the Colorado National Guard.[1]
Colorado's most significant battles between labor and capital occurred between miners and mine operators. In these battles the state government, with one exception, sided with the mine operators. Additional participants have included the National Guard, often informally called the militia; private contractors such as the Pinkertons, Baldwin–Felts, and Thiel detective agencies; and various labor entities, Mine Owners' Associations, and vigilante groups and business-dominated groups such as the Citizens' Alliance.
The WFM strikes considered part of the Colorado labor wars include:
- Colorado City, March to April 1903, and July 1903 to June 1904
- Cripple Creek mining district, March to April 1903, and August 1903 to June 1904
- Idaho Springs, May to September 1903
- Telluride, September to December 1903
- Denver, July to November 1903
- Durango, August to September 1903
Two scholars of American labor violence concluded, "There is no episode in American labor history in which violence was as systematically used by employers as in the Colorado labor war of 1903 and 1904."[2] The WFM as well embraced more violent strike tactics, and "entered into the one of the most insurgent and violent stages that American labor history had ever seen."[3]Page 93
- ^ Morris Friedman, The Pinkerton's labor spy, Wilshire book co., 1907, pages 156-170
- ^ Philip Taft and Philip Ross, "American Labor Violence: Its Causes, Character, and Outcome," The History of Violence in America: A Report to the National Commission on the Causes and Prevention of Violence, ed. Hugh Davis Graham and Ted Robert Gurr, 1969.
- ^ William Philpott, The Lessons of Leadville, Colorado Historical Society, Monograph 10, 1994.