George Pettibone never lost courage,
never despaired,
never lost hope in the working class.
-Industrial Union Bulletin
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Hellraisers Journal, Wednesday August 26, 1908
George Pettibone, Miners’ Hero, Never Lost Courage
From The Industrial Union Bulletin of August 8, 1908:
You ought to be out raising hell.
This is the fighting age.
Put on your fighting clothes.
-Mother Jones
Hellraisers Journal, Friday February 28, 1908
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania – Elizabeth Gurley Flynn Speaks
From The Industrial Union Bulletin of February 22, 1908:
Propaganda in Philadelphia
Elizabeth Gurley Flynn was the speaker at the regular Sunday night meeting of the I. W. W., February 9th, in Philadelphia. Every seat in the large hall was taken and extra seats had to be arranged to accommodate those who were anxious to hear the eloquent advocate of industrial unionism.
Miss Flynn’s subject was “Socialism from a Woman’s Standpoint.” She began by stating that there is no difference between the man’s standpoint and the woman’s, as industrial development had forced the woman into the same position as the man-wage slavery. In the course of her address she rapped the craft unions and the pure and simple political Socialists impartially, and pointed to industrial unionism as the salvation of the workers, the highest and most enlightened expression of Socialism as embodied in the I. W. W. Her points were generously applauded throughout the address.
The progress made in Philadelphia is most encouraging. There are now eight locals in that city, the latest acquisition being the Independent Union of French Textile Workers, who by unanimous vote, have joined the I. W. W.
———-
Is there aught we hold in common with the greedy parasite
Who would lash us into serfdom and would crush us with his might?
Is there anything left to us but to organize and fight?
For the union makes us strong
-Ralph Chaplin
Hellraisers Journal, Sunday February 10, 1918
I. W. W. Prepares for Greatest Labor Trial in History
From the International Socialist Review of February 1918:
The General Defense Committee of the I. W. W.
—–
THE conspiracy of the Owners of American Industry to put the One Big Union out of business by legal procedure will come to a showdown during the coming I. W. W. trials in Chicago, about the 25th of February.
It may be the greatest labor trial in the history of these United States, resulting in the conviction of the 106 workers, or the trial itself may turn into an indictment of the profit system, which will shake the thrones of the fat copper and lumber profiteers. For as Prof. Roger W. Babson points out in the Magazine of Wall Street: “There are two wars in progress today. One is between nations and the other is between classes.”
At the present time, over one thousand members of the I. W. W. are in jails across country, but there are away over one hundred thousand members on the outside. The faster they jail them the faster they grow. Tomorrow there will be more of them than today. There will never be enough jails to go around!
It’s great to fight for freedom
with a Rebel Girl.
-Joe Hill
Hellraisers Journal, Sunday December 15, 1907
Northern Minnesota – Miss Flynn Tours and Speaks
From The Industrial Union Bulletin of Dec 14, 1907:
Miss Flynn’s Tour a Success
I arrived in Duluth, Minn., on Friday, November 14th, and on Sunday afternoon, November 16th, the first meeting was held in Superior, Wis., with an audience of 300 people. The second was held the same evening in Duluth, Minn., with an attendance of from 600 to 700 people. At the two meetings the people were enthusiastic in demonstrating their appreciation of industrial unionism. The capitalist papers gave us extended write-ups, copies of which have been forwarded to headquarters, carefully omitting the portions of the talks which dealt with themselves and “the panic.” The chairman of both meetings was Fellow Worker Zollner, a fighter of ability in this vicinity.
The first range town we visited was Proctor, Minn., the home of the “Duluth, Mesaba and Northern” transportation workers. The round-houses and yards of this ore-carrying road are located here, all of it being stock-trust property. The company very generously gave their employers a special train into Duluth to see the “Land of Nod,” which was playing there that night, which had the effect of diminishing the size of our audience. “The Land of Nod” is better for the proletarians than an industrial awakening. Miss Flynn promised to come again, however-one hundred times, if necessary-to get the doctrines of industrial unionism before the workers. Let the company take notice.
Pray for the dead
And fight like hell for the living.
-Mother Jones
WE NEVER FORGET
Mamie Fasig-13
Member: Industrial Workers of the World
Lancaster Silk Strike
November 19, 1907
From The Industrial Union Bulletin of December 7, 1907:
The Striking Silk Workers
…In Lancaster the recently chartered local of the I. W. W. is fighting bravely against one of the most bitter enemies of organized labor. Mr. J. E. Stehli, a man who with his two sons and a brother (a general in the Swiss army), owns several large mills in Switzerland, France and Italy, besides the one owned by that family in Lancaster.
The strike is now in progress four weeks and the girls and men and children are standing out firmly, although it is their first strike, their first battle. And it is a battle, indeed.
On Friday they all marched out to give the last escort to one of the little comrades who died, a victim of the cruel conduct of the firm.
In order to humiliate the strikers the firm’s representative superintendent, Mr. Schnabeli (whom the firm imported from Switzerland), had issued the order that the strikers would not be paid off at the mill, but at a small store on Grand street. Upon arriving there the strikers were not permitted to enter the store but were paid off through the window. Here all the men as well as girls had to stand in a drenching rain for a long time.
Mamie Farig [Fasig], one of the youngest I. W. W. members, 15 [13] years old, caught cold and died several days after, a victim of capitalist brutality. A wreath of red carnations bearing the I. W. W. emblem was laid on her grave.
The great appear great to us, only because
we are on our knees:
LET US RISE.
-James Connolly
Hellraisers Journal, Thursday November 28, 1907
New York, New York – Mass Meeting Planned for Preston & Smith
From The Industrial Union Bulletin of November 23, 1907:
Preston-Smith Release Committee
A meeting of delegates of all progressive labor organizations in New York and vicinity will be held in the Hall, 60 Cooper Square, New York, on Saturday, November 30, 8 p. m., to set on foot a movement to demand the release of our fellow workers, Preston and Smith. All labor bodies are cordially invited to send representatives, and to believe that if they do not receive a formal invitation it must be because of our failure to secure their proper addresses, and not from any lack of courtesy. All delegates from labor organizations will be welcomed.
At this meeting steps will be taken to appoint officers and committees, and to formally organize the committee.
JAMES CONNOLLY,
Secretary pro tem.———-
[Photograph added.]
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Hellraisers Journal, Wednesday November 27, 1907
Duluth, Minnesota – Elizabeth Gurley Flynn Speaks to Packed House
From The Industrial Union Bulletin of November 23, 1907:
THE GIRL WITH A MISSION
—–
Elizabeth Gurley Flynn Addresses a Packed House
at Duluth on Industrial Unionism
The visit of Elizabeth Gurley Flynn to Minnesota in behalf of the Industrial Workers of the World is arousing great interest among the workers of that state. She spoke on Sunday night, November 17, at Duluth, to an audience that filled Odd Fellows’ hall. From an interesting report of the meeting in the Duluth Harald we take the following extracts:
Elizabeth Gurley Flynn is nothing if not earnest. Socialistic fervor seems to emanate from her expressive eyes, and even from her red dress. She is a girl with a “mission,” with a big “M,” and she delivered her sweeping generalities with perfect indifference as to where they hit.
She spoke to an audience which packed Odd Fellows’ hall last evening. There were a few labor leaders there out of curiosity; a scattering of women who were curious to see this strange school girl with the strange mission in life, and a large number of followers of the Socialistic doctrines expressed.
Characterizing the American Federation of Labor as organized scabbery, and branding it as a labor trust working injury to the majority of laborers for the benefit of the minority, the girl orator was evidently voicing the sentiments of many of her Socialistic followers in the room, but her statements in this respect made the several local labor leaders present hitch uneasily about in their chairs.
Hellraisers Journal, Tuesday October 29, 1907
Gaston County, North Carolina – Child Slaves of the Cotton Mills
From The Industrial Union Bulletin of October 26, 1907:
Child Slavery in the South
Gilson Gardner in Chicago Journal.
—–
What about child labor in the south? Is it really true that small children work in cotton mills at night? or are those stories exaggerated?
I came here to see, because Gaston county has more mills then any county in a state that has more mills than any state in the south.
I find: Little girls, of an age to still care for dolls, working all night in the mills, pacing up and down between the long spinning frames, in a jar and roar of wheels. I find bright-faced little American girls, 8 to 12 years of age, toiling bare-footed in the heat and flying lint. These children tell me they can not read the words on my business card, because they have “most forgot” what they learned in the “second reader.”
I studied carefully the New York East Side,
the slums, the dives, and the sweatshops
and the terrible conditions of the people there
drove me into socialism.
-Elizabeth Gurley Flynn
Hellraisers Journal, Sunday September 22, 1907
Chicago, Illinois – Miss Flynn Delegate to I. W. W. Convention
From Montana’s Great Falls Daily Tribune of September 21, 1907:
It’s great to fight for Freedom
with a Rebel Girl.
-Joe Hill
Hellraisers Journal, Tuesday September 10, 1907
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania – Miss Flynn Lectures on Socialism
From the Chicago Inter Ocean of September 9, 1907:
GIRL IN HIGH SCHOOL SOCIALIST LECTURER
—–
Miss Elizabeth Flynn Mounts Dry Goods Box
on Philadelphia’s Corners to Expound the
Doctrines of Her Political Beliefs.
—–STRICKEN BY POVERTY, SHE AIMS BLOW AT CAPITALISTS
—–
Handles Rockefeller, Roosevelt, and Other Leaders
Without Gloves in Addresses to Masses
-Says Crisis Will Bring Change.
—–Special Dispatch to The Inter Ocean.
PHILADELPHIA. PA., Sept. 8.-Philadelphia is being treated to a series of lectures on socialism, delivered by a girl of 17 years. She is miss Elizabeth Flynn of New York, still in high school, and every night she expounds the doctrine of ther political faith from the top of a dry goods box at a busy corner.
Two weeks ago Miss Flynn passed her seventeenth birthday, celebrating this important occasion by delivering two powerful addresses on socialism, brimful of tart remarks about Mr. Rockefeller’s fine and about the insincerity of Mr. Roosevelt and any other politician of the capitalistic class.
Draws Picture of Capitalist.
Here are some hammer blows from her speeches:
On the one hand is the working class, on the other hand the things they need, and between the two the capitalist dragging down the working man and pushing up the price of materials he must have.
Are we going to sit around and starve ourselves waiting for the capitalist to get out of his market glue?
Mark me!The downfall of capitalism will come in some great crisis.
