Workers Defense League Records
THE WORKERS DEFENSE LEAGUE COLLECTION Papers, 1935 - 1971 134 1/2 lineal feet Accession No. 408 The Workers Defense League placed its historic papers in the Archives of Labor and Urban Affairs in August, 1970, and further additions have been received since then. 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. 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. Note: The Workers Defense League gave some files of Conscientious Objector Cases (1945-1948) to the Swarthmore Peace Library at Swarthmore, Pennsylvania. They are filed there under "Metropolitan Board for Conscientious Objectors." Other Conscientious Objector cases are included here. Norman Thomas, David Clendenin, George S. Counts, Harry Fleischman, Aron Gilmartin, Albert K. Herling, Morris Milgram, Rowland Watts, and Vera Rony were only a few of the active officers, others to be found in the correspondents list below.
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