The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1927-03-01
ASK N. Y. LABOR
TO RALLY AID TO
IS CLOAKMAKERS
Metropolitan Confer
ence March II

A defense of the cloakmakers con-
ference of representatives from all
labor organizations and sympathetic
groups'in greater New York has been
called for March IL at Manhattan Ly.
ceum, by the ClOakmakers Defense
Committee.
The call, issued by John Robbins,
and 5. BRO, chairman and secretary
of the defense committee, is addressed
to all labor organizations, points out
that the sixteen cloakmakers now
under heavy sentences melted out bv
the labor hating Judge Rosalsky,"
have been victimized because they
made courageous fight for their
own union and for labor. It summons
labor to the conference as the first
step in campaign to defend these
men and to aid their families while
they are in prison. Many Of the i'm
prisoned men have families of small
children.
The summons to the conference is
as follows:
Dear Friends:
The Cloakmakers' Defense Com
luittee appeals to You on behalf of
the sixteen cloakmakers who have
been sentenced to long terms in prison
because of their activities in the last
cloakmakers' general strike.
You already know that the cloak
makers carried on a bitter struggle
for 20 weeks to better their condi-
tions. The bosses employed every
means to break the strike. At their
request, the police arrested hundreds
Of strikers daily. Gangsters were en-
ployed to terrorize the cloak district.
and hundreds Of cloakmakers were at
tackled and brutally beaten.
The police and hired gangsters. and
the Judges as well, were the defen-
ders of the bosses and the scabs who
were attempting to break the strike.
The very life of the union was threat
ened by all these forces allied against
it.
Crime of Self-Defense.
The cloakmakers carried on a cour-
ageous struggle for their union and
the strike. Sixteen of the brave cloak
makers who defended themselves
against scabs were arrested, and were
sentenced by the labor hating Judge
Rosalsky to terms in prison of six
months to five years. Sixteen honest
workers. whose only crime was that
they defended themselves against the
seabs, were separated from their
homes and families They fought for
the union-this was their only Of
Tense.
While these innocent men are con-
demned to Jail, the hired sluggers of
the bosses are allowed their freedom.
This is the first time in the history
of the cloakmakers' union that strik-
ers have been meted out such brutal
sentences.
The labor movement must not al
low these sentences to stand. Every
effort must be made to free these
nen from prison bars. Every effort
must be made to relieve and support
the families that they have left be-
hind.
Labor Must Do Job.
Dear friends, the Cloakmakers' De-
Tense Committee appeals to you to
come to the aid of the sixteen victims
and their families.
Under normal conditions, the cloal,
and dressmakers' union would have
been able to undertake the work Of
freeing these cloakmakers without
calling for outside assistance, but the
Union now finds itself in a critical
situation. The duty must fall on the
labor movement to free these victims
and assist their families during their
Imprisonment.
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