There are no limits to which
powers of privilege will not go
to keep the workers in slavery.
-Mother Jones
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Hellraisers Journal, Monday December 18, 1916
San Francisco, California – The Closed Shop Fight and Frame-Up
From the December edition of the International Socialist Review:
Will Labor Stand for Another
Haymarket?By THEODORA POLLOK
SAN FRANCISCO in 1916; Chicago in 1886. The closed shop fight now; the 8-hour fight then. In both cases, a crime of violence occurs and is tied around the necks of innocent labor men in the hope of helping to crush the spirit of labor.
In Chicago in 1886 a slavish press and an inflamed public mind, and the labor and radical groups, too weak to save the chosen victims. Today in San Francisco a slavish press, but a public mind open to conviction. Yet young Billings, first of the San Francisco Preparedness Day explosion defendants to be tried, has been convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment, and only the fighting working class of the country can save him—by saving his four co-defendants.
Tom Mooney’s trial, the second trial, is set for the 27th of November. It is Tom Mooney’s life that is desired above all others by this gang of ruffians, the “gentlemen” of the Chamber of Commerce, the United Railroads, and the Pacific Gas & Electric, and their tools in the District Attorney’s office. For Mooney, helped by his little music teacher wife, Rena, who is one of his co-defendants—Mooney recently dared actually try to organize the carmen of the United Railroads, who have been beaten down, spied upon and “weeded out” since the great car strike before the earthquake.
The tactics of the prosecution are such as might rather be expected in some backwoods lumber baron’s camp than in a great urban center. Indeed, with the “Law and Order” Committee from the Chamber of Commerce censoring all the press, the truth is even harder to get to the people than in a small town where it flies from mouth to mouth.
