Wobbly Protest

In Los Angeles, 27 members of the Industrial Workers of the World were convicted of criminal syndicalism and sentenced to from one to 14 years in San Quentin prison. Seventeen other " wobblies," as the I. W. W. are known, had previously been convicted.

Next day longshoremen held a meeting and went out on strike as a protest. On the second day of the strike ship owners declared that only 200 men were out, the strike a fizzle.

The I. W. W. are making an effort to gain a firm foothold on the Pacific Coast. The July 1 number of The Marine Worker (published free of charge by the Marine Transport Workers' International Union, No. 510; address Box 69, Station D, New York City) gave some indication of the propaganda which the I. W. W. are carrying on in Los Angeles. It is published about 25% in Spanish and carries such slogans as: Boycott all California-made Goods and Motion Pictures. You Cannot Fight the Boss and Booze at the Same Time. Be Like a Mule and Kick if Conditions Don't Suit You; Remember: "An Injury to One is an Injury to All" (motto of the I. W. W.).

The paper is composed mostly of communications. One letter tells the story of Paul Borgen, arrested in Los Angeles (weighing 160 pounds) and released 65 days later, without trial (weighing 120 pounds). "As a result of sleeping on a damp steel floor" he died 20 days later. "We call it outright murder. . . . The funeral was attended by 200 fellow workers. . . . Pictures of the floral pieces were taken in the chapel and later we took a photograph of Fellow Worker Paul Borgen himself in his casket. We expect to make picture postal cards and have them sold all over the country " to raise " a little money for the California fight . . . and FAN THE FLAMES OF DISCONTENT. . . . WE NEVER FORGET."

It must be understood that the M. T. U. (Marine Transport Workers) are violently opposed to the I. S. U. (International Seamen's Union) and .the Federation of Labor (which they call the Fakeration). The same num-ber of The Marine Worker refers to the pie-cards (i. e. paid officials) of the I. S. U. as " these vermin/' speaks of their " slimy tactics," calls them grafters and pimps and other names. Ships' officers are termed " crimps" (i. e. men who sign seamen on ships), and " scissorbills " (conservatives, not members of the I. W. W.), and "finks" (scabs).

The Marine Worker is an interesting illustration of I. W. W. propaganda in use on the Pacific Coast and elsewhere, and written in the vernacular, is intriguing to the average reader. Its communications are signed " Yours for the next big strike, Del. T. R. 598, Card X58406," etc.