Hardy, George, 1884-1966

"George Hardy," Dictionary of Labour Biography, volume XI (New York: Palgrave Macmillian, 2003). pp. 98-109. Obituary. Labour Monthly, July 1966, http://www.unz.org/Pub/LabourMonthly-1966jul-00343a02 (accessed November 9, 2012). "Elizabeth Gurley Flynn." Gale Biography in Context. http://ic.galegroup.com (accessed November 9, 2012).

Labor activist and communist organizer George Hardy was born on July 26, 1884, in Cottingham, Yorkshire, Great Britain.

George Hardy joined the Industrial Workers of the World (I.W.W.) in Vancouver, British Columbia, in about 1909 and served as General Secretary-Treasurer of the I.W.W. in 1921. In 1923 Hardy returned to Great Britain and began a lifelong association with the Communist Party of Great Britain. In the 1935 he was a "special instructor" to the South African Communist Party and worked in China as well.

Hardy wrote many articles and reviews for Labour Monthly from 1931 ("British Workers and the War in Manchuria") to 1960 ("Strike for the Pensioners" and "Seamen's Struggles"). His autobiography is titled Those Stormy Years: Memories of the Fight for Freedom on Five Continents (1956).

George Hardy died at the age of 82 on May 24, 1966. In his obituary the editor of Labour Monthly wrote: "His life was a proud record of militant struggle in many countries, including in the United States and in China as well as in this country."

Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, born on August 7, 1890, in Concord, New Hampshire, formed the original united front defense group for labor, the Workers Defense Union (WDU), in 1914.

Although Flynn did not graduate from high school, her interest in constitutional law and her strike organizing work made her a defender of workers' rights and free speech. Flynn organized the defenses and directed the legal strategies for Joe Ettor and Arturo Giovannitti, Joe Hill, Tom Mooney and Warren Billings, as well as for Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti. She also helped defend women opposed to World War I who were arrested for conspiracy or espionage, including Emma Goldman and Marie Equi.

Elizabeth Gurley Flynn was indicted under the Smith Act during the Anti-Communist trials of the 1940s and1950s. Found guilty in January 1953 of attempting to, or advocating the, overthrow of the government of the United States of America, Flynn was imprisoned from January 1955 until May 1957 at Alderson, West Virginia.

After her imprisonment, Flynn worked mainly defending Communist Party members against charges brought under the Smith Act. On September 5, 1964, Flynn died in Moscow.

From the guide to the George Hardy letters to Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, 1954, (University of Delaware Library - Special Collections)