The Organizer (Minneapolis, Minnesota), 1934-08-04

              UNITED
LABOR
ACTION
DAILY STRIKE BULLET!
T   .a
tssi
*1
SMASH THE
CITIZENS
ALLIANCE
TWO TWENTY-FIVE
SOUTH THIRD STREET
Volume 1, No. 20
MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, SATURDAY, AUG. 4, 1934
Price one cent
Workers Mobilize Monday
Knoll Meeting
At Eight RM.
Militia Court
Sentences Six
Union Calls for Release
of All Pickets
Coming down with a heavy hand
on peaceful picketing, a military
court early today handed out a series
of sentences at hard labor in the
stockade. The Strike Committee of
100 calls upon the Central Labor
Union, all brother unions and all
workers of the city to protest immediately to Governor Olson against
this persecution of exploited workers
who tried to exercise their constitutional rights in a struggle to organize and win decent living conditions.
The heaviest sentence handed out
by the viciously anti-labor military
court was one of 90 days, given to
Harold Beal. Nels Wold and L. Gale
were given 60 days each. Thomas
Donahue, Elmer Patterson, and John
Schmidt were given 30 days each.
These prisoners were defended by
Irving Green, member of the strike
committee's legal staff, who has been
a leading figure in the court room
defense work ever since the opening
of the strike.
Two prisoners were released from
the stockade, one of them being Dr.
Enright, arrested for the crime of
giving first aid to workers shot by
Johannes' cops, and a youth named
Irving Schein, captured on the morning of the invasion of strike headquarters by the militia. Schein, whose
crime seems to be writing imaginative literature for an unnamed newspaper, is a university student.
There remain in the stockade 120
prisoners. Most of these prisoners
were arrested by the militia without
any charges of overt action. Seeking to contact the scabs, and to ask
them to stop taking the bread out
of the mouths of honest workers'
families, these men were taken in by
the soldiers while they rode peacefully through the city streets.
A request made of Colonel McDevitt by Albert Goldman for a general pass admitting mothers, wives
and children to visit the prisoners in
the stockade has been refused. A
delegation from the Ladies' Auxiliary
of Local 574 visited Colonel McDevitt last night and was refused the release even of those prisoners who are
ill or who had families in dire need
of their presence.
The Ladies' Auxiliary has appointed a special committee to take charge
of the concentration camp prisoners'
daily needs, such as cigarets, fresh
clothing, and the like. On this committee are Mrs. Jessie Bergland and
Mrs. Moe Hork, whose husband is
one of the prisoners and a member
of the executive board of Local 754.
The prisoners in the stockade, who
include some of the finest fighters in
the ranks of Local 574, are in good
spirits. They have organized themselves, established their own leading
committee and camp police, held several business meetings, and will hold
a "Prisoners' Mass Meeting" in the
stockade tonight to discuss the latest
developments in the strike situation
and to add their own voices to the
chorus of demands for their immediate release.
Being dissatisfied with conditions
as they first were in the stockade,
the prisoners, with the participation
of Brothers Bill Brown, Vincent
Dunne and Miles Dunne, who were
also in the concentration camp, laid
a number of demands before the
miltary officers in charge. As a result of this move and the pressure of
the aroused workers of the city at
large, conditions in the concentration
camp have now improved. The fight
on behalf of these prisoners, however, will not be abandoned as long
as one of them remains unfreed.
Their arrest has been a great blow
to the strike. Governor Olson, who
claims that the raid on headquarters
was a move to help the strike, has
not yet suuggested that he ordered
General Walsh to have these arrests
made for the help of the strikers.
But in any case no one will be deceived. We want these brothers back
on the picket line where they belong.
THE ROAD TO VICTORY
All the new moves that are being made in
the strike situation, and the feverish intensification of the negotiations aiming at a settlement, spell just one thing for the members of
our Union who understand the real state of
affairs—victory is in our grasp. Our primary
problem at the moment is to hold fast to the
position we have won in struggle, to keep our
eyes open and see to it that we are not cheated
out of the victory that is rightly ours.
Negotiations for a settlement now have the
center of the stage. The union, the employers,
the federal mediators and Governor Olson are
all participating more actively, and more concretely, in this phase of the question than at
any time since the strike began 19 days ago.
This is always a critical period in a strike. Negotiations are treacherous waters. Clear heads
and steady hands are needed to steer the
union ship through them. Many a good fight
of the workers, won on the picket line, has
been lost in the peace negotiations.
Our enemies are full of tricks. They live by
their wits. They are experts in the -art of fooling and befuddling the workers. Up till the
present time, however, they didn't -succeed in
catching our Union in any of the traps they
baited for it. That is the main reason for their
objections to the Union leadership. If we hold
our lines firm now, and keep our heads clear
in the negotiations, a successful ending of the
strike can be achieved.
The latest statement of Governor Olson reflects the tremendous pressure that has been
exerted by the magnificent struggle of the
rank and file of Local 574 and the stormy
protests of other unionists against the shameful actions of which he was guilty during the
past week. There is absolutely nothing strange
in the fact that the Governor has made some
concessions to this working class pressure, As
Governor of the state he wields a great power,
but it is by no means a completely independent personal power. As a Farmer-Labor Governor he is obliged to depend on the support
of the farmers and the organized workers.
They put him in office and they should not
be the least bit bashful in presenting demands
to him. He can ignore them only by committing political suicide.
The turn he has taken in his latest statement is only an expression of his recognition
of this logic. Therefore it should not be re-
gl5rded by the workers as a "favor" to them
but rather as a testimony to the power of their
own independent movement. The independence and the power of the organized labor
movement—this is what is decisive in our
struggle, nothing else.
The Governor's declaration that he is going
to cancel all permits for truck movements of
all employers who do not comply with the"
Haas-Dunnigan settlement proposals is substantially what the union demanded long ago.
Instead of that, however, he turned all the
force of military tyranny against the union and
the strike. The heaviest blows directed against
us since the strike began came precisely from
Governor Olson and the National Guard of
which is is the Commander-in-Chief. The working people of Minneapolis will never forget
that. And they will never forgive it.
At this writing 120 pickets are confined in
the military stockade. No exploiters of labor
are there, none of the pirates who sail under
the black flag of the Citizens Alliance, no imported finks and thugs. Only the workers
striking for a piece of bread, the pickets of
Local 574—the flower of the Minneapolis la-.
bor movement—only these are subjected to
this shameful indignity, this hateful military
oppression.
Feeble efforts are being made in certain
quarters—even in the upper circles of the organized labor movement—to "whitewash"
Governor Olson. It is being explained that his
military raid on our headquarters and the arrest of our leaders and members were meant
to "help" the strikers. Go and tell that to the
120 pickets in Olson's stockade. Explain to
them the great favor that he has done for them
and for the strike.
Nobody is going to fool us with such treacherous reasoning. Nothing will induce us to relax our vigilance and rely on the friendship
of Governor Olson or anybody else to win our
battle for us. We are going to rely now in
this critical period, as in the past, on our own
strength and on the sympathy and solidarity
qf our fellow workers and brother unionists.
That, and that alone, is the power that will
bring us to victory.
The whole strategy of our union boils down
to this:
The workers do not win victories by means
of tricks and clever maneuvers. They win
them by fighting for them. This has been the
central policy of Local 574. It has built our
union into a mighty power. It has carried us
to the point where today victory is in jxar
grasp. Do not let it slip away. Hold the line
firm. Tighten your belts over the weekend.
Turn out to the great mass meeting at the Parade grounds Monday night. Register there
the iron determination of Local 574 to carry
on the fight to a victorious conclusion.
More "Law and Order"
Two pickets were shot down this morning
in cold blood.
Less than 24 hours after The Organizer revealed the presence in Minneapolis of imported thugs of the Bergoff strike-breaking and
murder agency of New York City, a driver of
a Jersey Ice Cream Co. truck emptied his shotgun into Earl Collins and George Schirts, our
brother strikers and picketers.
The Jersey Ice Cream Co. is a notorious
anti-labor crew. '
Thus we have not only persecution by the
cops under Bloody Johannes and Olson's state
troops under General Walsh, but now we have
open brigandage by private companies.
Collins and Schirts were engaged in peaceful picketing not a block and a half from Strike
Headquarters, less than half a mile from Military Headquarters in the Armory. And the
cock-and-bull yarn is that on that spot, in the
broad light of day, these men tried to dismantle the truck driven by the scabby Leo
Holscher who fired the shot
Where are the witnesses? Surely you can
not set about dismantling a huge truck at the
corner of 4th Ave. and 9th Street without having somebody see you do it. Who saw it?
No, this is a simple case of a scab trying to
terrorize our pickets with hot lead. There is
no crime the bosses will hesitate to commit in
order to smash our strike. This is "law and
order" as the Citizens Alliance and the Employers Advisory Committee means it!
But there is no attack which our pickets
cannot deal with. There are not enough scabs
and thugs and shotguns in the state to break
our spirit. Imported gunmen will not do it
either. We close our ranks, clench our fists,
march forward! Peaceful picketing goes on!
Released   Leaders   and
Counsel to Speak
Another enormous turnout of Minneapolis workers has been scheduled
for Monday night at a mass meeting
called by the Strike Committee of
100. This meeting will be held on
the Knoll at the Parade grounds, due
to the fact that the militia are preventing any outdoor meetings at
strike headquarters. This is just another way in which martial law is
helping the strike.
The purpose of Monday night's
mass meeting will be to .review the
events of the last few days and those
which will transpire over the weekend, to protest against the blows
which have been dealt to the strike
by the military regime set up by
Governor Olson, and to discuss the
prospects for , a settlement of the
strike. The views of the officials of
Local 574 and of the Strike Committee of 100 toward the latest proposals made respecting settlement
will be discussed at this meeting.
A special committee will be in
charge of arrangements for the meeting, which will begin promptly at 8
p.  m. e      ■      *
The speakers of the evening will
include William S. Brown, president
of Local 574, andJVmcent. and Miles
Dunne of the Organizing Committee
of 574, all of whom will be making
their first appearance at a mass meeting since their release from the Pair
Grounds concentration camp where
they were imprisoned by Governor
Olson's National Guard.
In addition, Albert Goldman, member of the union's legal staff, who
has played an important role in the
fight for the liberation of the imprisoned strikers from the military
stockade, will speak. The newly established advisory committee of the
Central Labor Union will also be
represented by a speaker. This committee is composed of leading Central Labor Union.
It is very important, according to
the Strike Committee of 100, that
every worker, organized or unorganized, turn out for Monday night's
mass meeting at the Parade. Information of importance to every section of the labor movement will be
made public at that time. In the
series of mass meetings which Local
574 has been holding, to keep the
workers of the city acquainted with
the latest developments and to give
an opportunity to show their sympathy for the strikers, each meeting
has been larger and more enthusiastic than the preceding one. The
strike committee calls upon the workers of Minneapolis to make this Monday, night meeting the greatest of all.
All Out Monday Night
Knoll, Parade Grounds, 8 p. m,
JOHN BELOR BURIED
The funeral of John Belor, shot
by Bloody Johannes' yeggs on Bloody
Friday, was held early this afternoon.
Thousands of workers attended. The
Strike Committee of 100 and Local
574 were officially represented by
three pallbearers, Cliff Hall, Business
Agent of 574, and Sam Swanson and
Fay Cipperley of the Strike Committee. A full report of the funeral
will appear in Monday's Organizer.
NO  ORGANIZER  TOMORROW
The daily strike bulletin is
scheduled to appear six times a
week. Because of the situation
then prevailing, a special issue was
published last Sunday. There will,
however, be no issue tomorrow.
The next edition will appear early
Monday afternoon.
TAG DAY
TODAY
For the Strike Fund
COME DO YOUR BIT!