The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1927-10-03
Defenseless Prisoners Unafraid.

lists.
Defenseless Prisoners Unafraid.
| TOULON, Oct. 2.-The story of the
struggle of the Ga Communists, SOL
diers and sailors imprisoned in the
naval prison at Toulon, against an
overwhelming force of prison guards
and the full complement Of the naval
gendarmes stationed at the Jail, as
sumed heroic proportions today. as
details began to come across the
cables.
How the workers and imprisoned
soldiers and sailors, fearfully crowd
ed into the tiny cells of the foul,
damp jail for their refusal to fight
for the French imperialists in Syria
Morocco and China, persisted in their
protests against the sentencing Of
Marty and Duclos by shouting 'Down
With War! Long Live Marty!" now
forms one of the high points in the
recent history of the struggle of the
French sailors and soldiers against
the imperialists.
The battle in the naval prison be-
gan when, to the threats of the prison
guards the uncowed workers and
imprisoned soldiers and sailors made
the dark corridors ring with the
Strains of the International.
Resisted With Tools.
The workers seized their prison.
tools and, resisting step by step
gained the second floor of the Jail
and there barricaded themselves.
During the struggle scores of other
prisoners broke from their cells. in
order to come to the aid Of their
comrades, and throwing themselves
upon the guards succeeded in gain
ing temporary victory.
Seeing that they were defeated by
the Unexpected courage and strength
OF the tTorkers, soldiers and sailors
the gadsrs called upon their victims
to surrender The demand was met
by a tremendous burst of laughter.
followed Immediately by renewed
and mighty singing Of the Inte1na-
tlonal. But the trapped prisoners
realized their impossible position and.
IN order to inform the Toulon work
ers OF their plight, many comrades
opened their veins and dyed their
prison rags in the blood. They waved
the red flags, thus formed, from the
loop-holes of the prison walls where
they were seen by the crowds of
workers who had already heard ru-
mors of the fight and had gathered
in the courtyard below A shout rose
from the masses and at the sight of
the bloody signals, the fury of the
assembled workers could scarcely be
held IN check by the rifles and ma
chine guns of the naval reserves who
had arrived.
Struggle Wrecks Dungeons.
With the arrival of re-enforce-
ments, the guards made another at
tempt against the prisoners. The
prisoners defended themselves cour-
ageously, but outnumbered ten to
one, they were overpowered. The en-
, tire interior of the Jail was wrecked
however, before the end of the strug-
gle.
The outbreak did not end until the
struggling soldiers and sailors mer-
cilessly beaten by the clubs, swords
and gun-butts of the naval police
and bleeding from the gendarmes
brutality, were handcuffed and chain
: ed in lines to the prison wreckage
As the jail was too badly wrecked
for incarceration, the authorities,
fearing that the remaining prisoners
might revolt, determined to remove
the injured workers to Fort Malbous-
quet.
As the manacled and bleeding
workers, soldiers and sailors were
dragged forced and led into the
prison yard for loading on the trucks,
the crowds of French workers, who
had gathered in hundreds around the
jail, attempted to interfere with their
transfer The naval police beat a
path thru the excited masses. with
their clubs and swords and, with
great difficulty, loaded the bound
and gagged men into the camions.
The workers tried to prevent the de-
parture of the trucks by making a
wall of their bodies, and failing in
that, as the camions charged at full
speed thru their ranks, broke into
the International and followed the
trucks along their route to the fort
with long shouts of "Down With the
Army! Long Live Marty! Long Live
Duclosw
The workers, soldiers and sailors,
thrown into the dungeons of Fort
Malbousquet, are reported to have
undergone more terrible police tor
lures than those they endured at the
Toulon prison.
The port and all the public build
ings of Toulon are under heavy
armed guard and re-enforcements are
being concentrated in the town. The
mutiny on the warship Ernest Renan
and the heroic resistance of the "a