Tag: Industrial Workers of the World

Hellraisers Journal: International Socialist Review: One Big Union Wins Great Victory at Lawrence, Massachusetts, Part IV

Janet RayeBread and Roses Strike of 1912
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Quote Lawrence Strike Committee, Drunk Cup to Dregs, Bst Dly Glb Eve p5, Jan 17, 1912—————

Hellraisers Journal – Saturday April 6, 1912
Lawrence Textile Strikers Win Great Victory with I. W. W., Part IV of IV

From the International Socialist Review of April 1912:

ONE BIG UNION WINS

By LESLIE H. MARCY and FREDERICK SUMNER BOYD

Lawrence Committee of Ten, ISR p628, Apr 1912

In the eighth week of the strike the bosses made an offer of five per cent wage increase. The A. F. of L. scabs accepted it and went back. The I.W. W. strikers turned it down flat. The offer was made on a Thursday, and it was hoped that thousands of strikers would break ranks and stampede to the mills on the following Monday. When the mills opened they had actually fewer scabs, and looked out on a picket line numbering upwards of twenty thousand.

At the end of the following week the bosses discovered they meant an average increase of seven, and later seven and a half per cent, and that they would amend the premium system, paying fortnightly instead of by the month as had been the practice, resulting in the loss to a large part of the workers of the entire premium. Again on the following Monday the mills had still fewer scabs, and the picket line was stronger than ever.

When the Committee of Ten left for Boston on March 11th, for the fourth and final round with the bosses, every one realized that the crisis had been reached. Led by the indomitable Riley the Committee forced the mill owners to yield point by point until the final surrender was signed by the American Woolen Company.

The Committee reported at ten o’clock at Franco-Belgian Hall the next day. The headquarters were packed and hundreds stood on the outside. Words are weak when it comes to describing the scenes which took place when the full significance of the report became known. For the workers, united in battle for the first time in the history of Lawrence, had won. The mill owners had surrendered—completely surrendered.

A great silence fell upon the gathering when Haywood arose and announced that he would make the report for the sub-committee in the temporary absence of Chairman Riley. He began by stating that tomorrow each individual striker would have a voice in deciding whether the offers made should be accepted. He said:

Report of Committee.

The committee of 10 reported in brief that the workers will receive a 5 per cent increase for the higher paid departments and 25 per cent for the lower paid departments. There will be time and a quarter overtime and the premium system has been modified so that its worst features are eliminated.

Your strike committee has indorsed this report and has selected a committee to see all the other mill owners who will be asked to meet the wage schedule offered by the American Woolen Company. In the event that the other mills do not accede to the demands, the strike on those mills will be enforced.

You have won a victory for over 250,000 other textile workers, which means an aggregate of many millions of dollars each year for the working class in New England. Now if you hope to hold what you have gained you must maintain and uphold the Industrial Workers of the World, which means yourselves.

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Hellraisers Journal: International Socialist Review: One Big Union Wins Great Victory at Lawrence, Massachusetts, Part III

Janet RayeBread and Roses Strike of 1912
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quote BBH Weave Cloth Bayonets, ISR p538—————

Hellraisers Journal – Friday April 5, 1912
Lawrence Textile Strikers Win Great Victory with I. W. W., Part III of IV

From the International Socialist Review of April 1912:

ONE BIG UNION WINS

By LESLIE H. MARCY and FREDERICK SUMNER BOYD

DRWG Sturges Lawrence Endless Chain Picket Line, ISR p622, Apr 1912

5,000 to 20,000 Strikers Formed the Endless Chain Picket Line
Every Morning from 5 to 7:30 A. M., Rain or Shine.-Boston Globe

Brute force was not, however, the only weapon used by the bosses to try to crush the workers. They had allied with them the A. F. of L., the Catholic church and the Civic Federation a very holy trinity!

Two days after the strike was called John Golden, a member of the Militia of Christ, wired Mayor Scanlon, who had called for militia, asking whether he could be of any assistance to the authorities in suppressing the “rabble,” which he described as anarchistic. Golden and the Lawrence Central Labor Union, affiliated with the A. F. of L., joined in praising the authorities for importing soldiers, and declared that their presence was necessary for “the preservation of order.”

Neither by word nor deed did Golden or the C. L. U. condemn the authorities or their tools for the barbarities and atrocities committed. Vice President Ramsden of the C. L. U., whose two daughters were scabbing in the Arlington mill, when interviewed by the writer was loud in his praises of the militia and the authorities, referred to the I. W. W. as an anarchistic organization that fomented violence and lawlessness, and declared it should be suppressed. He asserted that there was no strike and no organization-only a rabble. When he was asked about the dynamite plot engineered by the bosses through their tool John J. Breen, he naturally refused to comment.

Golden publicly declared that the program of the I. W. W. had acted very much to the advantage of the Textile Workers Union, as it was bringing the latter in closer touch with the mill owners, who understood that it would be more to their interests to deal with the organization, he, Golden, represented rather than with the revolutionary and uncompromising I. W. W.

After having wired, proffering his assistance to the chief of police, Golden got busy in other directions. The mule spinners, numbering according to their own officials, some 180 men, were the only body organized in Lawrence that was affiliated with the A. F. of L. Golden’s union did not have a single member in the whole city. Nevertheless he, in conjunction with Joe R. Menzie, president of the C. L. U., issued circulars to all C. L. U. bodies asking for funds to aid the strike and expressly asking them not to send assistance to the I. W. W.

Then the C. L. U. opened a separate fund. So, too, did Father Melasino, and a man by the name of Shepherd appeared on the scene with some sort of free lunch counter, also appealing for funds.

These various appeals for financial assistance, all made in the name of the strikers of Lawrence, and all calculated to injure the I. W. W. succeeded in diverting large sums of money, the C. L. U. benefiting largely at the expense of the I. W. W. Several times committees from the I. W. W. went to the C. L. U. with evidence that money had been misdirected, but restitution was invariably refused.

Here it may be said that in the seventh week of the strike the C. L. U. strike relief station was practically suspended, applicants being told that the strike was off and that they should return to the mills.

Golden’s next move was to endeavor to organize rival labor unions based on the many crafts in the mills. For several days strenuous attempts were made to divide the workers in the old, old way. Meetings were called by Golden and Menzie, a great deal of money was spent on so-called organizing which had been contributed to the relief funds, and every effort was made to break the solidarity of the workers and get them to return piecemeal.

These efforts failed, the only result being that when the bosses made an offer of five per cent increase over the cut rates—equivalent to an increase of one and one-eighth per cent—a handfull of double-dyed scabs whom Golden had secured to do his work went into the mills.

Golden has shown himself in this fight in his true light, and all the world knows him for a traitor to the working class, and his craft unions are a thing of the past. What Golden did was merely in accord with the policy and doings of the official A. F. of L., and many of the rank and file of the Federation have already woke up to the game of their alleged leaders.

The Ironmolders’ Union that was affiliated with the Lawrence C. L. U. denounced in a resolution the doings of Golden and his gang and withdrew their affiliation. A motion denouncing Golden and his tactics was lost in the Boston Central Labor Union by a vote of 18 to 16. The Central Federated Union of New York City, one of the slimiest haunts of the professional labor crooks in America, even passed a resolution virtually telling Golden to keep his hands off. The Philadelphia Textile Workers’ Union, which had received the Golden appeal, reprinted the I. W. W. appeal for funds and sent several thousand dollars to the I. W. W. war chest.

The latest development in Philadelphia is that 2,000 textile workers have requested I. W. W. organizers to go there and organize a local. All over the country local A. F. of L. unions have denounced Golden and his official friends, and the rank and file of the A. F. of L. has gone on record solidly in favor of their class and against their officials.

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Hellraisers Journal: International Socialist Review: One Big Union Wins Great Victory at Lawrence, Massachusetts, Part II

Janet RayeBread and Roses Strike of 1912
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Quote Lawrence Strike Committee, Drunk Cup to Dregs, Bst Dly Glb Eve p5, Jan 17, 1912—————

Hellraisers Journal – Thursday April 4, 1912
Lawrence Textile Strikers Win Great Victory with I. W. W., Part II of IV

From the International Socialist Review of April 1912:

ONE BIG UNION WINS

By LESLIE H. MARCY and FREDERICK SUMNER BOYD

Lawrence General Strike Com, ISR p617, Apr 1912

On January 11, anticipating some difficulty on pay day, the Secretary of Local 20, I. W. W. wired to Joseph J. Ettor, member of the National Executive Board, who was then in New York City, to go to Lawrence. He left the next afternoon, and arrived on the night of January 12.

Plans were then laid for the conduct of the strike. A general strike committee was formed that met daily, each nationality on strike being represented on it by three delegates. In addition there were three representatives each from the perchers, menders and burlers, the warp dressers, Kunhardt’s mill, the Oswoco mill, the paper mill, the workers in which had struck in sympathy with the textile workers and presented similar demands, and from time to time other sections were represented that were gradually merged as occasion demanded. The general strike committee thus numbered 56 men and women, all of them mill workers.

The first work of the committee was to devise means for carrying on the fight and caring for the strikers. There were no funds when the strike was declared, but in a week or ten days money began to dribble in from surrounding New England towns, and as the strike continued contributions came in from every State in the Union, from all parts of Canada and even from England.

Lawrence Relief Station, ISR p618, Apr 1912

The money in the shape of strike pay would not have lasted a week, but this battle was conducted on a different basis from former fights. Each nationality opened relief stations and soup kitchens, and was responsible for the care of its own people. The Franco-Belgians had had a co-operative in operation long before the strike, and food purchases were made through its machinery. Money was paid over to the various national committees as it became necessary by the general finance committee, with Joseph Bedard as Financial Secretary. With this money the purchasing committee bought goods, and the national committees took their portion.

Meals were provided twice a day at the various stations for the strikers who needed them, and in this manner the Franco-Belgian station at the Mason street headquarters provided 1,850 meals twice daily, the Italians 3,500, the Syrians 1,200, Lithuanians 1,200, the Poles 1,000, and soon, the Germans took care of 150 families and several hundred single workers.

Lawrence Children w Bread, ISR p618, Apr 1912

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Hellraisers Journal: International Socialist Review: One Big Union Wins Great Victory at Lawrence, Massachusetts, Part I

Janet RayeBread and Roses Strike of 1912
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Quote Lawrence Strike Committee, Drunk Cup to Dregs, Bst Dly Glb Eve p5, Jan 17, 1912—————

Hellraisers Journal – Wednesday April 3, 1912
Lawrence Textile Strikers Win Great Victory with I. W. W., Part I of IV

From the International Socialist Review of April 1912:

HdLn BBH n re Lawrence Victory, ISR p613, Apr 1912

THE greatest victory in American labor history has been won by the Industrial Workers of the World in Lawrence, Mass., in a pitched battle of nine weeks’ duration against the most powerful cotton and woolen corporations in the world.

For fifty years the great textile corporations had reigned in New England practically unchallenged, save when ten years ago Tom Powers of Providence, R. I.. led a fierce battle against the American Woolen Company.

During the nine weeks of the fight in Lawrence every barbarity known to modern civilization had been perpetrated by police, military, courts and detectives, the willing tools of the bosses. Pregnant women were clubbed and their children delivered prematurely. Children were beaten in the streets and jails. Men were shot and bayonetted, the jail cells were filled, three year sentences were imposed for comparatively trivial offences, and machine guns were brought into the city.

And despite the abrogation without a shadow of legality of every constitutional right, including those of free speech and free assemblage, and despite the provocation offered by the presence of the bosses tools, twenty-two thousand strikers preserved, under the leadership of the Industrial Workers of the World, a self possession and a self-restraint that was little short of marvelous. Not one overt act was committed by the strikers. Not one desperate deed of an infuriated individual was proved against a striker.

For the first time in America’s labor history it has been demonstrated that a bitterly-fought battle between capitalists and workers can he conducted without the workers resorting to any form of violence. If any triumph is to be claimed for the I. W. W. this is one of the foremost of many.

Soldiers v Lawrence Strikers, ISR p 614, Apr 1912

The strike took its rise in hunger and was fought against hunger in the first place, and against excessive exploitation in the second. Sixty years ago, when Lawrence was little more than a village, and the mills were few and small, the daughters of New England farmers came from the farm to the mill to earn pin money. But as the years passed and the mills grew larger and more powerful there came into the city around the mills a class of people who depended entirely upon the mill for a living. They were first English, Irish and Scotch.

Later Germans and French Canadians began to enter and take their place in the mills. and for years these were the only nationalities to be found. Because the labor market was comparatively restricted and the mill owners were greedy for profits they sent lying emissaries through Europe, particularly to Italy, telling of the wealth of America. These men scattered literature broadcast, and showed pictures of the pleasant homes to be gained in the new land. One picture in particular showed a mill worker leaving the mill and on the way to a bank opposite.

Thus the Italian workers were lured to New England, and after them came in quick succession representatives of almost every nationality in Europe and Asia Minor, until today among others there are Syrians, Armenians, Russians, Portugese, Poles, Greeks, Franco-Belgians, Lithuanians, Letts [Latvians], Jews, Turks and Bohemians.

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Hellraisers Journal: Children of Lawrence Textile Strikers Back in Arms of Parents, Welcomed Home with Monster Parade

Janet RayeBread and Roses Strike of 1912
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Quote Lawrence Children Home, Ptt Prs p2, Mar 31, 1912—————

Hellraisers Journal – Monday April 1, 1912
Lawrence, Massachusetts – Strikers’ Children Welcomed Home

From The Boston Sunday Globe of March 31, 1912:

HdLn n Photo Lawrence Children Home Parade, Bst Glb p1, Mar 31, 1912

BY FRANK P. SIBLEY.

LAWRENCE. March 30-Into the swarming hundreds round the railroad station the train moved slowly, its bell ringing constantly. With shouts the police forced open a passage across the platform from the station door to the train steps. Women fought to get through that line of police. And then the children passed between train and station and were loaded into the waiting wagons.

If one shut his eyes and disregarded the temperature and forgot that the cries which shivered the air into raucousness were of joy and not of rage, he could imagine that the scene of the morning of Feb. 24 was being enacted again.

But no man could shut his eyes, and nobody could mistake the shouts of delight and the laughter and the excited chatter in a dozen tongues, and nobody could mistake the wine of Spring in the air for the bitter cold of a Winter morning, and if he could, the half-dozen enthusiastic bands which were tooting joyously in the background would tell him that this was the return of the children of the textile operatives to the battle ground where their fathers [and mothers] have won.

—————

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Hellraisers Journal: Children Working in the Textile Mills of Lawrence, Mass., Must Pay the Bosses for a Drink of Water

Janet RayeBread and Roses Strike of 1912
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Mother Jones Quote ed, Suffer Little Children, CIR p10641, May 14, 1915—————

Hellraisers Journal – Sunday March 31, 1912
Lawrence, Massachusetts – Child Workers Must Pay Boss for Drink of Water

From The Coming Nation of March 30, 1912:

CRTN Lawrence MA Child Textile Worker Pays for Water, Cmg Ntn p16, Mar 30, 1912

“Do you have to pay for drinking water in the mills?”
“Yes. Every two weeks I pay ten cents.”
(Excerpt from the statement of a child worker in the mills at Lawrence before the House Committee on Rules in Washington.) – Kansas City Post.

———-

[Detail:]

CRTN Detail Lawrence MA Child Textile Worker Pays for Water, Cmg Ntn p16, Mar 30, 1912

“Drop a nickel in the slot for a drink water.”

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Hellraisers Journal: Big Bill Haywood with Child Strikers of Lawrence, Mass: Joseph Stefanck, James George and James Marzur

Janet RayeBread and Roses Strike of 1912
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Quote BBH Dream of One Big Union, Bst Glb p4, Jan 24, 1912—————

Hellraisers Journal – Saturday March 30, 1912
Child Strikers of Lawrence, Massachusetts, with Big Bill Haywood

From the Waxahachie Daily Light (Texas) of March 23, 1912:

BBH w Child Strikers of Lawrence, Waxahachie Dly Lt p6, Mar 23, 1912—–

In furtherance of the plans by which money is raised for the benefit of the striking textile workers of Lawrence, Mass, mass meetings are being held in various cities. These gatherings are addressed by representatives of the strikers, and delegations of the younger operatives also participate. The figure at the right in the illustration is William D. Haywood, who is acting in an advisory capacity to the strikers. The boys, mill workers who appeared before the congressional investigatory at Washington as well as at New York and other mass meetings, are, from left to right Joseph Stefanck, James George and James Marzur.

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Hellraisers Journal: Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, of New York City, Who Stood with Lawrence Strikers Against the Soldiers’ Bayonets

Janet RayeBread and Roses Strike of 1912
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Quote EGF, Heaven n Hell, ISR p617, Jan 1910—————

Hellraisers Journal – Monday March 25, 1912
Lawrence, Massachusetts – Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, Not Afraid of Bayonets

From the Arkansas Gazette of March 24, 1912:

Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, Who Stood with the Strikers of Lawrence

EGF Cape, Dly Ark Gz p53, Mar 24, 1912Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, the New York Girl Who Went to Jail
in Spokane for Writing I. W. W. Articles

—–

Lawrence Soldiers v Strikers, Dly Ark Gz p53, Mar 24, 1912

Soldiers Forcing Back the I. W. W. Strikers and Sympathizers
in Lawrence, Mass.

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Hellraisers Journal: Child Strikers at Washington, D. C.; Harvard University Sends Bayonets to Crush Lawrence Strike

Janet RayeBread and Roses Strike of 1912
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quote BBH Weave Cloth Bayonets, ISR p538—————

Hellraisers Journals – Sunday March 24, 1912
Lawrence Child Strikers at Washington; Harvard Bayonets at Lawrence

From The Coming Nation of March 23, 1912:

Lawrence Child Strikers at WDC, Cmg Ntn p16, Mar 23, 1912

—–

Harvard Bayonets v Strikers by R Walker, Cmg Ntn p15, Mar 23, 1912

“Higher Education” by Ryan Walker

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Hellraisers Journal: Industrial Worker: Police Turn Fire Houses on San Diego Protest Meeting as Laura Emerson Speaks

Janet RayeFree Speech Fights
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Among the women soaked were
Mrs. Laura Emerson and Juanita McKamey,
both of whom are under the ban of the police.
–Los Angeles Times, March 11, 1912
—————

Hellraisers Journal – Saturday March 23, 1912
San Diego, California – Fellow Worker Stumpy Reports on Vicious Police Action

From the Spokane Industrial Worker of March 21, 1912:

SAN DIEGO IS ABOUT ALL IN
Vicious Actions  Show Fight Is About Won
———-

San Diego FSF, LPE Juanita McKamey Soaked, LA Tx p
Los Angeles Times
March 11, 1912

To the “Worker:”-The fifth week of the free speech fight here has made a seething cauldron of human passions in this would-be exposition burg of fleas and oppression.

The M. and M. has raised a fund of five million dollars to crush organized labor in general and the I. W. W. in particular on the Pacific coast, and they have selected San Diego as the point of attack, though they are not overlooking a chance to make trouble in various other places. There has been 216 arrests to date for street speaking, and over 200 of these are in jail now and intend to stay there until free speech is established. More men are coming in every day and speaking in the restricted district. The city and county jails here are full and 70 men have been sent to the jails of other counties. Tomorrow the city will start building a stockade where unknown amounts of rock are to be broken by I. W. W.’s.

We have the support of all classes of labor here in this fight. The carpenters union has levied a fine of ten dollars a day on any of its members who will work on the city stockade. All others are equally as loyal.

Two evenings ago an enthusiastic meeting was held in front of the U. S. Grant Hotel (just outside the sacred ground) and the aristocratic guests of that ten-dollar-a-day dump of snobbery were thoroughly acquainted with San Diego’s infamy.

Although we were clearly outside the forbidden ground the bosses could not forgive the telling of the truth. At the street meeting last evening a crippled man bought ten “Workers” of a newsboy for free distribution, when the brave cop who wears badge No. 10 struck him a terrific blow and valiantly landed the poor cripple on his back.

Today, March 10, has seen the climax of police brutality and the patience of the citizens has been tested almost to the breaking point. In the morning a meeting was held in front of the county jail to cheer the boys who are behind the bars. Not a policeman was in sight, and the meeting was very orderly and soon adjourned to the city jail to give the boys there a cheer and a song.

Here the scene was different. It was truly representative of Russia-or San Diego. More than a score of uniformed police and plain clothes thugs were lined up n the sidewalk in front of the jail. Behind a heavily barred gate, with blanched face, stood the infamous captain of police, Sehon, directing the work of brutality of his minions.

The meeting had proceeded but a few minutes when the police were ordered to turn the hose on the crowd. In this they were no respecters of persons. Hundreds of men were drenched and knocked down by the force of more than 100 pounds pressure per square inch. One man was knocked down by a police man before the hose was turned on him. Four young girls were nearly drowned before they could get out of the way. A woman past sixty years of age was struck on the side of the head by the stream of water and nearly paralyzed. Mrs. Emerson, who was speaking at the time, had the box washed from under her feet, and she and Mrs. Wightman were soaked [also soaked was Juanita McKamey, the Joan of Arc of San Diego]. A man named Patterson put an American flag over his shoulders and stepped into the street, but even this was no protection, as one bull tore it from his shoulders and another hustled him off to jail. Later Patterson’s father tried to take him some dry clothes but the brave bulls denied him that privilege. A woman who was going from a neighbors to her own home was drenched and driven by the stream as long as she was in range. A man and his wife who were going home from church with their baby in a buggy were struck and the baby nearly drowned before they could get away.

Many other instances of brutality are reported, but they did not come under my personal notice.

Aside from the wholly unwarranted action of the police nothing was more noticeable than the tone of subdued anger among the thousands of spectators. The brave (?) actions of the noble (?) police continued for nearly three hours, and every minute of the time the crowd could have been led to crush the entire police force by the sheer weight of numbers, but the I. W. W.’s were everywhere counseling peace. Only for this cool-headed action it is not doubted that the streets of San Diego would tonight be drenched in blood that would take many streams of water to wash away.

The police have but one more card to play.

The daily papers have followed Otis’ lead and are now counselling the murder of the boys in jail. The San Diego Tribune of the 5th inst., has the following works in an editorial: “Why are the tax payers of San Diego compelled to endure this imposition? Simply because the law which these lawbreakers flout prevents the citizens of San Diego from taking the impudent outlaws away from the police and hanging them or shooting them! This would end the trouble in half an hour.” Will they do it?

There is a bunch of the worst gun men of the West here, just “hanging around.” But these men do not come into a trouble zone by accident.

Two men were arrested for speaking tonight. The police have tried a new method. Heretofore there have been twelve to twenty bulls at the corner of 5th and E streets to make arrests, but last night there was but one when the speaking started. In a few minutes, however, 25 bulls came charging down the street at a run, cracking all the heads they could reach. Many were severely injured. One man was knocked insensible and had to be carried from the street. A woman was beaten until her hair was clotted with blood. She, too, was carried from the street. And this is the U. S.! The Mexican line should have been run north of San Diego, then we could have laid the crimes of the police to “Barbarous Mexico” instead of to the Christianized Otis gang.

STUMPY.

—————

[Newsclip and emphasis added.]

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