John Sandgren leads a campaign of solidarity raising tens of thousands of dollars in support of the Swedish general strike of 1909.

‘American Workers Show Solidarity with Swedish Strike’ from The New York Call. Vol. 2 No. 218. September 11, 1909.

More Than $50,000 Raised for Swedish Strikers and Ten Times That Amount in Sight.

That the working class of America is awakening to a sense of solidarity with the workers of the entire world is well demonstrated by the fact that John Sandgren, one of the General delegates of the Swedish Strike Committee, was able to announce yesterday that as a result of the appeal issued to the American workers, already more than $40,000 had been sent by local unions and other liberal organizations directly to the strike committed in Sweden, while he had on hand $10,000 more which would be transmitted at once to the Landssekretariatet in Stockholm. Sandgren also said that the Chicago unions had sent $1,300 to Sweden.

The work of raising funds for the heroic proletarians who are waging such a determined struggle against the Swedish Employers Association, which is trying to destroy their union, will be carried on here with still more energy, now that a regular organization to attend to this matter has been formed, and there is every reason to believe that at least half a million dollars will be collected within a short time.

International Labor Aid Conference.

The new organization, which is called “The International Labor Aid Conference,” came into existence at a meeting of some fifty delegates from labor unions and a number of branches of the Socialist party held in the Labor Temple, 243 East 84th street. Great enthusiasm was displayed by the delegates and the speeches of Chairman Victor Buhr and Delegates Henry L. Slobodin, Moses Oppenheimer and John Sandgren were applauded to the echo.

The object of the conference is to furnish immediate material and moral aid to the workers of every nation in their economic and political struggle against the ruling class. The officers are: Recording secretary. A. Kell; treasurer, Dr. M. Romm, 306 East 15th street: financial secretary. Paul Westphal; sergeant-at-arms, A. Baum; executive committee, Oppenheimer, Slobodin, Lindner, Wagner and Fleischer.

Organizations Represented.

The following organizations were represented at the meeting: Carpenters’ Union, 56; Painters’ Unions, 261 and 499;Upholsterers’ Union, 44; Typographic, 7; Bronx Labor Council; Tobacco Workers’ International Union: Carriage Trade. Council; Chandelier, Brass and Metal Workers; Cigarmakers’ Union, 90; Bakers’ Union, 164; Scandinavian Socialist Society; Russian-American Social Democratic League, and the following subdivisions of the Socialist party: 22d A.D. (Branch 1), 14th A. D., 21st A.D., 20th A.D., 33d A. D., 34th and 35th A.Ds. (German), 34th A.D. (Branch 1). 17th A.D., 28th and 30th A.Ds, Finnish Uptown Branch, Lettish Branch 1.

All the delegates were instructed to agitate for the strengthening of the Conference, both by inducing the organizations which they represented to appropriate money for that purpose and by getting other organizations to send delegates to the next meeting of the Conference which will be held in the Labor Temple, Thursday evening. September 23. All money raised should be sent directly to the treasurer of the Conference.

Ringing Resolutions Adopted.

The meeting closed with cheers for the international solidarity of labor and the adoption of the following resolutions:

“Resolved, That this conference of delegates representing labor organisations of New York City expresses its earnest sympathy with the working class of Spain in its righteous endeavor to prevent an infamous and unnecessary war waged in the interest of a group of exploiters; and be it further

“Resolved, That we condemn in the strongest terms the brutality and arbitrary action of the Spanish government in suppressing newspapers, breaking up organizations and meetings. making wholesale arrests of peaceable citizens, provoking bloodshed, butchering prisoners and imprisoning Its opponents by the hundred, all in the interest of an unscrupulous group of blood suckers; and be it further

“Resolved, That this conference demands the immediate release of the jailed victims of tyranny.

“Resolved, that this conference declares its solidarity with the striking workers of Sweden who are defending their interests against the heartless exploiters who wish to reduce them to helpless slavery through the destruction of their unions. We further declare that we regard our Swedish brothers as forming the valiant vanguard of the fighting proletariat of the entire world. We hereby appeal all organized workers to aid our Swedish brothers to the best of their ability, bearing in mind the fact that present the Swedish strikers are fighting the battle of all organized workers, and consequently they should be helped in every possible way to win a complete victory

“Resolved. That we congratulate our brothers of the Pressed Steel Car Works at McKees Rocks, Pa., upon their heroic resistance to the arbitrary and insolent conduct of the employers, and be it further

“Resolved. That we use all our efforts to see that these workers are organized upon both the economic and political field for the defence of their Interests, and in close and sympathetic union with the entire working class, as this is the only way in which they can succeed in permanently escaping from slavery.”

The New York Call was the first English-language Socialist daily paper in New York City and the second in the US after the Chicago Daily Socialist. The paper was the center of the Socialist Party and under the influence of Morris Hillquit, Charles Ervin, Julius Gerber, and William Butscher. The paper was opposed to World War One, and, unsurprising given the era’s fluidity, ambivalent on the Russian Revolution even after the expulsion of the SP’s Left Wing. The paper is an invaluable resource for information on the city’s workers movement and history and one of the most important papers in the history of US socialism. The paper ran from 1908 until 1923.

PDF of full issue: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/the-new-york-call/1909/090911-newyorkcall-v02n218.pdf