Tag: Socialists

Hellraisers Journal: Socialists of Kansas Oppose Private Bonds; Public Ownership Victorious in Recent Elections

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Nature has been lavish to her children.
She has placed in this earth all the material of wealth
that is necessary to make men and women happy…
There is just one thing we lack, and we have only ourselves
to blame if we do not become free. We simply lack
the intelligence to take possession
of that which we have produced.
-Lucy Parsons

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Hellraisers Journal, Sunday April 10, 1898
Fort Scott, Kansas – Socialist Education Society Acts

From the Appeal to Reason of April 9, 1898:

OBJECT TO BEING BONDED.

POEM, Am Workingman, AtR p3, Apr 9, 1898

At a regular meeting of the socialist educational society of Fort Scott, Kan., by unanimous vote, the following resolutions were adopted and ordered signed by the President and Secretary in behalf of the society.

RESOLVED, That inasmuch as there is now a scheme on foot to bond ourselves and children to a private corporation for a large sum to pipe natural gas to Ft. Scott, that it is the pledge of this society that we will work to defeat these bonds, and in case these schemers succeed in hoodwinking the people, we pledge ourselves to devise a means to repudiate these bonds; and if we fail we will teach our children the infamy of such schemes that they may repudiate all such bonds.

RESOLVED, That these schemes, after they have been consummated have been laid at the door of the wage worker as “his folly.” We denounce any such accusations as false and defy the capitalistic class to point to a single scheme gotten up by the laboring class to vote any such private bonds.

RESOLVED, That we fully realize that all wealth is created by the laborer, and that all bonds are paid from this creation. Hence, the wealth producer ultimately pays both principal and interest, and the only reward is a false accusation and a little sop called “wage” while they are producing the wealth and giving it to the capitalist.

C. LIPSCOMB, Pres.

M. M. JONES
Secretary.

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Hellraisers Journal: From The Social-Democrat: Anniversary of Paris Commune Celebrated by Socialists World-Wide

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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C’est la lutte finale
Groupons-nous et demain
L’Internationale
Sera le genre humain.
-Eugène Pottier – Paris, June 1871

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Hellraisers Journal, Thursday March 31, 1898
Paris Commune Celebrated Annually by Socialists

From The Social Democrat of March 1898:

ScDem Mar 1898

Triumph of Order over Paris Commune May 1871, ScDem Mar 1898

THE COMMUNE OF PARIS.

The 18th of March, the anniversary of the Paris Commune, is annually celebrated by Socialists throughout the world. The Commune of Paris is an event unique in history. It was the first working-class government that the world had ever seen. For the first time the working people had seized the reins of government, and taken into their hands the administration of a great city. No wonder the possessing classes were alarmed; no wonder all the forces of “respectability,” of reaction and obscurantism, rallied to the government of the “little man,” Theirs, and his gang of Imperialist mouchards and Royalist ruffians at Versailles. The revolution of the Parisian proletariat was not a mere political movement, it was a menace to all those interests which live and thrive by the enslavement, the exploitation, and the plunder of the workers.

The history of this epoch-marking insurrection is an oft-told tale. Who, among Socialists, does not know of the desertion of Paris by the reactionary Assembly; of the measures for disarming the Parisian National Guards; of the attempted seizure of the guns on the heights of Montmartre in the morning of the 18th of March; how that attempt was frustrated, and how the troops sent to carry it out fraternised with the National Guards, and shot the officer who ordered them to fire upon the people?

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Hellraisers Journal: Letter to New York Call from Atlanta Penitentiary Describes Two American Political Prisoners

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Ammon Hennacy, Love Courage Wisdom, Bk of Ammon

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Hellraisers Journal, Saturday March 30, 1918
From The New York Call: A Letter from the Atlanta Pen

New York Call, March 21, 1918

The New York Call on March 24th published a letter written by Ammon A. Hennesey who, having been convicted of distributing literature against the draft, is now serving a two-year sentence at the Atlanta Federal Prison. Hennesey began serving his sentence on July 31, 1917. He hales from Columbus, Ohio, and is described as an “Irish America Socialist.”

Imprisoned with Hennesey is John T. Dunn, a Socialist from Providence, Rhode Island, who was sentenced to twenty years having been convicted under the Espionage Act of 1917.

Described also is William V. McCoy, a “Virginia mountaineer” from big Stone Gap, West Virginia who was convicted of conspiring to seize U.S. property and oppose the government. McCoy was sentenced to five years in prison and began serving his sentence on August 17, 1917. Despite the fact that he is sixty-one years old Mr. McCoy was sent to “the hole” in January and remains there at this time.

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Hellraisers Journal: From The Eye Opener: Eugene V. Debs on Indicted Socialists and Attacks on Russia

Janet RayeEugene Victor Debs
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I have no country to fight for;
my country is the earth,
and I am a citizen of the world.
-Eugene V. Debs

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Hellraisers Journal, Sunday March 17, 1918
Eugene V. Debs on Indictments of Socialist Comrades

From The Eye Opener of March 16, 1918, page 2:

Indicted, Unashamed and Unafraid.
by Eugene V. Debs

Socialist Party of America Button

Sunday morning, March 10, the press dispatches in the daily papers announced the indictment the day before in the federal court at Chicago of Adolph Germer, National Secretary; Victor L. Berger, member of the National Executive Committee; J. Louis Engdahl, editor of The Eye Opener; William F. Kruse, Secretary of the Young People’s Socialist League; and Irwin St. John Tucker, writer and lecturer, all of the Socialist Party [of America]. The charge against them is seditious utterance and interference with the prosecution of the war.

The indictments were found Feb. 2, we are told, but secrecy was preserved regarding the proceeding until the administration at Washington could be consulted and its sanction secured before entering the prosecution.

It is thus made clear that this indictment, while ostensibly directed against certain individuals, is in fact the indictment of the Socialist Party by the national administration at Washington.

If Germer, Berger, Engdahl, Kruse, and Tucker are guilty, so are we all. They have but spoken and written what the Socialist Party stands for, and if Socialism, the thing we stand for and shall continue to stand for, is criminal and subject to indictment and prosecution, then the administration, to be logical and consistent, should indict, prosecute, and imprison not only the spokesmen of the party but its entire membership of more than 100,000 social rebels, who in opposing the damnable profiteering system which has precipitated this bloody deluge upon humanity are alike guilty of sedition and disloyalty in the bleared eyes of the autocratic rulers of this country.

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Hellraisers Journal: From The Ohio Socialist: “Negro Comrades Establish Magazine” -The Messenger

Janet RayeA. Philip Randolph
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Nothing counts but pressure, pressure, more pressure,
and still more pressure through broad,
organized, aggressive mass action.
-A. Philip Randolph

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Hellraisers Journal, Wednesday March 13, 1918
New York, New York – Announcing a New Socialist Magazine

From The Ohio Socialist of March 10, 1918:

NEGRO COMRADES ESTABLISH MAGAZINE

The Messenger, NYC, Eds Randolph and Owen, Jan 1918

A journal that will fill a long felt want is now published in New York. It is “The Messenger,” a Socialist monthly. Brilliantly edited by our colored comrades in New York city, A. Philip Randolph and Chadler [Chandler] Owen. The negroes of America are to be congratulated in having such able men in charge of their first revolutionary journal.

We predict a great success for them in their noble work. They have a vast field to themselves to cultivate, and there is no doubt that under their able leadership the negroes of America will soon take their rightful place in the ranks of the revolutionary army.

One dollar for eight months, $1.50 a year. Published at 230 William street, New York city.-Arizona Bulletin.

The Messenger Cover, Jan 1918

—–

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Hellraisers Journal: Big Bill Haywood Speaks to Socialists at Brooklyn’s Congress Hall as National Tour Continues

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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We have no fight with capital.
All we want is the full equivalent for
the things which we produce.
Capital can take the rest.
-Big Bill Haywood

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Hellraisers Journal, Monday March 2, 1908
Brooklyn, New York – Haywood Speaks at Congress Hall

From The Brooklyn Daily Eagle of February 28, 1908:

W. D. HAYWOOD SPEAKS.
—–
Discusses Goldfield Strike and Labor and Capital,
and Finds Fault With the President.
—–

HMP, Haywood in Cell, Colliers, June 22, 1907

A meeting of the Socialist party of the Twenty-third Assembly District was held last night [Thursday February 27th] at Congress Hall, Vermont and Atlantic avenues. William D. Haywood of the Western Federation of Miners was introduced as the main speaker of the evening by Chairman Barnet Wolff of the local organization. In his opening remarks Mr. Haywood said that on account of having had to do so much talking up to this time he was so hoarse he would be unable to enter into a lengthy discourse on the principles of Socialism, but would try and favor the audience with as much information as to the present condition of the laboring classes as possible.

In speaking of the miners strike at Goldfield he said that the present situation was brought about in the beginning by the mine owners who were “tenderfeet,” who followed the “pioneers,” the laboring classes, to Goldfield, and gobbled up all the mines, and when the miners were in their power sought to reduce the wages of the workingman and practically starve them into submission or drive them to desperation.

The owners, Mr. Haywood said, also issued a script [scrip] payment, which they would not guarantee, and this, among others, was a cause of the present condition there.

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Hellraisers Journal: From Appeal to Reason: Haywood Speaks for Industrial Freedom in Boston’s Faneuil Hall

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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One thing I never can forget—
that I owe my life and my liberty
to the working class of America,
and what you have accomplished for me
and my comrades you can do for yourselves.
-Big Bill Haywood

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Hellraisers Journal, Sunday March 1, 1908
Big Bill Haywood Speaks in Historic Cradle of Liberty

From the Appeal to Reason of February 29, 1908:

HAYWOOD IN FANEUIL HALL.
—–
Historic Cradle of Liberty Rocked Once
More by Working Class Movement
for Industrial Freedom.
—–

BY JOHN RYAN.

Special to the Appeal.

BBH, SF Call p17, Dec 8, 1907

BOSTON, MASS., Feb. 22.-Faneuil hall, the cradle of liberty, was the scene of a historic gathering Monday night [February 17th]. It was the most impressive, enthusiastic and inspiring meeting ever held there. Patrick Henry, with words of fire, demanded constitutional rights. Wendell Phillips asked for the freedom of the negro. Haywood, in a speech logical, eloquent and so heartfelt that many wept, demanded the freedom of the wage slave. The day will come when his portrait will hang in Faneuil hall by the side of those of Patrick Henry and Wendell Phillips. Those fortunate enough to get inside seemed to realize the historical significance of it and felt they were standing in the presence of one who is as much greater than those who have gone before as his message is greater than theirs.

Patrick Mahoney, of Cigar Makers No. 97, acted as chairmen. As first speaker he introduced Joseph Spero, who did so much for the great Boston demonstration held on the Common the 5th day of last May [1907], where one hundred thousand people gathered to protest against the hanging of Moyer, Haywood and Pettibone.

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Hellraisers Journal: Statement of Ohio Socialist, Ruthenberg and Wagenknecht, Before Leaving for the Canton Prison

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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I am not conscious of having committed any crime.
The thing that I am conscious of is having endeavored
to inspire higher ideals and nobler lives.
If to do that is a crime in the eyes of the government,
I am proud to have committed that crime.
-C. E. Ruthenberg

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Hellraisers Journal, Saturday February 16, 1918
Canton, Ohio – Prison Doors Close Behind Ohio Socialists

The New York Evening Call of January 17th reported that the United States Supreme Court had affirmed the prison sentences of C. E. Ruthenberg, Secretary of Local Cleveland, Alfred Wagenknecht, State Secretary and Charles Baker, State Organizer, all of the Socialist Party of America. All three stand sentenced to serve a year in Canton prison by Federal Judge Westenhaver. The statements of Ruthenberg and Wagenknecht, made before they were taken to Canton, were published this month in the International Socialist Review:

NEWS AND VIEWS

From Ohio-As the prison doors at Canton, Ohio, open to receive our comrades, Ruthenberg and Wagenknecht, for one year, they send greetings and these words to the REVIEW and its readers:

WWIR, SPA, Ruthenberg, ISR Feb 1918

THE Supreme Court has decided we must spend a year in jail.

The “crime” of which we are convicted is truth-telling.

We believe in certain principles. We fought for those principles. We go to jail.

Ostensibly we are convicted of inducing a certain Alphonse Schue not to register. The charge is merely the excuse. Neither of us knew Schue. Neither of us heard of him until his name appeared in the indictment against us.

The ruling class is always able to find a Judas. Schue was induced to say he heard our speeches and had been influenced thereby not to register, by the promise of his freedom.

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Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts and Doings of Mother Jones for January 1908, Found Supporting the Unemployed in Chicago

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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You, you miserable policemen!
What business have you here?
Your presence is and insult to
the honest workingmen
who are attending this meeting.
-Mother Jones

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Hellraisers Journal, Saturday February 15, 1908
Mother Jones News Round-Up for January 1908:
-Found Speaking with Lucy Parsons in Chicago

On the evening of January 17th, at a meeting for the Unemployed at Brand’s Hall in Chicago, Mother Jones and Lucy Parsons were both found making passionate speeches which were most unfavorably reported by the kept press.

From Indiana’s Fort Wayne News of January 18, 1908:

THE ANARCHISTS WERE RESTRAINED
—–

LUCY PARSONS THE LEADING FIGURE IN LAST
EVENING’S DEMONSTRATION IN CHICAGO.
—–

Mother Jones, Mar 11, 1905, AtR

CHICAGO, Jan. 18.-The presence of a score of policemen and an equal number of plain clothes men prevented anarchy from ruling the meeting of the “unemployed” and others at Brand’s hall last night, but there was enough of it to make the occasion lively and cause J. H. Drake, who acted as chairman, to give up in disgust and leave the hall.

Not over 800 persons in all answered the call for the turnout, but it was decided to mass the unemployed next Thursday and march on the city hall to demand work. It was suggested, if no other means presented themselves, to tear down the city hall to furnish the desired work.

Mrs. Lucy Parsons, widow of the noted anarchist, Ben L. Reitman, who makes a comfortable living out of the Brotherhood Welfare association, and “Mother” Jones all took the opportunity to air their opinion of President Roosevelt and capitalists.

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