Page 33 - Report on the National Lawyers Guild, legal bulwark of the Communist Party

COMMUNIST PAKTY, V. 8. A.
with unlimited public funds with which to carry on his work which "helps Hitler's cause, not ours"? (Victory and After, Earl Browder, p. 69, International Pubhshers, Inc., 1942).
NATIONAL LAWYERS GUILD
sent to each member of the U. S.
House of Representatives a report of the record of the Dies Committee in the four years of its life. The letter concluded;
"Wherefore, we respectfully submit that the resolution to continue the Dies Committee and to appropriate addi- tional funds thereto be disapproved" (Daily Worker, February 10, 1942, p. 4).
By letter of February 15, 1942, over the signature of Martin Popper, execu- tive secretary, the Guild criticized Representative Dies to President Roose- velt and said:
"We pledge to continue our efforts to convince Congress that the Dies Com- mittee must be discontinued since it represents an impediment and obstacle to American victory" (Daily Worker, February 16, 1942, p. 4).
In a letter to U. S. Representative Frank Hook, Michigan, the Detroit Chapter of the Guild urged him to vote down any further appropriation for the Dies Committee, declaring it stands exposed "as a home-made pat- tern of Hitler's international anti- Comintern technique" (Daily Worker, February 28, 1942, p. 3).
At every stage of its career, and espe- cially now in wartime, the Dies Com- mittee has been a hindrance to the honest aspirations of the American people. In the past, he has repeatedly come before Congress and promised to redeem his errors, lie has never once fulfilled those promises. There is no reason for risking the public money by trusting a broken promise again re- peated (The Dies Committee, Lawyers Guild Review, vol. Ill, No. 1, January- February 1943, p. 28).
The Guild was listed as one of twenty groups which had joined together and pledged a "fight to the finish campaign toabolishtheUn-AmericanHouseCom- mittee" (Daily Worker, October 24, 1945).
The Guild was one of several organ- izations announcing a nation-wide cam- paign to abolish the Rankin Un-Ameri- can Activities Committee. The groups' first objective was the completion of signature drives for a petition to abolish the Committee (Daily Worker, Decem- ber 9, 1945).
This Committee, for nine long years has distinguished itself by its utter dis- regard of the constitutional rights of minorities with whose ideas it disagrees, * * * The Guild urges the House of Representatives to abolish the House Committee forthwith (Guild Resolution, February 23, 1948, Lawyers Guild Re- view, vol. VIII, No. 1, January-Febru- ary 1948, p. 319).
Eventual readers of the history of this war will be amazed at the extent and with what insolence this protection oftheenemieswithinourgateshadbeen carried on by members of Congress. The worst thing done in this respect by Congress (so far at least) has been the recommissioning of the Dies Committee and voting it $75,000 with which to continue its subversive work (The Reactionary Offensive and the War, William Z. Foster, The Communist, April 1943, p. 306).
The American people must therefore conclude that while the United States can easily dispense with the House CommitteeonUn-AmericanActivities, it cannot afford to do without the Am- erican Communist Party (America Needs the Communist Party, Speech of Eugene Dennis at Madison Square Garden, New York, September 18, 1945, Political Affairs, October 1945, p. 875).
Civil Rights:
* * * End the witch hunts, loy- alty orders and phony spy scares. Abolish the Un-American Committee (Political Affairs, September 1948, p. 941 particle: "1948 Election Platform of the Communist Party").
THE NATIONAL LAWYERS GUILD 27