In a defining moment of the Great Depression, on March 7, 1932, hunger marchers demanding relief for the unemployed and destitute were massacred outside of Henry Ford’s Dearborn, Michigan factory. Report and verdict of the trial held at Detroit’s Cass Tech High School finding Ford and his hirelings guilty for for the deaths of Joe York, George Bussell, Coleman Leny and Joe Blasio. Five months later, Curtis Williams would also die of his injuries.
‘5,000 Workers Find Ford, Murphy, Bennett, and Thugs Guilty of Murder’ from The Daily Worker. Vol. 9 No. 74. March 28, 1932.
Mass Trial Hears of Gunfire Ordered by Ford Which Killed 4 Wounded 35
DETROIT, Mich. “Guilty of murder!”—This was the verdict of the workers jury of 25 workers including the father of 16-year-old Joe Bussell, one of the massacre victims, after listening to a two-hour presentation of evidence by participants in the march and to the story of victims of the massacre who escaped with less than mortal wounds.
Henry Ford, Edsel Ford, Clyde Ford, Mayor of Dearborn, Harry Bennett, head of Ford’s private spies and thugs, and the demagogue Mayor Murphy were declared guilty of the murder of the four victims of the Ford massacre by the thundered affirmation of the verdict by 5,000 workers who jammed Cass Technical High School Auditorium to overflowing, Friday, March 25th.
After the opening of the first workers’ court in Detroit by Comrade John Schmies, acting as judge, and the statement of the case against the accused by Wm. Reynolds as prosecutor, relatives and comrades identified death masks of the martyred heroes of March 7th.
Witness after witness then told the story of the pressure of hunger that forced the workers to march in the biting cold and of the bitter struggles against tear gas, clubs, and guns which terminated in the killing by Dearborn and Detroit police and Ford private gunmen, of four, and the wounding of scores of workers.
“I know they were machine guns because of two years’ experience in the U.S. Marines,” said Tom Jones, three-quarter Indian and one-quarter Irish blood, as he bared his body to show the jury where two bullets had deployed their course. Jones, an auto worker who lost his right hand on a shaper at Murray Body Works, had come looking for work. He got Ford’s answer and found the working-class movement.
“I am a member of the Auto Workers Union and the Communist Party,” testified Latamorie Dudley, Negro worker, amid thunderous applause, “I was in the front of the march and was shot twice by machine gun fire. A white Ford worker took me in his car from the scene of the massacre and then hurried back to work lest he get fired. The International Labor Defense took me to a doctor, so I escaped Murphy’s police.”
Shot Three Times
Eugene Macks, member of the Young Communist League, shot three times, testified that he was chained to a bed at Murphy’s Detroit Receiving Hospital for three days, turned over to Dearborn police and forced to ride in a Ford taxi to Detroit because company-owned Dearborn allows none other than Henry’s taxis in the city.
“I am organizer of the Young Communist League succeeding Joe York, murdered by Ford,” stated Nydia Barker. “We marched and fought on March 7th. Our dead testify to that.”
“Yes, I get 20 cents a day relief from the city of Detroit,” said Mary Gosman, leader of the women’s group in the march. “And does Mr. Murphy think 20 cents a day for food is enough for a worker?” asked the prosecutor. “He thinks it is too much, for he has cut it down to 15 cents a day this week.” Mary accompanied the wounded Joe York and Joe DeBlasio to the hospital. “They were dead when we arrived,” she stated.
Bullets Do Not End Mass Hunger.
“Yes,” said R. Baker, District Organizer of the Communist Party, “the Communist Party will participate in future Hunger Marches. Bullets will not end hunger, the workers must struggle, and the Communist Party will lead these struggles. Until the capitalist system with its exploitation and hunger is swept from the face of the earth, there will be increasing wage-cuts and speed-up, greater misery and starvation, and the working class will march forward through greater struggles to final victory under the leadership of the Communist Party and the revolutionary unions.
The testimony of eight participants were endorsed by over a thousand eye-witnesses and participants present, who for the lack of time could not testify, but listened and affirmed the testimony by a show of hands.
This trial affirmed the verdict of the Arena Gardens meeting, of the mass funeral, and of the thousands of protests against the massacre which have been thundering in the ears of the murderers from all over the world.
The verdict of the Judy follows:
VERDICT.
“The workers’ jury selected by working class organizations of Detroit, after hearing further detailed evidence of the Ford massacre from hunger marchers and eye-witnesses, reaffirms the verdict of ten thousand workers at the Arena Gardens on March 11th; of 70,000 workers who marched behind the coffins of York, Bussell, Leny and DeBlasio on March 12th; of thousands of Workers’ protest meetings held throughout the world.
“The workers jury places the guilt of the Ford massacre on Bloody Monday, March 7th, directly on the shoulders of Henry Ford and his private thugs and police. The workers jury further holds Mayor Murphy responsible for the massacre, because his administration sent police to Dearborn to assist in the cold-blooded murder of the Hunger Marchers, and assisted in the arrest and prosecution of workers after and before the massacre. The workers’ jury holds the Mayor of Dearborn, Clyde Ford, responsible for the massacre, because his police were used to attack the Hunger March with tear gas, clubs, streams of cold water, revolver fire and machine guns.
“The workers’ Jury has further established the conspiracy to murder and main workers participating in the Ford Hunger March, with the object of crushing the workers’ growing resistance to hunger, wage-cuts, terror and war.
“The Ford-Murphy murder conspiracy aims to drive tens of thousands of workers to death by starvation and wage-cuts and speed-up. Its aim is to deprive the workers of all rights to organize and fight starvation, wage-cuts and terror. Its aim is to terrorize the workers into meek acceptance of the war preparations. The object of this murder conspiracy is to destroy and crush the Auto Workers Union, the Unemployed Councils, the Young Communist League and the Communist Party.
“In carrying out this murder conspiracy, the Ford-Murphy machine had mobilized all the forces of capitalism to achieve its end: the Ford police, Dearborn police, Detroit police, Hamtramck police, state police, Wayne County prosecuting machine, capitalist press, Father Coughlin, American Federation of Labor leaders, the Socialist Party, the Proletarian Party, and Roger Baldwin of the Civil Liberties Union.
“While branding Ford, Murphy, Clyde Ford and Bennett as the murderers of Joe York, District Organizer of the Young Communist League, Coleman Leny, unemployed Ford worker, and Joe DeBlasio, active member of the Communist Party, the workers’ jury brands the various police departments, Mr. Toy, the Wayne County prosecutor, the leaders of the A. F. of L., the Socialist Party, the Proletarian Party, Father Coughlin and Roger Baldwin, as part and parcel of the Ford-Murphy murder conspiracy.
“The workers’ jury calls upon the working class to make this verdict effective through the following action:
1. Inform the widest masses of workers of the verdict and the actual facts and causes of the Ford massacre.
2. Hold protest and memorial meetings and pass resolutions condemning the bloody Ford massacre.
3. Build a powerful Auto Workers Union in the shops.
4. Build powerful Unemployed Councils in the neighborhoods.
5. Develop an effective campaign for Unemployment Insurance and the 14 demands of the Ford Hunger March.
6. Build the International Labor Defense, to defend the working class from frame-up attacks of capitalist courts.
7. Support the Young Communist League and the Communist Party.
8. Endorse the Daily Worker as the only paper of the working class.
9. Collect funds to erect a monument in memory of the fallen comrades at the Ford massacre.
10. Issue a pamphlet on the Ford massacre.
11. Mobilize the widest masses of workers for the Anti-War Ford Massacre demonstration on April 6th.
12. Mobilize the masses of workers into the mighty demonstration on May First.”
The meeting stood in silence for a brief period in respect for our martyred dead at the opening, and closed with the singing of “The International.”
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/1932/v09-n074-NY-mar-28-1932-DW-LOC.pdf
