Today in Labor History September 5, 1917: Federal agents attacked Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) halls and offices in 48 cities across the nation as part of the Palmer raids against the left, also known as the First Red Scare. The raids, which particularly targeted anarchists, labor activists and Italian and Jewish immigrants, decimated the IWW. In all, over 6,000 people were arrested and over 550 were deported, including many who were naturalized U.S. citizens, like Emma Goldman and Alexander Berkman. The American Civil Liberties Union would be founded in response to the raids by IWW organizer Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, disability rights activist Helen Keller and others. The Palmer raids were named for A. Mitchell Palmer, U.S. attorney general, who tasked a young 24-year-old J. Edgar Hoover with leading the raids. Hoover would, of course, rise to head of the FBI and lead the attacks on the left during the McCarthy era, or Second Red Scare, as well as the COINTELLPRO attacks on the Black Panthers, American Indian Movement, Brown Berets, and other activists. The Palmer raids, jailings and deportations were illegal, and have been compared to Trumpβs current attacks on immigrants and activists. Both cases involved attacking fabricated enemies of the state, stripping away of Due Process rights, abuses of power, kidnappings and general terrorism by the state against innocent people.
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