Hellraisers Journal: From the Spokane Industrial Worker: “The Shame of San Diego!” -Fight for Free Speech Continues

Share

Quote EGF, re Spk FSF, ISR p618, Jan 1910—————

Hellraisers Journal – Saturday March 2, 1912
San Diego, California – I. W. W. Free Speech Fight Continues Despite Mass Arrests

From the Spokane Industrial Worker of February 29, 1912:

San Diego FSF Shame, IW p4, Feb 29, 1912

For nearly three months eighty-five business men of San Diego communicated with Captain Sehon and Chief of Police Wilson, secretly holding meetings in the U. S. Grant hotel, in an endeavor to find ways and means to gradually regulate the supreme law of the United States out of existence, namely, the law of FREE SPEECH and PUBLIC ASSEMBLY as granted to the people in the Constitution of the United States.

The Real Conspirators.

Here is the way these business men criminals finally proceeded to act:

They made their tools, the city council, pass an ordinance regulating street speaking under provisions of which they could move persons from the place where they had been wont to hold meetings. They thought that by moving the speakers some they gradually could move them more, and finally could move or regulate them clear out of town, and if necessary clear into old Mexico. They said that that was where the agitators belong.

But while the workers were willing to stand for reasonable regulations, they, like the Steel Trust, do not want strangulation, so on February 8 the dance started.

Workers Unite in Parade.

A protest parade was held in which I. W. W. members, Socialists, Single Taxers, Trade Unionists and unorganized and unattached workers joined hands and the line of march was arranged in a masterly manner.

We marched down to the sacred territory and then divided from four abreast into two sections, so that two could march together upon the sidewalk in accordance with Johnny Law. The forty-one persons who had decided to stand for their rights-rights which existed prior to governments-then mounted the box, only to be taken as are rabbits in a ferret drive, one by one, by those eunuch minded barbarians on the San Diego police force.

San Diego FSF, Parade, IW p4, Feb 29, 1912—–

Conspiracy Charged Against “Agitators.”

The M. and M. criminals, whose every move is illegal because of their actions in restraint of trade, had their judicial flunkeys go the limit and place a charge of conspiracy against 48 members of the army that is fighting to uphold freedom of speech. Bonds were set at $1,500 in order to secure those who dared to advocate that the workers gain more of the good things of life through organization.

Instead of discouraging the fighters this action increased the determination to win and results were that arrests for street speaking have occurred almost nightly since the judicial outrage.

Rebels Show the Proper Spirit. 

The police do not know how to deal with people who seem anxious to break into jail and the spectacle of agitators drawing lots to see who shall have the honor has them worried. When the brutalities of the police inside the jail was made public the indignation rose so high that a change had to be made. So the attempt to discourage new recruits by refusing those who were arrested even the common necessities of life and by herding 45 men in one small room failed dismally and made matters worse for the asinine authorities.

One hundred and sixty men and women are in jail up to date (February 20). The majority of these are of the I. W. W. The presence of the women who are class conscious enough to fight right on the firing line is a great factor in the fight.

Idiotic Statements of Dist. Attorney Utley.

The lack of useful work for the supernumeraries is shown by District Attorney Utley’s statements as reported by the San Diego Herald.

It is the duty of the county to attend to these vandals, barbarians, tramps, hoboes, I. W. W.’s, and such trash, and I am going to attend to it.

“There’s going to be no street speaking, if I can prevent it, in the main part of the city. Some of ’em might tell the truth.

We will starve them into submission by keeping them in the jug until they are tame. They won’t feel like telling the truth about us any more.

We Workers Will Win.

Well! Well! Time will tell. We intend to keep up this fight and keep on telling the truth to our fellow workers until the last parasite is forced to leave our backs. So hop to it, kind friend of the wig and gown, and help to fan the flames of discontent.

When the workers are awakened so they deal equitably as man to man they will have no need of delving into the pasts for precedent or listening to ponderous, musty, meaningless Latin phrases from the lips of the satyr-sensed satellites of the capitalist class.

As for stopping us we are the useful members of society and you the useless. The useful persists and the useless decays and dies. The river must seawards despite you.

San Diego’s Salubrious Climate.

We extend a cordial invitation to all who have not visited this city to come and feast upon our salubrious climate and to make the acquaintance of those staunch upholders of working class justice-SEHON, WILSON and UTLEY.

Come on the cushions
Ride up on top;
Stick to the brakebeams;
Let nothing stop
Come in great numbers;
This we beseech:
Help San Diego
To win FREE SPEECH!

PRESS COMMITTEE,
Local 13, I. W. W. 

—————

[Emphasis added.]

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: From the Spokane Industrial Worker: “The Shame of San Diego!” -Fight for Free Speech Continues”

Hellraisers Journal: Pamphlet from Everett Prisoners’ Defense Committee Exposes Events Leading to Massacre

Share

There are no limits to which
powers of privilege will not go
to keep the workers in slavery.
-Mother Jones
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hellraisers Journal, Wednesday January 17, 1917
Everett, Washington – McRae’s Bloody Suppression of Free Speech

Today we present one of two pamphlets, published by the Everett Prisoners’ Defense Committee, which tells the actually story of events leading up to the Everett Massacre. Tomorrow we will feature the second pamphlet which tells the horrific story of that day in Everett now known far and wide as “Bloody Sunday.”

THE EVENTS LEADING TO THE CRIME
OF BLOODY SUNDAY
———-

WHAT HAPPENED BEFORE THE
EVERETT MASSACRE
———-

Industrial Worker, IWW Seattle, Everett Massacre P1, Oct 21, 1916

A review of the activities in Everett prior to the events of Bloody Sunday, Nov. 5, will serve to give a better understanding of that tragedy.

On the First of May, 1916, the Shingle Weavers’ Union called a strike in the Pacific Northwest and by August the strike had been won or called off in practically every place but Everett. In that city the Jameson Mill was the bitterest foe of unionism, and before the mill gates the union maintained twenty pickets.

On Saturday, Aug. 19, the Everett police searched every picket to make sure that they were unarmed; and when that fact was determined, the Jameson Mill owners turned loose their entire bunch of thugs and scabs upon the defenseless men. The pickets were unmercifully beaten.

That night there was another clash between the pickets and the scabs, who were aided by the police. In the melee, one union man was shot in the leg.

No attempt had been made by the city to stop I. W. W. speakers from speaking on the streets until after the Shingle Weavers’ strike had been on for some time. James P. Thompson had spoken in Everett several times during the winter and spring of 1916.

James Rowan was arrested on, or about, August 2nd, on a trumped-up charge of selling literature without a license. He was given 30 days, with the choice of leaving town. He chose to leave town. He was not told how long he was to remain away from town and he afterwards came back. This was the first attempt on the part of the authorities to suppress Free Speech. They were not so boldly ruthless at first; they used the absurd pretext of charging absence of a license when selling literature.

On August 19, the I. W. W. opened a headquarters at 1219½ Hewitt Avenue, but made no attempt to hold street meetings. A large number of workers in Everett were very desirous of hearing James P. Thompson speak and therefore asked the Seattle locals to arrange a meeting for him in Everett. The date was accordingly set for August 22nd, and the meeting was to be held at the corner of Hewitt and Wetmore Avenues, the usual place for street meetings. On Monday, Aug. 21, the police notified L. Remick, who was in charge of the hall, to close up the place or he would be arrested on charge of vagrancy. Remick closed the hall up and came to Seattle on Tuesday morning. The members of the Seattle locals felt that there would be no interference with the Thompson meeting and decided to go ahead with it.

On Tuesday night as scheduled the meeting took place. Thompson was arrested after speaking about 20 minutes. Fifteen police officers were present and in turn they arrested James Rowan and Edith Frenette as they attempted to speak, and after stopping several local speakers the police surrounded 14 other I. W. W. members and marched them off to jail. A delegation of about 800 citizens marched to the jail and expressed their indignation at the high-handed actions of the police. The prisoners, with the exception of Rowan and Beck, were deported to Seattle without any legal process having been taken. Rowan and Beck were released later and they remained in Everett. During the balance of the week street meetings were held and there was no trouble of any kind.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Pamphlet from Everett Prisoners’ Defense Committee Exposes Events Leading to Massacre”