Biography
Max Dezettel was a Spokane IWW organizer and local secretary who went to Boise, Idaho in August 1911 to establish or assist an IWW local and was arrested after attempting to speak publicly. One report said police choked and struck him while taking him to jail. The Industrial Worker reported that he was denied the opportunity to defend himself and sentenced to fifty days, but a follow-up report said he was released after about four days, after ostensibly promising not to speak again — only to resume speaking shortly afterward. The sentence was evidently suspended, shortened or not fully served; the surviving reports do not explain the legal mechanism.
He later worked in syndicalist and labor publishing, associated with the Kansas City paper The Toiler alongside Earl Browder and with plans for a Chicago labor publication connected to the Trade Union Educational League.
