San Diego’s local ruling class resorts to murder and mayhem in their war against workers’ rights.

‘Mob Violence at San Diego’ by Stanley M. Gue from Industrial Worker. Vol. 4 No. 9. May 23, 1912.

SAN DIEGO OUTDOES FORMER BRUTALITIES–BEN REITMAN TARRED AND FEATHERED–GREAT FUNERAL OVATION.

San Diego, Cal., May 13. Eighty-four men deported, beaten and robbed on Tuesday. Twenty-five more deported on Wednesday. The dragnet out and all I.W.W. men are being arrested and deported. Socialists are being blacklisted by employers. A deep laid plot to murder all I.W.W. men last Tuesday night was unearthed today. The raid on I.W.W. hall and the shooting that followed was a frame-up by the business men’s vigilance committee. The funeral of Joseph Mickolasck was held in Los Angeles today. Gigantic procession on principal streets with a red flag at the head. Emma Goldman is scheduled to make the funeral address. Police stop traffic to allow funeral parade of I.W.W. Two men already are dead and two seriously injured in the hospital as a result of the free speech war to date. Police refuse to arrest men, contenting themselves with clubbing and deportations. The men in jail are being provided with legal defense by the free speech league to prevent them from being railroaded to the penitentiary. It must be understood that usual tactics cannot be pursued.

San Diego, Cal., May 13.-A monster funeral demonstration over the body of Joseph Mickolasek, killed by the police in a raid on the Industrial Workers hall last Tuesday, was held today in Los Angeles. It was impossible to hold the funeral in San Diego, on account of police antagonism. Two men were arrested while arranging the funeral here on Saturday, Thomas Moore and William Rawlins. Moore is still in jail. The newspapers gloat over the fact that the funeral was not allowed in San Diego. The vigilantes are in complete control here. Wood Hubbard, socialist organizer, formerly of Oklahoma, is now in jail on a trumped up charge of conspiracy to murder. Both the socialist and the labor union headquarters have been raided and property taken. G.E. Fitzgerald, business agent carpenters’ union, was seized by the vigilantes. taken to police headquarters and threatened with death on account of his activities in organizing carpenters.

The Cooks’ union headquarters were entered, A.J. Van Bebber, business agent, arrested, insulted and threatened at the police station but later released. Robert St. John, president electrical union, was kidnapped from his work assaulted by vigilantes committee and delivered to police. He was kicked and beaten in the police station by Detective Lopez. All out door meetings are suppressed. Workingmen are being picked up daily by police and vigilantes are deported. Over one hundred radicals deported last week. No socialist or labor papers can be sold on the streets. Albert Alexander, ten-year-old boy, was arrested on Friday night for selling the San Diego Herald. Men are being beaten for distributing hand bills advertising a socialist meeting. A vigilance committee surrounded the socialist hall on Sunday afternoon but did not raid hall. Among those deported are Julius Tumm and John Hummel, members of the Tailors union. The report is that they were tied to trees and whipped. The eight-four men who were deported last Tuesday reached Los Angeles today telling awful tales of brutality of police and vigilance committee. Twenty-five men who were deported on Wednesday reached Santa Ana today terribly bruised by drunken business men. John Hummel, union tailor, was beaten in the police station Wednesday by a drunken vigilante named Delacour. Detective Captain Jos Myers is reported to have said on Saturday that it was only a question of hours before Kasper Bauer and Fred H. Moore would be lynched. He is quoted as saying that the police would not interfere. The Catholics are seizing upon this occasion to arrange an anti-socialist demonstration.

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://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/industrialworker/iw/v4n09-w165-may-23-1912-IW.pdf