Nunca Olvidamos: Tomás Martínez, 1893-1921, Class-War Prisoner -Died October 23, 1921, after Deportation to Guadalajara, Mexico
Photograph of Tomás Martínez, sent to Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, shortly before his death.
From Iron in Her Soul by Helen C. Camp, page 95:
Thomas Martinez was deported to Mexico after he left the Kansas penitentiary in the spring of 1921. He arrived there very ill, suffering from tuberculosis-“which I suppose I took from the jail of Free America”-and the effects of a botched appendectomy. The Mexican IWW gave him a little money, as did [Elizabeth Gurley] Flynn, and the Workers’ National Prison Comfort Club branch in Milwaukee sent him two union suits and a pair of shoes. A friend of Martinez sent Elizabeth a photograph taken of him shortly before he died in October of the same year.
[Emphasis added.]
From “Red Scare Deportees” by Kenyon Zimmer:
Tomás Martínez (Thomas Martinez)
Born 1893, Mexico. Miner. 1905, a founding member of La Unión Liberal Humanidad in Cananea, which was affiliated with the new Partido Liberal Mexicano (PLM) and helped lead the 1906 Cananea miners’ strike. Member of several more PLM-affiliated groups. Migrated to the US circa 1907; active in Morenci, Arizona; helped plan and joined the PLM’s cross-border invasion of Baja California in 1910. Taken prisoner by Carranza’s forces and ordered executed, but escaped. 1914 organizing miners in Cananea; denounced and expelled as a “Huerta supporter,” leading to a strike of 2,500-3,000 miners until he was allowed to return. 1915-1918 active in IWW and PLM activities in Arizona and Los Angeles. Wrote numerous articles for the IWW’s paper El Rebelde (1915-1917). Arrested Miami, Arizona, March 1918; convicted to two years in Leavenworth Penitentiary and a $500 fine for violation of the Espionage Act [convicted of having literature of seditious nature]. Contracted tuberculosis while in prison, and a botched operation resulted in septicemia. Upon his release, detained for deportation but he petitioned to be allowed to leave what he called “the Jail of Free America” to another country at his own expense for fear that he would be executed for his past revolutionary activities if returned to Mexico; his petition was denied and he was deported in 1921; according to one report, “When he was finally shipped across the border he was more dead than alive.” Furthermore, he wrote to a friend in the US, “When I arrived at the border, they left me naked, they burned my clothes and shoes.” He never recovered, and died in Guadalajara, October 23, 1921. Comrades buried him with a headstone reading: ¡Nunca olvidamos! (We Never Forget!).
From the Jewish Daily Forward of January 10, 1910:
The “Triangle” company…With blood this name will be written in the history of the American workers’ movement, and with feeling will this history recall the names of the strikers of this shop-of the crusaders.
City Hall, New York City,
-December 28, 1910
Testimony before the New York State Senate and Assembly Joint Investigating Committee on Corrupt Practices and Insurance Companies Other Than Life Insurance:
Judge M. Linn Bruce, Counsel
Chief Edward F Croker, NYC Fire Department
Bruce: How high can you successfully combat a fire now? Croker: Not over eighty-five feet. Bruce: That would be how many stories of an ordinary building? Croker: About seven. Bruce: Is this a serious danger? Croker: I think if you want to go into the so-called workshops which are along Fifth Avenue and west of Broadway and east of Sixth Avenue, twelve, fourteen or fifteen story buildings they call workshops, you will find it very interesting to see the number of people in one of these buildings with absolutely not one fire protection, with out any means of escape in case of fire.
It was a good clean fight. The cause cannot die now. -James Connolly
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
——
JAMES CONNOLLY
—–
During the Easter Rising, James Connolly served as Vice-President of the Irish Republic and Commandant-General of the Dublin Division of the Army of the Irish Republic. He was severely wounded during the fighting at the General Post Office and was carried from there on a stretcher. He was taken from his hospital bed on May 12, 1916, placed in chair because he could not stand, and executed by firing squad.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Elizabeth Gurley Flynn
Recalls James Connolly
That fall [1910] James Connolly came to say goodbye to our family. He had been called back to Ireland and was glad to go. He said he was not sorry he had come to America and not sorry to leave. Movements were on foot to organize industrial unions in Ireland. We sat and talked quite a while. The baby was very fretful that day. Connolly, who was well experienced with babies, having had seven, took the baby from me, laid him face down across his knees and patted his back until he burped soundly and then went to sleep. We all felt very sorry to see Connolly go. His family left shortly afterward-the older children not too willingly. This was the last time I saw this good friend.
WE NEVER FORGET
James Kelly Cole Who Lost His Life in Freedom’s Cause,
November 17, 1909, at Tomah, Wisconsin
———-
“It was on a pilgrimage to help others who believed in the rights of men that James Kelly Cole was halted suddenly by death. A railroad accident at Tomah, Wis., November 17th, 1909, ended only too untimely his brief, young, hopeful life. He lived well and bravely and thus did he die.”
Hellraisers Journal – Monday September 29, 1919
History of I. W. W. Written with “Drops of Blood” and “Bitter Tears of Anguish”
From The Butte Daily Bulletin of September 27, 1919:
By WM. D. HAYWOOD.
Ever since the I. W. W. was organized in June, 1905, ther has been an inquisitorial campaign against its life and growth, inaugurated by the chambers of commerce, profiteers, large and small, and authorities of state and nation in temporary power.
The Industrial Workers of the World is a labor organization composed of sober, honest, industrious men and women. Its chief purposes are to abolish the system of wage slavery and to improve the conditions of those who toil.
This organization has been foully dealt with; drops of blood, bitter tears of anguish, frightful heart pains have marked its every step in its onward march of progress…..
[Emphasis added.]
———-
Appeal for Funds by Wm. D. Haywood
-on Behalf of I. W. W. General Defense Committee
WE NEVER FORGET
The Hammond Massacre of September 9, 1919
Headline from Hammond’s Lake County Times of September 9, 1919:
From the Locomotive Firemen’s Magazine of September 15, 1919:
The Hammond Strike
At Hammond, Ind., four strikers were killed and two score or more seriously wounded in a fight on September 9, in which, according to press reports, the steel company’s armed guards and city police fired more than one hundred shots.
The strike at Hammond started on August 18, when approximately 2,000 of the Standard Steel Car Company’s employes demanded the eight-hour day, recognition of their union and that their pay be raised from the present rate of 42 cents an hour to 50 cents an hour. On August 21 eleven companies of militia were quartered in Hammond and these state troops remained there a week, leaving on August 28. There was no disorder until September 2, when strike breakers were put to work and the strikers picketed the plant.
Mayor Brown of Hammond determined not to ask for state troops again, press reports state, and relied on policemen armed with sawed-off shotguns, and armed guards employed by the Standard Steel Car Company to maintain order.
WE NEVER FORGET
Young Men Shot Down by State Guardsmen
September 10-13, 1919, During the Boston Police Strike
During the Boston Police Strike of 1919, six young men were gunned down by Massachusetts State Guardsmen who had been ordered into the city of Boston by Governor Calvin Coolidge. Five young men, ranging in ages from 15 to 31, were executed for the crime of playing craps on the street corners. One was killed for running away after an argument with a guardsman.
Robert Sheehan-15
Henry Grote-16
Raymond Barnes-18
Gustave Geist-25
Anthony Czar-30
Arthur B. McGill-31
WE NEVER FORGET
Officer Richard D. Reemts
Who Lost His Life in Freedom’s Cause
September 11, 1919, in the Boston Police Strike
From The Boston Daily Globe
-of September 12, 1919:
Reemts, Striking Policeman
Shot at South End, Dies
—–
[…..]
Striking Policeman Killed
The first shooting affair of yesterday [Thursday September 11th] was very unfortunate for the cause of the striking policemen. The victim was former patrolman Richard Reemts, who was attached to the Roxbury Crossing station.
He was 36 years old, married, and lived at 14 Akron st, Roxbury….
From The Boston Daily Globe of September 13, 1919:
Notice of Death
Reemts-In this city, Sept. 11. Richard D., beloved husband of Catherine Reemts (nee Bresnahan). Funeral on Monday at 8:30 a. m. from his late home, 14 Akron st., Roxbury. Funeral high mass at St. Joseph’s Church, Circuit st., at 9 o’clock. Late member of Division 10, Boston Police Department. Presence of relatives and friends requested. Auto cortege.
WE NEVER FORGET
Fannie Sellins & Joe Starzeleski
Who Lost Their Lives in Freedom’s Cause
August 26, 1919 at West Natrona, Pennsylvania
From The Woman Today of September 1936:
Fannie Sellins
-by Lillian Henry
Gold flows down the Alleghany [Allegheny] and Monongahela Rivers and up the Ohio river to coffers in tall buildings in downtown Pittsburgh. There is a steady stream from the coal mines and steel mills-from the coal mines and the steel mills-from the plants of Jones and Laughlin, Bethlehem Steel, Carnegie, U. S. Steel, Alleghany Steel, Alleghany Valley Coal. These and many other sources fill the banks and strong boxes in Pittsburgh.
Blood has flowed along these rivers-shed at the command of the owners of the strong boxes in tall buildings, and one of their victims was Fannie Sellins, mother of four children.
Fannie Sellins’ grave stands in New Kensington on the Alleghany River. The tombstone, erected by the United Mine Workers of District No. 5, stands as a monument to those “killed by the enemies of organized labor”.
We went to see Fannie Sellins’ daughter and son-in-law, Mr. and Mrs. Fred Broad, to learn about the life of this heroic woman.
[Said the former
Dorothy Sellins:]
My father died when I was two years old, and mother went to work in a garment factory in St. Louis to support her four children. We all come from the South.
Grandfather was a painter-had a regular job painting Mississippi River boats. He used to take mother and the children around to union meetings. I’ve heard union talk ever since I was a baby.
Mother worked hard to organize, not only the men, but also their women. She used to go around to the women to tell them how important it was for them to organize. She was jailed for six months in West Virginia for doing that.
—————
—————
———-
———-
———-
———-
———-
———-
———-
———-