Denied access for their meetings in the buildings and streets of San Pedro, the I.W.W. found some sanctuary on ‘Liberty Hill’, which became the center of their organizing during the 1923 dock strike; the largest on the West Coast until the great 1934 strikes.

‘A Visit to Liberty Hill’ from Industrial Pioneer. Vol. 1 No. 4. August, 1923.

NEW YORK, metropolis of the Atlantic, has its Liberty statue.

It is not the fault of the lady on the pedestal that the Wall Street pirates and others of their ilk, who today control our halls of legislature and our courts, are making her a liar.

For many decades she was the beacon light of freedom to the oppressed of many nations who came to find liberty and justice on these shores.

Los Angeles Harbor (San Pedro) has no statue of liberty but it has Liberty Hill.

Liberty Hill today is probably the one spot in California where freedom of speech and freedom of assemblage exist.

Somehow, in spite of the criminal syndicalism law, in spite of the Chamber of Commerce, the Merchants’ and Manufacturers’ Association, and other reactionary influences which control this state–their power seems to stop at the foot of Liberty Hill.

Liberty Hill rises about 200 feet above the level of Third street, several flights of crude stone steps leading up to it.

A Public-Spirited Woman

It is private property, the use of which has been granted the M.T.W. 510 of the I.W.W. by its public-spirited woman owner, and thus you find on top of it hand-made wooden benches seating about 800 people, a small platform 6 by 9, and standing room for several thousand, some of which is always occupied, and often it is taxed to capacity.

Here on this hill the I.W.W. holds five meetings each week, outside of their business meetings, which are always attended by from between one and three thousand for the English meetings and by from five to eight hundred for those held in the Spanish language.

We had promised ourselves the treat of being present at one of these meetings for quite some time, and had promised the fellow workers time and again to be there, but until Saturday, the 18th, something had always happened to prevent us.

We had heard the wondrous story of the fight the boys did make; we had written about it, and had expressed our opinion that it was the most wonderful thing in our experience, but now since we have been there we’ll have to say “the half has never yet been told!”

We wish that somebody with more power of description was writing this article, for we know that we shall not be able to more than half convey to you the spirit of liberty and loyalty to the class struggle which exists in San Pedro and finds its best manifestations in the meetings on Liberty Hill.

When We left Los Angeles it was cool; probably the coolest night of the summer, and we remarked as we closed the door of the Defense office: “Well, there won’t be many at the meeting tonight!”

A Sea of Listeners

When we mounted the platform on Liberty Hill a sea of faces stared up at us from the benches, and most of the standing room was taken.

There has been one peculiar feature about this revival of industrial unionism in Los Angeles County—while the men were on trial in Court 19 (twenty-two), and the men who are on trial in Court 12 now (twenty-seven), naturally, did only a small portion of the wonderful work which has been done, they were always in the front part of the front trenches, even while their trials were going on.

No. 510 Active

Not too much praise can be given the local membership of Marine Transport Workers’ I.U. 510 in San Pedro, not too much can be said for those go-getting, class-conscious delegates who came up from the East Coast, but they got part of their inspiration from the fact that the men who were on trial in jeopardy of their liberty in court five hours each day, and spending many more hours in the law library and pouring over transcripts, found time and had the energy and the spirit to make the welkin ring with their exhortations and to move about all over Los Angeles County distributing literature, expounding the gospel of industrial unionism, and lining up members right and left.

Things had been moving at a fairly good rate up until March 15. when five of our fellow workers were not only found guilty, but for the first time in the history of California, sentenced to serve their terms on both counts consecutively, thus making their sentences from two to 28 years.

This, we have positive information, was done at the direct command of the Chamber of Commerce, with the idea that it would scare the delegates as well as their prospects.

When Persecution Goes Wrong

When this became known among those of us who were on trial in Court 19 at the time, as well as the membership in general, we were filled with a Berserker rage and a determination to “show them.”

Men who had been keeping on the side lines and never dreamed about taking credentials were writing letters in to their respective industrial unions for credentials and supplies, to be sent by RETURN MAIL.

Instead of quietly and unobservedly trying to get now and then a new member who might be of benefit to the organization, we went up and down the streets of Los Angeles, San Pedro, and many other towns with our papers and leaflets sticking out of our pockets and our credentials and books in our hands, and there was such an activity as the Pacific Coast has never seen before, and it has not ceased or diminished, and we have now gained such a membership and such a foothold in Los Angeles County that we can never be dislodged.

An International Audience

The audience on Liberty Hill was as attentive and inspiring as any speaker wants to face or has faced.

Hundreds of women and children, hundreds of Spaniards and Mexicans, Italians, Bulgarians, Croatians, Greeks, colored and Japanese fellow workers, were there.

Men of the Merchant Marine, in their natty uniforms, dock workers in their overalls, and others in their Sunday best, fishermen, carpenters, clerks, cooks, waiters and waitresses, business men, lawyers, and doctors—they all were there, and listened for three hours to what us “pesky-go-abouts” had to say.

The peculiar thing about this meeting, and which characterized most meetings and a good portion of the whole movement here, was that out of the five wobbly speakers three of them came from the twenty-seven now on trial and one was the “man who conspired with himself,” who is now out on bond pending appeal, having been convicted on May 15, in Court 19.

There was no holding back and no concealment. Industrial unionism was taught straight from the shoulder; our ultimate aim—the abolition of wage slavery—was openly proclaimed.

New converts were given their little red cards in sight of thousands and of the police.

The Chamber of Commerce was plainly charged with the foul murder of Fellow Worker Paul Borgen.

The speaking lasted for over three hours; all listened attentively; almost none left during this long meeting, and there were no interruptions except by volleys of applause.

A Singing Movement

And the singing!

When the words rang from two thousand throats “We know that every wobbly true will carry on the fight,” you knew that the singers meant it. And when we finished with the song of the “Red Flag” and came to the words “With hats uncovered swear we all to fight beneath it till we fall,” without any suggestion every man’s hat came off, the audience rose as one man, and when you looked at their solemn determined faces, you knew that at least here in San Pedro there are thousands of men and women who. no matter what comes, no matter in what way the viciousness of the master class may manifest itself, will live and die for the workers’ cause.

Well Named!

LIBERTY HILL!—it is well named, for the spirit which created it, the spirit which manifests itself on it, is spreading all over the county and farther, like wild fire.

It is a spirit not created by sentiment or emotionalism but an outcome of the greatest educational campaign ever waged anywhere among the workers.

It is a spirit which will not and cannot be quenched. It is the spirit which, before many more years have passed, will sweep away the profit system, and the sin, misery and degradation which are a part of it, and which will usher in the Workers’ Co-operative Commonwealth.

Inspiration for All

If you need inspiration, if your faith in the victorious onward sweep of the advancing proletariat needs to be strengthened, if your mind and heart needs to be filled with the certainty of coming victory, come on to Liberty Hill in San Pedro.

PDF of full issue: https://archive.org/download/case_hd_8055_i4_r67_box_006/case_hd_8055_i4_r67_box_006.pdf