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Workers Defense League Records *XLGHWRWKH:RUNHUV 'HIHQVH/HDJXH5HFRUGV /5 7KLVILQGLQJDLGZDVSURGXFHGXVLQJ$UFKLYHV6SDFHRQ-XQH (QJOLVK 'HVFULELQJ$UFKLYHV$&RQWHQW6WDQGDUG :DOWHU35HXWKHU/LEUDU\ &DVV$YHQXH 'HWURLW0, 85/KWWSVUHXWKHUZD\QHHGX Guide to the Workers' Defense League Records LR000408 Table of Contents Summary Information .................................................................................................................................... 4 History ............................................................................................................................................................ 4 Scope and Content ......................................................................................................................................... 5 Arrangement ................................................................................................................................................... 9 Administrative Information ............................................................................................................................ 9 Controlled Access Headings ........................................................................................................................ 10 Collection Inventory ..................................................................................................................................... 10 Series 1: Administrative files .................................................................................................................... 10 Subseries A: Boards and committees ..................................................................................................... 10 Subseries B: Financial records ............................................................................................................... 12 Subseries C: Fund appeals ..................................................................................................................... 12 Subseries D: Correspondence files ......................................................................................................... 13 Series 2: General files ............................................................................................................................... 17 Series 3: Special projects, campaigns and committees ............................................................................. 76 Subseries A: Commission of Inquiry into Forced Labor ....................................................................... 76 Subseries B: Norman Thomas and the Leaflet Campaign in Hague's New Jersey ................................ 83 Subseries C: The Terre Haute Defense Committee, 1935-1936 ............................................................ 84 Subseries D: Campaign for a Permanent Fair Employment Practices Commission .............................. 84 Subseries E: Longshoreman's Jobs Defense Committee, WDL ............................................................. 85 Subseries F: White Paper for Labor, 1958-1962 ................................................................................... 86 Subseries G: Committee for the Defense of Civil Rights in Tampa (Florida), 1935-1939 .................... 86 Subseries H: Committee to Defend Franco's Labor Victims, 1950-1953 and the Ferrerro-Sallitto Defense Conference, 1935-1938 ........................................................................................................................... 87 Series IV: Workers Defense League Joint Apprenticeship Program, 1962-1971 ..................................... 87 Series V: Farm workers, migrant workers, sharecroppers and their unionization .................................... 89 Subseries A: Farm Workers, 1936-1954 ................................................................................................ 89 Subseries B: Farm workers and migrant workers, 1940-1961 ............................................................... 89 Subseries C: Farm workers' and farmers' strikes, 1947-1955 ................................................................ 90 Subseries D: Southern Tenant Farmers Union (STFU) ......................................................................... 90 Subseries E: National Farm Labor Union and National Agricultural Workers Union, 1945-1960 ........ 96 Subseries F: National Sharecroppers Week and Fund, 1936-1969 ........................................................ 96 Subseries G: Peonage in America .......................................................................................................... 97 Series VI: Immigration and deportation ................................................................................................... 98 - Page 2 - Guide to the Workers' Defense League Records LR000408 Series VII: Special cases ........................................................................................................................... 99 Series VIII: Academic freedom cases, 1936-1965 ................................................................................. 100 Series IX: Civil Rights and racial discrimination cases, 1936-1965 ...................................................... 100 Series X: Strike cases .............................................................................................................................. 101 Series XI: Union democracy cases ......................................................................................................... 103 Series XII: Workers defense cases (defense of workers) ....................................................................... 103 Series XIII: General cases ....................................................................................................................... 104 Series XIV: Loyalty and security cases, and conscientious objection .................................................... 105 Subseries A: Conscientious objection .................................................................................................. 105 Subseries B: Loyalty and security ........................................................................................................ 105 Series XV: Military and conscription cases ........................................................................................... 108 Series XVI: Publicity .............................................................................................................................. 109 Series XVII: Miscellaneous .................................................................................................................... 112 - Page 3 - Guide to the Workers' Defense League Records LR000408 Summary Information Repository: Walter P. Reuther Library Creator: Workers Defense League Title: Workers' Defense League Records ID: LR000408 Date [inclusive]: 1935-1971 Physical Description: 136.25 Linear Feet (274 MB, 1 OS), 19 reels Language of the English Material: Language of the Material entirely in English. Material: Abstract: This collection of correspondence, press releases, newspaper clippings, speeches, trial briefs and transcripts, and published pamphlets and leaflets, thoroughly documents the Worker's Defense League's efforts to obtain justice for labor organizers, government critics, victims of racial and economic discrimination, and conscientious objectors, through established, legal processes. Citation Style "Workers' Defense League Records, Box [#], Folder [#], Walter P. Reuther Library, Archives of Labor and Urban Affairs, Wayne State University" ^ Return to Table of Contents History Founded on August 29, 1936, the WDL was rooted in a nucleus of prior groups, including various chapters of the Labor and Socialist Defense Committee. The suppression of the 1935 strike in Terre Haute, Indiana, the murder of Joseph Shoemaker, an organizer in Tampa, Florida, the cotton choppers' strike in Arkansas, the arrests in New Jersey of people handing out leaflets, and other such incidents, showed the need for an organization to champion the causes of workers in the interest of social and economic justice, and to give such assistance to workers without political cause or party label attached. The Workers Defense League became such an organization. - Page 4- Guide to the Workers' Defense League Records LR000408 Through the years the WDL expanded its activities; it was the legal arm and financial backer of the Southern Tenant Farmers Union; gave assistance on immigration and deportation cases, loyalty-security cases, passports, refugees, conscientious objectors, civil rights, union democracy, minority apprenticeship training, military and conscription cases, and many more. ^ Return to Table of Contents Scope and Content Important subjects: Academic Freedom Army Jim Crowism Attorney General's List J. R. Butler Civil Liberties Civil Rights David Clendenin Committee to Defend Civil Rights in Tampa Committee to Defend Franco's Labor Victims Committee of Inquiry into Forced Labor (UN) Conscientious Objection Conscription Tee Davis Case Deportations Discrimination Farm Workers Farm Unions FEPC Ferrero-Sallitto Defense Committee Carl Gilmore Case Groveland (Fla.) Cases Francis Heisler Albert Herling Immigration Clarence Jackson Case Joint Apprenticeship Program Ku Klux Klan Leaflet Distribution Fights Alton Levy Case Longshoremen's Jobs Defense Committee Loyalty and Security Frank McCallister Morris Milgram H. L. Mitchell Migrant Workers National Agricultural Workers Union National Farm Labor Union Peonage in America Police Brutality Poll Tax Race Hate as
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