Hellraisers Journal: Eugene Victor Debs: ”To serve the working class has always been to me a high privilege.”

Share

To speak for labor; to plead the cause
of the men and women and children who toil;
to serve the working class,
has always been to me a high privilege;
a duty of love.
-Eugene Victor Debs

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hellraisers Journal, Wednesday June 19, 1918
Canton, Ohio – Echoes from Nimisilla Park

EVD, Debs Orator Canton June 16, 1918, IN U

On Sunday June 16th, Eugene Debs arrived at the Nimisilla Park, in Canton, for a grand picnic given by the Socialist Party of Ohio on the final day of the state convention. He came directly to the park following a brief visit with the Ohio Comrades, C. E. Ruthenberg, Alfred Wagenknecht, and Charles Baker who are now residing behind the bars of the Stark County Work House, across the street from the park.

Comrade Debs walked through the crowd smiling and came to the front of the platform. He gave a speech which is certain to be remembered for years to come.

Debs spoke for about two hours, and said, in part:
-(Emphasis added.)

Comrades, friends and fellow-workers, for this very cordial greeting, this very hearty reception, I thank you all with the fullest appreciation of your interest in and your devotion to the cause for which I am to speak to you this afternoon.

To speak for labor; to plead the cause of the men and women and children who toil; to serve the working class, has always been to me a high privilege; a duty of love.

I have just returned from a visit over yonder, where three of our most loyal comrades are paying the penalty for their devotion to the cause of the working class. They have come to realize, as many of us have, that it is extremely dangerous to exercise the constitutional right of free speech in a country fighting to make democracy safe in the world.

I realize that, in speaking to you this afternoon, there are certain limitations placed upon the right of free speech. I must be exceedingly careful, prudent, as to what I say, and even more careful and prudent as to how I say it. I may not be able to say all I think; but I am not going to say anything that I do not think. I would rather a thousand times be a free soul in jail than to be a sycophant and coward in the streets. They may put those boys in jail—and some of the rest of us in jail—but they can not put the Socialist movement in jail. Those prison bars separate their bodies from ours, but their souls are here this afternoon. They are simply paying the penalty that all men have paid in all the ages of history for standing erect, and for seeking to pave the way to better conditions for mankind.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Eugene Victor Debs: ”To serve the working class has always been to me a high privilege.””

We Never Forget: Eugene Victor Debs Speaks at State Socialist Party Picnic Canton, Ohio, June 16, 1918

Share

To speak for labor; to plead the cause
of the men and women and children who toil;
to serve the working class,
has always been to me a high privilege;
a duty of love.
-Eugene Victor Debs

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The Canton Anti-War Speech of Eugene Victor Debs
Sunday June 16, 1918

Note: clicking on the five tweets below will lead to threads with excerpts from the famous speech by Eugene Debs, 45 in all-some long, some short. Based on charges steming from this speech, Comrade Debs was later prosecuted and sent to Atlanta Federal Prison. Follow Hellraisers Journal for the rest of the story.

Comrades, friends and fellow-workers, for this very cordial greeting, this very hearty reception, I thank you all with the fullest appreciation of your interest in and your devotion to the cause for which I am to speak to you this afternoon.

Highest Duty

To speak for labor; to plead the cause of the men and women and children who toil; to serve the working class, has always been to me a high privilege; a duty of love.

Free Speech or Lack Thereof

It is extremely dangerous to exercise the constitutional right of free speech in a country fighting to make democracy safe in the world.

The Blood of Childhood

The history of this country is being written in the blood of the childhood the industrial lords have murdered.

Unpalatable Truth

And the truth, oh, the truth has always been unpalatable and intolerable to the class who live out of the sweat and misery of the working class.

Continue reading “We Never Forget: Eugene Victor Debs Speaks at State Socialist Party Picnic Canton, Ohio, June 16, 1918”

Hellraisers Journal: Harrison George on the Chicago Trial, the IWW Preamble, the Magna Carta, and the Sab-Cat

Share

Quote H George, re Chicgo Prisoners to Court, OH Sc p1, June 11, 1918

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hellraisers Journal, Friday June 14, 1918
Chicago, Illinois – The Sab-Cat Enters the Courtroom

From The Ohio Socialist of June 11, 1918:

A Second Runnymede
—–

By HARRISON GEORGE

WWIR, IWW Harrison George, ISR Jan 1918

It is no new thing-this struggle for human rights. Every morning we Chicago prisoners are taken in irons from the Cook County jail, the tomb of the old “Eight-Hour Movement,” and dumped into a gloomy court room of the Federal Building. How often have court rooms served as undertaking parlors for the aspirations of rebellious workers?

Here in the sepulchral atmosphere of the Law are gathered the class conscious social forces of this age in cut and thrust contest of Capital versus Labor.

Fathoming the shadows of the big room, our eyes discern an inscription within an arch among the mural decorations-“No freeman shall be taken or imprisoned, or be disseized of his freehold or liberties or free customs, or be outlawed or exiled, or otherwise damaged, but by lawful judgment of his peers. To no one will we sell, to no one will we deny or delay, right or justice.” Did Simon De Montfort and his followers, who forced he tyrant John to accept this Magna Charta at Runnymede, dream that six centuries later in a land whose boasted jurisprudence is based upon their great conquest, these words would lend a sanctity to such hypocritical persecution? We think of Ludlow and Lawrence, Paint Creek and Everett, of Bisbee and Butte-and we wonder why that inscription should not be painted out.

Throughout the month of April we I. W. W. men sat in the dock listening to the endless stream of questions and replies between lawyers and prospective jurors. Nebeker, the Copper Trust attorney, seeking always to constrain the issues and select employers; Vandeveer, for the I. W. W., groping in a basket of bad eggs for those the least bad, seeking to obtain men who have the social mind. “Industrial democracy”-“the class war”-“the right of revolution,” are phrases that flow like sparks from an anvil as Vandeveer, or Cleary, hammer home their questions and forged the tremendous issues. For here is a second Runnymede, and here the I. W. W. must enforce upon a tyrant master class the recognition of a new Magna Charta- the Preamble of the Industrial Workers of the World..

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Harrison George on the Chicago Trial, the IWW Preamble, the Magna Carta, and the Sab-Cat”

Hellraisers Journal: “Work for Women in Industrial Unionism” by Sophie Beldner Vasilio for the I. U. B.

Share

It should be encouraging for workingmen
to see women enter their ranks and,
shoulder to shoulder, fight for economic freedom.
-Sophie Beldner Vasilio

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hellraisers Journal: Thursday April 30, 1908
Sophie Beldner Vasilio on Women and Industrial Unionism

On Tuesday we republished an article from The Industrial Union Bulletin of April 25th of this year, written by Sophie Beldner Vasilio, on the topic of Women and the I. W. W. Today we republish an earlier work by the same author on the topic of Women and Industrial Unionism.

From The Industrial Union Bulletin of August 3, 1907:

Work for Women in Industrial Unionism

IWW Gen Adm Emblem, IUB, Mar 14, 1908

To give an instance of the solidarity prevailing amongst women I shall have to talk of my own experience.

Working in New York in the garment industry with women mostly, here is what I observed. Twice a year, about the summer and winter season, their discontent was heard. Usually the piece workers were the ones that kicked, the prices being cut in slack time, and the new styles paying so little that it was necessary to organize in order to get even less than they asked for.

Twice a year three or four girls would get together to talk about organizing. Then these girls would start to talk to the rest of them about it. All would promise to attend a meeting for the purpose of organizing. Then they would appeal to the walking delegate of the waist makers’ union to organize them.

The meeting announced, only a few would make their appearance, the rest of them giving all sorts of excuses for not attending it. Still we would be organized, as few of we were. The demand for the prices was sent to the employer through the business agent, usually being compromised. About two or three months after the settlement, dues paying was postponed for a while by most of them, then they would say frankly: “We have no use for the union. We’re going to get married before long it’s no use paying dues to the union.”

Working in San Francisco, the City of Unionism, a Mexican women and myself began to talk about organization. One of the girls gave the definition of unionism thus: “To pay fines when you don’t parade on Labor Day or when you don’t attend the meetings, and besides, to pay dues for nothing.”

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: “Work for Women in Industrial Unionism” by Sophie Beldner Vasilio for the I. U. B.”

Hellraisers Journal: Elizabeth Gurley Flynn Tour on Hold; Great Speaking Skill of Young IWW Orator Described

Share

It’s great to fight for freedom
with a Rebel Girl.
-Joe Hill

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hellraisers Journal, Saturday April 25, 1908
Western Speaking Tour of Elizabeth Gurley Flynn Postponed

From The Industrial Union Bulletin of April 18, 1908:

Flynn Lecture Tour Temporarily Postponed

EGF, DEN (ca) p 21, crpd, Sept 21, 1907

Fellow Worker Elizabeth Gurley Flynn will be unable to undertake the Western trip, for which arrangements had been in part completed, owing to the advice of physicians that to do so would endanger her health. She was compelled to abandon her program at Detroit, and will rest for several months in Minnesota, where she hopes to regain her strength and be prepared for active work in the fall of the year.

Readers of THE BULLETIN will, with us, regret this enforced abstinence from the lecture platform of our talented friend and sincerely hope for an early and complete restoration to health.

The Detroit News of April 9 gives the following appreciative notice of Comrade Flynn’s meeting in that city:

A union not to break the law, but a union to enforce the law when it is being broken by the capitalist class. A union that will enforce the will of the working class as expressed at the ballot box. A union that seeks not to enslave labor, but to emancipate it. A union that is organized on the principle that labor produces all wealth and is entitled to all it produces. A union that says there is no identity of interests between the owners of the tools of production and the workers who are bought by the week to run them for the benefit of the few and the the impoverishment of the many.

This is in part the outline given by Mrs. Elizabeth Gurley Flynn Jones, of what the Industrial Workers of the World are organized for and what they expect to accomplish before an audience that filled Arbeiter hall to the doors Wednesday night.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Elizabeth Gurley Flynn Tour on Hold; Great Speaking Skill of Young IWW Orator Described”

Hellraisers Journal: Elizabeth Gurley Flynn on Tour in New England; Speaks in Providence and Buffalo

Share

You ought to be out raising hell.
This is the fighting age.
Put on your fighting clothes.
-Mother Jones

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hellraisers Journal, Sunday March 29, 1908
Providence, Rhode Island – Miss Flynn Speaks to Textile Workers

From The Industrial Union Bulletin of March 28, 1908:

The Flynn Lectures

EGF, ab Sept 1907, LOC

Enclosed find clipping from Providence Journal giving report of Miss Elizabeth Gurley Flynn’s lecture. The Providence Tribune printed her picture and a full column report of the meeting, but the editor’s fine Italian hand shows clearly throughout the article; it is evident that in his opinion the kind of talk dealt out by Miss Flynn is not good reading, unadulterated, for readers of the Tribune. This was the bumper meeting of a series of lectures run every Sunday evening by Textile Union 530, I. W. W. The first one, with Organizer Thompson as speaker, drew a large audience, and it grows larger at every meeting, rain or shine. The last meeting taxed the seating capacity of the hall. The speakers are limited to an hour and a quarter, after which the floor is thrown open for questions and remarks, with a five-minute limit, and no one is given the floor twice until all who wish to speak are done. There is no doubt that it is this feature of the meetings that draws the crowd. As speakers we have had, so far, two professors from Brown University, a lawyer with “radical” ideas, a high school principal who believes in Socialism, a couple of single-taxers, two Socialist party men, Frank Bohn, who gave a fine lecture, “The Working Class in American History,” and Miss Flynn. I understand that Organizer Thompson is on the docket for next Sunday, with the “Materialistic Conception of History” as the subject.

The following is from the Providence Journal:

Miss Elizabeth Gurley Flynn addressed a large gathering in Textile Hall, Olneyville square, last evening under the auspices of Textile Local 530 and spoke on “Industrial Unionism.” Her coming had been the topic of discussion of local textile workers for several days and the hall was filled in spite of the disagreeable weather. She was received with enthusiasm. After her address several of those present plied her with questions and there was a general debate on the labor question.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Elizabeth Gurley Flynn on Tour in New England; Speaks in Providence and Buffalo”

Hellraisers Journal: From The Liberator: Art Young on the Heresy of Charles M. Schwab, IWW Sends Overalls

Share

To Charles M. Schwab,
It is our aim to enlighten all members of the human family
in regard to the new order of things…
We wish to assist you in every way and to prepare you,
and your class for industrial democracy.
-Big Bill Haywood

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hellraisers Journal, Monday March 25, 1918
The Liberator on Schwab’s Heresy by Art Young

Case of Heresy Schwab by Art Young

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: From The Liberator: Art Young on the Heresy of Charles M. Schwab, IWW Sends Overalls”

Hellraisers Journal: Oscar Ameringer on Three Kinds of Scabs: “by far the most important class is the union scab”

Share

Professional scabs are few and efficient.
Amateur scabs are plentiful and inefficient,
and union scabs both numerous and capable.
-Oscar Ameringer

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hellraisers Journal: Thursday March 19, 1908
Oscar Ameringer on Scabs: Professionals, Amateurs, and Card Holding

From The Industrial Union Bulletin of March 14, 1908:

UNION SCABS
—–

By OSCAR AMERINGER

IWW Gen Adm Emblem, IUB, Mar 14, 1908

There are three kinds of scabs; the professional, the amateur and union scab.

The professional scab is usually a high-paid, high-skilled worker in the employ of strikebreaking and detective agencies. His position is that of a petty officer’s in the regular scab army.

The amateur scab brigade is composed of bums, riff-raff, slum dwellers, rubes, tramps, imbeciles, college students and other undesirable citizens.

The last, and by far the most important class is the union scab.

Professional scabs are few and efficient. Amateur scabs are plentiful and inefficient, and union scabs both numerous and capable.

The professional scab knows what he is doing, does it well and for the sake of the long green only.

The amateur scab, posing as a freeborn American citizen, who scorns to be fettered by union rules and regulations, gets much glory (?), little pay and when the strike is over he is given an honorable discharge in the region where Darwin searched for the missing link.

The union scab receives less pay than the professional scab, works better than the amateur scab and don’t know that he is a scab.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Oscar Ameringer on Three Kinds of Scabs: “by far the most important class is the union scab””

Hellraisers Journal: From The Industrial Union Bulletin: Elizabeth Gurley Flynn Speaks for I. W. W. in Philadelphia

Share

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

EGF, Girl Socialist, DEN, Sept 21, 1907

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.

———-

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: From The Industrial Union Bulletin: Elizabeth Gurley Flynn Speaks for I. W. W. in Philadelphia”

Hellraisers Journal: Elizabeth Gurley Flynn Found in New York City Supporting Strike of Young Millinery Workers

Share

You ought to be out raising hell.
This is the fighting age.
Put on your fighting clothes.
-Mother Jones
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hellraisers Journal, Thursday February 13, 1908
New York, New York – Elizabeth Gurley Flynn Stands with Strikers

Since her marriage in Minnesota, in early January, to I. W. W. organizer Jack Jones, his arrest and her subsequent return to her parent’s home in New York, we have not heard much from Elizabeth Gurley Flynn. But we did find this item in the New York Sun of February 7th:

GIRL SOCIALIST TO STRIKERS
—–

ELIZABETH FLYNN ENLIVENS A MEETING OF MILLINERS
—–
Commends the Workers to the Socialist Trades Unions
and Describes Hearst as a Middle Class Reformer
-As for Roosevelt, What’s He to Labor?

EGF, DEN (ca) p 21, crpd, Sept 21, 1907

The mantle which Thomas W. Lawson discarded when he announced that so far as he was concerned the “System” might work out its own destruction has fallen upon the shoulders of Miss Elizabeth Flynn. She wore it last night most becomingly and effectively at a mass meeting of milliners in Teutonia Hall, 66 Essex street.

Miss Flynn is 17 and slim, with big Irish blue eyes, nut brown hair and the milk white skin that betokens a Killarney ancestry. Her voice is clear, soft and coaxing, with a carrying power and a staying quality that the average Madison Square Garden orator would be glad to attain at almost any cost.

The crusader against capital spoke for one hour and a quarter and at the end of that period seemed fresher and more enthusiastic than when she began. As for what she didn’t say about the robbers who stole from the poor working man his country, the tools and materials and the finished product of his labor, and even annexed his inalienable right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, it would be difficult for the most ingenious opponent of the “System” to conceive.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Elizabeth Gurley Flynn Found in New York City Supporting Strike of Young Millinery Workers”