| Give a day -
of your life

By LESLIE MORRIS

A scientist of 44 is sitting in Atlanta Penitentiary. His
ame is Morton Sobell. He already has served 11 of a sen-
ence of 30 years. He is there because he would not be a party
o the frame-up of the dead Ethel and Julius Rosenberg. For
ix years he was immured in the fortress of Alcatraz, in San
rancisco Bay. In 1950 he was in Mexico with his family.
As Carleton Beals, the authority on Latin-
American affairs, describes it he “was kid-
napped with the connivance of U.S. feder-
al agents, was brutally beaten until un-
conscious, taken to the border in violation
of Mexican and U.S. laws and treaties. He
was spirited across the border in the dead
of night, his abductors being joined by pre-

tire. family was similarly kidnapped <=...
No oral, material or even remotely circum-
stantial evidence was ever presented in
ourt to warrant ‘his conviction or his sentencing. It is so
surd ‘it is incredible. I know of no other instance of mis-
arriage of justice, or more brazen denial of elementary hum-
en rights, in-the history of jurisprudence in this or any other
Scouniry.””

PA ie A a A ls a

*

*

If you want to read the fantastic story of the murder of
ghe Rosenbergs and the persecution of Sobell, you will find
it in The Judgement of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, by John
exley. It will tear your heart.

| Jack Scott of the Vancouver Sun, a champion of many
ydemocratic causes, has not been found wanting here. He
Wrote:

“Sobell, himself, has continued to protest his innocence,
4 although a confession, whether true or false, would lighten
“his staggering sentence .

“file. One paragraph tells of 13 women and six men hangea

nayoidable,”’ a

* * %

fy ee brutality of the rulers of America.

Jurer, Max Elitcher.

oe a %

a 5
}*nd to replace it with the cold war.

Plo

3

1

pris
a

Over a de
]

g Without meaning — for all.”

meee ot *
Ah Kinks This is the sort of man who -must-be free, to fulfill his
oo fi Sin to put my scientific knowledge to use in the medical

to aid the blind, the crippled and ‘the deaf.”

| lanta Pe
| lalist war.

a of

| Piste to -the»Toronto ‘Sobell .Commiitee, Mrs. Pike, 36
_*°nsdale Rd., Toronto, Ont.; to find out what you.can do.

r|

allA:

‘Leloved: ofthe John -Birch Society.

arrangement by a federal marshal. His en-|

1 _. I happened to be reading-a-book-
: et = the witchcraft trials in Salem, Massachusetts, in the
“summer and fall of 1862, when I,came across the Sobell

, BS witches, and concludes, ‘Fifty persons confessed and were
of *Yeed.’ The comparison ‘with the ROsenber'g-Sobell “case” is

a # _ Who will forget Ethel Rosenberg, Julius by the fiendish
a saan of officialdom having already died in the electric
hair,*bravely ‘going to her death while close by a govern-
, €nt official waited, ready to phone Washington should she}
: the last’ terrible moment and for love of her children,
, “eaken and make a false confession? There you haye the in-

oe is with Morton Sobell. He was slammed. into. the
Prt nf ¥ entiary by the McCarthyite fanatics because he awouldn’t
¢ ©Onfess to a crime he never committed. All that the state
ad as “evidence” was the garbled story of a confessed per-

7 Gaon Sobell is the victim of the anu-Soviet hysteria
than _ as taken so many victims, more of them unknown
a bis nown. The wave of persecution rose first in the 1946
Bite og against Canadians. The trials here and in the Un-
soe ates were intended as the opening of the “counter-
Rint Sanda” offensive, whose aim was to “correct” the

ty established between West and Hast during the war,

Morton Sobell is a victim of the cold war. The long years
Sete have not broken his spirit. He writes, with the
bie aoe of the deathless Rosenberg letters: “Well go to
Hee aes — the big ones and the little ones — and we'll
oe oe What alternatives have we? Despair is the only

t€ I know, and we are not ready for it. Im not!... After
Se cade of imprisonment prison has become a way of
P coma me while the recollections of the past life have be-

aor distant visions akin to dreams. Thus, the punishment,
, dian is without meaning. For like pain or -hunger»— or
a exigt tes — when continued for long periods they “cease to
} “break Hikes coe understood. If it: were -society's aim to
a its 5 €-man’ this would be understood. In the context of
any Drofessed-aims, continued imprisonment is. completely

gene ae there is a ‘soul in jail, I am not free,” said Eu-
} BS ictor Debs, the great American labor leader of whose |,

“tage and -integrity men still speak. Debs also sat in At-
nitentiary in his time for opposing the first imper-

Debs.was fveed-by a great public movement. Give a day
your life and thelp-to do ‘the same for Morton Sobel,

_ The telease of Morten Sobell would be a victory for
the merican democrats who suffer under the iron heel of
ne McCarran and Smith acts, spawn of McCarthyism and

The working people
Canada suffered a great loss
with the untimely death of
Communist alderman
Forkin in Winnipeg. He pass-
ed away early Sunday morn-
ing, Jan. 21, having succumb-
ed
tuberculosis, from which he
had suffered many years.

His death will be specially
mourned by the working
people. of Winnipeg, whose
interests he had championed
in the city council for over
17 years.

Joe, Forkin. haddedicated|
all his life to the cause of the
working class.

He was. born in. Leeds,
England, in 1899, His father
was an unskilled Irish immi-
grant worker; his Taahaer|
(now living. in Chilliwack, |
B.C.) comes from_an English|
workingclass family.

The

family migrated to}

Joe became a wage worker
at an early age.

in Canada’s armed fonees,
served in France, was «demo-

to: Brandon:

“He brought back«with him
from’ Etirope some ‘knowledge
of Socialist: thinking which
was earnestly: discussed in
the family circle and later in
a-smalt Socialist group. cen-
tering» around former mem-

of,

Joe},

to the after affects of)

Canada in’1912 and settled in|
Brandon, . Manitoba, where|

During the first world war|
while in his teens, he enlisted)

bilized in 1919 and» returned}

‘Dedicated all his life

to the working class’

ALDERMAN
JOE FORKIN

bers of the British Socialist
Party.

In the summer-of.1922;.0n

the initiative of Joe For-
kin and with the assistance

of “Bart” Bartholomew of
Winnipeg, a foundation}
group of the Workers Party
of Canada was established in
Brandon. Joe was elected its
first chairman.

In the succeeding years
this party greup conducted a
steady stream of activity in
support of workers’ demands
and rights and for the de-
fense of the new-born social-
ist state, the Soviet Union.

During. this. period, in’ the
early 1920's, Joe worked on
railway. construction, did
farm and: harvesting work
and: later» ass a-trainman on
the.CPR: : ;

Insthe.vears: that: followed;
Jos. Forkin: devoted® all: his

annual

starts January 317
Every Book

10) day, 3

a

ari, fiction, technical, children’s, Marxist

Every Paperback

Penguin; Dover, pepular pamphlets

Every Record

folk; children's classical, Robeson

Every Print

Canadian; Chinese, European

At Least 25% Discount
ON: EVERY ITEM:
NOW: IN STOCK

40% on Prints

January 31.

Wednesday 10:DAYS
ONLY

| 307 W. PENDER ST. VAN, B.
JUST OFF VICTORY SQUARE

Saturday
February 10

time to the labor movement
and became one of its mili-

| tant leaders.

He gave leadership to the

| great miners’ strike in Este-

with
Annie Buller

van in 1931, together
Sam. Scarlett,

| and others.

For a time he was organ-
izer of the Toronto city com-
mittee of: the Communist
Party. during: the bitter
days-of police terror and-the

»frees speech tight of 1928+29.

In. 1934 -he- was. elected
alderman from Winnipeg’s
Ward 3 and for many years
worked ‘side by side with his
colleague Alderman’ Jacob
Penner. Together they estab-
lished a record of continuous
Communist public represent-
ation: unequalled’ on the
North: American continent.
In October, 1960, after an
absence of several years ow-
ing to ill health, he was re-
elected to city council and at
the time of his death had one
more year to serve.

Joe Forkin: was a popular
and beloved spokesman of
the. Communist. Party. For
many years he was a member
of the Manitoba. provincial
executive committee of the
party and during the past
year its provincial chairman.
His devotion to the work-
ing class; his: unshakeable
faith- in - the- cause of social-
ism and, above-all, his Com-
munist. modesty, will forever
remain examples to his com-
rades.and to. these who will
take his place-in the ranks
of the Communist Party.

Ruth, and his brothers Stan,
Tom and* Jim. Another
brother, Pat, who was the
first correspondent of a Can-
adian labor paper in the
Soviet Union, died: of tuber-
culosis in the Crimea.in 1937.
To his wife and immediate
family, we.. of, the. Pacific
Tribune express our sincere
condolences in their grief.
May they find some comfort
in the knowledge that Joe
was loved and respected by
thousands of working people
across Canada.

|. Cameras from
in Czechoslovakia

USSR’ GIFTS
117-A.East Hastings St.
| Phone: MU 4-8629

Sat., Feb. 10
‘Slides —. the Latest —
on Cuba
Grand Secial Evening at
2023. West 4th Ave.
8:30 p.m.
(Take 4th Ave. Bus to
Bayswater)
FUN. & GOOD FOOD
OUR SPECIALTY

MUtual 5-5836

Everyone welcome

Joe Forkin is survived by :
his -wife-Fanny, his-daughter.
Dianne, his mother, a. sister >

ye

February 2, 1962—PACIFIC TRIBUNE—Page 11