MAHLER, Herbert

To Dead Fighters for Freedom (Funeral Chant) [broadside]

New York, 1949. A tribute “dedicated to the memory of Benjamin H. Fletcher, veteran Negro revolutionary Industrialist Unionist...and to all other valiant ones who died in the fight for Freedom.” Read by fellow Wobbly, Herbert Mahler, at Fletcher’s funeral, which was attended by 100 men and women, most of whom were fellow Wobblies, this tribute was likely circulated at the funeral (Foner, “The IWW and the Black Worker,” p. 63). Ben Fletcher was the leader of the Philadelphia branch of the Marine Transport Workers and a tireless IWW organizer. He, along with Mahler and 182 other IWW members were tried by the U.S. government for interfering in the war effort during WWI. Fletcher was sentenced to 10 years, but had his sentence commuted by President Harding in 1923, and was later fully pardoned by FDR. He died on July 10, 1949, in Brooklyn.

An 8 ½” x 11” sheet mimeographed on recto only. Some toning to fragile stock, but Near Fine. One copy in OCLC at UIUC. Scarce. Item #07860

Price: $125.00