Hellraisers Journal: General Defense Committee of Industrial Workers of the World Organizes Despite Persecution

10th February 2018 Janet RayeHellraisers Journal

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

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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.

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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!

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Hellraisers Journal: “Labor in Prison; America, 1917” by Charles Ashleigh, Cook County Jail, Dec 25th

3rd February 2018 Janet RayeHellraisers Journal

The Word is said; the Time is nigh.-
Stand fast, O rebel clan!-
For, what are gallows or jails to us
Upbuilders of the Plan?
You cannot stay the Debtor’s Day,-
The Heritage of Man!
-Charles Ashleigh

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Hellraisers Journal, Monday February 4, 1918
From the Cook County Jail: “Labor in Prison” by Charles Ashleigh

From the International Socialist Review of February 1918:

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Hellraisers Journal: Eugene V. Debs Defends I. W. W., Declares Charges “Absurd and Malicious”

3rd February 2018 Janet RayeEugene Victor Debs

EVD Quote, Revolutionary Solidarity, ISR Feb 1918

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Hellraisers Journal, Sunday February 3, 1918
Eugene V. Debs Defends the Industrial Workers of the World

From the International Socialist Review of February 1918:

THE I. W. W. BOGEY

By EUGENE V. DEBS

The morning paper I have just read contains an extended press dispatch from Washington, under screaming headlines, making the startling disclosure that a worldwide conspiracy to overthrow the existing social order has been unearthed by the secret service agents of the government The basis of the conspiracy is reported to have been the discovery of some guns and ammunition in the hold of a Russian freighter just arrived at a Pacific port in charge of a Bolsheviki crew, from which it has been deduced that the guns must have been sent by the Russian revolutionists to the I. W. W. of the United States in pursuance of a conspiracy of the Russian reds, the Sinn Fein leaders of Ireland, and the American I. W. W.s to overthrow all the governments of the civilized world.

This is really too much!

We are not told how the Sinn Feiners happen to get in on this universal conspiracy, but as their name, like that of the Bolsheviki and the I. W. W., has great potency as a bogey to frighten the feeble-minded, the inventors of this wonderful cock-and-bull story may well be allowed this additional license to their perfervid imagination.

Everything that happens nowadays that the ruling classes do not like and everything that does not happen that they do like is laid at the door of the I. W. W. Its name is anathema wherever capitalism wields the lash and drains the veins of its exploited victims.

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WE NEVER FORGET: Political Prisoners of World War I Repression Who Lost Their Lives in Freedom’s Cause, 1917-1931

8th September 20178th January 2019 Janet RayeWe Never Forget

Pray for the dead
And fight like hell for the living.
-Mother Jones
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WNF, WWIR, Political Prisoners 1917-1931

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From American Political Prisoners by Stephen M. Kohn:

Between 1917 and 1931, at least thirty-one young men died as a direct result of imprisonment for their opposition to World War I or for their radical trade union activities. For the most part, these men died in obscurity at a time when the general public ignored the First Amendment abuses that led to their imprisonment and death.

April 8, 1918 – Fort Hancock, New Jersey
-Ernest Gellert. Socialist CO.

June 29, 1918 – Leavenworth Penitentiary
(Date of death from Davenport Daily Times of July 1, 1918, page 1.)
-Daniel H. Wallace, convicted under Espionage Act for anti-war speech given at Davenport, Iowa. Member, League of Humanity.

October 14, 1918 – Bellevue Hospital, New York
-Jacob Schwartz of New York City. Anarchist who criticized US intervention in Russia.
Transferred to hospital from Blackwell’s (? needs verification) after severe beating.

November 1918 – Sacramento County Jail
-R. J. Blaine, IWW-Federal Prisoner, died while awaiting trial.
-Ed Burns, IWW-Federal Prisoner, died while awaiting trial.
-Ed Evans, IWW-Federal Prisoner, died while awaiting trial.
-James Nolan, IWW-Federal Prisoner, died while awaiting trial.
-Frank Travis, IWW-Federal Prisoner, died while awaiting trial.

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