‘Labor Defender’ editor T.J. O’Flaherty reports on the foundation and aims of the International Labor Defense, among the most impactful of all Communist Party projects of the 20s and 30s.

‘The International Labor Defense and Its Mission’ by T.J. O’Flaherty from Workers Monthly. Vol. 5 No. 5. March, 1926.

THE International Labor Defense came into being at a national conference held in the Ashland Auditorium, Chicago, on Sunday, June 28, 1925. It was born out of the necessity for an all-inclusive non-partisan defense organization that would provide a shield for the protection and defense of all workers who found themselves in the toils of the capitalist legal machine because of their activities in behalf of the working class.

More than one hundred delegates representative of many sections of the labor movement attended the first conference. There were present trade unionists without any political affiliations, I.W.W.’s, Socialists, Communists, and many class war prisoners who had left the dungeons of capitalism with the firm resolve to lend their aid to any movement that would show promise of being an effective agency to help the political prisoners still in jail and defend future casualties of the class struggle.

The Activities of the I.L.D.

As the name implies, the International Labor Defense does not confine its activities to cases of capitalist persecution inside the borders of the United States. In these days of capitalist imperialism, when the Chinese coolie is just as much a slave of the House of Morgan as the coal miner of the non-union fields of West Virginia and Kentucky; when the German proletarian slave of the Dawes plan is ground down by the same power that fills the jails of America with radicals; when the persecuted workers of Italy are prodded with bayonets purchased with Wall Street dollars and the Horthy dictatorship in Hungary is guided by the financial expert of the American bankers, it is folly for the workers of any country to imagine that their legitimate sphere of interest is confined to the national boundaries of the particular country under whose flag they are plundered. The international plunderbund knows no country. Its god is profits. It invests its money where the returns are greatest and its gives preference in employment to those out of whose sweat it can wring most dollars, regardless of color, race or creed.

The Government—Servant of Big Business.

As in all countries where capitalism controls the forces of government, the American workers feel the heavy arm of the state against them whenever they engage in a conflict with the employing classes with the object of securing a little more of the product of their toil or to retain what they gained thru previous struggles. Every instrument of the ruling class, from the municipal policeman to the supreme court, is utilized as the situation warrants to prevent the exploited workers from winning their demands. Whenever the workers succeed in improving their living conditions, they do so as a result of their organized might, thru the exercise of their collective power and not thru assistance from the government, of state or nation.

Tho the government is supposed to be a government of all the people—on paper—it is obviously a brazen tool of those who own and control the means of wealth production and distribution. The jails have been filled with workers who have participated in strikes but no employer is known to have tasted the bitterness of prison confinement as a result of his participation in a labor struggle. The government which many workers so fondly believe is their own is the handmaiden of big business.

The Working Class Victims of Government Attacks.

But if there are no employers in jail for activities labelled as offenses against law and order arising out of strikes, the same cannot be said for the working class. Even in this period of comparative industrial peace there are over one hundred workers of many shades of political opinion behind the prison walls. We have Tom Mooney and Warren Billings, victims of one of the most brazen frame-ups in history; J.B. Schmidt and Kaplan, human sacrifices to the iron masters’ wrath; 72 members of the I.W.W. in California, convicted for mere membership in a labor union; the Centralia victims of American Legion hoodlumism and almost one hundred Communists and other radicals indicted thruout the country and threatened with long periods of imprisonment.

The capitalists are very impartial in their selection of victims. They are not particular about the political beliefs of the militant workers who threaten their profits. The heavy hand of the law descends on all alike—Wobblies, Communists, trade unionists without any political affiliations and those Socialists who believe in class struggle and practice what they believe. 

In Union There Is Strength.

Hitherto the various working class organizations whose members fell foul of capitalist justice had their own defense committees whenever necessary. But experience proved that this diversity had serious drawbacks. The various organizations were playing a lone hand. There was duplication of effort, overlapping and a tendency in the direction of organizational fetishism. Mutual jealousy was not easy to avoid. The sentiment for a coordinated all-inclusive, non-partisan defense organization gained ground and this sentiment assumed tangible organizational form in the birth of the International Labor Defense.

The Formation of the I.L.D.

In a manifesto adopted by the conference which launched the I.L.D. it was pointed out that there had been more persecution and jailing of workers during the last ten years than in any other period of equal length in the history of the United States and that, far from this condition showing any promise of decreasing, there was every indication that the assaults against the workers would continue with increased vigor. With regard to the persecution of workers in this and other countries the manifesto declared:

“The continued persecution of the workers in this country and the unmistakable signs of its intensification call for the organization of all the forces at the disposal of the workers for the struggle against this terror and its sponsors. This condition, if allowed to continue, will mean the destruction, or at best, the serious weakening of the labor movement. The need of this period is for every conscious workers to pledge his support to a concerted movement whose purpose is to concentrate the resistance of the whole working class and all those sympathetic to the cause of the workers, in defense of the militants who are singled out or grouped together for a target of attack by organized capitalism.

“Until now, workers’ defense has been spontaneous and sporadic. Defense committees have been created hastily as cases arise and frequently have had to depend on workers without adequate connection and experience to properly handle them. Wide-spread publicity often is not secured and the power of the labor movement at large is not mustered for the defense. As a consequence, many obscure workers have been railroaded to prison without the knowledge of the labor movement, “unknown soldiers” of the class war. All possible forces must be rallied for the defense of every worker attacked through the courts or otherwise by the agents of capitalism.

“This conference, consisting of delegates from all sections of the labor movement and from existing labor defense bodies, sets up the International Labor Defense for the purpose of fulfilling this mission. The International Labor Defense is a non-partisan organization. Its object is to unite all forces for labor defense. It constitutes itself as an ever-ready and ever-willing champion for the defense of all workers attacked for their activity in the labor movement, for expression of political opinion or for industrial affiliation.

“The International Labor Defense will seek to collect material and give publicity to all cases of working class persecution, to expose brutal treatment of class war prisoners and to bare secret anti-labor activities such as labor spy systems, etc. This conference proclaims that the International Labor Defense stands ready to provide legal, moral and material aid to all workers persecuted for their activities in the labor movement or for expression of opinion. The conference considers it a first duty of the working class to look after the comfort and well being of its hostages to capitalism and to supply material comforts and the means of existence to their families.

“The International Labor Defense will organize and lead nation-wide campaigns for the release of all class war prisoners, conduct a relentless struggle against anti-labor legislation, and fight for the repeal of all criminal syndicalism, criminal anarchy and sedition laws—exceptional measures designed to give a legal covering to the attacks of the ruling class upon militant workers and the whole labor movement.

“The conference sends its warmest fraternal greetings to all class war prisoners in America and to the victims of the white terror abroad. It declares its unqualified solidarity with the exploited workers and farmers the world over and appeals to them and to all sections of the American labor movement to rally to the International Labor Defense in its task of fighting back the capitalist jailers and hangmen.”

The International Labor Defense has on its national committee prominent progressive intellectuals, trade union militants, members of the I.W.W., Communists, socialists and farmerlaborites. It elected as its national chairman, Andrew T. McNamara, prominent in the progressive wing of the International Association of Machinists. Edward C. Wentworth, author, is vice-president and James P. Cannon, long an active figure in the working class movement, is executive secretary.

The Work of the I.L.D.

Since its formation the I.L.D. more than justified the expectations of its founders. Tho only a few short months in existence it has already established itself firmly in the hearts of the militant workers of the United States.

It has defended and aided in the defense of several important cases, among which are: the frame-up against the shoe worker, John Merrick in Haverhill; the Farrell case in Farrell, Pennsylvania, where South Slavic workers were indicted; the Ford and Suhr case; the trial of the Pittsburgh Communists; the Zeigler frameup; the Crouch and Trumbull case; the Michigan Communist cases; the appeal of Anita Whitney and the Benjamin Gitlow case.

Outside of those major cases the I.L.D. is weekly called upon to defend workers who run up against the capitalist legal machine in the performance of their duties in their class.

Besides defending American class war prisoners the I.L.D. organized campaigns to save Rakosi and other victims of the Horthy dictatorship and Julio Mella, Cuban revolutionary worker who with several other workers was thrown into prison by the agents of the American sugar trust in that country. The White Terror in European countries, the bloody deeds of the imperialists in Asia, Africa and South America against the colonial peoples are given publicity by the I.L.D. and the American workers are aroused to a realization of their duty to their fellow workers in other lands. 

The “Labor Defender.”

On the first of January this year, “The Labor Defender,” a monthly illustrated magazine, official organ of the I.L.D., made its appearance. This publication aims to be a common meeting ground for all class conscious workers who are willing to join together for the defense of the prisoners of the class struggle.

Though yet in its infancy the I.L.D. has carried on a vigorous campaign against antilabor injunctions, persecutions and deportations of alien workers and the vicious criminal syndicalism laws which are on the statute books of thirty-four states. A very important feature of I.L.D. work is the provision of relief for the dependents of the imprisoned fighters of the class war as well as for those who are in jail, so that the hardships of prison life may be mitigated by their ability to purchase books, tobacco and other necessities that help to break the monotony of their existence.

The Membership of the I.L.D.

The constitution of the I.L.D. declares that every person who signs an application card subscribing to the aims of the organization is entitled to membership. While the building up of a large individual membership is the goal of the I.L.D., there is also the provision that: “All workers’ organizations such as labor unions, workers’ fraternal and benefit societies, etc., which sympathize with the aims of International Labor Defense shall be entitled to collective membership upon payment of an agreed monthly contribution.” The dues for individual members is only ten cents per month.

Work of the I.L.D. Among Foreign-Born Workers.

The I.L.D. is organizing special committees among workers of non-English speaking nationalities. The alien workers, particularly those who do not speak the official language of the country, are specially subject to persecution provided they take an active part in the progressive wing of the labor movement.

The International Labor Defense has set itself the immediate task of rallying the working class for a campaign to free all class war prisoners now in American jails and to wipe the iniquitous anti-free speech and anti-syndicalism laws off the statute books. While capitalism exists there is bound to be persecution of the workers. The workers must maintain a constant struggle against the employing class. One of the most effective ways to wage that struggle is to defend those workers who become prisoners of war, to look after the material needs of their dependents and to fight against every attempt on the part of the capitalist government to make it more difficult for the workers to build up the industrial and political organizations they must have in order to free themselves completely from the chains of wage slavery.

The Workers Monthly began publishing in 1924 as a merger of the ‘Liberator’, the Trade Union Educational League magazine ‘Labor Herald’, and Friends of Soviet Russia’s monthly ‘Soviet Russia Pictorial’ as an explicitly Party publication. In 1927 Workers Monthly ceased and the Communist Party began publishing The Communist as its theoretical magazine. Editors included Earl Browder and Max Bedacht as the magazine continued the Liberator’s use of graphics and art.

PDF of full issue: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/culture/pubs/wm/1926/v5n05-mar-1926-1B-WM.pdf