Tag: General Strike

Hellraisers Journal: “You are waging a class fight!” Eugene Debs Speaks at Philadelphia’s Labor Lyceum, Part II

Janet RayeEugene Victor Debs
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Quote EVD, Starve Quietly, Phl GS Speech IA, Mar 19, 1910———-

Hellraisers Journal – Monday March 21, 1910
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania – Eugene Debs Speaks at Mass Meeting

From The Philadelphia Inquirer of March 20, 1910:

PRATT AND DEBS AT LABOR MEETING
—–

EVD, Spk Chc p15, Nov 22, 1909

Sympathetic strikers crowded Labor Lyceum Hall, at Sixth and Brown streets, when their big mass meeting was called to order at 3 o’clock yesterday afternoon [Saturday March 19th], and the streets about the building were blockaded with hundreds who were unable to enter the hall.

Many policemen, under command of Lieutenants Nippes and Ehrsman, were stationed about the entrance to the hall and along Sixth and Brown streets to prevent possible rioting, and riot wagons from City Hall were placed in near-by streets.

C. O. Pratt, the executive chairman of the carmen’s organization, arrived at the Labor Lyceum soon after 3 o’clock in an automobile, and was cheered by the crowd as he made his way to the entrance. The doors had been ordered closed by the police, but the lieutenant in charge made way for Pratt and the speakers with him. As soon as Pratt was inside the hall the crowd picked him up and passed him along to the platform.

Pratt in his speech exhorted the labor men to stand firm in their demands. In concluding he asked all who would remain out on strike to say “aye.” The answering chorus of “ayes” was heard in the streets.

Eugene [V]. Debs, a former Presidential candidate on the Socialist ticket, also addressed the meeting.

[He said:]

You are waging a class fight. I am not here to philosophize, but to tell you to fight and fight to the end, and you will win. There is nothing to concede, nothing to arbitrate. If you concede anything you will lose all. Fight the Philadelphia Rapid Transit Company. J. Pierpont Morgan could end the strike in a minute if he wanted to.

———-

[Photograph added.]

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Hellraisers Journal: “You are waging a class fight!” Eugene Debs Speaks at Philadelphia’s Labor Lyceum, Part I

Janet RayeEugene Victor Debs
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Quote EVD, Lawmakers Felons, Phl GS Speech, IA, Mar 19, 1910———-

Hellraisers Journal – Sunday March 20, 1910
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania – General Strike Committee Sends for Debs

From The Philadelphia Inquirer of March 17, 1910:

[Statement of Philadelphia’s General Strike Committee.]

Phl GS, Murphy n Pratt, LW p1, Newark NJ Str p1, Mar 5, 1910———-

Announcement of the plans of the labor leaders for today was embodied in the following statement issued by the General Strike Committee, from its headquarters at Twelfth and Filbert streets:

In our statement issued last night we announced several mass meetings would be held in different parts of the city, to which organized and unorganized working men and women and the general public are invited. These meetings will be held at Kensington Labor Lyceum. Second and Cambria streets; Mercantile Hall, 849 Franklin street; Academy Hall, 524 South Fourth street, and Labor Lyceum, Sixth and Brown streets, on Thursday, March 17, at 8 P. M.

These meetings will be addressed by C. O. Pratt, Jeff Pierce, organizer of the American Federation of Labor; John J. Murphy and other prominent speakers…

The committee has also made arrangements for holding a monster mass meeting at Labor Lyceum, Sixth and Brown streets, at 3 P. M., Saturday, March 19, which meeting will be addressed by Eugene V. Debs and other prominent speakers…

[Photographs added.]

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Hellraisers Journal: Clara Lemlich, Young Garment Worker, Calls for General Strike at Mass Meeting at Cooper Union Hall

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Clara Lemlich, Cooper Un Nov 22 re Uprising, NY Call p2, Nov 23, 1909———-

Hellraisers Journal – Thursday November 25, 1909
New York, New York – Clara Lemlich Calls for General Strike of Waist Makers

Clara Lemlich, ab 1910, Wiki
Clara Lemlich
“I want to say a few words.”

On Monday evening, November 22nd a mass meeting was held at Cooper Union Hall to consider the plight of New York’s waist makers, 70% of them young immigrant women. After listening through the long-winded speeches of the union leaders, a young garment worker arose from the crowd and demanded the opportunity to speak her mind. The New York Call of November 23rd describes the scene:

Clara Lemlich, who was badly beaten up by thugs during the strike in the shop of Louis Leiserson, interrupted Jacob Panken just as he started to speak, saying:

I want to say a few words.

Cries came from all parts of the hall, “Get up on the platform!” Wilting hands lifted the frail little girl, with flashing black eyes, to the stage, and she said simply:

I have listened to all the speakers. I would not have further patience for talk, as I am one of those who feels and suffers from the things pictured. I move that we go on a general strike!

As the tremulous voice of the girl died away, the audience rose en masse and cheered her to the echo. A grim sea of faces, with high purpose and resolve, they shouted and cheered the deliberation of war for living conditions hoarsely.

When Chairman Feigenbaum put Miss Lemlich’s motion to a vote there was a resounding roar of a yes throughout the hall, and once again the vast crowd broke into roars of applause. The demonstration lasted several minutes.

[Emphasis added.]

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Hellraisers Journal: From One Big Union Monthly: “White Terror” and “Serious Times Ahead” by IWW Cartoonist Sam

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote IWW ID Prisoner Charles L Anderson, OBU p10, Oct 1919———-

Hellraisers Journal – Friday October 3, 1919
I. W. W. Cartoonist Sam on White Terror and Serious Times

From The One Big Union Monthly of October 1919:

CRTN, White Terror Whip to Jails, SM, OBU p4, Oct 1919

—–

CRTN, Serious Times Ahead, Sam, OBU p8, Oct 1919

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Hellraisers Journal: Winnipeg Strike Called Off Thursday after All-Night Session of General Strike Committee

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Wpg GS Spirit Unbreakable, WLNs May 19, 1919———-

Hellraisers Journal – Friday June 27, 1919
Winnipeg, Manitoba – General Strike Called Off

From The Butte Daily Bulletin of June 25, 1919:

WINNIPEG STRIKE ENDS
—–
Strike Committee After All Night Session Decides
to Let Government Commission Investigate.
—–

Wpg GS, Strike Ends, Wpg Tb p1, June 6, 1919

(Special to The Bulletin.)

Winnipeg. June 25.-The general strike which has lasted more than 40 days, will end Thursday at 11 o’clock. This announcement was made after an all-night session of the general strike committee. Sympathetic strikes in other cities will end at the same hour.

The decision of the strike committee, which ends a struggle that will have been exactly six weeks in effect at 11 o’clock Thursday, follows a conference of the delegates of the strike committee with Premier Norris and members of the provincial government yesterday.

The men forward the proposition that if the government would appoint a commission to investigate the strike and settle all disputes they would call off the general strike. The reply of the government was that the general strike must be called off first.

If that were done, then a commission, headed by H. A. Robertson [Hugh Amos Robson], would be appointed. It has been intimated that it had been the intention of the government for some weeks to appoint a commission, but action by the strike committee was awaited in regard to calling off the strike.

———-

[Newsclip added from Winnipeg Evening Tribune of June 26, 1919. Emphasis added.]

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Hellraisers Journal: Winnipeg Labor Temple Raided; Ten Strike Leaders Transported to Stonewall Penitentiary

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Joe Hill, General Strike, Workers Awaken, LRSB Oct 1919———-

Hellraisers Journal – Saturday June 21, 1919
Winnipeg, Manitoba – News from the General Strike

From The Butte Daily Bulletin of June 18, 1919:

Wpg GS, Raid on Labor Temple, Btt Dly Bltn p1, June 18, 1919
Wpg GS, Ten Labor Leaders Arrested, Btt Dly Bltn p1, June 18, 1919

—–

(Special United Press Wire.)

Winnipeg, June 18.-As a result of the sensational raid made here by federal officials, 10 labor leaders are prisoners and are being held incommunicado in Stony Mountain penitentiary, with the northwest mounted police guarding the labor temple. No person is permitted within 100 yards of the building. Warrants were issued for four others.

Military intelligence officers and other government officers have been planning the raid for a week, but had deferred action until the government could supply the powerful weapon desired in the drastic deportation act. Under this law all aliens and “British-born trouble makers” can be deported.

Charge Inciting Police Force.

The arrests were based on warrants charging “inciting the police force to neglect of duty” and responsibility for publication in the strike bulletin last Wednesday of a special article containing “false and libelous statements.” The story was headed, “Police Replaced by Thugs,” and vigorously attacked the special constables. Civic authorities were assailed for dismissing the regular police force.

The 10 men in prison are Aldermen John Queen and A. C. Capps [A. A. Heaps], the Rev. William Ivens, George Armstrong, R. [B]. Russell, R. E. Bray, [M.] Charitonoff, Moses Almazoff, Mike Berentozuk [Verenchuck] and A. C. Schoppelreidk [S. Choppelrei].

The police also raided the labor temple, Ukrainian hall and Liberty hall, where a vast quantity of literature was seized. The utmost secrecy surrounded the plans for the arrests. Every man arrested submitted quietly on being shown the official warrant.

Of the four men for whom warrants were issued, Sam Blumenberg is reported to have crossed the border into the United States. W. A. Pritchard, a prominent Vancouver labor leader, is said to be on his way to the Pacific coast; R. J. Johns, local labor leader, is in Montreal, and B. Devyatkin, a Russian, cannot be located.

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Hellraisers Journal: From The Butte Daily Bulletin: From Paris to Cleveland, May Day Parades and Meetings Attacked

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote EVD re Unity for May Day 1919, fr SPA Progam———-

Hellraisers Journal – Monday May 5, 1919
Butte, Montana – The Bulletin on “Bomb Plot” Frame-Up and May Day “Riots”

The following reports and opinion pieces are from The Butte Daily Bulletin, published May 1st, May 2nd and May 3rd, and covering the dramatic events surrounding May Day 1919.

From The Butte Daily Bulletin of May 1 1919:

May Day Bomb Plot, Btt Dly Bltn p1, May 1, 1919

BOMBS ARE SENT BY MAIL
—–
Packages Sent to Several Government Officials
and Citizens Throughout U. S.
Contained Explosives.
—–

(Special United Press Wire.)

Washington May 1.-What is believed by the officials to be a wide spread attempt on the lives of members of Wilson’s cabinet has just been discovered. Seventeen packages being held in the postoffice at New York were found to contain explosives. it is not known how many have already passed through the mail.

The packages were addressed to officials throughout the United States among whom were; Postmaster-General Burleson, Secretary of Labor Wilson, Attorney-General Palmer, and Commissioner-General Palmer, and Commissioner-General of Immigration Caminetti. There were also packages addressed to John D. Rockefeller, J. P. Morgan, New York Commissioner Howe, Mayor Hylan of New York, Governor Sproul of Pennsylvania, Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, District Attorney Fickert of California and his assistant, Edward Cunha. The bombs were similar to the ones received by Mayor “Ole” Hanson of Seattle and former Senator Hardwick of Georgia. The packages all bear the label of Gimble Bros., a New York department store, but the officials of the store declare they are imitations.

Fear is expressed that some of the packages may have had sufficient postage to insure their delivery through the mails and may be enroute to their intended victims. It is noted that virtually all the prominent men to whom the packages were addressed are concerned one way or another with the immigration problems. A warning has been issued by the postoffice department to all postoffice inspectors and superintendents in charge of the railway mail service to watch for any bombs that may still be in transit. If has not been ascertained, the officials state, whether any bombs have been sent to the Americans who are attending the peace conference.

Friends of Edward Cunha delivered the package to him at his sick bed, thinking that it was a present for him. The package was only partly opened when their suspicions were aroused and the package was not opened until later. When the contents were disclosed they were found to contain sulphuric acid and explosives similar to that received by Mayor Hanson. Ficket’s package was left unopened.

———-

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Hellraisers Journal: From The Liberator: “Reflections on the Seattle General Strike by a Woman Who Was There”-Revolution?

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Anna Louise Strong, NO ONE KNOWS WHERE, SUR p1, Feb 4, 1919———-

Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday April 29, 1919
Seattle General Strike: Revolution? -60,000 Striking Workers Run the City

From the New York Liberator of April 1919:

When Is a Revolution Not a Revolution

Reflections on the Seattle General Strike
by a Woman Who Was There

Seattle General Strike, Metal Trades Council, SUR p3, Feb 4, 1919

“A GENERAL STRIKE, called by regular unions of the American Federation of Labor, cutting across contracts, across international union constitutions, across the charter from the American Federation of Labor,”-this was what the chairman of the strike committee declared it to be. A General Strike in which the strikers served 30,000 meals a day, in which the Milk Wagon Drivers established milk stations all over town to care for the babies, in which city garbage wagons went to and fro marked “Exempt by Strike Committee”; a General Strike in which 300 Labor Guards without arms or authority went to and fro preserving order; in which the Strike Committee, sitting in almost continuous session, decided what activities should and should not be exempted. from strike in the interests of public safety and health, and even forced the Mayor to come to the Labor Temple to make arrangements for lighting the city.

Yet almost any member of the Strike Committee will tell you, in hot anger, that “this was no revolution, except in the Capitalist papers; it was only a show of sympathy and solidarity for our brothers in the shipyards.” And so in truth it was, in intention. It would seem that the beginnings of all new things take place, not through conscious intention, but through the inevitable action of economic forces.

Hardly yet do the workers of Seattle realize all the things they did.

The shipyard workers of Seattle struck, 35,000 strong, on [Tuesday] January 21st. On January 22, a request was brought to the Central Labor Council for a general strike in sympathy with the Metal Trades. This was referred to the various unions for referendum. By the following Wednesday, January 29, the returns were pouring in.

“Newsboys vote to strike and await instructions of Joint Strike Committee.” “Hotel maids vote 8 to 1 for strike.” “Waitresses expect to go strong for general strike.” Foundry employees, butchers, structural iron workers, milk wagon drivers, garment workers, carpenters, barbers, building laborers, longshoremen, painters, glaziers, plasterers, cooks and assistants, these were among the votes to come in the first week.
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