Tag Archives: England

Fernández to Foli

Ramón Fernández (Jose Ramon Fernandez; Josef Ramon Fernandez; Raymond Fernandez)

Members of Spanish-speaking Los Corsarios Group, including Fernandez, 1919

Born 1898, Oviedo, Spain. Laborer. Migrated to Cuba circa 1914 and became Cuban citizen; became anarchist around same time. Migrated from Cuba to US 1917. Member of Los Corsarios Group which published anarchist paper El Corsario. One of 14 members arrested in New York, February 1919, by Secret Service on baseless allegations of plotting to assassinate President Wilson. All charges dropped, but several members, including Fernandez, held for deportation as anarchists. US attempted to deport him to Cuba, but he was denied as having forfeited his Cuban citizenship by avoiding military service in WWI; deported to Spain May 1919, but returned to US as a non-Spanish citizen; 1922 allowed to “voluntarily depart” at his own expense to Russia (via Germany). He intended to join the Kuzbass Autonomous Industrial Colony in Kuznets. No further information found.

INS file 54616/79

See also: Harry Weinberger Papers, Yale University Library; Elizabeth Gurley Flynn Papers, University of Wisconsin, Madison; Helen C. Camp, Iron in Her Soul: Elizabeth Gurley Flynn and the American Left

Egor Matveevich Feskov (Грегори Матвеевич Фесков; Egor Feskow; Harry Feskow; Grigory Feskov)

Born Stepok, Russia, 1885. Laborer. Migrated to US 1913. Joined Hartford, Connecticut branch of the Union of Russian Workers in 1919. Arrested during first Palmer Raids, November 1919. Deported on the Buford. 1935, via Russian Consul in New York, employed attorney Aaron Banenson to recover bank savings lost due to deportation, totaling $2,404 ($983.50 plus compound interest); 1943 a judge ruled in Feskov’s favor.

INS files 54709/524 and 56167/137

See also: Hartford Courant, December 23, 1943

William Fields (Field)

Born 1880, London, England. Lumber worker. Migrated to US 1905. Joined IWW 1917. Arrested Seattle, May 1918. Deported February 1919. Subsequent activities unknown.

INS file 54379/416 (file missing); FBI file OG 194446

Ivan Filisofov (Иван Философов; John Philisoph)

Born 1877, Volynia, Russia (present-day Poland). Laborer. Migrated to Argentina circa 1914; from there migrated to US circa 1915. Wife and three children in Russia. Allegedly a member of the Union of Russian Workers branch in Thomaston, Connecticut; however, he claimed he only belonged to the non-partisan Union of Russian Citizens (an umbrella organization for Russian progressives). Arrested during the first Palmer Raids, November 1919. A large amount of anarchist, IWW, and Communist literature was confiscated from his room, some of which he claimed belonged to a roommate. Deported on the Buford. Subsequent activities unknown.

INS file 54709/166; FBI file OG 355772

Olaf Finnestad (Finnstad)

Flier protesting arrests of Finnestad and fellow IWW member Adolph Errson

Born 1896, Stavanger, Norway. Laborer. Migrated to US 1910. Joined IWW in Los Angeles, 1916; 1918 secretary of Minneapolis IWW branch. Arrested Seattle, October 1918. Deported March 1919. In Norway, immediately joined the Norsk Syndikalistik Federation (Norwegian Syndicalist Federation) and the anarchist Norges Ungsocialistiske Forbund (Norwegian Youth’s Socialist League), and lectured “on conditions in the United States.” No further information found.

INS file 54517/68

See also: The Workers’ World (Kansas City), August 1, 1919

Friedrich Fischer (Fred Fischer/Fisher; aka Charles Williams and Charles William Fischer)

Born 1877, Germany. Sailor; lumber worker; laborer. Migrated to US 1896; sailed all over the world from US ports. Joined IWW 1916. Arrested December 1917 as “enemy alien” working on waterfront; released; arrested January 1918, Walla Walla, Washington for IWW membership. Interned as “enemy alien” as Fort Douglas, Utah (even though he declared, “We don’t believe in the German Kaiser ourself [sic]. I have no love for any king or kaiser; makes no difference where he is….I wish the German Kaiser went to hell a long time ago.” “Voluntary departure” June 1919 in exchange for release. Subsequent activities unknown.

INS file 54379/61

Ignacz Fogler

Deported May 1920 to Austria. No further information found.

Included on list of deported radicals in INS file 54325/36G

Virgilio Foli

Born 1886, Fanano, Italy. Miner. Migrated to US 1902. Became anarchist circa 1916. Arrested in Spring Valley, Illinois, December 1920. Deported March 1921. Briefly migrated from Italy to Belgium in 1923 looking for work. In Italy, became farmer. Italian authorities noted no radical activity, an in 19137 removed him from the list of subversives. However, after his death in 1969, his comrades wrote in the anarchist newspaper L’Internazionale that his was “a life lived intensely for the affirmation of anarchist ideas the affirmation of anarchist ideas for which he suffered persecution and exile.”

INS file 54885/19; CPC busta 2101

See also: True Republican (Syncamore, IL), March 30, 1921; Andrea Pirondini, Anarchici a Modena: Dizionario biografico.