Anna LoPizzo Murdered by Police (1912)

Mon Jan 29, 1912

On this day in 1912, striking worker Anna LoPizzo was shot and killed by police during the Lawrence Textile Strike, one of the most significant labor struggles in U.S. history. Two IWW leaders were arrested for her death.

The Lawrence Textile Strike was a strike of immigrant workers in Lawrence, Massachusetts that began on January 11th, 1912. It was led by the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) and united immigrant workers of over forty nationalities. Prompted by a two-hour pay cut corresponding to a new law shortening the workweek for women, the strike spread rapidly through the town, growing to more than twenty thousand workers and involving nearly every mill in Lawrence.

LoPizzo was a striking immigrant worker who was killed when, according to IWW literature, officer Oscar Benoit fired into a crowd of protesters who had been cornered and were being attacked by police. Anna LoPizzo was likely an assumed name; historian Ardis Cameron wrote "relying on old-world practices and principles of collectivity, the immigrant community routinely 'swapped' names and falsified documents to evade 'impossible' laws and ensure mutual survival."

After her death, two IWW leaders, "Smiling Joe" Ettor and Arturo Giovannitti, were arrested on fabricated charges related to the murder of a striking worker. Upon their arrest, "Big Bill" Haywood and Elizabeth Gurley Flynn took over leadership of the strike. They further sensationalized the condition of the striking workers by conspicuously sending their hungry children to stay with families and supporters in New York City.

The Lawrence Strike was ultimately won by the IWW and strikers. Eugene V. Debs said this of the ordeal: "The Victory at Lawrence was the most decisive and far-reaching ever won by organized labor."

• Date: 1912-01-29
• Learn More: en.wikipedia.org, libcom.org.
• Tags: #Labor, #IWW.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org