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Criminal Syndicalism and Anarchy

Criminal syndicalism is a philosophical and political concept that involves intent to overthrow an established form of power such as government, or more abstractly, oppression over the sovereignty of people. Criminal syndicalism is most notably related to the labor movements of the early 20th century following the Industrial Revolution well into the wartime period between World War I and World War II and further extending into the Cold War. It can be regarded as a reaction to political censorship and repression.

Anarchy is a political ideal where there is an absence of government and the freedom of the individual is absolute. Anarchy formulates the foundational idea for criminal syndicalism and was a predominantly common ideal that was explored by the Beat generation and postwar boomers.

=Definitions= Criminal syndicalism is defined under the following example statutes from New York, Connecticut, and California respectively:


 * “The doctrine that organized government should be overthrown by force or violence, or by assassination of the executive head or of any of the executive officials of government, or by any unlawful means” (New York statute, Penal Code, Sec. 160).


 * “No person shall, in public, or before any assemblage of ten or more persons, advocate in any language any measures, doctrine, proposal or propaganda intended to injuriously affect the Government of the United States or the State of Connecticut” (Connecticut statute, Chap. 191, of 1919).


 * “The term ‘criminal syndicalism’ as used in this act is hereby defined as any doctrine or precept advocating, teaching, or aiding and abetting the commission of crime, sabotage (which word is hereby defined as meaning willful and malicious physical damage or injury to physical property), or unlawful accts of force and violence or unlawful methods of terrorism as a means of accomplishing a change in industrial ownership or control or effecting any political change” (California statute, Chap. 188, Laws of 1919).

Criminal syndicalism is recognized as an oppositional political crime, and offenders tried in court are ruled under related crimes like treason, sedition, and espionage. Criminal syndicalism, however, involves numbers rather than individual accounts of political crime. The Criminal Syndicalism Act passed as a measure of reducing laborer involvement in changing political views, and it sought to target socialist or communist motives of the industrial sector.

=The IWW= The IWW, or the International Workers of the World, was an organization represented by a congregation of prominently leftist American socio-political parties including the socialists, communists, anarchists, liberalists, and feminists that rallied for economic radicalism as a way of challenging American capitalism, seeking to abolish the concept of capitalism as a social system. The organization was founded in Chicago in 1905 and was dedicated in promoting industrial unionism and radical economic and social equality. At the start of the Great War, the federal and state governments deemed the organization as impeding the American war effort, and thus began a systematic persecution of IWW members under the guise of legislation against criminal syndicalism. The government regarded the motives of the IWW as subversive usurpation that tried to undermine the authority of the conservatives and pro-capitalism.

The general consensus of the United States as a pro-capitalist nation throughout most of the early 1900s reflected wartime attitudes about work and the labor force as a necessary factor in formulating the basis of a productive state.

=Methods= One way for the federal body of law to legally repress organizations from relying on criminal syndicalism can be found in a period of vagrancy laws and “tramp acts” as well as attempts to quell organized labor strikes through the association of organizers with petty crime.

Such vagrancy laws prohibited non-employed workers from remaining in an area if they did not find work; often times these laws were vague and often did not require any formal type of criminal wrongdoing to follow up with persecution. “Tramp acts” acted in a similar fashion, as ‘vagrant’ and ‘tramp’ were often used synonymously. The capitalist ideal of the utilitarian hard working American functioned in the backdrop of these policies, pervading popular opinion and discouraging people from any low expectations of work ethic in conjunction with nationalistic pride.

Charlie Chaplin is most notable for playing the role of a tramp in Modern Times, which included actual social commentary regarding the state of work and employment in the United States for immigrants, industrial and urban workers, and victims of drastic economical circumstances. Though comedic in execution, Chaplin’s performance reflects the underlying political struggles of workers at the time. His contributions in the film culture paved the way for a larger discussion.

Another method of suppression includes anti-flag laws during organized events. Anti-red and black flag laws placed import on the American flag as a means of allegiance to a national identity, thus preventing acts of criminal syndicalism from expanding into and motivating general interest during labor events like picketing or strikes. Depending on the statutes of the state, no flags may be carried in a parade unless the American flag was flown over it or no flags could be carried at all especially if the flags possessed any message or insignia that was anti-government, anti-American, anti-religious, and generally anti-mainstream in politic and public morals.

In 1919, such flag laws were passed in twenty-four states as a catalyst for the anti-criminal syndicalism movement of the federal government. Violation of the flag laws resulted in either a misdemeanor or felony ruling; severity of punishment varied from state to state, ranging from misdemeanors to felonies with shorter or longer prison sentences.

=The Red Scare= The United States’ participation in the Great War established an era of conservative wartime attitudes as well as political fear mongering that resulted in negative views on communism, anti-capitalism, and other similar political beliefs that catered toward economic, social, and wealth equality. People in positions of power, such as those in the seat of government or employers, often feared that their workers would rise up and usurp power from them. Thus, the postwar era saw the advent of a systematic shutting down of organized movements, any forms of political advertising and/or slandering, as well as public censorship through media outlets and scare tactics that transformed public opinion regarding labor movements. Thus came the era of the Red Scare.

Media publications regarding the IWW rendered them as an organization of criminal activity and violence. One particular work titled Armies of Labor by Samuel P. Orth was published at the hype of the Red Scare. Orth wrote of destruction of machinery as well as a May and June 1919 bomb scare, calling the IWW a bunch of Bolshevist leanists in order to make a statement about the political turmoil occurring both in foreign land as well as on American soil. There was the question of enacted violence, whether the stories were fabricated or true.

Persecution of Union Men in California

 * “So the struggle went on, not for ideals, but for materialistic gain. The Open Shop movement was inaugurated about the same time as the work or fight slogan was developed. The cry of work or fight was used to win the war from the Central Powers, but the open shop movement was to take away the economic security the workers had been enjoying.”

When the Criminal Syndicalist law was effective beginning in early 1919, California began its systematic persecution of workers with arrests and trials that were initiated in 1920. The state saw its most convictions in 1923; Los Angeles alone tried fifty-seven men and thirty-nine were convicted. However, the higher court reversed these outcomes due to lack of evidence.

It appears that the reasoning behind these persecutions was more for establishing political control over the IWW rather than for truly judiciary gains. The fear-mongering that pervaded postwar America allowed for persecutions to continue for a number of years.

Stedman’s Red Raid in Michigan
Seymour Stedman was a lawyer and leader of the Socialist Party of Michigan. Upon hearing about the arrests in Detroit in 1920 following allegations of criminal syndicalism and communist activity, Stedman took on these cases in civil court in order to prove organized motives for the overthrow of the United States government under his Bill of Complaint. He proposed through his list of perpetrators in this bill plans that the arrested workers advocated for the “use of direct or mass action.”

Stedman’s Red Raid was one aspect of the Red Scare where any opposition to the American Right Wing or capitalism was seen as a preemptive attack toward the overall security of the nation.

=References=

1.	Conlin, Joseph R. "The IWW and the Question of Violence." The Wisconsin Magazine of History 51.4 (1968): 316-26.

2.	Davenport, Tim, ed. The Menace of 'criminal Syndicalism': War Time Repression by the Federal Government Is Continued through the States. New York City: American Civil Liberties Union Labor Defense Council.

3.	Delaney, Ed, and Claude Erwin. Persecution of Union Men in California a Brief Story of Criminal Syndicalism and Petty Persecution. Los Angeles: Industrial Workers of the World, 1924.

4.	Franklin, F. G. "Anti-Syndicalist Legislation." The American Political Science Review 14.2 (1920): 291-98.

5.	Meyers, William. Introducing Anarcho-syndicalism. Gualala, CA: III Pub., 2001.

6.	Minor, Robert, and George Hamilton. Stedman's Red Raid. Cleveland, OH: Toiler Pub. Association, 1921.

7.	Nelles, Walter. Seeing Red: Civil Liberty and Law in the Period following the War. New York: American Civil Liberties Union, 1920.

8.	Rocker, Rudolf. Anarchism and Anarcho-syndicalism. London: Freedom, 1973.

9.	Ross, Jeffrey I. An Introduction to Political Crime. Bristol, UK: Policy, 2012.

10.	White, Ahmed A. "The Crime of Economic Radicalism: Criminal Syndicalism Laws and the Industrial Workers of the World, 1917–1927." Oregon Law Review 85.649 (2006): 649-770.