Thomas Mooney

Thomas Mooney cumple los años el 8 de diciembre.

Thomas Mooney nació el día 8 de diciembre de 1882.

La edad actual es 142 años. Thomas Mooney cumplió 142 años el 8 de diciembre de este año.

Thomas Mooney es del signo de Sagitario.

Thomas Joseph "Tom" Mooney (8 de diciembre de 1882 – 6 de marzo de 1942) fue un activista político y sindicalista estadounidense, quien fue condenado junto a Warren K. Billings por el atentado de Preparedness Dayen en San Francisco en 1916. Fue considerado por muchos como el culpable de un atentado que no había cometido, por lo que paso 22 años en prisión antes de ser indultado.

Hijo de inmigrantes irlandeses, Mooney nació en Chicago, Illinois el 8 de diciembre de 1882. Su padre, Bernard, había sido minero y un destacado organizador de los Knights of Labor y participó en luchas tan intensas que se le dio por muerto después de un enfrentamiento. Bernard Mooney murió a causa de "la enfermedad del minero" (ahora conocida como silicosis) a los 36 años, cuando Tom, el mayor de los hijos que habían sobrevivido, tenía solo diez años. Anna, la hermana de Tom les dijo a los vecinos que la familia era originaria de Holyoke, Massachusetts y no de Chicago.

Thomas estuvo en muchos trabajos relacionados con el ámbito industrial antes de convertirse en un destacado líder obrero y activista por el socialismo. Cuando Mooney era joven, recorrió Europa, donde se impregnó de las ideas socialistas. Después de establecerse en California, conoció a quien sería su cónyuge, Rena, y fundó la sede del Partido Socialista de América liderando la campaña presidencial de Eugene V. Debs. En 1910, Mooney obtiene un viaje para ir a una conferencia de la Segunda Internacional en Copenhague gracias a vender un gran número de suscripciones de la revista Wilshire Magazine. De camino a casa, asistió al Congreso Sindical de Gran Bretaña en Sheffield (Inglaterra).^{[cita requerida]}

Posteriormente Mooney se estableció en San Francisco donde se afilió por un corto periodo de tiempo a Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) antes de renunciar de la misma. En los años siguientes Mooney se hizo amigo de algunas de los principales líderes de la IWW como William "Bill" Haywood, Mary "Mother" Jones y Elizabeth Gurley Flynn. Se casó con Rena Hermann en 1911, y se convirtió en el editor de The Revolt, un periódico socialista de San Francisco. El periódico tuvo un éxito modesto, con una tirada de 1500 ejemplares. Mooney más tarde se propuso como candidato para sheriff por el Partido Socialista de América .

Más tarde, Mooney fue arrestado y juzgado tres veces, pero nunca fue declarado culpable del cargo de transporte de explosivos, con la finalidad de explotar líneas de transmisión de energía durante un ataque que sufrió la Pacific Gas & Electric en 1913.

Era conocido como un militante socialista y un supuesto dinamitero. Fue juzgado y condenado por el atentado de Preparedness Day el 22 de julio de 1916 en San Francisco. La bomba explotó en Steuart y en la calle Market cerca del embarcadero. Mooney había sido alertado de las sospechas que sobre el pesaban desde el atentado y, propuso en su sindicato resoluciones sobre el tema, los Iron Molders, y el Consejo Laboral Central de San Francisco y el Consejo de Oficios de Edificación advirtieron que podía tratarse de una provocación para desprestigiar al movimiento obrero, creando disturbios en el desfile. Diez muertos y cuarenta heridos resultaron de la explosión en medio del desfile del día de la preparación. La explosión tuvo lugar en el apogeo de la violencia anarquista en estados unidos, en especial la del grupo de Luigi Galleani y el movimiento comunista libertario.

Mooney, his wife Rena, and two associates, Warren K. Billings (1893–1972) and jitney driver Israel Weinberg, were arrested. The show trial that followed was conducted in a lynch mob atmosphere, and featured several witnesses whose testimony was allegedly coached by the prosecutors, D.A. Charles Fickert and deputy D.A. Eddie Cunha. It included one witness who claimed her "astral body" was at the scene. Mooney and Billings were convicted in separate trials and sentenced to be hanged. Rena Mooney and Weinberg were acquitted.

After Mooney was sentenced, the Socialist Party tried to expel him, but his local branch held out. Due to worldwide agitation, from Mexico City to Petrograd in the Soviet Union, US President Woodrow Wilson became involved. Without informing Mooney's defense committee, Wilson telegraphed California Governor William Stephens asking him to commute Mooney's sentence to life imprisonment, or at least stay the impending execution. Later, a commission set up by Wilson found little evidence of Mooney's guilt.

In 1918, Mooney's sentence was changed to life imprisonment, the same as Billings. Mooney, prisoner No. 31921, quickly became one of the most famous political prisoners in America. A worldwide campaign to free Tom Mooney followed. During that time his wife Rena, Bulletin editor Fremont Older, anarchists Alexander Berkman and Emma Goldman, heiress Aline Barnsdall, Hollywood celebrities, international politicians, and many other well-known people campaigned for his release. Caroline Decker, a labor activist who later became active in California agricultural unionism, first went to California as part of a "Free Tom Mooney" delegation.^[1]​ While imprisoned, Mooney corresponded with fellow union leader Ned Cobb of the Alabama Sharecroppers' Union.^[2]​

During his time at San Quentin, Mooney was a highly dependable orderly in the prison hospital.

In 1931, New York City Mayor Jimmy Walker made a solidarity visit to Tom's sister Anna's house in San Francisco's Mission District.^[3]​

Mooney filed a writ of habeas corpus which was heard by the United States Supreme Court in 1937. Even though he presented evidence that his conviction was obtained through the use of perjured testimony and that the prosecution had suppressed favorable evidence, his writ was denied because he had not first filed a writ in state court. Nevertheless, his case is important because it helped establish that a conviction based upon false evidence violates due process. Mooney was pardoned in 1939 by liberal Democratic Governor Culbert Olson. The Sunday after his release, he visited the grave of his mother, one of his greatest supporters, on Mount Tamalpais in Marin County.

He then walked in a parade up Market Street from the Embarcadero to the San Francisco Civic Center, accompanied by an honor guard of one hundred husky longshoremen with their hooks, led by Mooney's own union, Local 164 of the International Molders' Union, in the vanguard. No police or politicians were invited; bosses of the big unions were unwelcome and stayed away. Mooney thumbed his nose at the Hearst building at Third and Market, a gesture against the local press editors who had railed against him for decades.

He was old from years in prison, sick with ulcers and jaundice. He had not worn his martyrdom well; he broke with modest Warren K. Billings, who was convicted with him and who somehow was never regarded as a martyr; he was estranged from his wife; his former colleagues in the labor movement often found him to be selfish and conceited.^[4]​

Mooney then campaigned for Billings's release, although the two men had become estranged. He traveled around the country making speeches. He drew a full house at Madison Square Garden in New York City. Billings was released in 1939 and pardoned in 1961.

After attempting a lecture tour, Mooney collapsed from illness. The California Federation of Labor turned down a resolution to pay his bills, as his politics were deemed too radical.^[4]​ While dying in a San Francisco hospital, Mooney, at 59, had only a few visitors, only a few money letters from friends. From his bed he helped advance a campaign to free Communist Earl Browder as Chairman of the "Citizens' Committee to Free Earl Browder."^[4]​

Mooney died at Saint Luke's Hospital in San Francisco on March 6, 1942. A large funeral celebration was held at the San Francisco Civic Auditorium. He is interred at Cypress Lawn Memorial Park in Colma, California.^[5]​