HONOR THE THREE L’S-LENIN, LUXEMBURG, LIEBKNECHT-Honor An Historic Leader Of The American Labor Movement-“Big Bill Haywood  

 

 

 

 EVERY JANUARY WE HONOR LENIN OF RUSSIA, ROSA LUXEMBURG OF POLAND, AND KARL LIEBKNECHT OF GERMANY AS THREE LEADERS OF THE INTERNATIONAL WORKING CLASS MOVEMENT. DURING THE MONTH WE ALSO HONOR OTHER HISTORIC LEADERS AS WELL ON THIS SITE.

Book Review

Big Bill Haywood, Melvyn Dubofsky, Manchester University Press, Manchester England, 1987

If you are sitting around today wondering, as I occasionally do, what a modern day radical labor leader should look like then one need go no further than to observe the career, warts and all, of the legendary Bill Haywood. To previous generations of radicals that name would draw an automatic response. Today’s radicals, and others interested in social solutions to the pressing problems that have been bestowed on us by the continuation of the capitalist mode of production, may not be familiar with the man and his program for working class power. Professor Dubofsky’s little biographical sketch is thus just the cure for those who need a primer on this hero of the working class.

The good professor goes into some detail, despite limited accessibility, about Haywood’s early life out in the Western United States in the late 19th century. Those hard scrabble experiences made a huge imprint on the young Haywood as he tramped from mining camp to mining camp and tried to make ends mean, any way he could. Haywood, moreover, is the perfect example of the fact that working class political consciousness is not innate but gained through the hard experiences of life under the capitalist system. Thus, Haywood moved from itinerant miner to become a leading member of the Western Federation of Miners (WFM) and moved leftward along the political spectrum along the way. Not a small part in that was due to his trial on trumped up charges in Idaho for murder as part of a labor crackdown against the WFM by the mine owners and their political allies there.

As virtually all working class militants did at the turn of the 20th century, Big Bill became involved with the early American socialist movement and followed the lead of the sainted Eugene V. Debs. As part of the ferment of labor agitation during this period the organization that Haywood is most closely associated with was formed-The Industrial Workers of the World (hereafter IWW, also known as Wobblies). This organization- part union, part political party- was the most radical expression (far more radical than the rather tepid socialist organizations) of the American labor movement in the period before World War I.

The bulk of Professor Dubofsky’s book centers, as it should, on Haywood’s exploits as a leader of the IWW. Big Bill’s ups and downs mirrored the ups and downs of the organization. The professor goes into the various labor fights that Haywood led highlighted by the great 1912 Lawrence strike (of bread and roses fame), the various free speech fights but also the draconian Wilsonian policy toward the IWW after America declared war in 1917. That governmental policy essentially crushed the IWW as a mass working class organization. Moreover, as a leader Haywood personally felt the full wrath of the capitalist government. Facing extended jail time Haywood eventually fled to the young Soviet republic where he died in lonely exile in 1928.

The professor adequately tackles the problem of the political and moral consequences of that escape to Russia for the IWW and to his still imprisoned comrades so I will not address it here. However, there are two points noted by Dubofsky that warrant comment. First, he notes that Big Bill was a first rate organizer in both the WFM and the IWW. Those of us who are Marxists sometimes tend to place more emphasis of the fact that labor leaders need to be “tribunes of the people” that we sometimes neglect the important “trade union secretary” part of the formula. Haywood seems to have had it all. Secondly, Haywood’s and the IWW’s experience with government repression during World War I, repeated in the “Red Scare” experience of the 1950’s against Communists and then later against the Black Panthers in the 1960’s should be etched into the brain of every militant today. When the deal goes down the capitalists and their hangers-on will do anything to keep their system. Anything. That said, read this Haywood primer. It is an important contribution to the study of American labor history.

***The Roots Is The Toots- The Music That Got Them Through The Great Depression And World War II…

 

…he was glad, glad as hell, to be off the troop transports, away from the sinking sweat of men, nothing but men, in close quarters who had been getting on his nerves from about mid-ocean to the portals of New York. Who had been stinking too of too many cigarettes (and butt-fiend guys cadging them off of him and not returning the favor when they got their ration), too many carbohydrate- loaded foods (bread and mashed potatoes piled on mashed potatoes and a ladle-full of gravy, or what passed for shipboard gravy), and too much boozy talk (leading to occasional no room fist-fights once the cheap booze hit about the third drink) and card-playing bravado (ditto on the guys borrowing dough, borrowing dough on some screwy pair of deuces, and “forgetting the I.O..U., forgetting it quickly). Yes, he had had just about enough of that.

And tired too of the naval cadre (who was he kidding swabbies, nothing but in-your-face swabbies, the lowest of the low) who were stationed on the ship and who were the worst, taking advantage of their superior status as regulars on the ship to force G.I.s, guys who had seen plenty of action on all of the European fronts where there were fronts, to swab decks and other house-hold chores because those bastards were too lazy to do it. And because they could force the issue if it came down to it. Yes, enough of that too, thank you.

So once he hit New York, hit landlubber dry land he headed straight for the Diplomat (after the obligatory kissing of the New York port ground) with his pent-up dough and got himself a room with all the trimmings. Shower, big, big bed, a chair to sit on, sit on all by himself, and handy room-service-yes room service where for once after the previous three years he got to give the orders. Of course a guy who had been ship-bound and had spent some serious dough to repair his self-esteem was thinking of nothing so much as heading out, or in this case heading down, to the nearest hot spot and checkout, well, the women what else. His plan was to snag some loose woman lonely since her man was still away and she had, ah, needs, needs he could take care of, or some camp-follower not a floozy but not too hard to pick up either or in a pinch just somebody’s little sister who couldn’t make it in the looks department back home and figured she would try her luck when the ships came in with sex-hunger men, lots of them.

And so it was that night as he entered the ballroom of the Diplomat. That night when he from nowhere North Adamsville up in Massachusetts saw more young women dressed to the nines than he believed existed on the earth.  (Little did he know that these women were wearing last year’s, or from the year before, fashions and were not feeling dressed to the nines that night. Although they were as thrilled in their own way as he was), There they were with swaying hips, or just swaying, to the sounds of the new cooler be-bop sounds that had begun to take hold since he had been away. Sounds that reflected the hard realities of the European fights and now formerly beloved swing seemed too juvenile for grown battle-weary men and the women waiting for them.  

 

That night, from eight to two, he just danced, be-bop cool jazz danced, danced the way he felt inside, with every girl who would dance with him, drank an ocean of liquor, good stuff not that shipboard rotgut that would eat your insides out (and brought many drinks all around as well) and was happy. There would be a next time for finding some gal to share silky sheets with …  

Unmanned: America’s Drone Wars

Learn what our government is doing in our name!

We will have a discussion after the movie.

Thursday, January 30 at 7:00 at the Robbins Library, in the Community Room
700 Massachusetts Avenue, Arlington (on the 77 and 79 bus lines)

       

      

In Unmanned: America’s Drone Wars, director Robert Greenwald investigates the impact of U.S. drone strikes in Pakistan and elsewhere. The film highlights the stories of 16 year old Tariq Aziz, killed by a drone in 2011; and school teacher, Rafiq ur Rehamn, whose mother was killed and children hospitalized due to a drone strike in 2012. Unmanned includes more than seventy interviews. Prominent among these are a former American drone operator; Pakistani families of drone victims who are seeking legal redress; high ranking politicians and some of the military’s top brass, warning against blowback from the loss of innocent life.

 

For information about drones, see the website: nodronesnetwork.blogspot.com

 

Sponsored by Eastern Massachusetts Anti-Drones Network, justicewithpeace.org, (617) 776-6524.

Co-sponsored by Arlington United for Justice with Peace, WILPF Boston and Veterans For Peace, Smedley Butler Brigade.

 

 

 

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As the Wars Wind Down... Are we Reaching a Turning Point?

Towards a Just & Cooperative
U.S. Foreign Policy

Massachusetts Peace Action 2014 Annual Meeting

When: Saturday, February 8, 2014, 12:30 pm to 5:00 pm

Where: St. Ignatius Parish, Boston College • 28 Commonwealth Ave, Chestnut Hill • Take Green Line "B" to End of Line & cross Comm. Ave.
What a year! A popular outcry stopped a U.S. war with Syria and diplomacy promises relaxation of tensions with Iran (if Congress doesn’t interfere). The Budget for All proved that voters want less military spending and more social investment, and the Autumn Convergence showed that we can connect peace, climate, and economic and social justice into a single progressive agenda.

• Why is the U.S. the world’s policeman and what is the alternative?
• How can we move our nation towards a more peaceful foreign policy?

We present two important voices to solve these riddles and shape our work in 2014.
Barney Frank served in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1981 to 2013. A constant campaigner to cut the military budget by 25%, he formed the Sustainable Defense Task Force in 2010 to propose practical ways to do so, and criticized U.S. support for NATO . The primary architect of the 2010 Dodd-Frank financial reform act, Frank is now at work on a book.
Andrew Bacevich is Professor of International Relations and History at Boston University. A West Point graduate and retired U.S. Army Colonel, he is author of The New American Militarism, Washington Rules, andBreach of Trust.  Read an important recent article. Bacevich urges the U.S. to abandon its hegemonistic foreign policy and focus on rebuilding its society at home. His books will be available for signing.
Workshops will focus on Iran and the Mideast, Israel/Palestine, convergence and new foreign policy. Do you have a workshop idea? Proposals are due January 15!  Details here on how to submit a workshop.
We will complete the election of new board members.
All are welcome! Click here to Pre-Register.
Doors open 12:30 for registration and refreshments.  Meeting begins promptly at 1:00.
Parking in BC's Commonwealth Garage.  Some parking behind church for those with limited mobility - please notify us in advance.   Detailed directions will be emailed two days in advance to those who pre-register.

Free to members – others $10.  Make your membership donation today!

Massachusetts Peace Action, masspeaceaction.org, 617-354-2169, info@masspeaceaction.org.  Facebook: facebook.com/masspeaceaction.  Twitter: @masspeaceaction 

United for Justice with Peace is a coalition of peace and justice organizations and community peace groups in the Greater Boston region. The UJP Coalition, formed after September 11th, seeks global peace through social and economic justice. Help us continue to do this critical work! Make a donation to UJP today.
info@justicewithpeace.org	617

January 15, 2014 , If there’s ever a bill that should never come up on the floor for a vote, it’s Senate Bill 1881. This bill calling for tightened sanctions on Iran would blow up the successful nuclear talks– and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid could bring it up for a vote in the Senate any time. President Obama even called it a “march to war”! Tell Senator Reid to STOP THIS BILL! President Obama has said he will veto this bill if it passes, but because of heavy pressure from the Israel lobby AIPAC, the Senate already has 59 cosponsors, and only needs 8 more votes before the bill can override a presidential veto. We need YOU to take action: Sign this petition to Senator Reid now, and then take a minute to call his office at (202) 224-3542. Tell him not to undermine this golden chance for diplomacy, keep the Iran sanctions bill S.1881 off the floor! For peace with Iran, Alli, Cayman, Daria, Janet, Jodie, Kate, Lisa, Marina, Medea, Nancy K, Nancy M, Perrine, Sara, Sergei, and Tighe

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From The Marxist Archives -The Revolutionary History Journal-The 1934 Minneapolis Strike

 

 

..This year marks the 80th Anniversary of three great labor struggles that ended in victory in heart of the Great Depression(the 1930s version of what we, at least partially, confront today); the great General Strike in San Francisco that was led by the dockers and sailor unions and brought victory on the key issue of the union hiring hall (since then greatly emasculated); the great Minneapolis Teamster strikes that led to the unionization of truck drivers and allied workers in that labor-hating town and later to the organizing of over-the-road drivers that created one of the strongest (if corrupt) unions in North America; and, the Toledo Auto-Lite Strike whose key component was leadership by the unemployed workers. Does all of this sound familiar? Yes and no. Yes, to labor militants who, looking to a way out of the impasse of the condition of today's quiescent labor movement, have studied these labor actions. No, to the vast majority of workers who are either not organized or are clueless about their history. In either case, though, these actions provide a thread to how we must struggle in the future. Although 75 years seems like a long time ago the issues posed then have not gone away. Far from it. Study this labor history now to be ready to struggle when we get our openings.
*******
This year is the 80th Anniversary of the great Minneapolis Teamsters strikes that paved the way to the later over-the road trucker unionization that was to make the Teamsters Union one of the strongest unions (if at the same time one of the most corrupt but that is a story for another time). Here is a 1934 article by Socialist Workers Party(SWP) (then Communist League Of America)leader James P. Cannon who was also a key leader behind the scenes (and not so behind the scenes when the law came looking to arrest him and Max Schachtman) about the lessons to be learned by labor militants from that great series of strike actions. I also recommend "Teamster Rebellion" and "Teamster Power" by local Teamsters leader and later SWP leader Farrell Dobbs. Those books trace the rank and file struggle and the later over-the road fight that he was instrumental in leading.

 

Click below to link to the Revolutionary History Journal index.

http://www.marxists.org/history/etol/revhist/backissu.htm

Peter Paul Markin comment on this series:

This is an excellent documentary source for today’s leftist militants to “discover” the work of our forebears, particularly the bewildering myriad of tendencies which have historically flown under the flag of the great Russian revolutionary, Leon Trotsky and his Fourth International, whether one agrees with their programs or not. But also other laborite, semi-anarchist, ant-Stalinist and just plain garden-variety old school social democrat groupings and individual pro-socialist proponents.

Some, maybe most of the material presented here, cast as weak-kneed programs for struggle in many cases tend to be anti-Leninist as screened through the Stalinist monstrosities and/or support groups and individuals who have no intention of making a revolution. Or in the case of examining past revolutionary efforts either declare that no revolutionary possibilities existed (most notably Germany in 1923) or alibi, there is no other word for it, those who failed to make a revolution when it was possible.

 

The Spanish Civil War can serve as something of litmus test for this latter proposition, most infamously around attitudes toward the Party Of Marxist Unification's (POUM) role in not keeping step with revolutionary developments there, especially the Barcelona days in 1937 and by acting as political lawyers for every non-revolutionary impulse of those forebears. While we all honor the memory of the POUM militants, according to even Trotsky the most honest band of militants in Spain then, and decry the murder of their leader, Andreas Nin, by the bloody Stalinists they were rudderless in the storm of revolution. But those present political disagreements do not negate the value of researching the POUM’s (and others) work, work moreover done under the pressure of revolutionary times. Hopefully we will do better when our time comes.

Finally, I place some material in this space which may be of interest to the radical public that I do not necessarily agree with or support. Off hand, as I have mentioned before, I think it would be easier, infinitely easier, to fight for the socialist revolution straight up than some of the “remedies” provided by the commentators in these entries from the Revolutionary History journal in which they have post hoc attempted to rehabilitate some pretty hoary politics and politicians, most notably August Thalheimer and Paul Levy of the early post Liebknecht-Luxemburg German Communist Party. But part of that struggle for the socialist revolution is to sort out the “real” stuff from the fluff as we struggle for that more just world that animates our efforts. So read, learn, and try to figure out the
wheat from the chaff. 
******** 

The 1934 Minneapolis Strike From Revolutionary History, Vol.2 No.1, Spring 1989. Used by permision.

The Minneapolis strikes of 1934 have always occupied a special place in the historical understanding of the Trotskyist movement, as they were the first clearly documented demonstration of the ability of a small Trotskyist organisation to make the breakthrough into the broader labour movement, and to lead one of its sections to victory. Along with the Toledo Auto-Lite struggle and the San Francisco General Strike, they formed part of the revival of the industrial militancy of the working class of the United States from the depths of the slump. They have always been regarded as a model by Trotskyist organisations throughout the world.

We reproduce a series of extracts taken from the American Militant of 2 June 1934 (vol.vii, no.22 – whole no.226), and a speech made in 1952 by Carl Skoglund, The Story of Minneapolis, which first appeared publicly in the March 1984 issue of Socialist Action, the paper of one of the groups supporting the United Secretariat of the Fourth International in the USA.
The implications of these strikes cannot all be pursued here. Farrell Dobbs’ own account is set out in his book, Teamster Rebellion, New York, 1972, and the comments of James P. Cannon in Notebook of an Agitator, 2nd edition, New York, 1973, pp.75-94, The Communist League of America 1932-34, New York, 1985, pp.328-340 and the chapter on The Great Minneapolis Strikes in The History of American Trotskyism, 2nd edition, New York, 1972, pp.139-168. A cursory treatment is to be found in Constance Ashton Myers, The Prophet’s Army, Westport, 1977, pp.77-82. Carl Cowl offers his own reminiscences in Ceri Jones’ Minneapolis 1934: An Upsurge in Confidence in Socialist Worker (9 October 1982), and Jake Cooper and Harry DeBoer in Minneapolis 1934, in the American Socialist Action, July 1984).

Editors RH

---

How the Strike was organized

Minneapolis, 28 May – The courage and determination so effectively displayed by the striking Minneapolis truck drivers and helpers has proven conclusively that the American working class is very well equipped to fight their exploiters. It only remains for a proper leadership to come to the front in the entire labor movement and guide these dynamic forces to victory,

The striking truck drivers and helpers were suffering from economic adversity but their condition was no different from that of other workers in the United States. These men were simply a representative cross-section of the American working class. The abilities which they brought into play are lying dormant in every group of American workers.
Every effort was made by the leaders to give these natural abilities an opportunity to come to the surface. No stone was left unturned in the attempt to do this, Something more than numbers is required on the picket line. The men must feel that their efforts are well spent, that they are a part of a smoothly functioning machine, that they can successfully hold every position they win. To stimulate and justify this confidence the leaders must perfect a thorough organization and all preparations must be carefully checked to the most minute detail. That was done in Minneapolis.
A large garage about 400 feet wide and a block long was selected to serve as the headquarters for the Minneapolis strike. A large sign was painted across the front of the building announcing that this was the strike headquarters. Supplementary field headquarters were set up at points where it would prove necessary to concentrate a sizeable force for mass picketing. At the main headquarters a stage was erected and a loud-speaker system installed to be used in the dispatching of pickets and in addressing meetings.
A commissary department requiring a personnel of 35 was set up and maintained throughout the strike. A special service and repair department was provided and a crew of 12 mechanics well equipped with tools were busily engaged in keeping the cars and trucks of the pickets in good running order. Special arrangements were made to secure gasoline and to obtain a tire repair service.
A first-aid station was established at the headquarters through the volunteer service of two doctors and two trained nurses. This department rendered an invaluable service because of the speed and efficiency with which injuries were treated and it is notable to record that in no case did an infection develop.
Within the headquarters offices, a crew of men with special instructions remained constantly at the five telephones which were the nerve center of the strike. A corps of women assistants under the direction of the financial officer received applications for membership which poured in by the hundreds and issued permits for the pickets to obtain gasoline and mechanical service. A special committee was set up to hear complaints and requests for special permits to operate trucks. The instructions to this committee were very strict. These special groups served excellently as a buffer to take the burden of routine matters off the shoulders of the leaders and to leave them free to direct the principal strategy of the strike.
Before the start of the strike a complete analysis of the picketing requirements had been made and, with a corps of stenographers and mimeograph operators, the leaders had prepared a complete set of written orders and instructions to the pickets. As a result of this careful preparation, the entire picket line was established and functioning effectively within an hour after the beginning of the strike.
The principal strategy of the picketing was to establish stationary picket posts at the city limits on all highways, at all gasoline bulk plants and direct service filling stations, at the wholesale market, in the loop retail district, and at the truck freight terminals.
These stationary pickets were supplemented by ‘cruising squads’ which were assigned to definite districts throughout the town and by other cruising squads which were assigned to cover certain areas where trucking activities would most likely be attempted.
The pickets were transported to and from the stationary posts by truck and the cruising squads were provided with fast automobiles. A reserve force with adequate transportation facilities was kept in the headquarters at all times. Each group of pickets and each cruising squad was commanded by a picket captain, who had been given written instructions as to responsibilities. Each truck driver was also given special written instructions to be followed.
Wherever mass picketing was required a field commander was appointed and given special credentials with instructions to establish a field headquarters to maintain contact with General Headquarters. This was accomplished by stationing a contact officer at a suitable telephone location and providing him with assistants. In this manner GHQ could phone orders to the contact officer who would in turn send them to the field commander by one of the assistants. Reports from the field commander to GHQ were also sent by this medium. To supplement this a special squad of motorcycle riders were kept at GHQ to perform special liaison duties.
A number of special cruising squads manned by hand-picked men and captained by qualified leaders were kept under the constant control of GHQ. The captains of these squads were given credentials which superseded all other authority in the field. These squads were used to be sent into a tense situation for the purpose of reorganizing the forces and leading the fight. They did their work well and more than justified the continuation of this system.
It is well to note that in spite of the large number of cars, trucks, and motorcycles required for this method of picketing, there was an excess of vehicles volunteered for service by the strikers.
It was naturally necessary to maintain a guard at the doors of the headquarters. But in spite of all precautions, stoolpigeons will slip through. Once within the building these miserable wretches can do much damage if left unhindered. They operate principally by attempting to disrupt the ranks through the encouragement of drinking and through attempts to create disorder and discussion.
Special squads of reliable men were kept on duty constantly watching for these people and they did their work very effectively. There is another and more dangerous type of stool-pigeon, who comes well armed with credentials and attempts to insinuate himself into a position entailing some responsibility. It was found that by carefully selecting key men who are absolutely trustworthy and by using great secrecy in issuing orders that it is comparatively early to discover these people through their great ambition to disrupt.
To summarize the general results of this organizational method, we find that we have a group of strikers who are given food regularly, and medical care for their physical comfort. We find that they have reliable mechanical equipment to do their job. And we find that they soon come to realize that their leaders know at all times where they are and what they are up against. They wade in fearlessly because they know that if they need help it will come, if they need new captains, they will come, and they feel confident that if they win any advantage their leaders will be able to hold it for them.
These Minneapolis workers then are merely representative American workers, who have risen to a new height because of the careful efforts made to uncover and develop their every resource. The Minneapolis workers call upon the workers of America to demand such cooperation and guidance from all labor leaders.

A Striker

---

At the Minneapolis City Market
‘The Battle of Deputy Run’

From the inception of the organization work in connection with the General Drivers strike, it was correctly estimated that our strategic position was the so-called central market place. This takes in an area of approximately six square blocks. It is bounded on the one whole side by the railroad tracks, which are the team tracks where practically all of the market produce is unloaded.

In concentrating on the market, we were guided by the fact that the food situation, especially at this time of the year, was the real point to attack. At the start of the strike this strategy was not so apparent. But on the second and third days, it became plainly visible that the perishable food supply was running low and that the market bosses were going to attempt some drastic action to move their perishable foods.
Through our connections in the market houses it was learned that on Saturday morning there was to be a concerted effort to make deliveries. The strike committee held a conference and it was decided that we would relieve some of our forces from positions where there was not so much activity and hold them in reserve. It developed that although we had a little skirmish on that day, a serious threat was not made for any wholesale delivery.
The market situation was watched closely and, after waiting for Sunday and Monday to pass, we learned through unquestionable sources, that the big offensive was to be made Tuesday about eleven o’clock. This information was received about midnight Monday. Immediate action became compulsory. ‘Concentrate the Pickets’, was the slogan. ‘Cruising squads’ of pickets were dispatched, motorcycle riders roared out, street car motormen and conductors on the owl cars carried the word to our pickets at outlying points, telephones and other messengers were utilized for the mobilization of every available picket.
Soon the outlying positions were deserted except for a skeleton picket line. The pickets came pouring in to strike headquarters, thousands of the tired but eager fighters, anxious to defend their rights with their lives if necessary. Tons of food had been prepared and was waiting for these fighters; but it seemed that it was hardly touched, so anxious were these workers for the job to be done.
No raised voices; no milling; quietly questioning each other: ‘Where do we go? When do we start?’ The word goes from the dispatcher to the microphone announcer in the big strike headquarters: ‘Start moving!’ Then trucks lined up. Noiselessly they were pushed into place. Next order: ‘Fill the trucks!’ Like one man these eager fighters filled the trucks to capacity.
In code the drivers only were given the destination. ‘Move out!’ Motors roared and in an instant three hundred pickets were on their way to a destination, unknown then, that was to make new history for the American workers.
Adjacent to the market and on one of the border streets, Labor Headquarters is located. Into this hall holding about two thousand men our pickets were concentrated. A skeleton patrol was sent to patrol the market streets and to report any move to start delivery. Word quickly comes back: hundreds of special deputies, special police and harness bulls armed with clubs and guns, squad cars of police with sawn-off shot guns and vomiting gas. Quietly the pickets patrolled the streets, curiosity seekers hurling curses at the hired strikebreakers. A truck starts to move, our pickets jump to the running boards and demand that the scab driver stop. A hired slugger raises his club and slashes at a picket. Down the picket drops as if dead. The fight is on. Phone rings at the concentration hall: ‘Send the reserves!’ Orderly, but almost as if by magic, the hall is emptied. The pickets are deployed by their leaders to surround the police and sluggers. The police raise their riot guns but the workers ignore and rush through them. ‘Chase out the hired sluggers’, is their battle cry. The cowardly sluggers take to their heels and run. The police and strikers use their clubs freely. Many casualties on both sides. The workers have captured the market!

A Striker

---

A Lesson in ‘Law and Order’

Minneapolis, 28 May – The magnificent struggles of the truck drivers, particularly the battle in the market Tuesday morning, 22 May, the ‘Battle of Deputies Run’, will be permanently engraved in the minds of the Minneapolis working class.

This fight in which the strikers routed over 1500 police and special deputies is full of meaning for the future. Coming as it did after a week of lesser fights, it shows the capacity of the workers, once aroused, for determined struggle. It reveals their resourcefulness, courage and intelligence.
Step by step in this l0-day strike the workers learnt that ‘law and order’, ‘constitutional rights’, ‘liberty and justice’, ‘right to organize’ were hollow phrases used by the bosses to keep them in ignorance and subjection. No sooner did they learn than they swiftly translated these lessons into militant action, not individual action but organized action. The whole record of the strike is a record of the transformation of workers to whom the idea of unionism was new, into resolute experienced fighters, who have successfully fought their class enemy, the bosses, and know the value of organization and militant leadership.
In the first days of the strike a holiday spirit prevailed. There were no serious clashes with police nor any determined effort on the part of the bosses to move trucks. The sentiment of the men was for peaceful picketing and Law and Order. Many had illusions about the impartiality of the cops and the press.
But on Friday the bosses began their offensive. Cops began to arrest pickets by the dozens. A few trucks under heavy police guard pierced the picket lines. The yellow press began to denounce the strikers, who were trying to get decent living conditions for themselves and their families, as lawless elements. Abuse was heaped upon them by all the agencies of the Citizens Alliance. The workers began to realize the seriousness of the struggle and settled down in real earnestness to the task confronting them.
Meanwhile the police chief, at the behest of the bosses, began to round up the ex-crooks, murderers, and all the scum of the city, including gentlemen from the social register, and made them special deputies, to preserve ‘Law and Order’.
The first real fight occurred Saturday morning in the market, when 500 pickets battled with their bare fists, trying to prevent 600 cops and deputies armed with clubs and blackjacks from moving two trucks. The cops succeeded in getting the trucks through, but only after bitter fighting in which the unarmed strikers gave a good account of themselves, sending many cops to the hospital.
Sunday was comparatively quiet. The men were thinking hard and learning fast.
Early Monday morning hundreds of pickets assembled at the market armed with clubs, rubber hose, and other improvised weapons. They were no longer a mass of strikers, they were soldiers obeying orders from their captains. Police attempted to disperse the pickets and the fight was on. The strikers rushed the cops, who went down like nine-pins. After considerable fighting the cops drew their guns and threatened to fire. The workers showed their defiance. But the cops had had enough and asked the pickets to drop their clubs, saying that they would drop theirs. The strikers were not fooled by this and stood their ground. No trucks moved that day.
At dawn Tuesday, hundreds of cops and special deputies began to pour into the market until there were over a thousand. They were concentrated at strategic points. Later the strikers began to arrive by truckfuls. Thousands of sympathetic onlookers lined the streets. The strikers moved with military precision, maneuvering skillfully for vantage points. Their plan was to catch the cops from the rear and divide their forces. Many reserves were stationed in the Central Labor Headquarters nearby.
As the morning wore on, there were numerous skirmishes that heralded the battle to come. Just about noon the fight started, when a deputized female attempted to club a woman picket. The plucky woman seized a club from a picket at her side and stretched her flat. With a roar that was heard for blocks, the strikers swept away the specials and cops. The specials made no effort to stem the tide but turned and fled, tossing away their clubs and badges as they ran. Many were cornered in stalls and blind alleys and laid out three deep. Clubs swung everywhere as the fighting pickets surged irresistibly through the rows of stalls smashing down all opposition. Several truckloads of deputies attempting to escape were surrounded and transferred to the mounting casualty list. In desperation the regular cops drove their cars into the ranks of the strikers in a vain effort to stop them. Ambulances worked overtime taking away the specials.
Within half an hour the strikers had complete control of the market. The cops and deputies were completely licked. More than 50 special cops were injured, two of whom died subsequently. A few pickets were hurt. No further efforts were made to move the trucks. The bosses agreed to recognize the union.

William Kitt

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Women Active on firing line

When the General Drivers’ Union made a strong appeal to the wives of their members to aid in every way possible, they met with a response they had not dreamed of. Women came to Strike Headquarters, ready and willing to do any kind of work assigned them. Girls trained in office work took over the routine work. Others gave their heart and soul to the feeding of hungry droves of men.

Women pickets took up the cause on the line of battle. Three of our women were seriously injured in riots with police. One’s life was despaired of for several days. Another was taken to the hospital with a very seriously fractured ankle. She is at present confined to her bed, and will be there for some time to come.
Still another was so badly beaten in the Tribune riot that all old operation lesion opened up, and there is danger of internal hemorrhages. Still another was beaten across the arm with a billy. She is still carrying her arm in a sling.
Another interesting angle to this situation was brought out when sympathizers began to offer their services. One young woman, a graduate of the University who had specialized in sociology came down to offer her services. She felt that the power of the women had not even been felt in this class struggle. A young couple, friends of the other girl, offered their services. Using these three as an advisory council, the officers of the auxiliary started to raise money.
A committee, composed of Mrs. Grant Dunne as president of the auxiliary and Mrs. Farrell Dobbs, as secretary, these three friends, and two other women not connected with the union, met at four o’clock one afternoon. The next night at midnight the auxiliary had in its Commissary Relief Fund, $416.70. The necessity of feeding the families of the men on strike until they would again be able to draw wages was brought home to us very forcibly during the last few days.
The newspapers of Minneapolis, being the instrument of the Citizen’s Alliance, were muzzled to such an extent that no news in favor of the strikers was ever published. To attempt to counteract this state of affairs, the women organized a mass demonstration. We marched from the Auditorium on Grant and 14th Streets straight down Nicollet Avenue. Led first by four women carrying our banner, followed by about 500 women, many of them sympathizers, we broke every traffic rule in Minneapolis. Crowds gathered along the sidewalk and followed the procession to the court house.
We marched straight to the mayor’s office. A committee entered to present our demands upon the mayor or his emissary – Mr. Guise. The gentlemen were not in. in fact Mayor Bainbridge was in his usual position – home in bed ill. Mr. Guise would be in by 2 p.m. It was then about 12:30. The committee decided to wait.
The women, quiet and orderly during the whole proceedings, suddenly were infuriated by something. Inquiry disclosed that the chief of police had thought it smart to parade a batch of his special deputies down the same corridor the women were waiting in. Only quick thinking on the part of the committee saved those deputies from being very badly hurt.
The mayor’s secretary arrived in surprisingly short time. The committee waited upon him. They got just what they expected – nothing. The demands were the immediate removal of Chief Johannes, the removal of all special deputies, and no further interference with pickets. The committee then left. The crowd was addressed by Frieda Charles, and dispersed in an orderly fashion.
In closing let me emphasize again. Let your women work in this class struggle. Their place is right along side of the men, shoulder to the wheel, fighting for their birthright. The Women’s Auxiliary of General Drivers’ Union No.574 has set an example which we hope will be followed by the working class women throughout the nation.

Auxiliary Member

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Role of the League in Strike

Minneapolis – Serious and militant workers confronted with the necessity of advancing their demands for a better standard of living, have the problems of organization, program and leadership before them from the very first. In the Minneapolis drivers’ strike thousands of workers came to the union for very definite reasons. First: the union is a mass organization. Second: it had to its credit the achievement of the Coal Yard Workers’ strike. Third: its leadership had been tested.

The Communist League has always followed the policy in the trade unions of working with all progressive forces to be found in the organizations. Its trade union policy has been proved in action. Today there stands, confronting the bosses, a mighty union which organized the picket line that fought off and routed the police and the armed bands of the Citizens Alliance.
The entire labor movement has been aroused. Every union in the city has been strengthened. The recruiting of workers into the organizations is going forward all along the line. The forces of reaction have been dealt a powerful blow. Tens of thousands of workers stand up today, proud to have been a part of the smashing drive.
The Minneapolis Branch of the Communist League bears considerable responsibility for this achievement. It is well known that its members have been active in the trade unions for a long period of years. It has not pressed forward for place or prestige alone. The League members have at all times acted in accord with the real interests of the union. The program adopted has been submitted to the rank and file from time to time. Proposals, suggestions, criticisms have been welcomed. The League has given its best to the union and to the strike. It is willing to accept its part of the blame for any mistakes that may have been made. We think they were very few. Such errors can and will be made good.
Just as the League accepts responsibility for mistakes that it may make, it insists upon a calm and careful appraisal of its work in the union and the strike. In short we ask the workers to judge us for the work done and for policies and programs proposed.
The real work of Communist militants in the trade unions consists in putting forward correct proposals, fighting for their acceptance; then, by diligent and patient effort, rallying the advanced workers to carry these proposals into action.
That the League membership played an active part in the strike is shown not only by the fact that our comrades were in leading positions in the strike committee. It is also shown in the part played on the picket line where every man and woman available from our ranks was placed. In the work of organizing for the strike our comrades took a leading part. This alone was the work of months. At the headquarters, both before and during the strike, our members found their places in the kitchen, in the office, in the picket line, at various tasks too numerous to mention.
That the unions and other workers’ organizations came forward with material and moral support was due, in no small measure, to the efforts of our comrades. Handicapped by the stigma attached to Communism by the false and reactionary policy of the ‘Official’ Communist Party (the Stalinists), we have relied upon the judgment of the thinking militants in the trade unions to learn to know and to support a true Communist trade union policy. The Communist League has never asked that the advanced workers in the unions accept our political opinions in order that we may find a place in the work of the movement. We have never demanded any special privilege. We have taken our places there in order to render whatever services we had the ability to render.
A new period has opened up in the class struggle in America. The workers’ organizations must be prepared for new and greater tasks. The capitalists are more ruthless and stubborn than ever. They are better organized and financed, they have centralized their already powerful chambers of commerce. The unions must also find better forms of organization, change completely the old outlook, and put forward a new and militant leadership. This is becoming more and more apparent to the workers.
The League long ago recognized this truth, and with its numerically small forces, has moved deliberately but confidently toward the great task of reconstruction. This work, necessary for the very life of the workers’ movement, is not the easy and simple task that many workers imagine it to be. It requires the devotion and sacrifice of all workers who see and understand that fighting unions are the need of the hour.
The Minneapolis Branch of the Communist League asks those workers who believe as we do, or who have the desire to learn more about our views, to join the League. To become part of the International Communist movement. To help in the vast work of building a new revolutionary party in America. A Communist Party worthy of the name, a party of workers that will be also a section of the Fourth International.

Striker

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The Story of Minneapolis

Today I want to talk about the famous Minneapolis strikes of 1934.

The drivers and all the workers employed in the truck transportation industry at that time enjoyed miserable conditions which existed throughout the history of Minneapolis prior to 1934. When the economic crash came the misery was intensified.
In the produce market area it was common practice for drivers and helpers to start work at 2 or 3 a.m. and continue work until 6 p.m. They were low paid and sometimes had to work seven days without any extra pay. If complaints were made they were fired.
The workers in trucking, and most other industries, were not unionized before 1934 and had to accept whatever conditions employers imposed. Many strikes were called between 1922 and 1934, and all suffered defeat. Minneapolis was known all over the country as the worst scab town.
In the early 1920s the bosses started the open-shop drive. They formed the Citizen’s Alliance whose only aim was to keep Minneapolis non-union. The bosses were successful in carrying out this program up to 1934. In fact, they were confident that no one could ever lead a drive to unionize the city.
V.R. Dunne, Miles Dunne, Grant Dunne, Harry DeBoer, George Frosig (who was vice-president of Local 574), and myself worked in the same coal yard. We held meetings in the early part of 1933 to discuss and plan a program for organizing the coal industry. If that test case was successful we would proceed with the rest of the trucking industry.
We all recognized that the trucking industry was the most powerful and also the most difficult in dealing with strikebreakers because scabs have to operate on the street. We had great strength in numbers and understood the task of organizing. We therefore picked the coal industry as the starting point. This industry was strategic because of Minnesota’s sub-zero winters.
We were convinced the employer would never recognize the union without a bloody battle. Consequently we made all possible preparations and were extra careful to proceed legally – appearing before the Central Labor Union, the executive board of the drivers union, and the Teamsters’ Joint Council. The response from these bodies was to throw a wet blanket over our proposal.
Some made statements like, ‘The drivers know where we are, why don’t they come and join us?’ This attitude was discouraging but we still went on with our plans, confident of victory if we prepared properly.
Workers’ committees from various companies drew up a contract of demands. And when we presented this contract to the employers, they, as we had expected, refused to meet with us. We then called an open meeting of all workers to present the results of our efforts. When the leaders of the AFL found out about this meeting and the possibility of a strike – a rumor had been spreading throughout the industry – they ganged up on us in mass, preventing us from taking any action. About 500 to 600 coal drivers present at this meeting tore up their union books and littered the union headquarters with the pieces.
The only action taken was a motion to hold a special meeting Sunday at 2 p.m., predicated on the fact that no business agent then would come out on Sunday and interfere with us. This proved to be strategically correct. Between Friday and Sunday all our forces were in motion to bring out all the coal workers to this meeting. The meeting was packed and a motion passed to strike on Monday morning at 5 am and to set up a strike committee.

Success

After a three-day strike we were victorious. No one could get a pound of coal without a doctor’s prescription. The success of this strike caused a sensation among the drivers and workers.

A mass meeting was organized in a big theatre for the purpose of inaugurating a real campaign to unionize other trucking industries. The meeting was well advertised and a capacity crowd filled the place. Organizational preparations were carried out for about two months. The famous committee of one hundred was made up of representatives from all sections who became involved in the strike. This committee had full authority to decide on all questions. Contracts of demands were presented to the employers. There was one answer received – a flat no.
We appealed to the Teamsters’ International Union for a strike sanction and strike benefits. We received the command to continue negotiations. Knowing that the International would never endorse a strike, we still – for the sake of the ranks – sent another appeal explaining the employer’s attitude in refusing to meet with the union committee. The answer again was: proceed to negotiate.
This procedure caused a delay of action For at least a month. But it was well worth the time in order to prepare the workers for the coming strike. It became plain that a big battle was unavoidable. The issue would be recognition of the union. The outcome of this battle could not be predicted.
All the preparations for the strike began to be made. Regular charts were made up of the main highways and streets for picketing. Instructions for the picketing captains were drawn up. Registration of all available vehicles for service on the picket line, installation of a loud-speaking system in the strike headquarters everything was done according to plan.
Early one morning in May 1934 the strike started. The workers responded practically 100 per cent. The employers were caught by surprise at the response of the workers. The methods used by them were nothing new – the use of police and deputizing of every reactionary man equipping them with weapons to beat and arrest the pickets. During the first days dozens of strikers had been arrested and beaten up in a most brutal manner. Sixteen women had been beaten unconscious after being lured into an alley where an attempt was being made to deliver newspapers.
We organized rehearsals, padded our caps with cardboard and proceeded to hit one another on the top of the head. If it hurt the first time some more padding was applied until the blows became painless.
The daily newspapers carried screaming articles warning the public not to appear in the market area on such and such a day as violence was prevalent and some innocent bystander might get hurt.
Two days after the women were beaten up an attempt was made to open the market with scabs. The morning when this happened all radio stations had their speaking equipment on the roof of buildings to broadcast the intended movement of trucks. Instead they had to broadcast the Battle of Deputy Run.
The story of Deputy Run is known all over the country, in fact all over the world. It meant that 1500 deputies and 500 uniformed police, under the pressure of the strikers’ superior force, had to run for their lives. One deputy, a prominent open-shop employer, fell dead on the battlefield. Another died a few days later. Many others went hospitals.
Governor Floyd B Olsen then intervened, demanding a 48-hour truce, and during this time no trucks were to move. Both sides accepted this truce proposal. During these 48 hours we were in continual negotiations; union representatives in one room and employers in another, and the governor as a go-between.
After many hours of negotiations, a contract with recognition of the union and a small increase in wages was presented. The big question at issue at that time was our right to represent truck drivers, helpers, and inside workers working for each employer. This issue was scuttled, and finally a paragraph, very ambiguous in wording, was accepted with the guarantee of the governor that it meant the right of the union to deal for all the mentioned classifications. On this basis the strike ended after ii days.
The whole working class in the city was jubilant over the great victory. But in the first meeting called to negotiate a definite contract, the employers refused to recognize our union as the bargaining agent for the inside workers. The strike was again set in motion.
Now the employers really set to work. They placed full-page ads in all the city dailies. A vicious red-baiting campaign was carried out by the newspapers, picturing the leaders as ‘Trotskyist-Communists’ intending to make a revolution in Minneapolis instead of building the union. It became necessary to meet all these slanders by issuing a daily paper to present the position of the union.

Shotguns

The strike hit with solid ranks. All transportation stopped and the city again looked like a Sunday. This time the employers proceeded to arm the police with rifles and sawn-off shotguns loaded with slugs. Many dummy deliveries were made under very heavy police protection, such as medical supplies to a hospital or groceries to an old peoples’ home. The aim was to get the pickets involved in trying to stop them and use this as an excuse for shooting the pickets. But deliveries could be made to these institutions without interference.

The strike went on for weeks without much action. One morning a report came in that an attempted delivery was planned in the wholesale grocery area and that the police, with shotguns, were there to protect the drivers. Pickets were dispatched and when they attempted to stop the delivery the police opened fire and shot down 52 pickets, killing two. This day has become known as Bloody Friday. At the funeral of Henry Ness, one of the pickets killed on Bloody Friday, an estimated 50 000 people marched four abreast and tied up all city traffic for hours.
Two government mediators were attempting to settle the dispute on any terms. They finally gave us a proposal providing for recognition on the ‘inside workers’. The union accepted but the employers turned down this agreement. The governor then declared martial law.
Early one morning the military surrounded the strike headquarters with machine guns and took it over. Bill Brown, Ray Dunne, Miles Dunne were thrown into a stockade. Attempts were made during that day to call in second-ranked leaders and settle the strike. They refused to meet until the headquarters and the leaders were released.
Finally, after eight weeks of hardship and suffering a settlement was agreed on which provided for all the important issues that the union had been battling for.
In brief, these are some of the highlights of events during the strikes of 1934.

Carl Skoglund

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HONOR THE THREE L’S-LENIN, LUXEMBURG, LIEBKNECHT-Honor The Historic Leader Of The Bolshevik Revolution-Vladimir Lenin  

 

Every January leftists honor three revolutionaries who died in that month, V.I. Lenin of Russia in 1924, Karl Liebknecht of Germany and Rosa Luxemburg of Poland in 1919 murdered after leading the defeated Spartacist uprising in Berlin. I made my political points about the heroic Karl Liebknecht and his parliamentary fight against the German war budget in World War I in this space earlier (see review in April 2006 archives). I made some special points here last year about the life of Rosa Luxemburg (see review in January 2006 archives). This year it is appropriate, at a time when the young needs to find a few good heroes, to highlight the early struggles of Vladimir Lenin, the third L, to define himself politically. Probably the best way to do that is to look at Lenin’s experiences through the prism of his fellow revolutionary, early political opponent and eventual co-leader of the Bolshevik Revolution Leon Trotsky.

A Look At The Young Lenin By A Fellow Revolutionary

The Young Lenin, Leon Trotsky, Doubleday and Co., New York, 1972

The now slightly receding figure of the 20^th century Russian revolutionary Vladimir Lenin founder and leader of the Bolshevik Party and guiding light of the October 1917 Russian Revolution and the first attempt at creating a socialist society has been the subject to many biographies. Some of those efforts undertaken during the time of the former Soviet government dismantled in 1991-92, especially under the Stalin regime, bordered on or were merely the hagiographic. Others, reflecting the ups and downs of the post- World War II Cold War, painted an obscene diabolical picture, excluding Lenin’s horns, and in some cases not even attempting to exclude those. In virtually all cases these effort centered on Lenin’s life from the period of the rise of the Bolshevik Social Democratic faction in 1903 until his early death in 1924. In short, the early formative period of his life in the backwaters of provincial Russia rate a gloss over. Lenin’s fellow revolutionary Leon Trotsky, although some ten years younger than him, tries to trace that early stage of his life in order to draw certain lessons. It is in that context that Trotsky’s work contains some important insights about the development of revolutionary figures and their beginnings.

Although Trotsky’s little work, originally intended to be part of a full biography of Lenin, never served its purpose of educating the youth during his lifetime and the story of it discovery is rather interesting one should note that this is neither a scholarly work in the traditional sense nor is it completely free from certain fawning over Lenin by Trotsky. Part of this was determined by the vicissitudes of the furious Trotsky-Stalin fights for the soul of the Russian Revolution as Trotsky tried to uncover the layers of misinformation about Lenin’s early life. Part of it resulted from Trotsky’s status of junior partner to Lenin and also to his late coming over to Bolshevism. And part of it is, frankly, to indirectly contrast Lenin’s and his own road to Marxism. That said, this partial biography stands up very well as an analysis of the times that the young Lenin lived in, the events that affected his development and the idiosyncrasies of his own personality that drove him toward revolutionary conclusions. In short, Trotsky’s work is a case study in the proposition that revolutionaries are made not born.

To a greater extent than would be true today in a celebrity-conscious world many parts of Lenin’s early life are just not verifiable. Partially that is due to the nature of record keeping in the Russia of the 19^th century. Partially it is because of the necessity to rely on not always reliable police records. Another part is that the average youth, and here Lenin was in some ways no exception, really have a limited noteworthy record to present for public inspection. That despite the best efforts of Soviet hagiography to make it otherwise. Nevertheless Trotsky does an admirable job of detailing the high and low lights of agrarian Russian society and the vagaries of the land question in the second half of the 19^thcentury. One should note that Trotsky grew up on a Ukrainian farm and therefore is no stranger to many of the same kind of problems that Lenin had to work through concerning the solution to the agrarian crisis, the peasant question. Most notably, is that the fight for the Russian revolution that everyone knew was coming could only be worked out through the fight for influence over the small industrial working class and socialism.

I would note that for the modern young reader that two things Trotsky analyzes are relevant. The first is the relationship between Lenin and his older brother Alexander who, when he became politicized, joined a remnant of the populist People’s Will terrorist organization and attempted to assassinate the Tsar. For his efforts he and his co-conspirators were hanged. I have always been intrigued by the effect that this event had on Lenin’s development. On the one hand, as a budding young intellectual, would Lenin have attempted to avenge his brother’s fate with his same revolutionary intellectual political program? Or would Lenin go another way to intersect the coming revolutionary either through its agrarian component or the budding Marxist Social Democratic element? We know the answer but Trotsky provides a nicely reasoned analysis of the various influences that were at work in the young Lenin. That alone is worth the price of admission here.

The other point I have already alluded to above. Revolutionaries are made not born, although particular life circumstances may create certain more favorable conditions. Soviet historians in their voluntarist hay day tried to make of Lenin a superhuman phenomenon- a fully formed Marxist intellectual from his early youth. Trotsky once again distills the essence of Lenin’s struggle to make sense of the world, the Russian world in the first instance, as he tries to find a way out the Russian political impasse. Trotsky’s work only goes up to 1892-93, the Samara period, the period before Lenin took off for Petersburg and greener pastures. He left Samara a fully committed Marxist but it would be many years, with many polemics and by using many political techniques before he himself became a Bolshevik, as we know it. And that, young friends, is a cautionary tale that can be taken into the 21^st century. Read on.

***The Life And Times Of Michael Philip Marlin, Private Investigator  – The Club Tijuana

 

From The Pen Of Frank Jackman-with kudos to Raymond Chandler

 

Those who have been following this series about the exploits of the famous Ocean City (located just south of Los Angeles then now incorporated into the county) private detective Michael Philip Marlin (hereafter just Marlin the way everybody when he became famous after the Galton case out on the coast) and his contemporaries in the private detection business like Freddy Vance, Charles Nicolas (okay, okay Clara too), Sam Archer, Miles Spade, Johnny Spain, know that he related many of these stories to his son, Tyrone Fallon, in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Tyrone later, in the 1970s, related these stories to the journalist who uncovered the relationship , Joshua Lawrence Breslin, a friend of my boyhood friend, Peter Paul Markin, who in turn related them to me over several weeks in the late 1980s. Despite that circuitous route I believe that I have been faithful to what Marlin presented to his son. In any case I take full responsibility for what follows.        

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Los Angeles private investigator Michael Philip Marlin hated to go south of the border, south down into sunny fetid Mexico, faux Mexico really. Tijuana. The American idea of Mexico mainly with the cheap tourista duds, fanfare and dust. He hated the squalor, worst that his home town Ocean City cold-water flats that he knew well from growing up right in the middle of them, he found just over the border after the immigration station told him he was in “habla Espanol” country. He hated the bracero looks, stares, eternal stares, piercing right through you, from the sun-blackened Mexican fellahin, and the blank stares, the hungry stares from his children.

He hated too once he entered dusty, disheveled, loud honky-tonk (gringo honky-tonk) Tijuana with a bar every other building, cheap bracero merchandise in the others, and a whore, young, old or bent in front of them all, leaving the two or three streets that made up tourista Tijuana. And most of all he hated what could and could not be sold, cheaply, cheaply like the value of human life there. That too came too close to home where his younger sister had turned to the streets looking for thrills after some flash boy gangster turned her head with cocaine and turned her too to walk the streets when he was done with her. Leaving her to waste away in some sullen hole before she went to an early grave.  Anything perverse or illegal could be had for a price, and not much, un-bonded whiskey, seven kinds of dope, women willing to do anything, other women, six guys at once, animals, ditto for guys if it came to it and that was your preference as it was for the distinctly- dressed panama suit and hat fairies who came streaming down on weekends, somebody’s sister, hell, somebody’s brother, guns, all the guns you would ever need enough to outfit Pancho Villa’s army if it came to it.

Yes, Marlin hated going south of the border, the smell, the dust, the piss, everything but just then, 1940 just then, he was in need of cash. In need of cash badly since business had been off what with rumors of war and the economy in the tank and he had room- rent coming due fast (his landlord had padlocked his office down at the low-rent seen-better days Sadler Building which he shared with the other just barely making it legal and illegal operations tenants and that room- rent loomed large). He had taken the Addington case the minute he had received it via Detective James Foote his friend on the Los Angeles police force who threw business, non-police business, business where discretion was the watchword, his way.

What was desired by that Mrs. Addington, Mrs. Adele Addington, heiress to the typewriter fortune and thus capable of having her desires carried out unlike some forlorn housewife from Westminster looking for her man, was for a missing husband to be found.  Found Marlin for a woman who had the means and wherewithal to find that errant soul just what the doctor ordered to get his finances well. The fleer once Marlin got a line on him, one James Addington, late of New York City Riverside high-end digs via that searching wife, had made the tour of the West Coast cities and as Marlin found out to his dismay had headed south of the border to indulge in whatever he had the price for, mainly primo dope and loose women.

Yes, James had slipped down the class ladder a few rungs after he got the taste for cocaine, got the taste for loose women who hovered around the cantina cocaine pits, and so his life turned to the meccas for such tastes and Marlin had to go south and find out where he was, and whether he was coming home to his waiting wife. Naturally Marlin had to stop at the Club Tijuana (don’t get confused the place was owned by Americans and catered to Americans, no fellaheen need apply) the central place where those trying to make dope connections, or anything else sporting could be found. And Marlin found James, James and his woman, his all Spanish sparking eyes, ruby lips and swaying hips woman, Rosita. After some verbal sparring James told Marlin (without the fiery Rosita present) that he would return to the up and up in New York once he got rid of his “jones.” Marlowe thought that would be never giving the ragged look of this downtrodden James. He reported that news to Mrs. Addington and, go figure on women, she not only bought the excuse but sent money via Marlin to cover James’ expenses.

Marlin figured that would be that, case closed except that a few weeks later Mrs. Addington showed up Los Angeles to be nearby when James was ready. Marlin was sent to deliver that message.  James no nearer to recovery than previously was peeved at the fact Marlin presented to him about his wife. Rosita was furious. Marlin sensed that no good could come from these quarters after his announcement. And he was right because a few days later, a couple of days after he got back from Tijuana, Mrs. Addington was found in her rented suite murdered, cut up by somebody skilled at knife work. Needless to say despite all the pat alibis down in Tijuana this appeared to be a hit ordered by James (probably pushed on by Rosita), and was probably done by a Mex bracero bad boy who went by the name (translated from Spanish) of  Mack the Knife.

Once Marlin had his proof he would go up against James, who expected to inherit a big wad of dough for his habits (and to keep Rosita in style). When Marlin had his proof (somebody in Mrs. Addington’s apartment building had seen a bad Mex looking like Mack the Knife in the hallway) he went in for the collar. One afternoon he entered the Club Tijuana where James and Rosita were sitting at a back table in the dark. As Marlowe approached a knife whizzed by him, he turned and shot Mack the Knife point blank. James seeing that was ready to face the music but Rosita took a shot, two shots actually, at Marlin hitting him in the left arm. He responded by throwing a couple of slugs into her heart. Dead. As for James, James recently took the big step-off up at Q for the murder of his ever-loving wife. Marlin thought when he heard the news that damn that was another reason to hate Tijuana, hate it bad.