Legendary California activist Anna Whitney, herself prosecuted under that state’s Criminal Syndicalism law in 1927, on a wave of deportation cases against foreign-born radicals, particularly of Chinese-born H.T. Tsiang and Italian-born Cosimo Lepre, both of whom would face potential death on their return. Our old comrade Austin Lewis serving as legal defense.

‘Deportation Activities in California’ by Anna Whitney from Labor Defender. Vol. 4 No. 4. April, 1929.

THE recent action of the federal government in taking deportation proceedings against six workingmen in Los Angeles is merely an expression of a tendency which has been increasing in extent and boldness. These men were “picked up” in the course of an utterly indefensible raid upon a peaceable working class meeting. They were not in any degree liable to deportation under the strictest and most unfavorable application of the deportation law. They are to be deported for no other reason than that they were engaged in legitimate exercise of rights which are, supposedly, guaranteed to alien residents. In other words, the deportation laws are to be used unblushingly, for the purpose of crushing working class agitation, and for the removal from the country of those who take any part in the struggle of the working class.

This is the frank culmination of a purpose which has been manifest for some time but which has not, until now, been so definitely proclaimed. It was used after the active employment of the Criminal Syndicalist Law was held not to be entirely expedient. The agitation against that law was perplexing the ruling group. There was a very distinct disapproval of its scope and a more or less pronounced denunciation of its employment among intellectuals and publicists, and each meeting of the legislature was market by a more or less active attack upon its provisions. Not that the attacks, as far as the repeal of the law, got anywhere. They did not. But they were embarrassing, all the same, and resulted in conspicuous clergymen, lawyers and publicists engaging in controversy inimical to the ruling group in this matter. So, the use of the Criminal Syndicalist Law was abandoned, for the present. That did not interfere however with the use of the deportation law against those who had been convicted under the C.S. provisions, and of these the I.W.W. furnished the greater number. But it was a curious fact that the I.W.W. was for the most part, at least in California, composed of native born Americans against whom the deportation law was powerless. But where there was a chance to use it, it was used and the deportation of Olsen, after serving sentence under the Criminal Syndicalist Law, was carried out. This rested upon the basis that the violation of the Criminal Syndicalist law, conviction having been obtained, was, as provided by that law, a felony.

The employment of the deportation laws for the purpose of interfering with working class agitation may be broadly divided into two main branches; prosecution and deportation at the instigation of foreign governments or important foreign residents; and direct attack by the government of our own ruling class upon those aliens who have taken upon themselves to engage in working class agitation.

Among those of the first group, we may note Tsiang and Cosimo Lepre. Tsiang was a student, working at Stanford University under the special provisions which permit of the domiciling of students in the United States for the purpose of study. He took part in the nationalistic movement from the left angle, during the course of his studies at Stanford. He edited a revolutionary proletarian paper, which was friendly to the Soviet Union. He was arrested and charged under the deportation laws, with violating the agreement under which he had come to the country. He had been suspended from Stanford University for a period of six months or so because, his health having been poor, he was not able to carry on his university work. The Immigration Department of the Department of labor found the complaint against him good and ordered his deportation. The matter was carried into the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeal and the order of deportation quashed. There is very little doubt that the prosecution of Tsiang was carried out at the behest of Chinese business men resident in San Francisco, who were anxious to punish him for his revolutionary activities. If Tsiang had been deported, as the Department of Immigration ordered, he would have been killed, without a doubt.

In the case of Cosimo Lepre, the instigation towards deportation proceedings came no doubt from the Fascists in the Italian colony. This was quite apparent from the eagerness with which the government officials pressed for his deportation to Italy where he would have been met upon arrival by a delegation of the delectable cut-throats. Technically, he was liable to deportation as he was a sailor who has overstayed the time granted by law to sailors. The fact that he had pictures of a revolutionary character was held to be the most formidable evidence against him. It is worth noting that these pictures were obtained and other evidence as well, such as letters, by invasion of his room, by federal officers, without a warrant. He was ordered deported, but with permission to go whither he would. He was saved from the danger of deportation to Italy.

The mere fact of being an alien lays one open to the danger of deportation at any time and the government is eager, as appears from the above, to serve the desire of reactionary and capitalistic groups and to aid them in disposing of their enemies.

The government is equally enthusiastic in its use of governmental powers for the benefit of powerful and reactionary home groups. The case of Arvid Silverberg is in point here. He was convicted by court martial of failure to comply with the conscription laws, in that while he has registered he had not reported for military duty, when ordered. The matter appears to have turned upon the fact as to whether Silverberg had received proper notice to join his group of conscripts for military training. Be that as it may he was sent to the prison at Alcatraz, a military prison. He was a physician by profession. He was doing well at his profession in Seattle and there is little question that the jealousy of other doctors who were members of the American Legion instigated deportation proceedings and that the government backed up the demands of the Legion by all the means at its disposal. Other cases in which the use of deportation at the hands of special groups influential with the government might be cited.

There is no question that deportation is a menace to the alien worker engaged in work on behalf of his class. It is a weapon which the government will use, without any compunction, against any workingman who is in antagonism to the existing order, and against any intellectual, like Tsiang, whose continued activity is distasteful to any group of his countrymen, sufficiently powerful and rich to set in motion the machinery of the federal government of this country.

The deportation matter is now a little more complicated by the efforts on the part of police. court judges to have the deportation laws put into force against those aliens who come before them charged with any working class activity. A week or two ago, a man was charged in the police court with the distribution of Communist Party leaflets outside of a place of business. He was charged with disturbing the peace, a charge with no basis, for everybody testified that the peace had not been disturbed. But he was a Russian and the leaflets were manifestly unblushingly enthusiastic- in their working class tendency. Thereupon the judge called the attention to the fact that the man was a foreigner and suggested reference to the Immigration Department for deportation purposes. This man is safe on that score, but the method is very obvious and very tyrannical. There is no question that the deportation method will be used effectively and with much success in getting rid of aliens who take any active part in the public advancement of proletarian aims.

The International Labor Defense has taken its share of the fight out here on the use of deportation as a weapon against the organization and agitation of the working class. If it had not been for the I.L.D., Tsiang would have been a headless corpse and Cosimo Lepre would in all probability been the victim of Fascist brutality. But, with the organization small as it is in comparison with what should be, these men were able to make stand against governmental and capitalist attacks upon their liberty.

In all these cases the legal work has b entirely in the hands of Austin Lewis who given untaintedly of his time and service. His long experience in handling labor cases, his defense of Ford and Suhr, and his connection with many of the Criminal Syndicalism cases in California has made his cooperation in these deportation cases invaluable.

The International Labor Defense in California has not only prevented the deportation of foreign-born workers, but has also fought against the criminal syndicalism law, and conducted campaigns against raids, police brutality, and arrests, inflicted on the workers.

Deportation should not be mildly accepted. Every attempt to deport should be resolutely fought by members of the working class who are engaged in the international fight for proletarian victory. To capitulate on one case is to make attacks easier. It is due, not only to the individual against whom deportation proceedings are taken, but to the working class as a whole, that every attempt to enforce deportation for working class action should contested to the very end. It is the existence of the proletarian strategy that no point in the line should ever be surrendered without a struggle. Deportation is a very important point in the line of proletarian defense and must be guarded. But it is very obvious as we have shown that such work cannot be left to the individual, who is helpless against the forces which confront him. Nothing less than organization is of any avail and in the International Labor Defense the alien worker can find his best protection against the deportation tactics of the ruling group.

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/1929/v04n04-apr-1929-LD.pdf