Called by the Young Communist League to take place on Memorial Day, the anti-war ‘Youth Day’ had to defend itself against state repression and mob violence. Reports from San Diego, Portland, and San Francisco.

‘1500 At Southern California Youth Day Battle Cops’ from Western Worker. Vol. 2 No. 24. June 12, 1933.

1500 AT SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA YOUTH DAY; BATTLE COPS

San Diego Council Refuses Permit For Anti-War Demonstration

SAN DIEGO, May 30. Scores of young and adult workers here were clubbed and beaten, many seriously injured on National Youth Day when cops, marines and Legionaires tried to prevent 1500 workers from parading to a mass meeting to be held at the First Congregational Church.

The workers mobilized in New Town Park after the morning sport events in Silvergate Speedway and held an enthusiastic rally for about an hour. Speakers representing the Young Communist League, National Student League, Workers Ex-Servicemen’s League and the National Youth Day Committee called upon the young workers to protest and struggle against imperialist war. Before the rally motorcycle cops stopped the Los Angeles caravan from entering the city in a body.

Refusing to accept the decision of the city council which denied them a permit for a peaceful parade, the young workers unanimously voted to parade, and began  forming their lines with dozens of banners, when the cops, marines and legionaires attacked the marchers with clubs, whips and tear gas. The workers defended themselves against the bloody onslaught, sending eight cops to the hospital.

EIGHT ARRESTED

Eight workers were arrested. All badly beaten up. Sam Goldman, Frank Martin and Frank Young, a Negro worker, are charged with assault with a deadly weapon and intent to commit murder. Bail was set at $3500 each and preliminary hearing for June 5th. Joe Klapperman, William Gear, Sam Klein, Perry Riley and William Gable were charged with participating in riot. A warrant was sworn out against Jack Olsen, section organizer of the Y.C.L., who was chairman of the rally in New Town Park.

The Los Angeles delegation of over 800 young workers were herded into their trucks and forcibly deported from San Diego. The road was lined with dozens of motorcycle cops and American Legion cars, while squad cars followed the trucks for over 25 miles out of San Diego, notifying deputy sheriffs from other counties to follow the trucks to Los Angeles. The trucks were kept on the move despite the fact that many workers needed medical attention. Several of the trucks were stopped by immigration officials who tried to get information from the foreign born workers.

REFUSED PERMIT

The San Diego city council refused a permit for the parade, although last year’s National Youth Day parade in San Diego was peaceful and orderly, on the pretense that the Communists were trying to break up the Legion parade and that they would march with red flags. They ordered the police, to break up any demonstration started by the young workers.

The cops seeing the militancy and numbers of the young workers were forced to permit the rally in New Town Park, which was ablaze with banners.

The International Labor Defense will defend the workers and calls upon workers from all parts of the state to send protest telegrams to chief of police, city council and to the mayor. A.L. Wirin will be the attorney.

1000 AT FRISCO YOUTH DAY MEET: COLORFUL PARADE

Short Meet Precedes Parade; 75 Athletes Took Part

SAN FRANCISCO, May 30. Carrying colorful banners inscribed with the slogans, “Down with War for profit” and “Defend the Soviet Union,” etc. 500 young workers, students and athletes participated in the Youth Anti-War parade from the Embarcadero up Market street today. The marchers stopped in front of the Japanese and German consulates where resolutions were passed condemning Fascist terrorism in Germany, and the slaughter of the Chinese masses by Japanese imperialism in North China. They marched into Larkin hall, where a mass meeting of over a thousand workers listened to Chas. Cunningham of the Oakland Youth Anti-War Conference, Tabitha Anderson, a Negro girl barrister, Sam Darcy of the Communist Party, Archie Brown of the S.F. Youth Anti-War Conference, Ella Winter and Rabbi Fried. Comrade Adams, an ex-soldier, also spoke. The speakers pointed out the danger of impending and inevitable imperialist war and of the necessity of united front action against it. Greetings from the American Committee for Struggle Against War, and from Bishop Parsons of the Episcopal Church of California were read to the enthusiastic audience.

Previous to the parade a successful sports meet was held in the old Kezar Stadium; 75 athletes representing several S.F. sport clubs participated in the events.

On May 29th, 250 delegates representing Northern California Youth, held a conference in California hall. Resolutions were passed calling for a militant struggle against war. Stress was laid upon building anti-war committees in shops, schools, and the armed forces. A motion was passed to send delegates to the U.S. Anti-War Conference to be held at New York in August, and also a delegate to the World Youth Anti-War Conference to be held in Paris in September.

Featuring the National Youth Day Anti-Military Ball at Mission, Turn Hall was an anti-war drama presented by the Temple Church Drama Group, under the direction of Talma Zetta Wilbur.

3000 IN PORTLAND YOUTH DAY MEET DESPITE THREATS

Mayor Order, Refusing Permit, Defied by Young Communists

PORTLAND, Ore., May 31. Despite threats of Mayor Baker and the officials of the American Legion against Young Communist leaders, three thousand workers assembled on National Youth Day over in Plaza Park in one of the largest demonstrations ever to take place in Portland. Over 300 participated in the parade which was held in the face of a series of open threats of violence.

On May 25th, the permit to parade, originally granted to the Young Communist League, was revoked by the city council, at the request of the Multnoman Bar Association, all patriotic and veteran organizations, excepting the W.E.S.L. The Y.C.L. representatives had explained that N.Y.D. was purposely held on Memorial Day by those who would be expected to fight in the next war for the very reason that we remember the workers killed in other wars and youth were going to protest against any more wars.

MAJOR THREATS

Mayor Baker, in a letter addressed to the Young Communist League of America, issued the order that there be no parades or assemblage at the Plaza on May 30th on the grounds that the “regular organized patriotic organizations” have arranged a program on that day.

The city council, the mayor made demagogic pleas to the Young Communists “to let the city authorities handle the situation.”

Every effort was made to familiarize the working class of Portland with this attempt to terrorize the rapidly organizing youth of Portland into submission. On the morning of Youth Day, police warned the Y.C.L. again, saying there was a vigilante committee of 250 veterans organized to break up the parade and that though a large number of police, 60 special police would be on hand, many of them were veterans and “might not care to prevent an attack on us.”

At the mass meeting many provocateurs were present and continual efforts were made by them to start trouble. The large number of workers assembled for the first time in Portland under such conditions conducted themselves throughout the afternoon in the most orderly and militant fashion ever seen in the city. A vote was taken for the parade and over 300 workers with the youth in the lead joined in and proceeded to march with the expectancy of an attack imminent. A well organized defense corps flanked the parade. When the marchers were fully under way, banners which had been conspicuous by their absence, suddenly appeared, slogans were shouted and Portland’s workers marched on defying the entire organized forces of Portland’s ruling class. A great victory for not only the Youth but the whole working class of Portland.

Western Worker was the publication of the Communist Party in the western United States, focused on the Pacific Coast, from 1933 until 1937. Originally published twice monthly in San Francisco, it grew to a weekly, then a twice-weekly and then merged with the Party’s Daily Worker on the West Coast to form the People’s Daily World which published until 1957. Its issues contain a wealth of information on Communist activity and cultural events in the west of those years.

PDF of full issue: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/westernworker/1933/v2n24-jun-12-1933.pdf