Hellraisers Journal – Thursday April 20, 1911 News from California – “Solidarity Wins in Fresno” by Press Committee
From the International Socialist Review of April 1911:
BECAUSE we tried to organize the workers in Fresno, the authorities denied us the streets for agitation meetings. After persecuting our members for their activity; after throwing them into jail and subjecting them to the greatest brutality and passing a city ordinance denying the rights of free speech, the authorities have turned around and granted us all these things for which we have been fighting. Hereafter we shall be permitted to speak on the streets unmolested and unrestricted.
Spokane Industrial Worker of March 9, 1911
How was this victory accomplished? The answer is simple. Two hundred workingmen, roused by acts of violence against the organization of which they were members, moved on to Fresno from various points on the Pacific Coast to fight the Capitalist enemies. They realized that if our organizers were not to be permitted to speak and agitate, they would be seriously hampered in the work of organization for the great approaching conflict. From first to last both sides of the struggle clearly recognized Class Lines and freely admitted them. One of the most intelligent members of the opposition stated in an early stage of the struggle that this was a skirmish in a great war.
Antiquated methods were generally abandoned. It was decided that no money should be wasted on lawyers to expound the meaning of the first amendment to the Constitution of the United States. However, the court was used effectively for propaganda. Trial after trial was held and each time our position was presented to a crowded court room, by some member of the group on trial. Incidentally about 500 residents of Fresno, chiefly business men, were summoned to serve on juries. Not one of these was so disloyal to his class as to “hang a jury.” Workingmen were promptly challenged by the prosecuting attorney. They might not have been so pliable.
The antagonism with the local press with its malicious misrepresentation, perfectly reflected the attitude of the employing class in Fresno. But our appeals for aid, made only to the working class, found a ready response. Perfect discipline was maintained inside the jail. Things were kept in a sanitary condition. Educational work was carried on systematically. The fight was directed throughout by the men in jail. The outside work was executed by an outside committee, also directed by the imprisoned men. Funds contributed were spent economically and to the best advantage.
Experience gained in past skirmishes taught us to concentrate all our forces at the point of controversy. As the fight progressed and our resistance became more stubborn, it dawned upon the enemy that a prolonged fight would bankrupt the city treasury. The police power was broken; the courts were clogged to a standstill. Day and night sessions were unable to dispose of the cases coming up.
Open threats were constantly made by business men and members of the underworld to wipe us out by an armed force. Bloodshed was freely predicted. Mob violence was used regularly against our street speakers. The jail was crowded; no more men could be received. At this critical moment, fresh bodies of men started from various points in the West. Some came from points as far away as St. Louis. The enemy were at their wits end. As the leading daily paper stated editorially:
“Here was a body of men who reversed all the ordinary motives governing mankind.” In this editorial, all citizens were urged to keep cool. The past excesses of the authorities were censured and our organization acknowledged better than their own.
On February 22nd the leading citizens of Fresno assembled to seriously consider the situation. A committee was appointed to investigate; to learn our terms of settlement and report back. Our committee, instructed by the men in jail, met the town committee, and after five days of conferences the city body recommended the granting of our demands. The fight was over. As fast as legal papers could be drawn up, prisoners were released and at this writing, Sunday, March 5th, 1911, the Fresno Free Speech Fight has passed into history. This statement is authorized by members of the I. W. W. released from jail.
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March 5th witnessed the surrender of the city of Fresno, in the free speech fight to the fighting brigade of the Industrial Workers of the World.
The ending of the Fresno fight marks the third victory of the I. W. W. in its fights to maintain the supposed “right”(?) of free speech and assemblage. A right that is popularly supposed to be one of the basic and unshakable pillars of this glorious land of “freedom”(?).
Events in the past few years, however, have proven that this right(?) in common with many others is a delusion so far as the working class is concerned.
The Fresno fight furnished a remarkable example of courage and determination 0n the part of the men engaged in the struggle.
In the fall of 1909 the agitation for organization carried on by local No. 66, I. W. W., began to bear fruit. An organization of the despised “common” laborer was in a fair way to be realized. The employers of labor began to feel the effects of organized effects on the part of their hitherto powerless slaves. The sample did not by any means please them and they set about to put an end to the work of organization.
Members of Local 66 who were active in the work were subjected to the studied indignities of the police officials. They were arrested and ordered to leave town without any other pretext than the will of the employers. Finally they were ordered to stop speaking on the streets, and one of the members was convicted of “vagrancy” by a packed jury of “respectable” citizens.
The fight was on. It began October 16, 1909, after a call had been sent to all locals for volunteers to carry on the fight. After two weeks the fight was temporarily called off owing to difficulty that the members experienced in getting over the road. The reinforcements were handicapped in reaching Fresno by the activities of the Bulls along the route. For being proletarians they were forced to travel by way of the “side door Pullman,” and the bulls along the road assisted the Fresno sluggers all they could.
On November 26 the fight was reopened. Headquarters were established outside of town with a tent and a commissary to take care of the recruits as they arrived and to enable them to get a square meal before going up against John Law.
From November 26 to March 2 the struggle was waged with varying intensity and dogged persistence by the members. Inside and outside the jail the organization was perfected. The cost began to pile up on the dear taxpayers. It was but a question of getting sufficient numbers into action.
For three months 85 members were in jail and but a few of them had been given any trial. Finally a police judge discovered that no law was being broken, and discharged a member who was before him for trial. All in jail were released. It looked as if the fight was won. But not so. If there is no law abolishing freedom of speech and assemblage in Fresno “we will soon alter that,” resolved the employing class. Consequently an ordinance was framed and passed making it “unlawful” for a worker to do anything in Fresno, except work hard for the boss. Again the fight was on. The broadcloth incited mob put in appearance. We are the law said they. Thugs official and otherwise led a mob against the headquarters of the local. It was a safe venture, as all but two sick members were in jail by this time. The tent was set on fire, provisions stolen and the two members beaten up by the mob.
Reinforcements began to gather at other points and to head for Fresno. From Seattle, Portland and St. Louis detachments left for the scene of action. All by the box car special. The way was long and the hardships many, but that did not deter them. Two hundred strong the finally reached Sacramento, Cal., the capital of the state and two hundred miles from the goal. At last Fresno was to be shown. The taxpayers began to increase their howls. The governor began to see things. The brutality of their thugs had been of no avail. There was but one course left. To get out of the fight with as good grace as they could, but to get out of it, grace or no grace. The city officials tried to save their face. They wanted to compromise. They did not want to have to admit defeat. But there was no alternative. The fighters stood firm and finally the citizens through a committee asked for terms. These were given to them and were accepted with the best grace possible by the citizens’ committee and the mayor and council.
Once more have the workers proven the efficacy of united working class action. Another victory for the militants of the labor movement of the United States—the third in a little over a year. Another step in the advance of the toilers to their own. May there be many more.
For longer account of march to Fresno, taken from Solidarity of Apr 8, 1911, see: Rebel Voices: An IWW Anthology -ed by Joyce L Kornbluh PM Press, Mar 1, 2013 (search: “account of the march on fresno”) https://books.google.com/books?id=sE0Qc0M61fkC
Fellow Workers and Friends: I.W.W. Free Speech Fights as Told by Participants -by Philip S Foner Greenwood Press, 1981 page: 79: “On the Wobbly Train to Fresno” by E. M. Clyde -written at Seattle WA, Mar 24, 1911 -pubd Labor History, Spring 1973 (search: “wobbly train”) https://books.google.com/books?id=y4yxAAAAIAAJ
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