The Right to Boycott: Everett Labor Leader Recounts National Fight
Ernest P. Marsh details a high-stakes constitutional battle over free speech and the power of organized labor to influence trade.
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Ernest P. Marsh, a representative from the Everett Trades Council, filed a report regarding the American Federation of Labor convention. The core of the discussion centered on the 'Buck Stove and Range' case, a prolonged legal battle where labor leaders faced potential jail time for ignoring an injunction against the boycott. Marsh quoted Samuel Gompers and John Mitchell at length, both of whom defended the boycott as a fundamental tool of labor. The convention re-affirmed the right to use the boycott when employers refuse to bargain, despite the legal risks. The Supreme Court of the United States subsequently granted an appeal to review the contempt charges against the A.F. of L. officials.
“Either we have the right of free speech and free press, the right of our patronage, the right to withhold it or bestow it; equal rights with every other citizen, or we haven't, and we want the court to say so.”
This 1910 report highlights the historical struggle to protect the boycott as a form of free speech. Today, the tension between judicial intervention in labor disputes and the right of organized collective action remains a cornerstone of American civic discourse.
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