Tag: Industrial Workers of World

Hellraisers Journal: Elizabeth Gurley Flynn States: New Yorkers Will Care for the Children of the Paterson Silk Strikers

Janet RayeElizabeth Gurley Flynn
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Quote EGF, Heaven n Hell, ISR p617, Jan 1910—————

Hellraisers Journal – Thursday May 15, 1913
New York, New York – Detachment of Paterson Children Arrive in City

From the Paterson Evening News of May 13, 1913:

WILL CARE FOR MORE CHILDREN
———-

EGF w Paterson Children May Day NYC, Richmond IN Palladium p6, May 10, 1913

“New Yorkers are anxious to take  care of your children until the strike is over, and help you win your battle,” said Miss Elizabeth Gurley Flynn in a recent address at Helvetia hall. This seems to be true if the following dispatch from New York is to be believed:

New York, May 13 [Tuesday].-Seven or eight hundred men and women pushed and shoved and almost came to blows on Saturday [May 10] for the possession of sixty-five frightened little boys and girls. They were the third detachment of children of the striking Paterson silk weavers sent here to be farmed out to board among strike sympathizer, and the men and women who almost mobbed them were fighting for one of them to care for.

Industrial Workers of the World followers, their friends and few curious people began to gather early yesterday afternoon at the Labor Temple. They came because the Paterson strike committee had sent out 250 postcards asking volunteers to board and lodge 150 children, who would be allotted to their temporary guardians at five o’clock. Twice before in the last ten days this appeal had been sent out, and already 175 children have found homes in New York. A special committee, of which F. Sumner Boyd is chairman, and Mrs. Anna M. Sloan director, has had charge of the distribution.

When children arrived by auto truck from Paterson at 5.30 o’clock there were only sixty-five of them. They ranged in age from four to fourteen years, and when Miss Jessie Ashley and Miss Ethel Byrne, Paterson nurse, the others who had brought here had seated them in rows at Labor Temple hall and announced that only sixty-five, instead of 150, would be assigned, trouble began…

[Mr. Boyd declared:]

We shall probably bring 100 or more over the middle of the week, and we already have more than twice as many applications for the children as we have children to be cared for. We will bring them all, though.

Like the 175 children that have already been brought here, those who came yesterday were all found on examination by physicians in Paterson to be below normal from malnutrition.

Paterson Strike Children NYC, NY TB p14, May 12, 1913

[Photographs and emphasis added.]

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Hellraisers Journal: General Strike of Silk Industry in City of Paterson, N. J., to Be Called by Local 152, IWW, Next Week

Janet RayeElizabeth Gurley Flynn
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Quote BBH re Capitalist Class, Lbr Arg p4, Mar 23, 1911—————

Hellraisers Journal – Sunday February 23, 1913
Paterson, New Jersey – Silk Workers Vote with Great Enthusiasm for General Strike

From the Paterson Morning Call of February 20, 1913:

GENERAL STRIKE DUE NEXT WEEK?
———-
Labor Committee Will Decide on Date
at Tonight’s Meeting.
———-

Paterson Faces Big Silk Strike, Newark Eve Str p8, Feb 20, 1913
Newark Evening Star
February 20, 1913

Two meeting rooms were necessary in Turn hall last night to accommodate all the silk workers that attended to take action on a proposed general strike throughout the industry in this city. When more than a thousand had crowded into one hall and the police prohibited any additional people there, the committee from local 152, Industrial Workers of the World, under whose auspices the mass meeting was conducted, opened a smaller hall, where between two and three hundred stood while they listened to urgent appeals on the part of the labor leaders to join the walkout, which they claimed to be inevitable now. Men and women continued going and coming during the entire evening, so that it is safe to assume there were more than two thousand who heard all or part of the speeches at least.

After all the speakers had concluded, the chairman of the meeting asked what decision the people had arrived at and what they considered doing in the matter of the movement to do away with the three and four-loom system in Paterson. One man to the rear of the hall yelled “strike” in no uncertain tones, and the hundreds applauded.

“How many vote to have this striker?” asked the chairman, and then requested that all in favor of going out raise their right hands. The people had been worked to a white heat of enthusiasm by the addresses and many of them raised both hands and then jumped on chairs to make their approval the more pronounced. After joining in huzzas for the period of a minute or more the people filed out.

Whether this spirit is a lasting one will remain to be seen when the executive committee of the local 152 call upon the workers to strike. It was evident last night that the men were more than interested in the matter, but even sanguine labor leaders would not vouch for their support. Such action by the people was expected after the oratorical fireworks that had been presented, but there was no indication that the same line of action would be adhered to when the privations consequent to the loss of work and wages are met with.

Between 500 and 600 of the workers that crowded the two halls last night did not wait until the vote was taken, and their presence might be accounted for by assigning curiosity as the cause. They made no expression of their opinion one way or another, and while their support is banked upon, there is no positive assurance that the support will be there when wanted.

A Polish speaker named Lauer, an Italian speaker, Organizer Kaplen, who spoke in Yiddish, and Miss Elizabeth Flynn made up the list of talkers that had been brought into the city for the meeting. When it became necessary to open the second hall, several of the local leaders jumped into the breach and made addresses on the situation as they sized it up.

One thing is certain, a general strike will be called. The executive committee of local 152, I. W. W., will hold a closed meeting this evening in Turn Hall, where manifestos will be brought up and translated into several languages. As soon as they are taken from the press they will be distributed directly to the silk workers.

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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: Chicago IWW Trial: Defense Calls Red Doran; Courtroom Treated to “Chalk Talk” on Economics

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Doran, IWW Trial Chg, June 28, 1918
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hellraisers Journal, Tuesday July 2, 1918
Chicago, Illinois – “Chalk Talk” by Red Doran at I. W. W. Trial

On Friday, June 28th, Attorney Otto Christensen called forth John T. “Red” Doran as a witness for the defense. In place of the usual witness chair was found a large easel and a cloth blackboard upon which Fellow Worker Red Doran launched into an illustrated address describing the current economic system and explaining how it is based upon robbery, degradation and exploitation of the many for the benefit of the few.

From El Paso Morning Times of June 30, 1918:

Chg IWW Trial, Red Doran, ISR Jan 1918


Red Doran, Lecturer
for I.W.W. Society,
Given Trial in Court
—–

By Associated Press.

Chicago, June 29.-Red Doran, who was permitted to lecture in court [June 28th] as part of the evidence in the I. W. W. defense and spoke of alleged unsanitary conditions in northwestern lumber camps, had only spasmodic experiences as a worker in these camps, it appeared on cross examination today. He admitted that he never had worked in a lumber camp or mill, except in the blacksmith.

Charles Ashleigh, the third defendant to take the witness stand, said he became interested in the labor movement in England. In 1903 when he came to the United states he became interested in the I. W. W. in New York he said he did some work for Miss Anne Morgan.

He testified that the I. W. W., aims at industrial rather than governmental reform. In the United States, he said, there is an advanced political democracy and an industrial autocracy.

“So long as this condition exists, industry is little more than a sentiment,” he said.

Charles R. Griffith [Griffin], another defendant, related numerous experiences with his employers during 18 years spent in the woods as a lumberjack. He defended the I. W. W. propaganda and told of conditions which he said had been responsible for many strikes in the northwest lumber camps.

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