Regular monthly report on local I.L.D. activities; a similar organization needed today.

‘Building the International Labor Defense’ from Labor Defender. Vol. 3 No. 9. September, 1928.

SINCE the last report on new branches organized the following have been formed: San Diego, Calif., English, 18 members; Br. No. 109, Ind. Workmen’s Circle, Malden, Mass., 40 members; Santa Cruz, Cal., English 20 members; Wm. D. Haywood Br., Lynn, Mass., 14 members.

Hungarian Branches: Scranton, Pa.; South Bethlehem, Pa.; Woodbridge, N.J.; Riversville, W. Va.; Newark, N.J.; Carteret, N.J.; Los Angeles, Calif.; Bohemian Br., Allentown Br., Allentown, Pa., 15 members; New Bedford, Mass., English, Wm. D. Haywood.

Mooney-Billings Leaflet Issued

The first of a series of Mooney-Billings leaflets has been issued by the national office of International Labor Defense. The price is $2.25 per thousand and orders should be placed immediately.

Resolutions on behalf of Mooney and Billings have been sent out by the National Office to the various organizations for adoption.

Centralia Conference

In the development of the campaign to free the Centralia I.W.W. prisoners a state-wide conference in Washington has been called for early in September. The International Labor Defense and the Centralia Liberation Committee are developing this state conference. An I.L.D. tour in the state has been organized.

Miners and Textile Campaigns

The joint I.L.D. and National Miners Relief week is concluded, but many cases still re- main and demand support.

International Labor Defense is concentrating now on support of hundreds of striking textile workers who have been arrested in New Bedford, as well as developing a campaign for the release of John Porter, New Bedford striker-soldier, imprisoned for his activities in the strike. I.L.D. locals shall participate, together with the Y.W.L. and other organizations, in meetings on behalf of Porter.

Sacco-Vanzetti Memorial Meetings

Sacco-Vanzetti memorial meetings, according to reports received by the national office will be held in approximately 75 cities in the United States. The campaign for the release of Mooney and Billings has been made a major part of the Sacco-Vanzetti meetings in drawing the lessons of the Sacco-Vanzetti case.

Get New Members

The miners and textile campaigns, Mooney and Billings and Centralia campaigns should be utilized by the I.L.D. locals to get new members. When the I.L.D. is in action is the most opportune time to draw new, virile blood into our ranks.

Get after the old members to pay up dues! Get new members! Hold regular meetings!

Locals should already arrange for dances, bazaars, entertainments and other affairs for the fall and winter to raise funds for the general defense work.

Local Activities

Local Chicago is initiating and developing a campaign for the release of the four Zeigler miners now imprisoned. Resolutions are being adopted in many organizations. Local Chicago has organized a group of Minute Men, staunch I.L.D. workers, who are ready at a moments notice to do whatever I.L.D. work is asked of them.

Local Detroit is again conducting a Labor Defender subscription drive.

All the locals participated in the miners relief and defense drive.

The New England district is concerning itself mainly with the defense of the textile strikers.

Locals Oakland, Cleveland, and New York are issuing their bulletins regularly.

Ten workers were arrested in Los Angeles during the miners relief and defense week drive.

International White Terror Campaigns

The locals should especially concern themselves in the campaign against the White Terror in Japan, Greece and China.

The I.L.D. has many important campaigns before it. Because of the many activities, every member is expected to do his duty and carry on the work.

Cora Meyers, who has been directing the activities of the Milwaukee, Wis., local of the I.L.D. as secretary, has for years been one of the leading figures in defense activities in the country. Among the recent accomplishments of the local led by her, has been an increase in dues payments, a distribution of thousands of copies of I.L.D. literature; an increase of 100 new subscribers for the Labor Defender and 150 more copies in the monthly bundle. The campaign for Mooney-Billings and the Centralia victims of frame-up, have especially been effective in this city where the Central Labor Council of the city has passed resolutions in favor of both. Milwaukee reports decided progress and in all this activity, Cora Meyer, enterprising secretary, has been a leading spirit.

LABOR DEFENDER DRIVE DETROIT MODEL 1928

The Detroit Local of the I.L.D. is not content to lead all cities in the country in subscriptions to the Labor Defender by a narrow margin. To maintain leadership, the most active members have been chosen as a committee to conduct a drive for “2,000 subscribers by 1929”.

Louise Morrison has been appointed special Labor Defender agent for Detroit. The campaign is laid out in such an efficient manner it can well serve as a model for other cities. The program taken from the minutes of a recent meeting of the Detroit local is as follows:

1. That quotas be apportioned to the various paid branches according to their numerical strength.

2. That the winning branch be given a trophy a silver loving cup-with name and date engraved, to be held until next contest.

3. That every branch elect a Labor Defender Agent who has no other function in the branch, if possible.

4. That during the campaign the Labor Defender Agents hold regular meetings together for the purpose of developing the campaign.

5. That every branch be instructed to turn in list of meetings, picnics, affairs, etc., held by various organizations of their knowledge.

6. That the City Executive be held responsible for seeing that all affairs are covered with the Labor Defender.

7. That a speaker be sent to all Branches on the I.L.D. Campaign.

8. Visit all political, fraternal and sympathetic organizations in the city on the drive.

9. That we hold a Labor Defender Rally in the form of an outdoor affair.

9. That we print some attractive Labor Defender Campaign posters and put them up in each hall and meeting place of I.L.D. branches and sympathetic organizations.

11. That a bulletin board be established in all I.L.D. meeting halls, etc., to report the developments during the contest.

12. That the Labor Defender Sub Campaign be linked up with a membership campaign. “Every member a reader–every reader a member.”

13. That a joint application and sub card be printed in the local during the campaign with permission from the national office.

14. That every branch have a special little social at one of their regular meetings at which a speaker should be present on the Sub Campaign.

15. That a Grand Windup for the campaign be arranged which is to be combined with a send-off for the delegates to the National Conference.

16. That every one securing 10 subs or more be given a prize: Bars and Shadows; My Heresy; Communism and Christianism; Sacco-Vanzetti by Lyons; and original copies of drawings of I.L.D. significance by Fred Ellis.

To stimulate the campaign further measures have been taken. The local has been advised that the October issue of the Labor Defender will carry a two-page feature by Robt. W. Dunn on the automobile industry. Since this is of special interest to Detroit workers a large order of this issue is being made to be handled by picked individuals and committees for sale at the auto factory gates especially. To further localize interest, the local is now securing Detroit advertising for the October issue. Fred Ellis and Jacob Burck, two New York labor artists, have on the request of the Labor Defender, volunteered to make original cartoons suitable for framing to serve as premiums for the drive.

The Detroit campaign is sure to prove of great value in stimulating the campaign for Mooney and Billings and defense work as a whole. We offer it here as a model for every city in the country. Begin now–help to make good our national slogan: “The Labor Defender–30,000 circulation by 1929”.

This month we print an amateur photograph snapped by Lillian Mount, of Burlington, Vermont, who attended the Young Workers League training school at Holmes Park, Massachusetts, a number of the students of which are to be seen here. The comrade holding the Mooney-Billings number of the Labor Defender in his hands is Richard Vanger, one of the students who is the New England amateur champion of paced bicycle racing. If you are at all handy with your camera, be on the alert for scenes o be photographed that are fitting for reproduction in the Labor Defender. A strike, a labor meeting, a demonstration, a picket line, unemployed workers, or any similar photo is of inter- est to the readers of this magazine.

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. 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/1928/v03n09-sep-1928-LD-ORIG.pdf