Page 40 - Report on the National Lawyers Guild, legal bulwark of the Communist Party

34 THE NATIONAL LAWYERS GUILD
8. Peekskill Incident
(Explanatory Note.-—A New York State Grand Jury has found that certain incidents which occurred in Peekskill, New York, on August 27 and September 4, 1949, indicated that they were "used by the Communist Party as proving ground to test its machinery for mobiUzing its forces, manipulating public opinion, and^ more important, for rehearsing its strong-arm forces.")
COMMUNIST PAKTY, V. S. A. national lawyers guild
The would-be lynching of Paul Lawyers Guild asks McGrath act on Robeson by the Peekskill, N. Y., mob Peekskill.
can mean to America what the burning The National Lawyers Guild yester- of the books in Berlin, 1933, meant to day called on Attorney General Mc- Germanyandtheworld. Grath to investigate the Peekskill
Let no American delude himself into attack of August 27 and "to take thinking that this was a local affair vigorous action against those respon-
with local significance only.
This would-be lynching, this burning
of books and music to the accompani- ment of Jews and
N rs impose police state terrorism believe the authorities were not fully
in the U. S. A. against the entire Negro aware of the situation," says the Guild
people and the nation as a whole. letter to McGrath (Daily Worker,
——
savage yells against
sible" for any violation of federal law.
"So widespread were the rumors and
so well-grounded the apprehension that
a riot would take that we cannot place,
***
{Daily Worker, August 29, September 5, 1949, p. 9).
1949, p. 7).
* * * Peekskill demonstrated to
progressive forces throughout the nation that Fascist forces can be successfully
challenged by the people once the people are sufficiently aroused to the
* * * September 7, 1949, p. 2).
Fascist
peril.
[Daily Worker,
9. Prosecution of Gerhart Eisler
(ExplanatoryNote.—GerhartEisler, anagentof the CommunistInternational, was exposed as such by witnesses before the Committee on Un-American Activities and later the subject of proceedings by the Department of Justice on charges of passport violation.)
COMMUNIST PAETT, V. S. A. national lawyers guiu>
The treatment handed out to Gerhart The National Lawyers Guild, among Eisler, noted German Communist and others, filed a statement with the antifascist, by the U. S. Department of United States Supreme Court in behalf Justice is an international disgrace. of Gerhart Eisler urging reversal of his
* * * the sole "crime" which the authorities could frame him for is a measly alleged technical violation on a passport application to quit the country, and the "crime" of contempt of—the House Un-American Committee a contempt which every decent American will heartilv share * * *_ (Edito- rial, Daily Worker, May 16, 1949, p. 7).
Eisler, who fled from the United States in May 1949, was during that same month "unanimously elected to the government of East Germany" (Soviet Sector) (Daily Worker, May 31. 1949, p. 2).
conviction for Contempt of Congress (Dailv Worker, March 28, 1949, p. 3 c. 2-3).