John Soderberg

John G. Soderberg was born in Stockholm, Sweden, on June 12, 1895. He was secretary-treasurer of the Independent Tidewater Boatmen's Union in New York Harbor and had worked as an International Labor Defense organizer in 1930 and 1931. He was arrested with other boatmen in November 1931 after police alleged a conspiracy to bomb barges. From the Tombs, he maintained that the defendants were innocent and were being prosecuted for organizing workers. On April 25, 1932, he was sentenced to twelve and a half to twenty-five years for placing explosives in a vessel. He served his prison term at Sing Sing, where he was numbered 85978. He was paroled on January 6, 1942, and deported to Sweden aboard the S.S. Danaholm the following day.

The November 9, 1932 Daily Worker prints the marine defendants as Sodaberg, Trager and Bunker and reports their appeal to the ILD for defense assistance after the ship-bombing convictions. A letter attributed to Sodaberg criticizes the former defense committee. The shared boatmen’s prosecution identifies the existing Soderberg, Trajer and Bunker cohort without new people. The report’s up-to-twenty-years wording differs from the more specific individual sentences already recorded; it is not substituted or treated as completed service. No new intake or release is supplied. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1932/v09-n268-NY-nov-09-1932-DW-LOC.pdf#page=2

The Militant, December 5, 1931, pages 1 and 4 publishes the Marine Workers’ Defense Committee appeal and the three defendants’ November 24 letter from the Tombs Prison denying involvement in the alleged New York Harbor bombing plot. The committee says a secret grand-jury indictment the night before the scheduled November 24 hearing avoided cross-examination of William Hoyle. It alleges the union hall was raided and padlocked and members intimidated. These are attributed defense allegations, not judicial findings. The threatened twenty-five-to-forty-year terms are prospective and do not replace later individual sentences or establish actual service. Source: https://www.themilitant.com/1931/0434/MIL0434.pdf Soderberg’s separate jail letter alleges Hoyle received ten dollars from towing-company manager Hickey in open court.

The November 18 report identifies these seamen as arrested in the alleged explosives plot, which the newspaper denounced as a police frame-up. The paper distinguishes their union faction from Communist Party membership. The allegations are not presented as an adjudicated finding; exact custody endpoints and completed duration are unknown. Daily Worker, November 18, 1931, original PDF page 1. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1931/v08-n277-NY-nov-18-1931-DW-LOC.pdf#page=1

Labor Age, February 1932: In his signed Harbor Boatman account, Soderberg describes rebuilding the Independent Tidewater Boatmen's Union after membership had fallen from over 2,000 to fewer than 200. Writing from the Tombs before trial, he attributes the bombing prosecution to preparations for a January strike against O'Boyle and Hanrahan, and alleges that William Hoyle planted dynamite. These are his defense allegations, not judicial findings. Sylvan A. Pollack reports that police seized him at union headquarters, while Bunker and Trajer were arrested later that day on Trajer's Brooklyn barge. The Marine Workers' Defense Committee was chaired by Carter Hudson, with Carlo Tresca secretary and A. J. Muste treasurer. PDF pages 22-23 and 28. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/laborage/v21n02-feb-1932-labor-age.pdf#page=28