Arndt to Bagatchuk

Fred Arndt

Born Germany, year unknown. Construction worker; year of migration unknown. IWW organizer and delegate for Local No. 573 of Construction Workers’ Industrial Union, Seattle. Refused to register for the draft. Arrested during raid on Seattle IWW in February 1919; charged with “criminal anarchy.” Refused to answer questions. Interned at Fort Douglas, Utah as “enemy alien”; released on condition of “voluntary repatriation” and departed June 1919.

INS file 54616/32, FBI file OG 347754

Charles Ashleigh

Born 1888 or 1889, London, England. Clerk, laborer, union organizer, journalist. Middle-class upbringing; joined Independent Labour Party age 15, then Fabian Society and Social Democratic Federation; became a secretary for the Fabian Society 1908 and active in socialist Clarion Scouts movement. 1908-9 sent by ILP to agitate among coal miners in South Wales. 1909 migrated Buenos Aires for clerk position with Central Argentine Railroad; established Socialist Club and wrote for Buenos Aires Herald. Hiked from Argentina to Chile and Peru, then 1912 sailed as crew member from Peru to Portland where jumped ship (with collusion of captain) and regularized his status by crossing into Canada and back. Immediately employed as a paid speaker for Socialist Party of America, but soon left it for IWW, for which became a paid organizer. Traveled as migrant laborer, or “hobo,” throughout US and wrote poetry on behalf of IWW; involved in Rangel-Cline and Everett defense campaigns. Openly queer, he had a romantic relationship with African American radical poet Claude McKay. Arrested 1917 and defendant at federal IWW trial; sentenced to 10 years and $30,000 fine. Joined Communist Party in prison; 1921 sentence commuted on condition of “voluntary departure” in early 1922. In London transferred to Communist Party of Great Britain and on staff of Sunday Worker and Daily Worker, as well as TASS. September 1922 traveled to India to deliver invitations to Fourth Congress of the Comintern; detained and expelled by British authorities but managed to complete his mission. November 1922 in Moscow (with McKay) where worked as translator for Fourth Comintern Congress, then asked to start an “American information section in the RILU,” which transferred to Berlin 1923. Soon arrested in Berlin and expelled. 1930 published semi-autobiographical novel about IWW, The Rambling Kid. 1931 sent to Moscow to write for The Moscow News/Moscow Daily News; 1934 denounced by roommate as homosexual and expelled from USSR. Remained member of CPGB until his death in 1974, but on the margins of local party activity.

INS file 54235/39-A

See also: Steve Kellerman, “Introduction,” Charles Ashleigh, The Rambling Kid (2004); Kevin Morgan, Gidon Cohen, and Andrew Flinn, Communists and British Society, 1920-1991 (2007); Lisa A. Kirschenbaum, International Communism and the Spanish Civil War: Solidarity and Suspicion (2015)

Joseph Aukstuolis

Cook. Deported to Russia, February 26, 1921. No further information found.

Included on list of deported radicals in INS file 55110/4

Aurelio Vincente Azuara (Vicente Azuara)

Born Spain, 1884. Laborer, miner, editor. Migrated to Mexico 1907, then to US 1912. Joined IWW 1913, became unofficial organizer for it. In Los Angeles, edited unofficial Spanish-language IWW paper El Rebelde (1916-17). Arrested Los Angeles September 1917; defendant at federal IWW trial; sentenced to 20 years and $10,000 fine. Sentence commuted on condition of deportation to Spain 1923. Subsequent activities unknown.

INS file 54616/48

See also David Struthers, The World in a City: Multiethnic Radicalism in Early Twentieth-Century Los Angeles (2019)

Alfredo Bagaglino

Born 1868, Turin, Italy. Orphaned. Miner. Anarchist. 1904 expelled from France (reason unclear). Migrated to US 1907; miner in Spring Valley, Illinois, where lived with wife Domenica Cariglio and their adopted son. Supporter of Luigi Galleani’s Cronaca Sovversiva, Umanità Nova (Milan), and Alleanza Libertaria (Rome), and active in mining strikes. According to Chicago Immigration Inspector George E. Schubert, Bagaglino “is the actual leader and the most outspoken” of the Spring Valley anarchists, and “a forcible speaker and has command of the language and the high sounding phrases used by the present radical demagogues.” Deported March 1921; wife planned to sell home and join him in Italy. Maintained correspondence with Italian anarchists in US; 1926 arrested by fascist authorities and sentenced to several years “mandato al Confino” (confinement to a prison colony). Died Turin 1936.

INS file 54885/18; CPC busta 239

See also: Un trentennio di attività anarchica (1915-1945) (1953)

Simon Bagatchuk (aka Sam Bush)

Born 1888, Podolsk, Russia. Laborer; migrated to US 1913 (via Canada). April 1919 joined the Seattle branch of Union of Russian Workers. Arrested Seattle, January 17, 1919, then again November 17, 1919. Deported February 1921.

INS file 54860/453; FBI file OG 388850

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