An on-the-scene report of the fall of Tijuana on May 9, 1911 to the “La Bandera Roja”, largely made up of I.W.W. fighters under General Pryce in what would become the short-lived Baja Commune. The remarkable photos from those events come from the Labadie Collection.

REDS GAIN A GREAT VICTORY: TURNING POINT IN LIBERAL REVOLUTION—MANY DEEDS OF BRAVERY—I.W.W. BOYS IN INSURRECTO ARMY from the The Industrial Worker. Vol. 3 No. 9. May 25, 1911.

TIJUANA, Baja, Cal., May 10.—At last the victory of social revolutionists in Lower California is assured. The workers of America and Mexico are awakening, and brave men are sacrificing their lives for the cause of Freedom, and their sacrifice shall not be in vain. All opposition is being swept aside by “La Bandera Roja” (the red band), the latest victory being the capture of this little Mexican village, situated in the Tijuana river valley right on the International boundary line, and fifteen miles southeast of San Diego, Cal.

The fall of Tijuana, means the turning point in the campaign against Dial tyranny in Baja, California. The rebels now control the whole peninsula excepting the capital of the state, Enscanada, and the acquisition of Tijuana gives the “red army” an excellent base of supplies, and a military headquarters from which to conduct the rest of the campaign.

The battle was by far the biggest battle that has been fought since the Mexican Liberal party placed their army in Lower California. It lasted nearly 36 hours, and about 400 men were involved. Many brave acts were recorded, one was the firing of the Catholic church, and the “Bull pen” by the rebels. At an early stage of the fight four men crawled from the rebel ranks through Tijuana, and slipped into a federal trench and from that point these four insurrectos poured a deadly fire into the ranks of the Mexican federal troops, the latter being unable to locate the four men until too late, as by that time the rebels had completely surrounded the town and were advancing on all sides, steadily pouring a well directed fire into the Diaz camp.

The progress of the battle as reported is as follows: On Monday morning. May 8th, at an early hour, the rebels appeared in the hills about ten miles east of Tijuana. A detachment of 36 mounted “rurales” were sent from Tijuana to meet the rebels. The. two forces came together at the Hot Springs several miles southeast of the town. Here the “bravery” of the Mexican government troops were shown, for they fired five volleys into the steadily advancing insurrectos and they, without waiting for a reply, turned and fled pell mell into the town, behind the breastworks.

At noon the rebels were three miles from the federal camp. There were about 100 men in the troop and about 30 were stationed on hills overlooking the town.

The federal Infantry were behind the trenches in Tijuana while about 50 mounted “rurales ” were scouting around the outskirts of the town.

The manner in which the rebels advance was made elicited warm praise from Captain Wilcox of the U.S. forces at the border, who said that ”the generalship shown in the attack was masterly.” The revolutionists would advance a little, then halt for awhile, then advance again. After another stop they would come on again, to the utter demoralization of the federal troops. These tactics soon frightened the federal scouts who fled in terror to the town. The insurrectos did no shooting while advancing to the attack, but held their fire, and slowly and methodically went ahead. Their coolness frightened the Diaz soldiers, who fired volley after volley, wildly, and did no harm, and only scared themselves. Shortly after noon, the rebels captured the guard house, which is a mile from the center of the town. At 2 p.m. they were still a mile from the town, hut were deploying their men around the hills so as to completely surround the villas.  At 2:30 p.m. they were within 1,200 yards of Tijuana and according to American army officers, “doing some clever maneuver work.” They took up a position and fired several volleys, they advanced a little further and did the same thing, gradually closing in on the federal strongholds. At 3 p.m. the fine military tactics were shown when all the rebels appeared on the north side of the town, where they were least expected.

This “rattled” the Diaz troops for they dashed wildly from their various hiding places and from the trenches over to the north side of the town to get into the trenches on the north side of the town. This was just what the rebels wanted, for it exposed the positions of the federals.

The firing was kept up intermittently all Monday night (May 8th) and during the night the rebels maneuvered about and gained possession of several prominent points, the principle place being Savine’s store, several men occupying the bank in the fear of the store and one firing from a barricade which had been erected on the front porch of the store. This position was held by the rebels until the last federal had been driven out.

On Tuesday morning (May 9th) at 4 a.m. General Pryce began a fierce attack on the federal strongholds in various parts of the town. The Liberal soldiers made the attack with such vigor that the tired federals were driven before them, and the rebels had then practically full possession of the town. However several federal sharpshooters retreated to the adobe Catholic church and from that place did much execution among the Liberals. Seeing that it was impossible to force them out any other way, General Pryce ordered the church roof to be fired. Several of the insurrecto’s crept toward the church in the face of a perfect storm of bullets and after several attempts succeeded in igniting the dry wood roof of the church. The heat forced the federals out of the church and they fled to cover.

The firing was slacked at this time, but General Pryce, suspecting that a number of federals were concealed about the “bull ring,” ordered the seats set on Are. This was done, but no soldiers were found hidden there.

This practically ended the battle, with the exception of three Diaz sharpshooters who were hidden in the tall brush which surrounds Tijuana, who kept sending in well aimed shots in the town, but these were soon disposed of by the rebels, and at 8:30 a.m. Tuesday, May 9th, ‘the Liberal Army was in full possession of Tijuana, Mexico, a port of entry and a valuable recruiting station for the Liberals in Lower California.

Thus ended a memorable struggle, between slaves of the capitalist class on one side and Liberty Loving Workers, who are fighting for freedom, on the other side. The warriors for freedom were victors.

Immediately after the fight was over, General Pryce ordered all the booze in town destroyed,, which was done. Barrels of whiskey and cases of champagne were dumped into the streets. The bottled beer and soda water was saved for the wounded rebels.

After this all the wounded horses were shot and a squad was sent out to bring in the dead and wounded men. The total dead to date is about 20 and wounded about 25 men.

Stories of “looting” by the rebels in the papers are mostly false, and all of them greatly exaggerated. However, it is recognized by International law that if an army has to fight for a town, the victors may confiscate all things that they wish. The term “looting” is misused.

Early after the battle a company was sent to picket in the hills and others to look for federal stragglers, and some men were left in the town to maintain a guard.

Speaking of “looting.” a want to say that about 4:30 p.m. Tuesday the boundary line was thrown open by the U.S. troops and about 600 of our “respectables” and representative citizens of San Diego came over to Tijuana. And what did they immediately do? The first thing they did was to rush into stores and take whatever they could lay their hands on, and about $1,000 worth of goods was stolen by the “respectable” Americans, and not content with looting, our church-going friends even tried to escape paying duty to the American customs authorities. Yet these same people hold up their hands in horror at the thought of rebels “looting.” Sham capitalist moralists, who lie and steal and are still respectable are these.

I crossed the line early in the day and was told by the Insurrecto soldiers that Tijuana was to be strongly fortified and would be used as a recruiting station for the army of liberty. One of the officers told me that “if any workers wanted to enlist to tell ’em to come to Tijuana, fifteen miles south of San Diego, Cal.” There are many I.W.W. men in Pryce’s army, and some W.F.M. men and Socialists, More news later, S.G.

The Industrial Union Bulletin, and the Industrial Worker were newspapers published by the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) from 1907 until 1913. First printed in Joliet, Illinois, IUB incorporated The Voice of Labor, the newspaper of the American Labor Union which had joined the IWW, and another IWW affiliate, International Metal Worker.The Trautmann-DeLeon faction issued its weekly from March 1907. Soon after, De Leon would be expelled and Trautmann would continue IUB until March 1909. It was edited by A. S. Edwards. 1909, production moved to Spokane, Washington and became The Industrial Worker, “the voice of revolutionary industrial unionism.”

PDF of full issue: https://archive.org/download/v3n09-w113-may-25-1911-IW/v3n09-w113-may-25-1911-IW_text.pdf