Vincent Buccafori was an I.W.W. shoemaker convicted of shooting an abusive foreman and sentenced to 10 years in Sing Sing prison.

‘An I.W.W. Man Needs Aid’ by Joseph J. Ettor from Industrial Worker. Vol. 3 No. 1. March 23, 1911.

AN APPEAL TO ALL WHO YEARN AND STRIVE FOR A DAY OF FREEDOM.

Comrades and Fellow Workers:

To you, we, your comrades in toil and hope, issue this appeal on behalf of our Comrade, Vincent Buccafori, who lies in the Raymond street jail of Brooklyn. awaiting his trial and doom for having dared to respond to the true instincts of man in defending his life from the insults and assaults of the man who, not satisfied in being a part controller of our comrade’s means of livelihood, sought also to control his actions and thoughts outside of the workshop. Unable to accomplish this by means that would be fair, he became enraged and used his brutal strength.

Vincent Buccafori, a member of this union, a shoe worker of no mean ability, who had worked in the shop of J.M. Dodd for a long time and was respected and loved by all of his shopmates, was thought well of by Mr. James Wilt, who was foreman of the shop, until Fellow Worker Buccafori showed the courage and manhood to join a union of his class and become a shop representative for the same, working devotedly for the welfare of his fellow workers. Buccafori having done this, Mr. Wilt became more and more merciless driver, wielding his power with arrogance even more over Buccafori than upon the others who dared to organize in an institution of common defense and for the advancement of workers’ interests.

The numerous outrages and insults heaped upon our fellow worker were at last climaxed when on December 1st, 1910, he was assaulted and then discharged from his position. Buccafori, upon telling his case to the owner of the factory, was re-employed, much to the discomfiture of the foreman, who awaited his first opportunity when the owner of the fac tory was away and once more discharged Buccafori, slapping his face and shouting out: “You have reported me to the owner; you have been re-employed by him, but if you don’t get out of this shop at once I will throw you out of the window.”

The fellow worker went home. The next day he came to the shop to take away his tools and working clothes, and while so doing he was approached by the foreman, who uttered imprecations and curses upon his head, and, unable to satisfy his anger, proceeded to strike Buccafori in the face, and then slugged him with a blow in the mouth, causing blood, to flow. It was at this time that Buccafori pulled out his revolver and shot the brute in human form, who died some days later.

The fellow worker was arrested, and with all the formalities of capitalist-made laws and attended by its retinues, was indicted for murder.

Within a couple of weeks after the shooting a lockout of the organized shoe workers of 10 shops was proclaimed by the Shoe Manufacturers’ Association, in which the shop of J.M. Dodd was also involved, to which the workers replied with a strike.

During the struggle the Shoe Manufacturers’ Association worked hard and was able to bring sufficient pressure to bear upon the county political officeholders to rush matters, so that if they could have had their way, the trial would have been held amidst the heat and strife of the strike, and who knows, had not the power and influence of the organization and its friends come to the rescue of the fellow worker would by now either be electrocuted or rotting in a filthy dungeon?

Workers of America–men and women! This unknown and yet brave worker is a member of our class; he suffered the same miseries and dreamed the same hopes we all do; he aspired for a better day for all the members of the working class!

While he has languished in prison, his companions of the shoe shops gave heroic battle for 12 weeks to the shoe bosses. They were only beaten after 12 and 13 weeks of struggle, in which the whip of hunger was used most effectively by the employers. They have returned to the shops only defeated for the time being, to work and prepare themselves for another struggle at an opportune occasion, but they have made the shoe bosses pay a heavy price for the miseries and outrages of the past.

The cost to the bosses has been nearly a million dollars as a result of the strike, either in loss of trade, profits and additional expenses in the conduct of the lockout against the members of this organization.

That the manufacturers feel sore and revengeful is but natural. They therefore will bring to beat all the power and influence that money can buy to the end that our fellow worker may not have a fair trial; that he may be sent to the electric chair or to a long term in prison, so that a “lesson” may be taught to all the shoe workers of this district for having dared to openly question the right of the masters to insult, injure and rob slaves without mercy.

Fellow Worker Buccafori is a member of the rank and file of labor’s advance guard; he occupied no lofty position, drew no salary or emoluments from the movement.

Years ago when, Moyer, Haywood and Pettibone were arrested on trumped up charges and the masters’ agents placed upon their banner the watchword of death. “They will never leave Idaho alive,” the men and women of labor from one end of the country to the other, from camp to camp and from shop to factory set up a storm of righteous indignation, indignation which was sufficient in the end to force the hand of the employers and after an eventful trial they were given their liberty.

Liberty is as precious and as dear to Fellow Worker Buccafori as to anyone else.

Shall the fact that he is a member of the rank and file be a reason and a bar to him receiving the loyal support of all the thousands of men and women who in the past have done yeoman service to the cause of labor?

Shall it be said and written in the annals of the labor movement that a member of the rank and file was neglected and left to the tender mercies of capitalist courts and hired judges?

We are confident that all the progressive workers as well as all progressive organizations of labor and those in sympathy with the aspirations of the working class will rush to the aid of this brave comrade.

Money is needed to secure able counsel to defend this worker’s life and we appeal earnestly to all on his behalf, and we hope sincerely that our appeal will not be in vain, that it will not reach deaf ears and cold hearts.

Contribute liberally. Show your spirit of working class Solidarity and devotion in an unmistakable way. They who give quickly–give doubly.

Send for subscription lists to use among your fellow workers in the shops and meeting rooms.

AN INJURY TO ONE IS AN INJURY TO ALL.

Send all remittances to Charles Infante, treasurer of the BUCCAFORI DEFENSE COMMITTEE, Shoe Workers’ Industrial Union No. 168, Industrial Workers of the World, 10 Troy Avenue, Brooklyn, N.Y. Sincerely yours, for the cause of a persecuted fellow worker,

JOSEPH J. ETTOR, Chairman of Committee.

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

PDF of full issue: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/industrialworker/iw/v3n01-w105-mar-23-1911-IW.pdf