A Red Scare, racist vigilantes, and revitalized Criminal Syndicalism law is used in the reactionary Hoover years to smash multi-racial farm workers organizing led by T.U.U.L. affiliate, the Agricultural Workers Industrial League (which later became the Cannery and Agricultural Workers’ Industrial Union) in California’s Imperial Valley during 1930.

‘Imperial Valley Criminal Syndicalism Case’ by William Simons from The Daily Worker. Vol. 7 No. 141. June 12, 1930.

THE trial now going on in El Centro, Imperial Valley, California, against ten workers charged with violation of the Criminal Syndicalism Act is the revival by the capitalists of California of the infamous Criminal Syndicalism Act of 1919, which has lain dormant for six years.

The former wave of persecution (1919 to 1924) was directed at the Communist Labor Party and the I.W.W. The present attack is against the Communist Party and the Trade Union Unity League. In both periods, the attack was leveled to stop the activities of these organizations, particularly among the agricultural workers of Imperial Valley. Many liberals after 1924 were of the opinion that the Criminal Syndicalism Act was a thing of the past. Professor Kirschwey, for example, in his pamphlet, “A Survey of the Workings of the Criminal Syndicalism Law of California” (1926 Civil Liberties Union) expressed the “earnest hope that the game will never be played again in California.”

But capitalist oppression is not stopped by pious wishes of liberals. The increased activities of the Communist Party and the Trade Union Unity League, particularly of the Agricultural Workers’ Industrial League in Imperial Valley, threatened vegetable and fruit growers’ profits, and the Criminal Syndicalism Law was taken off the shelf and pressed into active service. The Grand Jury Investigation in the present Imperial Valley case reads like a lurid dime novel, of blood and thunder melodrama.

But to understand the significance of the present renewed wave of persecutions, let us stop for a moment on the workings of the Criminal Syndicalism Law during 1919 to 1924. During that period, there were 531 individuals charged on information or indictment under the C.S. Act, of whom 504 were arrested. Of these, over two hundred were dismissed without trial. Of the 264 actually tried, 164 were convicted, 31 acquitted, and 69 profited by the disagreement of the jury. Of those convicted, 23 received a suspended sentence, and 128 were committed to prison.

How They Railroaded Them in 1919.

Usually, the defendants were charged under all five clauses in Section 2; (a) advocating, teaching or aiding criminal syndicalism; (b) justifying or attempting to justify criminal syndicalism; (c) printing, publishing, etc., any material advocating criminal syndicalism; (d) organizing or being a member of an organization advocating, teaching or aiding and abetting criminal syndicalism; (e) practicing or committing any act of criminal syndicalism. Criminal syndicalism is defined as “any doctrine or precept advocating, teaching or aiding and abetting the commission of crime, sabotage (which word is hereby defined as meaning willful and malicious physical damage or injury to physical property), or unlawful acts of force and violence or unlawful methods of terrorism as a means of accomplishing a change in industrial ownership or control, or effecting any political change.”

The revival of the C.S. Act in Imperial Valley is due to the increased influence of the A.W.I.L. and the C.P. The participation of the A.W.I.L. in the two strikes of January and February, the many meetings held since then, until the mass arrests on April 14th won for it influence among the Mexican and Filipino workers and to some extent, among the American workers. The fruit and vegetable growers feared the effect of the April 20th Conference called by the A.W.I.L. in El Centro; they feared its preparation for a strike in the cantaloupe season which would diminish the swollen profits of the companies. The tactic of the fruit and vegetable growers was to divert the issue from the miserable conditions of their field and shed slaves, from the union which was fighting for better conditions, to divert the issue from this and conjure up a picture of fire and the sword, of murder and devastation by the organizers of the A.W.I.L. They arrested the leaders, and charged them with preparing a strike for the overthrow of the government by force and violence. Three stool pigeons were used, from the J.H. Boling Detective Agency, working for the district attorney of El Centro.

A Blood and Thunder Dime Novel.

The testimony of these three stool pigeons before the Grand Jury reads like a blood and thunder dime novel. The whole case against the ten defendants is based on purported conversations of the defendants with one or more of the stool pigeons. There was to be a secret conference. The April 20th Conference was advertised far and wide, but the prosecution is interested in a supposed “secret conference,” where the “secret” strike plans were to be discussed.

The following choice bits are put into the mouths of the defendants: “After the strike is called, if necessary to stop the shipment of melons, the fields were to be destroyed, the vines pulled up under cover of darkness, a few workers could destroy whole fields, that a bomb or a stick of dynamite thrown into the shed and the shed destroyed, and if they succeed in loading some, we would dynamite the damned trains.”…”The Mexicans and Filipinos were ready for using guns and destroying property.”…”The shed that was destroyed would not send out any cantaloupes.”…”This is another of the damned sheds that ought to be blown skyward.”…”One of these days we will blow this God-damned jail and City Hall skywards and take these officials and we wouldn’t bother to put them into jail.”…”If necessary, we will wipe out whole cities.” Oscar Ericson, national secretary of the A.W.I.L., is charged with having asked the stool pigeons for “poisoned dope or tear gas” for use in the strike. The Holy Trinity of stool pigeons affirm that “the purpose of this strike was to overthrow the present capitalistic system of government” and that the mass arrests on April 14th were to prevent “the start of hostile activities, when sheds would be destroyed, fields would be destroyed and human lives would be taken.” And to give local color to this delirious dream, a bridge was blown up in Imperial Valley only recently, and will undoubtedly be thrown into the evidence against the ten defendants.

Going Matthew Woll One Better.

Woll’s fairy story of Bill Foster bringing into the country a million and a quarter dollars of Russian gold is dished up in improved Imperial Valley style. A defendant is charged with saying: “Many think this is a lot of money, but when you divide it up in all the different headquarters and districts out of New York, and it is there used, it didn’t amount to very much when it came down to each individual.”

The black oath! Doesn’t it make a cold shiver run up and down your spine! The black oath! “The oath that new members take when they join the Communist Party.” One stool pigeon didn’t take it, but he knew the other one did. But the other one couldn’t get it all, there was so much talking going on at the time. “It was hard to get the entire oath, but the gist of the oath is to turn against and overthrow the government, that the different unions, the T.U.U.L., the I.L.D. and the Agricultural Workers and so forth were to be used as gun fodder in the revolution. That we owe no allegiance to the American flag. We are under oaths to the Party to go off and where they see fit to send us regardless of position, financial standing or anything else. The Party work must go first.”

And of course, the flag has to be dragged in, just as in the C.S. cases of 1919 to 1924. Whenever one of the defendants saw an American flag anywhere, said the stool-pigeons, he would in true real life immediately mutter: “I would like to tear that goddamned piece of rag down and put a red flag in its place.” The suitcase of a defendant is opened, and lo and behold, a red flag is found there! The prosecutor will wrap himself around the American flag, to protect it from the foul villains who would trample its purity in the mud.

The T.U.U.L. and the Communist Party are the same thing, say the stool pigeons. “The T.U.U.L. was a temporary form of organization for gathering workers to overthrow the government,” they said. “The T.U.U.L. is affiliated with the R.I.L.U., the Communist Party of Moscow.” And the Daily Worker and Labor Unity! Horrors! “They call Hoover a liar.” Among the exhibits which will be used against the defendants are “Why Every Worker Should Become a Communist” and the “A.B.C. of Communism.”

Far Away, But Yet So Near.

The evidence in the Grand Jury Investigation is just one tissue of lies, by a few degenerates in the employ of the master class. On their imagination, the state will try to convict ten of the most active workers in the state of California. If they succeed, it means spreading of similar cases all over the state of California. What can be expected from the jury? Already in the “impartial” Grand Jury Investigation, a juror, after hearing about Communist pamphlets and newspapers said: “It seems to me the government of the United States, they know all about this literature through the mail, I can’t figure out how the laws of the United States would permit them.” Another juror, referring to the Communist Party headquarters in Los Angeles, asked: “Why don’t they close them up?” Capitalist justice!

The Imperial Valley case is not isolated. Over the radio last night, announcement was made of government agents investigating the activities of the Communist Party. The state and government will strive to convict others under the same C.S. Act if they get away with their drive in the Valley. Only mass pressure can secure an acquittal in the Imperial Valley case. Because it signifies the revival of the criminal syndicalist persecutions in California, because of its aim to prevent the organization of the agricultural workers in Imperial Valley, because it involves colonial workers, Mexican, Filipino, as well as Japanese and American, this case is of national importance. The case may be far off geographically from the rest of the country, but this requires all the more energy for it through the entire country. Workers organizations from all over the U.S.A. should immediately start a movement for the release of the workers on trial in Imperial Valley, and send telegrams to the Defendants, Criminal Case, Court House, El Centro, California.

The Daily Worker began in 1924 and was published in New York City by the Communist Party US and its predecessor organizations. Among the most long-lasting and important left publications in US history, it had a circulation of 35,000 at its peak. The Daily Worker came from The Ohio Socialist, published by the Left Wing-dominated Socialist Party of Ohio in Cleveland from 1917 to November 1919, when it became became The Toiler, paper of the Communist Labor Party. In December 1921 the above-ground Workers Party of America merged the Toiler with the paper Workers Council to found The Worker, which became The Daily Worker beginning January 13, 1924.

PDF of full issue: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1930/v07-n141-NY-jun-12-1930-DW-LOC.pdf