Biography
Emil Hansen was a member of the Socialist Workers Party (SWP) or Minneapolis Teamsters Local 544 prosecuted in the 1941 Minneapolis Smith Act trial — the first-ever federal prosecution under the Smith Act of 1940. The Roosevelt administration charged 29 SWP and Teamsters 544 leaders with conspiracy to advocate the violent overthrow of the U.S. government, in retaliation for the SWP's antiwar organizing and its leadership of the 1934 Minneapolis general strike. 18 defendants were convicted; the 12-month group received sentences served at federal correctional institutions. Minneapolis Teamsters Local 544 organizer.
