Thousands of workers march in Denver against government by judge and the anti-labor injunction that saw sixteen union leaders jailed for violating.

‘A Living Protest’ by William D. Haywood from The International Socialist Review. Vol. 11 No. 9. March, 1911.

FEBRUARY the second was a memorable day in Denver, Colorado. Government by injunction received a jolt in the solar plexus that if followed up by a united working class will put the courts out of business. Ten thousand men and women unionists and Socialists paraded’ the streets of the Queen City of the Plains, demanding that government by injunction be abolished. They marched in fours and sixes to the capital building. When the Socialist section arrived at the law factory, their band started up the Marseillaise, every red, big and little, singing the battle song of all nations.

From the capital building the parade marched to the city auditorium, where a monster protest meeting was held. Judge Greeley W. Whitford was damned and. denounced for: sending sixteen coal miners, members of the U.M.W.A., to jail for a term of one year for the alleged violation of an injunction issued by him. The injunction was one of the blanket style that covers everything and everybody. Prohibited one from breathing in the vicinity of the coal company’s property or looking at one of their strike-breaking pets that, they have imported from West Virginia.

The protest meeting was surcharged with revolt, but the dynamic force struck a lightning rod. There was a conservative element on the committee of arrangements who wanted the meeting to be dignified and respectable. Their feelings were badly jarred when the crowd refused to listen to the Hon. ex-Gov. Charles T. Thomas, a friend of labor (?), and called loudly for other speakers.

Resolutions were introduced condemning Whitford, adopted by a unanimous rising vote.

RESOLUTIONS PASSED.

“Whereas, Judge Greeley W. Whitford, of the district court has seen fit to throw into jail and sentence to one year in prison, without. due process of law, sixteen union coal miners for an alleged contempt of the said court, this judge acting not only as a judge, but prosecutor and jury as well, thereby eliminating a constitutional right that our forefathers fought, bled and died to protect; and

“Whereas, We realize the fact that judges are nothing more than human, like the rest of us, and should be notified that the created man never became greater than the creator, and, further, under our form of government, those who derive their just powers from the consent of the governed, and we realize that no judge is infallible, but is liable to err and make: mistakes; therefore be it

“Resolved, That we, the Colorado Anti-injunction League, condemn such decision as unjust, unreasonable and most outrageous, and we deplore the fact that the state has within its borders, and most especially upon the judicial bench, clothed with power and authority, such a merciless expounder of justice, whose actions on the bench and elsewhere have a tendency to bring the judiciary beneath the contempt of the people, and be it further

“Resolved, That we realize the fact that decisions of this kind are calculated to bring our courts into ill repute and the disrespect of our best and most law-abiding citizens. We understand that the courts of law can no longer be recognized as temples of justice when such outrages are perpetrated within their walls by some chattels who happen to be sitting on the judicial bench and acting in the name of law and order. Let us remember and never forget that ‘eternal vigilance is the price of liberty.’ Therefore, the workers should awaken to their power and strength, rise up in their might and dethrone this autocrat who poses and parades in the guise of truth, virtue and justice. Let us unfurl our banner to the breeze of industrial liberty, thereby proving to the world that we are the worthy sons of a noble sire. And be it further

“Resolved, That we consider it an unpardonable crime in the sight of Almighty God to sit idly by and accept unquestionably the official actions and decisions of judges who assume that they are too sacred to be criticised, when it is plain for all to see—even the blind—that their decisions are most corrupt, unjust, dishonest and disgraceful to the high office to which they have been elevated. This office should be held most sacred and the law administered in the fear of all wise and ever seeing God, to all alike, whether they be rich or poor.”

The International Socialist Review (ISR) was published monthly in Chicago from 1900 until 1918 by Charles H. Kerr and critically loyal to the Socialist Party of America. It is one of the essential publications in U.S. left history. During the editorship of A.M. Simons it was largely theoretical and moderate. In 1908, Charles H. Kerr took over as editor with strong influence from Mary E Marcy. The magazine became the foremost proponent of the SP’s left wing growing to tens of thousands of subscribers. It remained revolutionary in outlook and anti-militarist during World War One. It liberally used photographs and images, with news, theory, arts and organizing in its pages. It articles, reports and essays are an invaluable record of the U.S. class struggle and the development of Marxism in the decades before the Soviet experience. It was closed down in government repression in 1918.

PDF of full issue: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/isr/v11n09-mar-1911-ISR-gog-Corn-OCR.pdf