Mooney writing from prison greets a national demonstration on his behalf and observes the rise in political persecutions and frame-ups in the early 1930s, offering his solidarity to the Scottsboro defendants and the Kentucky miners.

‘I Await the Day’ by Tom Mooney from Labor Defender. Vol. 8 No. 3. March, 1932.

California State Prison, San Quentin, California, February 15, 1932.

National Mooney Day Demonstration, Auspices International Labor Defense, 80 East 11th Stret, New York City.

Comrades, Friends and Fellow-Unionists:

From behind the bars where the Plunderbund of California have kept me rotting for sixteen years because of the militant fight I made on behalf of Labor, I greet your demonstration. It is a highly significant and a source of untold satisfaction to me that today, February 24th, has been declared National Mooney Day. Fifteen years ago today I was sentenced to die on the gallows. The militant workers of Russia by their demonstration in my behalf saved my life at that time. The militant and revolutionary workers of the world must today demand my unconditional pardon.

Right after my conviction, the militant workers rallied to my defense. Even before they knew the facts of my frame-up, they instinctively felt that I was not a criminal but was being framed because I was a fighter for Labor.

The news that the bosses of California were going to legally lynch a militant worker soon spread around the world. In far-off Petrograd (now Leningrad), the workers had revolted against hunger, war, and unbearable oppression. Their vision of freedom was not a local one; it was as wide as the world itself. They heard about my case, went to the American Embassy, and demonstrated for my freedom. This demonstration brought home to President Wilson the international significance of my case. As a result of the pressure exercised by President Woodrow Wilson upon Governor Stephens, on November 29, 1918, my sentence was commuted to life imprisonment. The action of the Russian workers at that time forced the California Plunderbund to call off their executioners and stopped the hangman’s hand.

For 16 years I have rotted in prison in spite of the fact that every brick used in constructing the frame-up against me long ago crumbled to dust. The liars, living and dead, who so foully swore away the life of a fellowman for a few pieces of silver, have either confessed their heinous crimes or have been convicted of perjury by irrefutable facts and sentenced to eternal infamy before the bar of public opinion.

For 15 years I fought for a public hearing. At last, on December 1, 1931, there came a hearing before Governor James Rolph, Jr., of California. It was brought about by the cumulative effect of constant agitation. The cry “Freedom for Tom Mooney” came from millions of throats in San Francisco and New York, London, Berlin and Paris, Moscow and Tokyo. The voice of indignant Americans was augmented by a symphony of voices from every land.

In spite of the indisputable facts proving my innocence, in spite of the Wickersham Report on the Mooney Case, which again exposed the unholy alliance of perjured witnesses, conniving officials an bloodthirsty plutocrats, there is nothing to indicate that Governor Rolph will act favorably on my case.

Comrades, friends and fellow unionists! You must not forget that I am the symbol of the whole frame-up system–that my pardon, as a result of your demands, will strike a blow at the entire system of frame-ups and terror which is used in an increased degree against the workers in this country. Are not the captains of finance and industry who tried to murder me in 1917, now murdering workers in Kentucky? The suffering of the miners in Harlan, who are facing life imprisonment, if not death, must stir you to determined action. The legal murder of the eight Scottsboro boys must be prevented. You must increase your militant efforts. You must acquaint an ever-larger number of workers with the facts of the frame-up system and its significance to the cause of labor.

Let the plunderbund feel your power. Let the ruling class know that militant workers will never rest until every class war prisoner is granted complete and unconditional freedom.

You workers in New York who are striking against intolerable conditions in the dress industry must not waver for a moment.

By firm action you must your inspire the striking miners in the coal fields who are fighting against such terrible odds.

COMRADES, FRIENDS AND FELLOW-UNIONISTS! The dawn of a new day is on the horizon. Every day brings new evidence that the old system of exploitation and degradation, unemployment and starvation for the working-class, is approaching its climax. The hope for the final triumph of the toilers of the world has sustained me during my long years in prison. I await the day when the doors to the dungeons and bastiles of Capitalism will be opened to release fighters and martyrs for Labor.

TOM MOONEY, 31921.

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/1932/v08n03-mar-1932-LD.pdf