Biography
Fred W. Thompson, an IWW member from Maryville, received a four-year prison sentence, which he served in San Quentin from November 7, 1923, to March 7, 1927. In a 1981 letter to the author, Thompson described the experience of the California IWW criminal syndicalism inmates: In San Quentin we wobs went on strike several times (not asking non-wobs to join us) in protest against what we considered unjust discipline to some of our members. Punishment was solitary confinement, not actually solitary—sometimes in the "hole, " underground completely dark but because of our number, putting us two to a cell. Sure that situation was uncomfortable—we had nothing to sit on but the floor, for they took our blanket away at daybreak, and the diet [of] bread and water, and we combatted the sense of isolation—imperfect there because of our numbers—by singing or inventing games. (I recall our efforts for example to list the rivers of North America, starting with the McKenzie and going clockwise, or seeing how far we could go in the dark with the series, 2X3 is 6, 4X6 is 24, 5X24 is 120, 6 times 120 is 720, etc.) Sometimes we were confined on bread and water in a row in the new prison, with daylight, but nothing to read for a month. We had some forbidden pencils and tried making crossword puzzles for each other, sneaking them down the line. Most of us had got in because we stuck our heads out in life outside, and we were an innovative lot of people, better able than most to cope with daily problems. We got along well with the prisoners in on ordinary offenses. I judge that prison conditions have much deteriorated since my days in San Quentin. The food I hear is not as terrible as it was then—weevils in the oatmeal, beans almost every meal, often half cooked—but crowding is worse; radios have worsened life instead of improving it, for one can't get quiet; I heard of no homosexual rape when I was in San Quentin, and I don't believe the prisoners would have permitted it. In general prisoners of all sorts acted with consideration for each other. Thompsonremained active in the IWW for his entire adult life and, in 1955, published The I.W.W., Its First Fifty Years.
