Featured Editorials

Hellraisers Journal: Thousands of Chicago Garment Strikers Win 48-Hour Week With No Loss of Wages

Submitted by JayRaye on Fri, 12/18/2015 - 12:55pm

You ought to be out raising hell. This is the fighting age.
Put on your fighting clothes.
-Mother Jones

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Saturday December 18, 1915
From the Chicago Day Book: Thousands of Striking Garment Workers Win Shorter Hours

The Day Book of Chicago, Illinois, reported in its December 16th edition that, although recognition of the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America has not been granted, nevertheless, thousands of Garment Workers have won the 48-hour week with no reduction in wages:

Chicago Garment Workers Strike of 1915, Day Book headline, Dec 16.png

Hellraisers Journal: From the Appeal to Reason, Speech by Eugene V. Debs to Steel Workers of Chicago

Submitted by JayRaye on Thu, 12/17/2015 - 12:55pm

I am for Socialism because I am for humanity.
We have been cursed with the reign of gold long enough.
-Eugene V. Debs

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Sunday December 17, 1905
From the Appeal to Reason: Comrade Debs Speaks to Chicago Steel Workers

In this weeks edition of the Appeal to Reason, we find the text of a speech given by Eugene Debs, on November 24th, to a large audience in Chicago. The Appeal states that Comrade Debs was speaking to Steel Workers of that city. In the speech Debs compares the old out-dated system of craft organization with the revolutionary system of class-conscious industrial unionism as proposed by the newly formed Industrial Workers of the World.

Eugene Debs Talks to Steel Workers, text, Appeal to Reason, Dec 16, 1905.png
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(The following address was delivered by Eugene V. Debs at South Chicago, on November 24th, to an immense audience.)

Eugene Debs, Wilshire's Magazine, Nov 1905.png

THE year now drawing to a close will be memorable in the annals of labor because of the organization of the Industrial Workers of the World. For thirty years I have been connected with the labor movement. All of the years of my young manhood were devoted to the work of organizing my fellow-workingmen, that by the power of united effort they might do something to improve their condition as workers, promote their interests as citizens and advance their general welfare as men. There was a time when I believed that the trade union was in itself sufficient for this work. I have been compelled to revise my opinion and to conclude that something larger, more thorough and comprehensive in the way of organization is required to meet the demands of modern times.

The trade union, itself the product of industrial evolution, is subject to the laws of change, and the union that may have served some purpose a quarter of a century ago is now as completely out of date as the tools of industry that were then in use.

Crossing the Rubicon: I will NOT vote for Hillary.

Submitted by detroitmechworks on Thu, 12/17/2015 - 11:03am

There's a lot of things I've been wanting to say, but even with a ten year track record are hard to express. Fear of rejection, fear of alienating those I respect, but also the desire to be a part of something I love have held my tongue back.

So today, I say all the things I really think. No censor, no holding back.

Tucson VA opens transgender clinic

Submitted by Robyn on Wed, 12/16/2015 - 2:13pm

photo VA_zpsmgvpq0mx.jpgThe Southern Arizona VA Health Care System transgender clinic opens its doors today. That VA hospital will become the fourth in the nation to offer special clinic hours for transgender patients.

The Tucson treatment team will be headed by Dr. Sonia Perez-Padilla, who says the Tucson hospital is now recognized by the VA as a "national center of excellence for transgender care."

Local VA officials say the population of transgender veterans in Tucson has grown from 50 to 130 in the past five years.

The Department of Veterans Affairs ordered all its medical facility to take better care of transgender veterans beginning in 2011.

Before that, discrimination was not uncommon.

--Dr. Perez-Padilla

Hellraisers Journal: Gurley Flynn, Labor's Joan of Arc, "Left Paterson Authorities Still Afraid"

Submitted by JayRaye on Wed, 12/16/2015 - 12:55pm

She’s a little woman, is Gurley Flynn, and Irish all over.
The Celt is in her gray blue eyes and almost black hair,
and in the way she clenches her small hands into fists when she’s speaking.

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Thursday December 16, 1915
From The Outlook: Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, Labor's Joan of Arc, Feared by Paterson Authorities

An editorial from yesterday's Outlook defends Miss Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, whom the silk workers call: "Labor's Joan of Arc." The Outlook supports Gurley's right to free speech in the city of Paterson, although they consider her and members of her organization, the Industrial Workers of the World, to be radicals and agitators. Yesterday's editorial follows an article from the November 24th edition which detailed the invasion of Paterson on November 11th by Miss Flynn and a group of prominent New York women. On that day, the Chief of Police stood before the door of the hall and refused to allow Miss Flynn to go inside to speak to the working men and woman of that city. We present, today, both offerings from The Outlook, beginning with the article of November 24:

FREE SPEECH IN PATERSON
Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, Free Speech at Paterson, NY Women, NY Trib, Nov 21, 1915.png

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