Page 11 - Report on the National Lawyers Guild, legal bulwark of the Communist Party

THE NATIONAL LAWYERS GUILD 5
The committee does not dispute the right of witnesses appearing before it to have the benefit of counsel. However, the committee believes that the attorneys mentioned above knowingly or unknow- ingly function under a directive issued by the Central Control Com- mission of the Communist Party which prohibits its members from cooperating with the committee when subpenaed before it. Cases are known where persons subpenaed before the committee indicated a willingness to cooperate with the committee, but when these persons consulted certain of the attorneys listed above they refused to answer questions put to them by the committee.
CONTEMPT FOR AMERICAN COURTS
The real nature of the guild's philosophy comes into sharp focus during court procedures. Almost without exception, its leading members, despite their oath as lawyers to uphold the dignity of the court and respect the constitutional mores of jurisprudence, seek to bring the courts and its procedures into disrepute. They substitute insult for argument, resort to intimidation of judges by picket lines, parades,, and personal abuse. In other words, these leaders of the NationalLawyersGu—ildhavefollowedstandardCummunistpractice which provides that
A Communist must utilize a political trial to help on the revolutionary struggle. Our tactics in the public proceedings of the law courts are not tactics of defense but of attack. Without clinging to legal formalities, the Communist must use the trial as a means of bringing his indictments against the dominant capitalist regime and of courageously voicing the views of his party (Johannes Buchner, The Agent Provocateur in the Labour Movement, Workers Library Publishers, New York, pp. 51-52).
Federal Judge Harold Medina, in citing for contempt the attorneys who defended the 1 1 Communists convicted in New York of advocating the overthrow of the United States Government by force and violence, noted the frequent, and deliberate efforts on the part of the guild attorneys to inject Communist propaganda into the trial. Medina handed down sentences of contempt of court to the following attorneys for the Communists, all of whom are members of the National Lawyers Guild: Richard Gladstein, 6 months; George Crockett, 4 months; MauriceSugar,30days;LouisMcCabe,4months; AbrahamIsserman, 4 months; Harry Sacher, 6 months.
Abraham L. Pomerantz, a member of the guild, appeared as defense
attorney for Valentin Gubitchev, a Russian charged with spying against the United States. Pomerantz based most of his questions on
notes passed to him by a representative of the Soviet Embassy, seated at his side during the trial. The Russian official, an agent of the
NKVD (Soviet secret police) named Novikoff, Hterally stage-managed the Gubitchev defense, a procedure without precedent in United States court history.
Not only has the behavior of guild attorneys been noted officially by several Federal judges, but the American Bar Association in 1949 received from its board of governors a recommendation that the American Bar Association bar from membership any person holding membership in the National Lawyers Guild. The action was based on the grounds that guild lawyers held behefs "mcompatible with membership in the American Bar Association."