The International Labor Defense was conceived in a discussion between old comrades and friends James P. Cannon, a delegate to the 4th Comintern Congress, and William D. Haywood in his Moscow exile. A few years later and that ambition became reality. Haywood, clearly missing his place at the front line of the U.S. class war, writes his congratulations and best wished in the endeavor. An endeavor largely possible because of the tradition of struggle bequeathed to our class by Haywood’s exemplary leadership.

‘A Message from Moscow’ by William D. Haywood from Labor Defender. Vol. 1 No. 6. June, 1926.

MEMBERS of the International Labor Defense!

Greetings:

If it were possible to speak with you, I could more fully, more convincingly impress upon you, my feelings as to the great work you have undertaken. Your organization is now giving assistance to many otherwise helpless victims of the world-wide, ages-long class struggle.

Individually you could do but little to help those who have been marked by the hand of greed. Collectively you will be powerful. You will be able to guarantee all that militant workers ask–a fighting chance. It was Joe Hill the I.W.W. song writer who said before he was judicially murdered: “A fair trial is worth the life of any man much more than mine.” Joe died because he did not have a fair trial. He was slain as ruthlessly as the helpless cripple, Frank Little, or the fighting war veteran, Wesley Everett, who was emasculated, killed and his body trampled, because he tried to defend his life when attacked by the American Legion. The I.L.D. will remember his eight fellow workers, innocent men who are being grossly, unjustly punished in Walla Walla penitentiary, under sentence of 25 to 40 years. You must work for their speedy release!

No greater injustice has ever been committed than the long imprisonment of Rangel and Cline. They are revolutionaries who were doing their best to help free the Mexican people from a life of peonage. Monuments have been built to Lafayette and Kosciusko who did no more for the United States than Rangel and Cline were doing for the Mexican revolution.

Tom Mooney, Warren Billings, Jim McNamara, Matt Schmidt, Herman Suhr and Sacco and Vanzetti will realize that in the I.L.D. another force has been launched in their support; that as you helped Dick Ford you will also strive on their behalf. Their dependents will no longer suffer. The many members of the I.W.W. unjustly imprisoned for belonging to an organization of their class will appreciate what you do in their behalf. The Michigan trials if continued will require your united attention and energy.

Many of the cases that confront you now could have been averted by the organized strength that you will develop. Every member of the I.W.W. and every other red-blooded working man and woman should be a member of the International Labor Defense. Voices from prison–the graves of living men–will come to thank you for your deeds.

Money and lawyers are not the only requirements of legal or real defense. Publicity is your strongest agency; agitations and demonstrations. Now is the time to turn the strongest searchlights on the fakers and slimy politicians that have in any way connived either by omission or commission in the conviction of the coal miners at Zeigler.

Members! More members! Get them black, red, brown and yellow, and white if they are good enough to work for men behind prison bars and their needy mothers, wives and children.

One who has been placed in jeopardy as I have been must keenly feel the power of organization. It was to an expression of solidarity on the part of the workers that I owe my life. Their hearts responded to such thrilling messages as that of Eugene V. Debs: “Arouse Ye Slaves! Their only crime is loyalty to the working-class!” We, then in prison, imagined we could hear the measured tread of millions of workers; countless voices shouting: “They shall not die!”

There is always the grave possibility of other serious cases. It is the inevitable result of every earnest effort of the workers to improve their standard of living. It means ignominy, imprisonment and martyrdom. Yet, the struggle will continue for a place in the sunlight of industrial freedom. The millions of unorganized workers in the basic industries of America are not content with a life of wage slavery. The apathy prevailing among the workers, the sluggishness of their blood is partially due to the poisonous fever of war-frenzy. From this they are speedily recovering. There will be strikes of metal miners, lumberjacks, oil workers, coal miners, agricultural workers, fishermen, textile workers, the men on the range, the packing house workers, the women and children in the cotton mills. Among these millions of heavy laden toilers there will be demands and strikes. The work of the I.L.D. will be to protect the victims of capitalist injustice in these coming struggles. These and other phases of the work of a defense organization were discussed by Comrade Jim Cannon and myself here in Moscow before the International Labor Defense was launched. We agreed upon the urgent need of an organization broad enough in concept to reach every worker regardless of race, creed or color.

Personally, perhaps, I am permanently exiled from the land of my birth. But I will be working shoulder to shoulder with you comrades and fellow workers as the world is our field of labor.

Success to the International Labor Defense!

Yours for a society where prisons will no longer be needed.

WM. D. HAYWOOD.

Labor Defender was published monthly from 1926 until 1937 by the International Labor Defense (ILD), a Workers Party of America, and later Communist Party-led, non-partisan defense organization founded by James Cannon and William Haywood while in Moscow, 1925 to support prisoners of the class war, victims of racism and imperialism, and the struggle against fascism. It included, poetry, letters from prisoners, and was heavily illustrated with photos, images, and cartoons. Labor Defender was the central organ of the Scottsboro and Sacco and Vanzetti defense campaigns. Not only were these among the most successful campaigns by Communists, they were among the most important of the period and the urgency and activity is duly reflected in its pages. Editors included T. J. O’ Flaherty, Max Shactman, Karl Reeve, J. Louis Engdahl, William L. Patterson, Sasha Small, and Sender Garlin.

PDF of full issue: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/labordefender/1926/v01n06-jun-1926-LD.pdf