Hellraisers Journal – Monday February 24, 1913 Updates on Three Strikes: Merryville, Little Falls and Akron
From the Spokane IndustrialWorker of February 20, 1913 -Covington Hall on Merryville, Louisiana, Lumber Workers’ Strike -Joseph J. Ettor on Prisoners of Little Falls, Massachusetts, Textile Strike
From Solidarity of February 22, 1913 -“20,000 Rubber Workers Revolt in Akron! I. W. W. in Full Control.”
Hellraisers Journal – Friday November 11, 1910 Martyrs of Chicago’s Great Eight-Hour Movement Remembered
From the Spokane Industrial Worker of November 9, 1910:
———-
[Detail:]
———-
Twenty-three years have elapsed since the execution of the four men in the county jail at Chicago. Twenty-three years, ample time for the world to correct its errors of misinformation. And yet, only a comparatively small portion of the people as a whole; yes, it may be safely said that only a minority of the so-called “revolutionists” are possessed of the true status of the affair. It is for the purpose of briefly outlining the facts of the Haymarket “riot” and the resulting murder of four innocent men, and to commemorate their death that this Anniversary Number is issued. The facts are as follows: Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: From the Spokane Industrial Worker: “The Haymarket and the Eight Hour Movement of 1886””→
Hellraisers Journal – Monday August 1, 1910
Frank Little Calls for Good Agitators to Come to Fresno
From the Industrial Worker of July 30, 1910:
A HORSE AND WAGON AGITATOR.
[-by FW Frank Little]
FRESNO, Cal., July 23.-To the Editor of I. W.-Am back in Fresno, and will take up the work of organizing the ranch employes and packing house employees. Will start out with horse and wagon and travel from ranch to ranch, holding meetings in all of the small towns. But we are up against a hard fight. The masters will do all in their power to keep us from organizing the slaves. The A. F. of L. is going to try to organize, and, of course, the masters will aid them to defeat the I. W. W., and they have the money to put their labor fakirs in the field, while the few of us who are trying to build up the I. W. W. have to depend on working for a master to make a jungle stake.
I have been sick for some time, but will get out and hustle now. I will try and hustle some subs for the Worker on my trip.
Now is the time for work in this valley. I. W. W. men can get work and we need some good job agitators to get out in the fruit country and get control of the boss and make the masters raise the wages; and also build up the organization. It can be done if all of us will get in and hustle.
So, fellow workers, let us keep the work going. Yours for action,
Hellraisers Journal – Monday December 13, 1909
Spokane, Washington – Elizabeth Gurley Flynn Fights for Free Speech
From the Socialist Montana News of December 2, 1909:
A WOMAN LABOR AGITATOR.
The tour of Elizabeth Gurley Flynn through the west, and the strenuous work she has been performing in generaling the Free Speech fights has introduced to this section of country and earnest and energetic young woman.
Elizabeth Gurley Flynn is a married woman of New York, whose agitation in the labor movement has excited much attention in the capitalist press, and a certain amount in the labor and socialist press; although the attention given her by the latter has been by no means commensurate with the ability of her work, and the impression it has made upon those who have heard and seen her. But Elizabeth Gurley Flynn has broken into the labor movement under peculiar conditions. Reared in a socialist home, she grew up with her mind intelligent and keen as to the homogeneity of the socialist and labor movements, an idea that is as yet scarcely grasped at all in America, either by the great mass of laborers or the majority of the socialists themselves. To be a socialist, a social reformer, meant to Miss Flynn to work in the labor movement.
When the Industrial Workers of the World was organised she thought she saw in its methods the ideal line of activity for the workers to adopt, who were bent upon industrial emancipation through a revolutionary program. She became devoted to the interest of the Industrial Workers. She refused to ally herself with either the Socialist Party or the Socialist Labor Party because of their failure to co-operate decidedly with the I. W. W.
Hellraisers Journal – Saturday October 9, 1909
Louis Duchez on Victory of McKees Rocks Strikers, Part I
From the International Socialist Review of October 1909:
[Part I of II.]
—–
N this article the writer is not going to give much space to a recitation of the crimes of the capitalist class at McKees Rocks and the other strike points in Pennsylvania. It is unnecessary. The capitalist press has done that more effectively—regardless of the motives that may have prompted them—than he is able to do. The class struggle is a historic fact and the diametrically opposed interests have long ago been proven. Such practices as were exposed during the last few weeks are only the logical result of the capitalist system of society at this stage of working class activity.
Readers of the Review want something more than a mere account of the cruelties of the Pressed Steel Car Company. They want to know something about the spirit and growth of solidarity and industrial organization among the striking wage slaves in Pennsylvania.
Hellraisers Journal – Sunday March 7, 1909
Mother Jones News Round-Up for February 1909, Part I:
-Found Praising the “Appeal to Reason”
From the Appeal to Reason of February 13, 1909:
“WALL STREET KNOWS AND FEARS.”
The Appeal feels a pardonable pride in the compliment paid to it by that grand old agitator, Mother Jones. She has been with the Appeal from the day of its first issue and she knows its record as few others do. She knows its trials and its struggles, its privations and reverses, it’s mistakes and defeats, and she also knows what its motive and purpose has been through all its career. She knows that while the Appeal, like every other paper, has its shortcomings and has committed its follies its one unflinching purpose has been to serve and strengthen the Socialist movement in the struggle for industrial emancipation.
It is gratifying therefore to have one who so well knows the Appeal and who is so well known for her own spotless integrity and courage to write us that the Appeal
is the one Socialist paper that Wall street knows and fears!
The Appeal values this appreciative expression from Mother Jones sufficiently to move it to exert all its effort to increase the fear of Wall Street and the confidence and good will of all who are helping to overthrow capitalism and usher in the reign of the people.
There are no limits to which
powers of privilege will not go
to keep the workers in slavery.
-Mother Jones
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Hellraisers Journal – Wednesday December 18, 1918
Duluth, Minnesota – Mass Meeting Supports Tom & Rena Mooney
From The Labor World of December 14, 1918:
DULUTH LABOR IS FOR MOONEY
—–
Mass Meeting Held By Metal Trades Council
-Telegram Sent to Gompers.
—–
Mrs. Mooney, wife of Tom Mooney, whose death sentence has been commutated to life, has worked since her acquittal to secure a new trial for her husband.
A mass meeting to protest against the incarceration of Tom Mooney was held at Woodman hall last Wednesday evening. The meeting was largely attended by representative union men from nearly every organization in the city.
Sentiment for Mooney was strong and the meeting lasted until nearly midnight.
William E. Towne, president of the Typographical union, and one of the best known trade unionists at the Head of the Lakes, was the first speaker. He touched upon Mooney’s life and described his earnest efforts to organize the workers, and how the money power had been used against him. Mr. Towne also gave a brief history of Rena Mooney, wife of Tom Mooney.
Duty of Labor.
Following Mr. Towne’s address, W. D. Croker, printer, touched upon the duties of every member of union labor and what was expected of labor in the nation.
[Said Mr. Croker:]
If by December 9, the governor doesn’t grant Mooney a new trial or an unconditional pardon, it is labor’s duty to hold the wheels of production until some one thing or the other is granted this man Mooney.
To serve the working class is to me
always a duty of love.
-Eugene Victor Debs
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Hellraisers Journal, Sunday August 16, 1908
Eugene Debs Speaks to Delegates at Labor Gathering
Eugene Debs, Socialist Party candidate for President, was invited to speak at the State F. of L. convention. He arrived at the convention from Girard where he had been resting after touring through the eastern states.
Pittsburg, Kansas, August 12, 1908
Kansas State Federation of Labor Convention:
Introduction by Chairman Cable
Gentlemen of the Convention: I assure you it is a great privilege on my part to present to you at this time a gentleman who needs no introduction at my hands; a gentleman who is known to you and who is known to the workingmen throughout the length and breadth of this country as a true and tried trade unionist and the candidate of the Socialist party for President of the United States. I, therefore, take great pleasure in presenting to you Brother Eugene V. Debs.
—–
[Debs Speaks]
Mr. Chairman, Delegates and Fellow Workers: It is with pleasure, I assure you, that I embrace this opportunity to exchange greetings with you in the councils of labor. I have prepared no formal address, nor is any necessary at this time. You have met here as the representatives of organized labor and if I can do anything to assist you in the work you have been delegated to do I shall render that assistance with great pleasure.
To serve the working class is to me always a duty of love. Thirty-three years ago I first became a member of a trade union. I can remember quite well under what difficulties meetings were held and with what contempt organized labor was treated at that time. There has been a decided change. The small and insignificant trade union has expanded to the proportions of a great national organization. The few hundreds now number millions and organized labor has become a recognized factor in the economics and politics of the nation.
There has been a great evolution during that time and while the power of the organized workers has increased there has been an industrial development which makes that power more necessary than ever before in all the history of the working class movement.
This is an age of organization. The small employer of a quarter of a century ago has practically disappeared. The workingman of today is confronted by the great corporation which has its ironclad rules and regulations, and if they don’t suit he can quit.
In the presence of this great power, workingmen are compelled to organize or be ground to atoms. They have organized. They have the numbers. They have had some bitter experience. They have suffered beyond the power of language to describe, but they have not yet developed their latent power to a degree that they can cope successfully with the great power that exploits and oppresses them. Upon this question of organization, my brothers, you and I may differ widely, but as we are reasonable men, we can discuss these differences candidly until we find common ground upon which we can stand side by side in the true spirit of solidarity–and work together for the emancipation of our class.
We hail with joy the formation of the Western Labor Union which has progress for its main object. -Pueblo Courier
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Hellraisers Journal, Monday May 16, 1898
Salt Lake City, Utah – W. F M. and Montana Unionists Unite!
Rather than supplanting the Western Federation Miners as stated in the headline (see below) from the Salt Lake Herald, the avowed purpose of the newly founded Western Labor Union is to organize all unorganized workers into one powerful organization, especially the unskilled workers so often ignored by the American Federation of Labor.
From the Deseret Evening News of May 13, 1898:
FORM A WESTERN LABOR UNION.
—–
Includes All Territory in the United States West
of Mississippi and Canadian Northwest.
—–
Late yesterday afternoon [May 12th] an organization to be known as the Western Labor union, was formed in this city as a result of the executive conference of the Western Federation of Miners which has been in session here for the last few days. The organization came into existence on the adoption of the following resolution by a vote of 119 to 9:
Be it resolved, by this conference, that a permanent organization is hereby organized by this conference to be hereafter known and designated the “Western Labor union,” having for its object the unification of all labor unions and assemblies east of the Pacific ocean and west of the Mississippi river into one organization, or others not included within these lines who desire to affiliate with it; and to organize all the wage-earners within these lines, whenever possible. To promote the interests of labor by unceasingly working for the establishment of the initiative and referendum in every department of this government. This body shall grant and issue charters under seal to all subordinate unions or assemblies that make application for the same.
This union shall hold its annual conventions on the first Monday of September in such town or city as may be designated by the executive board.
Hellraisers Journal, Sunday February 3, 1918
Eugene V. Debs Defends the Industrial Workers of the World
From the International Socialist Review of February 1918:
THE I. W. W. BOGEY
By EUGENE V. DEBS
The morning paper I have just read contains an extended press dispatch from Washington, under screaming headlines, making the startling disclosure that a worldwide conspiracy to overthrow the existing social order has been unearthed by the secret service agents of the government The basis of the conspiracy is reported to have been the discovery of some guns and ammunition in the hold of a Russian freighter just arrived at a Pacific port in charge of a Bolsheviki crew, from which it has been deduced that the guns must have been sent by the Russian revolutionists to the I. W. W. of the United States in pursuance of a conspiracy of the Russian reds, the Sinn Fein leaders of Ireland, and the American I. W. W.s to overthrow all the governments of the civilized world.
This is really too much!
We are not told how the Sinn Feiners happen to get in on this universal conspiracy, but as their name, like that of the Bolsheviki and the I. W. W., has great potency as a bogey to frighten the feeble-minded, the inventors of this wonderful cock-and-bull story may well be allowed this additional license to their perfervid imagination.
Everything that happens nowadays that the ruling classes do not like and everything that does not happen that they do like is laid at the door of the I. W. W. Its name is anathema wherever capitalism wields the lash and drains the veins of its exploited victims.
—————
———-
———-
———-
———-N this article the writer is not going to give much space to a recitation of the crimes of the capitalist class at McKees Rocks and the other strike points in Pennsylvania. It is unnecessary. The capitalist press has done that more effectively—regardless of the motives that may have prompted them—than he is able to do. The class struggle is a historic fact and the diametrically opposed interests have long ago been proven. Such practices as were exposed during the last few weeks are only the logical result of the capitalist system of society at this stage of working class activity.
———-
