and with -liamentary N November 1, one day before the U.S. presi- dential elections, twelve American workers, leaders of the Communist Party of the U.S.A., were haled inio a federal court in New York, charged with “seeking ta overthrow the gov- ernment of the United States by force and violence.” A double-barrellec “Reichstag fire” plot this, engineered by the financial royalists of Wall Street, the National Manufacturers’ As- sociation and J. Edgar Hoover of the FBI, to smash the revolution- ary party of American labor, sow confusion and intimidation among the American peop.c and, most important, to clear the way for criminal adventures of the atomic warmongers of Amcvrican imper- ialism. Many months of machinations by all the forces of reaction has gone into the launching of this plot. Grand juries and a galaxy of Trotskyite stoolpigeons, aided by the Un-American Activities commitees and an hysterical press have labored long to produce a gigantic forgery of communist purposes and aims. e “The wheel of history moves forward,” declared the indomit- able Georgi Dimitrov (now pre- mier of Bulgaria) to his Nazi prosecutors in a Leipzig court 15) years ago. “Those who fail to heed that lesson are crushed beneath the weight of its inexorable pro- gress.” Dimitrov confounded his en- _emies, not simply because he was ‘Dimitrov, but because he courage- ‘ously symbolized an ideal that daily sweep new millions forward toward a human society in which the words peace, freedom and democracy have real meaning * Because of that ideal, 12 Ameri- ean workers are indicted by the - imperialist conspirators of Wall Street. e “My lord and gentlemen of the jury,” continued Tim Buck on that dank evening of November 13, 1931, in the Supreme Court of Ontario, “you see, I do not believe —and no Communist believes— that systems of society can be overthrown because a person or a party merely decided they should be overthrown. We believe that the changes which take place in systems of society are the re- sults of economic and historical forces, and similarly, we recog- nize that all through history when | these changes have taken place there has been violence. Also, we never cease to point out that this violence all through history has been the result of the fact that the ruling class has fought to maintain its privileged position— the capitalist state’ is the imple- ment cf suppression of the work- ing class. It is the dictatorship of the capitalist class.” The occasion was the famous trial of the eight Canadian Com- munist leaders in November, 1931, charged with being members of “an unlawful organization, to wit, the Communist Party of Canada,” “conspiring to over- throw constituted authority by force and violence.” Denied the facilities and time by the trial judge to prepare his address to the jury from the “evidence” submitted by the Crown; denied the right to quote _ from official state documents such as Hansard or the British Par- Record —all highly relevant to the “evidence” sub- mitted againgt the Communists; repeatedly interrupted and block- ed by the court on the right to re- _fute outright distortions and false interpretation of historical data, nevertheless Tim Buck addressed that jury for a full three hours en that November evening 17 years ago in a speech that our children—if not us—will revere as a classic in the annals of Cana- dian labor’s long march forward. Davis, Jacob Twelve American workers from the great land of Lincoln, Jeffer- son, Tom Paine, Franklin Delano Roosevelt—a democracy born in revolution against oppression, stand indicted because they up- hold the interpretation of a Con- stitution and a Bill of Rights— human ideals, written in the red glow of the revolutionary fires of ‘76. Indicted, because their inter- pretation would enable the American people, the common people, to curb’ the monopolists, _ snuff out the torches of the war incendiaries, and reach their great , heritage in the peace and pro- gress of a Socialist America. “We have struck a death blow at communism,” chanted ex‘at- torney general Price and ex- police chief General Draper of Ontario in unison, 17 years ago, and the daily press gave them fulsome praise and a big “build up”! “Communism in these United States is now a dead issue,” boast- ed the state prosecutor as he snapped his briefcase shut, shook hands with and congratulated the Pinkerton stool - pigeons, upon Six of the 12 (Front row, left to U.S. Communist leaders now awaiting trial are: right) Eugene Dennis, W. Z. Foster, Benjamin J. ir,; (rear, left to right) gohn Williamson, Henry Winston, Stachel, whose perjured and fantastic evi- dence Charles E. Ruthenberg, general secretary of the Commun- ‘ist Party of the U.S.A‘, was con- victed on a trumped-up charge of “criminal syndicalism” nearly 27 years ago. Cocksure that he, the legal Goliath of vested privi- lege, had stopped the wheel of history, the state prosecutor stepped briskly into his Model-® ‘ and rattled off. \ And in Berlin a decade later: . “Are you referring to“the Ger- man Reich,” roared the ‘trial’ judge at Dimitrov’s scathing con- demnation of Nazi brutality and Savagery. “In what country,” queried this great son of the Bul-» garian workingclass,” is fascism not brutal?” e They were three little men who stood in a Tokyo “tribunal” that summer day in 1926. Many ‘such little men . .. and women... had preceded them. Many, many more were to follow. An observer could readily see that despite their supreme effort to carry the great proletarian dignity of the Com- munist Party of Japan upon their spare shoulders, that they were suffering intense pain. The Mi- kado’s fascist - militarist police had perfected very refined tech- niques of human torture in their “confessional” chambers. “You are charged,” snapped the Mikado’s star prosecutor in clip- ped tones, “with harboring dan- gerous thoughts. The sentence of the court is that you be shot. You have nothing to say that would interest us now.” Yet these little men live . . and will always live, all over the vast teeming lands of Asia. They lived \through the most detailed and refined tortures practiced against them in the name, of “Western civilization.” They sur- vived Nagasaki and Hiroshima. They will survive the regime .of a new “Son of Heaven” named MacArthur with the letters ‘U.S.’ on his epaulettes, who now seeks to control the “dangerous thoughts” which fire the hopes of Asia’s teeming millions. And in a federal court in far- away New York, 12 American workers stand indicted for “dan- ferous thoughts’—dangerous_ to the profit-mad imperialist . olig- archy of Wall Street and its pur- chased satellites in every outpost of decaying capitalism. “My lord and gentlemen of the jury,” concluded Tim Buck to a hushed courtroom, in which also sat a worker’s jury from the mills, mines, factories and farms of Canada, “. .. the Communist Party is net being tried because it is doing something that it has not done continuously, something that has not been considered as a general part of the life of this coutr, but because of the in- creasing fear of the bourgeoise, and the sharpness of the situa- tion. When we are charged with teaching or advocating force and violence we are compelled to point out that if the workers are learn- ing anything about force and vio- lence today, it is not necessary for us to tell them anything about force and violence. Anygne who participates in a strike or demon- stration learns everything he need learn about force and violence from the ruthlessness of the state forces. “The question of Shaan is no longer a subject for street corner discussion, but ‘has become \in Canada today a great political question, a question of public con- cern—the emancipation of the working class from capitalist - slavery.” e That is the issue which prompts the reactionary forces of Ameri- can imperialism to seek to out- law the Communist Party of the U.S.A., to imprison its leaders, and destroy the fighting potential of American labor. That is the issue all down the long corridor of history upon which the ruling classes, driven desperate with fear, launches its attacks against the Marxist-Len- inist parties of Socialism. “Yet,” said Dimitroy, warning his Nazi captors,” “the wheel of history moves. Even you... and those who think like you, cannot stop it.” f ° e Over the roar of the presses grinding out the _anti-communist, anti-labor, anti-popular propa- ganda of Wall Street, over the clacking voices of the hired radio commentator gleefully relating the news of the “cold war,” you can hear the strong rumble of this wheel from the wide steppes and factories of the Soviet Union, from the new democracies of Europe, from the vast lands of the East. Especially strong is its rumble as jt rolls down from Manchuria to the valleys of the Yangtze. Its steady inexorable rhythm breaks through all the other noises created by puny minds to block its path. It is as inevitable as tomorrow. That is why profit-glutted fear- crazed reaction stirs heaven and hell to block its progress: Scouting around the United Nations By Ted Tinsley ITH a keen insight seldom matched in foreign affairs, Lord Hampden of England has laid bare the underlying causes of the Berlin crisis in an address which he made before Wee oaRSct ing British citizens. “The gentlemen who live in the Kremlin have not been brought — up aS Boy Scouts,” said ‘ Lord Hampden. “If they had, we might have a chance of coming to an agreement.” We will now -pause for a 10- minute intermission during which. the Maple Leaf Troop from Can- ada, headed hy Scoutmaster St. Laurent, will help the Little Old Lady from Threadneedle’ Street around the Iron Curtain. The atmosphere of the Berlin negotiations would certainly be different {f held under Lord Hampden’s rather stringent con- ditions. Second Class Scout Warren Austin, wearing the Wigwam Merit Badge, would draw up a seat at the council table, flanked by Third Class Scout Clay, wear- ing the Arrow Merit Badge. Both of them would shiver slightly, and try‘to cover their bare knees with their hands, the coal situa- tion in Berlin being what it is, Enter Eagle Scout Molotov of the Soviet Union! All rise and give the three- -fingered salute— even Clay remembering not to hold his hand with the palm flat and the fingers extended, An English Scout comes in, carrying Scout Austin’s hand bags, while the French govern- ment Scout who wears the Vichy Shoe Polish Merit Badge, shines Scout Clay’s shoes. Scout Austin proposes that the Soviet Union withdraw from Ber- lin, accept American currency, re- lease all Nazis now in prison or awaiting trial, give the estates back to the Junkers, Lena dis- mantled Nazi war plants, send a wire of greeting to Scout Franco and sign a contract with Scout Forestal, turning over all Soviet railroads to Scouts Brown Broth- ers & Harriman, Scout Molotov thinks for a mo- ment, and then says “No.” He shares the opinion of Scout Stalin that these proposals violate the letter and spirit of international ‘Scouthood. He reminds Clay that if the Soviets had their way, they wouldn’t give Ilse Koch and Lud- wig Merz any Merit Badges. The English and French Scouts try to enter the conversation, but Scout Austin reminds them to "speak only when so ordered. They keep their silence, in return for which Scout Austin gives them ° each a can of Spam for sale on the international black market. This is known as Scout Mershaly, s Plan. Scout Austin flashes his Wig- wam Merit Badge and reminds Scout Molotov that he is organ- izing Troops A. B. GC. D. and EB. not to mention his own Troop F, and Franco’s Troop G, in a mili- tary alliance based on the or- ganizational principles of ex- Scouts Hitler and Goebbels, . He points out that Troop F has atom bombs, while all other troops have only slingshots. Scout Molotov is not impressed. _ He makes a few compromise pro- posals which Scout Austin almost accepts ‘in a, weak moment, but he catches himself in time, mut- tering, “What a narrow escape! We almost made peace!” The conference does not reach an agreement, The following week a British Lord, probably related to Lord Hampden, will explain that if only Stalin had been a member of the British Gardenia and Petunia Society, the crisis. never would have happened. PACIFIC TRIBUNE — NOVEMBER 12, 1948 — PAGE 4