The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1924-11-21
For Glass War Prisoners

We have before expressed our hope that Com
pers, while sojOurning at the scab Hotel El Paso
del Norte will spare few moments to solicit "Ma"
Ferguson new governor of Texas, for the pardon
of Jose Rangel and Charles Cline. If Sans reputa-
ton for being "friend of Mexican labor" is to be
sustained he simply must do this much.
But there are hundreds of other prisoners for
the cause of labor rottng their lives away behind
prison walls in this country, and no labor leader
who is fit to remain above ground can ignore them
without making the omission an accusation of
treachery on his part to the working class
Mooney and Billings, militant yes, revolutionary
trade unionists remain in prison after the frame
up against them is clearly proven. And it is up to
Gompers and company at the head of the A. f..
of L. to either quit Boosting about how powerful
that organization is or throw that power into
action in forcing the release of these two victims.
But these are not the only ones, either. The
executive council of the American Federation of
Labor is either interested in the working class of
this country or it is not If it is, it should take
stand unequivocal and aggressive for the release
of every victim of capitalist repression lying be-
hind bars.
There are many of them. Ford and Suhr, rotting
their life away in Folsom year after year, the West
Virginia coal miners who dared to defend their
homes and lives against violence of the bosses, and
the eight lumber workers who remain in the cells
of Walla Walla prison are a standing rebuke to
the traitorous action of Gompers and company in
their collaboration with the American Legion.
Then there are the hundred and more courageous
workers, members of the l. w. W., who have up
held the right of labor unionism in California at
the expense Of one to IA years Imprisonment In
no other country in the world would the labor
movement remain dumb and paralyzed if such out
RACES were perpetrated on workers. The hand of
the union bureaucracy alone is responsible.
Then there are the two italian workers, Sacco
and Vanzetti, doomed to die unless labor really
throws off its Indifference to the murder of work
ers and acts, sharply, decsively and en- masse. If
it does not act, the blood of these workers will be
on the hands of Gompers and company. They are
responsible, let there be no quibbling.
In all these cases the resolution sponsored by
the Trade Union Educational League could be
applied with telling effect This resolution in
structs the state and central bodies to work upon
a program which ~ demands of the executive
power of the states in which workers are i'm
prisoned, their immediate and unconditional re-
lease (2 includes raising the issue of the release
of such workers as a major issue in elections in
these states; (3) insists that this issue shall be
on the agenda at every important union conven-
ton, particularly the state federations; (4) adj
vocates mass meetings and demonstrations for
public demand for release; 5) support to be given
financially to defend workers in courts and to give
wide publicity.
The 44th annual convention is now meeting at
Ell Paso. From reports it seems to be one unre-
lieved picture of reaction. If So so much the
for the workers rotting in prison or on the road
from the factory to the prison. But by its stand
fhou cln A.
ship" of the American labor movement