In Boston-Committee for International Labor Defense Panel Discussion and Organizing Meeting
Saturday,
August 15th | 2:00-5:00 PM
Encuentro5
| 9a Hamilton Place Boston
International
Labor Defense was an organization founded by the Communist Party USA in Chicago
in 1925 (when we were known as the Workers Party of America). By 1926 it had
20,000 dues-paying members. The ILD worked to build solidarity and unity in the
world labor movement. It mobilized to defend persecuted labor organizers and
members of oppressed nations under attack from the exploiters and their state.
Its defense of the Scottsboro Boys in the 1930s turned into a worldwide campaign
and also facilitated organizing the Sharecroppers Union.
Other
high profile ILD cases included the case of black communist Angelo Herndon
facing a death sentence for involvement with the Atlanta Unemployed Council
(1932-1937); jailed west coast labor organizer Tom Mooney (1931-1939),
Massachusetts anarchists Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti facing execution
(1926-1930), the case of the Gallup, N. Mex., coal mine workers, (1933-1938),
and Los Angeles Times bomber John McNamara.
Repression
breeds resistance. As with the crises of the 1920s and '30s, capital's
deepening contradictions and crisis today is resulting in rising police
brutality and prison hells, in the US, Mexico, Colombia, indeed in most
capitalist countries. And as with the 1920s, this may be a good time to revive
International Labor Defense. It is certainly a necessary task of the
period.
Please
join us for a panel discussion on the history of International Labor Defense and
the need for similar mass organizations to defend political and class war
prisoners today. Following the panel discussion we will have an organizing
meeting for all who are interested in this organizing effort.
Meeting
Schedule-
2:00-4:00
PM Panel Discussion featuring organizers speaking on the history and current
necessity of International Labor Defense and similar efforts, participants in
struggles to free political and class war prisoners, and reports from
international efforts to revive ILD.
The
speakers on the panel are Wadi'h Halabi (Center for Marxist Education and
Economics Commission of CPUSA), Steve Kirschbaum ( United Steelworkers of
America Local 8751 Boston School Bus Drivers/Team Solidarity), and Tom Whitney
(political journalist, writes on Latin America, especially Cuba and Colombia,
member of Maine Veterans for Peace and Let Cuba life of Maine, formerly worked
as child health care worker).
4:00-5:00
PM Organizing Meeting will follow the Panel Discussion. All who are interested
in working towards a revived ILD are encouraged to attend and contribute ideas
that help in this effort.
ILD
Solidarity Statements
“Dear
brothers and sisters of the "International Labor Defense" :
We
want to express our support and solidarity to the "International Labor Defense"
in this struggle for the freedom of our polítical prisoners all over the globe.
Please keep us updated and count on us always.
Five
big hugs!
"The
Cuban Five".
Ramon
Labañino Salazar.
"The
murders, frame-ups, and repression of trade unionists today are just as vicious
as were in the days of Sacco and Vanzetti. Sure, perhaps, the sites have
changed from Brockton, MA to the streets of Barrancas, Colombia, Tehran, Iran
and a myriad of other locales. But the struggle for freedom of association and
to withhold one's labor continues. For too long ideology has divided
international support for the defense of trade unionists. I welcome the new
initiative to unite workers, regardless of ideology, in the global defense of
trade unionists in their struggle against the power of
corporations."
David
Campbell
Secretary-Treasurer
USW
Local 675
"International
Labor Defense not only allowed workers all over the world to join forces in the
face of repression but also get to know each other as allies, share our
knowledge, feel victories or defeats anywhere in the world as our own. Its
rebirth now reminds us of our history of solidarity."
Richard
Levins
Marxist
ecologist and one of the architects of the ecological transformation of
agriculture in Cuba in the 1990s.
“As
the bad old days for worker rights return, more vicious than ever, there is no
better time to revive the idea of international solidarity, international help
for our fellow workers. The catalyst is the outsourcing and shifting of jobs
from one country to another to increase massive profit, and to avoid the puny
labor laws that remain. We must reject the idea that workers are “stealing our
jobs”. If work has no borders, then all workers are brothers and sisters. And
all deserve fairness and support. It’s good to see the International Labor
Defense being revived so as to be ready with that support.”
Barbara
and Bob Ingalls
Detroit-area
labor and social justice activists.
Further
Reading-
Reviving
International Labor Defense - Wadi'h Halabi, Sandy Rosen, and Tom
Whitney*
International
Labor Defense was an organization founded by the Communist Party USA in Chicago
in 1925 (when we were known as the Workers Party of America). By 1926 it had
20,000 dues-paying members. The ILD worked to build solidarity and unity in the
world labor movement. It mobilized to defend persecuted labor organizers and
members of oppressed nations under attack from the exploiters and their state.
Its defense of the Scottsboro Boys in the 1930s turned into a worldwide campaign
and also facilitated organizing the Sharecroppers Union.
CPUSA
leader Sam Dlugin, the father of our comrade Lee Dlugin, participated in the
original ILD. His agitational pamphlet, "Blood on the Sugar", written in
defense of Cuban workers, can be found on the web. In fact, the Communist Party
of Cuba organized ILD branches in 1933.
Repression
breeds resistance. As with the crises of the 1920s and '30s, capital's
deepening contradictions and crisis today is resulting in rising police
brutality and prison hells, in the US, Mexico, Colombia, indeed in most
capitalist countries. And as with the 1920s, this may be a good time to revive
International Labor Defense. It is certainly a necessary task of the
period.
Already,
there are many prisoner defense efforts around the world. Our own comrades have
participated in efforts in defense of Mumia and other African-American and
Puerto Rican political prisoners, the Cuba 5, Los Mineros and electrical workers
in Mexico, David Ravelo and other Colombian political prisoners, and many more.
In Massachusetts, a remarkable Jobs not Jails coalition has developed in recent
months.
In
addition, there are thousands of campaigns worldwide in defense of prisoners,
some large, some small. Reviving International Labor Defense can help join these
many campaigns and build international labor solidarity.
The
CPUSA was the organizing center of the original ILD. Today it may be best if an
international union federation or grouping of unions in an industry, such as
transport or metal, serves as the ILD's organizing center. CP leadership and
guidance of course remains essential.
As
Communists, we can build on our historic connections and special access to CPs
(and many unions) worldwide to help develop ILD. There are indications that the
CPs of China, Cuba, Portugal, Colombia, and several other states could lend
support to reviving ILD.
One
important task of the ILD will be selection of prisoners to be defended and the
corresponding class education. This is in part because the capitalist class is
certain to attempt to weaken or neutralize a revived ILD by promoting
anti-working class prisoners held in states such as Cuba, Vietnam and
China.
(*excerpt
from CPUSA 30th National Convention discussion document “Two ideas to Build the
Party Today: REVIVE INTERNATIONAL LABOR DEFENSE AND DEVELOP A YOUTH/UNION
ALLIANCE FOR GOOD UNION JOBS AND AGAINST DEBT SLAVERY” available here:
http://www.cpusa.org/convention-discussion-two-ideas-to-build-the-party/
)
Considerations
on forming a unified organization dedicated to the cause of political prisoners
worldwide. The model is International Labor Defense (ILD)
From
Tom Whitney, May 12, 2014
ILD
will undertake to organize, publicity, political education, agitation,
facilitation of legal assistance, administrative capabilities, and recruitment
of supporters on behalf of selected political prisoners, especially those
victimized as members of the working class or in struggle to defend the working
class
Purposes:
1.
A revived ILD undertakes to respond to needs not presently being met due to many
difficulties. They include: waning socialist internationalism, reverses
affecting the labor movement, divisions among now tiny leftist political
parties, and residual impact of demagogic anti-communism. Currently, political
prisoner campaigns are often only as large as political parties, single issue
campaigns, and organizations they were affiliated with. Advocacy and organizing
that cross international, political, and organizational borders would be an
advance.
2.
ILD, by its nature, implies political work broader than defense of political
prisoners alone. As such, and as long as its membership is drawn from a variety
of political groups, ILD should serve as a focus for recruitment of class –based
activists as yet undifferentiated by particular political groupings.
Methods:
1.
IWD will comprise national leadership formations and local chapters. They will
be joined by activists representing groups and campaigns already involved with
political prisoners.
2.
IWD may leave considerable autonomy to local chapters. Chapters would act under
the aegis of centralized and collective leadership.
3.
Prisoner selection would be an orderly and collective process.
4.
IWD activities will include: the gathering, analyzing, and dissemination of
relevant political news; public education and advocacy efforts; organizing of
appropriate direct action modalities, and active recruitment of
members
5.
Methods of prisoner selection, recruitment of leadership, organization of
chapters and central governance remain to be determined.
Assumptions:
1.
ILD will provide support for other groups already involved with a particular
prisoner or prisoners, contributing political education, recruiting, publicity,
direct action, coordinating, and general advocacy. Important strategic decisions
ought to be left to the initiative of groups already involved.
2.
Criteria for selecting prisoners ILD would support include the class-based
nature of their political struggles, the political significance of the fight for
which they were incarcerated, dangers threatening to prisoners or their cause,
special humanitarian needs, and prospects for their release.
3.
ILD’s contribution to the liberation of selected prisoners would be more to
encourage popular mobilization on their behalf than to join in their legal
fight, although IWD would, if necessary, help secure and maintain adequate legal
defense.
4.
The role of ILD, in general, will be to facilitate, support, and coordinate
campaigns for prisoners. Usually ILD will not undertake primary direction of
individual campaigns for prisoners.
5.
Advocacy on behalf of prisoners will, if possible, be integrated into the
larger struggles for which they were detained.
6.
Taking pains to remain non-sectarian, ILD will endeavor to recruit members
and leaders from a variety of organizations working on behalf of the working
class.
Questions,
to begin with:
1.
Do material and personnel resources exist to begin an IWD? Where does money come
from?
2.
What is the constituency for IWD in terms of existing organizations,
campaigns?
3.
How does IWD steer clear of becoming sectarian amd promoting
division?
4.
How should ILD approach existing organizations and political prisoner campaigns
to benefit from their ideas and/or gain their eventual
participation?
5.
What categories of political prisoners are off limits for the
IWD?
6.
How would IWD deal with political figures unjustly imprisoned by progressive or
left-leaning states?
7.
Are imprisoned members of objectionable labor unions candidates for ILD
support?
Commentary:
1.
In contrast to our present situation, ILD developed within the context of mass
left- leaning political movements and amidst ubiquitous labor mobilizations. It
was a situation providing plenty of victims. At the time, 1925 – 1940, many
popular resistance movements were aligned more or less with the rising
international communist movement. ILD materialized within that framework. Lack
of mass political mobilization today is a handicap.
2.
The need addressed by ILD, of mobilizing large-scale support for victims
particularly of judicial abuse, remains. The need likewise remains for resources
being available in support of campaigns of political solidarity on their
behalf,
3.
Founders of the original ILD counted on mass support not necessarily attached to
participants’ primary political affiliations. They seemed to regard ILD as
itself a means for building a mass left-leaning political movement, that is to
say, a tool.
4.
Certain political developments of recent decades may be relevant to refashioning
an ILD, among them: development and persistence of anti-communist bias against
class-based workers’ defense, the splintering of movement for democratic change
into single-issue mobilizations, pervasive fear of U. S. state security
apparatus, diminished understanding of historical antecedents of struggle,
weakening of both the U.S. labor movement and worldwide labor federations, and
responsibility for defending victims increasingly taken on by their own
organizations.
5.
Organizations purporting to defend political prisoners have proliferated
worldwide. They operate within circumscribed boundaries of action often defined
by national, religious, and/or political identification.
6.
Progress in forming a renewed ILD will depend, it seems, on engaging newer
generations of activists.
Considerations
of feasibility:
1.
Existing organizations that defend political prisoners may resist
intervention presented as friendly but is perceived as
interfering.
2.
People and financial resources are lacking essential for creating and
organizing a new ILD with ambitious goals.
3.
Leadership capabilities presently seem thin.
Brief
Historical Addendum
The
Workers Party of America – later to become the Communist Party – formed the
International Labor Defense (ILD) in 1925 as a “consolidated legal defense mass
organization.” Its headquarters were in Chicago, Ill. The idea was a
“non-partisan body that would defend any member of the working class movement,
without regard to personal political views.” Victims “under the thumb of
persecution by the capitalist legal system would be supported legally, morally,
and financially.” Of note is that initial planning seemed to envision help for
members and non-members alike of the organized labor movement. And ILD would not
confine its help exclusively to victims of judicial processes.
“The
ILD was a membership organization [with] the holding of regular local meetings.
There were 20,000 dues-paying ILD members by late 1926, with 75,000 other
supporters of ILD goals and actions who were members of affiliated
organizations,. Local branches conducted mass meetings and fundraising events.
ILD published a monthly magazine in Chicago called Labor Defender. The editor
was a Workers Party member, the business manger, a member of the Socialist
Party. Circulation boomed, rising from about 1,500 paid subscriptions and 8,500
copies in bulk bundle sales in 1927 to about 5,500 paid subscriptions with a
bundle sale of 16,500 by the middle of 1928. Of 38 original National Committee
members, 12 of them belonged to the Workers (or Communist) Party. The nine –
member ILD Executive Committee included six party members.
According
to founding Executive Director James P. Cannon, reporting on a survey: "There
were [initially] 106 class war prisoners in the United States -- scores of IWW
members railroaded in California, Kansas, Utah, and other states under the
criminal syndicalist laws. We located a couple of obscure anarchists in prison
in Rhode Island; a group of AFL coal miners in West Virginia; two labor
organizers in Thomaston, Maine -- besides the more prominent and better known
prisoners... They were not criminals at all, but strike leaders, organizers,
agitators, dissenters -- our kind of people. Not one of these 106 prisoners was
a member of the Communist Party! But the ILD defended and helped them
all."
High
profile ILD cases included the “Scottsboro Boys” 1931-1936,” the case of black
communist Angelo Herndon facing a death sentence for involvement with the
Atlanta Unemployed Council (1932-1937); jailed west coast labor organizer Tom
Mooney (1931-1939), Massachusetts anarchists Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo
Vanzetti facing execution (1926-1930), the case of the Gallup, N. Mex., coal
mine workers, (1933-1938), and Los Angeles Times bomber John McNamara.
ILD
backed labor organizing in southeastern United States: “Working through a
variety of communist-led mass organizations, from the International Labor
Defense to the Congress of Spanish-Speaking Peoples, the Communist Party
eventually produced a noteworthy group of Mexican American women leaders.”
(Vargas, 2004). ILD in the late 1920’s defended striking coal miners in Ohio,
Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Illinois, also jailed textile workers in New
Bedford, MA. According to Jules Robert Benjamin (1977), “the Communist Party of
Cuba established ILD branches there in 1933, as well as branches of the
anti-imperialist League.” In 1946 the ILD was merged with the National
Federation for Constitutional Liberties to form the Civil Rights
Congress.
