The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1925-06-03
LABOR DEFENSE
IN APPEAL FOR
NATIONAL DRIVE
Urges Fight for Class
War Prisoners
Continued from page u.

Many Cases to Flight.
Rangel and Cline, in a Texas prison
since long before the war, have been
neglected by the movement for &C
tivity in which they were imprisoned.
Sacco and Vanzetti are in the
shadow of the gallows. Fred Merrick
and nine other Communists in Pitts
burgh are this moment facing prison;
Ruthenberg, Foster and the thirty
other Communist defendants in the
Michigan trials, are still in jeopardy.
Two Hawaiian soldiers, Crouch and
Trumbull, have been sentenced to
brutal terms in prison for their sym
pathy with the workers movement.
Hundreds of foreign-born workers
are being deported for their activities
In the labor movement.
In other lands, scores of thousands,
the victims of the white terror, cry
out for help.
Defends Glass Prisoners.
Why do so many of the best fighters
of the working class anguish in .pri-
son? Why are the instruments of or
ganized capital able so easily to frame
up and keep in long confinement some
of the ablest and most active ex-
ponents of the cause Of the workers?
Why are the victims of capitalist con-
spiracy forgotten and their families
neglected? Because the forces of pro-
test are not organized.
Because there is no aggressive move
ment to keep the workers of America
alive to the need of defense and to
recall to them that many brave and
forgotten fighters still lie behind
prison bars.
The executive committee Of the
Labor Defense Council, realizing the
need for such movement, issues the
call for a national conference to con-
vene at 10 a. m. on June 2S, 1925, in
Ashland Auditorium, Chicago, and
that invitations be extended to all
existing defense organizations, In.
dividuals who have distinguished
themselves in the struggle against
persecution and for amnesty, ex-polit-
ical and industrial prisoners, and all
working class organizations.
Institute Nationwide Campaign.
The conference shall devise ways
and means to:
1. Initiate and centralize nation
wide campaigns for amnesty Of all
class war prisoners, for the repeal Of
all criminal syndicalism laws, to op-
pose anti-labor legislation, and against
persecution and deportation Of foreign
born workers.
2. Collect material and give pub
licity to all facts pertaining to work
ing class persecution, to publicly ex-
pose brutal treatment Of political
prisoners and expose secret anti-labor
activities, such as labor spy systems,
etc.
3. Provide legal and moral aid to
all workers attacked for expression
of opinion or for working class ac-
tivity.
4. Give material and moral aid and
comfort to all prisoners who have
been incarcerated for expression Of
opinion or for working class activity.
Protest Against White Terror.
5. Supply material support for the
families and dependents of such
prisoners.
s. Protest against terrorist activi-
ties against workers in other lands,
and to give moral and financial aid
wherever possible to the victims Of
such terror.
Z. Merge all forces willing to CO.
operate in this work into broad ma
tional organization, based upon in
dividual and collective membership
that will stand as an everything and
ever-ready champion for the defense Of
all workers, regardless of their polit-
zeal opinions or affiliations, attacked
thru the courts, or otherwise, for their
activities in the labor movement.
Called On June 20.
The Labor Defense Council believes
that this conference will realize these
aims. 1t is fully confident that sup
porters Of this proposal will come for
ward In imposing numbers and make
the conference of June % the start
ing point for a great defense organ
that win unity all forces friendly to
the American workers movement in
to a solid bulwark against the attacks
Of predatory capital upon any and all
workers Of whatever belief or afilia-
ton.
Rally to the support Of the June
rs conference!
Unite all forces for Labor Defense!
Passport System Abolished.