[Archive of 291 items from the Workers Defense League]

New York: the League, 1951. Ephemera. A group of 291 different newsletters, press releases, and other publications of the Workers Defense League, including the Last-Minute News, Press Service and its successor News Service, Workers Defense Bulletin, and a smattering of other publications. The WDL, which emerged from legal efforts by the Socialist Party, became a path breaking organization in the defense of the oppressed and exploited. Among the cases it took in this period, with constant updates in the pages of these bulletins, are the struggle against lynching, the fight to abolish the poll tax, defense of war resisters during World War II, efforts to fight the wholesale internment of "aliens" during that period, aid to labor organizers, and pressure to desegregate the armed forces. These bulletins include discussion of very important cases from the formative period of the Civil Rights Movement, such as the Odell Waller case - defending a Black sharecropper who wounded his landlord in a fight and was sentenced to die by an all-White jury - on which Pauli Murray worked.
Items present are as follows:

Last-Minute News
(Nine issues, date range: May 18th, 1939-June 26th, 1940.)
For 1939: May 18th; June 20th; July 25th; Sept.; October 3rd.
For 1940: February 19th; April; May 24th; June 26th.

Press Service
(46 issues, date range: August 10th, 1942-September 7th, 1943.)
For 1942: August 10th, 17th, 24th; September 8th, 15th, 21st, 28th; October 5th, 26th; November 9th, 16th, 23rd, 30th; December 7th, 14th, 21st, 28th.
For 1943: January 4th, 11th, 18th, 25th; February 1st, 8th, 15th, 22nd; March 1st, 8th, 15th, 22nd, 29th; April 5th, 12th, 26th; May 3rd, 10th, 14th, 24th, 31st; June 7th, 14th, 21st, 28th; July 5th, 12th; September 7th.

News Service
(192 issues; date range: July 19th, 1943-March 9th, 1949.)
For 1943: July 19th, 26th; August 2nd, 9th, 16th, 23rd, 30th; September 13th, 20th, 27th; October 11th, 18th, 25th; November 8th, 15th, 29th; December 6th, 13th, 20th, 27th.
For 1944: January 3rd, 13th/14th, 21st, 28th; June 9th; November 17th; December 29th.
For 1945: January 19th, 26th; February 2nd, 16th; March 2nd, 9th, 16th, 23rd; April 6th, 14th; May 3rd, 11th, 19th, 25th, 31st; June 7th, 11th, 14th, 20th, 27th; July 3rd, 19th, 25th; August 2nd, 8th, 15th, 29th; September 6th, 13th, 20th, 27th; October 4th, 11th, 18th; November 22nd, 23rd, 29th; December 6th, 13th, 27th.
For 1946: January 3rd, 10th, 17th, 24th, 31st; February 7th, 14th, 21st, 28th; March 7th, 14th, 21st, 27th; April 3rd, 10th, 17th, 24th; May 1st, 8th, 15th, 22nd, 29th; June 5th, 12th, 19th, 26th; July 3rd, 10th, 17th, 24th, 31st; August 7th, 14th, 21st, 28th; September 3rd, 10th, 18th, 25th; October 2nd, 9th, 16th, 23rd, 30th; November 6th, 26th, 27th; December 11th, 18th, 24th, 31st.
For 1947: January 8th, 15th, 22nd, 29th; February 5th, 11th, 19th, 26th; March 5th, 12th, 19th, 26th; April 2nd, 9th, 16th, 23rd, 30th; May 14th, 28th; June 11th, 18th, 25th; July 2nd, 9th, 16th, 23rd, 30th; August 6th, 13th, 20th, (undated issue labeled "Do not release before August 24, '47"); September 3rd, 10th, 24th; October 15th, 22nd, 29th; November 5th, 12th, 19th, 26th; December 3rd, 10th, 17th, 24th, 31st.
For 1948: January 7th, 28th; February 4th, 18th, 25th; March 3rd, 10th, 17th; April 14th, 21st, 28th; May 5th, 19th, 26th; June 2nd, 23rd, 30th; August 11th, 25th; September 15th, 22nd; October 13th, 27th; November 10th; December 22nd, 29th.
For 1949: March 9th.

News Bulletin/Workers Defense Bulletin
(23 issues; date range: January 1938-Spring 1951.)
For 1938: January; May-June.
For 1942: Summer; Fall.
For 1943: Spring; Summer; Winter.
For 1944: Summer; Fall.
For 1945: January-February.
For 1946: Spring; Summer.
For 1947: Spring-Summer; Fall; Winter.
For 1948: Spring-Summer; Fall; Winter.
For 1949: Spring; Fall.
For 1950: Spring; Fall.
For 1951: Spring.
(A professionally printed periodical, rather than a mimeographed release; originally named "News Bulletin, Workers Defense League," the name changed to "Workers Defense Bulletin" in 1942.)

Additional items:
News for Action (WDL): One issue, dated September 11th, 1943.
Twenty additional miscellaneous items from 1939 to 1954, including circulars, press releases that are not from any of the series listed above, a June 23rd, 1942 packet detailing the Odell Waller case and an October 3rd, 1942 letter about his execution, and an example of the WDL's Tenth Anniversary Journal.