Tag: San Francisco CA

Hellraisers Journal: From The Industrial Union Bulletin: “Women and the IWW” by Sophie Vasilio

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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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, Monday April 27, 1908
A Letter from a San Francisco Woman to the I. U. B.

Women in the I. W. W.

To the Editor of THE BULLETIN:

IWW Gen Adm Emblem, IUB, Mar 14, 1908

1. Is a married women of the working class a chattel slave or a wage slave?

2. Has she the right to belong to a mixed local of the I. W. W.?

I ask these questions because objection has been raised by some member of the Denver local to the effect that a married woman, a housekeeper, has no right to belong to a workingmen’s organization.

I wish to be made clear as to the attitude of the general organization on this matter.

As far as I know, the purpose of a mixed local is to educate and organize branches of different industries when there are enough members to form a local. Does a woman, that keeps house for her husband, interfere with the progress of the organization by being a member of a mixed local?

Some assert that we have no grievance against the capitalist class, therefore we have no place in the union. Our grievance is against our husbands, if we are dissatisfied with our condition.

I believe the married woman of the working class is no parasite nor exploiter. She is a social producer. In order to sustain herself, she has to sell her labor power, either in the factory, directly to the capitalist, or at home, indirectly, by serving the wage slave, her husband, thus keeping him in working condition through cooking, washing and general housekeeping.

Her being a mother and a housekeepers are two different functions. One is her maternal, and the other is her industrial function in society. And as an industrial factor in society. I believe the wage slave’s wife has got a right to belong to a mixed local. I think it should be encouraging for workingmen to see women enter their ranks and, shoulder to shoulder, fight for economic freedom.

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Hellraisers Journal: From The Liberator: “The Peril of Tom Mooney” by Robert Minor -“Will You Let Them Do It?”

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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There are no limits to which
powers of privilege will not go
to keep the workers in slavery.
-Mother Jones
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hellraisers Journal, Sunday March 10, 1918
From San Francisco to Petrograd, Workers Fight for Life of Tom Mooney

From The Liberator of March 1918:

The Peril of Tom Mooney

By Robert Minor

Tom Mooney Hanging by Robert Minor, Liberator, Mar 1918

THE story of the manner in which Tom Mooney’s death sentence was procured is stock conversation in American working-class homes. It has gone as far as the trenches of the European armies. There is hardly a Russian village where the name of “Tom Muni” has not been heard. Actually, the names of the witnesses in the case are spoken in Siberian villages, and a certain California district attorney is regularly cursed around the samovar.

The only evidence against Tom Mooney that a sensible man would listen to, was that of an Oregon cattleman, Frank C. Oxman, who came into the trial at the last moment, took the stand like a breeze from the prairie, swore that he was a country gentleman, loved his wife, and had seen Israel Weinberg drive Tom Mooney, Mrs. Mooney, Billings and an unidentified man to the scene of the crime in Israel Weinberg’s jitney bus, of the number of which car he had made a note on a telegraph envelope which he had in his pocket at that moment. He never made a mistake in his life in the identity of a person, as he was used to identifying cattle on the range….Mooney was condemned to die on the gallows.

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

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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.

IWW GDC Doree Chumley Wilson Farley, ISR Feb 1918

IWW GDC Law Payne Hardy, ISR Feb 1918

—–

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: From the United Mine Workers Journal: Corrupt Powers in San Francisco Demand Labor Victims

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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There are no limits to which
powers of privilege will not go
to keep the workers in slavery.
-Mother Jones
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hellraisers Journal, Tuesday September 25, 1917
San Francisco, California – Powerful Coterie Determined to Crush Labor

From the United Mine Workers Journal of September 20, 1917:

Victims Demanded

Mooney Tom Rena, Billings Weinberg Nolan, 1916, EN 1917

—–

A community shocked and enraged because of the perpetration of a heinous crime; a powerful coterie determined to crush organized labor; a venal district attorney, and newspapers owned and their news columns and editorial policy controlled by those interested in destroying organized labor as an economic and political power; that is the present situation in San Francisco and the other cities on the Pacific coast.

The terrible crime committed by some deranged alien enemy served as an opportunity. Tom Mooney, Rena Mooney, Billings, Weinberg and Nolan were selected as the readiest victims at hand. The order is, “Condemn those people, and through them the organized labor movement.”

In the case of Tom Mooney the main witness, upon the strength of whose evidence the verdict of guilty is based, it is generally conceded is a perjurer for price; also that the prosecuting attorney instructed this witness and attempted to suborn another and instruct him as to what evidence would best serve to convict.

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Hellraisers Journal: International Socialist Review on Mooney Case: “They Are Building the Gallows”

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

Hellraisers Journal, Tuesday July 3, 1917
San Francisco, California – Report on Tom Mooney Frame-Up

From the International Socialist Review:

Building Gallows Mooney by Minor, ISR, July 1917

—–

IT HAS been proven that Tom Mooney was framed up. We who are interesting ourselves in his case were glad, after our long and terrible struggle, when we were able to offer the public the absolute and unquestioned proof that Mooney’s conviction was the result of perjury bought and paid for. We were glad to be able to silence arguments with actual letters in the handwriting of the chief perjury conspirator, which letters tell in black and white that Mooney’s death is sought by false testimony. We have silenced argument.

Franklin A. Griffin, the judge who pronounced the death sentence upon Mooney, has angrily demanded that Mooney be given another trial, free of perjury. The newspapers which formerly demanded his blood have now ceased to call for Mooney’s death, and two of them are demanding that the disgraceful conviction be undone.

All of California and American Labor has ceased to discuss personal differences and has demanded in one tremendous voice that Mooney, Mrs. Mooney, Billings, Weinberg and Nolan be freed. Every national figure in the labor movement of the United States is active now in behalf of the humble labor unionists in the jail of San Francisco.

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Hellraisers Journal: “To the Shame of Labor” by Robert Minor, “Mooney Plot Exposed!”

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

Hellraisers Journal, Tuesday May 8, 1917
From the International Socialist Review: The Mooney Case

Mooney Billings, Minor, ISR, May 1917

TO THE SHAME OF LABOR

By ROBERT MINOR

Mooney Plot Exposed, Minor, ISR, May 1917

W. Bourke Cockran is a democratic leader, as well as the most noted lay orator in expounding the doctrines of the Catholic Church. Bourke Cockran is known internationally for his remarkable mentality and almost unequaled oratory in Congress and upon the democratic platform. He cannot be accused of being prejudiced in favor of violent overturners of society. Cockran spent six weeks in San Francisco as volunteer chief counsel for Tom Mooney, and at that time steeped himself in every detail, confidential or otherwise, of the entire story of the prosecution of Mooney, Billings, Nolan, Weinberg and Mrs. Mooney on the charge of blowing up the preparedness parade. One of the highest-priced attorneys in the world, he charged for his services—nothing.

When a cynical jury of twelve business men and retired derelicts sentenced Tom Mooney to hang, Cochran told me that he had never received so heavy a blow in his life. He said that if such things could be, the nation was rotting at its foundation.

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Hellraisers Journal: Eugene V. Debs Pleads with Organized Workers of America to Stand Up and Save Life of Tom Mooney

Janet RayeEugene Victor Debs
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Comrades, the red blood in you
must now prove itself.
I pledge myself to you
in this fight to its finish.
-Eugene Victor Debs

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Hellraisers Journal, Friday April 13, 1917
From the International Socialist Review: Debs Fights for Life of Tom Mooney

Eugene Victor Debs, ISR, Oct 1916

TOM MOONEY SENTENCED TO DEATH

An Appeal to the Organized Workers of America!
By EUGENE V. DEBS

Tom and Rena Mooney, ISR, Dec 1916

A TELEGRAM just received from San Francisco announces the sentence of Tom Mooney. He is to hang by the neck until he is dead. The day set for his murder is May 17th. The capitalist jury and judge have done their foul work, and it is now up to us to do ours.

Tom Mooney is an absolutely innocent man and his conviction an infamous crime. We, the workers of America, are duty bound to challenge the verdict of the capitalists’ jury and set aside the sentence of the capitalist judge. We constitute a court, a jury and a judge of our own.

We sat thru this case from the hour the vile conspiracy was concocted and we knew beyond doubt that Mooney was framed and that he is to be murdered for no other reason than that the corporation criminals, the big capitalist thieves and their official highbinders could not buy him, or silence his agitation.

More than twenty reputable witnesses not only testified to Mooney’s innocence but proved it beyond even the shadow of a doubt. His alibi was without a flaw. He was miles away from the bomb when it exploded in the preparedness parade. He had absolutely no connection with and no knowledge of the affair. Bourke Cockran, the eminent New York lawyer who defended him, is positively convinced of this and so is every other man or woman who attended the trial and is not in the pay or under the influence of the United Railroads, the Manufacturers’ Association, and other red-handed bandits who have for years been plundering San Francisco and have now set themselves up as the autocratic rulers of the Pacific coast.

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Hellraisers Journal: Agnes Thecla Fair, Hobo Poet and “The Good Angel of Labor,” Memorialized by Alfred D. Cridge

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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I have a sharp tongue and a hat pin,
and know how to put any man down and out
who gets foolish.
-Agnes Thecla Fair

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Hellraisers Journal, Tuesday February 13, 1917
Portland, Oregon – Agnes Thecla Fair Journeys On

Agnes Thecla Fair, OR Dly Jr, Dec 17, 1916

We are saddened to hear of the death of Sister Agnes Thecla Fair who took her own life on January 11th in Portland, Oregon. The Oregon Daily Journal of January 12th reported:

Convinced that failing health made it impossible for her to continue her work in behalf of the downtrodden in the ranks of labor, Agnes Thesla [Thecla] Fair, noted street lecturer and writer on sociological subjects, yesterday afternoon ended it all by throwing herself in front of an Oregon City electric car on Spokane avenue in Sellwood [a neighborhood of Portland]. She was 37 years of age…

A Tribute from the Appeal to Reason of February 10, 1917:

Agnes Thecla Fair, Rough Neck, Railway Carmens Jr, Apr 1914

Agnes Thecla Fair

[“Sister Agnes”-as she was called by thousands-is dead. All through the west, Agnes Thecla Fair’s name is known to the workers in almost every mining and lumber camp. Wherever union men needed help-Agnes was there. Wherever the Socialist had a particular difficult job-Agnes was there. Wherever the victims of the system endured especially trying hardships-Agnes was there with a helping hand. She was a rare character-a real woman hobo. She never hesitated to ride the rods. She went to hundreds of cities via the boxcar route. On such trips she wore overalls. The following appreciation of “The Good Angel of Labor” appeared in the Oregon Journal of Portland, on January 14. Agnes was killed under a train:]

—–

BY ALFRED D. CRIDGE.

Agnes Fair has gone again, this time never to return. She was a frail and earnest little woman, whose experiences had been many and varied for her thirty-seven years of life. She never spoke of her early life or parentage to me, but in a way we were friends.

Agnes was the friend of every man who was down and out. That we were not better friends is because I never was in a position to need her help.

Agnes was first heard of by me as being active in the free speech fight in Spokane some years ago.

She was known before that in Seattle and in the Yukon territory and Alaska as the advocate, nurse and provider for the under dog.

Agnes never sought help for herself. She always sought help for others. She would sell the clothes she had on to help the down and outs. I have known her literally to do so.

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Hellraisers Journal: From the International Socialist Review: Theodora Pollok on the Mooney Frame-Up

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There are no limits to which
powers of privilege will not go
to keep the workers in slavery.
-Mother Jones

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

Hellraisers Journal, Monday December 18, 1916
San Francisco, California – The Closed Shop Fight and Frame-Up

From the December edition of the International Socialist Review:

Will Labor Stand for Another
Haymarket?

By THEODORA POLLOK

Tom and Rena Mooney, ISR, Dec 1916

SAN FRANCISCO in 1916; Chicago in 1886. The closed shop fight now; the 8-hour fight then. In both cases, a crime of violence occurs and is tied around the necks of innocent labor men in the hope of helping to crush the spirit of labor.

In Chicago in 1886 a slavish press and an inflamed public mind, and the labor and radical groups, too weak to save the chosen victims. Today in San Francisco a slavish press, but a public mind open to conviction. Yet young Billings, first of the San Francisco Preparedness Day explosion defendants to be tried, has been convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment, and only the fighting working class of the country can save him—by saving his four co-defendants.

Tom Mooney’s trial, the second trial, is set for the 27th of November. It is Tom Mooney’s life that is desired above all others by this gang of ruffians, the “gentlemen” of the Chamber of Commerce, the United Railroads, and the Pacific Gas & Electric, and their tools in the District Attorney’s office. For Mooney, helped by his little music teacher wife, Rena, who is one of his co-defendants—Mooney recently dared actually try to organize the carmen of the United Railroads, who have been beaten down, spied upon and “weeded out” since the great car strike before the earthquake.

The tactics of the prosecution are such as might rather be expected in some backwoods lumber baron’s camp than in a great urban center. Indeed, with the “Law and Order” Committee from the Chamber of Commerce censoring all the press, the truth is even harder to get to the people than in a small town where it flies from mouth to mouth.

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Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts & Doings of Mother Jones for November 1916: Pays Visit to President Wilson with Labor Delegation

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I am loyally yours for a damn fine fight.
-Mother Jones

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

Hellraisers Journal, Saturday December 16, 1916
Mother Jones Found in Washington D. C. During November

We pause to review the activities of Mother Jones, that fearless champion of the cause of working-class men, women and children in their struggle for industrial freedom. We first find her remembered for her work on behalf of the children of the mills when she led them on the March of the Mill Children during the summer of 1903.

From the Iowa Bayard Advocate of November 2, 1916:

TENEMENT CHILDREN WILL
VISIT WILSON
—–
Their Welcome Will Be Unlike That
Once Given at Oyster Bay.
—–

Mother Mary Harris Jones, Logansport, IN, Sept 27, 1916New York, Oct. 28.-Fifty mothers of New York’s east side, with their children, who have been emancipated from sweatshops by the enactment of

the child labor law, are going to Shadow Lawn, Saturday, in person to thank President Wilson.

A “kind lady,” who prefers to conceal her identity, has donated a special car to be attached to one of the trains bearing pilgrims from New York to Shadow Lawn to hear the president’s address on “Wilson day.” The children will carry armsful of artificial flowers which they used to make in the factories, before their emancipation.

No such pilgrimage of the children of the poor has been attempted since the one when Theodore Roosevelt was president of the United States and a carload of children from the Pennsylvania coal mines [textile mills] journeyed to the summer capital at Oyster Bay to petition for a national child labor law.

“Mother Jones,” who conducted that excursion, told recently in public of the refusal of the guards at Oyster Bay to allow the children to pass the outer gate, and of their return home to wait 14 years for a Woodrow Wilson to set them free.

[Photograph added.]

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