Tag: American Federation of Labor

Hellraisers Journal: May Day Messages from Comrades Big Bill Haywood and Eugene V. Debs

Janet RayeEugene Victor Debs
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BBH Quote re May Day, AtR p2, Apr 27, 1907

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Hellraisers Journal, Wednesday May 1, 1907
From the Appeal to Reason: Thoughts on May Day and The Red Flag

William D. Haywood writes to the Appeal from the Ada County Jail:

Haywood, Wilshire's Magazine, 1906

May Day of all the year is the most momentous to the workers of the world. In every civilized country the first of May is recognized as International Labor Day. On this day thought-waves are carrying around the globe messages of love and encouragement. “The world is my country man is my brother,” expresses the sublime sentiment of a world-wide fraternity in every land where men and women are straining under the galling chains of oppression. This noble thought quickens the soul and kindles the spark of hope in the breast of the heavy laden.

Brave hearts of every clime are beating in unison and millions of feet are keeping step in the onward, upward march to industrial liberty.

This era of evolution is blotting out racial and national hatreds, the toilers are awakened and conscious of the truth that sufferings now endured are but the labor pains that foretell the new democracy to be born.

WM. D. HAYWOOD,
Ada County Jail, Boise, Idaho.

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Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts & Doings of Mother Jones for March 1907: Found in Texas on Behalf of Moyer and Haywood

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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I am as ready to die with you now
as I have been ready to fight
with you in the past.
-Mother Jones

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Hellraisers Journal, Thursday April 11, 1907
Mother Jones News for March: Found Traveling in Texas

Mother Jones, Mar 11, 1905, AtR

Mother Jones was found in Texas during the month of March. She traveled throughout the state and gave speeches under the auspices of the state committee of the Socialist Party. Mother spoke on the the subject of Socialism and also voiced support for Charles Moyer, Bill Haywood, and George Pettibone of Western Federation of Miners, now imprisoned in Ada County Jail of Boise through the machinations of the Mine Owners of Colorado and Idaho.

From The Oasis of Nogales, Arizona,
of March 2, 1907:

MOTHER JONES, “the labor union Joan of Arc,” has come to Arizona to bear a hand in the attempted unionization of Bisbee.

From the Appeal to Reason of March 2, 1907:

Mother Jones.

“Mother: Jones will fill the following dates in Texas: San Antonio, February 26th; Center Point, February 27th; Kerrville, February 28th; San Antonio, March 1st; Lytle, March 2d; Corpus Christi, March 4th, 5th, 6th; Hallettsville, March 7th; Columbus, March 9th; El Campo, March 11th; Alvin, March 13th, 14th; Galveston, March 15th; Raywood, March 16th; Sour Lake, March 18th, 19th, 20th; Batson, March 21st, 22d, 23d.

———-

ARMY COLUMN.
[Appeal Army]
—–

[…..]

“You will find enclosed money order for $5 to pay for the enclosed yearly subscriptions. You can tell by the names that we are invading the mighty plutes domain. “Mother” Jones will be here the 4th, 5th, 6th of March and we hope to boost up the local.”-W. S. Pittillo, Corpus Christi, Tex.

[…..]

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Hellraisers Journal: “The Deadly Parallel” Compares IWW’s Declaration on War in Europe with AFL’s Pledge of Service

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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IWW on War and Class Solidarity, Dec 1, 1916

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Hellraisers Journal, Monday April 2, 1917
From the International Socialist Review: “The Deadly Parallel”

“The Deadly Parallel” was first published in Solidarity, organ of the Industrial Workers of the World, on March 24, 1917, and is republished in this month’s edition of the Review:

WWI, IWW, Deadly Parallel, ISR Apr 1917

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Hellraisers Journal: Chicago Federation of Labor Protests War in Response to Wilson’s Break with Germany

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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[Show] the capitalists that we will not permit
ourselves to be made cannon fodder
for their interests.
-William Sims, Janitors’ Union

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Hellraisers Journal, Wednesday February 7, 1917
Chicago, Illinois – Chicago Federation of Labor Protests War

The Chicago Federation of Labor met February 4th at its regular bi-monthly meeting, the day after President Wilson announced his decision to break off diplomatic relations with Germany. Concerning the grim prospect of war, the following resolution was passed by the delegates:

The Chicago Federation of Labor protests against this country taking part in the European War and demands that all American citizens be prevented from entering the war zone.

From The New York Times of February 4, 1917:

WWI, US Break w Germany, NYT Feb 4, 1917

From The Chicago Daily Tribune of February 5, 1917:

CHICAGO LABOR PROTESTS
WAR WITH GERMANY
—–
Demands That All American Citizens
Be Kept from Belligerent Zone.
—–

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Hellraisers Journal: FW Joe Ettor and Attorney S. M. Slonim Speak Out on Labor Conditions in Northern Minnesota

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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You ought to be out raising hell.
This is the fighting age.
Put on your fighting clothes.
-Mother Jones
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Hellraisers Journal, Monday February 5, 1917
The Labor World – Reports on Labor Hearings

Joseph Ettor, Smiling Joe, text added

In this weeks edition of the Duluth Labor World we find coverage of the hearings which took place on January 30th before the Labor Committee of the Minnesota House of Representatives. Joe Ettor, I. W. W. organizer, testified, as did Virginia Mayor, Michael Boylan, and Duluth Attorney, S. M. Slonim.

Working conditions in the lumber camps were scored by Joe Ettor who stated:

Go into the lumber camps of Northern Minnesota; live the lives of the lumberjacks and then see if you wonder at conditions of unrest.

From The Labor World of February 3, 1917:

The Labor World, Feb 3, 1917

INVESTIGATE CONDITIONS
—–

House Labor Committee Conducts Hearing
on I. W. W. Situation.
—–
MANY WITNESSES TESTIFY
—–
Labor Conditions in Northern Minnesota
Said to Be Abominable.
—–

ST. PAUL, Minn., Feb. 1.—The house committee on labor is determined to ascertain the facts, with regard to the situation in the lumber camps in Northern Minnesota.

It took all Tuesday afternoon to examine two witnesses, members of the Industrial Workers of the World, and Attorney S. M. Slonim, of Duluth, the third witness, did not furnish his testimony until late in the night.

Several persons who have been national figures in labor wars were on hand, in addition to a score of witnesses from the range country, including C. M. Atkinson, editor of The Mesaba Ore, and Michael Boylan, mayor of Virginia.

Ettor Scores Conditions.

[He asserted:]

Ignorance alone is responsible for the unfair attitude shown toward the I. W. W. It is an organization of the working man, the working woman and the working child.

Go into the lumber camps of Northern Minnesota; live the lives of the lumberjacks and then see if you wonder at conditions of unrest. Fancy 50 men, all with wet feet and legs, retiring at night in a small shack, unventilated. To prevent putting on wet clothing the next morning they must hang their socks over the only stove. This merely is one of the many unpleasant conditions to which the lumberjack and mine employes are subjected.

It is not so much the wages paid. Give our men fair living conditions. Feed them fairly and permit them to organize. Then you have picked up the key to the entire situation.

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Hellraisers Journal: Judge Hilton Defends Plea Deal in Mesabi Cases, Lauds IWW Men and Praise Elizabeth Gurley Flynn

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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MN16, ON Hilton speech, LW, Dec 23, 1916

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Hellraisers Journal, Saturday December 23, 1916
Mesabi Range, Minnesota – Plea Agreement & Vindication Meeting

Today’s Duluth Labor World discusses the issues of Justice surrounding the plea agreement reached last week which led to the release of I. W. W. organizers Tresca, Scarlett, and Schmidt:

MN16, Tresca Scarlett Schmidt Released, LW, Dec 23, 1916

OTHER DEFENDANTS DRAW
INDEFINITE TERMS
———-

Tresca Scarlett Schmidt, ISR, Nov 1916

Tresca, Scarlett and Schmidt are freed. Last Friday they were let out of the dingy, over-crowded St. Louis county jail and given their liberty.

Months ago The Labor World made the prediction that the cases against these men would never come to trial; that as soon as the trouble on the ranges blew over these men would be let go. Our prediction was correct, although we have no inclination to claim the virtues of a prophet.

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Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts & Doings of Mother Jones for November 1916: Pays Visit to President Wilson with Labor Delegation

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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I am loyally yours for a damn fine fight.
-Mother Jones

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Hellraisers Journal, Saturday December 16, 1916
Mother Jones Found in Washington D. C. During November

We pause to review the activities of Mother Jones, that fearless champion of the cause of working-class men, women and children in their struggle for industrial freedom. We first find her remembered for her work on behalf of the children of the mills when she led them on the March of the Mill Children during the summer of 1903.

From the Iowa Bayard Advocate of November 2, 1916:

TENEMENT CHILDREN WILL
VISIT WILSON
—–
Their Welcome Will Be Unlike That
Once Given at Oyster Bay.
—–

Mother Mary Harris Jones, Logansport, IN, Sept 27, 1916New York, Oct. 28.-Fifty mothers of New York’s east side, with their children, who have been emancipated from sweatshops by the enactment of

the child labor law, are going to Shadow Lawn, Saturday, in person to thank President Wilson.

A “kind lady,” who prefers to conceal her identity, has donated a special car to be attached to one of the trains bearing pilgrims from New York to Shadow Lawn to hear the president’s address on “Wilson day.” The children will carry armsful of artificial flowers which they used to make in the factories, before their emancipation.

No such pilgrimage of the children of the poor has been attempted since the one when Theodore Roosevelt was president of the United States and a carload of children from the Pennsylvania coal mines [textile mills] journeyed to the summer capital at Oyster Bay to petition for a national child labor law.

“Mother Jones,” who conducted that excursion, told recently in public of the refusal of the guards at Oyster Bay to allow the children to pass the outer gate, and of their return home to wait 14 years for a Woodrow Wilson to set them free.

[Photograph added.]

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Hellraisers Journal: “The Voyage of the Verona” by Walker C Smith for the International Socialist Review

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Q: “Who is your leader?”
A: “We are all leaders!”
-Industrial Workers of the World

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Hellraisers Journal, Monday December 4, 1916
From Seattle, Washington – FW Smith on Everett’s Bloody Sunday

In this month’s edition of the International Socialist Review we find Fellow Worker Walker C. Smith’s description of the tragic voyage of the Verona:

The Voyage of the Verona

By WALKER C. SMITH

FIVE workers and two vigilantes dead, thirty-one workers and nineteen vigilantes wounded, from four to seven workers missing and probably drowned, two hundred ninety-four men and three women of the working class in jail—this is the tribute to the class struggle in Everett, Wash., on Sunday, November 5. Other contributions made almost daily during the past six months have indicated the character of the Everett authorities, but the protagonists of the open shop and the antagonists of free speech did not stand forth in all their hideous nakedness until the tragic trip of the steamer Verona. Not until then was Darkest Russia robbed of its claim to “Bloody Sunday.”

Everett Massacre, Verona Returns to Seattle, ISR Dec 1916

Early Sunday morning on November 5 the steamer Verona started for Everett from Seattle with 260 members of the Industrial Workers of the World as a part of its passenger list. On the steamer Calista, which followed, were 38 more I. W.W. men, for whom no room could be found on the crowded Verona. Songs of the One Big Union rang out over the waters of Puget Sound, giving evidence that no thought of violence was present.

It was in answer to a call for volunteers to enter Everett to establish free speech and the right to organize that the band of crusaders were making the trip. They thought their large numbers would prevent any attempt to stop the street meeting that had been advertised for that afternoon at Hewitt and Wetmore avenues in handbills previously distributed in Everett. Their mission was an open and peaceable one.

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Hellraisers Journal: Big Bill Haywood on the A. F. of L., the I. W. W., and Class Struggle

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Don’t Mourn, Organize!
-Joe Hill

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Hellraisers Journal, Monday November 27, 1916
From the Review: Haywood on Revolutionary Industrial Unionism

From the International Socialist Review of November 1916:

ORGANIZE—ORGANIZE RIGHT!

BY WILLIAM D. HAYWOOD

(Note — The following letter was written by Fellow Worker Haywood, to a worker in Indiana. It so well explains the difference between craft and industrial unionism, that we reprint it here in full.)

Carlo Tresca & Big Bill Haywood, ISR, Oct 1916

YOU ask me to give you ten good reasons why any craft union should withdraw from the A. F. of L. Here they are:

If the membership of a craft union has no broader outlook on life than the narrow confines and limitations of their craft, there is no reason why they should withdraw from the American Federation of Labor, as that is the institution in which they belong.

But, if the membership of the said craft union has had experience and knocks enough to make them realize the class struggle that is going on every minute in present-day society, then there are reasons why they should change from the craft to the industrial form of organization.

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Hellraisers Journal: Minneapolis Elects Socialist Mayor: Thomas H. Van Lear, Member of Machinists’ Union

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Organize! Oh, toilers, come organize your might;
Then we’ll sing one song of the workers’ commonwealth,
Full of beauty, full of love and health.
-Joe Hill

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Hellraisers Journal, Thursday November 23, 1916
Minneapolis, Minnesota – New Mayor Is a Socialist Union Organizer

From the American Socialist of November 18, 1916:

Elections of 1916, Am Socialist, Smashing Victories, Nov 18

Elections 1916, London & Van Lear, Am Socialist, Nov 18

For the first time in the history of the nation a Socialist congressman has been re-elected. Meyer London has been sent back to Washington for two years more by the twelfth New York district to speak for labor in the national capitol.

For the second time a Socialist has been elected mayor of a large city against the combined opposition of all the old parties. Thomas H. Van Lear has been chosen chief executive of Minneapolis, Minn., the metropolis of the northwest.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Minneapolis Elects Socialist Mayor: Thomas H. Van Lear, Member of Machinists’ Union” →