The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1931-12-11
THE BACKGROUND OF THE ATTACK I,
ON COMMUNIST PARTY IN ILLINOIS
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of Illinois is o legal, political party
of the workers and participates in
the election campaign and has been
on the ballot in the State as well as
city and national elections. and there
is nothing unlawful about the Com
munist Party. So these charges are
a clumsy attempt on the part Of the
prosecution.
In addition to this the charge Of
course, is the usual charge: "the
overthrow of the existing form Of gov
eminent of the United States of
America and the State of Illinois. -
Although these were the first charges
against the arrested comrades. these
charges. however, were brought out
on the basis of the strike sin the
Orient mines in July, 1881, the
strikes which we're called by the local
unions and of the United Mine Work
ers of America and which we're strikes
against mass Starvation, strike S
against mass lay-oTT Of the miners.
Miners of Orient refused to accept
the dictllm of the International and
district presidents to cell off the
strike and continued to fight for their
demands.
The National Miners Union sup
ported the struggle of the miners and
on the basis of this support the in
dictment declares that the arrested
comrades conspired to "injure the
business of the Chicago, wilmington,
and Franklin Coal Co." which owns
said mines. The most outstanding
thing in these charges is the fact
that the comrades are charged with
'injuring the character Of the United
Mine Workers CT America" How can
anyone injure the strike breaking,
stool-pigeon, faker leadership of the
UN1WA?
UMWA Officials Behind Charges
These three charges resulted pri-
marily from the attempts of the Of
ficials of the United Mine workers
Of America to prevent any movement
on the part of the miners to get rid
Of the corrupt officials of the UNdwA
and to lake the control of the UMWA
into their own hands. There is COM
plete cooperation between the coal
companies, county, state and federal
government with the UMWA official
dom to break any resistance of the
miners against the officialdom of the
UMWA and in their struggle for the
improvement of the conditions of the
miners who are partly employed, and
masses of unemployed miners. To
what extent this cooperation exists
the following facts will clearly illus
trate.
Immediately after the August l,
1881 raids on the headquarters of
the National Miners Union in Zeig-
Ter, all the material gathered there
was turned over for publication in
the ''UMWA Journal" Then during
my hearing before immigration IN
spector James Nash of st. Louis, Ray
Edmundson, who was at that time
sub district president of the UAWA
came; although it may have been an
accident, but the interesting fact is
that there is friendly relationship
existing between Sheriff Robinson
and Inspector Nash with Ray En-
mundson, who also headed the So
called rank and file" movement,
which was supported by John L.
Lewis. This policy is in line with
the policy outlined Matthew Vol,
vice-president Of the American Fed
Grafton of Labor and acting presid-
ent of the National Civic Federation.
Sheriff Browning Robinson and
State Attorney Marion Hart, after
the arrest of Gebert on November
IA, made a trip to Chicago for a
special conference with the red
squad" and other interested elements
on formulating the methods of pros
ecution of the arrested comrades.
There is also complete unity in &C.
ton between the state and federal
government. 1t was indicated by re-
fusal to release Gebert on bond after
it was posted by immigration au-
thorities so he could not be released
on bond until after the Grand Jury
Of Franklin County met. A close
connection is also shown with the
recent drive against the foreign-born
workers in Chicago. Minister Of De-
portation Doan Of Washington dis
pached to Chicago as his special as
sistant Murray w. Garrison, who is
heading the campaign of mass de-
portation of foreign-born workers in
Chicago. He started this campaign
by a raid on Chinatown in Chicago,
arresting hundreds Of Chicago work
ers and according TO the Chicago cap
italist press, ten thousand OF other
foreign-born workers are TO be ar
rested and deported.
A Crime to Strike in Illinois!
The criminal syndicalist law is used
in this case and the workers in the
State of Illinois clearly understand
why 1t is applied in this case. The