Anna Damon [Anna David]
1898 - 1944
Born in Latvia to Jewish parents who emigrated to Canada and then Boston, Anna David became a charter member of the Communist Party after working as an IWW organizer. She was the first District Organizer of the Workers Party of America (WPA) in Massachusetts and it was here that she met its Executive Secretary Charles E. Ruthenberg. She soon became his personal assistant and took his underground name "Damon" as her own. When Ruthenberg left for Chicago in 1923, she went with him. There she became an organizer for the Millinery workers union, until she was fired by the Social Democratic union leadership.
Damon was elected a candidate member of the WPA Central Executive Committee at its 5th Convention in 1927. In 1929 she was elected to the Central Committee at the Party's 6th Convention. She also was elected Women's Work Director of the Party's District 8 (Chicago) Executive Bureau in 1929. In 1931, Damon was made head of the Women's Department of the Central Committee. In this role she became editor of the paper The Working Woman.
Starting in 1934 and continuing to her death Damon was the Acting National Secretary of the International Labor Defense (ILD). Here she played a leading role in mobilizing support for Angelo Herndon, the Scottsboro Boys, Tom Mooney and other political prisoners.
Damon died in 1944 as a result of a fall from a building. Certain authors have suggested that this was a suicide, but no convincing evidence for this allegation has been offered.
Memoirs and Tributes:
Memories of C.E. Ruthenberg
How Ruthenberg, Founder of the ILD, Acted in Court, Daily Worker, March 9, 1935
Communist Party Mourns Death of Anna Damon, ILD Leader, Daily Worker, May 29, 1944
Anna Damon Made a Freer America, Doxey Wilkerson, Daily Worker, May 29, 1944
A Tribute to Anna Damon - Story of the ILD , James W. Ford, Daily Worker, November 13, 1944
Works:
1926: Chicago Women Milliners Are Now Organized, Daily Worker, April 23, 1926
1929: Chicago Milliners Are Threatened with Expulsion, Daily Worker, April 23, 1929
1929: Stirring Call Is Issued to All Cap, Millinery Workers, Daily Worker, June 5, 1929
1929: Women in the Mine Strike, Daily Worker, December 14, 1929
1929: Party Recruiting Drive. Enroll Working Women Into the Party, Daily Worker, December 23, 1929
1930: The Working Woman in U.S. Class Right, Daily Worker, January 11, 1930
1930: Enroll Working Women in Shop Nuclei, Daily Worker, February 24, 1930
1930: Working Women! Rally on Int'l Women's Day, Daily Worker, March 8, 1930
1930: Women Fighters, Labor Defender, March 1930
1930: Working Women Rally to May First Strikes, Demonstrations!, Daily Worker, May 1, 1930
1930: Working Women! Protest on Aug. 1 Against Imperialist War, Daily Worker, July 26, 1930
1931: Anna Damon to Tour, The Working Woman, February 1931
1931: Relief is Crying Need of the Heroic Striking Mine Workers, The Working Woman, August 1931
1931: Struggle Against Growing Miseries of Jobless Women, The Working Woman, September 1931
1931: Women's Role in the National Hunger March, Daily Worker, November 6, 1931
1931: Women Workers! Support the Liberator Drive!, Daily Worker, December 22, 1931
1932: Women Delegates Show Splendid Spirit; Maintain Negro and White Solidarity, The Working Woman, January 1932
1932: Recruiting Women Into the Party, Daily Worker, January 27, 1932
1932: Working Women! Support the Daily Worker!, Daily Worker, January 28, 1932
1932: Bourgeois Women Pacifists Screen Imperialist War Preparations, Daily Worker, February 10, 1932
1932: Tasks of International Women's Day Campaign, Party Organizer, February 1932
1932: The Significance of International Women's Day, March 8th, Daily Worker, February 26, 1932
1932: International Women's Day 1932, Daily Worker, March 3, 1932
1932: Edith Berkman Must Be Freed!, Daily Worker, March 24, 1932
1933: Woman Workers and "Daily", Daily Worker, February 6, 1933
1933: Women Toilers in the Detroit Auto Strike, Daily Worker, March 6, 1933
1933: Hail 16 Years of Soviet Rule, The Working Woman, November 1933
1934: March 8th: A Day of Struggle, The Working Woman, January 1934
1934: May Day 1934, The Working Woman, March 1934
1934: NRA Brought More Slavery to Women Workers in U.S.A., Daily Worker, March 8, 1934
1934: Increase Mass Work Among 11,000,000 Negro and White Women Workers, Daily Worker, March 22, 1934
1934: The Communist Party Convention, The Working Woman, April 1934
1934: Herndon Fund Drive is Story of Working-Class Devotion, Daily Worker, August 15, 1934
1934: What We Must Do at Once. Next Organizational Steps in the Scottsboro Defense, Labor Defender, November 1934
1934: Appeal Made to Women of America to Rally in Scottsboro Fight, Daily Worker, November 23, 1934
1934: Scottsboro: An Analysis, Labor Defender, December 1934
1935: The I.L.D. Must Grow, Labor Defender, January 1935
1935: Decision on Scottsboro is Victory for Negro People. Gains Are Won in the Arena of Class Fight, Daily Worker, January 14, 1935
1935: The Anniversary of the Paris Commune and the Struggle Against Fascist Terror, The Communist, March 1935
1935: Today Marks Fourth Year of Scottsboro, Daily Worker, March 25, 1935
1935: 5000 New [I.L.D.] Members by June 28!, Labor Defender, April 1935
1935: I.L.D. Hails Triumph [in Scottsboro Case], Daily Worker, April 2, 1935
1935: Scottsboro Reversal Points Road to Herndon Victory
1935: May Day Finds Many Fighters in Jail Cells, Daily Worker, April 27, 1935
1935: Gallup Defense Funds Needed, Daily Worker, May 6, 1935
1935: Fight Must Be Pressed for Scottsboro Boys, Daily Worker, May 13, 1935
1935: Scottsboro Victory Rocks the South, Labor Defender, May 1935
1935: Shall Angelo Herndon Go to His Death on the Georgia Chain Gang?, Daily Worker, May 28, 1935
1935: Introduction to the pamphlet Ernst Thaelmann. Fighter against War and Fascism, May 1935
1935: The I.L.D. Faces the Future, Labor Defender, June 1935
1935: A Trip to Lynch-Land. Scottsboro Boys and Mothers Visited. New Struggles Loom, Daily Worker, July 12, 1935
1935: Not Enough Members. Building the I.L.D., Labor Defender, August 1935
1935: Broad Unity Established in Fight for Herndon, Daily Worker, August 31, 1935
1935: The Socialist Party Supports the Herndon Campaign, Labor Defender, September 1935
1935: How the Campaign for Angelo Herndon Can Be Broadened, Daily Worker, September 3, 1935
1935: Hands Across the Sea, Labor Defender, October 1935
1935: Herndon Can Still Be Saved from Chain Gang! Action is Needed!, Daily Worker, October 16, 1935
1935: United Drive, Unequalled in Scope, Nets Million Signatures for Herndon, Daily Worker, November 25, 1935
1935: Long Fight Still Ahead to Win Full Freedom for Herndon, Daily Worker, December 18, 1935
1936: A New Power [on the Herndon Victory], Labor Defender, January 1936
1936: An Appeal by Anna Damon [for the I.L.D.], Labor Defender, March 1936
1936: Unity for Labor's Prisoners, Labor Defender, April 1936
1936: Herndon Decision Challenges Labor's Right to Organize, Daily Worker, June 25, 1936
1936: California Justice, Labor Defender, July 1936
1936: Is It Constitutional?, Labor Defender, September 1936
1936: McNamara, Ignoring Self, Wants Fight Carried On, Western Worker, December 28, 1936
1937: They're Inside for US, Labor Defender, January 1937
1937: The Struggle Against Criminal Syndicalist Laws, The Communist, March 1937
1937: Scottsboro Juries, Labor Defender, April 1937
1937: Introduction to the pamphlet Victory. Decision of the United States Supreme Court in the Case of Angelo Herndon, April 1937, [Full Text]
1937: Defense - Solidarity - Unity. A Report on the National Conference of the I.L.D., Labor Defender, July 1937
1937: I.L.D. Pushes New Drive Against Vigilantes Recruited for, Steel, Auto Areas by 'Royalists', Daily Worker, July 9, 1937
1937: I.L.D. Haymarket Memorial Sunday; Strong Defense Plan Outlined, Daily Worker, November 13, 1937
1938: Friends of Scottsboro Boys Meet New Crisis, Daily Worker, June 18, 1938
1938: Labor's Cry of 'Free Mooney' Grows Stronger With Each Passing Year, Daily Worker, July 27, 1938
1940: Fifteenth Anniversary Sees 100,000 Aided by ILD; Fight Continues for the Deefense of the Rights of Labor from Attacks of Reaction, Daily Worker, June 28, 1940
1940: ILD Cites Precedents for Reversal of Oklahoma City Conviction, Daily Worker, October 14, 1940