Josef Ramón Fernández (a.k.a. José Ramón Fernández)
Born: 1898, Oviedo, Spain
Nationality: Spanish
Ethnicity:
Occupation: Laborer
Migration: Migrated to Cuba c. 1914; then to US 917
Affiliation: Industrial Workers of the World; anarchist
Became an anarchist at approximately sixteen years of age. Around 1914 he migrated from Spain to Cuba, and in 1917 he entered the United States. Became a member of the Industrial Workers of the World and joined the Spanish-speaking anarchist Los Corsarios group. In February 1919 arrested in New York City along with thirteen other members of Los Corsarios by the Secret Service. The group was accused, without evidence, of plotting to assassinate President Woodrow Wilson. All criminal charges were eventually dropped; nevertheless, several members of the group, including Fernández, were detained for deportation on the grounds of anarchism. Fernández was deported to Spain on May 5, 1919.
Sources: INS file 54616/79.
Ramón Fernández (a.k.a. Raymond Fernandez)
Born: Year unknown, Cuba
Nationality: Cuban
Ethnicity:
Occupation:
Migration: Immigrated to US prior to 1918
Affiliation: Anarchist; IWW
After immigrating to the US became involved in anarchist activities and the Industrial Workers of the World. In 1918 he was arrested in Seattle and convicted under the state’s criminal syndicalism law. After serving three months, he was pardoned by the governor to allow for his deportation. Fernández was held at the Seattle immigration station until March 1920, after which he was transferred to Ellis Island. In November 1921 he was deported to Spain, but Spanish authorities refused him admission on the grounds that he was Cuban-born. He was returned to Ellis Island and, in March 1922, deported to Cuba, where authorities likewise denied him entry, claiming he had forfeited Cuban citizenship by avoiding military service during World War I. On July 22, 1922, Fernández was permitted to depart “voluntarily” at his own expense to Russia, traveling via Rotterdam.
In Russia he joined the Kuzbass Autonomous Industrial Colony in Kemerovo, Siberia, where he remained until the colony’s dissolution in 1926. During this period he contributed occasional reports to the anarchist newspaper Cultura Obrera. Married a Russian woman with whom he had a son. Working on constructing tractor factories in Stalingrad and Kharkiv, then settled in the Urals in the town of Revda. On March 10, 1938, arrested during the Great Purge on charges of alleged counterrevolutionary sabotage and espionage; sentenced to ten years in the Vyatlav labor camp, where he died on January 27, 1940.
Sources: Harry Weinberger Papers, Yale University Library; Elizabeth Gurley Flynn Papers, University of Wisconsin–Madison; Cultura Obrera; https://xn--80aah0car.xn--p1ai/?p=13556.
Egor Matveevich Feskov (a.k.a. Grigory Feskov; Harry Feskow)
Born: 1885, Stepok, Russia
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity:
Occupation: Laborer
Migration: Immigrated to US 1913
Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers
Joined the Hartford, Connecticut branch of the Union of Russian Workers in 1919. Arrested during the first Palmer Raids in November 1919 and deported aboard the Buford on December 21, 1919.
In 1935, acting through the Russian consul in New York, Feskov retained attorney Aaron Banenson to recover personal bank savings he had been unable to access following his deportation. The amount sought totaled $2,404, consisting of $983.50 plus compound interest. In 1943, a judge ruled in Feskov’s favor and ordered the funds returned to him.
Sources: INS files 54709/524 and 56167/137; Hartford Courant, December 23, 1943.
William Fields
Born: 1880, London, England
Nationality: British
Ethnicity: English
Occupation: Lumber worker
Migration: Immigrated to US 1905
Affiliation: IWW
Joined the Industrial Workers of the World in 1917. In May 1918 he was arrested in Seattle, Washington, and subsequently ordered deported. Fields was deported on February 27, 1919.
Sources: INS file 54379/416 (missing); FBI file OG 194446.
Ivan Filisofov (a.k.a. John Philisoph)
Born: 1877, Volynia, Russia (present-day Poland)
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity: Polish
Occupation: Laborer
Migration: Migrated to Argentina c. 1914; then to US c. 1915
Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers
His wife and three children remained in Russia when he emigrated. Authorities alleged that he was a member of the Union of Russian Workers branch in Thomaston, Connecticut, though Filisofov denied this and claimed membership only in the Union of Russian Citizens, a non-partisan umbrella organization for Russian progressives. Arrested during the first Palmer Raids in November 1919. A substantial quantity of anarchist, IWW, and Communist literature was seized from his room, some of which he claimed belonged to a roommate. Deported aboard the Buford on December 21, 1919.
Sources: INS file 54709/166; FBI file OG 355772.
Olaf Finnestad
Born: 1894, Stavanger, Norway
Nationality: Norwegian
Ethnicity:
Occupation: Laborer
Migration: Immigrated to US 1910
Affiliation: IWW
Joined the IWW in Los Angeles in 1916 and served as secretary of the Minneapolis IWW branch in 1918. Arrested in Seattle in October 1918 and deported on March 1, 1919.
Upon returning to Norway, Finnestad immediately joined the Norwegian Syndicalist Federation and the anarchist Norwegian Youth’s Socialist League, and gave lectures on conditions in the United States. Spearheaded a brief and unsuccessful campaign to spread the IWW to Scandinavia. In August 1920 he emigrated to Canada and married; in 1924 he illegally reentered the United States with his wife and ultimately obtained U.S. citizenship. Died in Portland, Oregon, in 1974.
Sources: INS file 54517/68; The Workers’ World (Kansas City), August 1, 1919; Fellow Worker, February 1, 1920; Ancestry.com.
Friedrich Fischer (a.k.a. Charles Williams; Charles William Fischer)
Born: 1877, Germany
Nationality: German
Ethnicity:
Occupation: Sailor; lumber worker; laborer
Migration: Immigrated to US 1896
Affiliation: IWW
Sailed extensively out of U.S. ports and joined the IWW in 1916. In December 1917 arrested as an “alien enemy” while working on the waterfront, but released. Arrested again in January 1918 in Walla Walla, Washington, for IWW membership. Despite his stated opposition to the German Kaiser and monarchy, Fischer was interned as an enemy alien at Fort Douglas, Utah. In June 1919 he was granted “voluntary departure” in exchange for his release from internment.
Sources: INS file 54379/61.
Enrique Flores Magón
Born: 1877, Teotitlán del Camino, Mexico
Nationality: Mexican
Ethnicity:
Occupation: Millwright; journalist
Migration: Immigrated to US 1903
Affiliation: Partido Liberal Mexicano; anarchist
Opposed the dictatorship of Mexican president Porfirio Díaz, along with his brother Ricardo Flores Magón, leading to their arrests in 1903. Later that year the brothers immigrated to the United States, where they founded the Partido Liberal Mexicano (PLM) and its newspaper Regeneración.
Over time, the PLM became increasingly radical, embracing anarchism and supporting the IWW. Enrique was repeatedly arrested in the US for political activities. In 1917 he broke with the PLM over personal and political disagreements. In 1918 began serving a sentence for “mailing unmailable matter” and was released from Leavenworth Penitentiary in 1920. On March 4, 1923 he accepted “voluntary departure” to Mexico.
Remained active in Mexican anarchist circles and wrote for the international anarchist press through 1926, when he announced his “retirement” from the movement due to physical disability and poverty. In the 1930s accepted a government pension as a “precursor of the Mexican Revolution” and dedicated himself to rewriting the history of the PLM as part of the history of Mexican nationalism. Died in 1954.
Sources: INS file 54861/116.
Ignacz Fogler
Born:
Nationality: Austrian
Ethnicity:
Occupation:
Migration:
Affiliation:
Deported from the United States to Austria on May 8, 1920. Included on a government list of deported radicals, but no further documentation found.
Sources: INS file 54325/36G.
Virgilio Foli
Born: 1886, Fano, Italy
Nationality: Italian
Ethnicity:
Occupation: Miner; farmer
Migration: Immigrated to US 1902
Affiliation: Anarchist
Became an anarchist around 1916. In December 1920 arrested in Spring Valley, Illinois, and ordered deported. Deported on March 16, 1921.
After repatriation, briefly migrated to Belgium in 1923 in search of work, then returned to Italy, where he became a farmer. Italian authorities reported no further political activity and removed him from the list of subversives in 1937. However, following his death in 1969, comrades wrote in the anarchist newspaper L’Internazionale that his was “a life lived intensely for the affirmation of anarchist ideas, for which he suffered persecution and exile.”
Sources: INS file 54885/19; CPC busta 2101; True Republican (Sycamore, IL), March 30, 1921; Andrea Pirondini, Anarchici a Modena: Dizionario biografico; L’Internazionale, February 1, 1969.
