Hellraisers Journal: Elizabeth Gurley Flynn Found in Lawrence Making Arrangements to Send 1,000 More Children from City

Share

Quote EGF, Heaven n Hell, ISR p617, Jan 1910—————

Hellraisers Journal – Thursday February 15, 1912
Lawrence, Massachusetts – Plans in Place to Send More Children out of Strike Zone

From The New York Call of February 13, 1912:

EGF, Bst Glb AM p1, Feb 13, 1912
Elizabeth Gurley Flynn

LAWRENCE, Mass., Feb. 12…..

Children for Philadelphia.

William H. Yates, one of the strike leaders, announced today that 200 children would be sent to Philadelphia on Wednesday morning, arrangements for their care in that city having been made by Miss E. Gurley Flynn, one of the national organizers of the Industrial Workers. Considerable criticism has been heard about sending the children to New York, and to this General Organizer Thomas replies, that it is better for the little ones to be where they can get food and clothing than here were they can have none of these things……

[Photograph and emphasis added.]

—————

From The New York Call of February 14, 1912:

LAWRENCE, Mass., Feb. 13…..Miss Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, of New York, is here today rounding up 1,000 more children from the homes of mill strikers to be taken to Washington, New York and Philadelphia.

Miss Flynn assisted in the reception of the little strike exiles who went from here to New York Saturday, and she gave an enthusiastic report of their arrival and the heartiness with which they were welcomed.

[Emphasis added.]

———-

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Elizabeth Gurley Flynn Found in Lawrence Making Arrangements to Send 1,000 More Children from City”

Hellraisers Journal: More Little Lawrence Strikers to Be Sent to New York City in Care of Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, IWW Organizer

Share

Quote EGF, Heaven n Hell, ISR p617, Jan 1910—————

Hellraisers Journal – Wednesday February 14, 1912
Lawrence, Massachusetts – More Children of Strikers to Leave City

From The Boston Daily Glob of February 13, 1912:

HdLn Lawrence Children EGF, Bst Glb AM p1, Feb 13, 1912—–
Lawrence Children EGF, Bst Glb AM p1, Feb 13, 1912—————

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: More Little Lawrence Strikers to Be Sent to New York City in Care of Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, IWW Organizer”

Hellraisers Journal: Children of Lawrence Strikers Receive Enthusiastic Welcome from Socialists of New York City

Share

Quote NY Lawrence Strike Com Welcome Children, NY Call p1, Feb 10, 1912—————

Hellraisers Journal – Monday February 12, 1912
New York, New York – Children of Lawrence Strikers Welcomed by Socialists

From The New York Call of February 10, 1912:

NY Lawrence Strike Com Welcome Children, NY Call p1, Feb 10, 1912

From The New York Times of February 11, 1912:

150 STRIKE WAIFS FIND HOMES HERE
—————
Great Throng Waits in Cold to Give Warm
Welcome to Children from Lawrence, Mass.
———-

BANNERS OF RED WAVE
———-
And Crowd Sings the Marseillaise

–Children Answer with Strikers’ Cry
–Homes Offered to Many More.
———-

The Grand Central Station was the scene of a great demonstration last night when 150 boys and girls, ranging in age from 2 to 12 years, arrive here from Lawrence, Mass. They are the children of the striking textile workers, and they come here to be cared for by working people of New York, who have promised to feed and house them until peace has been restored in Lawrence and the great mills there are again in operation.

More than 700 persons applied for one or more of the children. Among them, it is said, were Mrs. O. H. P. Belmont, Miss Inez Milholland and Rev. Dr. Percy Stickney Grant. The children, however, were all given into the care of the families of laboring men or members of the Socialist Party.

To greet the children a crowd of 5,000 men, women, and children packed the Grand Central Station concourse, singing the “Marseillaise” in many tongues. They waved red flags, some with black borders, and all bearing Socialistic mottoes. It was noticed that not one in that crowd waved aloft the Stars and Stripes.

The men that waved the big red flags said they were not anarchist but Socialist flags, but, whatever they were, they were red everywhere except the lettering and the black borders. The black borders, it was said, were marks of mourning for those of the strikers who have lost their lives in Lawrence. Besides the flags, there were banners, also red, on which were displayed in big type what the crowd called “mottoes.” One painted in gold letters on a long, red streamer, read:

Ye exploiters, kneel down before the of your victims.

Another banner announced that the “libertarians of New York affirm their solidarity to the strikers of Lawrence.” Still another banner bore the same message, except that instead of “libertarians,” it read “the Liberians of New York,” &c. There was also another flaming piece of bunting on which was painted the information that certain Harvard students favored “a free country.”

Long Wait For the Children

 The train on which the children were expected to arrive was due at 3:30 P.M., but it was an hour late, and it came in without any of the Lawrence Children. When it did roll in a brass band was playing in the concourse, and the crowd was lined up against ropes that were stretched for the purpose of preventing a too hearty welcome being given to the children.

The crowd did not understand why the children were not on the 3:30 train, and so great did the excitement become that the police had an inquiry made all along the New Haven line to Boston. It was learned that the children missed their train in Boston, and it was announced from the bulletin board that they would arrive on the train that was due at 5:42 P.M., but which would not get in until 6:50 P.M.

It was about 4 o’clock when the unwelcome information was bulletined and the crowd, which had stood for two hours in the bitter cold waiting for the train, dispersed to gather again about 6 o’clock in still greater force. At 6:30 P.M. the Grand Central concourse was packed to capacity, and the reserves of the East Fifty-First Street Station formed lines behind which the crowd was forced to stand until after the children had come out of the station.

At 6:50 the searchlight of the electric engine that pulled the train from Highbridge was sighted coming into the train shed. Then the excitement started in earnest. Slowly the hum of the “Marseillaise” started, gradually gathering in volume. It ended when the train came to a stop and then ensued a series of frantic shouts and yells in a dozen languages. In all the medley there was not heard a single English word except the sharp commands of the police and the station men who were assisting.

Announce Themselves as Strikers

 Orders had been issued that the children were not to leave the train until the other passengers had left it and were safely out of the shed. When the children were escorted from the cars they were in charge of fourteen men and women from Lawrence, one of whom was a trained nurse. The children were formed in columns of twos, and at a signal from a young man who was one of those in charge they announced their arrival with a yell.

This is the way the yell goes, and the children shouted it all the way out of the station:

Who we are, who are we, who are we!
Yes we are, yes we are, yes we are.
Strikers, strikers, strikers.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Children of Lawrence Strikers Receive Enthusiastic Welcome from Socialists of New York City”

Hellraisers Journal: Dynamite Found in Lawrence; Strikers Blamed and Arrests Made; Elizabeth Gurley Flynn Arrives

Share

Quote Lawrence Strike Committee, Drunk Cup to Dregs, Bst Dly Glb Eve p5, Jan 17, 1912—————

Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday January 23, 1912
Lawrence, Massachusetts – Joe Ettor Asserts Dynamite a “Plant”

From The Boston Sunday Globe of January 21, 1912:

HdLn Lawrence Dynamite Found, Bst Glb p1, Jan 21, 1912

By JAMES C. O’LEARY. 

LAWRENCE, Jan 20-With more than 20,000 mill operatives, among whom are Italians, Poles, Syrians, Russians, Lithuanians, Franco-Belgians, Portuguese and those, of other nationalities on a strike, and talk of dynamite plots, indiscriminate bomb throwing and other acts of violence rife here for the past week, the city was thrown into a violent state of excitement today when Inspector Rooney of Boston and his men, working in squads, discovered dynamite, fulminating caps and fuss [fuses?] in three different places.

[…..]

HdLn Lawrence Ctzn Com Try Settle Strike, Bst Glb p2, Jan 21, 1912—–Lawrence Diagram Where Dynamite Found, Bst Glb p2, Jan 21, 1912

“Plant” Is Claim of Ettor. 

The searchlights in the different mills are kept constantly at work, and sharpshooters posted in the towers and on the mill property are unusually alert. 

Joseph J. Ettor of the Industrial Workers of the World, who is recognized by the strikers themselves and by every one else as the leader in the strike, says that the dynamite which was found was placed where it could be found by persons who later directed the searchers where to look for it.

[…..]

Seven Under Arrest. 

The five men and two women who were in the tenement house when taken in the first raid at 292-294 Oak st. where seven sticks of dynamite and a box of caps were found in a closet of an unoccupied room, said their names were Farris Marad, who led the parade of Syrians on Thursday and who came into contact with the soldiers at the head of Canal st; Joseph Assaf, Trinidad Beshon, David Roshed, David Beshara, Mary Squeriq and Zekla Roshell. 

A five-chambered revolver was found in the pocket of Marad, and Beshara had a pail of steel knuckles. 

 Marad and the two women were bailed out tonight, the former furnishing $1000 and the latter $500 each. 

[…..]

Miss Flynn Begins Work. 

…..Leader Joseph J. Ettor of the strikers relaxed his efforts this evening after a busy day, and went into conference with Miss Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, National organizer of the Industrial Workers of the World, who arrived on a late afternoon train. 

She will begin her work tomorrow at the meeting of the Franco-Belgians and Americans in Franco-Belgian Hall in the morning and will probably address one or two more meetings in the afternoon. 

—–

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Dynamite Found in Lawrence; Strikers Blamed and Arrests Made; Elizabeth Gurley Flynn Arrives”

Hellraisers Journal: Haywood and Hillquit Debate: “What shall the attitude of the Socialist party be toward the economic organization of the workers?”

Share

—————

Hellraisers Journal – Saturday January 13, 1912
New York City – Haywood and Hillquit Debate Labor Question at Cooper Union

From The New York Call of January 12, 1912:

NY Call p1, Jan 12, 1912

The first of a series of meetings for the discussion of the various problems confronting the Socialist party of America was held in Cooper Union last night with Julius Gerber, organizer of Local New York, which has arranged these meetings, presiding.

The big hall was jammed to the doors and the audience followed every word of the protagonists with breathless interest.

The meeting was a sort of family affair, only holders of red cards being allowed in the hall. A few Socialist Labor party men smuggled themselves into the crowd on borrowed S. P. cards. They were promptly recognized and Chairman Gerber asked that they leave the hall, which they did.

The subject of the discussion last night was “What shall the attitude of the Socialist party be toward the economic organization of the workers?”

William D. Haywood and Morris Hillquit were the debaters. Each of them was given an hour, the time being divided as follows: half an hour for the outline of the debate by each speaker, then each one got twenty minutes for rebuttal and finally ten minutes for closing the discussion.

Haywood opened the discussion. The burden of his arguments in the main was that the Socialist party should go among the workers and begin a propaganda for industrial unionism, for one big union. He assailed the American Federation of Labor and said that the Socialist party is acquiescing in the policy of the American Federation, which was a distinctly anti-Socialist and capitalist policy.

Industrial Form Superior, But-

Hillquit in his reply to Haywood said that there can be no question in the mind of any Socialist that the industrial form of organization is superior to the craft organization. But he did not believe that the Socialist should begin preaching industrialism outside of organized labor. The Socialist party, he said, should keep up its policy of trying to reach the workers in their present unions. The policy has been successful, Hillquit said, as is shown by the fact that every union affiliated with the American Federation of Labor has Socialists in important positions, as well as in the rank and file. These men have been elected to these positions by the rank and file, he said, because they were Socialists.

[…..]

Haywood’s Final Reply.

Haywood took the floor to reply in his final ten minutes.

He declared there is nothing in common between the policies of the American Federation of Labor and the Socialist party. The former, he said, is craft conscious as opposed to the class consciousness of the latter. He went on to show that by high initiation fees, curtailment of apprentices and even closing of books, membership is kept down and would-be members excluded…..

He went on to say that he had never advocated anything else but the organization of the workers as one man, and that he had believed and still believes the craft form of organization to be “ethically unjustifiable and tactically suicidal.”

At the same time he urged the necessity for political action, the political power to be used, not after the social revolution, but under present conditions, citing as an instance of its use the turning of the police against strikebreakers instead of against strikers.

Haywood explained that in criticizing the American Federation of Labor he criticized its leaders, who were members of the Knights of Columbus and of the Civic Federation executive.

Hillquit Finds Mystery Deep.

In taking the floor to close the debating. Hillquit declared that the mystery had deepened, seeing that Haywood did not oppose the rank and file of the A. F. of L. but the members of the Executive Committee of the Civic Federation…..

The difference between the speaker’s policy and Haywood’s, Hillquit declared, was that the former, while condemning the policies of Samuel Gompers, made efforts to educate the rank and file, while Haywood was ready to kick over and destroy the whole A. F. of L.

[…..]

[Emphasis added.]

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Haywood and Hillquit Debate: “What shall the attitude of the Socialist party be toward the economic organization of the workers?””

WE NEVER FORGET: Tomás Martínez, Class-War Prisoner, Who Died from Illness Due to Conditions at Leavenworth

Share

Quote Mother Jones, Pray for dead, ed, Ab Chp 6, 1925—————

Nunca Olvidamos: Tomás Martínez, 1893-1921, Class-War Prisoner
-Died October 23, 1921, after Deportation to Guadalajara, Mexico

Photograph of Tomás Martínez, sent to Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, shortly before his death.

WNF Tomas Thomas Martinez shortly bf death Oct 23, 1921, photo sent to EGF, Zimmer, Red Scare Deportees

From Iron in Her Soul by Helen C. Camp, page 95:

Thomas Martinez was deported to Mexico after he left the Kansas penitentiary in the spring of 1921. He arrived there very ill, suffering from tuberculosis-“which I suppose I took from the jail of Free America”-and the effects of a botched appendectomy. The Mexican IWW gave him a little money, as did [Elizabeth Gurley] Flynn, and the Workers’ National Prison Comfort Club branch in Milwaukee sent him two union suits and a pair of shoes. A friend of Martinez sent Elizabeth a photograph taken of him shortly before he died in October of the same year.

[Emphasis added.]

From “Red Scare Deportees” by Kenyon Zimmer:

Tomás Martínez (Thomas Martinez)

Born 1893, Mexico. Miner. 1905, a founding member of La Unión Liberal Humanidad in Cananea, which was affiliated with the new Partido Liberal Mexicano (PLM) and helped lead the 1906 Cananea miners’ strike. Member of several more PLM-affiliated groups. Migrated to the US circa 1907; active in Morenci, Arizona; helped plan and joined the PLM’s cross-border invasion of Baja California in 1910. Taken prisoner by Carranza’s forces and ordered executed, but escaped. 1914 organizing miners in Cananea; denounced and expelled as a “Huerta supporter,” leading to a strike of 2,500-3,000 miners until he was allowed to return. 1915-1918 active in IWW and PLM activities in Arizona and Los Angeles. Wrote numerous articles for the IWW’s paper El Rebelde (1915-1917). Arrested Miami, Arizona, March 1918; convicted to two years in Leavenworth Penitentiary and a $500 fine for violation of the Espionage Act [convicted of having literature of seditious nature]. Contracted tuberculosis while in prison, and a botched operation resulted in septicemia. Upon his release, detained for deportation but he petitioned to be allowed to leave what he called “the Jail of Free America” to another country at his own expense for fear that he would be executed for his past revolutionary activities if returned to Mexico; his petition was denied and he was deported in 1921; according to one report, “When he was finally shipped across the border he was more dead than alive.” Furthermore, he wrote to a friend in the US, “When I arrived at the border, they left me naked, they burned my clothes and shoes.” He never recovered, and died in Guadalajara, October 23, 1921. Comrades buried him with a headstone reading: ¡Nunca olvidamos! (We Never Forget!).

[Emphasis added.]

Continue reading “WE NEVER FORGET: Tomás Martínez, Class-War Prisoner, Who Died from Illness Due to Conditions at Leavenworth”

Hellraisers Journal: From the Spokane Industrial Worker: Elizabeth Gurley Flynn Speaks to Detroit Auto Workers

Share

Quote EGF, Heaven n Hell, ISR p617, Jan 1910—————

Hellraisers Journal – Monday October 16, 1911
Elizabeth Gurley Flynn Speaks to Detroit Auto Workers

From the Spokane Industrial Worker of October 12, 1911:

GURLY FLYNN IN DETROIT
———-

ELIZABETH GURLEY FLYNN
-DAUGHTER OF INTERNATIONAL REVOLUTION
-DELIVERS THE GOODS IN DETROIT
-GOOD CROWD PRESENT.
———-

EGF, ISR p606, Apr 1911

Local No. 16, Automobile Workers, I. W. W., engaged Turner Hall for a lecture to be held in the afternoon of September 24. On account of the train being late three hours that was to bring the speaker from Cleveland the meeting had to be postponed until 7:30 p. m. Money for tickets was refunded at the door to those who thought of spending the evening some other place. Later on it rained to beat the band, but many came anyhow. No use in giving an account of her lecture. Let the workers go and hear her message of hope to the toilers, her masterful arraignment of the futility of craft unionism, her logical , convincing and comprehensive explanation of industrial unionism as a bonafide expression of industrial or shop solidarity. The I. W. W. de facto and not the “ism” as an ideal to the exclusion of the real, was emphasized at every opportune time. Only “ism” propounders should take notice. It’s the goods that count every time and the I. W. W. is the means to get the goods.

No questions were asked except on the position of the I. W. W. toward politics. And one “Sabotage” was “recognized.” Ha!ha! Recognized! by whom? By the desk revolutionists that never worked in a shop but want to be “it” in every respect in the labor movement, of course. Answer, brilliant. Go and ask that question at her meeting and get it first hand. We also took up a collection to continue the propaganda-nearly $10; some “subs” taken and literature sold. If not for the rain a full house would have listened to her. As it was the crowd was full-of enthusiasm.

An incident worth mentioning took place in the afternoon in front of the hall. Section sidewalk of the S. L. P. was busy distributing some of their labor “savioring” dope. “A Mutt” cam along, ordering them away from the entrance to the hall. Well, they went away and never came back in the evening to put their questions.

“A. MUTT.”

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: From the Spokane Industrial Worker: Elizabeth Gurley Flynn Speaks to Detroit Auto Workers”

Hellraisers Journal: International Socialist Review: “One Boss Less, The Minersville Strike” by Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, Part II

Share

Quote EGF Organize Women, IW p4, June 1, 1911—————

Hellraisers Journal – Sunday July 2, 1911
Elizabeth Gurley Flynn Describes Strike of Young Girls at Minersville

From the International Socialist Review of July 1911:

EGF re Minersville Girls Strike Part II, ISR p8, July 1911—–EGF re Minersville Girls Strike EVD Speaks, ISR p11, July 1911

Coombs became desperate. He threatened to move his factory to Brooklyn, where he claims a site has already been purchased, but the girls realize that he is bound to this region by economic ties which cannot easily be severed. He rents houses and owns a splendid residence in Minersville, and controls factories for Phillips in Tremont, Valley View, Mahoney City, Trackville and other places. Here he is a pillar of society, hobnobs with judges, and has his own automobile. Whereas, his importance would sink into insignificance in a great industrial center.

We are making efforts not only to tie up all of his other plants, but every factory and mill in this region, where wages are inadequate and women are shamelessly exploited. Our attempts in Tremont illustrate our difficulties and Mr. Coombs’ methods. While we were addressing the girls from one factory Mr. Coombs rushed past in his machine and into his factory, where he detained the girls for about five minutes. His intimation that if they listened to the agitators they need not report for work further had effect, for when he dismissed them, they marched convict-like, arm in arm, past the meeting, and could not be induced to listen.

These girls had their wages raised to nine cents to head off a strike. Thus, they are profiting by the struggle of the girls in Minersville, while virtually scabbing on them. Far from being discouraged, however, we feel that Coombs has shown his fear, and we intend to arouse these girls to a realization of the situation.

This strike, the first of its kind in the anthracite region, has been invaluable, as it has served to set ablaze the smouldering rebellion of other women workers. It was followed by a strike in the silk mill of Shamokin, and a partial strike in the silk mill of Pottsville.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: International Socialist Review: “One Boss Less, The Minersville Strike” by Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, Part II”

Hellraisers Journal: International Socialist Review: “One Boss Less, The Minersville Strike” by Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, Part I

Share

Quote EGF Organize Women, IW p4, June 1, 1911—————

Hellraisers Journal – Saturday July 1, 1911
Elizabeth Gurley Flynn on Strike by Young Girls at Minersville, Pennsylvania

From the International Socialist Review of July 1911:

EGF re Minersville Girls Strike, Part I, ISR p8, July 1911

[Part I of II.]

THE particular employer engaged in this conflict is typical. Over twelve years ago he came to Minersville and opened a factory. Since that time a chain of factories have been installed throughout the anthracite regions and the farming belt that lies South of Pottsville, absorbing all the unused labor of women and girls, who previously engaged in domestic tasks at home, until, through marriage, they established homes of their own.

Dependent for a living upon brothers, fathers and husbands, the factory gate seemed the door of opportunity to them. Life had been a stepping from their father’s threshold to their husband’s, a sheltered, healthy, but often monotonous and uneventful existence. Many of the younger generation were educated in the public schools and felt the lure of the big cities; others were not satisfied with the domestic life, and so the factory spelled a varied experience, a wider life and independence. They welcomed it eagerly and were engulfed in its hungry maw.

When Coombs came to Minersville he was poor and unknown. He was financed by a man named Phillips, a Jewish oculist and rabbi, who likewise commenced his career poor. But running expenses of shirt and underwear factories are less in Pennsylvania towns than in New York or Philadelphia, and girls are cheaper. In the large cities girls are supposed to secure at least a living wage, as most of them are dependent solely upon their earnings. Often they do not, and lives of shame and horror are the result. But the majority attempt to secure it, and a pretence is made by the employers to pay it. Not so here. Wages are simply fit for spending money and do not nearly equal living expenses. The girls still live at home. They have lost the illusion of being self-supporting, and make no pretense of being. They are as dependent on their families as ever they were. and the outrageous condition prevails of miners and farmers raising and caring for daughters to turn them over to the factory owners as instruments of production, practically free of charge.

They lend their children to Coombs and Phillips, and receive them back physical wrecks, hollow-eyed, flat-chested, nervous from overwork. Young girls are taken from schools at a tender age and crushed in the industrial prisons that disfigure the hills and valleys. The vitality of future generations is sapped through the grinding toil these future mothers must endure. From every point of view—financially, physically and morally—these factories have been a blight and a curse to every region they invade.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: International Socialist Review: “One Boss Less, The Minersville Strike” by Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, Part I”

Hellraisers Journal: From the Appeal to Reason: Elizabeth Gurley Flynn Arrested in Philadelphia for Talking Unionism

Share

Quote EGF, Heaven n Hell, ISR p617, Jan 1910—————

Hellraisers Journal – Sunday June 25, 1911
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania – Arrested for Talking Unionism

From the Appeal to Reason of June 24, 1911:

EGF, ISR p606, Apr 1911

Gurley Flynn Arrested in Philadelphia

The police arrested Elizabeth Gurley Flynn while talking unionism before the Baldwin Locomotive works at Philadelphia, the other day, and that will help some. The bosses are blind as bats, for they are helping the agitation more than all we Socialists can do. In fact we could make poor progress if they were not such fools as to show the workers they are the kind that we Socialists proclaim them. They furnish the proof. She was held in $400 bail, took down the court proceedings in short hand, and went to the cell for free speech sake. The mass of men who were listening intently could hardly be restrained from knocking out the police for their brutality. It made many Socialists when no other kind of an argument could.

[Photograph and emphasis added.]

From the Spokane Industrial Worker of June 22, 1911:

EGF Acquitted Disturbing Peace in Phl, IW p2, June 22, 1911

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: From the Appeal to Reason: Elizabeth Gurley Flynn Arrested in Philadelphia for Talking Unionism”