Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday February 28, 1922 Philadelphia Local 8 of I. W. W. on the Firing Line
From The Messenger of February 1922:
LOCAL 8 OF I. W. W. ON FIRING LINE
THE Administration’s policy toward the I. W. W. has been everything but frank, just and fair. On the contrary it has been mean, petty and cowardly. Believing that public sentiment was not as aroused and as insistent for the release of the members of the Industrial Workers of the World as it was for other prisoners charged with the violation of war-time laws it announced a different policy in dealing with the I. W. W. cases.
It was well established by the action of the Courts of Appeals of the seventh and eighth districts in the Chicago and Wichita cases, that the I. W. W.’s were found innocent of acts of sabotage or other industrial crimes. Their legal status now is the same as that of Debs before his release. In other words they are held in prison for expressing opinions in opposition to war.
As was pointed out in the foreword of the brief of attorney Otto Christensen, “many of the offenses that the I. W. W.’s were convicted of in the lower courts having been nullified by the action of the Court of Appeals, the legal basis for holding them in prison likewise has been changed.” “Since,” according to the Civil Liberties Union, the reversal of the industrial courts on which three-fourths of the evidence was introduced, these cases are in every essential analogous to the case of Mr. Debs.”
In view of the foregoing facts, it is apparent that the difference in policy in handling the cases of the Industrial Unionists, arises out of prejudice and class hatred.
It appears that the Administration acts not out of consideration for justice and right, established by facts and reason; but only out of fear of a general upsurge of an outraged public against blind, unreasoning intolerant, autocratic, Kaiser-like methods.
Recognizing this fact, Local 8 of the Marine Transport Workers of Philadelphia, has, in accordance with its general policy of enlightened, militant, revolutionary action, proceeded to arrange an intensive campaign of education and agitation in the interest of the 118 class-war and political prisoners still languishing in prison.
Hellraisers Journal – Monday July 4, 1921 Messenger Calls for General Amnesty for Political and Class-War Prisoners
From The Messenger of July 1921:
BEN FLETCHER, CLASS AND POLITICAL AMNESTY
Fellow Worker Ben Fletcher
WHEN the historian of the future writes of this period he will find that black as well as white men languished in prison cells on account of the political and economic beliefs they entertained. Anthropologists take note!
Ben Fletcher was the only Negro, among the 101 Industrial Workers of the World, who was convicted and sentenced, by Judge Keneesaw Mountain Landis, to 10 years imprisonment in Fort Leavenworth, for an alleged violation of the Espionage Act.
Like Debs, these men were the victims of a vicious war hysteria. Their only crime was that they dared to proclaim the essential rights of the toiling masses, black and white, Jew and Gentile, native and foreign, to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness; though these rights are supposed to be vouchsafed in the Magna Charta of American liberties–the Declaration of Independence. It is clear that Fletcher and his white co-workers sinned against the sacred creed and dogma of financial imperialism, drunk and maddened with the red wine of mass murder. The excuse for their imprisonment was that they interfered with the successful prosecution of the war. That excuse no longer exists, for the war is over; still these men are not yet free. Every country, which was a party to the war has proclaimed political amnesty for political and class-war prisoners, save our own. Why?
This is the question which every black and white citizen, worker and lover of liberty should ask President Harding and Attorney General Daughterty
The MESSENGER is calling upon the Negro church and press to preach sermons and write editorials for the release of Ben Fletcher. Needless to say that the white political and class-war prisoners will be included. We call upon every Negro to send telegrams and letters to Harding, Daugherty and the congressman of his district for the release of Fletcher and other political and class-war prisoners. We only single out Fletcher because the Negro population is not aware of the reason for his imprisonment, and, consequently, has a luke-warm interest in the cause of political amnesty. We realize that all workers, regardless of race, creed or color or nationality will benefit from sentiment created; though that sentiment be created, nominally, in the interest of a single worker because of certain conditions, such as race, which make it possible to interest a large part of the population, such as Negroes, or Irish or Italians, etc.
All hands to the Wheel of General Amnesty for Political and Class-War Prisoners.
Hellraisers Journal – Sunday August 3, 1919
Leavenworth Penitentiary – Ben Fletcher Imprisoned for Principle
From The Messenger of August 1919:
Ben Fletcher
Fellow Worker Ben Fletcher
Negro newspapers seldom publish anything about men who are useful to the race. Some parasite, ecclesiastical poltroon, sacerdotal tax gatherer, political faker or business exploiter will have his name in the papers, weekly or daily. But when it comes to one of those who fights for the great masses to lessen their hours of work, to increase their wages, to decrease their high cost of living, to make life more livable for the toiling black workers-that man is not respectable for the average Negro sheet.
Such a man is Ben Fletcher. He is one of the leading organizers of the Industrial Workers of the World, commonly known as I. W. W. He is in the Leavenworth Penitentiary, Kansas, where he was sent for trying to secure better working conditions of colored men and women in the United States. He has a vision far beyond that of almost any Negro leader whom we know. He threw in his lot with his fellow white workers, who work side by side with black men and black women to raise their standard of living. It is not uncommon to see Negro papers have headlines concerning a Negro who had committed murder, cut some woman’s throat, stolen a chicken or a loaf of bread, but those same papers never record happenings concerning the few Negro manly men who go to prison for principle. Ben Fletcher is in Leavenworth for a principle-a principle which when adopted, will put all the Negro leaders out of their parasitical jobs that principle is that to the workers belongs the world, but useful work is not done by negro leaders.
We want to advocate and urge that Negro societies, lodges, churches, N. A. A. C. P. branches and, of course, their labor organizations begin to protest against the imprisonment of Ben Fletcher and to demand his release. He has been of more service to the masses of the plain Negro people than all the wind jamming Negro leaders in the United States.
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