‘Thomas Martinez, I.W.W. Exiled to Mexico, Dies’ from Truth (Duluth). Vol. 4 No. 50. December 16, 1921.

On the sunny hillside behind the little Mexican town of Guadalajara a crude headstone, inscribed in Spanish, “We never forget!” marks a new made grave. It is the last resting place of Thomas Martinez, the Mexican I.W.W., who was exiled from this country while still suffering from the wounds of an operation performed on him in Leavenworth Prison, where he served a year for his activity in the I.W.W.

The story of Martinez, who was convicted with 96 other I.W.W. in the famous Chicago case in 1918 and was confined for a long time in the Cook County jail before being sent to Leavenworth, was told at length in a recent issue of this paper. The Workers’ Defense Union at that time appealed for funds for the man who, his health undermined as a result of the long persecution he had suffered at the hands of the authorities, was no longer able to work for himself. Those funds are no longer needed—not at least for Martinez. Martinez is dead. He died several days ago, according to advice received at the office, of the Workers’ Defense Union yesterday. The letter telling of his death said simply:

“Thomas Martinez died this morning. This afternoon, taking the rough box containing his body, a little group of his friends went to the beautiful hill behind the town and while we waited a couple of Comrades dug the grave. It was all very simply. We created a headstone made by a Comrade who is a stone mason. It bears the inscription ‘We never forget!’ that is all.”

The death of Martinez, his friends declare, was due entirely to his treatment at the hands of the government. The operation he underwent at Leavenworth was so performed that, under the treatment he subsequently received, the wound never healed. On his release from Leavenworth he was rearrested on a deportation warrant and shipped to the Mexican border to await deportation. Deportation was held up until last April because of the unsettled condition of Mexico, and Martinez’ condition rapidly grew worse. When he was finally shipped across the border he was more dead than alive.

Truth emerged from the The Duluth Labor Leader, a weekly English language publication of the Scandinavian local of the Socialist Party in Duluth, Minnesota and began on May Day, 1917 as a Left Wing alternative to the Duluth Labor World. The paper was aligned to both the SP and the I.W.W. leading to the paper being closed down in the first big anti-I.W.W. raids in September, 1917. The paper was reborn as Truth, with the Duluth Scandinavian Socialists joining the Communist Labor Party of America in 1919. Shortly after the editor, Jack Carney, was arrested and convicted of espionage in 1920. Truth continued to publish with a new editor J.O. Bentall until 1923 as an unofficial paper of the C.P.

PDF of full issue: https://www.mnhs.org/newspapers/lccn/sn89081142/1921-05-20/ed-1/seq-1