The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1931-11-18
BY EVA SHAFRAN.

BY EVA SHAFRAN.
THIS appeal will not deal with the various
errors committed by the court during our
trial. Our appeal will indeed make clear
to all, especially to the workers of this country,
that high-handed, vndictive procedure and
prejudicial errors were inevitable in court
which was determined to send eight workers to
prison because they dared to carry on activities
to improve their economic conditions, to exer-
else their political rights"
This is the opening paragraph Of the appeal
to the U. S. Supreme Court of seven Imperial
Valley prisoners, now the second year in San
Quentin and Folsom hell holes, for the great
crime" of attempting to organize the Imperial
Valley agricultural slaves for struggle against in
human, understandable misery and suffering.
And indeed, their appeal does not go into
illegal technicalities' on the case "Our lawyers
will do this" the appeal states But this appeal
is one of the most magnificent documents stating
the case of these imprisoned workers-the reason
for their arrests 1t shows up the role of the
state, the court the police and the stool pigeons,
as the power of the bosses to suppress the work
ers in their struggles against the misery of ex-
ploitation-for the right of the workers to live.
AS is well known these workers were arrested
on April H. 1880, when the union called a
meeting to prepare the workers of Imperial VAL
ley to call conference and prepare strike
against inhuman wol-,ing and living conditions
of the workers. The bosses made no secret of
that. They stated cutie openly that their attack
against the union and the workers is to stem
organization. The appeal of the prisoners makes
this point very clear and very emphatic. The
conviction was barbaric-3 to AZ years in prison
Bosses Forced to Make Concessions
Thanks to the militant struggle carried on by
the T. L. D. and the protests of the masses of
workers throughout the country, the bosses were
forced to make many concessions on the case al
ready: Frank Spector, of the defendants,
was entirely freed by the State Appellate Court,
as the charges against him we're so flimsy that
even the high-handed district attorney and the
stool pigeons of the growers were not able to
really make their case against him strong enough
for his conviction even before this boss court
The other sentences were reduced to 81 to IA
years"-that means two counts of the Criminal
Syndicalsm conviction was dropped.
The latest developments in the case are-5 of
the remaining prisoners had their sentences re-
duced by the Prison Board to years. Two of
the others, Carl Sklar, organizer of the Los An
geleS section of the Communist Party and
Tetsuji Horiuchi organizer of the T. u u L. in
Imperial Valley, did not as yet have their hear
ings before the Prison Board, and are still serv-
ing sentence from II to a."
Special Hatred Against Party.
keep in mind when talking about the Imperial
Valley case: The Bosses from the very outset
have thrown their full weight of their power
against the representatives of the c. r. and the
T. U. U. L. They know very well that the
Communist Party and the TU.UL. are
their worst enemies. They know that the Or
ganizers and leaders of the C. P. and the TUUL,
unlike those of the A. F.. of L. and the Mexican
Mutual Aid Association, in the field at the time
cannot be bought off with money or any other
means Therefore, the best means to fight the
G. P. and TUUL, according to the Bosses is
severer punishment. severer sentences for the
leaders
Folsom Prison is prison especially for "sec-
ond timers" Carl Sklar of the G. P. and Hor-
iuchi of the TUUL were dumped into Folsom
Notwithstanding the fact that they have never
served state Jail sentences before This was done
to indicate the special hatred of the bosses
against these working class organizations And
now when the struggle of the workers has forced
the bosses again to reduce the sentence of the
other prisoners to years, these two working
class leaders are still serving the sentence of 1
10 "a years! There is no doubt that the bosses
as In the past will try their best to give heavier
sentences to Sklar and Horiuchi unless the