We were honored to be invited by the Chicago Ireland Consulate for a special opening night of Paradise Square at Nederlander Theater in Chicago. The play is about the Five Points Neighborhood in New York City in the Civil War, a story of interracial solidarity between African-Americans and Irish immigrants, torn about by the draft riots. This musical is headed to Broadway, see it before it leaves Chicago! Several Mother Jones Heritage Project board members and statue committee members were there, including, David Rathke, Stephanie Seawall Fortado, Deborah Cosey-Lane, Dolores Connolly, Emily LaBarbera Twarog. Afterwards some of us met at Emerald Loop as special invitees of Chicago consulate for after-play party! Great to talk up the exciting developments about our statue, new markers, new exhibits coming in the future with the creator and co-playwright, Larry Kirwin, who immigrated to the US in the 1970s and founder of the Gaelic-American rock band, Black 47. Larry has agreed to help us develop a short skit of Mother Jones meeting with Irish labor legend James Larkin (with the hope we can persuade Ireland’s ambassador Daniel Mulhall to play Larkin! Photos below by David Rathke and Deborah Cosey-Lane

From the beginning of our campaign for a Chicago Statue, we have had advice and support from officers of the Chicago Federation of Labor. Now they have passed a very strong resolution of support, highlighting the history of Mother Jones and the relationship. They call for affiliates to donate to the campaign. We thank Don Villar, secretary-treasurer of the CFL, for his work and sharing this resolution. Chicago Federation of Labor Mother Jones Statue Resolution WHEREAS, Mary Harris “Mother” Jones (1837-1930) was an Irish refugee from Cork fleeing the Great Famine who became a teacher, married a union iron molder, lost her husband and all four children to yellow fever in 1867, and then opened a dress shop which was destroyed along with her home in the Great Chicago Fire of 1871; WHEREAS, out of these tragedies Jones found a new family in the emerging Chicago labor movement, joined the Knights of Labor, became an organizer for the American Railway Union around the struggle at Pullman, campaigned for the Socialist Party and organized for the United Mine Workers, such that by 1900, she was universally known as the “Mother of the Labor Movement,” defender of working families and enemy of child labor; WHEREAS, Mother Jones organized workers across all racial and ethnic lines during a period of extreme racism and bigotry, believing from her own experiences that poverty and the lack of choices were the same for all working class people, men and women, black and white, immigrant and native born, preaching to workers that through solidarity they held their fate in their own hands; WHEREAS, the Chicago Federation of Labor longstanding and deep connection to Mother Jones’ work and President John Fitzpatrick was one of her closest friends and confidants; WHEREAS, Mother Jones often lovingly referred to President Fitzgerald and Secretary Ed Nockels as “the boys,” joining with the CFL leaders in countless strikes, fights, and power struggles; WHEREAS, after her passing, President Fitzpatrick served as the executor of her will, Secretary Nockels arranged her funeral, and WCFL broadcast the proceedings to the world; WHEREAS, a district attorney said at her trial for ignoring an injunction banning meetings by striking miners in 1902, “There sits the most dangerous woman in America. She comes into a state where peace and prosperity reign…crooks her finger and twenty thousand contented men lay down their tools and walk out;” WHEREAS, attorney and ACLU leader Clarence Darrow wrote: “In all her career, Mother Jones never quailed or ran away. Her deep convictions and fearless soul always drew her to seek the spot where the fight was hottest and the danger greatest;” WHEREAS, the Mother Jones Heritage Project has a campaign to erect a statue in the City of Chicago of Mother Jones, one of the most famous women of the early 20th century and a labor icon to workers everywhere; WHEREAS, a statue of Mother Jones in Chicago would remind us that workers built this city, would begin to rectify the absence of statues of women, and would tell the world that Chicago has always been a city of immigrants; WHEREAS, Chicago has few if any outdoor statues to honor women’s contributions to history; THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the Chicago Federation of Labor endorses the Mother Jones Statue Campaign and urges the City of Chicago to approve the proposed site and project to erect this Statue and BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Chicago Federation of Labor urges its members and affiliates to donate to support this work, raise awareness of Mother Jones’ vital contributions to labor and women’s history in their own ranks and participate in activities to bring it to fruition. Adopted by CFL Executive Board on May 3, 2021 Accepted and passed by CFL Delegates May 4, 2021 Don V. Villar, Chicago Federation of Labor, Secretary Treasurer

The telegrams came in by the hundreds on May 1, 1930, to the remote Burgess farmhouse in Maryland, where Mother Jones lived out her final days. Almost none have survived. One that does is from John Fitzpatrick, the head of the Chicago Federation of Labor. Courtesy Saul Schniderman "The hundreds of thousands of trade unionists affiliated with the Chicago Federation of Labor through its officers sends greetings to you on this the hunredth anniversary of your birthday coupled wit the sincere hope that the labor movement in general and Chicago in particular may enjoy your inspirational spirit for another century of still greater progress," Fitzpatrick wrote. In her response, she thanked him for their many years of comradeship, and signed her letter, "Yours for justice." Mother Jones had claimed May Day as her birthday, no doubt reveling in her own little mission to keep the memory of the day alive. Indeed, she felt she had been reborn to what she referred to as “a happy life” in the struggle. This was not the first time John Fitzpatrick had sent Jones a telegram for her birthday. Another that survives is the one he sent to her in Mexico in 1921, when she was being feted for her support of the Mexican Revolution. She responded to Fitzpatrick by noting the connections with Chicago's labor heroes in the strong workers movement in the town of Orizaba, a manufacturing city. There, she noted, the workers displayed a banner of the Chicago Haymarket martyrs, giving it equal footing to the new national banner. Had such a banner been displayed in Chicago, she said, “every one of them would have been put in jail.” Notably, the "tribute paid to that banner as it entered that hall was the most remarkable demonstration I had witnessed in all my years in the industrial conflict,” and more remarkable was the absence of police at a large meeting, given their regular presence at labor demonstrations in the U.S. The celebration for her 100th in 1930 was originally planned for Chicago, and it was going to be the biggest birthday party ever held in the city. But pneumonia struck before the celebration and made a trip impossible. So instead, Fitzpatrick sent Secretary-Treasurer Ed Nockles as the official representative to the Burgess Farm. (You can learn about that celebration here.) Mother Jones likely did not know who would make it to the remote farmhouse, especially in the wake of the economic panic and hard times. She and her caregiver, Lilian Burgess, were stunned themselves with the deluge, as hundreds of people did arrive in addition to telegrams. The newsreel cameras turned on, but until I produced the short film on Mother Jones in 2007, no biographer had access to the full statement that survived in the long interview. “You know, I’ve been called a Bolshevik, a red, a radical, an IWW, and I admit to being all they’ve charged me with. I’m ANYTHING that would change this moneyed civilization into a higher and grander civilization for the ages to come. And I long to see the day when Labor has the destination of the nation in her own hands, and she will stand a united force, and show the world what the workers can do.” That was a statement curated for May Day, still so relevant for our time. For her it harkened to a trail of spilled blood and high ambition for the future, just as Fitzpatrick's telegram suggested that she was a touchstone for Chicago. In true form, Mother Jones greeted the the unemployed army of young and old, Black and white who came for her birthday with equal accord to the labor and government officials. such as head of the American Federation of Labor According to Mrs. Burgess, Mother Jones was fine with letting the dignitaries wait in line as she greeted these unemployed workers who had walked all the way from an unemployed conference in Washington, D.C.

Yesterday we had a heartening meeting with leaders of the Chicago Monuments Committee. Bill Fraher of our committee was also present, but not pictured above. In the last year, the turmoil over statues and representation placed a delay in gaining approval for the location of our Mother Jones Chicago statue. Now there is a new process , in which have to prove our support. You can help us. Our team made the case that 1. The statue presents an opportunity to invite Chicagoans to reevaluate the way they see themselves by recalling this city’s history from below—the history of immigrants, the history of women, the history of labor. 2. Mother Jones speaks to this pandemic moment. Mother Jones, a plague survivor, argued that no one should be left behind. She elevated the role of immigrants, women, African-Americans, and workers from all places and believed that those at the bottom had the potential to transform society. 3. Mother Jones’s story is not only a story of the past, it a story of the present and the future--a global city that should have a symbol of those who build the city from the ground up. 4. The Mother Jones Chicago Statue Committee is composed of Chicagoland residents. 5. We have significant fundraising accomplished, with a wide range of endorses and donors, from construction trades, Irish, women, teachers, service workers. 6. We have 2 talented & committed female artists. (see statue page) They let us know that they were impressed with the coalition we have built to win a prominent location. Our committee was thankful to be joined by Don Villar, secretary-treasurer of the Chicago Federation of Labor. Yesterday, the formal process and website was announced. We are getting closer, folks. Help us. 1) Make your endorsement today. Let the City of Chicago know that you support this project. 2) Donations are a tell-tale sign of support for this project. . Please donate. We appreciate all of our donations so far, that have ranged from $5 to 10,000. Every donation counts. We will be launching the donations and endorsements lists on our page--more to come!

Marty Walsh, the Mayor of Boston, has been nominated by President-elect Biden for Secretary of Labor. Marty Walsh is a fan of Mother Jones. He is one of a small number since William B. Wilson, the mineworker who was appointed to that office by Woodrow Wilson, who was from the working class. His letter in support of our sister-project in Cork, Ireland, (below) is a testament to that. In late 2013, Ger O'Mahony of the Cork Spirit of Mother Festival asked me for ideas for speakers to bring to the festival. They didn't have much available funding, so I knew I had to find someone with a strong commitment to public history. That was James Green. James Green's work on mine workers and Mother Jones went back to his first major book, Grass-Roots Socialism: Radical Movements in the Southwest, 1895--1943. It extended to his work his then not yet published The Devil is Here in these Hills: West Virginia Coal Miners and their Battle for Freedom, which was later turned into the two-hour documentary The Mine Wars. Jim jumped at the opportunity, and even offered to do it at no cost to the festival, if necessary. He reminded me that since his days in Warwick, England studying with the late great E. P. Thompson, (Making of the English Working Class) he had a deep commitment to the History Workshop style connections between past and present. That was exactly what Cork was trying to do. Jim came to the festival in the summer of 2014, and gave one of the keynote talks. It was fabulous, but before he began, he presented this letter on behalf of Marty Walsh: Above: James Green at Shandon during the 2014 Spirit of Mother Jones Festival in Cork. Photo from https://motherjonescork.com/tag/james-green/ Green had a long relationship with Walsh, because of his labor history trade union education programs at the University of Massachusetts-Boston. At the time Green urged me to write something about the 2014 festival, saying it was a great representation of the kind of commitments he and I shared to public history of labor. I never did, because at the time I was so busy trying to get the Mother Jones Museum going. Jim told me that what Cork was doing was a model for all of us, and better than anything the History Workshop radicals had done in the 1960s and 1970s. Then Jim Green died in 2015; it was a tragic loss to our labor history community. I thought of Jim Green today, and know how excited he would have been at Walsh's nomination. He would be wondering if the spirit of Mother Jones and labor history in general might have a small role in a future Department of Labor agenda. This led me to remember that in 1935, Frances Perkins brought in a bust of Mother Jones to the newly erected Department of Labor building. Amidst discussions of the possibility of new labor law (the Wagner Act) the sculpture, which had been finished in 1923 to great fanfare (I'll do a future story on it) by the famous sculptor, Jo Davidson, was brought to the august entry-ways of the halls of power by Perkins. Frances Perkins had been signally affected by the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire of 1911, and was among the most progressive appointments ever made by Roosevelt, who we must remember, was not very progressive on issues of labor. FDR had threatened to veto the Wagner Act before it was clear that mass unrest and the most progressive Congress in the history of the US would be able to override the veto. Above: Department of Labor staffer Agnes Johnson proudly poses with a bust of Mother Jones. Photograph from our collections. During the administration of Ronald Reagan, the bust went missing. Maybe it was a sign of the times. I tried to track down the bust, and discovered a little of what had happened to it, especially with our board member Saul Schniderman's help. It remains in storage. With the Wagner Act and workers power through the law at an all-time low, we have, through our collective project with Cork, struggled to remember the past and its resonance with the present. We hope Marty Walsh will remember that, too.

Ninety years ago, Mother Jones died at the little farmhouse in Maryland where she had been cared for by Lillian Burgess. Newspapers across the U.S. and the globe carried articles about her. The one below is from Milwaukee Leader. Almost all of them credited her Irish background as part of explanation for the flame of her life and spirit. In Chicago, the President of the Chicago Federation of Labor, John Fitzpatrick, was executor of her will, and set about making plans for what would become one of the largest funerals in Illinois history up to that time. Ed Nockels, the secretary-treasurer of the Chicago Federation of Labor, was designated as Chicago's leader to oversee the arrangements for the funeral in Washington, D..C., where leaders of the labor movement and even President Hoover's Secretary of Labor and other government officials paid homage at St. Gabriel's Church. John Walker, her old friend who had organized with her in West Virginia in 1901, now leader of the Illinois mine workers, was in charge of arranging the second funeral for her in Mt. Olive, the small mining town. Jones had stayed with Walker in Springfield many many times whenever she travelled through Illinois in the period from 1905-1925. Nockels, Fitzpatrick, and Walker were the lead for the entourage that brought Jones' casket from Washington, D.C. to Illinois. They arranged for 4 rank-and-file miners from Illinois to accompany the body: Mark Mason of Tovey (near Springfield), William M. Burton of Herrin (southern Illinois), Charles Leveque of Springfield, and Hans Hanson of Mt. Olive. On the trip from Washington DC to Illinois, the train stopped at locations where people rushed forward to pay their respects. When the Baltimore & Ohio train pulled into St. Louis' Union station late in the day of December 4, hundreds of people greeted and piled onto the train to touch the casket, remarking how much she had affected their lives. For four more days afterward, thousands of people came to Mt. Olive to pay their respects. It had been Adolph Germer, a Socialist Party official and UMWA militant at the time who persuaded Jones, over a glass of beer in Belleville, Illinois to be buried in Mt. Olive with the rank-and-file miners. Jones had gotten to know Germer in the Colorado Coalfield War, which he helped to lead as a militant leader of the Illinois UMWA. Germer had played a major role in organizing the regular commemorations at Union Miners Cemetery, but he lived in Belleville after 1906. East St. Louis and Belleville was on a main railroad line from St. Louis, and she regularly stayed with him, and stopped in on the East St. Louis offices of the UMWA on her travels across the nation. Together with Germer and other labor officials, Jones went to the cemetery and selected her resting place across from the rank-and-file miners who had died at the hands of hired mercenaries in the Illinois mine wars. As Mt. Olive became a center of opposition to John L. Lewis' authoritarian leadership, which she feared would destroy the chance of the union being a force for social transformation, she came to Mt. Olive in 1923 to speak at the October 12 commemorations of the rank-and-file miners who died in the Virden Massacre, (the only time I have found that she actually stopped there, though the miners were thrilled with her visit). Later in Chicago, she wrote her formal request and had it legally added to her arrangements with John Fitzpatrick. (See letter below, which describes Virden as hilly, another clear indication that she had never been to that flat prairie town.)

"Pray for the Dead, Fight Like Hell for the Living" was never more appropriate than for these care workers. They are fighting for the health of their patients and their fellow health-care workers at University of Illinois-Chicago hospital. Mother Jones spurs them on! They are also on strike at other hospitals in Illinois along with members of the Illinois Nurses Association, who called us up to work out bringing Mother Jones. Join them if you can. UIC is bringing strikebreakers from Texas, Tennessee, Nevada and Mississippi, all of which are on the City of Chicago's COVID ban, meaning they risk patients' lives. Diane Palmer, President of Local 73, said, "we are not only fighting for their livelihoods, but for their lives, the safety of their families and the communities being served." #SafetyInNumbers #FightForOurLives Doris Carroll, President of INA, with nurses pictured above, channelled Mother Jones when she proclaimed, "We're not heroes, WE'RE Warriors!"

We are thrilled to reveal the new painting of Fannie Mooney Sellins, created by Lindsay Hand. We commissioned this with funding from the Government of Ireland. Fannie was gunned down and bludgeoned in 1919 by the Coal and Iron Police in a coal mining area near Pittsburgh, Alle-kiska, known as the Black Valley for its association with coal. The coal company officials in the area hated Fannie Sellins, and the miners felt she was taken out because of her effectiveness in organizing. She was known for her commitment to crossing the boundaries of race and ethnic division. “Kill the B____!” the gunmen reportedly shouted as Fannie came to the aid of Joseph Strzelecki, an old miner, who the gunmen were beating with their pistols. Her body was dragged by her heels to a touring car used by the mine guard deputies which toured the region in a menacing fashion, then according to a witness, dumped on the floor of the morgue alongside Strzelecki's. The dominant image of Fannie that crossed the years was that of her grisly death, such as the one here published in a pro-union Butte Montana newspaper. After they bludgeoned her, according to one report, the deputies took her hat and danced with it, mocking, “I’m Mrs. Sellins now!” This image was later also used in the 1936-1937 organizing by the Steel Workers union to show what the steel trust (who controlled the coal) would do to prevent unionism and to inspire solidarity. In 1920 the United Mine Workers erected a monument to her at her gravesite. John Walker, the head of the Illinois United Mine Workers, was the main speaker, giving a hint of her connection to Illinois miners. None of the men who killed her were brought to justice. In a time when the red scare was igniting, she was called the base of foreign influence, accused of instigating a riot, who deserved her fate. There are just a few other images of Sellins that indicate her living spirit, and that’s why we commissioned Lindsay Hand to bring her full spirit to life. She’s done it! Lindsay commented, “ I had not painted a more classic styled portrait in several years and the decision to return to this approach came while researching and ruminating on how to approach this piece. I’ve often seen the portrait of Elsie Palmer by John Singer Sargent in the Colorado Arts Center and stood in awe of it. I considered the time it was painted and the contrast of the “elite” at the turn of the century who were hiring Sargent to do their portraits and the factory and mine workers toiling away from dawn to dusk just to put food on the table and wake up the next day to do it again. I decided to take the portrait photos of Sellins, overlap the two of contrasting ages and take a more traditional approach. I imagined holding her in as high of esteem as any rich daughter or wife at the time who never had to work a day in their life. I believed she deserved as much consideration of beauty and representation as those women.” At the end of this blog you can see my conversation with Lindsay in separate segments, and some images that connect her to this vibrant history, which should not be forgotten. We also remind folks of the two previous major works that Lindsay has done for us. Fannie was often compared to Mother Jones in her lifetime, and was inspired by Jones. Like Mother Jones, she organized the miners’ wives and children, braved the company thugs, and organized across the color line that so divided the working class in this era. Fannie had started with the United Mine Workers in West Virginia and was arrested for defying an injunction against going near the mining camps in order to support strikers in Colliers West Virginia coal strike. The judge admonished her “not to emulate Mother Jones.” After her death, Mother Jones commented that every time she remembered Fannie, she thought about how that bludgeoned body might have been hers, too. But Lindsay’s art recalls Fannie’s spirit where she began her journey as a union organizer, in St. Louis. She has been mostly forgotten there, and our project will bring her back to attention and put her at the center of a story that recreates the fight for a living wage for the women of the garment industry there. A thoroughly Irish woman from the Kerry Patch area of St. Louis, she was a widow at a young age with four children, working at Marx and Haas, where the men were organized in the United Garment Workers local. That was a union mostly attentive to the skilled male workers, but beginning in 1906, women sought to make it over into a union for them as well. They were taking on not just a garment sweatshops, but the center of power base of anti-unionism in St. Louis. Marx and Haas was at the leader of the Citizens Industrial Association, the anti-union employers association that used the law of injunction and the police as their tools. Marx and Haas decided to become the base of confronting the union movement. Workers in the garment industry were burdened with tuberculosis and many had to go to work even when they were deathly ill. Fannie took the leadership role of the women after another Irish-American woman, Hannah Hennessey, died from tuberculosis. Workers took direct action in 1909 against the company’s refusal to allow a man with tuberculosis the use of an elevator, and forced him to walk six flights of stairs. They demanded use of the elevators for all workers. Marx and Haas locked the union out and declared it would remain and open shop (refuse to recognize the union as the bargaining agent). Fannie sought to unite men and women, and the many ethnic groups--11 nationalities--and their meetings were conducted in five languages. Fannie was served with an injunction that banned her and the unionists from coming near Marx & Haas for 99 years; the police were used as a strikebreaking agency. Fannie appealed to Illinois unionists first, going with Socialist Party members to Livingston, Illinois where she succeeded in getting the United Mine Workers local there to assess every member in order to sustain the Marx & Haas strike. This started her off on a tour through Illinois, then Iowa, and eventually across the country to ask for boycott support and assistance. She and fellow garment worker Kate Hurley were dubbed “fiery” speakers who convinced many trade unionists to stop buying the work cloths Marx and Haas produced. They won a contract after a 25 month lockout. It was a roaring success to bring down the leader of the CIA. Fannie joined the Socialist Party, and that association affected her views of the connection between unionism and the possibilities that workers could transform all of society. This was also the path that Mother Jones has taken, where her trade union organizing was connected to radical visions. It was this experience in St. Louis that brought her into the United Mine Workers orbit, and sometime in 1913 when she was traveling in the Pittsburgh area to promote support for another strike against the garment industry in St. Louis, she visited a mining family on strike in nearby Colliers, West Virginia, and was so compelled by the awful conditions, that she started organizing. We are working to produce an exhibit at the St. Louis Public Library, a historical marker at 13th & Washington in St. Louis, (which is a National Historic Landmark) and a mural. (More on the mural in a future post). COVID-19 has delayed the rollout for this, but we wanted to debut Lindsay’s art as a way of introducing the project. And we need to ask you to consider a contribution. While the Government of Ireland funded Lindsay’s art, we need to raise over $3000 to cover other costs not funded. Donate Page The images above include some newspaper articles and an image of Fannie Sellins in prison in West Virginia. She was in prison there while Mother Jones was imprisoned in Colorado , in 1914. Others show how industrialists charged that investigation of Sellins' murder was part of a red menace influenced by foreign ideas. They suggested that the murder was justified because she was rioting.. Research assistance for the project was provided by Northern Illinois University student Emma Barton-Norris, who was funded through an NIU Engaged Learning opportunity. Here are segments of a conversation with Lindsay Hall, talking about the art. We are proud to work with her as a collaborator for our project. And below, I give a little bit of Sellins background. Please note that I meant Alle-kiska, not Alliquippa as the area where she was killed. This is the third major piece that Lindsay has commissioned for us. This magnificent piece is in the Irish American Heritage Center's permanent exhibit The first piece she created, below, was commissioned for the Mother Jones Museum in Mt. Olive, but was relocated to St. Louis after our exhibits were removed from Mt. Olive's museum. We will be placing this in the St. Louis Library Exhibit soon.

Published July 15, 2020 Visit Statue Campaign page for more information

We had a terrific May Day Celebration. Here are some of the features from that event. Among the speakers were: Daniel Mulhall, Ireland's Ambassador to the U.S., Cecil Roberts, President of the United Mine Workers, Sara Nelson of the Flight Attendands Union. Elliott Gorn, author of Mother Jones, America's Most Dangerous Woman. We talked to our sculptor artists, had toasts from Ireland and Mt. Olive, and listened to songs. See the videos below. Daniel Mulhall, Ireland's Ambassador to the United States, at Mother Jones May Day We Shall Rise Celebration. He spoke about his visit to the Mother Jones Monument and how impressed he was that ordinary people built a tribute to her on the scale that was done for Daniel OConnell, "The Liberator." He spoke of the meaning of her life. Sara Nelson on May Day We Shall Rise Mother Jones Meeting. Sara Nelson, President of Association of Flight Attendants-CWA, and honorary co-chair of our Mother Jones statue campaign, at the May Day We Shall Rise Mother Jones Birthday Party meeting, May 1, 2020. Cecil Roberts reminded us that over 300,000 miners lost their lives in brutal conditions, the original "essential workers" whose conditions were imposed by brutal mine guards. At Mother Jones We Shall Rise May Day Celebration. Cecil Roberts is the honorary co-chair of the Chicago Statue Mother Jones Campaign. United Mine Workers of America See Less Ger O'Mahony of the Cork, Ireland Spirit of Mother Jones Festival. He talked poignantly about the sufferings and determination of Mother Jones and other refugees.

We won an award for the best history presentation at Chicago St. Patrick's Day Parade in 2019. The award is given at the kick off for the follow year. Join us for 2020!