The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1934-06-23

of the city at three O'Clock
It was almost three and
Herndon rushed to the meeting.
"All the way, said to myself
it's war, it's war So I might
as we'll get in it now as any other
time" From that moment Hern-
don became a fighter in the class
war; and from that moment cap
italist Justice" wanted to destroy
Herndon as it wants to destroy
every worker who dares raise his
voice against starvation and oppres-
sion. He was arrested again and
again-in Birmingham, in New
Orleans. Then came his arrest in
Atlanta and the savage sentence of
eighteen to twenty years on a
Georgia chain gang.
I mention Herndon because his
case is representative of thousands
Of others In every part Of the
United States, workers are rotting
in filthy jails; others are toiling on
chain gangs; others are beaten
1ynched, deported like Herndon
these men and women learned the
significance of the class struggle
from a handbill, q pamphlet, a
meeting; like Herndon, they entered
the fight against starvation; and
they found that the whole ma
chfnery of the capitalist State is
designed to wreak bloody vengeance
on those who dare protest, who dare
ask for food for themselves and
their children, clothing to wrap
around their shivering bodies, or
milk for their dying babies.
The Front Line of Defense
In every case of ruling class OPP
preston, the I. L. D. is the front
line of defense. In its nine years
of existence, the I. L. D. has fought
epic battles. Its history is an in
tegral part of the revolutionary
growth Of the toiling masses.
The I. L. D. was formed on June
2sth, 1925, at National Confer
ence in Chicago. The New York
district was the first to come into
existence, being organized on July
1Ath, 1925, BY the end of that
year, there we're 1913 branches. At
present there are 800 branches. In
the first issues of the Labor De-
fender (January 1st. 1929, the I.
L. D. announced that it was han
ding 1850 cases. During 1888, over
1000 cases we're handled, of which
more than half grew out of strikes
and unemployed activity.
Prior to 1925, several important
campaigns had been organized on
behalf of political prisoners. But
there had been no continuous mass
base for this activity. "Such defense
work as there was in those pre-
I, L. D. days was of a sporadic and
temporary character" says Robert
w. Dunn one of the founders of
the |. L. D. The I. L. D. fulfilled
the need for permanent organiza-
ton. But the most vital factor in
the work of the I. L. D. is the
principle which has guided its
policy from 1925 to the present
day the principle that mass activity
must be the basic of militant de-
Tense. To rely on legal technical
tiles In any case in which the class
struggle is involved is simply to
guarantee defeat. The anger of the
working class must be modified: .
the voice of the working class must
be raised in roar of organized
protest"
Why Sacco and yanzetti Died
I myself was one of those liberals
who went to Boston in August.
1927, to assist an abortive, hectic
last-rninute attempt to save the
lives of Sacco and Vanzetti. 1t
was too late. There had been too
much reliance on ruling class fair
ness" in the long struggle for the
lives of these two martyrs. They
could have been saved by direct
and continued working class pres
sure. Their murder was due to
the weakened compromise tactics
of the liberals.
Bill Haywood. writing to the T..
L. D. in 1925, spoke of the intense
meaning of militant pressure to
men who are behind bars: 1T was
to an expression of solidarity on