Bill
Bailey, the son of Irish immigrants,
was born in Hoboken, New Jersey, in 1909. He became a sailor and the
bad conditions he endured encouraged him to join the Industrial
Workers of the World (IWW).
In 1930 he joined the Marine Workers' Industrial Union and the American
Communist Party.
In 1934
Bailey became an organizer of the longshoreman for the party but became
bored and in 1935 returned to work as a sailor. While in Italy
he observed the reality of fascism and returned to the United
States with a desire to become more actively involved in the struggle
against what he believed was an evil philosophy.
In July
1935 Bailey was arrested and beaten up after he got onboard the German
ship Bremen and attempted to destroy
the swastika flag that it was flying. With the support of the radical
congressmen, Vito
Marcantonio,
Bailey was acquitted of all charges.
On the outbreak of the
Spanish
Civil War, Bailey
joined the Abraham Lincoln Battalion,
a unit that volunteered to defend the Popular
Front government against the Nationalist
Army.
Bailey fought at Belchite
where he managed to capture a red and yellow fascist banner that he
sent to the Maritime Federation of the Pacific in San
Francisco.
By the end of the Spanish
Civil War there
were only 150 American soldiers left in the Lincoln-Washington
Battalion. Over the course of the war over one-third of the
volunteers from the United States had been killed.
Bailey survived and returned to work as a seaman.
After the outbreak of the
Korean
War Bailey,
as a member of the American
Communist Party,
was blacklisted and unable to work as a seaman. In 1953 he began work
as a longshoreman, retiring in 1975.
Bailey featured in several
documentary films including Seeing Red,
The Good Fight, Growing
Up in the Depression, Between
the Wars, The Spanish Civil War
and The UnAmericans. He eventually
became disillusioned with the policies of Joseph
Stalin and left the party. He remained a
socialist and accused the communist governments of eastern Europe
of "pissing on Karl Marx's grave."
Bill Bailey's
excellent autobiography, The
Kid From Hoboken (1993) is on the Internet. Bill
Bailey died
in San
Francisco on
22nd February 1995.
(1)
Studs
Terkel interviewed Bill
Bailey for his book, The Good War (1985)
My family came from Ireland and I was born in the slums of Jersey.
Went to school up to fourth grade. When I was making my communion,
the nuns sent my mother a letter: "This boy is not going to make
it unless he has a pair of shoes and a little suit of clothes"
My mother said, "If you want him to wear shoes and a little suit
of clothes, buy it for him. We haven't enough food to feed him, let
alone shoes. He's going to make his communion if I have to bring him
up to the altar naked. The Good Lord ran around with a potato sack
wrapped around his ass, and if it's good enough for him, it's good
enough for anyone else." Two days before communion, they bought
the shoes and suit.
I'd go for days and days
eating bread with salt on it or lard. The greatest thing I remember
about wintertime, you'd reach out on the fire escape and pull in some
snow, put condensed milk on it, and you had great ice cream. When
you come from that type of setup, you start questioning every goddamn
thing.
(2)
Bill Bailey wrote to his mother explaining why he was fighting in
the Spanish
Civil War (1937)
You see Mom, there are things that one must do in this
life that are a little more than just living. In Spain there are thousands
of mothers like yourself who never had a fair shake in life. They
got together and elected a government that really gave meaning to
their life. But a bunch of bullies decided to crush this wonderful
thing. That's why I went to Spain, Mom, to
help these poor people win this battle, then one day it would be easier
for you and the mothers
of the future. Don't let anyone mislead you by telling you that
all this had something to do with Communism. The Hitlers and Mussolinis
of this world are killing Spanish people who don't know the difference
between Communism and rheumatism. And it's not to set up some Communist
government either. The only thing the Communists did here was show
the people how to fight and try to win what is rightfully theirs.
You should be proud that
you have a son whose heart, soul and energy were directed toward helping
the poor people of the world get back what was taken from them. When
the horrible conditions of this world are eventually made right, you
can look with pride at those who will be here to enjoy it and say,
"My son gave his life to help make things better, and for that
I am grateful."
If it will make my departure
from the world of the living a little easier for you, just remember
this, Mom: I love you dearly and warmly, and there was never a moment
when I didn't feel that way. I was always grateful and proud that
you were my mom.
(3)
Bill Bailey, describing fighting in the town of Belchite
in the book David Mitchell's book, The Spanish
Civil War (1982)
We would knock a hole through a wall with a pickaxe, throw
in a few hand-grenades, make the hole bigger, climb through into the
next house, and clear it from cellar to attic. And by God we did this,
hour after hour. The dead were piled in the street, almost a storey
high, and burnt. The engineers kept pouring on gasoline until the
remains sank down. Then they came with big trucks and swept up the
ashes. The whole town stank of burning flesh.
(4)
Bill Bailey was a member of the International
Brigades parade in Barcelona
on 15th November 1938.
Everyone who was able to walk was in the parade and the
street was lined with people, throwing flowers, running out to hug
and kiss us, tears in their eyes. It was sad to leave all these wonderful
Spaniards at Franco's mercy. The last words spoken to us were that
we should continue the anti-fascist struggle wherever we might be.
And we did that to the best of our ability.
(5)
Bill Bailey worked for the National Maritime Union (NMU) when the
United States entered the Second World War. He was interviewed about
this by Studs
Terkel for his book, The
Good War (1985)
I was at the NUM office, putting young kids aboard these ships by
the dozens. Kids who'd never seen a ship. I'd see these ships go out
and get torpedoed,
some kids come back, a lot don't. Guys with frozen feet, toes off.
These same kids going out again.
So I begin to say. How
dare I sit behind a desk and ask these kids to go out? Out there is
where I belong. I could never survive hereafter if the war ended and
I didn't do some part. So I resign, go to engineering school, get
my certificate. From then on, I sailed through the whole war as an
engineer. My field was mostly the whole Pacific. Okinawa, the Solomons,
Leyte, the whole Philippines.
We were the first ship
in Subic Bay. Bullets were hitting us all over the place. We were
never torpedoed. We seen submarines there where we were panicky. All
we talked about on board was the war. You'd go completely bananas.
What's gonna happen when it's finally over? What's the world gonna
be like?
We were at sea when the
chief engineer said, "I just heard over the radio that Roosevelt
died." I said, "Jesus Christ! We grew up with that man practically."
We called a ship's meeting and signed a document: We're behind the
new President. Carry on till victory. We're on our way to Okinawa,
when we got word that the atom bomb
dropped. What kinda bomb is that? They said it wiped out a city. At
that particular moment I said,."Gee, that's great." But
secretly you had these feelings that something was wrong. You couldn't
place your hand on it, but you had a feeling.
And then bad things happened.
That great camaraderie of saving tinfoil, toothpaste tubes, or tin
cans, all that stuff that made people part of something, that disappeared.
Everybody was out for what they could get from then on. Everything
changed.
Last updated: 18th August, 2002
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