The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1928-10-29
The History of a Hunger Strike

dS dluob uo' VI COuAoS, llObHiIlS Va
the sort was found. Six of our COM
rades were already lying in the hos
pital and two Of these were continu-
ing the hunger-strike.
On the seventh day another COM
rade was taken to the hospital by
force. Here, he continued the
hunger strike, but he was forcibly
fed.
Results of Torture.
On the eighth day, Saturday, the
1st of August, the authorities tried
forcible feeding with all the pris-
oners. This forcible feeding was
ordered by the doctor. The COM
rades were determined to prevent
this. Every prisoner was fetched
separately by the inspector and a
number of warders. The prisoners
addressed the warders in order to
make propaganda. This made the in
spector furious and he caused a
number of comrades to be placed in
solitary confinement. Our chairman
was also put into solitary confine-
ment, because when he was dragged
into the passage where the forcible
feeding was to take place, he kicked
over the coffee pot with his foot.
The forcible feeding took place with
the utmost brutality. The warders
twisted the arms of the prisoners up
behind their backs, tore their cloth
ing and beat UP a number of them.
The comrades defended themselves
as well as they could in their weak
state and against the weight of
numbers. Despite the moral and
material pressure upon us, our
spirit was still very high and con-
fident.
On the eve of the ninth day of the
hunger-strike 20 comrades were still
on hunger-strike in their cells, an
other 20 were on hunger-strike in
solitary confinement and 10 COM
rades were in the prison lazarette
where they were being forcibly fed.
On the 10th day bad news came
from outside. 1t turned out that the
decision to abolish the rights of
political prisoners was part of the
new policy of the Grabski ministry.
From other prisons news had come
that the authorities were prepared
to 60 to any length in order to
smash the struggle of the political
prisoners.
We had no choice. The struggle
once begun had to be continued to
the end, although there was little
hope of victory. The new comrades
held themselves heroically. The doc
tor made continual rounds and or
dered that the weaker comrades be
forcibly fed two and three times a
day.
On the eleventh day of the hunger
strike our chairman was released
from solitary confinement and put
into one of the common cells. At
his request the food was removed
from the corridors where the polit-
ical prisoners had placed it on the
first day of the hunger-strike. The
aim of leaving the food there had
obviously been to tempt the hunger
strikers with the sight of food. In
consequence of the heat the food be-
gan to go rotten and it's stencil filled
the cells. On this day our comrades
went out to their relatives in the
visiting room in order to learn from
them what was happening in the
outside world. This was done at the
instance of our committee. The
news was not particularly consoling
Amongst other news, was the report
that the fighting groups of the
Polish socialist party had murdered
comrade Belly, an old prisoner of
Mokotov, at meeting.
Forcible Feeding.
The hunger-strike continued. The
terrible exhaustion of the comrades
and the physical pain caused by the
forcible feeding began to have their
effect. A number Of the comrades
began to swell from hunger and
others turned yellow. Some of the
comrades confessed that in their
worst moments they suffered from
insane and desperate ideas. (,
! On the twelveth day the hunger