The Workers Defense Union (WDU) was a legal defense organization in the United States, established in

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

in November 1918 to lend aid in cases involving trade union and radical political activists. The group was organized by

Industrial Workers of the World The Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), whose members are nicknamed "Wobblies", is an international labor union founded in Chicago, United States in 1905. The nickname's origin is uncertain. Its ideology combines general unionism with indu ...

organizer

Elizabeth Gurley Flynn Elizabeth Gurley Flynn (August 7, 1890 – September 5, 1964) was an American labor leader, activist, and feminist who played a leading role in the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW). Flynn was a founding member of the American Civil Libe ...

, working closely with radical trade unionist Fred Biedenkapp. Both would subsequently become active members of the Workers (Communist) Party of America. The WDU became a local affiliate of the

American Civil Liberties Union The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is an American nonprofit civil rights organization founded in 1920. ACLU affiliates are active in all 50 states, Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico. The budget of the ACLU in 2024 was $383 million. T ...

in 1920, with Flynn joining the National Committee of that organization, before finally dissolving as an independent entity in 1923.

Organizational history

Establishment

The last decades of the 19th century and first decades of the 20th century were marked by violent labor and political conflict in the United States. Efforts at labor organization or to hold political gatherings or demonstrations were periodically met with violence from private guards, police, or state militias. The entrance of the United States into

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

in the spring of 1917 further intensified the process, with the May passage

Selective Service Act of 1917 The Selective Service Act of 1917 or Selective Draft Act () authorized the United States federal government to raise a national army for service in World War I through conscription. It was envisioned in December 1916 and brought to Presiden ...

and the June passage of the

Espionage Act of 1917 The Espionage Act of 1917 is a United States federal law enacted on June 15, 1917, shortly after the United States entered World War I. It has been amended numerous times over the years. It was originally found in Title 50 of the U.S. Code ( ...

marking the start of a campaign against conscientious objectors and political dissidents. In New York City, political organizer

Roger Nash Baldwin Roger Nash Baldwin (January 21, 1884 – August 26, 1981) was one of the founders of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). He served as executive director of the ACLU until 1950. Many of the ACLU's original landmark cases took place under h ...

and attorney

Albert DeSilver Albert DeSilver (August 27, 1888 – December 7, 1924) was a founding member of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). DeSilver graduated from Yale in 1910, where he was a member of Skull and Bones, and then earned a law degree at Columbia La ...

established the National Civil Liberties Bureau to coordinate the work of liberal and radical lawyers in the legal defense of this new class of American political criminals, who by 1918 numbered more than 1,500.Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, ''The Rebel Girl: An Autobiography: My First Life (1906-1926)''

955 Year 955 ( CMLV) was a common year starting on Monday of the Julian calendar. Events By place Europe * August 10 – Battle of Lechfeld: King Otto I ("the Great") defeats the Hungarians (also known as Magyars) near Augsburg (Germa ...

New York: International Publishers, 1973; pg. 244. This was not the only effort at coordinating legal defense efforts for the hundreds of members of Socialists, Wobblies, and

conscientious objector A conscientious objector is an "individual who has claimed the right to refuse to perform military service" on the grounds of freedom of conscience or religion. The term has also been extended to objecting to working for the military–indu ...

s facing prosecution. Believing the Civil Liberties Bureau was not equal to the task of nationally organizing publicity and fundraising efforts on behalf of political prisoners, a stillborn effort called the Liberty Defense Union was made by IWW organizer

. Flynn had an extensive history with the legal system as a defendant in various prosecutions relating to

free speech Freedom of speech is a principle that supports the freedom of an individual or a community to articulate their opinions and ideas without fear of retaliation, censorship, or legal sanction. The right to freedom of expression has been recognise ...

actions and union organizing.Helen C. Camp, ''Iron in Her Soul: Elizabeth Gurley Flynn and the American Left.'' Pullman, WA: Washington State University Press, 1995; pg. 87. Flynn had been arrested for her IWW organizing activities as part of the 1912 Lawrence Textile Strike, facing a seven-year prison term in a trial which was held in June 1913, gaining her freedom when the jury deadlocked over the question of conviction.Gloria Garrett Samson, ''The American Fund For Public Service: Charles Garland and Radical Philanthropy, 1922-1941.'' Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1996; pg. 113. Later Flynn had spent the better part of a year raising public awareness and funds on behalf of condemned IWW activist Joe Hill, who was ultimately executed by firing squad in the state of

Utah Utah is a landlocked state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It is one of the Four Corners states, sharing a border with Arizona, Colorado, and New Mexico. It also borders Wyoming to the northea ...

in November 1915. In 1917, Flynn was the only woman arrested in September 1917 in a nationwide operation aimed at decapitating the leadership of the IWW organization — an effort which jailed more than 100 leaders and activists of that organization.Samson, ''The American Fund for Public Service,'' pg. 114. Flynn had been held in New York City's

Tombs A tomb ( ''tumbos'') or sepulchre () is a repository for the remains of the dead. It is generally any structurally enclosed interment space or burial chamber, of varying sizes. Placing a corpse into a tomb can be called ''immurement'', althou ...

prison until $10,000 had been raised for her bail; her case was severed from the main group of defendants in February 1918 and finally dismissed only in March 1919. Flynn was unable to persuade a sufficient number of high-profile public intellectuals and attorneys to join her effort, however, and the plan was soon abandoned, with its remaining assets distributed to a subcommittee of National Civil Liberties Bureau headed by Charles Ervin, editor of the Socialist daily ''

The New York Call The ''New York Call'' was a socialism, socialist daily newspaper published in New York City from 1908 through 1923. The ''Call'' was the second of three English-language dailies affiliated with the Socialist Party of America, following the ''Chic ...

,'' and economics professor without portfolio

Scott Nearing Scott Nearing (August 6, 1883 – August 24, 1983) was an American radical economist, educator, writer, political activist, pacifist, vegetarian and advocate of simple living. Biography Early years Nearing was born in Morris Run, Tioga County ...

.Flynn, ''The Rebel Girl,'' pp. 244-245. Early in November 1918 another effort was made at a national defense organization, this time in conjunction with the Civil Liberties Bureau. This was a group called the Workers Defense Union, launched with $250 of Civil Liberty Bureau funds, sufficient to pay Flynn for six weeks.Flynn, ''The Rebel Girl,'' pg. 245. The group was conceived as a mechanism to enable activists from a variety of sometimes antagonistic political organizations to work together on common tasks in the realm of legal defense, with an emphasis upon working class defendants and solicitation of trade unions for financial support.

Structure

A conference which formally founded the WDU and elected its officers was held in a hall owned by ''

The Jewish Daily Forward ''The Forward'' (), formerly known as ''The Jewish Daily Forward'', is an American news media organization for a Jewish American audience. Founded in 1897 as a Yiddish-language daily socialist newspaper, ''The New York Times'' reported that Set ...

'' on December 18, 1918. The gathering was attended by delegates from 163 trade unions, political groups, and social service organizations. A subsequent meeting held January 5, 1919, adopted a program for the organization and resolutions on specific actions. Flynn was chosen as Secretary of the organization, joined in her efforts by Financial Secretary-Treasurer Fred Biedenkapp of the Brotherhood of Metal Workers, a radical trade unionist.Joseph Caldwell, "Address to the 12th Convention of the Cloth Hat and Cap Makers of North America," New York City, May 2, 1919. Published in ''The Headgear Worker,'' vol. 4, no. 5 (May 1919), pp. 72-73. The publicity director was Eugene Lyons, a radical sympathizer in his younger years who would turn to

conservative Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy and ideology that seeks to promote and preserve traditional institutions, customs, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civiliza ...

anti-communism Anti-communism is Political movement, political and Ideology, ideological opposition to communism, communist beliefs, groups, and individuals. Organized anti-communism developed after the 1917 October Revolution in Russia, and it reached global ...

in the second half of the 1930s.Camp, ''Iron in Her Soul,'' pg. 88. The national field organizer was veteran member of the Socialist Party

Ella Reeve Bloor Ella Reeve "Mother" Bloor (July 8, 1862 – August 10, 1951) was an American labor organizer and long-time activist in the socialist and communist movements. Bloor is best remembered as one of the top-ranking female functionaries in the Communist ...

. The WDU maintained an office in the building occupied by the

Rand School of Social Science The Rand School of Social Science was formed in 1906 in New York City by adherents of the Socialist Party of America. The school aimed to provide a broad education to workers, imparting a politicizing class-consciousness, and additionally served a ...

, located at 7 East 15th Street in New York City. Flynn's office was located in the Rand School building, a small back room of a larger office rented by Biedenkapp's Brotherhood of Metal Workers. The spartan room had bars over the windows and faced an enclosed air shaft, an ambiance which Flynn later recalled made her feel like she was herself in jail, fighting for her own liberty as well as the prisoners which her organization sought to liberate. In 1922 a move was made by the Brotherhood of Metal Workers and the Workers Defense Union to new facilities, located at 80 East 10th Street. Initial funding for the organization, which was initially known as the "Workers Liberty Defense Union", was provided by Roger Baldwin's National Civil Liberties Bureau, forerunner of the ACLU. National Civil Liberties Bureau funding ran out midway through January 1919 and thereafter the WDU was left to its own devices to cover its operating expenses. Additional funds were provided by various progressive trade unions, including the

Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America (ACWA) was a United States labor union known for its support for "social unionism" and progressive political causes. Led by Sidney Hillman for its first thirty years, it helped found the Congress of Indus ...

, the

International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union The International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union (ILGWU) was a labor union for employees in the women's clothing industry in the United States. It was one of the largest unions in the country, one of the first to have a primarily female membersh ...

, and the Furriers' Union. Its efforts were additionally endorsed by the Socialist Party. Although Flynn and Biedenkapp was the individuals maintaining day-to-day operations of the WDU, the group was nominally controlled by a National Committee, which included a number of prominent civil libertarians of various political allegiances, including Chicago poverty worker

Jane Addams Laura Jane Addams (September 6, 1860May 21, 1935) was an American Settlement movement, settlement activist, Social reform, reformer, social worker, sociologist, public administrator, philosopher, and author. She was a leader in the history of s ...

, ''

Nation A nation is a type of social organization where a collective Identity (social science), identity, a national identity, has emerged from a combination of shared features across a given population, such as language, history, ethnicity, culture, t ...

'' magazine editor

Oswald Garrison Villard Oswald Garrison Villard (March 13, 1872 – October 1, 1949) was an American journalist and editor of the ''New York Evening Post.'' He was a civil rights activist, and along with his mother, Fanny Villard, a founding member of the NAACP. In ...

, activist clergyman such as Frank A. Ryan,

Harry F. Ward Harry Frederick Ward Jr. (15 October 1873 – 9 December 1966) was an English-born American Methodist minister and political activist who identified himself with the movement for Christian socialism, best remembered as first national chairman of t ...

, and Judah L. Magnes, prominent labor lawyer Frank P. Walsh,

muckraking The muckrakers were reform-minded journalists, writers, and photographers in the Progressive Era in the United States (1890s–1920s) who claimed to expose corruption and wrongdoing in established institutions, often through sensationalist publ ...

writer

Frederic C. Howe Frederic Clemson Howe (November 21, 1867 – August 3, 1940) was a progressive reformer, author, lawyer, member of the Ohio Senate, a Georgist (advocate of a single tax), and Commissioner of Immigration of the Port of New York. He was also f ...

, and trade unionist

Rose Schneiderman Rose Schneiderman (April 6, 1882 – August 11, 1972) was a Polish-born American labor organizer, feminist, and one of the most prominent female labor union leaders. As a member of the New York Women's Trade Union League, she drew attention t ...

, among others.

Strategy

The WDU was an explicitly radical organization and sought to aid so-called "victims of capitalist class tyranny" who had run afoul of the legal system in various contexts. The organization sought to provide immediate, basic legal defense in the hopes of allaying more severe charges and expediting a favorable outcome. A representative of the WDU briefly detailed his organization's legal strategy in a presentation to the biennial convention of the Cloth Hat and Cap Makers of North America in May 1919:

...Ofttimes a legal defense at the time of arrest — the first time of arrest — will prevent a lot of unpleasant work afterwards. If we have a good lawyer to represent them at the primary court, ofttimes the prisoners are discharges or a minor charge is placed against them. If the prisoners are there without a legal defense, ofttimes the charge is perverted so as to make it really an international offense, and instead of being discharged or given a small fine or short term of imprisonment, they are turned over to the Federal authorities and there they get from 10 to 20 years on the charge of
Espionage Espionage, spying, or intelligence gathering, as a subfield of the intelligence field, is the act of obtaining secret or confidential information ( intelligence). A person who commits espionage on a mission-specific contract is called an ...
.

In addition to providing legal defense in criminal charges relating to political or union activity, the WDU also provided legal assistance for resident alien workers threatened with deportation by the Bureau of Immigration as a result of their radical political affiliations. To publicize its efforts, the WDU published a monthly magazine, the ''Workers Defense Bulletin.''''Workers' Defense Bulletin.''
New York. OCLC 33917620. The editor of the publication, which launched on April 15, 1919, was Eugene Lyons.

Dissolution

In January 1920 the wartime National Civil Liberties Bureau headed by Roger Baldwin dissolved, in favor of a new permanent organization called the

(ACLU).Flynn, ''The Rebel Girl,'' pg. 246. As part of the call to establish the new organization, the Workers Defense Union was asked to ally itself with the ACLU as a local affiliate. Elizabeth Gurley Flynn became a founding member of the National Committee of the ACLU, remaining in that post until pressured to resign in 1940 in the anti-communist climate which surrounded the signing of the

Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact The Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, officially the Treaty of Non-Aggression between Germany and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, and also known as the Hitler–Stalin Pact and the Nazi–Soviet Pact, was a non-aggression pact between Nazi Ge ...

. The Workers Defense Union continued its independent activities until the group was dissolved in 1923.

Footnotes

{{reflist, 2

Publications

* ''Program of the Workers Defense Union.'' New York: Workers Defense Union, n.d.

919 __NOTOC__ Year 919 ( CMXIX) was a common year starting on Friday of the Julian calendar. Events By Place Byzantine Empire * March 25 – Romanos Lekapenos, admiral (''droungarios'') of the Byzantine navy, seizes the Boukoleon Pal ...

* ''Who Are the Murderers?'' New York: Workers Defense Union, n.d. ay 1919 * ''Justice Later.'' New York: Workers Defense Union, n.d.

* Joseph W. Sharts, ''An Open Letter to You President Wilson.'' New York: Workers Defense Union, n.d.

* ''Dumb Submission or Deportation?'' New York: Workers Defense Union, n.d. . 1919 * ''Russian Pogroms in America.'' New York: Workers Defense Union, n.d. . 1919 * ''Lumber vs. Labor.'' New York: Workers Defense Union, n.d. . 1919 * ''Are They Doomed?'' New York: Workers Defense Union, n.d. . 1919 * ''Using the Espionage Act to Terrorize Labor; Some Judicial Atrocities.'' New York: Workers Defense Union, 1919. * ''Freedom for Political Prisoners. Workers: Make Monday, September 6, a Real Labor Day.'' New York: Workers Defense Union, n.d. 920 * Alexander Sidney Lanier, ''Justice to the IWW: Open Letter to the President.'' New York: Workers Defense Union, n.d. 921 * Art Shields, ''The Sacco-Vanzetti Case and the Grim Forces Behind It.'' New York: Workers Defense Union, n.d. 921?