Biography
Philip Aaron Raymond, known as Phil Raymond, was a Detroit Communist and automobile-workers' organizer, born in New York City on February 4, 1899. He organized factory-gate meetings and demonstrations of unemployed workers through the Auto Workers Union and Unemployed Councils. Police detained him during organizing in Pontiac in June 1929 and January 1930. In 1930 he was one of five Detroit workers sentenced to ninety days for holding a workers' meeting. He was also held incommunicado during the July 1930 Fisher Body strike in Flint. Raymond ran for mayor of Detroit and for Congress in 1930, and later for the U.S. Senate, Michigan governor and state attorney general. On February 6, 1940, federal agents arrested him in a prosecution alleging recruitment for the Spanish Civil War. Unable to post $20,000 bail, he was confined at the federal correctional institution in Milan, Michigan. The charges were dismissed and he was released on February 16, after ten days in custody. He died in Los Angeles County, California, on March 21, 1983.
The Daily Worker of July12,1930 names Raymond among the labor organizers still jailed during the Detroit/Flint automobile struggle and reports a hunger strike by the detained workers over their treatment.
The June 19, 1929 Detroit dispatch names Auto Workers Union organizer Philip Raymond and Communist Youth League district organizer Philip Frankfeld as arrested June 17 at a Fisher Body plant gate meeting in Pontiac. Each was held under $400 bail on a charge of molesting employees. The judge postponed trial until July 3 because he needed to locate the statute; this was a forecast, not a reported final disposition. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1929/1929-ny/v06-n089-NY-jun-20-1929-DW-LOC.pdf#page=2
The January 29 Pontiac dispatch reports the criminal-syndicalism defendants still held under $7,500 bail each while the hearing was postponed. This is a contemporaneous bail report in the existing January case, not an additional conviction or service total. Daily Worker, January 30, 1930, page 1. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1930/v06-n281-NY-jan-30-1930-DW-LOC.pdf
The Flint strike report identifies Philip Raymond among those arrested during Fisher Body mass picketing by July 3, 1930. This is a separate episode from the January Pontiac criminal-syndicalism case. The precise arrest day, final charge and release are not given. Daily Worker, July 4, 1930, page 2. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1930/v07-n160-NY-jul-04-1930-DW-LOC.pdf
The Congressional Record prints the underlying official investigation and defendant/lawyer testimony: Raymond was listed under seven indictments, could not supply $20,000 bail, and was committed to Milan on February 6, 1940, until dismissal and release February 16. Attorney Goodman describes the initial denial of family visits over a prison-history form, followed by restored access after intervention. Schweinhaut characterized this as a misunderstanding; this supplies the primary record behind the existing custody chronology without adding a second episode. Source: https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GPO-CRECB-1940-pt5-v86/pdf/GPO-CRECB-1940-pt5-v86-14.pdf#page=9; https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GPO-CRECB-1940-pt5-v86/pdf/GPO-CRECB-1940-pt5-v86-14.pdf#page=12; https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GPO-CRECB-1940-pt5-v86/pdf/GPO-CRECB-1940-pt5-v86-14.pdf#page=23
The July 4 Flint dispatch published July 5, 1930 explicitly describes Raymond held incommunicado during the Fisher Body strike. It distinguishes workers continuously held without charges from others bailed and rearrested, but does not assign Raymond a precise arrest day or prove which sequence applied to him. No custody endpoint or complete duration is inferred. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1930/v07-n161-NY-jul-05-1930-DW-LOC.pdf#page=1
The official House Clerk returns for the November 4, 1930 congressional election list Philip Raymond as a candidate for Michigans6th Congressional District with the Workers designation. This corroborates electoral activity rather than a fresh arrest or custody endpoint. Source: https://clerk.house.gov/member_info/electionInfo/1930election.pdf#page=11
Police violence at the Detroit protest against Rubio
The January 3, 1930 Daily Worker carries a Detroit dispatch dated January 2 naming Philip Raymond, Auto Workers Union secretary, as a speaker at the protest against Mexican president Ortiz Rubio. It says police pulled him from an improvised platform and that Raymond and a person printed only as Gosman were severely beaten. The report separately states that three demonstrators were known to be in jail, but does not individually identify those three as Raymond and Gosman. It therefore does not establish Raymond’s personal jail admission, release, charge, sentence or elapsed custody at this protest, and no additional imprisonment episode or counter is created from the group statement. This account remains separate from the already recorded Detroit workers’ meeting and later 1940 federal custody. Gosman is not merged with any Grossman namesake.
Daily Worker, January 3, 1930, original pages 1. Contemporary allegations are attributed to the newspaper.
The Daily Worker of January 23, 1930, reported that Philip Raymond and George Powers were held under $15,000 bail each on criminal syndicalism charges after an unemployed workers demonstration in Pontiac, Michigan. Its Detroit dispatch dated January 22 described the arrests as occurring the previous day. This is a separate episode from the later 1930 factory meeting prosecution. Release and disposition are not established by this report.
The election report identifies Raymond as the Detroit Communist mayoral candidate for the September 9, 1930 election and says 20,000 signatures had placed him on the ballot. It describes his campaign against unemployment, wage cuts and discrimination and for unemployment insurance. Its captioned photograph is already represented by an existing profile portrait; no image replacement or new custody episode is needed.
The Detroit election account reports criminal-syndicalism warrants for Philip Raymond and Jack Stachel amid meeting disruptions and eleven arrests. It says the Raymond warrant was issued the day before the mayoral election. A warrant is not proof of its execution, a new jail admission or continued custody from the earlier automobile organizing arrests; this report is preserved as election-related prosecution evidence without inventing a completed arrest day.
