Update 13-08: Sunday, July 14, 2013.
"A Word to Tramps," by Lucy E. Parsons [Oct. 4, 1884] Article by Lucy E. Parsons, wife of future Haymarket Affair victim Albert Parsons and herself a committed anarchist, from the front page of the premiere issue of The Alarm. Parsons addresses herself to the 30,000 unemployed of Chicago and implores them to ascertain the reason for their hunger, ragged clothing and distress. "Can you not see that it is the industrial system and not the 'boss' which must be changed?" Parsons asks. The rich with their palatial dwellings are the cause of this despoilment, Parsons notes, people who have "never yet deigned to notice any petition from their slaves that they were not compelled to read by the red glare bursting from the cannons’ mouths, or that was not handed to them upon the point of the sword." No organization is needed to deliver a message to these "robbers," Parson indicates. She urges her readers to "avail yourselves of those little methods of warfare which Science has placed in the hands of the poor man, and you will become a power in this or any other land. Learn the use of explosives!"
"Equal Rights," by Albert Parsons [Nov. 15, 1884] This editorial from The Alarm notes that the path to wealth and leisure is a chimera, attainable by not one person in ten, of whom not one in ten is capable of maintaining the status. The only way to achieve this, in Parsons' view, is by standing on those beneath them in the role of exploiter. "Suppose some of those underneath concluded to use a little dynamite to blow off their burdens, might it not be possible that some of these ambitious ones on top would then conceive of some safer way to gratify their ambitions without taking a fellow creature for a footstool to climb up with?" Parsons rhetorically asks. "Gunpowder brought the world some liberty and dynamite will bring the world as much more as it is stronger than gunpowder. No man has a right to boost himself by even treading on another’s toes. Dynamite will produce equality."
"Force! The Only Defense Against Injustice and Oppression," by C.S. Griffin [Jan. 13, 1885] Leading Chicago English-language anarchist spokesman C.S. Griffin offers this short defense of the use of violence in the social revolution. Griffin proclaims the "vigorous use of dynamite" to be both "humane and economical." "It is clearly more humane to blow ten men into eternity than to make ten men starve to death," Griffin declares, adding that "When ten men unite to starve one man to death, then it is humane and just to blow up the whole ten men." Griffin asserts that "A system that is starving and freezing tens of thousands of little children, right in the midst of a world of plenty, cannot be defended against dynamiters on the ground of humanity." He adds that "If every child that starves to death in the United States was retaliated for by the execution of a rich man in his own parlor, the brutal system of wage-property would not last six weeks." "The privileged class use force to perpetuate their power, and the despoiled workers must use force to prevent it," Griffin says.
"International School of Social Economy: A Correspondence and Training School for Socialists." (Appeal to Reason) [Aug. 17, 1901] The "Little Giant" of constructive socialism, Walter Thomas Mills, was perceived by some of his contemporaries as a self-serving and self-promoting featherbedder -- carving out a comfortable niche for himself as the purveyor of an overpriced textbook and the operator of a series of ethically sketchy socialist schools. Even if this extremely cynical interpretation of motives was correct, it remains a fact that Mills was the originator of training schools in the Socialist Party of America, with his efforts predating the better-known Rand School of Social Science by half a decade. This article from the mass circulation Appeal to Reason details an alliance between Mills and Appeal publisher Julius Wayland to relocate Mills' correspondence school from Chicago and to open a bricks-and-mortar institution in Girard, Kansas, home of the Appeal. Wayland and Mills pledge to donate all surplus funds generated by their respective businesses over an (unspecified) salary paid to each to establishment of the school, which was to conduct a 12 week program beginning in the fall of 1901 in "political and economic history, voice culture, practice in speaking, ... training in the work of a canvasser and organizer, and parliamentary drill." In the same spirit as national military service, the unmarried young people trained as party organizers by the school were to give "four or five years of their time to the cause of Socialism," it is intimated. Career opportunities would subsequently ensue for these graduates as part of the "army of workers" needed to "help administer the affairs of the country when Socialism has been secured," the article claims. Mills' Girard scheme for a socialist training school predated the "People's College" established down the road in Fort Scott, KS, with which he was associated, by more than a decade.
Youth, Vol. 1, No. 1 [Feb. 1922] Large file. Graphic pdf of the first issue of the official organ of the newly established Young Workers League of America, forerunner of The Young Worker. Contents: "Editorial: Our Paper -- Your Paper." "Editorial: A National Young Workers' League." "Editorial: International Liebknecht Day." "Editorial: Reaching the Youth." A. Wanderer: "Some Young Communists of Europe." E. Elston: "The Task Before Us." G.: "To the Proletarian Students of America." E. Elston: "399 B.C. -- 1922 A.D." "Revolutionary Young Workers' Movement in the United States" (Resolution of 1st National Convention of WPA, Dec. 1921). "Manifesto of the Second Congress of the Young Communist International." "World of Youth: News of What the Young Revolutionists are Doing." "The Bourgeois Press." "Think Economically!"
Young Worker, Vol. 1, No. 2 [March-April 1922] Large file. Graphic pdf of the second issue of the official organ of the newly established Young Workers League of America, formerly Youth. Max Shachtman, Editor. Contents: Max Shachtman: "Editorial: Our National Organ." Max Shachtman: "Editorial: International of Youth." Max Shachtman: "Editorial: To Work!" Harry Gannes: "They Do the Dirty Work." "The Morals of the Movies: A Review of the Arbuckle Case." Ernest Todd: "Spring" (poem). Nat Kaminsky: "A Page of Class Struggle" (Albany streetcar strike). Oliver Carlson: "The League in Action." "Manifesto and Program (Tentative Draft): Submitted by the National Organization Committee of the YWL." "Constitution: Tentative Draft. Basis for Organizing Branches of the YWL." "Greetings from the Young Communist International." "Spread the Message." "Convention Call."
Young Worker, Vol. 1, No. 3 [May 1922] Large file. Graphic pdf of the third issue of the official organ of the newly established Young Workers League of America, formerly Youth. Max Shachtman, likely Editor. Contents: "A United Front of Juvenile Labor in Denmark." "Editorial: May Day Has Come." "Editorial: "The Young Workers League Convention." "Editorial: Genoa -- Another Broken Rung." Rose Pastor Stokes: "Two Sketches." W. Schneiderman: "The Awakening." Tony Wishtart: "Montani Semper Liberi: The Freedom of the West Virginia Working-Class." Oliver Carlson: "What Means This Independence." August Valentine: "News From the West Virginia Mining District." "The Fight Against the Pauperization of the Working Youth: Open Letter of the YCI." H. Seligson and E. Elston: "Appeal for Revolutionary Unity." "When You and I Were Young, Maggie..." Harry Gannes: "Can Students Be Revolutionary?" "Class War Prisoners." S. Max Kitzes: "Clarity and Action" (poem). Oliver Carlson: "In Memory of the Paris Commune: Speech on the 51st Anniversary of the Paris Commune at the Central Opera House, March 18, 1922, New York City." "Resolution of the New York Young Workers League Transfering The Young Worker to National Organization." "Agenda for the First National Convention of the Young Workers League of America." W.W.E.: "The Red Dawn" (poem). "Where the YWL Exists." "'We're Going Over.'" "What Others Think of Us." "The Famine Scouts." Friends of Soviet Russia: "One Loaf or a Thousand" (full page ad).
Young Worker, Vol. 1, No. 4 [June-July 1922] Large file. Graphic pdf of the fourth issue of the official organ of the newly established Young Workers League of America, formerly Youth. Oliver Carlson, Editor. Contents: C. Revilo: "Song of Youth" (poem). "The Dawn's in the East." Oliver Carlson: "Editorial: Our League Established." Oliver Carlson: "Editorial: 'American Freedom.'" Oliver Carlson: "Editorial: Child Labor." Martin Abern: "Are We Tryng to Break the Unions?" Harry Gannes and William Z. Foster: "The Young Worker and the Unions: An Interview." Oliver Carlson: "Our First National Convention." Martin Abern: "Who's Red — And Why?" I. Ginsberg: "Awake, Young Workers!" A. Thorne: "On the Road." Ernest Todd: "Brains, Brawn and Bone-Heads." S. Max Kitzes: "Freedom" (poem). William Haber: "The Role of the Young Workers' League." "Our Relations to the Workers Party: Resolution Adopted by First National Convention, YWL of A, May 13th-15th, 1922." Oliver Carlson: "The Road Before Us: A Speech at YWL Convention, May 13th, 1922, New York City." Sarnjinni Naidu: "Dawn" (poem). "International Children's Week." Hyzam: "A Slip of the Pen."
Young Worker, Vol. 1, No. 5 [Aug.-Sept. 1922] Large file. Graphic pdf of the fifth issue of the official organ of the newly established Young Workers League of America, formerly Youth. Oliver Carlson, Editor. Contents: "News of the Leagues." "The Day of Youth" (International Youth Day -- Sept. 3). Harry Gannes: "Crime and the Working Class Youth." Martin Abern: "'Culture,' Science and Working Class Education." Leon Trotsky: "Lenin: A Working-Class Leader of the Times." Oliver Carlson: "National Internationalism." John G. Neihardt: "Cry of the Workers" (poem). "Young Worker in Press Picnic." "A Centrist Program." "Erect Beautiful Prison for the Working Youth." ECYCI: "A World Congress of Working Youth." William Schneideman: "The Problem of Education." Richard Wagner: "The Revolution." "Urge Establishing of Soviet State in Program of American Section of Young Communist International." "The Fight in Paris in 1848." "Child Workers Increase." "Issue Two Pamphlets of Especial Interest to Young Workers." "Diseased and Needy Children Left in Wake of Capitalism."
Young Worker, Vol. 1, No. 6 [Oct. 1922] Large file. Graphic pdf of the sixth issue of the official organ of the newly established Young Workers League of America. Oliver Carlson, Editor. Contents: "Editorial: On the Right Track." "Editorial: Back to the Poison Factories." "Editorial: Injunction and Young Scabs." "Editorial: Third Congress of the YCI." Jack Carney: "The Future is With the Young." Harry Young: "No More War?" "British Workers Hold Congress" (YCLGB). "YCL Thesis on the Economic Struggle of the Young Workers." Edgar Hart: "The Basis for Prostitution in Capitalism: Part 1." Martin Abern: "Into the Fight, Young Workers!: Speech Deliverd at the Labor Lyceum, St. Louis, MO, on International Youth Day, Sunday, September 3rd, 1922." "News of the Leagues." "The Young Workers League and the American Legion." Katharine Fisher: "Kinfolk" (poem). NEC of the YWL: "The Red Raids: Statement on the Prosecution of Communists and the Present Situation in the United States."
Young Worker, Vol. 1, No. 7 [Nov. 1922] Large file. Graphic pdf of the sixth issue of the official organ of the newly established Young Workers League of America. Oliver Carlson, Editor. Contents: Editorial: "'Corrupting the Youth.'" Editorial: "Is This Not Murder!" Oliver Carlson: "Yesterday - Today - Tomorrow." "A Worker-Soldier Writes Us" (Leslie R. Hurt, World War Veterans). ECYCI: "Why a United Front of Young Workers." Martin Abern and Paul Stevens: "The Young Workers League is Discovered!" (American Legion). Harry Gannes: "The Working Children of Boston and Vicinity." "Youth in America's Industries." "After the Meeting." Edgar Hart: "The Basis for Prostitution in Capitalism: Part 2." George Jean Nathan and H.L. Mencken: "Ye Gods! What's This?" Carol Bristol and Clara Reiseroff: "Seattle Booms" (YWL poem). "News of the Leagues." "International News." Rena Deane: "Hail, Young Workers!" (poem). Editorial: "Necessity -- Mother of Invention." Editorial: "War Clouds Again." Editorial: "The World Congress." Editorial: "Five Years Old -- Still Going." "Agenda of the YCI."
Young Worker, Vol. 1, No. 8 [Dec. 1922] Large file. Graphic pdf of the sixth issue of the official organ of the newly established Young Workers League of America. Oliver Carlson, Editor. Contents: Editorial: "An American Fascisti." Editorial: "Ever Present Red Youth." Editorial: "Orphans of the Working Class." Clude Bealy: "Youth in America's Coal Fields." S.B. Fields: "The Movement -- 'As She Is.'" C. Revilo: "LIterature and the Workers' Movement." S.B. Fields: "As to Change." John Williamson: "A Word to You." "News of the Leagues." "News of the Young Workers' League of Canada." Lillian Saffern: "Why I Joined the Young Workers' League." Jennie Greenberg: "My Reasons for Joining the Young Workers' League." Edgar Hart: "The Basis for Prostitution in Capitalism: Part 3." M.L.: "'Once Upon a Time.'" "Reviewing the Ranks."
